Nancy Blackett was Arthur Ransome’s favourite amongst his various cruising yachts. He named her after his favourite character, the adventurous and irrepressible leader of the Amazon Pirates in his “Swallows and Amazons” books.
She provided him with the inspiration for possibly his best book “We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea”, a classic of both children’s and seafaring literature, in which she plays a leading role as the Goblin.
The Nancy Blackett was built in 1931, a Hillyard 7-tonner, 28 feet long, plus bowsprit, with an unusual Bermudan cutter rig. In 1988, she was discovered near-derelict in Scarborough harbour, and brought back to the River Orwell to be restored.
She is sailing again, now in the care of the Nancy Blackett Trust, recognisable once more as the boat that Ransome knew and loved.
The patron of the Nancy Blackett Trust is Dame Ellen MacArthur.
Vital Statistics
- Length on deck: 28ft 6in (8.68m)
- Beam: 8ft 1in (2.46m)
- Draft: 4ft 6in (1.53m)
- Gross (Thames) tonnage: 6.80
- Registered tonnage: 4.86
- Official Number: 162814
- (Goblin’s Official Number: 16856 – from ‘We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea’ by Arthur Ransome)
The Nancy Blackett Trust 