…but Dawn isn’t a wherry, she’s a modern wherry skipper, though her name would be perfect for a wherry. As far as we know there was never a wherry Dawn. Wherries were the traditional cargo boats used on the Broads, and later pleasure wherries and wherry yachts were built. Read Dawn’s blog.
My dad was in the RAF and as a child I was lucky enough to live in Penang (in Malaysia, then Malaya) and Cyprus, learning to swim and enjoying warm seas. One of my early memories is of setting off on a cruise ship for the journey to Penang. Dad always had boats and when my family returned to Norfolk in 1973 he had a 22-foot sailing boat that he kept moored at Blakeney in North Norfolk and later, a large wooden Broads cruiser. But my first trip on the Broads was in a day boat on a very wet summer’s day with my parents, brother and nine-month-old daughter – ‘This is lovely!’ I said.
More than a decade later I started a part-time secretarial job with the Broads Authority (BA). I just saw the advert and it appealed because it was the Broads. The work was with conservation and planning staff, very varied and enjoyable, but I was always interested to join in other activities when help was needed, including assisting with saline testing on Halvergate Marshes and boat counts on the River Waveney.
In the early 1990s, the BA had chartered the wherry Hathor for an official event and it was decided to advertise the return journey to the public. I’d only seen photos of wherries but I booked my parents on the trip and met them at the end of their journey at Wroxham after a beautiful, calm sunny day. Despite a very late return everyone had thoroughly enjoyed it.
After this successful outing it was repeated, but this time a message went round to staff asking for a couple of volunteers to go along, to make cups of tea and be ‘useful’. I’m not sure how useful we were; we found it all very confusing. We knew none of the terminology or requirements for sailing Hathor, but we made up for our lack of usefulness with enthusiasm. We reported back and little did we know it, but the foundations had been laid for the extremely popular scheduled day sailings with Wherry Yacht Charter today. I wasn’t the only member of staff who got hooked and many others have been involved over the years.
I’d never sailed a boat before and do very little sailing in other boats now. I was lucky I worked part-time, and with the support of my colleagues and family, I was able to sail as crew increasingly more often each year. My quanting skills (pushing the boat along with a large wooden pole) took many years to develop. While still with the BA, I was eventually asked to become a trainer and then I was encouraged to skipper…
In 2002 I left the BA for a job with Norfolk police – it was closer to home so more convenient for family circumstances at the time. Just as important to me, if not more so, I became a Friend of Wherry Yacht Charter Charitable Trust, established that year with the support of the BA’s then Chief Executive and Chief Planning Officer. The original Wherry Yacht Charter had been a private business, set up by two partners, Peter Bower and the late Barney Matthews. They each had a wherry, Olive and Norada respectively, then jointly bought Hathor. They rapidly realised they needed to make some money from the wherries in order to keep them going and set up the first charters. Peter still skippers and is involved in the training.
Since then, the trust has been successful in obtaining National Heritage Lottery funding, enabling it to expand its activities, get a base for the wherries and keep our first three sailing. Absolutely crucial to this was employing a brilliant boatbuilder as our first Operations Manager. The work now involves maintaining five wherries and supervising Dylan, our Apprentice, who is speedily learning the ropes and all the other aspects of sailing and looking after a wherry.
In 2015 I took early retirement, which offered opportunities for even more sailing. I’ve been a skipper for over 20 years now, crew for over 30 years. When you’re training, you can do as much as suits you and to the level you prefer. Crew members are all ages, come from many places and have many different backgrounds; I really enjoy meeting them. Some people crew for all three wherry trusts (see below), a good way of drawing the trusts together to co-operate, which is important for the future of all the wherries. My two grandsons trained as crew and when time and circumstances allow, they are still pressed into service.
It takes up to three to four years to train as crew, depending on the time spent, and five to six years to train as a skipper. I skipper our wherry yachts but they’re all different, I don’t have a favourite. Hathor is usually at How Hill and Ardea is larger and heavier to sail. For sailing a wherry technique is important, together with stamina and a fair level of fitness – I don’t need a gym. I enjoy crewing as well as skippering, you’re using different muscles. The skipper helms and keeps charge of the sail, being a skipper is a big responsibility. Finally, I was ‘persuaded’ to become a trustee.
October to April is our planning season and our activities run from May to September. I do two or three days a week on average. For scheduled day sailings we have a skipper and two or three crew, who meet the passengers and accompany them to the wherry. For day charters we have a skipper and at least one crew member, for longer charters there’s just a skipper and the passengers assist, under firm instructions to do as asked (within reason!) and discuss afterwards.
