Specification
B Class – Large Working Boat
Sail Number: 15
Designed by: Frank Hitchens
Built in: 1898
Built By: Frank Hitchens
Hull material: Pitch-pine planking on oak frame
Owner/Skipper: The Roseland Working Boat Syndicate
Former owners: Billings Familiy, Kenny Corke, Bernie Trenoweth and others
Former names: N/A
Hull colour(s): White
Topsail colours(s): Yellow and Black
Length (ft): 27.9
History
Evelyn was built at Yard Point on the Restronguet Creek. Constructed of pitch-pine planking on oak frames she was built with the specific aim of being the working boat to beat all others.
She has had several owners through the years including the Billings family of Flushing who used her for trawling and crabbing. In 1935 Evelyn was sold again and for the next 30 years she had various owners along the coast who used her for fishing and recreational purposes and made various conversions.
In 1965 she returned to Flushing under the ownership of Kenny Corke who ‘reconverted’ her removing the engine and coach roof so that she could start dredging for oysters in the Carrick Roads. A few years later, he decided to start racing her as she was believed to be the fastest working boat in the fleet. In the late 60s she won her very first race at the Mylor Village regatta. Over the next 20 years or so Evelyn spent the winters dredging for oysters and the summers racing in the Falmouth Working Boat fleet, winning in one season over 21 trophies!
In the late 1980s she was sold to Bernie Trenoweth who wanted her solely for racing. To further improve Evelyn’s competitiveness, he added a two ton iron keel, a new teak foredeck, new spars, several frames and fastenings . All of which paid off handsomely with Evelyn having many very successful racing seasons.
However Evelyn’s triumph resulted in the introduction, in the early 1990s, of a racing handicap system for the whole fleet as a way to even up the competition. Coincidentally at around this time Bernie decided to sell Evelyn. And so she was sold to the Roseland Working Boat Syndicate and a new chapter in her long life began.