www.classicboat.co.uk OCTOBER 2022 £4.95 US$10.99 T H E W O R L D’ S M O S T B E A U T I F U L B O A T S Robb1960sFRIENDFAMILYArthursloop PERFECTLY PRESERVED Wee Britannia JONATHAN GREENWOOD Med circuit returns TRADITIONAL TOOL Dean tape measureBUYER’S GUIDE Cabin HARBOURaroundyachts30ftLAUNCHNew,traditional,NEWARTISANSTheriseofwomeninboatbuildingCabinyachtsaround30ftHARBOURLAUNCHNew,traditional,wooden...andfastNew,traditional,wooden...andfast
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Nerissa, a family boat for 28 years, and still producing respectable results WORDS NIGEL SHARP PHOTOS NICO MARTINEZ AND NIGEL SHARP FORTUNESFAMILY 5CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2022
William Whitehouse-Vaux’s son Bill, who was 18 when the boat was launched, recalls that the reason his family commissioned Beltrami was that they “wanted someone who really knew how to build wooden boats, and we had a couple of friends who had Beltrami boats and so we were able to see how well they were built.” After she was launched, she was kept at Porto Santo Stefano, Argentario and, by a happy coincidence, Bill was studying in Italy at the time. “I had this lovely boat virtually all to myself each summer,” he told me. He and his friends and family did a lot of local cruising and racing, and most years sailed to Vouliagmeni in Greece to take part in the Aegean rally, which consisted of three races to and from various different islands. Three significant changes were made in the early years of Whitehouse-Vaux’s ownership. When she was launched, the topsides were dark blue but it was very quickly found that in the Mediterranean heat the cabin would be “like an oven” so she was painted white. In 1969 the mizzen mast was removed as “we realised that the only advantage of the yawl rig was to set a mizzen staysail which we hardly ever used,” said Bill, “whereas as a sloop we could use bigger genoas and get a lower rating.” Around the same time, the Penta 30hp diesel which “gave us constant problems” was replaced by a Perkins 47hp engine.
In 1982 Nerissa was sold to Count Cinzano whose family still owned the Italian vermouth drinks company. Her boot top was then painted in the blue and red of the Cinzano company’s house colours, and a small separate cockpit – originally designed for the spinnaker guy and sheet trimmers, but which had also occasionally served as stowage for fenders and fuel cans – was removed and replaced by a lazarette locker. When the Count ordered another boat from a yard in Beaulieu sur Mer, he gave Nerissa as part payment, and she then remained at the yard for at least a year before she was purchased by an Englishman called Bob Ashworth. Ashworth had recently retired and had ambitious plans to sail Nerissa around the world, but these plans came to nothing after he got into financial difficulties as a Lloyds Name. However, he had registered Nerissa as owned by a company (with no other assets) and so he was able to keep her, at least for a while before he realised that he would have to put her on the market.
It was in 1979 that Whitehouse-Vaux acquired Ballyhoo and renamed her Mistress Quickly, and at the same time the Robb/Beltrami boat became Nerissa. “We liked to name our boats after Shakespearean characters,” said Bill, “and we later had 6-Metres called Thisbe and Perdita.” (Mistress Quickly was an inn keeper who appeared in several Shakespearean plays, while Nerissa was Portia’s lady-in-waiting in the Merchant of Venice).
Above and below: Nerissa with her original yawl rig cockpitadditionalandaft Facing Nerissapage:heading o downwind in the light airs Inset: An original shot of Nerissa
Many readers of this magazine will be familiar with the 1974-built 72ft (22m) aluminium maxi MistressQuickly, designed by Bob Miller, built in Sydney and originally named Ballyhoo. But this is the story of a previous Mistress Quickly – now called Nerissa. She was designed as a yawl by Arthur Robb and built at Vincenzo Beltrami’s yard near Genoa in 1965 for William Whitehouse-Vaux, a shipping lawyer whose work took him all over the world. It is said that Robb designed her to comply with, and be competitive under, three different rating rules: the RORC and CCA rules, which were in force at the time, and the International CR Rule (and as such she rated as a 10.5 Metre cruiser/racer). “Arthur Robb claims that nothing has been conceded to any of the three rules that could not be conceded willingly,” reported Yachting Monthly at the time. “In respect of both cruising comfort and potential performance, the boat incorporates all the features that the owner required and the designer intended.” She was built with teak planking (from timber which had been stored for 80 years, so it is thought) on acacia timbers and frames (mostly steamed timbers but with four sawn frames in the main mast area), and with additional framework and floors in Monel.
