The history of Little Ship

Published 17:32 on 28 Jul 2023

The Woolverstone Project was founded in 1993, the year of the Royal Harwich Yacht Club's 150th Anniversary. The first Trustees were Peter Hooper, Johnty Dickinson and Simon Tozer, all members of the Club. Their names live on through our boats - the Sonar is named Kip (Johnty's nickname) and one of our 3.03s is called Simon Tozer. In 1994 the Project was presented with its first two boats. A Drascombe Longboat, "Shellduck", was donated by Marina Developments Ltd the owners of the Woolverstone Marina while a Challenger Trimaran, "Little Ship", came from the Little Ship Club. They were formally launched that Spring by the Commodore of the Little Ship Club, Lord Belstead as Patron of the Project, and by Peter Hooper the first Chairman of the Project.

The Club and the Project were honoured by a visit in 1999 from HRH The Princess Royal, Patron of RYA Sailability. She came to see a regular training session at Woolverstone and met many members of the Club and from the Project and was afterwards given lunch by the Club. During that visit, she was shown Little Ship.

So Little Ship is now 29 years old and to mark this, she has recently been refurbished and is looking as good as she did in 1994 when she was first launched.

Last updated 17:32 on 28 July 2023