Old and New

Since the early 1980's the Cornish Shrimper has been the classic day boat and weekender for pottering around the estuaries and coastal sailing. With numbers over the 1000 built it's a successful and very fetching little boat.

All of which makes it a hard act to follow, so all praise to the folks down at Cornish Crabbers who have released a new larger version and appear to have left the original one updated but essentially the same boat we know and love.

It was quite handy to see  the boats side by side recently down at Hamble Point. Above not a new boat but immediately recognisable, a true classic.

The new boat is slightly larger at 21 feet, and I'm sure the additional space will be welcome. But nice as it is it, to me at least it just doesn't have the simplicity and elegance of the original. 

It will be interesting to see if Crabbers can retain both boats in their range, I certainly hope so.