Maurice Griffiths

Maurice Walter Griffiths GM (22 May 1902 – 11 October 1997) was a noted yachtsman, boat designer and writer on sailing subjects. In his writing of some 19 books he focused on the creeks of the Thames Estuary and the English east coast. His books include The Magic of the , The First of the Tide, Yachting on a Small Income, and Sixty Years a Yacht Designer. He was the editor of Yachting Monthly, the British sailing magazine, from 1927 until 1967.

Maurice's family had moved from South London to Ipswich in 1903 when his father became the East of England representative for a glove manufacturer . In London they had lived opposite a railway line and Maurice's early love was trains. His first job was with an estate agent but in his spare time he wrote articles about trains for the East Anglian Daily Times and it was train travel that soon led him to Ipswich docks where he discovered boating.

He started a small yacht brokerage and in the course of this work he learnt a lot about sailing and boat building. In 1925 he published a little book called Yachting on a Small Income which, ironically, sold well on railway station platforms.

His father died suddenly leaving the family in considerable debt and the family home had to be sold. His mother Lena, and older brother Leslie, moved to the Midlands to stay with relatives. Maurice's brokerage business folded so he decided to try his luck selling yachting articles freelance in London. It was a struggle; his health was to never fully recover from this experience.

George Bittles, the publisher of Yachting Monthly, had bought Griffiths' book at his local railway station and believed he would be the right person to edit a new magazine called Yacht Sales and Charters, basically a yacht brokerage with its own magazine. Griffiths made such a success of this that other brokers threatened to stop advertising in Yachting Monthly if the new magazine continued. That magazine was stopped but Griffiths had proven himself and was given the position of Editor of Yachting Monthly.

In 1927 he married Dulcie Kennard whom he had met while visiting the offices of yachting magazines, trying to sell his articles. She also wrote for the yachting press under the name Peter Gerard. They were divorced in 1934.

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