Classic Boat August 2014

Classic Boat AUGUST 2014

£4.75 US$13.75

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

Jplay s at

Fleet of five race at Palma

137mph!

Ferrari on water Down the Loire In a dinghy

BRITAIN’S LARGEST REGATTA

Cowes Classics

TIMELESS ADVICE

Using lights at night

Rustler 33 New boat on test Restored schooner “Fastest in the west” DOWNEAST YARDS FOCUS

Road trip to Maine

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9 770950 331141

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CRAFTSMANSHIP

Contents

CRAFTSMANSHIP

PAST PRACTICE Using navigation lights p68

AUGUST 2014 Nº314

8

FEATURES

READY TO RACE

Kelpie on the water in this year’s Pendennis Cup

COVER STORY

16 . FAMOUS FIVE A quintet of Js stole the show at the Palma Superyacht Regatta 18 . DOWN BY THE RIVER Join us at Beale Park for the annual wooden boat extravaganza 21 . LOGBOOK Hop across the Pond to celebrate the centenary of Sumurun

REGULARS 22 . TELL TALES 47 . SALEROOM 48 . OBJECTS OF DESIRE 95 . LOOKING AHEAD 96 . LETTERS 98 . STERNPOST

36 . CLUB CLASS Charting the 176-year history of the Royal London Yacht Club

COVER STORY

TIM JEFFREYS

COVER STORY

40 . MODERN CLASSIC Sailing the new SoT Rustler 33 retro-styled daysailer 50 . F1 FOR THE WATER Take a Ferrari F1 engine, add a wooden hull and stand back…

ROGER BARNES

COVER STORY

58 . BON VOYAGE Dinghy fan Roger Barnes sails down the Loire sans charts

50

16

JESÚS RENEDO

28 . COWES CLASSICS Find out why this year’s regatta will be better than ever

HENRI THIBAULT

8 . SURVIVAL INSTINCT Sweisguth’s schooner Kelpie is back and competing again

COVER IMAGE: JESÚS RENEDO. RIGHT: EMMA JONES

COVER STORY

28

58

ONBOARD 65 . NEW CLASSICS 67 . DINGHY TEST 68 . PAST PRACTICE 70 . LAZARETTE 71 . BOOKS 73 . CLASSNOTES CRAFTSMANSHIP 80 . YARD NEWS 82 . US YARD VISIT 84 . STIRLING YARD 86 . BOATBUILDER’S NOTES 89 . ADRIAN MORGAN

For more features and all the latest news and opinion, go to classicboat.co.uk

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

3

Classically beautiful.

Totally contemporary.

The first TEMPUS 90 ‘TEMPUS FUGIT’ has arrived at Newport, on the East Coast of America where she has just competed in the 160th New York Yacht Club Annual Regatta, finishing 2nd in Class.

Her varnished topsides and stunning classic lines looked at home amongst the traditional New England yachts in Newport and she was much admired by the local and international participants.

‘Tempus Fugit’, created by Humphreys Yacht Design and built by Arkin Pruva, combines the latest design techniques and the very best in yacht building. Proving more than a match for the best, ‘Tempus Fugit’ embodies the looks, quality and performance of the new Tempus Class.

Pure Craft. Total Performance.

90

125

150

Created by HUMPHREYS YACHT DESIGN, built by ARKIN PRUVA

www.tempusclass.com info@humphreysyachtsales.com +44 (0)1590 671 727

Main photo: Jeff Brown 路 Interior photo: Jainie Cowham

Loa: 20.60 m

T IO G A OF H A M BU RG

G A Z EL L

60FT KETCH  YACHTWERFT MARTIN 2013

1935 TORE HOLMOSCAR SCHELLIN SK40

|Beam: 4.78 m |Dr aft: 1.60–2.95 m |Price: EUR 1,950,000 | |Loa: 15.32 m |Beam: 2.37 m |Dr aft: 1.71 m |Price: EUR 110,000

A NA LÍ A

SC H A R HÖR N

75 FT ALFRED MYLNE YAWL FROM 1925

56FT DOUBLE ENDER MOTOR YACHT FROM 1939

Loa: 22.88 m

Loa: 10.70 m

|Beam: 4.39 m |Dr aft: 2.60 m |Price: EUR 800,000 | |Loa: 17.00 m |Beam: 4.00 m |Dr aft: 1.80 m |Price: EUR 495,000

S UNSHI NE

C A PR IC E OF H UON

1926 WILLIAM FIFE III 6MR

45FT ROBERT CLARK ADMIR ALS CUP WINNER OF 1967

|Beam: 2.08 m |Draft: 1.28 m |Price: EUR 90,000 |

|Loa: 13.82 m |Beam: 3.06 m |Dr aft: 2.05 m |Price: EUR 130,000

Member of t he Robbe & B erk i ng fa m i ly

YA C H T S

+49 (0)461 31 80 30 65 · BAUM+KOENIG@CLASSIC-YACHTS.DE · W W W.CLASSIC-YACHTS.DE

JAMES ROBINSON TAYLOR

Wianno Senior 223 Wind & Wine at Argentario

FROM DAN HOUSTON, EDITOR

JFK’s other boat, now 100

classicboat.co.uk Jubilee House, 2 Jubilee Place, London, SW3 3TQ EDITORIAL Editor Dan Houston +44 (0)207 349 3755 cb@classicboat.co.uk Deputy Editor Steffan Meyric Hughes +44 (0)207 349 3758 steffan.meyric-hughes@classicboat.co.uk Senior Art Editor Peter Smith +44 (0)207 349 3756 peter.smith@classicboat.co.uk Production Editor Andrew Gillingwater +44 (0)207 349 3757 andrew.gillingwater@classicboat.co.uk Contributing Editor Peter Willis peter.willis@classicboat.co.uk Technical Editor Theo Rye Publishing Consultant Martin Nott Proofing Vanessa Bird ADVERTISING Advertisement Manager Edward Mannering +44 (0)207 349 3747 edward.mannering@chelseamagazines.com Senior Sales Executive Patricia Hubbard +44 (0)207 349 3748 patricia.hubbard@chelseamagazines.com Advertisement Production Allpointsmedia +44 (0)1202 472781 allpointsmedia.co.uk Published Monthly ISSN: 0950 3315 USA US$12.50 Canada C$11.95 Australia A$11.95 Subscribe now: +44 (0)1795 419840 classicboat@servicehelpline.co.uk http://classicboat.subscribeonline.co.uk Subscriptions manager William Delmont +44 (0)207 349 3710 will.delmont@chelseamagazines.com Subscriptions Department 800 Guillat Avenue, Kent Science Park, Sittingbourne, Kent ME9 8GU Managing Director Paul Dobson CHELSEA Deputy Managing Director Steve Ross ARINE M MAGAZINES Commercial Director Vicki Gavin Publisher Simon Temlett Digital Manager Oliver Morley-Norris Events Manager Holly Thacker The Chelsea Magazine Company Ltd Jubilee House, 2 Jubilee Place, London, SW3 3TQ +44 (0)207 349 3700 chelseamagazines.com Copyright The Chelsea Magazine Company 2013 all rights reserved

One of the joys of attending a classic boating event is seeing the local boats. The larger boats of the classic sailing circuit will be seen at many different regattas and they provide the magnificent vistas of long, low hulls topped by clouds of sail that have done so much to establish classic regattas as one of the best kept secrets in sport.

But, of course, the larger craft would not look so stunning without the smaller boats around them. Some of the best photos compare and highlight this difference – particularly with a large gaff cutter sailing past a smaller gaff cutter, the difference in scale helps to accentuate the other’s beauty.

Attending Argentario Sailing Week in Italy last month we had the treat of seeing an imported local class of four Wianno Seniors. This class is American east coastbased and celebrating its centenary this year with a jamboree late in July. The 25ft (7.6m) high-peaked gaff design began life as a fleet of 14 boats built for the Wianno YC in the Massachusetts village of Osterville on Cape Cod. Designed by Horace Crosby with a well-executed conversion to glassfibre by S&S in 1986, the boat is now raced around Nantucket Sound by four local yacht clubs: Bass River YC, Hyannis YC, Hyannis Port TC and, of course, Wianno YC. YACHTS They are one of those boats that look so right that CHELSEA INE M A R “Boats stay local, you can’t take your eyes off them – the Crosby yard is but the sailors credited with building the first Catboat in 1850 and the Wiannos have some of that dishy sheer. don’t have to” One of their claims to fame is that the future president John F Kennedy more or less learned to sail on one, being given Victura by YACHTS his father for his 15th birthday. It was surely the kind of experience that set him up CHELSEA MARINE well for being a PT boat (PT-109) commander in the Second World War, and later taking the helm of the nation.

The Italian Wiannos came to be when two wooden hulls were brought in 20 years ago by Federico Nardi, who runs the Cantiere Navale Dell’Argentario yard in Porto Santo Stefano. Locals loved the design, so they applied for a licence to build them; four were racing in June with two more in build and the old wooden ones being restored as well. For this special year, two American crews had come over to sail the Italian boats, and perhaps naturally, they won the prizes. What next? The Italians might go Stateside… so while the boats stay local, the sailors don’t have to!

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AUGUST 2014

£4.75 US$13.75

Welcome SAILING TODAY

CLASSIC BOAT

GO FURTHER I SAIL BETTER I BE INSPIRED

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

Js at play

AUGUST 2014 sailingtoday.co.uk £4.20

WESTERN ISLES

Fleet of five race at Palma

How I passed my Yachtmaster

Highlands

FOLD-OUT GUIDE Portland Harbour

Champagne sailing in whisky waters

•

SECRET GREECE

MED HIDEAWAYS

Secret Greece

Rod Heikell’s top 10 harbours

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BENETEAU 38

Ferrari on water

HALFWAY to RIO

9 770044 000205

Countdown to the 2016 Olympics

AINSLIE’S AC BID IN DEPTH

OUTBOARD MOTORS

Electric power

Is it time to replace the 4-stroke?

