Maria

Current boat name

Maria

Boat class

7330

Function

Sports and Leisure

Type

Length (m / ft)

7.77 / 25ft 6in

Beam (m / ft)

2.64 / 8ft 8in

Leeward

Keel - long

Masts

2 Wood

Rig type

Lateen Lateener

Propulsion

Sail

Date of build

1827

Place of build

Yarmouth

Present use

Museum/ofB

Built in 1824 (tbc YM 1918 GH) by Mr Brown of Yarmouth, Norfolk for John Bellamy Plowman of Normanston, Lowestoft as a racing yacht. MARIA was unusual in having a large lateen lug foresail and a lateen mizzen. She was one of the earliest racing boats on the Broads and was highly successful over a number of years. An 1892 photograph shows her sailing in Oulton Broad and illustrates her unusual rig very well. In 1933 she was found stored in a barn and was examined and measured by W M Blake who subsequently published his findings as one of a monthly series of articles about local craft in the Yachting Monthly. Blake found her fallen over and holed in the bilge but wrote 'The hull and spars of the old boat are in a wonderful state of preservation and with repairs she could again sail the Broads.' According to some accounts in WW II she was moored across Barton Broad to prevent German flying boats from landing. After another restoration by boatbuilder George Thrower, she was removed from her shed and donated to the Yarmouth Maritime Museum in 1969. In 2004 she was transferred to the Museum of the Broads at Stalham and a major refit was undertaken by the International Boatbuilding Training College at Oulton Broad before the boat was placed on display at Stalham. MARIA has been very carefully and sympathetically restored and contains much of her original material. She is a valuable and unusual survivior from a small group of early 19c racing craft. GH Oct 2010 - see article in Classic Boat 2006 April page 40 (Archive)