Thieving gits target Moonfleet twice

Poor Moonfleet. Stuck waiting for warm weather and for me to return from working away she's been robbed twice. The first time they nicked the fuel can and this time the engine cover. The engine is securely bolted and padlocked in place but Mark, from the boatyard, suggests the cover was nicked to go on a stolen engine where the other owners had replaced the cover with a 'police issue' outboard cover designed to reduce outboard thefts! So .. if anyone sees an outboard for sale from some individual who doesn't know his port from starboard let the local police know. Other boats on the moorings suffered thefts and damage too so these little scroats had plenty of time to go 'messing about in boats'.

My first writing prize

I'm one of the runners up in Jane Wenham-Jone's 100 Ways To Fight The Flab competition I have won £100 off a weeks creative writing workshop at Chez Castillon. A good result.

Look Ma, I'm an author!

I am finally a real paper and ink author. Lowestoft Library Writers Group recent anthology Colours of the Coast is now available from Amazon. I am one of the contributing authors. While satisfied to see myself in print I need to finish my first novel and get that published soon.

The Accidental Author

Months ago I offered to fill in for an author friend, Morgen bailey when she decided to have a weekend off from her daily short story writing. This would be the first weekend she took off in over a year: Morgen writes a short story a day and has written hundreds, so far. Morgen has known me for decades but only recently discovered I had any writing ambitions. She has years of writing experience and here was me, travelling beside her unpublished and inexperienced, saying 'I can do that!'
We were attending one of Jane Wenham-Jones writing workshops.
We agreed I would write the stories but she would only publish if she liked them, alongside her own, on her blog, suitably credited to me. I ended up with 30 minutes between arriving, coffee and going out for dinner but in that time wrote the darkest story with a prompt of 'light' Light
Morgen's acceptance of Light buoyed me into producing my second effort Raven Hair Flying which Morgen published the following day.
Morgen recently announced she would create ebooks of her short stories and has included my two efforts. From being sat in the right place with more enthusiasm than caution I have ended up with my stories wending their electronic way onto being published.

2012 - annus horribilis

2012 ended poorly with my divorce starting and my job ending but showing glimmers of better things in 2013. Moonfleets moorings have been taken over by the Somerleyton Estate so we should see some improvements in the facilities. We managed to get Moonfleet re-fuelled just before winter and now I am sitting looking at ice and snow out of my bedroom window wondering if I will get to use either boat this year. Still, my tax return is done and the resulting tax bill paid so now I can look forward to a better 2013.

Arthur C Robb - Meteor displacement calculations

I now have the Meteors displacement calculations ( including materials list ) and assorted notes from Arthur C Robb himself. They were originally written in pencil so the images received are barely legible in parts. They are, however, certainly my Meteor and link my Meteor to his well respected Lion class and other better known designs.
The calculations have been dated 5/2/49 which is 5th February 1949. The date is typed in the English ( dd.mm.yy ) style.
This is all courtesy of those wonderful folks at Museum of America and the Sea at Mystic Seaport where a collection of Arthur C Robb's paperwork is kept.

Meteor is an almost forgotten Arthur C Robb design

The paperwork for my Meteor indicates she was 'an Arthur Robb design' but the design isn't mentioned in the listing found at Sailboat Data or similar. Is my boat a forgotten Robb design or designed by a different Robb to the famous yacht designer?
Wouldn't it be fun to find out?
So I did some more searching and found, courtesy of Bartlett Library in Falmouth: Part of National Maritime Museum, Cornwall.
"Robb, Arthur C Meteor Yacht, sloop 21 ft LOA - see also CB 2004/04 p 31 Yachting World 1951/03" This looks like it could be the same as my boat.
Falmouths wonderful database showed a couple of Arthur Robb' or Robb A's or similar in their search results. There may have been more than one Arthur Robb: There is an A M Robb and an A C Robb as well as an A Robb so which Robb designed the Meteor?
Update 20120921: The articles [copies available from the museum] confirm it's the same design as my Meteor, that the Meteors were designed for and built at Easticks Yacht Station Ltd, Acle, Norfolk and that it was designed by the famous Arthur C Robb, designer of so many wonderful yachts including the Lion class.
This has been a fascinating journey to track down both the designer and find out who requested the design be built. It is a great pity that more of the Easticks records havn't survived but it's good to know my little boat is in such wonderful company.

The Museum of America and the Sea at 95 Greenmanville Avenue Mystic CT, 06355 may hold correspondence between Robb and Easticks. I have requested copies of anything available.