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www.classicboat.co.uk

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CHEEKI RAFIKI

We tell you what really went wrong

DAME ELLEN

Why she wants to change the world

THREE IN ONE

Beneteau’s flexible 38 – from daysailer to cruiser

DINGHY REPAIR

Our handy guide to August 2014 sailingtoday.co.uk mending the tender

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9 771367 586100

DOWNEAST YARDS FOCUS

Road trip to Maine

9 770950 331141

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Rustler 33 New boat on test Restored schooner “Fastest in the west”

DINGHY MAINTENANCE

TIMELESS ADVICE

Using lights at night

PORTLAND

BRITAIN’S LARGEST REGATTA

Cowes Classics

•

KELPIE . RUSTLER 33 . FERRARI V12 . LOIRE

137mph!

Down the Loire In a dinghy

£4.30 Issue #1676 | August 2014 www.yachtsandyachting.co.uk 08

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COWES WEEK PREVIEW | CARNAC | NATIONAL 18 TEST | MULTI-FUNCTION DISPLAYS

AUGUST 2014 – ISSUE Nº 208

AUGUST 2014 . ISSUE No 314

Living

AUGUST 2014 | ISSUE #1676

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Ben’s Holy Grail

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CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

7

A family affair

When the captain and owner of Mariette decided to find another restoration project, they found Kelpie. She was in a decrepit state, but they persevered and launched her in time for this year’s Pendennis Cup. What a story…

STORY NIGEL SHARP PHOTOGRAPHS EMILY HARRIS

above and main: nigel sharp

KELPIE OF FALMOUTH

Above, top to bottom: bronze anchor windlass; traditional ship’s wheel; rigging gear attached to the cranse iron at the end of the bowsprit.

Right: with all seven sails up, she sports a colossal rig.

Previous page: Kelpie (top) anchored next to Mariette

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CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

I

n February 2012 Charlie Wroe flew into San Francisco to look at a boat that was for sale, a Q-Class called Robyn. Charlie has been the captain of the Herreshoff schooner Mariette of 1915 since early 2005 and the Californian visit came about following a conversation between captain and owner, in which they agreed to “embark on an exciting new project” and look for a smaller yacht that could be “restored to pristine condition”.

Robyn turned out to be unsuitable – she was in very poor condition and she was caught up in some legal wranglings – but while he was in San Francisco, Charlie decided to see what else was available. He had a look at nine more boats, the first of which was a schooner called Kelpie. “I guess you could call it love at first sight,” said Charlie, and the other eight boats he looked at only seemed to confirm that Kelpie was the one. A survey showed that the hull was sound, and the deal was done.

Kelpie was designed by Francis Sweisguth who was best known for the 1910 International Star, the Olympicclass keelboat. She was built at Harvey Gamage’s shipyard in Maine for New York stockbroker Archibald

McLaren in 1928 (not to be confused with the 1903 Mylne gaff cutter also called Kelpie), and christened Hopeful. She was renamed Kelpie in 1934, by which time her original gaff-schooner rig had been altered: she now had a bermudan mainsail, and subsequent modifications to make her easier to sail with a smaller crew would include the addition of a bumkin in the 1960s to provide a permanent backstay for the mainmast, and conversion to a staysail schooner sometime in the 1980s.

During the war she served as a submarine patrol vessel with the US Coast Guard’s Coastal Picket Patrol off the coast of Maine and it is said that she never missed a day’s service. She was in poor condition when she was de-requisitioned and over the next few years she wasn’t very well looked after. To make matters worse, her stern was seriously damaged when a hurricane destroyed the shed in which she was stored. She was almost cut up for scrap, but was saved after the stern was repaired.

Up until 1950 Kelpie had around eight different owners, but she was then purchased by George Minney whose family kept her for almost 30 years. From her base at Newport Beach the Minneys sailed her around the

Pacific, as far as Tahiti on at least one occasion. She also did some charter work at this time and Paul Newman and Liz Taylor were among her celebrity guests.

From the mid 80s, after changing hands a couple more times, she was keenly raced for many years. This new racing career was interrupted for a year or so when, in 1989, her USCG annual inspection revealed that she needed much work. After her hull was virtually rebuilt, her racing career resumed and, indeed, flourished – particularly offshore. She regularly competed against other schooners such as the John Alden-designed Dauntless and William Fife III’s Astor, but it was Kelpie that earned the nickname “the fastest schooner in the west”. The Newport to Ensenada Yacht Race was her favourite – she competed in it 23 times, won several trophies and, in 2000, broke a 54-year-old record under the command of Mike O’Connor, her skipper for 15 years.

Four years later, a man with a similar but considerably more famous name – Dennis Conner – chartered her for the same race, but he didn’t do particularly well.

However, he was obviously developing an affection for

Above: with her twin-mast schooner rig and varnished teak skylights with bronze bars, Kelpie of Falmouth strikes a distinctive shape on the water

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

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KELPIE OF FALMOUTH

KELPIE DESIGNER

Francis Sweisguth YEAR

1928 LWL

75ft (22.9m) BEAM

16ft 6in (5.1m) DRAUGHT

9ft 6in (2.9m) DISPLACEMENT

74,000lb (37 tons)

Clockwise from top: her original line drawings – at the time she was christened Hopeful; draped in bunting for her launch day; displaying her earlier rig, complete with just one gaff sail

12

classic wooden boats as the restoration of his Q-Class Cotton Blossom II (CB201) was nearing completion at that time. Kelpie’s last American owner was John Durra, who bought her in 2007.

Falmouth is effectively Mariette’s home port – as much as a boat like that ever has one – and Charlie has a home there, and it made sense for Kelpie to be restored there.

In July 2012, after the replacement of two hull planks and a “thorough going over”, delivery skipper Trevor Murphy and a crew of six set off from San Francisco on the 8,500-mile voyage. For various reasons – not because it was the Caribbean hurricane season – it took longer than expected, but eventually Kelpie arrived in Falmouth on 11 November, having experienced a number of minor problems, but no major ones, along the way.

It wasn’t until then that the owner first saw her.

“I must confess,” he said later, “that when Charlie came to me and explained he had seen a 1928 sailing yacht in San Francisco Bay in a derelict state, and said his plan was to sail her halfway around the world to restore her, I was a bit sceptical. But I have full confidence in Charlie as far as sailing yachts are concerned.”

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

Soon after she arrived in Falmouth, Kelpie was taken to Gweek where her restoration began – the full story of which will be detailed in a later issue.

Initially, Kelpie’s future role “wasn’t set in stone”, as Charlie put it. “We had considered keeping her as a cruising boat, but early last year we decided to fit her out for racing as well.”

Mariette had committed to the 2014 Pendennis Cup regatta – she had competed in the previous three and won the last one in 2012 – and so it seemed to make sense that Kelpie should make her European racing debut in the same event. After that decision was made last autumn, the pressure was on to launch her on the equinoctial Spring tides at the end of March. She made it, however, and was renamed Kelpie of Falmouth.

She was then moved to Falmouth’s Port Pendennis Marina, but there was still much to do, and it was just nine days before the Pendennis Cup that the rig was stepped – replicating the original, but all new apart from the rigging screws. However, Kelpie’s new captain, Milos Brnjervarac, somehow managed to get her out for sailing trials, and on the day of the first race she was ready.

nigel sharp

It had already been decided that the owner would helm Mariette and that all of the team’s efforts would go into the bigger boat, partly because she was defending her title, but also because Kelpie was, it could be said, still undergoing sea trials. Kelpie would be steered by Phil Badger – “a great sailor who has been sailing for years on Mariette,” said Charlie – and her crew would include half a dozen or so people who had made significant contributions to her restoration.

For the first time the Pendennis Cup was governed by the International Super Yacht Rule, which allows for each boat to be allocated a different handicap number before each race, according to the day’s conditions and the course configuration. For safety reasons, the six boats in the Pendennis Division had staggered starts, at threeminute intervals, with the corrected time results taking that into account, and Kelpie was first off each day.

seven sails for seven seas I sailed aboard Kelpie in the third race when a short postponement allowed a light sea breeze to develop.

Our starting rig consisted of seven sails: the main,

nigel sharp

topsail, foresail (which I would have called the foremain until I was corrected by Charlie), the MTS (or main topsail staysail, with a halyard on each mast), the staysail, jib and jib top. At the end of the first two legs – essentially one long beat on which all the other boats passed us apart from the considerably larger threemasted schooner Adix – we bore away and the real action began. We hoisted the ballooner, an asymmetric kite set on the foremast, dropped the jib top and down came the MTS, which was replaced by the larger four-sided fisherman, sheeted to the aft end of the main boom. Initially, Adix threatened to sail through our lee, but soon after her asymmetric kite was hoisted and two of her upwind headsails were dropped, the kite’s tack strop let go and it had to come down. As we approached the next mark we reverted to our original upwind rig ready for the next leg, a close fetch on which Adix caught us. At the end of that we bore away again, onto a broader reach than the previous one so it was the massive gollywobbler that replaced the MTS. We then dropped and stowed the foresail as it is completely ineffective with the gollywobbler up, and we had just

Clockwise from top: elegant swept deck with varnished centreline hatches – her new timber was sourced from Stones, Salcombe; crewman up the rig adjusting the MTS sheet lead; Adix coming past Kelpie; changing sails

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

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far lEft aND lEft: NIgEl SharP

KELPIE OF FALMOUTH

heard that the race would be shortened at the end of that leg. Kelpie’s result was identical to those of the first two races: last to finish, but fifth on corrected time, sandwiched between the two other schooners – Mariette and Adix.

