Which wherry did I see?

If you've seen or photographed a wherry out on the Broads, but aren't sure which one, this page should be able to help!

First of all, it's easy to distinguish the type of wherry by the sail and hull colour.

Sail colour: If it was black, it was a trading wherry, whereas if it was white, it was a pleasure wherry or wherry yacht.

Hull colour: If it was black, it was either a trading wherry or a pleasure wherry. If it was white (and had a counter stern), it was a wherry yacht, and if it was varnished it can only have been Ardea.

Having identified the type of wherry, individual boats can be told apart as follows. All of them also have traditional carved or painted name boards beside the mast or, in Hathor's case, metal plates below the hatchways. Photos will be added to this page in due course - you can also see our pages on our three wherries and other survivors (see menu, left).

Trading wherries: Although both surviving traders have black hulls, Albion is carvel-built (smooth) and Maud is the more usual clinker-built (overlapping planks). Albion's upper paintwork is red, white and blue and her hatch covers (effectively, the roof) are covered by red tarpaulin, whereas Maud features green paintwork and grey covers. The top of Albion's mast is blue, topped with a vane featuring a Jenny Morgan and a white star; Maud's is dark green and the vane features a golden cog with her name across it.

Pleasure wherries: Ardea is unmistakeable in that she has a varnished hull, green-painted below the waterline. Her vane features the heron (Ardea cinerea) for which she is named. The two pleasure wherries with black-painted hulls are very similar, having been built around the same time by the same wherry yard, Halls of Reedham, but subtle details allow them to be distinguished. Solace's mast top is plain, just a little lighter than the rest of the mast, and her vane carries her name. The woodwork of her cabin sides is lighter than Hathor's. Hathor features two seats beside the mast (hence her nameboards are along her sides) with carved hawks' heads at the outside edge, and her mast top features a scallop pattern in red and green on white. Her vane is usually a Jenny Morgan and sometimes a golden H over a cog wheel. Hathor will not be sailing before 2013 as she is awaiting restoration.

Wherry yachts: These have perhaps the most subtle differences. White Moth is the only one with a painted mast top: from the top it shows red, blue with a white star, then bands of yellow, red, yellow. Olive and Norada have plain wooden masts. Their vanes feature a single, large inital O and N respectively, while White Moth's vane is plain metal with a simple cut out of a six-pointed star. Norada's sail is unique in having a boom (wooden spar along the bottom) where Olive's and White Moth's are loose-footed. Looking to the accommodation, White Moth has pale wood cabin sides and a very pale roof, and all her windows are portholes; Olive has some portholes and some larger windows, and Norada has no portholes. Norada also has the number B155 on her bows. While Norada will return to the water in spring 2012, Olive will not be seen before late 2012 at the earliest.