NERISSA 6 CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2022
Bill also remembers that during races the brightwork suffered badly, particularly from the spinnaker being dropped through the forehatch and various bits of flying metal such as the wire spinnaker sheets and guys. “We used to feel bad looking round at all the carnage and what we had done to Beltrami’s boat,” he said. “Postrace varnishing was quite a big job.”
Leonardo and Cecilia Garcia de Vincentiis lived in Rome at that time, and had a half tonner. They wanted to get a bigger boat, ideally around 40ft (12.2m) so they could sail her themselves without any additional crew. In
NERISSA DESIGNED: Arthur Robb BUILT: Vincenzo Beltrami, 1965 LOA: 53ft 9in (16.4m) LWL: 36ft 6in (11.1m) BEAM: 12ft 9in (3.9m) DRAUGHT: 7ft 9in (2.4m) SAIL AREA: 1,320 sqft (123m2)
All the time, the mood on board was easy going, with Leonardo calm and cheerful on the helm. As soon as we finished – amid cheers and high-fives – he insisted that I steer the boat back to the harbour entrance, a role which I relished on this beautifully balanced boat. “She is always really manageable, even downwind with a spinnaker in a lot of wind,” said Leonardo. “In all our years of ownership I have never
“When you are living in a city you have the city life,” explained Cecilia. “Why try to replicate that when you are cruising? We want to be fully in touch with nature.” When their children were small, they once spent a total of 15 days living onboard without going into any harbour. At various times they have had engine problems –although perhaps not to the same extent as on their quarter tonner whose petrol engine was “always broken” – but they have never let that worry them as they would always prefer to sail, however slowly. In 2004 they fitted a new Solé Mini 60hp diesel, but that still only has about 1,200 hours on it. Since moving to Barcelona, Leonardo and Cecilia have raced Nerissa from time to time, although they much prefer the more relaxed classic boat regattas where there are fewer professional crews, as this reflects their own racing philosophy. Twice they have been involved in unfortunate starting line incidents when other boats have “made a bad manoeuvre” and collided with Nerissa: once in Palma in 2005 as a result of which two planks had to be replaced, and again in Barcelona in 2016 when the bulwark was severely damaged. After the 2005 incident, Cecilia refused to go racing for a while until Leonardo persuaded her to try again when he was short of crew, and she now embraces the racing experience. “We know how much Nerissa can give us as a cruiser, and we need to discover how much she can give as a racer,” she Althoughsaid.Nerissa missed the first Puig Vela Classica Barcelona in 2008, she has taken part in this annual regatta ever since. It was on the second day of the 15th event that I joined them for a race this July. The previous day, a mostly light wind had resulted in some late finishes, and things looked ominous again when there was a postponement of more than an hour and a half. But then a Force 3-4 came up and we had a wonderful sail around the five legs of the 12.5-mile course. We weren’t the most polished crew but when I learned afterwards that it was the first time on board for two other crew members apart from me, and only the second time for another, and that it was the first time that a spinnaker had been gybed on Nerissa for 10 years, I realised that actually we gelled pretty well.
8 CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2022 NERISSA contacting various brokers, they made it clear that they wanted a wooden boat in good condition and ready to sail, and with various other specific stipulations, but time and again they were shown boats that didn’t meet their criteria at all. On one such occasion, Leonardo happened to notice that the broker had some details of Nerissa and, although she caught his eye, he could see that the price was way beyond their budget. So they continued their fruitless search for another year or so, before deciding, in 1994, to have a look at Nerissa, then moored in Villefranche-sur-Mer. “She was far bigger than the maximum we were planning but she was also very beautiful,” said Cecilia. “For me it was love at first sight.” They made an offer which might well have been quickly rejected, but when they met Ashworth “he could see that we were in the same spirit,” said Cecilia, “and he said we must have the boat.” Leonardo and Cecilia still own Nerissa 28 years later. They have lived on board on and off for more than half that time, including the last four years. When they bought her they had a three-month-old son, and not long afterwards two daughters arrived. Initially the family was based in Rome (Cecilia is Italian), but in 2002 Leonardo (who is Spanish) was offered a job in Barcelona, so they took Nerissa there and have been based there ever since. They have cruised extensively along the Italian, French and Spanish coasts, as well as to Corsica and Sardinia, and they have always wanted to go to Greece “but each year something happened to prevent it,” said Leonardo. Their philosophy when cruising is to be as independent as possible, to avoid marinas and stay at anchor as much as possible.
