In the beginning there was thunder and lightning....

New National Maritime Museum in Falmouth will feature the history and development of sailing and racing dinghies

I'm sure that you all know the tale of the first use of the trapeze harness in the International 14 class.....but like fine wine it is worth imbibing again.

During the 1938 Prince of Wales Cup, the International 14 class championship, Peter Scott and John Winter were sailing their new boat, Thunder and Lightning, designed and built by Uffa Fox. The pair had previously sailed with Beecher Moore on his Thames Rater where they had used a device known as 'The Bell Rope' - this was a rope attached to the hounds which the crew hung onto by his hands to increase their sitting out power.

Scott and Winter worked with Charles Currey and Uffa to refine the idea by adding a hook and harness and Uffa built a stronger mast.

During the 1938 POW race Scott and Winter alternated as crew and helm, the crew lying outside the boat with his feet on the gunwale, supported by the harness attached to the hounds, and they won - the trapeze had arrived.

The International 14 Dinghy Committee asked Peter Scott to draft a rule banning the device and the trapeze disappeared from fourteen racing until 1970 when, at Falmouth once again, the POW was won by Jeremy Pudney and Peter Brazier using the re-introduced device.

All this nostalgia has been brought about by the stand at the recent London Boat Show presenting the imminent opening of the new National Maritime Museum in Falmouth. This building will be part of a £22 million development transforming three acres of derelict harbour front into a complex including cafes, shops and restaurants, set around a public events square.

Due to open to the public on the 22 June the museum will house the Small Boat Collection, a collection of more than 120 dinghies and small craft that have played a significant part in the development of small sailing craft, and includes canoes, yachts, rowing boats, dinghies, power boats, record breakers and medal-winners. The collection has sat, largely unseen, at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich and the new building will allow the collection to be properly displayed for the first time.

Among the highlights are Superdocious, Rodney Pattisson's all conquering Flying Dutchman; Thunder and Lightning, the ground breaking International 14 and a newly restored Dragon class Bluebottle, the last remaining Royal Yacht has been donated on permanent loan by HRH Prince Phillip.

The new building has been designed to stand for a century or more and employs long-used and well proven materials - granite, slate and some 16 kilometers of green oak boarding, clad by master shipwrights which will weather over the years from glowing gold to a soft silver. Work on the £18 million construction started in 1999 with money for the project coming from the Heritage Lottery Fund, £11.3 million; the European Regional Development Fund, £3.3 million and the SW of England Regional Development Agency, £6 million, plus other sponsors and donors.

The building will form the centre of the long overdue regeneration of Falmouth's waterfront area and the museum is expected to attract 180,000 visitors a year - the Eden Project opened with an estimate of 750,000 visitors a year and reached that figure in the first four months!

As well as the boat exhibits, features will include the 'Set Sail Gallery', which illustrates the breadth of use of boats in leisure, work, rescue exploration, sport etc. There will be opportunities to plot charts, forecast the weather, study the tides and each year in the 'Flotilla Gallery' a curving ply wall will present a different themed selection from the collection. Boats will be afloat at the outside pontoons and as well as the viewing tower there is a basement with windows for viewing the world between the tides.

In a neat final to the trapeze story the International 14 class are holding the Prince of Wales Cup, at Falmouth again this year. Now sailing with double trapeze and unrecognisable from the 1938 boats, the class continues to innovate - committees not withstanding.


National Maritme Museum in construction at Falmouth, Cornwall