Snippet 

An Invited Friend of the Harrison Butler Association
Designed by George Holmes  

George Holmes, Designer of Snippet
In tracing the influences behind Harrison Butler's work, it is apparent that Albert Strange was an inspiration, he in turn having a great afinity with the ideas of George Holmes. The link between Strange and Holmes is discussed in John Leather's book, recently republished by Lodestar books;
“In 1891 Albert Strange joined the Humber Yawl Club and almost immediately became a close friend of George F Holmes, an engineer of Hull, then a substantial fishing port on the north shore of the Humber, with a large dep sea trawling fleet of sailing and steam vessels. George Holmes was, from the 1880s to the 1930s, a prolific designer of small sailing and rowing craft in his spare time, all of them sound, practical boats. He also had considerable artistic talent and was a founder member of the Club. Their friendship lasted until Strange's death. In the 1890s the two men often sailed together, usually in Holme's little canoe-yawl Eel. These were sociable little cruises during which both men sketched and painted wonderfully atmospheric records of small boat sailing”.
To give a flavour of George Holmes' work, I've made Snippet an invited Friend of the Harrison Butler Association. Snippet was designed and then owned by Holmes from 1913 until his death in 1940. She is the boat featured on the cover of the 1936 Yearbook of the HYC, above. She continues to be 'living history', occassionally seen sailing in The Solent. Below is a view of her cockpit taken in 2012 by The Bursledon Blogger.

Snippet Statistics
Built : 1913 by Smith Brothers, Goole
LOA : 28' 0"
LWL : 24' 0"
Beam : 8' 6"
Draught : 4' 2" and 2' 9"
Displacement : 6 tons TM
OGA Boat Number : 0543

George Holmes sketching on board Snippet 
Photograph from Holmes' photograph album, in the care of Dick Wynne

Snippet Custodians & Home Ports 
Paul Spooner (?-2005-2017...) Walton Backwaters
FS Moulson AMI Mech E (1950-1961-?) Brough
LV Pillatt MBE (?-1949) Hessle
Executors for Mr Holmes (1940-1947-?) Hessle
George F Holmes (?-1923-1940) Hessle

Snippet Links
• Snippet on the Canoe Yawl website

Page last updated : October 2017

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