Today, the Thames A-Rater class embodies a fascinating blend of tradition and modernity. On any given race day, you might see a beautifully restored 1890s mahogany-hulled boat lining up next to a 21st-century fiberglass cousin – and you’d be hard-pressed to tell which is quicker. The fleet currently numbers around twenty active boats, of which about half are the original wooden classics and half the GRP builds (plus one new-generation hull). Each wooden boat has its quirks and character, lovingly maintained by syndicates who often view themselves as caretakers of living history. These boats are indeed “living history, a direct link with the dawn of competitive small boat sailing in Britain”thamessailingclub.co.uk – not museum pieces, but actively raced craft, still performing as intended over 100 years later.
From a technical standpoint, the A-Raters have kept up with the times in a selective way. Almost all boats now carry Bermudan sloops with lightweight sails (Mylar or Dacron), and virtually all have adopted aluminum alloy masts or even carbon-fiber spars. The first carbon mast appeared in the late 1990s (on Spindrift), and it immediately made the boat more stable (perhaps too stable in some opinions, robbing a bit of the lively roll that helps in fluky river winds)thedailysail.com. Nevertheless, carbon rigs are common now, offering weight savings aloft and flexibility to twist off in gusts. Hull materials, on the other hand, remain tightly controlled by class rules – no planing skiffs or foils here, a new A-Rater hull must “conform closely to the shape of an existing one” raterassociation.co.uk. This rule, adopted to preserve the classic character, means that performance gains come from sails, rigs, and crew work rather than radical new hull designs. In effect, the class has become a development class constrained by tradition: you can refit an 1890s hull with carbon and Kevlar, but you can’t design a brand-new hull from scratch that doesn’t look like an A-Rater. Even the lone “new design” – the boat Adventurer built in the 2010s using the lines of Scamp – actually drew from a 1906 hull shape (Scamp’s) as its template raterassociation.co.uk. This ensures that the fleet today still resembles a coherent class, and that the spirit of the old boats lives on in any new-build.
The class association (re-formed and energized in recent decades) keeps a close eye on the boats’ wellbeing. There have been efforts to catalog and safeguard old hulls. For instance, Saucy Sally, Estelle, Surf, and My Lady Dainty – venerable boats laid up awaiting restoration – are stored at Thames SC, with hopes that either their owners or new benefactors will eventually fund the “major surgery” needed to get them back racingraterassociation.co.uk
raterassociation.co.uk. These projects are costly labours of love, but past successes (Ulva, Carina, etc.) inspire optimism. The association also works to find buyers for boats whose syndicates are disbanding, to keep them on the river. In 2016, for example, both Ulva and Caprice IV were up for sale, and members spread the word to try to secure sympathetic new owners who would race them (indeed, such sales usually stay within the community)thamessailingclub.co.uk. The knowledge and skills for wooden boat restoration have fortunately been passed on, so future rebuilds are feasible.
Currently Estelle and Surf have moved to UTSC and are starting to be restored along with other projects trying to keep other Raters from too much Decay.
Dainty Too and Vanessa are in the workshop being repaired and partially rebuilt.
Surf (also at UTSC ) has been scanned and deconstructed and will be a major project to create the boat again.
Saucy Sally and My Lady Dainty having been laid up for many years may have past the point of recovery and may go the way of other Raters.
On the flip side, the class isn’t afraid of innovation. In recent years, they have dabbled in things like modern foils (some Raters experimented with winged rudders or centre boards to reduce drag, albeit within class limits) and even data analytics – one project saw a company use AI to optimize settings on Ulva’s rig, showing that even a 19th-century design can benefit from 21st-century techfacebook.com. The sailors have also welcomed women into what was once a strictly male bastion – now mixed crews are normal, and as noted, Tara’s crew often included or was skippered by a woman, breaking an old taboo in a very visible wayraterassociation.co.uk. The atmosphere is friendly and familial; many current A-Rater sailors are second- or third-generation, following parents into the class.
Perhaps most importantly, the Thames A-Raters continue to deliver thrilling racing and a spectacle unlike any other. Their performance on the river can still astonish: in a decent breeze, an A-Rater will plane up and down the Thames, her lee gunwale kissing the water, three crew on trapeze or wire-and-toe-strap (sliding seats largely gave way to trapeze wires eventually), and a large spinnaker billowing on the run. They are faster than just about any other boat on that water – “in their native element they are faster than anything else” as the class motto goesraterassociation.co.uk. Spectators who stumble upon Bourne End Week often double-take at the sight: Are those dinghies or yachts? How does that mast not topple over? The Raters gracefully thread between pleasure cruisers and river barges, using every puff that spills over the treetops. And when the wind dies, they can be sculled home with a paddle or “tiller-waggled” – a time-honoured trick on the Thames – much to the amusement of the crowd (and sometimes the consternation of race officials!).
It’s also heartening that the inter-club camaraderie remains strong. At events like BEW, older sailors swap stories of past races – the time Vagabond drifted into the lily pads, or when a sudden squall capsized half the fleet (yes, A-Raters can capsize!). These tales reinforce that the class has seen it all and keeps going. And every so often, the A-Raters venture away from the Thames, spreading their fame. They’ve visited Grafham Water and Bewl Water reservoirs for special races, and even internationally – in 2017 a few were invited to a classic boat event on the Seine in France, where they impressed the locals by sailing under Parisian bridges with inches to spare raterassociation.co.uk.
The A-Rater Tara (ex-Caprice V, built 2001) showing her paces with a modern rig. Even as a contemporary build with carbon hull and spars, she embodies the class’s heritage: three crew on deck, a long elegant hull barely kissing the water, and that unmistakably tall mast harnessing every breath of wind on the river.