For the charters I stay on board for up to five days in the fo’c’sle (forecastle) – the crew’s quarters on a ship. There are two fold-down bunks, a two-burner cooker, grill, fridge, loo and running water – it’s the same as the old days apart from the fridge. It may not have been quite like the passenger cabins, but it was comparatively comfortable for crew even then, very different from the rough conditions on a trading wherry. On pleasure wherries and wherry yachts the crew also looked after all the domestic arrangements for passengers, including cooking. If I’m staying on board during scheduled day sailings I stay in the main cabin for a taste of Edwardian luxury. Early mornings are beautiful, with the mist rising and I’m disappointed if I don’t see a kingfisher on a wherry trip.
As a trustee, my area of responsibility is crewing and training, and co-ordinating skippers and crew. Chartering is going well, we do about 50-60 in a season now, though we’d like to do more. We have about 80 crew, including eight skippers and one in training, but we are always in need of more crew and skippers. The Wherry Friends are an important source of income, and crew and skippers must be members of the friends, what we call ‘active friends’. Our other main income is from the charters and scheduled sailings, plus some smaller grants. Together these are keeping us afloat financially for the present and future.
I have so many wherry memories. Taking a wherry down the River Chet is a challenging experience and getting stuck on Breydon Water is definitely one to be avoided. I always remember encountering the Blackheath coming from the sugar beet factory at Cantley on the River Yare. (The factory’s last use of water transport, a vestige of trading on the Broads, was employment of the Blackheath, which brought oil from Great Yarmouth to Cantley until the mid-2000s.)
Anniversaries are always highlights. I remember taking part in the 1996 celebrations for 900 years of Norwich Cathedral. A huge block of Caen stone (the original building material for the cathedral) was brought by sea from Normandy in France and then travelled on the wherry Albion to Norwich, recreating the journeys. You can see the stone by the cathedral entrance. Hathor and White Moth’s 100th birthdays in 2005 and 2015 were great occasions and for Ardea’s 90th in 2017 we had a jazz band at Wroxham Broad. In July 2024 our five wherries sailed together to Ranworth, in celebration of Norfolk Day.
I’ve enjoyed promoting the Broads, the wherries, the BA and, more recently, the trust, to thousands, through volunteering at wherry open days at moorings as well. The sailings take us to many little staithes like Dilham, Geldeston, Puddingmoor, Aldeby, busier ones like Ranworth, Whitlingham, Acle and Hardley Dyke, and village moorings at Bramerton, Brundall, Burgh Castle, Cantley and Loddon.
As for future plans, I intend to carry on wherrying and in the immediate future (at time of writing), I’ll soon be off on a working boat cruise of the Norwegian fjords – though I’ll be strictly a passenger. Back in the Broads, I’ve sailed all the Broads waterways apart from a small section of the River Bure between Belaugh Church and Hoveton Riverside Park – I aim to sail this in 2025. Our next big anniversary will be in 2027, with the centenary of Ardea. As one of our volunteers wrote, without all those involved, from trustees to the newest crew recruits, our wherries ‘would be lifeless pieces of wood either in a museum or at the bottom of the river’ – the fate of so many others.
Wherry enthusiasts will often refer to ‘wherry time’ – something infinitely flexible. Late arrivals are not uncommon! With the wind and the tide, wherries under sail are at one with nature – time and tide wait for no wherry, as the old wherrymen knew when they waited for the tide or were delayed by the weather. So wherrying really is a great way to unwind, recharge, reconnect… but mainly to enjoy the Broads.
Dawn Atter
Wherry Yacht Charter Charitable Trust
This is a fleet of two pleasure wherries, Hathor (1905) and Ardea (1927), and three wherry yachts, Olive (1909), Norada (1912) and White Moth (1915). The wherries can be chartered (hired) for a day, a weekend or a longer visit. There’s also a programme of scheduled sailings where you can join a half-day or day trip (with skipper and crew). Hathor is based at How Hill Staithe from May to September and except when sailing will usually be on view, when you’re welcome on board for a free look round. We suggest you check in advance by emailing jk@wherryyactcharter.org.uk if you want to be sure of visiting Hathor.
01603 781475
Norfolk Wherry Trust and Wherry Maud Trust
The only two trading wherries left are Albion (1898) and Maud (1899). The Norfolk Wherry Trust offers public day trips, shorter ‘taster’ trips and charters (hires) on Albion, plus open days around the Broads when you are welcome on board for a look round. Wherry Maud Trust offers day and short sailings (you need to become a trust member to join these), open days and many other events for all.
Solace
Built in 1903, Solace is privately owned, but you may see this pleasure wherry out on the Broads too.
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