YARD VISIT

FORMER NAVY YARD

In 25 years, Mylor Yacht Harbour has become a real yachting hub

WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHY NIGEL SHARP AND ANTHONY GREENWOOD

In 1997, Roger and Dinah Gra y were keen to move out of London to a better place to bring up their two small children. At that time, Dinah’s parents ran Bar Creek Yacht Station on the Truro River and so they knew the Fal Estuary well.

When they heard that Mylor Harbour – based at what was, in the 19th century, England’s most westerly (and smallest) naval dockyard – was for sale, they decided to buy it. They saw the hugely significant potential, not least because it is so sheltered from prevailing south-westerly winds. A quarter of a century on, Mylor Yacht Harbour is one of Cornwall’s most popular sailing destinations, with a 180-berth marina, 240 swinging moorings and space to lay up about 600 boats in the half-mile-long ‘valley’ that runs behind the boatyard and workshops. The marina, which was built in 2000, is secured in position with the Swedish

Seaflex system rather than piles or anchors, “and this allows it to have a unique curved outer breakwater which gives it so much of its character,” said Ollie Gra y, son of

Roger and Dinah who is now one of the directors of the company working closely alongside MD Neil Salter. Ollie, a qualified naval architect, brings with him a wealth of experience and boat knowledge, having worked in a number of boatyards before taking up an active role in the company two years ago.

The site also now includes a modern sanitary block, launderette, eight self-catering holiday cottages, a café and restaurant, a sailing school, boat hire, yacht club, chandlery and rigging company. Until 2011, Mylor YC had a small clubhouse at the end of the main quay. But both the building and the listed quay’s foundations were falling into disrepair and so to preserve the quay a new building was built for both the club and Café Mylor. Meanwhile the quay’s foundations have been strengthened and a new marina o ce has been built on the end of it.

With ongoing investment over the past 25 years, the company has gradually expanded its boatyard facilities and now employs about 45 full-time sta (collectively known as

The Marine Team) including marine engineers and electricians, shipwrights, painters, GRP specialists and a dedicated yard team. The Marine Team has recently completed significant refits on four classic boats, three

GRP sailing boats and two commercial fishing boats.

Ollie thinks that Mylor Yacht Harbour has established a good reputation, especially for its engineering and electrical work (particularly because they employ their own specialist sta rather than relying on subcontractors), but in the last few years there has been more focus on o ering

‘the full package’ to allow complex refits to be carried out by multiple trades working closely together.

Among the classic boats the company was working on in winter were a 42ft (12.8m) sailing boat built in Germany in the late 1940s which was virtually rebuilt at Mylor about 20 years ago and has been maintained there annually since; the 36ft (11m) 1906 Luke Brothers Ciris which is now having a lot of engineering and electrical work, including a strip and revarnish of her spars; Magyar, a 48ft (14.6m) Saunders-Roe, Dartmouth-based canoe-stern motor yacht which, after a structural rebuild elsewhere, came to Mylor for some significant seasonal maintenance; and Naomi, a 1922 Seaview Mermaid rebuilt at Mylor nearly 40 years ago and celebrating her 100th birthday having had all her paint and varnish stripped o and recoated. Later this season Mylor will also be restoring a lightly-built 1905 wooden clinker rowing dinghy with huge sentimental value, having been built as a wedding present for her current owner’s grandparents.

At the time of my visit, Naomi was lying alongside Misty, a Sunbeam, both designed, of course, by Alfred Westmacott within a couple of years of each other. Mylor Yacht Harbour has developed a close relationship with the Sunbeams, having built three new wooden ones in the early 2000s. The first of these was for Roger Gra y and launched in 2000, and her name Milly not only respects the class’s tradition of names ending in Y but also had a nod to the new millennium.

The Solent Sunbeam class subsequently decided to allow GRP boats of which 14 have now been built. The Falmouth class is considering allowing GRP Sunbeams and will be treating this year as a trial run. Mylor Yacht Harbour already have two GRP Sunbeam hulls and decks ready for completion, just needing the addition of timber covering boards and coamings, interior fit-out and deck fittings.

Mylor has a 35-tonne travel lift which, at the time of my visit, was busy launching about 15 boats a day. Each boat (and its cradle) is brought down the valley to the dock with one of the company’s two Roodberg trailers (23- and 38-tonne capacity) which are towed by tractors. These can be submerged at the bottom of the slipway to allow wider beam (and bilge keel) boats to be launched, adding greater flexibility to the yard’s lift and launch capabilities.

Mylor is the base for a number of small, local commercial fisherman – including most of the Falmouth Working Boats, which still dredge for oysters under sail. The traditional punts are also moored and berthed here and have called Mylor home for many years. “We have a great connection with them and we love having them here,” said Ollie.

Mylor Yacht Harbour’s services and boatyard continue to serve their customers with seasonal boat maintenance along with managing a steady stream of traditional and modern refit work which continues to grow the company’s services infrastructure.

Facing page, clockwise from top left: Oyster dredging Falmouth Working Boats laid up for the summer; The sawmill; The Seaview Mermaid Naomi (near) and the Sunbeam Misty; Laying a new teak deck; The SaundersRoe-built Magyar; Shipwright at work