On the final day it looked as if there might not be a race at all. Throughout the morning there was hardly a breath of wind and a scheduled Red Arrows display presented an immovable time restraint in the afternoon.

But just 10 minutes before the race officer’s self-imposed deadline for making a final decision, a line of breeze appeared across the bay, and the starting procedure began. In the meantime, Kelpie’s owner had been taken by RIB from his bigger schooner to his newer one and he decided to race her for the very first time.

It wasn’t a very long race – barely an hour for most of the competing boats – and this allowed Kelpie to hold off both the other schooners and cross the finishing line in fourth place. More relevant, however, is that she was elevated to second on corrected time, beaten only by the Hoek ketch Velacarina, which secured the overall Pendennis Cup. This final result helped Kelpie to fourth place in the series, a single point ahead of her big sister.

PENDENNIS

Above, left to right: Chesterfield-style seating in the saloon; owner’s cabin from the starboard aft corner looking forward and to port, and into the owner’s heads.

Below: up on the crosstrees for a perfect view of the Red Arrows at this year’s Pendennis Cup

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CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

As soon as the racing finished, all the competing boats motored towards Falmouth Beach, and after Mariette dropped her anchor Kelpie went alongside her. Charlie reported later that the mood on board the two boats was particularly high-spirited.

Two days later, work continued on Kelpie. There was still much to do, particularly with regard to the interior fit-out, and she would stay in Falmouth for another couple of weeks. The subsequent plan was to take her to the Mediterranean where the racing emphasis would be shifted on to her for the late summer regattas. The two boats will be together, however, with Mariette operating as a “mothership” providing accommodation for the owner and his guests – although Charlie expects that the owner might spend the occasional night on Kelpie – and hospitality for the crew.

The owner is clearly excited by this prospect. “Kelpie is a beautiful yacht with a lovely classic sail plan,” he said. “She sails extremely well and is particularly pleasant to helm. I am very much looking forward to racing her in the Mediterranean this summer.”

In 2015 the emphasis will change back to Mariette as it will be her centenary year, and there are great plans to celebrate it. After a winter in the Caribbean and a short foray into the Pacific – she hasn’t been there since 1961 – she will compete in the Transatlantic Race from Newport to the Lizard, and then call into Falmouth for a big birthday party at Pendennis Castle, which her owner has hired for the occasion. Kelpie will, of course, be waiting in Falmouth. “Mariette is such a fine old lady and she needs companionship,” Charlie said.

The owner has hinted at taking on another project at some point in the future, but Charlie wouldn’t be drawn on that. “For the moment we just want to concentrate on getting Kelpie going as fast as possible and having as much fun out of her as possible, and then we’ll see what happens,” he said.

“She sails very well and is particularly pleasant to helm”

Don’t miss the October issue (on sale 12 September) in which we will begin a series looking in detail at the stages of restoration work on Kelpie of Falmouth

T h e Ult i m ate Modern Cl assi c

27th Antigua

1

1

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SoT Class

1

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Single-handed Race Concours d’Elegance

1

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Classics 2014

Class D

Spirit 76 ‘Nazgul’ Antigua 2014

Spirit Yachts Modern Classic “Spirit Yachts are the Worlds’ leading designers & builders of contemporary wooden yachts, with twenty years of experience and over fifty yachts afloat. An unrivalled team of in-house craftsmen and engineers create some of the most beautiful and sophisticated yachts sailing today”

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www.SpiritYachts.com

J-Class

High fives

Palma, Mallorca, witnessed a duel of giants in June as five majestic J-Class yachts battled in the sun STORY CATHERINE SEVERSON PHOTOGRAPHS JESĂšS RENEDO

F

ive J-Class yachts provided a spectacle of sailing at the Superyacht Cup Palma in June, while owners promised even more fireworks, confirming that the class fleet will come to Cowes next year to attend the Royal Yacht Squadron Bicentenary International Regatta 26-31 July 2015. Along with at least four of the current fleet, this event will also see the worldwide debut of J8, previously nicknamed Atlantis.

The J-Class owners held an exclusive conclave at the Palma regatta to make new plans for their expanding fleet and a 2015 programme that will remain based in Europe.

J8 will become the biggest J-Class yacht ever built at an astonishing 139ft (42.4m), besting the mighty JK6

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CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

Hanuman in length by half a metre. J8 is the first build of an original 1935 Frank C Paine design. Using the original lines, Hoek Design Naval Architects in Holland drew up plans for J8, which include an aluminium hull and a 1930s-inspired Art Deco interior. She will be undergoing sea trials in the spring of 2015 and the first chance to see her compete will be at the RYS Bicentenary International Regatta in Cowes.

CB can also report that Tore Holm’s “lost” 1937 Swedish J-Class design is at last being built (as J11 and once called Svea) in Holland at Claasen Shipyards, with design direction by Hoek Design Naval Architects.

At 136ft (41.5m), she will be one of the so-called aluminium-hulled “Super J’s” such as Hanuman, Ranger

Clockwise from main: tacking away on Ranger; MOB rescue on Lionheart; the owner helming Lionheart; (L-R) Velsheda, Hanuman, Lionheart, Rainbow and Ranger

and the new J8. Both J8 and J11 will have new names when they are launched.

But at the Superyacht Cup Palma regatta, owners weren’t the only ones making the news. Lionheart continued her reign supreme after a clean sweep in Menorca just weeks earlier. Along with Rainbow, Velsheda, Hanuman and Ranger, the J-Class field enjoyed tactical and tight racing with only seconds separating each yacht at the finish line. In fact, Hanuman and Lionheart shared the prestigious King’s 100 Guinea Cup after finishing tied on corrected time after the first race.

Lionheart, Rainbow, Ranger and Velsheda will compete next at the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup in Porto Cervo, Sardinia, from 31 August to 6 September.

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

17

Logbook UPFRONT

Out and about

Beale Park

Above: a West Wight Scow sails slowly across the lake

Simply messing about in boats STORY STEFFAN MEYRIC HUGHES The Beale Park Boat Show in Pangbourne-on-Thames had a new entrance this year, taking visitors straight to the lake’s edge where the Wooden Boatbuilders’ Trade Association was grouped. That sparkle-scape of varnished wood certainly beat the old route that drew visitors straight to the big loo block. Other tweaks here and there worked well too, but the rest was business as usual... the smell of kippers from the smokehouse, clouds of mayflies dancing above long grass and old-fashioned English eccentricity everywhere you turn (steam-powered outboards, anyone?!). It’s still, by far, the most enjoyable boat show in the world, largely because it’s not really a boat show. No brochures pressed upon you here – instead,

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CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

the sight of bearded, middle-aged men sprinting for the bushes when they see anyone who looks like a customer approaching. Aaaah – the boatbuilders! Give them beer.

Hear them complain about the modern world! Kick your shoes off and have a moan yourself – it’s all part of the fun and you’ll be practising with masters of the art.

In seriousness, boats are sold here – not many, but enough to justify the low cost of exhibiting. And here is the rub with Beale. Its appeal (lack of commerciality) is also its Achilles’ heel: it needs to pay its own way. It didn’t this year – in fact, new organiser David Read’s balance sheet was red at the end – but not by much, so it will return next year. And it certainly does not make the show any less appealing. If you’ve not been, go next year. You could be helping to secure the future of a gem of an event.

Steam launch Consuta passes a swan (SMH)

Traditional garb from the Thames Traditional Boat Society (SMH)

Left to right: boatbuilders Fabian Bush, Jamie Clay and Colin Henwood (Peter Willis)

Vintage treats from the tea room (SMH)

Sarah Jane, one of several steam launches present (SMH)

Boatbuilder Ryan Kearley (Peter Willis)

photos: smh, peter willis, gary blake, graeme sweeney

IBTC newbie Caroline Barrie-Smith (Gary Blake) Gray Lady had a scale model of herself on the foredeck (Graeme Sweeney)

The mini-tug Taurus (Gary Blake)

The popular jazz band (Graeme Sweeney)

Upper Thames rowing skiffs, steamboats, canoes and punts (SMH) CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

19

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CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

23/06/2014 11:37

LOGBOOK

Above, left to right: Susan Howland and Simon Castle of Wayfarer Marine; (l-r) Roland Grender, Maximilian Fischer and Jack Orne; Capt Armin Fischer with (right) Bob Towbin, Sumurun’s owner

Sumuru n at Newport party STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHS DAN HOUSTON CB was invited to a select party recently, to celebrate the 100th year since Fife III’s Sumurun was launched. Owner Bob Towbin, who has kept the yacht in gleaming condition for the last four decades, threw a lavish party on the dock and lawns of Harbour Court – the New York Yacht Club’s on-the-water “summer house” at Newport, Rhode Island.

Earlier in the day, just after dawn, the 94ft (28.7m) ketch had arrived on the dock and the crew of six had set to polishing her already gleaming bronze to unprecedented levels of glister. Guests were treated to breakfast, then tours of the boat, meeting ex-crew, before there was a formal presentation where Vic Rakowski, of Lloyd’s, presented Bob Towbin with a certificate vouching Sumurun’s 100 years in Lloyd’s 100A1 condition.

Needless to say, the party unravelled somewhat and the crew stories began to paint a colourful tableau of this amazing classic, which we are planning to cover fully in our upcoming November issue.

100

Above: over the years many people have crewed aboard Sumurun and as the centenary party got going there was a call for ex crew to gather on the lawn below the NYYC’s Rhode Island clubhouse. And here they are… Main image, top row, left to right: Peter Underdown, Tom Reardon, Jeff Lewis, Watty, Harry Beach, Justin Pope, David Weyrens, Simon Castle, Jeff Wirken. Middle row, left to right: Jim Murphy, Robbie Cook, Joe Loughborough, Ted Smith, Cody Field, John Titus. Front row, left to right: Taffy Talvey, Armin Fischer (Capt), Julian Mills (Ex Capt), Louis McIntosh, Bob Towbin (Sumurun’s owner), Niall O’Huadhaigh.

