A Tale of three launches
By Geoff Cunliffe
When “My Fair Lady” was launched by the Mayoress of Lytham St.Annes, Mrs Travis Carter, on 19th July 1959, it was a grand affair. It took place on a summer Saturday at lunchtime, and, on a glorious day, the landing stage around the yacht area was filled with civic dignitaries and miscellaneous invited guests. As the sun shone, the ceremony was recorded for posterity, including the part when the new boat, having been launched, was skilfully guided back to the stage by Lyn Jones who had hidden in it during the ceremony and who presented the Mayoress with some flowers “With the complements of the Manager and Staff”.
Cine film taken on the day, shot from an accompanying Albatross, shows that the Mayor and Councillors then enjoyed a trip round the lake in the new launch, in beautiful sunshine, piloted by Taffy (Trevor Parry). It is understood that the only problem which became apparent was that the exhaust was a little too low on the transom and it bubbled a bit.
Anyone who has piloted “My Fair Lady” around the lake, or used her for towing the ski ramp, spraying orthodichlorobenzene on the weed or carrying photographers to various sites, will remember her as a fine craft.
The council had authorised manager George Jones to build “a suitable craft to replace the existing launch at an estimated cost of £700, provision for this expenditure to be made in the estimates for 1958-59 and 1959-60”. She was designed by the lake manager George Jones, built and completely fitted out by all the lake staff.
The previous launch, “Fairhaven”, was a vessel which had been built at Allison’s Boat Yard at Freckleton in the latter half of the 1920s. Although past her sell-by date by the mid 1950s, she was still a lady of character. She was powered by a Kelvin petrol engine (woe betide anyone who put the motor boat 2-stroke fuel into her) which you hand started, having slid the top and left hand side of the engine cover forward, and you were shown the way to hold the starting handle so you didn’t break your thumb in case she kicked back. The engine was very quiet. The throttle was a small, brass screw arrangement which you wound – clockwise to open, anticlockwise to close. But most intriguing of all was the reversing mechanism. The drive to the propeller did not pass through a gearbox which would have enabled the screw to reverse. Instead, steering was by what was called a bucket tiller which was controlled by a large, brass wheel which you wound many revolutions (sometimes frantically) to alter the direction of the drive. This brass wheel changed the orientation of what were, in effect, two quarter spheres, located behind the propeller. When they were closed together, presenting a sort of closed bucket effect to the water leaving the prop and forcing the thrust from the propeller back under the keel to give a reversing effect; when the two quarter spheres were “opened” and were at 90° to the propeller, they presented a clear path to the thrust from the propeller, giving a forwards drive effect.
It all sounds very mysterious and complicated, as it was until the penny dropped with you, but it was a system, which worked and did so reasonably well. Memories fade, but it is thought there must have been somewhere between six and ten complete revolutions of the brass wheel to totally change direction of the thrust. There was an indicator plate, by the throttle, which showed the orientation of the buckets. Its pointer was missing and you usually had to push a matchstick into the thing so you could see what it was trying to tell you! One secret, which can now be told, is that one contract holder who drove this launch (and now doesn’t live locally), perfected the technique of swinging her round in the narrow, baths area at the top of the lake. It was only possibly due to the steering effects which could be obtained by familiarity with the bucket tiller system.
The two launches were very different to drive. “Fairhaven” was near silent, but it had to be swung by hand, leaked quite a bit and needed some a distance to stop. “My Fair Lady” was always quite noisy, thanks to its 8hp Stuart Turner diesel, but she would stop quickly and generally was easy to pilot. You landed both differently – with “Fairhaven”, you pointed the bow at the stage and somebody looped the front painter over the mooring post. You then could swing the stern in then heave the boarding gangway over the edge of the vessel. With “My Fair Lady”, you had to berth her side on, which required a little more skill, especially in rough weather.
But that is all water under the bridge. “My Fair Lady” became unserviceable and was in need of more repair than the present lake staff could undertake. The decision was taken to replace her, and the council allocated a sum of money to purchase a replacement.
That replacement duly arrived and was launched this spring. There have been many comments that for £33,000, the alleged cost of the new launch, it should have been possibly to buy something that looks less like an aluminium ex-army landing craft! Anyway, on the 15th. March, the Mayor of Fylde, Councillor Patricia Fieldhouse, arrived at 1pm to name her “Jubilee”. The day served as a reminder to those of us who had forgotten just how cold it can be at Fairhaven Lake. The third launch brings the third type of motive power with it for this vessel, made by Thanetcraft of Teddington, is propelled by an electric motor powered by rechargeable batteries.
What a contrast to the launching of “My Fair Lady”. This naming took place on an out-of-season Friday afternoon and the ceremony was somewhat drawn out because the flash of one of the two photographers wouldn’t function (would you have flashed in that temperature!!!). There were virtually no on-lookers – just a few councillors and half a dozen of the old gang who had quickly rung round each other having spotted some minor reference to the ceremony at the bottom of an inside page of the local paper. Oh yes, the Mayor tried to launch some golden balloons as well but that didn’t go too well either due to the high wind! How things have changed at Fairhaven Lake!
The tailpiece to this article is sad. The bell and brass plate have been missing for some years and it has to be reported that “My Fair Lady” was cut up and scrapped in the top shed where she had been so proudly built over forty years previously! Remember the gleaming engine cover, lovingly fabricated out of some surplus desks in the Borough Surveyor’s Department in the Town Hall. A desperately sad end indeed.