Above: Leonardo at the helm with Cecilia just in front of him Below: Leonardo with the author, Cecilia and the Barcelona crew Facing page, clockwise from top left: Racing along Barcelonathe coast; Leonardo at the helm; The first leg of the course; Leonardo again; The saloon and galley; The chart table; Dorade vent; The original mizzen sheet track still in place
WORDS NIGEL SHARP PHOTOS NICO MARTINEZ AND NIGEL SHARP
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After covid forced the event to be cancelled in 2020, and to take place with severely restricted social interaction in 2021, the Puig Vela Clàssica Barcelona regatta was back in full swing for its 15th edition in July. In the first of three scheduled races, light winds resulted in late finishes for some boats while the following day, after a long postponement when there was no wind at all, a solid Force 3 gave delightful sailing conditions for everyone. Unfortunately, there was so little wind on the last day that the third race had to be cancelled. A total of 30 boats took part and there were class wins for the 1977 Admiral’s Cupper Emeraude, Gry Rhys-Jones’ 1948 S&S yawl Argyll, the 1926 Fife Bermudan cutter Hallowe’en, and the 1900 Grayling. With the America’s Cup due to be hosted by Barcelona in 2024, it was appropriate that New Zealander Grant Dalton was on hand to present the prizes at the end of the regatta. 2
PUIG VELA
Light air a air
BARCELONACLÀSSICAREGATTA3
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13CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2022 1 The start of the second race 2 Enric Agud, meteorologist from local station TV3, giving the daily forecast to competitors 3 Crew on Hallowe’en 4 Hallowe’en 5 Sunshine (near boat) and Kahurangi 6 Dione 7 Sunshine 8 Mary 9 Grayling 10 Stromer with Sunshine behind 11 Sea Fever 12 Dione on the way out to race 11 12 7 9 108
CORNWALL
Falmouth in Cornwall will host the start of the Tall Ships Race from 15-18 August next year. It will be the first time in nine years that the race has visited the harbour and the sixth time Falmouth has hosted it since 1966.
Richard Gates, Falmouth Town Manager, said: “It’s a welcome return for the Tall Ships Races, after it was postponed in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid restrictions. Our town’s history is intertwined with these magnificent vessels so you could say they are coming home. We’re really excited to be the venue for the start of the races. As always, we look forward to the truly awe-inspiring spectacle of the tall ships as they sail into theVisitorsharbour.”to Falmouth will have the opportunity to board some of the historic tall ships as they will be sited within the A&P Falmouth Docks – one of the world’s largest natural deep-water harbours. Tickets to access these ships will go on sale nearer the time and will be priced at £5 for adults and £2.50 children.
Tell Tales
The race itself starts on Friday 18 August 2023 and will be preceded by a stunning Parade of Sail and several days of shoreside events.
Southampton
WILCOXRICHARDPHOTO
The show takes place from 16-25 September, based waterside at Mayflower Park and stretching into the heart of Southampton. The Classic & Day Boat Zone will return to the show in 2022 after a successful debut last year. The Wooden Boat Builders Trade Association will be present, with craftsmen showing o dinghies, rowing boats, canoes and more – all boats they’ve built themselves in timber over the past year. Meanwhile walking around the show visitors will find numerous newly built wooden boats and vintage craft. Among them will be the tall ship Morgenster, built 103 years ago in Holland and now a busy sail training ship. Get your tickets at southamptonboatshow.com show ticket deal for Classic Boat readers
Classic Boat’s address: Jubilee House, 2 Jubilee Place, London, SW3 cb@classicboat.co.uk3TQFollowtheClassicBoatteamonTwitterandFacebook
The tall ships will race from Falmouth to A Coruna in Spain, then onward to Portugal’s capital, Lisbon, before finishing in Cadiz, Spain. Classic Boat readers can claim two reduced-price tickets for the Southampton International Boat Show, which runs from 16-25 September. By using the code CB22 when buying tickets on the show website, you can claim two tickets for £39.99.
Tall Ships will return to Falmouth
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