(CB wishes to thank Pam Lathan for her help in identifying the folk in this picture)

Clockwise from above: centenary sail; Capt Armin’s daughter, Sara Belle Fischer; maker’s stamp CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

21

Tell Tales

See more news on our website: www.classicboat.co.uk CB address and tel; please see page 5

MYSTIC, CONNECTICUT, USA

The restored 1841 Charles W Morgan, America’s last surviving wooden whaleship of a fleet that numbered in its thousands, left Mystic, Connecticut, at 9.30am on 7 June on her first day of sea trials, after her long restoration at Mystic Seaport’s Museum of America and the Sea. “She sails faster, turns more easily and handles better than we expected.

We could not be more pleased,” said Captain Kip Files, the 22nd master of the Morgan. “There is no one alive today who has sailed one of these whaleships and who can tell us how they perform, so we really learned a lot today. We have a great voyage ahead of us.”

The National Historic Landmark vessel has been a static exhibit at Mystic Seaport since 1941 and has not sailed since the early 1920s. Her 37th and last whaling voyage ended in 1921. The ship is now making a tour of historic whaling ports in southern

DeNNIS MURPHY/MYSTIC SeAPORT

Whaler Charles W Morgan sails at last

Above: Newportbound on 15 June

Teal 1914

New England and was at New Bedford, Massachusetts, as we went to press. When she returns to Mystic

in August, she will take up her role as flagship of the Museum of America and the Sea.

ROUND THE ISLAND RACE, IOW

CB cover star restored The first restoration of the 21ft 6in (6.6m) Falmouth Quay Punt Teal was rough and ready, conducted in just two months to take owner Andy Rankin to the Baltic. She featured on the cover of our May 2007 issue with the line “Fix it and Go”. After that she went through some uncommitted owners and fell into disrepair. Current owner Adrian Nowotynski, joiner and charter fishing boat owner in Cork, found her in Kent, transported her home and spent two-and-a-half years in Hegarty’s Boatyard doing a serious and authentic rebuild with canvas-covered decks, no plywood and no epoxy. This June, she sailed for the first time since relaunch at West Cork’s Baltimore Wooden Boat Festival, where she won the award for best “newcomer”.

22

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

The Round the Island Race on 21 June was the slowest in living memory. Of the 1,585 boats that set off in 82 classes, fewer than 724 finished. The winning elapsed time of 8h 51m (for catamaran Team Richard Mille) was the slowest since the first race in 1931. The overall winner on corrected time was edward Donald on the Folkboat Madelaine, who collected the Gold Roman Bowl for the third time. He is now just one win behind the record of four wins recorded by the ex-British PM Sir edward Heath.

Old Pulteney is once again asking for nominations for its annual “Maritime Heroes” awards. These are in three categories: for club service, bravery, and sailing achievement. Prizes of up to £2,000 and plenty of good, old single malt are on offer!

Download an application form at http://bit.ly/TJ9UH6.

New clubhouse for Monaco

JOe MCCARTHY

C/O TIM COOKe

Folkboat wins drift

Calling maritime heroes

The Yacht Club de Monaco raised the flag on its new clubhouse this June. Prince Albert II and Norman Foster were there to cut the ribbon on the 285,000sqft (26,477m2) building. Photo report next month

COWES, IOW

Beken for sale The Beken archive of more than a million photos dating from 1888 is for sale. Three generations of the Cowes-based Beken family – Frank, Keith and Kenneth (together with Peter Mumford) – have produced all these images, more than 20 books, and for the last 40 years, the world-famous Beken calendars. The collection ranges from 12in x 10in (30cm by 25cm) glass plates (about 125,000 weighing seven tonnes!) to high-resolution digital images, based mainly around the Solent, but also overseas at big events like the America’s Cup, Tall Ships Races, offshore powerboat races and the Olympics. Many plate-glass images have been restored to highlight the quality of some of the early photography when Frank Beken would stand in his 14ft (4.3m) boat holding his camera with both hands, releasing the shutter with a mouth-held atomiser bulb.

The asking price of £5 million is for the entire archive and includes the right to use the name ‘Beken of Cowes’ for future photographic endeavours. The National Maritime Museum has turned down first refusal, so allcomers are welcome to negotiations.

Tel: +44 (0)1983 297311, beken@beken.co.uk

Above: 6-Metres racing in the Solent, 1948 BEKEN OF COWES

EASTERN SEABOARD, USA

Dorade wins at the Bermuda Race

SWEDEN

Europe’s largest offshore race starts in light airs The fleet of nearly 300 boats competing in the 2014 AF Offshore Race – including a contingent of a dozen classics – was struggling in light airs as we went to press. The AF Offshore Race had already left Stockholm on 29 June on a 350-mile round-Gotland island circuit, for the 77th time in the race’s history.

CLASSIC FASTNET? Dorade might be joined by some of her progeny in the 2015 Fastnet.

The S&S inboard yawls, originally built for ocean races like this, have lately been the subject of intense restoration and now exist in good numbers.

Race organiser RORC will consider a new class for S&S yawls or for classics in general if numbers justify.

WORLDWIDE

Join the party!

BARRY PICKTHALL/ PPL

OSKAR KIHLBORG

Dorade, the 1930 S&S yawl that rocked the sailing world last year by winning the Transpac (CB313), has now done it again, finishing first in her class of nine (IRC2) in the 2014 Bermuda Race – a 630-mile straight shot from Newport, RI, to Hamilton, Bermuda. She also finished 10th in IRC Overall, and 69th over the line in a fleet of 164, mainly modern boats.

An amazing 470 clubs from 26 nations have registered for Bart’s Bash, the world’s biggest sailing event this 21 September. At least another 100 clubs are expected to sign up soon with many more to follow. It is a fundraiser for the Andrew Simpson Sailing Foundation, which inspires young people to take up sailing. Clubs and individuals can register at bartsbash.co.uk. To donate, see justgiving.com/bartsbash.

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

23

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CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

Classic Boat Awards 2014 nominee.

TELL TALES NORMANDY, FRANCE

COWES, iOW

Victory class celebrates 80 years with special race the venerable keelboats will hold a special race during cowes week on 6 august with boats crewed by the regatta’s many sponsors. title sponsor is aberdeen asset management, but the bookie’s favourite would have to be uKsa – the local sailing school!

Above: Overlord’s crew dressed in the Second World War uniform. From left to right: Tony Murphy, John Stollery, Bernard Brown, Steve Collins and Nick Nigel, joined by (far right) yachting author Tom Cunliffe

to great plaudits from the British press. Yachting writer Tom Cunliffe arrived on Overlord and arranged access for the boat into Arromanches.

Tom also persuaded a Gendarmerie patrol boat to take him on board to take pictures of Overlord sailing in the Mulberry Harbour.

WORD OF ThE MONTh

KECKling “protection for a large rope or cable made by binding it spirally with old rope, wormed in the lay and sometimes served over.”

MEDWAY, KENT

Old and new this photo of the 1924 barge repertor was taken off sheerness beach during the medway barge match on 7 june, and shows the dramatic way cargo-carrying at sea has changed in such a short time.

james hamilton

Every year, the 1936 Abeking & Rasmussen-built 50-Square Metre yacht Sea Scamp goes to France to commemorate a particular heroic episode of D-Day and, in this 70th year, the windfall yacht Overlord joined her, reports Jonathon Savill.

The incident occurred in June 1945 when a 52ft (15.8m)-high, five-storey German bunker at Ouistreham, a rangefinder for German artillery batteries, was captured. Lt Bob Orrell of the Royal Engineers and three of his men blew off the bunker’s doors and held two German officers and 50 soldiers captive. Disabling this emplacement reduced the accuracy of German fire on the invading Allied Forces.

The bunker is now a museum owned by the French Corbin family, who throw an annual party for veterans and the Orrell family. This year they celebrated with a 1940s-style fancy dress party.

An unexpected, but welcome visitor to the festivities was 89-yearold ex-Naval officer Bernard Jordan, who escaped from his nursing home,

c/o overlord

Classic yachts commemorate D-Day

a dictionary of sailing, Fh burgess, 1961

BEALE PARK, BERKShiRE

Above: Smacks Elise and Ellen at Rowhedge Regatta c1914. Right: Smacks Maria and My Alice in the same “short” race this June, from Bateman’s Tower to Rowhedge on the Colne. My Alice (left) won by a whisker

ivan beales

c/o paul winter

Full steam ahead for steam

the thames heritage boat museum at beale park has moved one step closer to reality after its appeal against planning refusal was upheld on 11 june. the thames heritage boat museum is a joint project between the child beale trust and the consuta trust. the museum, if it reaches eventual fruition, will celebrate steamboat history on the thames and provide a home for consuta and other working steam launches. learn more at consuta.org.uk.

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

25

TELL TALES

GREAT LAKES, CANADA

Match racing brigantines tall ship photographer Max was in Canada last month to capture the unusual sight of two tall ships match racing on fresh water. the 60ft (18.3m) brigantines pathfinder (below right) and playfair are near-identical twins, built respectively in 1963 and 1973 for the purpose of youth sail training for toronto brigantine inc. All crew members apart from the captain are between the ages of 13 and 18. On this occasion, playfair won.

MAX

SUFFOLK

Surveyor’s course

peter willis

A one-week course in wooden boat surveying for professionals and enthusiasts starts on 13 October in and around ipswich. it covers traditional and modern building, materials and fastenings, maintenance and preservation strategies, and the role of surveyors in helping owners conduct cost-effective restoration. training is practical, with inspections of many local boats. the course costs £1,125 and is run

by Martin evans and Aidan tuckett, wooden boat surveyors and yDsA members.

