#int12 – In the 1950s Baltimore Sailing Club "inherited" a number of twelves from the Royal Munster to start the club going. We even had a few built by Paddy Hegarty in Oldcourt near Skibbereen. At the time they had a single cotton lug sail. With an iron centreboard, a tripping line, no cleats or bottlescrews and gunmetal fittings these clinker built craft were ideal for club racing and for youngsters like myself to learn in.
Names like Caubeen, Dudeen, Poteen were there but Caubeen was famous because she won the world championships in the 1930s when sailed by Somers Paynes father. In the sixties the mast was moved back to the forward thwart and a small jib was introduced, terylene sails were made by Downer and each boat had a different colour. Our boat, Dudeen, had pale blue sails. Caubeen had yellow sails.
With the advent of the Mirrors the twelves were old hat and dispersed. Johnnie Murphy still has Caubeen but I'd love to know where the rest went. For old times sake I want to get one for my grandchildren!
If any of your readers can help I'd be thrilled. I know there was a sizeable fleet in Dun Laoghaire at one time.
Yours etc
Stuart Musgrave
More information on the 12s here
Readers can leave any information for Stuart in the comments below – Webeditor
