The Vee Ess One design sailing boat
Designer
E Sparrow
Date1950s
Object number00027556
NamePlan
MediumInk on paper
DimensionsOverall: 524 x 554 mm, 0.05 kg
ClassificationsMaps, charts and plans
Credit LineANMM Collection Gift from Vicky Robinson
DescriptionA boat plan titled 'The Vee Ess one design sailing boat' by E Sparrow - Sponsored by the Vaucluse Amateur Sailing Association, Sydney. Boats must be made to this design and registered with the association before it can race with the association or any of its affiliated clubs.' Scale 1"=1 foot.
The sheet includes a half deck plan, longitudinal plan, deck camber, offsets and centreboard, stem and rudder, frame construction, stern knee and the swinging centreboards.
Design number 505, plan number 1473.HistoryBased on demand for a father son boat Charles Sparrow designed the Vee-Ess (Vaucluse Senior) in 1936. He had orginally designed the Vee Jay (Vaucluse Junior) in 1930 with the aim of creating a "safe and exciting, easily sailed small yacht, that could be built at home by, perhaps, a boy and his father. Such a boat might be skippered
by one lad with another as forward hand and it would need to be unsinkable and be able to be righted by the crew without help". - VS 15ft Skiff Sailing Association.
As boys grew, Sparrow thought a larger boat could work - essentially a larger version of the VJ.This new version - the Vee Ess "designed upon the same lines as the VJ but was three foot six inches longer and had a cockpit that was big enough to allow two lads to sleep in it, using the sail over the boom to make a tent. The VS quickly caught on. Soon after the war 100 of them were built in Sydney and were shipped to Japan for use by the Australian Occupation Forces."
The Vee-Ess (Vaucluse Senior) was 3.5 ft longer than the Vee-Jay and had a crew of three aged 18 or older.SignificanceThe Vee-Jay and later the Vee-Ess by Charles Sparrow revolutionised sailing on Sydney Harbour foreshores by tailor designing boats for a young generation of sailors. Simple plans, aimed to be constructed at home meant a whole new standardised class of vessels were built and formed the basis of the Vaucluse Sailing Club.