Contact Martin on +44 (0)7887 724055 or at shipshapesurveys@googlemail.com.

LONDON

this year’s biggest accolade from the transport trust charity – preservation of the year – went to Clive purser (above), project manager behind the £900,000 refit of the steam tug Challenge (Cb303). the transport trust’s roots are in railways, but for the first time this year, the individual project grants were dominated by marine conservation: thames sailing barge edme (1898), the tynemouth lifeboat Henry Frederick swan (1917), the isle of skye ferry Mv glenachulish (1969), the launch Connaught (1911), steam tug tiD164 and the Dunkirk little ship Quisisana were all recipients of cash grants between £1,000 and £1,500.

26

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

guy venAbles

Transport Trust award winner

CORFU

First Corfu Classic light winds and high humidity made even the slightest breeze welcome in the first Corfu Classic yacht race based from the wonderful old fort marina of Corfu town on 12-14 June, writes guy venables.

From the stellar line up of gipsy Moth iii, Arunford and infanta, to the “accidental” leonie, who was cruising looking for a place to moor and was persuaded to join the race, tactics, cunning and cold beer ruled the day.

ARUNDEL, MAINE, USA

Record class of 2014

A record 78 students graduated from the landing school in June, in composite boatbuilding, wooden boatbuilding, marine systems and yacht design. the wooden boatbuilding graduates christened the six boats they had built: three Joel white peapods and three Flyfisher 22s.

CORRECTION last month’s europe week story (p34) credits nic Compton as author. in fact, it was abridged by nic from the book Johan Anker, Master of yacht Design by elin Kragset vold and Ole engen. Our apologies

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Far left: Jonathan Cork and David Glasgow’s 1939 8-M Athena.

Left: Murdoch McKillop’s 8-M Saskia Main: Solent Sunbeams, Firefly (V62) in the foreground

C

OWES LASSICS WEEK

Famed for its fun and informal approach to regatta racing, this year’s Cowes Classics Week is expected to be the most popular yet. Here’s why… story PETER WILLIS photographs TIM JEFFREYS

C

owes Classics Week has a lot to celebrate.

Now in its seventh year, the event is an established part of the yachting calendar, and is still growing, with more boats and new classes participating every year. And this year it has acquired the badge of a successful event – a title sponsor: Charles Stanley, the old-established investment management firm.

The original formula devised by Rees Martin of the 6-Metre Association and David Elliott of the Classic Keelboat Club is still at the heart of the week, but it has evolved and grown over the years, as reflected in the name changes, from the original Metre & Classic Keelboat Regatta to the more generic, and rather more prestigious, Cowes Classics Week. It’s succeeded by being well organised as far as the racing is concerned, and informal and fun off the water. I particularly admire the tradition of afternoon tea and homemade cake after the day’s racing has finished.

28

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

Even as Cowes Classics, it has routinely risked getting mixed up with the other classic event in Cowes, the BCYC’s regatta, now Panerai British Classic Week, which takes place just before it. The presence of a title sponsor might help avoid confusion – and also put to bed once and for all the idea that there is any chance the two might merge. It did seem like a good idea once upon a time – and there was even a formal agreement sealed in a meeting at the Royal Thames YC back in 2009 that the two events should take place in the same week, but it just never happened, which is probably as well. The two events are very different. As David Elliott says: “There’s very little overlap and there are some sailors who like to attend both ‘weeks’, so why spoil their fun?”

Cowes Classics is very much a sailors’ event. Proper race courses, clean air and clear water seem to be its watchwords. The event is backed by an established yacht club, which runs things and provides the necessary race officers, RIBs and the like. Cowes Classics is fortunate to

COWES CLASSICS WEEK

View from the tiller

BY JONTY sherwill, cOckleshell

Clockwise from above: the stylish and swift 1931 Fife III 8-M Saskia; 1958 bermudan sloop Danegeld; gently does it in the traditional half-rater Winifred

have the support of the Cowes-based Royal London Yacht Club (full story on p36); its vice-commodore Peter Taylor is regatta chairman and principal race officer.

It’s a role he also performs for Cowes Week, and of the two events, he regards the Classics as the more “Corinthian”, by which he means: “There’s not the cut and thrust of protests. People aren’t coming to win national championships. It attracts sailors who don’t want to charge around pot-hunting, but who want a more laid-back, relaxed event, with a good social side.”

That said, he emphasises the racing is professionally organised, with committee-boat starts and the involvement of four other clubs: the Royal Corinthian, Cowes Corinthian, Royal Victoria and the Island Sailing Club. And there are some fine trophies to compete for – the Royal London YC has opened its cabinet and brought some of its historic silverware out of retirement, such as the 1887 Queen Victoria Jubilee Cup, and the 1908 Bartlett Cup, originally presented to 15-Metres.

The Metre classes still play a key role, though not, so far, the 15s. Last year there were three classes: Six, Eight 30

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

run a classic boat event in cowes and the result is not only a wave of nostalgia for the assembled fleet, but also for the town itself. it’s how cowes week must have been in the 1960s with a fraction of today’s entries and without the mad bustle in the high street and shops. it’s the little things that are most noticeable: the quiet walk home after the parties, no queue in Tiffins for sandwiches, and no need to book a restaurant. The one thing that seems to have remained constant and timeless is the open gate to lallow’s yard where a quiet wander in the welcome shade is seldom challenged.

Now in its seventh year, cowes classics week has built an impressive following. last year saw 129 entries across 12 classes, racing in glorious sunshine, though high pressure and light airs made for tricky race management. with two classes, the solent sunbeams and the Nicholson 32s, marking significant anniversaries, and the royal london Yacht club in its 175th year, there was an air of celebration throughout the regatta. while the Uk’s only two active 12-Metres, italia and white crusader, headed up the Metre boat entry, an arguably more significant feature was

and 12 competing together for the first time since 1939.

On the keelboat side, the core classes include the Metrebased Darings from Cowes, Sunbeams from Itchenor and Falmouth, and the X One-Designs, which now have a new fleet that was formed in Cowes a couple of years ago.

The Bembridge One-Designs joined in on the regatta’s second year – the first time they’d sailed away from Bembridge as a class – and have been coming every year since. This year the Flying Fifteens are competing as a class for the first time, with an expected 24 boats, and so are the Swallows from Itchenor and Aldeburgh.

“Our original concept was to get together as many of the one-design keelboat classes from around the country as we could,” says David Elliott. There is any number of regional classes, though David agrees they don’t always travel well, both in the sense that they are often designed for their home waters, and it’s hard to get the owners to commit to coming. “The Mersey Mylnes keep wanting to come and not managing it,” he says.

Nevertheless, there have been some notable successes.

The Loch Longs, from Scotland and Aldeburgh, came

COWES CLASSICS WEEK

the emergence of a 17-strong Classic Cruiser class, which was boosted by three SCODs and four Nicholson 32s, as well as the 53ft (16.1m) Johan Ankerdesigned Bojar, whose understated elegance and pedigree made her a contender for the concours d’élégance award – though yielding to the fast 1931 William Fife III 8-Metre Saskia.

David Elliott’s vintage 6-Metre Monsoon competed in the Classic Dayboat class with an eclectic mix of boats, including Andy King’s elegant 30 Square-Metre Gluckhauf, Rees Martin’s Tumlaren Alert, Jonathan Evans’ pretty Loch Long Tantrum, the fine Requin 31ft (9.5m) Johnny III from France and my own one-off 1926 open dayboat Cockleshell, built in Guernsey.

For authenticity and beauty the Howth 17s in the Old Gaffers class also deserve a special note, as do their owners for bringing them all the way from Dublin Bay. Racing with topsails and balloon jibs downwind, these

boats were one extreme in a fleet that resembled a history of traditional sail, including David Hopkins’ stout little Chough and Brian Corbett’s delicate Herreshoff half-rater Winifred.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable week of smiling faces, good parties and charming stories, punctuated by some exceptional performances. None more so than that of Abby and Ben Childerley, 10 and 13 years old, who took turns at helming their father Stuart’s XOD Palassie. They finished fourth overall in the largest class of 38 boats.

The Sunbeams mustered 20 boats from the Solent and Falmouth divisions, with keen rivalry between the two.

The Solent division celebrated its 90th Anniversary at the Royal London, but Falmouth got the upper hand in the racing and reminded everyone that the class down west, kitty gear and all, has its own 90th anniversary in 2014!

A classic regatta at Cowes without mention of the great Uffa Fox would

Clockwise from top left: Anker-designed Bojar; Jonty’s own dayboat Cockleshell; the modernlooking 12-M Crusader; two Darings – the 1984 Damsel (blue spinnaker) and the 1961 Audax

be unthinkable. The four Flying Fifteens, impressing and infuriating in equal measure, ran rings round the more sedate Classic Dayboats with whom they shared a start line!

Cowes Classics Week has found its own special niche in the sailing calendar and offers a unique opportunity for a wide variety of boats to mix and enjoy each other’s company in a venue steeped with history. For devotees of traditional one-designs, one-off dayboats, old gaffers, and now the owners of posh and not-so-posh cruising boats, it’s very nearly perfect.

down with six boats for their 75th anniversary year in 2012, and are planning to return this year. Two boats from Howth, near Dublin, came last year. Even the Broads One-Designs are thinking of coming next year.

David is constantly emailing and talking to class captains to encourage participation and increase the variety of boats on the water – sometimes internationally.

