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Registration Records of MYA Class Boats

Introduction

Older boats will occasionally be sold with a measurement certificate that provides the owner with some provenance. More often than not the certificate will have been lost. However, the identity of older boats that have been issued with a measurement certificate can sometimes be traced if the boat has any of the following:

  • A hull registration number engraved of bonded in
  • A three or four digit sail number (two digit for really old boats)
  • A name recorded on the hull

If you have any of that information the current Class Registrar, or the keeper of the historical records, may be able to provide information about the original ownership of the boat.

The records of certificates issued since the early days of the current classes represent a considerable sized archive for the more popular classes. The current registrars, except for the IOM Registrar, have only relatively recent records and are only able to provide information for boats registered more recently in the class’s history.

The Vintage Model Yacht Group

Older records are lodged with the Vintage Model Yacht Group who provide a valuable service to the MYA by acting as archivists and by providing information to enquirers.

The VMYG’s Digital Archivist, currently Charles Smith, reports his job is to:

  • ensure that as far as possible digital copies are made of registers which deteriorate with age
  • create data bases in such a way that they can be searched readily
  • extract historical information by comparing the relative strengths of the various classes in different parts of the country
  • recreate from scratch as far as is possible the missing registers

Several members of the VMYG are active in this work and, where relevant, they are identified below.

How to search for information

The following pages log the whereabouts of the various register records in late 2022 and is provided to assist with a search for information.

Please see the MYA Website Knowledge Base, Measurement and Certification, Class Registrars page for the contact details of the current Class Registrars.

Please see the MYA Website Classes, Vintage page for the contact details of the Vintage Model Yacht Group.

IOM Registrar

The Registrar has:
Records kept in a database (Excel spreadsheet) starting from boat number 1 up to present.
75 ring binders of certificate copies.

M Registrar

The Registrar has:
15 files with certificate copies and MFs for boats number 4000 to the present
473 digital records of modern certificates.
1 binder with one sheet certificates for about 200 pre-4000 boats
Excel spreadsheets (6 in total) for each batch of 1000 ‘boats’ logging basic data records.

Vintage Model Yacht Group

David Mathers has the earlier Marblehead Register, which is on filing cards and he is working to produce a digitized record.
Martin Bandey has a filing cabinet containing the Marblehead declaration cards in alphabetical order but the content is not complete.

10R Register

The Registrar has:
Records from boat registration number 3000 to the present.

Vintage Model Yacht Group

Charles Smith holds the original 10R Registers from number 1 (1925) to number 2137 (1982). A digitised version of the records have been completed up to number 1395 (1948).

Although boats in the class date from the 1880s, and the class was adopted by the Model Yacht Racing Association in 1914, a register was not started until the MYA AGM 1925 after which boats could race to the MYA rules. Many of the earlier boats were then registered.

Declaration card for numbers 1774 to 3132 and miscellaneous copy certificates for numbers 1 to 3249 are held. However, there are gaps where records are missing.

There is also a short record of the 18 Footer Class, muddled within the 10 Register.

A Class Registrar

The Registrar has:
Class registers in both paper and electronic (Excel) formats information from numbers 1000 to 1800
Vintage Model Yacht Group
Martin Bandey has, in addition to the A Class Register in a red book, a series of both declaration and registration cards for numbers 1 to 1244.
Robert Hobbs prepared an electronic version of the MYA’s records up to boat number 1000 in connection with the publication of a book and may be approached for a copy of this material.

36 Registrar

The Registrar has:
Paper certificates from numbers 1720 to 1940 (current September 2022)
Electronic copies of certificate from around 1830.
Electronic record of data for numbers 1 to 1000.

Vintage Model Yacht Group

Martin Bandey holds the following records:
1st book numbers 1 (1930) to 698 (1950)
2nd book numbers 699 to 953 (1957)
3rd book numbers 954 to1229 (1982)
Declaration cards for numbers 234-1719 with some gaps including 1685-1698 and 1712-1713

6M register

The Registrar has:
Class registers in both paper and electronic (Excel) formats information from numbers 850 to 1140.
The register for the 6M up to number 850 was disposed of before it could be recovered from the Registrar’s widow. However the Scottish MYA Register for the class is complete.

My thanks go to the MYA Class Registrars, Nick Cowern, Roy Stevens, Richard Uttley, Bill Green and Martin Dovey, and members of the VMYG, Martin Bandey, Charles Smith, and David Mathers, in preparing this resume of the information.

Graham Bantock
MYA Technical Officer
10th October 2022