Almaz
Page updated 3 February 2006
This SeaHawk is owned by David Cornabe and is one of the boats built by Mistral Craft in about 2000. The lack of sail emblem and number suggests that this may have been the first boat built by the company. His was only launched for the first time in June 2004, having been kept as a demonstrator by Pyefleet Boat Sales. There is more information about these post-Moore boats on the History page.
The pictures are taken from scans of prints and show Almaz at Weybread Pit, in Suffolk, during the 2004 season. Unfortunately, the images are less than perfect and it is difficult to compare all the detail with the pictures of Isolde, the other SeaHawk known to have been completed around that time. However, some similarities are clear. For example, they both have similar wooden hand rails on the cabin top and both have mooring cleats mounted externally of the cockpit. Equally, there are differences. This boat appears to have a lifting rudder.
David's boat moved about in 2005. Initially, it was at his parent's new pub, the Green Man in Toppersfield near Braintree. He intended using it on another lake near there and planned on taking it out at Mersea Island to sail into the Colne estuary to Wivenhoe. Then it moved to his own front garden in Colchester and eventually on to a mooring in Alresford Creek, between Wivenhoe and Brightlingsea.
David reports that there is another SeaHawk berthed in the creek also owned by a David. "I sailed to Wivenhoe and Rowhedge regattas this year, successfully, without engine. I have been stuck twice on the mudflats in one day." That involved a sleep-over onboard and was followed by the purchase of Seagull 6hp engine, which he managed to lose overboard on his maiden powered voyage. The engine was recovered at low tide, and flushed with water and oil and was awaiting a strip down when David lasted reported. Sounding upbeat, "All good fun though!" he said!
