CAREFUL WHISPER
Similar to the many Windfall Yachts, Whisper was actually built shortly after the war, for the price of £1
WORDS RON VALENT SAILING PHOTOS JAN BART
Yes we Cannes
Although racing on two days of Régates Royales in Cannes had to be cancelled (one because of too much wind, the other because of no wind at all) the other three days provided glorious, sunny sailing conditions for the 119 participating vessels. The only boats to win a clean sweep of race victories were William Borel’s 1948 6-Metre One Wave in the Epoque Marconi (EMB) Class and Martin Cross’s Beta Crucis in the 5.5-Metre Class. In the Big Boat Class the race wins were shared between the 1929 Bermudan staysail schooner Viveka and the 15-Metres Tuiga and Mariska, with overall victory going to the last. The biggest class, with 34 boats, were the Dragons, the winner of which was Anatoly Loginov with Christoph Toepfer’s Aurora and Yevgen Braslavets’ Transbunker close behind. The 12-Metres took part in nine windward-leeward races: Bouwe Bekking’s 1939 Vim won the Vintage division, and Richard Matthews’ Crusader (which, as White Crusader, was Britain’s challenger for the 1987 America’s Cup) the Grand Prix/Modern division, with the latter taking overall victory. There were other class wins for the 1905 New York 30 Oriole, the 1946 S&S yawl Comet, the 1969 S&S One Tonner Arcadia III and the 1956 Argynne III. Also taking part were representatives of no fewer than four di erent Universal Rule classes: the 1938 N Class Serenade; the Ps Olympian, Corinthian, Joyant and Chips (all built between 1911 and 1913); the 1930 Q Falcon (originally Falcon II and later Jour de Fete); and the 1925 Fife-designed R Class Fifi
VICTORIAN SECRET
Thalia is a uniquely-built yacht of the Victorian era, from a little known designer and with a recent history of good ownership that means she’s as active as ever
WORDS AND PHOTOS NIGEL SHARP
THUNDER STRUCK
Discovering Tommy Sopwith’s famous 1960s offshore racing powerboat used as a lumpen houseboat deserted in an East London marina is one thing. Witnessing its rebirth as a championship-winning contender is quite another...
In 2013, Mike James, Commodore of the Classic Offshore Powerboat Club, was tipped off that an old Bertram 31 hull was for sale, spotted languishing in an East London marina. Closer inspection revealed it was indeed the celebrated Thunderstreak, in a sorry state after being used as a houseboat, topped by a B&Q shed. This proved to be the same boat commissioned by the debonair and dynamic 1960s racer Tommy Sopwith, son of the great America’s Cup sailor Sir Thomas Sopwith who nearly won back the America’s Cup in his J-class yacht Endeavour in 1934.
EARLY RACING DAYS
Tommy Sopwith’s aim was to win the 1963 Daily Express Cowes-Torquay powerboat race. As Thunderstreak was the state-of-the-art Class 1 offshore race-boat of her time, her pair of 7-litre American Ford truck engines – tweaked by engine tuners Holman & Moody – produced a mighty 400bhp at the flywheel, and delivered over 45mph; breathtaking for the time. She was strongly constructed in the newest of marine materials, glass-reinforced plastic, now known as glassfibre.
America deems the marine architect C Raymond Hunt as the father of the smooth-riding, deep-vee hull concept of which Thunderstreak was an early example. Hunt’s powered craft were regular podium visitors at the fast-growing offshore races in the USA. Indeed, Hunt’s first significant triumph was seeing the builder, Dick Bertram, winning the legendary 1960 Miami-Nassau race, a whole day ahead of the next competitor. Sopwith hungered for a Bertram.
Yet Thunderstreak wasn’t the original Bertram he ordered: he had wanted the bigger 37ft (11.3m) hull from Bertram’s Miami yard. And, to Tommy’s annoyance, they had named it Endeavour. She was to be deck cargo on a ship carrying giant rolls of newsprint for Sir Max Aitken’s Daily Express, but she was dropped while being loaded. Tommy was furious. Sir Max was embarrassed. But Bertram generously plucked one of its rare 31 ‘Competition’ hulls off the production line as a replacement.
Back in the UK, Thunderstreak looked and sounded terrific and rode beautifully, yet reliability problems dogged her early career. Sopwith always drove her hard and thus Thunderstreak visited the podium only occasionally. In her maiden 1963 Cowes-Torquay race, he was leading when his engine blew up crossing Lyme Bay.
