His Vee Jays were easily identified by their unique hull shape because Laurie took advantage of measurement tolerances and introduced a hull with a pronounced spring in the bow and a long straight planing run, which made his Jays unbeatable flying machines in a breeze and took full advantage of the newly introduced twin planks

The boat would be made at home by a boy and his dad and would be inexpensive to construct (in the 1930s the boat cost 5 pounds 7 shillings and sixpence, and the sails cost 3 pounds 5 shillings).

Sixty years later I look back on this and marvel at how adventurous we were. We never told our parents of these excursions. For all they knew we were just mucking about fishing and spearing the odd blue-swimmer crab.