by Julia Jones

Maid Marion passing HMS Severn with the Association of Dunkirk Little Ships (ADLS).

Maid Marion (PZ 61) has been a familiar sight on the River Deben for over 60 years. It was in 1964 that her new owner John Hunt, together with David Mellonie of Small Craft Deliveries brought her from her original home in Cornwall to the mooring at Ramsholt, just down river from the Quay, which she has occupied ever since. This year, 2025, she reaches her 100th birthday.

by Steve and Beverley Daley-Yates

Steve and Beverley Daley-Yates, current owners of Cachalot, were the first to send their yacht’s details to the RDA ‘Boats Still Floating 2025’ project. This year-long project aims to identify boats currently on the Deben which were built during 1950 or before. During the year we will be building a database of such vessels, large or small. You can find it HERE. We will also run occasional articles giving some of their histories, as they are part of our river heritage. Thank you, Steve and Beverley, for starting us off.

Cachalot came back to the River Deben in September 2005 and made her home in the Tidemill Yacht Harbour, Woodbridge. She had certainly visited the Deben prior to this and possibly spent some of her neglected years sitting in the mud of the Woodbridge Town Dock. Built in Folkestone in 1898, she has spent most of her life on the East Coast. Her major restoration took place ashore at the Tidemill, 2007 – 2017. She regards the River Deben as home.

2022: Felixstowe [Josh Masters].

By Julia Jones

How many boats on the Deben are more than 75 years old?

The RDA Journal is beginning a year-long project to identify our oldest boats of any type and size. The only criterion is that they must still be floating for at least part of the time — either with the tide, if they live on a beach or are in use as a houseboat, or seasonally if they are laid up ashore for part of the year. Venerable wrecks like the Lady Alice Kenlis (1867) who no longer rises with the flood, or the longer term inhabitants of the Woodbridge Boatyard’s ‘rehoming shed’, can’t qualify – unless their fortunes change.

The Dragonfly class was created for members of the Waldringfield Sailing Club and turned 75 years old last year. [Photo: Alexis Smith]

By Julia Jones, Jamie Clay, Carolyn Gibbins, Samantha Simpson, Russell Read, Hugh Browton, Nancy Clay

Julia Jones – tribute to a soon-to-be centenarian

Nirvana – (courtesy Gill Moon)

The loveliest boat on the Deben – or one of the prettiest yachts ever built anywhere? Nirvana will reach her 100^th birthday next year but needs a new home and owner. When I used her as the model for Snow Goose in my ‘Strong Winds’ series of adventure stories, her fictional owner described her as having been designed ‘by the hand of God’. In fact, her lines were drawn in 1915 by the artist Albert Strange (1855-1917). Strange sailed from the Humber, so was comfortable with the idea of mud flats and shallow waters, but Nirvana herself was built in Ireland and cruised extensively on the west coasts of both Ireland and Scotland. Then, for many years she was based in Holyhead, Wales. In her most recent ownership (from 1989) she has also made extensive trips to Scandinavian waters with owners Peter and Nancy Clay and their friends. It’s here, in Suffolk, however, that so many of us, who have never sailed Nirvana, have come to love her and have felt our spirits lift when we have seen her beating easily down river or lying serenely on her mooring.

Since Peter died in 2023, Nirvana has been carefully laid up, looking for a new owner to bring her back to life and activity. Now, on the eve of her 100^th year, some of her East Coast friends have produced this tribute.

By Phil Boak

Between the years 1913-1962, Felixstowe was a major flyingboat base, with the aircraft operating from the River Orwell on the site now occupied by the Docks. Operating during WW1, flyingboats partook in anti-submarine patrols of the North Sea. In the interwar years, the focus switched to research and development, with the performance of the seaplanes and flyinboats carefully evaluated through tests and trials. On completion of their operational lives, several of the larger flyingboat hulls were taken to the hamlet of Felixstowe Ferry and repurposed as houseboats, providing picturesque, if not cramped accommodation. This short article brings together before-and-after images of six such flyingboats, with a summary about what is currently known about them. Continue reading →