Sail Arthur Ransome’s Nancy Blackett

We do mean to take you to sea – or maybe just a trip down the River Orwell!

What better way to enjoy the beauty of the River Orwell than aboard the yacht so closely associated with it – Arthur Ransome’s own Nancy Blackett? Ransome lived here, sailed here, wrote here, and most famously set the opening of his classic chlldren’s story We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea here.

Nancy Blackett inspired the book and features in it as the Goblin. So sailing aboard her has that extra dimension of voyaging into the world of unforgettable fiction as well as discovering the peace and beauty of this real river, most of which has hardly changed since Ransome sailed it over 80 years ago.

He bought the 28ft four-berth cutter, which he renamed after one of his best-known characters, self-styled pirate Nancy Blackett of Swallows and Amazons fame, in 1935 when he and his Russian wife Evgenia were moving into the area, from the Lake District, in search of some sea sailing. He found her in Poole Harbour and sailed her round to Pin Mill through some atrocious weather, which helped give him the idea for the book. “I felt very young and inexperienced,” he said of this reintroduction to yachting.

Nancy is now managed by the Nancy Blackett Trust, which was set up over 25 years ago to look after her, following her rediscovery – derelict in Scarborough Harbour in the 1980s – and an extensive restoration.

Our aim, still, is to make her available for anyone – old, young or in-between – to enjoy a sail and experience the feel of being aboard the Goblin. A short, skippered day trip down the Orwell is an ideal family introduction – children sail free.

If you’ve always wanted to feel the thrill of your sails harnessing the wind – or the peace of a quiet drift down the river on a warm summer’s afternoon – this is a safe and accessible way to do it, enhanced by the magic of experiencing it aboard a piece of maritime and literary history. Enjoy an al fresco lunch at anchor, miles from civilisation, or the cosy atmosphere of dining in the mahogany-panelled cabin lit by oil lamps before turning into your bunk to be rocked gently to sleep.

Respected sailor and writer Peter Willis is founder and President of the Nancy Blackett Trust, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. His book Good Little Ship explores the themes of Ransome’s rite-of-passage novel We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea, and how it came to be written. Part maritime history, part literary criticism – a joyous homage throughout– it’s an impeccably-researched tale of the life, near-death, rescue and restoration of the Nancy Blackett and a thoroughly engrossing read, whether you’re a lifelong lover of Ransome’s works, or discovering them for the first time. Photographs add life to the story, while Ransome’s drawings and own account of a voyage in her – as well as brief details of his other boats – mean this is a must-have for lovers of both boats and literature.

Good Little Ship is published in paperback by Lodestar Books, £14.

For more adventurous sailors with some experience, overnights and weekends in the Walton Backwaters (made famous in Ransome’s Secret Water) or passages up the coast to the Deben, or down to London, and further (Holland, even!) are options.

All our sailing is under the charge of a qualified volunteer skipper; membership of the Trust is needed, but the modest annual subscription covers the whole family – and children sail free.

Ransome actually wrote two books featuring the Goblin while he lived here; the second is Secret Water, set in the Walton Backwaters. He loved the area, and would sail down there in Nancy to drop anchor for a bit of peace and quiet to work on his next book.

The Backwaters may be a little less ‘undiscovered’ now than they were in Ransome’s day, but they still have an air of mystery and isolation, with a silence punctuated only by birdsong. They’re a favourite destination for Nancy Blackett crews.

Nancy Blackett is 28ft 6in long, plus the 10ft bowsprit. She’s been painstakingly restored to make sure she is just as Ransome would have known her, and as the Goblin is described in the book:

“I say, just look down,” said Titty. They looked down into the cabin of the little ship, at blue mattresses on bunks on either side, at a little table with a chart tied down on it with string… a little white sink opposite the tiny galley where a saucepan of water was simmering on one of the two burners of a little cooking stove.

She welcomes visitors on various open days throughout the summer, at Woolverstone and elsewhere, so come and see her and find out more about how this humble Hillyard 7-tonner became one of the most famous boats in fiction. And if you’d like to sail her yourself, just join the Nancy Blackett Trust; it’s not expensive, and you can book a day-sail or a longer passage.

If you’d like to sail into ‘Secret Water’ aboard Nancy Blackett – or anywhere else on ‘Arthur Ransome’s East Coast’ for that matter – take a look at our website and get in touch. And don’t forget, children sail free!

•www.nancyblackett.org