Written by Vincent Delany
Seamanship Training for the Conway Family.
Camper and Nicholson of Gosport and Southampton built an International 12 Foot Dinghy c.1921 for Lieutenant Colonel, the Honourable Claud Maitland Brabazon, son of the Earl of Meath, whose estate was located at Bray, Co. Wicklow, Ireland. Because she was part of the international class, she was allocated sail number K29 by the Yacht Racing Association. Claud raced his dinghy, which he called Gadget (without great success in the trophy department) on the south coast of England and from the Isle of Wight. Having been involved with flying ships and balloons during the great war, he was a man familiar with gadgets. He returned to Ireland with Gadget in time for the 1928 sailing season, and raced Gadget at Seapoint Boat Club, which is located on Dublin Bay, a few kilometers south of Dublin city. When that club collapsed, he used the 12 Foot Dinghy to teach Sea Scouts all they needed to know about seamanship. By 1935, Gadget had been sold to a member of Howth Yacht Club, located north of Dublin. That club had established a 12 Foot Dinghy class in 1930. By the early 1960s, Gadget had passed through the hands of several owners, and was in use training the extended Conway family in seamanship. Three Conway sisters, Peggy, Oonagh and Pat along with their eight children were taught how to sail by their uncle, Richard, off a beach located not far from the Earl of Meath’s estate in Co. Wicklow. Progressively the children grew in confidence, and the older children were permitted to sail unaccompanied, on condition they remained within sight of their uncle sitting on the beach with a pair of binoculars. One of those children was to later race in a half ton yacht, built in the 1980s at great expense, by the same Camper and Nicholson boatbuilders. She was called Ace, which was later amended to SpACE Odyssey. Although Ace will not take part, we are confident that Gadget will enter the 12 foot regatta in Monaco in September this year.