Thursday, 22 March 2012
It was Jack's idea to create the hull by sewing the two bottom planks together and splaying them apart over frames so they naturally adopted a sleek profile. He was collaborating with naval architect Andrew Wolstenholme to create a kit that could be easily built at home, and Andrew rather despaired of it because the method meant the shape could not be developed by computer and he had to draw the lines more or less by trial and error.
I first came across the Sprite, and Jack himself, at the old Wooden Boat Show in Greenwich in the 1990s. His enthusiasm was infectious, as was his talkativeness - which I later discovered was legendary. Sometimes he had to work late into the night completing work delayed by conversations with visitors to his workshop.
I built the kit in my garage (but the one in the picture I got later when I moved to Chichester Harbour). It was simplicity itself, and the Sprite has given me boundless pleasure over the years. I also had its big sister, the double skiff Otter, for a while. Golly could that boat go.
There are obituaries of this wonderful man here and here.