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Other
stories tell the same basic tale with different personalities,
bit it seems more likely that the design merely evolved
through usage and development. Whatever the truth was,
Nonesuch was 52ft overall with a 39ft keel length, and
was an immediate success.
Within
a year these were called the 'Buckie scaffie' or modern
herring boat until 1881 when the Cetewayo, INS358 and
Transvaal, BF301, were built with their names evoked
by the zulu war. The following year came Zulu BF662,
and the next year it seems that they were all being
registered as zulu boats.
 However,
clinker-built zulus, generally under 60ft, had a startling
effect upon the fleets of Banffshire, Morayshire and
Nairnshire so that numbers increased quickly. These
boats cost about £200 at the time, until carvel-built
boats appeared, costing around £320. The biggest
zulus, at over 80ft, were impressive craft with fantastic
speeeds and capabilities, and cost some £500.
Like the fifies. they were massively built in oak and
the huge unsupported masts were over 60ft long and 2ft
in diameter.
(Please click on image for enlargement).
True
zulus have sternposts that rake over 40 degrees and
so produced craft with long overhangs of up to 25ft
at the stern. However, this feature in turn led to their
down-fall as it wasn't easy to make an aperture for
motorisation. Some were converted by the addition of
deadwood, the first converted zulu having its motor
in 1909.
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