It’s fairly well-known that Nancy Blackett was launched in 1931 – but she wasn’t called Nancy Blackett then. 

She was built at David Hillyard’s yard in Littlehampton to one of his standard designs, as a ‘seven-ton’ 28ft 6in yacht for Seymour Tuely, a Wimbledon solicitor, who called her Spindrift – we even had an embroidered sweat-shirt logo designed to mark the date. 

How, when and why she became Nancy Blackett is another story – which will be told here next Monday.

Nancy Blackett in Littlehampton, June 2023. Photo and header photo by Stuart Morris.