A few years ago some ingenious person hit upon the idea of converting a trading wherry into a pleasure one by raising and permanently fixing the hatches, placing windows at the sides (there is no bulwark, and but a narrow plankway between the edge and the cabin sides), dividing the roomy interior into saloon and bedrooms, and so producing a commodious and comfortable sailing houseboat, which has become exceedingly popular. There are numbers of them about now, and they are always in demand for hire by parties visiting the Broads.
The large sail carries a sort of flounce laced on to the bottom of it called a bonnet, and the removal of this is equivalent to lowering a topsail. The trading wherries carry no ballast when empty of cargo, but the pleasure wherries have a sufficient quantity of scrap iron. They move in the lightest of airs, and in strong winds are marvellously stiff. They will tack in channels no wider than their own length, but in narrow waters they are helped round by the man giving the bows a set off each bank with a 'quant' or long pole (Latin _contus_); they are capable of high speeds, and the easy way in which they get about the narrow and shallow waters is surprising. Occasionally they essay the sea passage from Yarmouth to Lowestoft, instead of going round by the rivers, and even race at sea; but it cannot be doubted that in doing so they go beyond the margin of safety. Although Mr. Doughty successfully towed a wherry behind a steam tug from Yarmouth to Stavoren, another wherry essaying the same feat was lost. The low, long, flat hull cannot stand rough water, and the heavy mast with its weighted heel is a dangerous lever in the wrong position.
Many yachts have been built after the plan of the wherry, but with yacht-like hulls above water. At first the simple wherry rig was retained, but soon there came a boom to the sail, and then a bowsprit and jib, additions which, no doubt, make the vessel faster, but mean more help in handling--two men instead of one, and so on. These barges, as they are called, have increased greatly in number during the last few years. The other day I counted no fewer than twelve lying moored on Oulton Broad, where five years ago one such would have attracted attention. The immense influx of visitors to the Broads is, of course, responsible for this increase. The latest of these barges, the 'Waveney,' is no less than 58 ft. long, but it is believed that there is considerable difficulty in getting her about.