“The 5.5-Metres could sail here with the Darings – there’s a guy in Austria who wants to bring his. There’s a standing invitation to the 2.4-Metres – Dutch owners have asked if they could come, but there’s been no response from the British yet.” International OneDesigns and the Star class, which has no UK events, are, he thinks, possibles. Dragons would be a natural, but the officers seem to be preoccupied with international events; even so, the odd boat has taken part.

Another issue for some classes is that they don’t want to dilute their presence at Cowes Week. The Victory class, celebrating its 80th anniversary this year, is a fine example. Some individual boats from these classes do come and join in mixed races.

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

31

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CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

26/11/13 11:31:40

2/18/14 9:12 AM

COWES CLASSICS WEEK

Clockwise from top left: Maresta; the RTYC Erida; an X One-Design at full sail; (l-r) British Paralympic gold medallist Andy Cassell and polar adventurer Tom Avery, present David Gower with the Loup Garou Model trophy for winning the Daring Class with Dolphin

Then there are the so-called Revival classes, aka the ‘menagerie’ class or the odds and sods, which embrace the many individual boats that turn up for the sheer pleasure of the event. Last year saw 17 boats in the Classic Cruiser class, with SCODS and Nicholson 32s among them, and up to seven Twisters are expected this year. This and the catch-all Classic Dayboat class are handicapped according to the Baltic KLR (KlassikerRennwert) rating system, chosen by Peter Taylor because it seems to cope well with the wide variety of boats.

Anniversaries have always been a feature, and last year the decision to invite the 50-year-old GRP Nicholson 32s was more than a little controversial, since it made Cowes Classics the first avowedly classic event to welcome non-wooden classes (plassics, glassics?). “We’ve decided that as a class reaches its 50th anniversary, it would be invited to come, and return thereafter,” explains David.

What they will find when they come is summed up by Tina Scott, class captain of the X One-Designs and the largest participating class: “Four days’ racing in the middle of the Solent, when it’s quiet, with two short races each day using tidal skills and navigation, and usually ending up off Cowes, so you can race back and get ashore in time for the tea and cakes!”

David Gower of the Darings agrees: “Only four days of racing [as against the eight of Cowes Week] means

you can be at the top of your game, with the same crews competing on all four days. It’s a great regatta, well managed, and with brilliant racing on an empty sea.”

For Peter Nicholson of the Solent Sunbeams: “It’s filling a gap and bringing a fresh approach that’s been needed for 20 years.” He particularly likes the flexibility the event is able to offer, to adjust race courses and times to suit conditions. “I remember in 2012, when there was no wind in the mornings so we couldn’t race. They moved the course over towards the mainland and started at 4pm, with a 7pm finish, so we got our racing in.”

Among the cruiser-racers, which divide, on the basis of who turns up, into a “fast” and a “slow” class, David and Christine Hopkins, whose little 18ft (5.5m) Chough won the concours d’élégance in 2012, can’t praise the event enough. “A brilliant week, so enjoyable,” they told me. “They made sure we had the right course for the wind, and they took all the hassle out of finding the marks – the Solent is so full of buoys it’s easy to go wrong, especially if you get into the lead.”

Nobody we spoke to wanted to be publicly critical of Cowes Week – classes do still participate there, usually in greater numbers – but off the record many were fed up with the problems created by the sheer scale of the thing.

“It doesn’t provide good racing – they start and finish races, but don’t provide good race management. There’s CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

33

COWES CLASSICS WEEK

Above: Solent Sunbeams racing hard

Classes at Cowes Classics Metre boats Daring, 6-M, 8-M, 12-M

Dayboats and gaffers Solent Sunbeam X One-Design Bembridge One-Design Flying Fifteen Loch Long One-Design National Squib National Swallow Victory One-Design Bembridge Redwing International Dragon Seaview Mermaid Old Gaffers Classic cruisers Nicholson 32 Nicholson 36 South Coast One-Design Stella Twister Rustler 31

34

no flexibility in the timetabling,” was one comment.

Cowes itself is heaving, and expensive. The contrast drawn with Cowes Classics – more relaxed, less crowded, more intimate – said it all.

Magnus Wheatley, spokesman for Classics Week’s new headline sponsor, Charles Stanley, puts it like this: “Our goal for the sponsorship is to make it how Cowes Week used to be 25 years ago – an event for the sailors, not a corporate-sponsored jamboree.” They aren’t saying how much funding they’re putting in, other than it will be “substantial” – and since Charles Stanley (founded 1792) is one of the oldest financial institutions in the world, with some £20 billion under its management, we hope that means very substantial. A good deal of it will be spent on the water, on marker buoys, RIBs and the like, the idea being that it’s “low-key sponsorship where the sailors get the benefit”.

Don’t worry, though – there’s enough budget left over to also sponsor the first night’s drinks party and the champagne has already been bought in!

This sponsor’s involvement is very hands-on. Magnus himself will be taking part, not for the first time. “I’ve been three or four times, on a 6-Metre, so I know it’s

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

really good sailing and the committee really understands boats.” But this will be his first time at the helm of his own Daring called Destroyer, which he’s spent the winter doing up at Clare Lallow’s. Another Charles Stanley director is bringing his Flying Fifteen, and encouraging other owners to come. “We’re hoping for at least 15 Fifteens there,” says Magnus.

So this is yet another name change for the former Metre & Keelboat Regatta. No longer just Cowes Classics, it’s now the Charles Stanley Cowes Classics – and the initial one-year sponsorship with option to renew has already become a three-year deal.

Last year the Classics attracted 129 boats; this year, 160 are expected. Can it get any bigger, without losing its present intimate character? Up to a point, probably around 200 boats, believes Peter Taylor. “We’ve added an extra marquee this year to cater for the increase.”

The organisers think much of the growth is likely to come from the Classic Cruiser class – “People who don’t race much at all and don’t want to be IRC hotshots,” says Peter. “Something like ‘Round the Island lite’?”

I suggest. Peter thinks for a moment. “More like the Goodwood Revival for boats,” he replies.

It’s a great regatta, very well managed and with brilliant racing on an empty sea”

Royal London Yach t Clu b

The 500 club To continue our celebration of this year’s Cowes Classics Week, we take a tour of the organiser’s clubhouse and discover key moments in its 176-year history STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHS PETER WILLIS

F

or a small club – it limits itself to McClintock not only succeeded in discovering 500 members – the Royal the fate of Franklin and his crew, but completed London Yacht Club certainly the mapping of the North American coastline. seems to punch above its weight.

On his return in 1859, he was knighted and CLUB VISIT It began in 1838 as the Arundel made an honorary member of the club.

Yacht Club, named after the Arundel Some decades later, at the turn of the century, a Stairs, connecting the Thames, via Temple Gardens, Royal London yacht, actually an old Norwegian whaler to the Strand, and its first meeting place, the Coal Hole renamed Southern Cross, had carried the first party to Tavern near the Savoy. Its first race was an “above overwinter on Antarctica. A few years after this, the bridge” event from there to Wandsworth Meadows and club’s commodore for some 18 years, Sir Herbert H back. Just seven yachts took part. In 1844 it became the Bartlett, sponsored Sir Ernest Shackleton’s first first Thames club to open its matches to all established expedition to the South Pole, and was rewarded with clubs. It changed its name to the London Yacht Club in having an Antarctic mountain named after him.

1845, and in 1849 gained its first royal patron, Queen Dowager Adelaide, and its warrant to wear the blue FROM LONDON TO COWES ensign with the City of London arms. A year later its By the 1880s the Thames had become less salubrious. membership limit was lifted from 50 to 500.

Cowes was beginning to exert an attraction and, in The club was instrumental in introducing Thames 1882, the Royal London became the first club to tonnage, the rule designed to counter “tonnage cheaters” challenge the monopoly of the Royal Yacht Squadron in and permit measurements on deck. The Royal London that town by setting up a house of its own. This was set up a committee of enquiry, and after extensive – and still is – a handsome, balconied property on consultations its member Mr Crockfield proposed a rule Marine Parade, almost in the shadow of the Squadron’s in January 1853. The club resolved it be adopted after exclusive Castle. Actually comprising two private houses, consultations with all the other royal yacht clubs had it was owned by a Dr Hoffmeister, surgeon to Queen taken place. Once its modified version received the Victoria and to the Squadron, who promptly joined the backing of the Royal Thames YC, it was universally Royal London. Membership then was four guineas for adopted in 1854. The Royal London was also the first to admittance to either the London or the Cowes adopt the new Yacht Racing Association’s rules in 1875, clubhouse, or six guineas for both. The club continued to and hosted many of the YRA’s meetings in its rooms, by run both establishments until 1909, and eventually then in the former St George’s Club in Savile Row. purchased the freehold of the Cowes house in 1934.

Like other clubs in the later 19th century, the Royal Inevitably, the club amassed a quantity of silverware London was involved in foreign exploration. Its then and its first Royal Cup was presented by Queen Victoria commodore Andrew Arcedeckne had the honour of a in 1886. This was followed in 1887 by the infinitely more polar island being named after him by the captain of splendid and elaborately decorated 250-guinea Jubilee an exploration vessel, the steam yacht Fox. Captain Cup, which, after one race, disappeared until 1973 when McClintock and his officers had been enrolled as it turned up in a Somerset auction room. A subscription members of Arcedeckne’s other club, the Royal Harwich was raised to buy it back. A more modest trophy was a YC, before setting out in 1857 to search for Sir John silver mirror, presented in 1896 by The Gentlewoman Franklin, an experienced Arctic explorer whose magazine for a helmswomen-only race, organised by the expedition had disappeared 10 years previously, and who Royal London. In fact, the club had been admitting ladies had already been the subject of 40 search parties. to the club since 1886, and to racing from 1887.

