Who Was Maurice Griffiths

I live in Kirby le Soken about half a mile from what is known locally as ‘The Backwaters’
and what is marked on the map as ‘The Twizzle’.

When I walk along the sea wall I usually stop and talk to people I meet.  Many of them sail, which is not that surprising as we are by the sea and about 1 mile from a marina.  It is common for people who have sailed to the marina to have a walk along the wall, partly because it is a particularly beautiful walk, partly because this area featured in Secret Water,  one of the Swallows and Amazon books.

When I met a sailor I usually ask them if they have heard of Maurice Griffiths. To my surprise and dismay most say “No, should I have?”

Well some reasons why are

1. He lived in this region for most of his life
2. He designed many sailing boats
3. He wrote books and articles about sailing in this region
4. He was editor of Yachting Monthly for 40 years
5. It is said that he did more than anyone else to help make sailing accessible in UK

Maurice’s stories had a magical quality about them.  Whilst many writers go on about their struggles with tiller, sheets and charts.  Maurice had a light touch, although he did write about details of sailing, he used the stories of his voyages as spring boards to talk about the local surroundings and their history.

As he himself observed whilst many think they have achieved nothing if they have not gone across to France or Holland, or even to the Caribbean. Maurice was perfectly content sailing among the creeks and swatchways of East Anglia.  Most of his stories take place between Southwold and Ramsgate.  Though  occasionally he ventured across to the continent, round towards Southampton, and once even started in a Fastnet race.

The Magic of the Swatchways is probably Maurice best known book, and it is still in print.  Des Sleightmore, who edited Yachting Monthly after Maurice, wrote

The Griffiths’ magic has been reflected in his writing, so that it has touched the lives of innumerable people. It would be hard to guess just how many of them owe the kindling of their first enthusiasm to some chance passage in The Magic of the Swatchways.

Also still in print is Swatchways and Little Ships.

I have read these books many times and would strongly recommend anyone interested in sailing reads them too.

Although Yachting sounds rather grand Maurice was interested in those who didn’t have much money but still wanted to sail. In fact his first book was ‘Yachting On A Small Income’, which reflected his circumstances at the time. Though he learned the hard way that if you are selling, it’s best to sell to those with money to buy.

There are several webpages dedicated to Maurice including wikipedia and sailboatdata.com and eventideowners.org.uk.  They give lists of some of the boats he designed, but bizarrely do not include Lone Gull, the first boat he designed for his own use.  Which is particularly strange as they do mention Lone Gull II.

Briefly the story is Maurice started out as a freelance journalist writing yachting stories.  He became editor of Yachting Monthly, continued to write sailing stories, published books of sailing stories and began to design boats as well.

After he had been sailing for about 17 years and designing boats for about 9 years Maurice realised that it was a bit strange that he had never owned and sailed a boat he had designed himself.  The result was Lone Gull, the design was published in Yachting Monthly in October 1938, and also in ‘Sixty Years A Yacht Designer’.

Lone Gull was built by Johnson Sons & Jago of Southend, they built 3 more boats of this design Suka, Tawana and Beachcomber, though with fixed keels.

At this point I should declare an interest as I owned and sailed Beachcomber from 1989 until 2002, when work and family commitments caught up with me.

Inside Beachcomber’s cabin, almost exactly the same layout as shown in ’60 Years A Yacht Designer’.  Doesn’t varnished wood give a much warmer feel.

Motoring up the Walton Channel back to Titchmarsh Marina

Ready to go after a fit out in 1993

Beachcomber sailing with a previous owner – Felixstowe in the background

The fashion had been for slim deep keeled boats, which didn’t prove that useful when ditchcrawling around East Anglia.  Especially when stuck on the mud and leaning over at about 50 degrees.  Having sailed in small barges Maurice had a nagging feeling there had to be a better way. In Swatchways and Little Ships Maurice talks about visiting America, meeting famous yacht designers and learning about shallow draught center board designs common on the east coast.  This was influential in the design of Lone Gull.

Lone Gull was launched about 18 months before the start of World War II.  During the war Maurice enlisted and Lone Gull was laid up.

The stories of sailing in Lone Gull come from after the war and feature a gentler kind of sailing reflecting Maurice being older and tireder but still in love with the swatchways.

Putting a work hat on and moving back to 21st century what Maurice did looks eerily like marketing information products.

• He had an interest – boats and sailing
• He decided to make a living from his interest.
• He wrote articles for magazines.
• He published collections of articles as books.
• Based on his knowledge of writing and boats he became editor of a yachting magazine, improving his status and allowing his articles to reach a wider audience.
• He learned how to design boats.
• He published articles describing his designs which lead to him getting commissions for more designs, leading to more articles, books and designs.