Full hull model of a Bridgwater flatner (circa 1940), built at a scale of 1:24. The details on the model, such as a sideways rise in the floor as well as a camber fore and aft, are quite correct. These boats were used on the shores of the Bristol Channel, where the tides go out a great distance, exposing mud flats. Fishermen would go out when the water was over the flats and try to find the channels running through the mud banks to minimise the chance of getting stranded as the tide ebbed.

It has a centreboard case, two oars, and the mast is through a hole in the for’ard thwart, the thwarts being removable so that the fishermen could pile a large amount of nets on the floor. A fairly sizeable headsail was used and a special boat hook employed as a bowsprit, as shown in the model. A long handle was used and was passed through the stem head and the butt was jammed under the after thwart. A two-pronged boat hook, the prongs at right angles to the paddle, was used for dragging the boat over muddy of shallow waters. It was also used for lifting a foot-rope so that the nets could be emptied into the boats.

Charles Holt, the model maker, was the proprietor of Holt’s Brewery at Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset. He died just before the Second World War. .