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CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

Clockwise from top: the imposing clubhouse in Cowes; view across the water from the race box; (far left) the exquisite Bartlett Cup; one of many paintings in the clubhouse, this one depicts Cambria in the 1870 Atlantic Yacht Race; RLYC rear commodore Peter Taylor in the club’s lounge

ROYAL LONDON YACHT CLUB

Above, left to right: RLYC rear commodore and race officer Peter Taylor; models, memorabilia and paintings adorn the elegantly dressed corridors of the club

Perhaps the most historic of the club’s cups, though, is the elegant but not especially large Bartlett International Challenge Cup, presented in 1908 by the then commodore Sir Herbert H Bartlett, whose family had long been associated with the club. It was raced for by the 15-Metres, and regarded as the blue riband of the class. In 1913 it was won, and carried off, by the German boat Paula III. In 1914, the return match at Kiel, and Cowes Week itself, were cancelled due to the outbreak of war. Following the restoration of peace, and despite a YRA ban on racing against German yachtsmen, the cup was returned by the Nordeutscher Yacht Club.

By then the 15-Metres were no longer racing and the cup was used for 12-Metres and Dragons. The Bartlett Cup, along with the Queen Victoria Cup and others, is now raced for in Cowes Classics Week (see p28).

The inter-war years saw the club associated with some large and famous boats, and ultimately with some very small ones. Nahlin, the great GL Watson-designed steam yacht notorious for being chartered by King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson, was not only owned by a Royal London member, Lady Yule, but also owed its interiors to the club’s 19261935 commodore, the designer Sir Charles Carrick Allom – who also put his talents to use in the renovation of the clubhouse.

Another great yacht to become associated with the club was the Fife III-designed 15-Metre Hispania, formerly owned by the King of Spain, Alfonso XIII. The 21-yearold advertising manager of Yachting World, Patrick Egan, discovered her, and fell in love with her when booking a brokerage advert for her in 1930. With his brother Rupert, he bought her. Patrick was later to become commodore of the Royal London in the 1970s.

At the other end of the scale, the club maintained a historic championing of small-boat racing, and in 1920 held matches for 18ft (5.5m) International Skiffs, Redwings, Seaview Mermaids and others, adding XODs, Sunbeams and Yarmouth ODs in 1923. In 1924, the National 14, predecessor of the International 14, joined the fleets. The 14s proved very popular, not least because they were the largest hull that could be sent by train for six shillings (30p), plus 1s 6d (7.5p) for the mast,

anywhere in England. Uffa Fox, Royal London member, started building them in his converted chain ferry workshop on the Medina, and in 1927 the Prince of Wales presented a perpetual trophy for the class.

in rude health The Second World War inevitably had its effect on the club’s fortunes, and sailing in general. Racing was suspended and the clubhouse was requisitioned by the Admiralty. Membership declined, reaching a low of 78, with talk of selling the clubhouse and amalgamating with the Royal Thames. Mercifully, the club survived, thanks in part to the energy of commodore Max Aitken, who also launched the London Boat Show during his term of office. Racing had also undergone a sea change, with keelboats such as the Dragons and dinghies like Uffa Fox’s Fireflies taking part in Cowes Week.

By 1959 the club had recovered itself sufficiently to relaunch its annual ball, and in the 1960s it felt able to embark on a much-needed programme of renovations and improvements to its Regency clubhouse. As well as remedying nearly four decades of neglect, the opportunity was taken to improve the bedrooms, and one of the rooms, the central, sea-facing one on the top floor, was turned into a race box – previously, races had been started from one of the balconies.

In 1988 the Royal London marked its 150th year by appointing Prince Philip as its commodore.

Nowadays, the club maintains a vigorous and varied racing calendar, with active participation in Cowes Week, and its own Cowes-Deauville cruiser race for the Cannonball Trophy (a real cannonball fired at the British fleet by the Dutch in the Battle of the Medway, 1667).

The Royal London was one of the first Cowes clubs to ‘get’ the idea of the Cowes Classics (Metre and Keelboat) regatta and has hosted it ever since, with its vice-commodore, Peter Taylor, as principal race officer.

It also hosts the annual ASTO Small Ships Race for sail-training boats, and supports young Optimist and Moth sailors and others through its Youth Charitable Trust. And all this still with just 500 (or, so I’m told, slightly fewer at present) members.

“Today, the club maintains a vigorous and varied racing calendar”

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NeilThompsonBoats

The Norfolk Smuggler Manor Farm, Glandford, Holt, Norfolk NR25 7JP • +44 (0) 1263 741172 info@neilthompsonboats.co.uk www.neilthompsonboats.co.uk

Norfolk Urchin

Norfolk Oyster

Norfolk Gypsy

Dimensions Length Beam Draft Total sail area Weight

Norfolk Smuggler

25’ ( 7.69m) 8’9” (2.69m) 2’9”/4’11” (0.85m/1.51m) 404 sq ft (38.3 sq m) 4.25 tonnes

Norfolk Trader

Boat TEST

feeLgOOd fAcTOr The Rustler 33 is part of the modern tradition of fast, retro-styled daysailers that are a charm to sail, painless to own and offer plenty of usable overnight accommodation story STEFFAN MEyric HugHES PhotograPhs MErVyN MAggS

C

ornwall is desperately vulnerable to the mood swings of the Atlantic, and the day we chose to test sail the Rustler 33 was a classic – not a zephyr of wind and a low sky pressing its greyness into everything.

With water coursing down the windows of the office occupied by Adrian Jones, one half of Rustler Yachts, photographer Mervyn Maggs and I had suddenly become very enthusiastic about instant coffee and talking shop, as we waited for the promised

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window of sun and wind to appear. Rustler, founded in the mid-80s here in Falmouth, is known for its blue water cruising yachts, not least the classic, long-keeled Rustler 36 Holman and Pye sloop, which is still in build here in glass after a run of more than 200 boats. Princess Anne owned one, although she’s since changed to a Rustler 44.

In 2006, Adrian spotted a gap in the market for a pretty daysailer and bought the moulds for the Piper 24.

“Rubbishy tiny cockpit, bad rig… but a beautiful hull,” Adrian remembers. They started building their version in

2009 and have already sold 45. Then people wanted a bigger one. Adrian and Rustler co-owner Nick Offord went to Stephen Jones with a simple design brief: “It’s got to look good and sail really well, and it’s got to be easy to own... we don’t care about headroom.” The first one was launched in 2012, and they are already building number 10. Previous boats have gone to Corfu, and smart sailing capitals like Auckland and Newport.

The Rustler 33 started life on the kitchen table of renowned yacht designer Stephen Jones in pencils, paper

and inches, and the plug was built by hand so tweaks could be made – including drawing it out a foot to 34ft (10.4m). “It’s useless, but really nice to own, a bit like an Aston Martin,” Adrian adds.

DOCKSIDE

Above: Rustler’s Adrian Jones has a spell at the helm, leaving the author to tend the jibsheets

Spirit-of-Tradition boatbuilding has come a long way since replicating old, or old-style, designs in glass. It is now a fully fledged, postmodern riot of build materials, rigs and design below and above the waterline.

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

41

The Rustler 33 tends towards the radical end for a SoT boat, with a narrow fin keel, balanced rudder, Dyneema backstay and highly tweakable racing rig.

In appearance, the Rustler 33 is an unusual beast, clothed in a motley collection from the dressing-up box of yacht design history. Whereas every other SoT yacht is inspired by the inter-war years, the R33 owes its origins to post-war Metre yachts. So she has a retroussé counter instead of the standard sawn-off counter, square-oval portlights instead of round, a gentler sheer and a tall mast with double-spreader, 7/8ths fractional rig. Combined with the narrowish beam and pleasing cockpit coamings that run back from the cabinsides in a single, hardstepped line, this rare costume makes for one of the prettiest SoT boats around, with an authentic marriage of form and material: boats that originally looked like this were, like the R33, hand-built in glass with ally masts.

Designer Stephen Jones was freed from any tenuous connection to a particular yacht or designer, a premise that seldom stands up to scrutiny. The counter is inspired by post-war Metre yachts and the cabin, which slopes down at the front end (as there is not much sheer rising up to meet it) is influenced by IODs and the Nordic Folkboat. As Adrian puts it: “We all know what a pretty boat looks like.”

At less than three tonnes and with no guardrail, the boat feels very accessible and easy to push around.

Stepping on, she is as solid as you would expect, with a deep lead keel and a 41 per cent ballast ratio. Once on board, the feeling is of being on a modern yacht. This is not a boat to please a traditionalist, by any stretch of 42

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

RUSTLER 33

Clockwise from right: the cockpit with its strongpoint for the mainsheet.

Note exposed rudderstock head, to which an emergency tiller can be attached in moments; the tiller folds up to allow more space in port; the navigation light swivels up from its ‘sleeping’ position in a manner reminiscent of a Porsche 928 headlight

the imagination. What’s lacking in authenticity, though, is made up for in terms of comfort, usability and, given the many unusual innovative features, character.

These include cockpit seats that lift to allow standing at the tiller; a nav light at the bows that swivels up like the headlights on a Porsche 928; a push-rod tiller that allows tiller steering from the aft end of the cockpit to control a rudderstock further forward; reverse slant to the cockpit seat sides for more foot room; flared-out cappings on the coamings to allow sitting out high; an unusual backstay tensioner that runs from the counter to a purchase at the masthead, then down and along the coachroof to exit with all the other controls. In place of the dreaded blue UV strip on the jib is a headsail cover that is hoisted using a halyard. This protects the jib from all weathers. The jib furler (being seldom used), runs under the deck and exits in a port-hand cockpit locker.

This is part of a more concerted effort to keep the deck as clear as possible. In fact, only the small, fixed fairleads for the asymmetric sail stand proud – everything else is flush.

