CLASSIC BOAT MUSEUM
What's On
Exhibitions
Introducing our new Dinghy Simulator - Come and enjoy sailing and never get cold and wet!
Especially for the young and young at heart, a virtual sailing experience, which has been part-funded with a grant of £9,900 from The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
The Dinghy Simulator is a cockpit of a sailing dinghy connected to a computer and a pneumatic ram. Cruise or race around the buoys. Control the boat with the main sheet, the tiller, and your weight position. Choose the type of boat you sail and set the wind speed and direction. It’s a great way of learning if you’re just starting out, it comes with a special seat for disabled sailors, and a challenge can be set for experienced dinghy sailors as well. The simulator imparts the sheer thrill of sailing and teaches important skills in thinking ahead and minimising risk.
It will be a key part of the museum’s new education programme, developed with the support of the Isle of Wight Heritage Services. Students and visitors alike will enjoy the virtual experience of operating the simulator together with viewing boats, models, artefacts, paintings and photographs, all which display the Island’s rich maritime history.
Heritage Highlights of the America’s Cup
This exhibition explores the America’s Cup - yacht racing’s ‘Formula 1’. It charts the origins of the Cup when America first won the 100 Guinea Cup in the Round the Island Race, with Queen Victoria as its enthusiastic spectator. It will investigate the early challenges of Cutters (one-masted) and Schooners (two masted), both at the time gaff-rigged and later the Bermudan rigged J-Class boats of the 1930s. These are documented with prints from glass plate photographs and archive film. After the Second World War there was demand for a more affordable race boat and the Twelve Metre Rule became the defining standard until 1992, when it was replaced by the International America’s Cup (IACC) Rule. A special section will be devoted to our ‘local hero’, Cowes resident, Harold Cudmore, who was head coach and trial helm in for the winning boat, America3, in the 1992 campaign.
