Nancy's Amazon journey

Nancy, built in 1931 at Hillyard's shipyard beside the River Arun, was the author's favourite among his various cruising yachts, and he named her after one of the main characters in his classic, Swallows and Amazons.

The 28ft boat was moored at Hillyard's for three days last week, and was given a warm welcome by the yard's 10-strong workforce.

"It's lovely to have her back," said Hillyard's marketing manager Tracey Daley.

The Nancy Blackett has been lovingly restored by a charitable trust, and was on her way to take part in the Fleet Review at Spithead, and the International Festival of the Sea off Portsmouth when she stopped off in the harbour.

Captain, Brian Bonser, who brought Nancy from her home port of Wolverston, near Ipswich, said: "She is very comfortable '“a gentleman's sailing boat from the 1930s. By today's standards, she is not very good to windward, but she is a very dry, very safe boat, and very well-built.

"As far as we know, this is the first time she has been back to Littlehampton, so it's a case of Nancy comes home."

If that sounds like a title for a sequel that Arthur Ransome never got round to writing, one thing is certain, that he credited Nancy, the character, and the book, Swallows and Amazons, for earning him the money to fund his love of sailing.

"Arthur was years ahead of his time as a writer. He had leading characters who were girls. Boys had only secondary places in his stories.

Nancy Blackett was the leader of the Amazons and Susan Walker, another major character, was one of the swallows. Arthur always maintained that, if it hadn't been for Nancy, he wouldn't have been able to buy this boat.

"His books were the Harry Potters of the late 1930s and early 40s. People formed queues at the bookshops when new volumes were published," said Bryan.

He is proud that Dame Ellen is patron of the Nancy Blackett Trust, and has, herself, been on board the boat.

"She first learned about sailing by reading Arthur's books. That was what inspired her to buy her first boat."

Ransome bought the boat in 1935 and owned her for five years. "He said she was the best little boat he ever had," said Gill Angrave, a member of the trust, and a volunteer crew member, who lives at Westergate.

"He sold her in 1938, but only because he was a very tall man, and there is not a lot of room in the cockpit," Gill added.

The boat even featured in one of Ransome's books, We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea, thinly disguised as the Goblin. Widely regarded as a classic of both children's and seafaring literature, the book tells the story of how Nancy and her three friends sail across the North Sea in the Goblin, at night, in a storm.

It was a journey that Ransome sailed himself, in the Nancy Blackett, and he worked on the book aboard her.

Weighing in at seven tons, the Nancy Blackett is 33ft long, including her bowsprit, and has an unusual Bermudian cutter rig. Below deck there are four berths.

A photo in the cockpit shows Ransome sailing her. Little is known about the boat after Ransome sold her, but in 1988, she was discovered, near-derelict, in Scarborough harbour, her plight made all the worse by a car being blown onto her by the great storm of that year.

At one point, it seemed she might suffer the indignity of becoming a feature in a roadside flower bed, but an enthusiast, Mike Rines, set about restoring her.

He sold the boat to another sailor, who continued the work, but, when the cost was becoming too great, the trust stepped in and completed the job. More than 60,000 has been spend on restoration since 1988.

Today, the Nancy Blackett is used to inspire interest in Ransome's books among a new generation of children, and to encourage them to discover and enjoy sailing.

She certainly did the trick, with children from St Wilfrid's Catholic Primary School, Angmering, who visited her at Hillyard's, and especially Kevin Hawkey, 10.

"I have read all the books. I like the way they are written, in that old-fashioned way. Now I have seen the boat I have read about, and know what she is like."