Eight Bells Brian Hammett

The Nancy Blackett Trust reported the sad to death of Brian Hammett, a Vice-President and former Trustee of the Nancy Blackett Trust.

Brian died on September 20th following a massive heart attack. He had been very ill for some time with kidney failure. Brian had been an enthusiastic supporter of Nancy Blackett since her restoration – he and his wife Lorna attended the celebratory relaunch dinner given by Mike Rines at the Butt and Oyster in 1989. He also edited and re-published Arthur Ransome’s Racundra’s First Cruise (first published in 1923) and then compiled and edited the hitherto unpublished Racundra’s Third Cruise (2002) – from notes Ransome had written in the 1920s, finding photos and lines of the yacht and even travelling to the Baltic and fishing rivers Ransome had cruised in the years before selling Racundra for the little house in Windermere where he began work on his best selling Swallows and Amazons children’s adventures.

Brian sailed his beloved classic gaff cutter Avola extensively for many years. In 1980 he and Lorna acquired the 33ft larch planked J. Francis-Jones designed wheelhouse yacht built at St Osyth Boatyard in 1965 and made her a fixture of the east coast.