Racing Days, ‘Samuel Pepys' and 'Cohoe'

Named for the famed British naval administrator and diarist, Samuel Pepys was a wooden sloop designed by Laurent Giles & Partners of Lymington and built by Camper & Nicholson at Gosport in 1949. Registered at 7 tons Thames (5.80 gross & 4.32 net), she measured 31 feet in length with a 7.5 foot beam and was fitted with a small auxiliary motor for getting in and out of harbor. Owned by the Royal Naval Sailing Association based at Portsmouth, she was a familiar sight on the Solent and was in frequent use, both for cruising as well as competitive racing.
Cohoe was a virtually identical little sloop, also registered at 7 tons Thames (5.01 gross & 3.79 net) and measuring 32 feet in length with a 7.4 foot beam. Designed by K.H. Reimers of Stockholm but built at Swanwick (Hampshire) by A.H. Moody & Son in 1946, she was originally owned by K. Adlard Coles, the prolific author of numerous books on many aspects of yachting and boating. By 1952 however, Cohoe was owned by J.J.W. Salmond of Hertford although he only kept her for a few years and, by 1957, she was sailing under new colors.