9" Hull - Pull Along - 1948/49
This rare and curious boat is a bit of a Sutcliffe odity; it is the only unpowered boat that Sutcliffe ever produced. We're not certain why Sutcliffe produced such a boat, but it had stopped producing the very expensive Grenville in 1949 so perhaps the Pull Along was produced to use up a glut of spare supestructure pressings? Or was it produced to further lower the cost if Sutcliffe ownership; it must have been very cheap to make as it has no motor! Whatever the reason, it was not successful and production stopped after only a year or so. The short production run has resulted in this boat being extremely rare.
Pull Along - circa 1948 - Courtesy Brownhill Collection
As well as having no names, the Pull Along also had no motor and no rudder! I does have a tow eye on the bow; an 'L' shaped bracket soldered in place. The most common colour (not that this boat is common) is a sort of turquoise blue, but we've also seen these boats in orange, as per Racer 1. The hull base is the standard pressing as used in the RACER 1 (the only 9" contemporary in 1948) and has a small 'dish' for the prop but the 'deck' is a new almost featureless pressing with the exception of 'SUTCLIFFE MADE IN ENGLAND' at the stern where the 'tiller bar' would normally be.
A rather sorry example - but this is how they come. Note the 'shadow' of the decal on the foredeck.
If you look carefully, both examples shown have a small hole on the foredeck under the decal (or where the decal would go). The hole was to allow for the expansion of the air inside the hull when the boat was baked in the overn after painting.
Prop recess - but no prop!
'SUTCLIFFE MADE IN ENGLAND'
The Pull Along was very short lived. Was it that Sutcliffe had used up some of the pressings needed to make the boat, or was it just that it was a bad seller?