The Elizabethan 29 is best envisaged as a long folkboat with overhangs. For those familiar
with the Stella, Kim Holman evolved that design to become the Elizabethan 29. She has a long
keel with the rudder hung on the after end and angled forwards. The propeller sits in a cut-out
about halfway down the rudder. The first rudders were mahogany but later ones were
encapsulated in GRP or constructed entirely of GRP. The forefoot is cut away, with quite a fine
entry on her spoon bow giving long overhangs fore and aft. With her pronounced sheer, this
makes for a particularly distinctive and graceful boat. The earlier boats had an external cast iron
keel of 1.4 tons, but later boats had encapsulated lead ballast. The heads of the keelbolts are
glassed into the bilges.
The deck moulding incorporates an angular cabin, designed to resemble plywood from the
outside, and is usually unfinished on the inside except for a coat (or seven) of paint. There is a
modest foredeck and after deck, usually sporting a single central cleat each, with adequate side
decks. The deck is bonded to the hull and is covered by a teak capping on the short toerail all
round. There are three small scuppers on each side. The cabin top sports handrails as far as the
mast step. The forehatch is forward of the mast, and designs vary but the earlier models were
wood framed with an obscured Perspex insert. It usually opens aft but may open forward. The
main hatch from the cockpit has a sliding top and (usually) three washboards.
The cockpit is deep enough, not too narrow to brace your legs when heeled if you are over 5’
8”, and self-draining unless there are more than three adults in the cockpit. The cockpit coaming
is plywood with moulded and shaped corners. The winches, originally tufnol bottom-action
Lewmars, sit on steel-bracketed plinths part way along. There are up to three carved mahogany
cleats for the sheets on each side. The wooden seats, usually four of them, lift to reveal deep
lockers which may or may not contain batteries and gas bottles. There are usually tanks beneath
these, often water but occasionally fuel. There is a large lazarette under the after deck which may
contain a small fuel tank, usually 2-3 gallons in capacity.
The basic rig is a masthead sloop with a low aspect ratio main by modern standards. Some 29s
were yawl rigged, with a short mizzen mast mounted on the after deck. At least one is cutter
rigged. The original rig was a single forestay and backstay, main shrouds via a single crosstree
and a pair of lower shrouds. One variation is roller reefing, although the majority of the earlier
boats have not succumbed to this. Some boats have twin forestay and backstay, enabling two
headsails to be hanked on at a time, although it is not possible to achieve a high luff tension with
this arrangement. The mast itself is stepped on a short girder that spans the two internal
bulkheads, which are themselves reinforced with steel plates. The shrouds terminate in U-bolts
through the beam shelf, or less commonly to external chain plates, the forestay to the bow fitting
and the backstay to a chain plate inside the transom.
There was no internal moulding, so bulkheads and furniture were made of wood. The early
boats contained a lot of wood, with a glassed in stringer and beam shelf. There is also often a
timber deadwood at the after end of the keel, to which the prop-shaft bearing is attached. A length
of curved timber is also glassed into the stem. By 1967 Webster’s were using a new mould, and
much of this wood may have been dispensed with. Below there are usually four berths in two
