Nancy Blackett is a 28 feet long, 7 ton, Bermuda rigged Hillyard sailing cutter built in 1931 and now owned and operated by The Nancy Blackett Trust. The term Bermuda rig refers to a configuration of mast and Rigging for a type of Sailboat and is also known as a Marconi rig; this is the typical Sailing is the art of controlling a Sailing vessel. By changing the Rigging, Rudder and dagger or centre board a Sailor manages the force When used in a nautical sense a cutter is a small single-masted vessel Fore-and-aft rigged with two or more Headsails a Bowsprit, and Year 1931 ( MCMXXXI) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1931 calendar of the Gregorian calendar.

Originally named Spindrift at her launch in 1931 (and then renamed Electron by her next owner), she was bought by children’s author Arthur Ransome in 1934 and renamed Nancy Blackett after a major character in his Swallows and Amazons series of children’s books. Arthur Mitchell Ransome (born 18 January 1884 in Leeds - died 3 June 1967) was an English author and journalist Year 1934 ( MCMXXXIV) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display full 1934 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Swallows and Amazons is a series of Children's books by English author Arthur Ransome, named after the title of the first book in the series He sailed her mostly on the east coast of England and the southern North Sea from her home port of Pin Mill near Harwich. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland The North Sea is a marginal, Epeiric sea of the Atlantic Ocean on the European Continental shelf. Harwich (ˈhærɪdʒ is a town in Essex England and one of the Haven ports, located on the coast with the North Sea

She is most notable for being the original for the fictional yacht Goblin in Ransome’s book We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea (1937) which recounts a voyage across the North Sea to the Dutch port of Flushing. We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea is the seventh book in Arthur Ransome 's Swallows and Amazons series of children's books The Netherlands ( Dutch:, ˈnedərlɑnt is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which consists of the Netherlands the Netherlands Vlissingen ( or Flushing in English is a Municipality and a City in the southwestern Netherlands on the former island of Walcheren Ransome's cruises also provided material for another book Secret Water (1939) set in the Walton backwaters. Secret Water is the eighth book in Arthur Ransome 's Swallows and Amazons series of children's books Walton-on-the-Naze is a small town in Essex, England, on the North Sea coast in the Tendring district

Ransome sold Nancy Blackett in 1939 but always said that she was "the best little ship". Year 1939 ( MCMXXXIX) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. In 1988, she was found rotting in Scarborough and restored. Year 1988 ( MCMLXXXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link displays 1988 Gregorian calendar) Scarborough is a town on the North Sea coast of North Yorkshire, England. The Nancy Blackett Trust was formed as a charitable organization to preserve and sail her and to promote the sort of sailing activities dear to Ransome. The trust's patron is Ellen MacArthur. Dame Ellen Patricia MacArthur, DBE (born 8 July 1976) is an English Sailor from Whatstandwell near Matlock

Further reading

• Wardale, Roger (1991). Nancy Blackett: Under Sail with Arthur Ransome. London: Jonathan Cape. ISBN 0224027735.  

External links

• The Nancy Blackett Trust
• The Arthur Ransome Society, an organisation devoted to Arthur Ransome with links to other sites