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An 'Unknown' Z4 - Her Story
Doug Clark has contacted the HBA out of the blue with a photograph and fond memories of Zemmery - a Z4 about which the association had nothing archived. Part of the reason for this hole in the archives is that there is no definitive list of all the Z4 tonners built by Alfred Lockhart (Marine) Ltd, although it's thought that around fifty were built in 1938 and 1939 until the second world war intervened.
Doug recalls that Zemmery's first custodian was a naval officer who had ridden out, hove-to, a Force 10 in the English Channel just after the war . Doug's father bought Zemmery when she was at Saul on the Sharpness-Gloucester Canal. Doug writes, “There was a boatyard with a small drydock which Zemmery went into to have her keel bolts drawn and checked. We spent much time scraping and painting. The mast was stripped and bleached and, as I was an aspiring marine engineer (I later became one, with bigger engines though) I overhauled the engine and stern gear”.
“Eventually we set of for the sea. I had sailed dinghies on the Channel since I was ten but Zemmery was our first 'big' boat. We sailed the boat down to Portishead and dried out in the mud just outside the locks. As Dad was not sure about going up the Avon to Bristol and through the new locks he took on a pilot. I think the pilot had a nice cruise and it made a bit of a change from Russian timber ships. The photo shows Zemmery directly under the Clifton Suspension Bridge in 1968. I'm on the bow, Dad by the mast, and my brother Ned is in the cockpit with the pilot, who turned up in a suit, and had to be rowed out to the boat in the dinghy”.
“When we got to the Cumberland Basin Locks the engine would not stop and I remember having to turn the petrol off. We went round in circles until it stopped - so much for my engineering skills - they got better when I was paid for them ! Later we cruised down to the Gower Peninsular where we had more adventures, mostly embarrassing ones which I dare not go into”.
“Dad had a very time consuming job in the Police and sadly we sold her to a man who kept her in Bristol. However, I remember Zemmery with great affection and when I see another Z it brings back memories of a great summer before I headed off to sea to earn a living”.
Doug went on to sail all sorts of boats from IOR Racers to the J Class, Shamrock V. He now owns a 15' Norwegian style double-ender wooden boat with a lug sail. Of Zemmery he had heard a rumour that she sunk when hit by a sand dredger whilst on her mooring in Bristol Docks.
Zemmery Statistics
Built : c1939 by Alfred Lockhart (Marine) Ltd, Brentford
LOA : 21' 9"
Beam : 7' 2"
Draft : 4' 4"
Displacement : 4 tons TM
Zemmery Custodians & Home Ports
The Clark Family Paye (1968-1969)
Zemmery Links
• None found (September 2016)
Page last updated : September 2016
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