YARD NEWS

Craftsmanship

Yard News

Edited by Steffan Meyric Hughes: +44 (0)207 349 3758 Email: steffan@classicboat.co.uk

C/O THE BUILDER

HAMPSHIRE

UandI – original speed

I recently wrote in these pages that boats are only half of themselves without their people. In the case of Uandi (‘You and I’), I was dead right. When Alastair Garland came across the Fife-designed Belfast Lough day racer propped in a field back in 1995, it was her lucky day. Alastair is always busy restoring other people’s boats in his shop on the northern fringes of the New Forest so he wasn’t in a hurry, but at last the yacht is sailing again. His restoration philosophy is to retain everything he can of the original. The result is surely not so different from the boat that raced in 1897 against her 10 sisters. Now, she is the sole survivor. Soon, I’ll be telling the whole story of how Alastair somehow managed to save 85 per cent of her planking as he replaced the stem, the wooden keel, the rudder post and the horn timber while keeping her archboard with the carved name. As a sailor, I’ll also let you in on how it feels to helm this remarkably rapid boat. So hold fast, dear reader... Tom Cunliffe

MYLOR, CORNWALL

Oldest Oyster dredger

Built by Hitchens & Ford of Feock in the 1870s, Shadow is thought to be the oldest surviving boat built specifically for oyster dredging. She was used as a yacht for a while between the world wars and was last in commission as an oyster dredging boat in 2012. Soon after that she was bought by Chris Ranger (generally known as just ‘Ranger’), an oyster fisherman who also owns the 1966 oyster dredging boat Alf Smythers (they are commonly referred to as Falmouth Working Boats). “I wasn’t looking for another boat,” said Ranger, “but I really want to save Shadow for the fishery.” About a year ago he moved Shadow from the beach at Mylor to a yard in a nearby farm where he hopes to restore her if he can raise the funds to do so, and he has enrolled with Patreon to help with this. See faloyster.co.uk for more information and, to make a contribution, visit patreon.com/Ranger_OystermanArtistMariner.

LYMINGTON, HANTS

New Folkboat hub

One story that has emerged from the pandemic, which has been such a busy time for so many boatbuilders, is the establishment of a new boatyard set up to cater for classic restoration and maintenance – with a focus on the most popular cabin yacht of all time, the Folkboat – which is 80 this year. Fanatical Folkboat sailor Simon Osgood has now taken over the 15,000sqft premises formerly known as Green Marine, and the yard has been picking up work from the start. “My initial thought was to take on the site and install the guys who had refurbished my Nordic Folkboat – Dan and Rob McAdam, two highly skilled boatbuilders with more than 30 years experience, and who I have much respect for,” said Simon, who owns a Nordic Folkboat (his fourth), a Huntsman 31 and a Yarmouth Scow. These were the first boats to go into the shed, but they were soon joined by an XOD, then the Folkboats started to come in. The yard has now restored three to concours standard by Simon’s reckoning, all GRP but at least 30-40 years old, giving more fire to the GRP restoration movement that has been picking up rapidly over the last few years. Today, the yard has eight Folkboats in various states of repair and restoration, including a 1999 John Perry-built wooden example. “It’s like a piece of furniture” according to Simon, who has sailed Folkboats for more than four decades – “I was extremely young when exposed to the boat!”

This year, to celebrate eight decades of the Folkboat, the UK will host its very first international Folkboat regatta – the Sessan Cup, which will be held from 19-22 September at the Royal Lymington YC, itself celebrating its first century.

ST IVES, CORNWALL

St Ives sailing punt nears completion

The launch of Flute an Arrow – the latest St Ives sailing punt – is imminent. Early in 2021, former classic yacht skipper Nick Mahlich recognised that another lockdown was a chance to fulfil a long-held dream to build a boat from scratch and approached Jonny Nance to make it happen. “This has been a joint project, as Nick has participated throughout. Given that building a boat is just about the most creative thing you can do with wood, this project has been essential therapy for us both during the winter months of Covid restrictions” Jonny said. Her name comes from a term of endearment my father used when we were small. It’s actually an anglicisation of a Cornish expression, once popular in the St Ives district meaning ‘child of my heart’, thereby forging an association with the town while helping to preserve a little piece of history.” Flute an Arrow is rigged with a loose-footed lugsail. She is 11ft 6in (3.5m) overall and planked with 10mm (3/8in) tight, vertical-grained Douglas fir on steamed oak timbers. Designed and built by Jonny Nance, the St Ives sailing punt won ‘Prettiest Boat’ (small-boat class) at Falmouth Classics 2016. Anyone interested in a similar build can contact Jonny on jonnynance@gmail.com.