UNDER POWER There was no need to raise our voices over the 14hp Nanni tucked under the companionway. As Adrian and I motored out into Carrick Roads in the sunshine and breeze that had finally broken the spell of grey.

The last time I sailed here was in a heavily canvassed gaff cutter, unreefed, double-handed and in a good Force 5 and plenty of marine traffic, but any nerves left over from that day soon dissipated as I took the tiller. The response is so instantaneous that Adrian had to warn me

not to make any sudden motions or I’d send him flying overboard. This is a boat that would excel at tacking upriver, dodging in and out of moored boats! It is, of course, an advantage of the fin keel. Another is that there’s so little of the boat under water that you can reverse it at speed without any stern squatting. Soon I was doing high-speed, reverse figures-of-eights.

UNDER SAIL Above: note the backstay tensioner purchase attached to the masthead

Two Harken winches on the coachroof (again, part of the effort at keeping decks and cockpit clear) handle the jibsheets. An optional pair can be fitted on the coamings to handle the asymmetric. The mainsheet, on an 8:1 purchase, runs to a chunky pedestal on the sole… and that’s about it. If you’re used to sheeting in the jib on the coaming, the inboard coachroof arrangement takes a moment to get used to (the optional spinnaker winches are mounted on the coaming) and then you’re away, sailing the 33 like a dinghy, heeling easily, pointing high, sailing fast and perhaps feeling a little nostalgia for younger, faster days. There is also a snake’s nest of lines emerging from the clutches on the coachroof. Aside from two single-line reefs, spinnaker halyard and mainsheet halyard, there are are: outhaul, mast backstay tensioner and kicker. One of the pleasures of owning a 33 would be getting to grips with these various tweaks, in the safe, forgiving environment that the boat provides.

The breeze picked up enough to heel the boat hard over while close-hauled. Initial heel is dramatic, but with a tonne of lead underneath, she stiffens nicely. Helming was fingertip light and almost neutral, with just enough CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

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RUSTLER 33

Below decks For this sort of boat, there is good accommodation below. It’s sitting headroom only, as you’d expect, but you get a double-vee berth, port and starboard settee berths (port berth is ‘child-sized’ at 5ft/1.5m only), hanging space for wet oilies, some storage and a small galley. There is enough wood trim (ceiling, sole and furniture carcasses) to avoid the “hospital feel” you can get on modern boats. Equipment is basic, with hand-pumped fresh water for the sink, for instance, but this means less to go wrong and helps reduce the cost of the R33. The well-insulated engine sits under the companionway and access is good. This cabin would be fine for extended periods of coastal cruising, particularly in summer.

RUSTLER 33 LOA

34ft (10.4m) LWL

22ft 6in (6.9m) beAm

8ft (2.4m) DrAught

5ft 9in (1.8m) SAiL AreA

485sqft (45.1m2) DiSPLAcement

2.7 tonnes Price

£99,500+VAT Price is for a well-equipped ‘sail away’ boat with no instrumentation. For teak cabinsides and deck, as here, add £12,000.

rustleryachts.com tel: +44 (0)1326 310120

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CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

weather helm for safety and to give the tiller anima.

Going downwind was interesting. Compared with the huge loads and slow helm response of a powerful gaffer on the run, this is relaxing work and we butterflied the jib and main. A crash gybe is easy to divert quickly and the 8:1 mainsheet means gybes don’t need much planning.

The feeling is not of a race-bred lightweight or a tank but something in between: a fairly seaworthy boat in the growing dayboat/luxury weekender niche occupied by the likes of the Eagle 36, Essence 33, Tofinou 9.5 and Morris 36, against which it compares well on price. Our test sail was in a short weather window and without instruments for quantitative data but we hear the R33 is fast – very fast. They regularly sail into double figures and sometimes more. This is far beyond theoretical hull speed, thanks to the minimal wetted surface area, and has helped one R33 achieve six firsts out of six starts under IRC in a season. The ability to go really fast, easily and comfortably, in something this pretty, is intoxicating.

There’s plenty the 33 won’t do. To some, it will never be a classic so you don’t, perhaps, get to have your cake and eat it. It’s skittish, it has little directional stability and the bows would be no place to stand trying to snare a buoy in bumpy seas. But that’s missing the point.

The R33 is a boat to race and a boat for family picnics.

She is also a boat for coastal cruising, hopping port to port and sleeping in the cabin or under the stars in the cockpit. That’s a good thing, as once you set out, you won’t want to stop. In light of how most of us go sailing, it’s not, despite Adrian’s words, useless in the least. And being so easy to chuck around, go faster and point higher, it makes you look good. It makes you feel good, too.

YACHTS CLASSIQUES www.yachts-classiques.com Email : fseruzier@wanadoo.fr Tél : +33 (0)6 33 02 81 28

www.chantierduguip.com

Guip Shipyard – Brest – Ile aux Moines Quai du Commandant Malbert 29200 Brest, France Tel: +33 (0)2 98 43 27 07 Fax: +33 (0)2 98 44 81 29 E-mail: guip29@chantierduguip.com

WINNER

ALL THE BOATS ARE ON THE WEBSITE: www.yachts-classiques.com

Boatyard SPONSORED

BY

ELLAD William Fife 1957 complet restauration, 10m54, lying Brittany 190000 €

STIREN Stephens 1962 Very fast, 14m80, lying Britanny 380000 €

Photo © Piérick

42 Medina Road, Cowes, Isle of T. (01983) 294051 Wight PO31 7BY

ratseysails@ratsey. com www.ratseE.y.com

Jeannoutot

Since 1790

© Philip Plisson

Vanity V – 12-metre class - Designed and built by William Fife III in 1936 Complete rebuild by Guip Shipyard (Brest), launched in 2000

DIONE Olle Enderlein 1957 Fantastic line, 15m80, lying Brittany 220000 €

SKALL Philip Rhodes 1930 2nd Transat 1931, 18m06, lying Brittany NC

Trades: Shipwrights, joiners, electrical engineers, project managers.

Skills: Building, restoring, repairing and maintaining wooden historic vessels, classic yachts and workboats. Traditional shipwrighting and modern wooden boat-building techniques. Deck and interior joinery. Wooden mast and spar making.

Workshop (1,250 m²) on the quay. Overhead travelling Passionate about the sea, maritime crane. Accommodates vessels up to 100 tons heritage and wood!

THERE’S SOMETHING SPECIAL ...

THERE’S SOMETHING SPECIAL ...

ABOUT A WOODEN BOAT ABOUT A WOODEN BOAT Similar Boat

Visit the Wooden Visit the Wooden Boatbuilders Boatbuilders Trade Trade Association’s dynamic Association’s dynamic new display at the at the new display Southampton Boat Boat Southampton Show Show in September in September Prepare to be inspired

Prepare to be inspired

IfIfyou can’t wait ‘til ‘til then: www.wbta.co.uk you can’t wait then: www.wbta.co.uk CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

45

The Lady Anne overall winner of four 15 metre Class Regattas (sixteen races) held in the Mediterranean during 2013 congratulations to the skipper and crew.

42 Medina Road, Cowes, Isle of Wight PO31 7BY T. (01983) 294051 • E. ratseysails@ratsey.com

www.ratsey.com/ratseysails

The Lady Anne leading Tuiga

Solent Sunbeam

Photo: Peter Mumford, Beken of Cowes

Classic Hull + Modern Rig = Pure Enjoyment

V27 “Jenny” 1923 wood • V25 “Query” 1924 wood/epoxy • V64 “Maisy” 2011 GRP • V46 “Spray” 2000 wood • V61 “Betty” 2010 GRP

Every picture tells a story From 1923 to today. Traditional, Wood /Epoxy or GRP. All racing equally together.

For the Best One Design Keelboat Racing, Sail and Race a Sunbeam at Itchenor.

Come for a trial sail. Enjoy the Sunbeam Experience. www.solentsunbeam.co.uk Tel: 07836 768225 Ask about crewing vacancies and opportunities to join the Solent Sunbeams.

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CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

Photo © Peter Mumford, Beken Of Cowes

SAILMAKING SINCE 1790

Saleroom UNDER THE HAMMER Powerboat focus

RM AUCTIONS 2014

RM AUCTIONS, MONACO AND MICHIGAN

Tritone trinket gift to Prince Rainier III

GREAT GAR WOOD At another Monaco car auction, held

by UK house Coys, another Tritone was offered, but failed to sell, but a restored 1958 18ft (5.6m) Riva Florida got away for £37,720 (€47,177). The Florida, which featured a large, open aft cockpit with

Above and below: there’s more than a hint of 1950s Americana about the cockpit of the vintage Riva.

Below, left to right: the triple-cockpit Gar Wood; 1964 Riva Ariston Swift II

sunbed, was a top seller for Riva, with 1,137 sales from 1952 to 1969.

Although dedicated classic boat auctions are sparse, exotic classic powerboats are cropping up increasingly in high-end classic car auctions. On 26 July, a 1930 Gar Wood triple-cockpit 28ft (8.5m) runabout is expected to fetch £147,000-£176,000 ($250,000$300,000) when it comes up at RM Auctions’ Motor City sale in Plymouth, Michigan, close to the birthplace of these legendary craft created by sportsman and industrialist Garfield Wood. Only 52 model 28-40 runabouts were made in 1930, when the $4,700 price was a hefty sum for even the well heeled as the Depression took hold. With its 200bhp Scripps 202 six-cylinder engine, this restored example is further distinguished by the fact it was built personally for Logan T Wood, president of Gar Wood Industries, brother of the company founder.

RM AUCTIONS 2014

Prime ministers and presidents receive the odd fountain pen and blotter from fellow heads of state, but when you’re the prince of the world’s most glamorous playground your chums offer far superior tokens of appreciation.

One such trinket was this Riva Tritone presented to His Serene Highness Prince Rainier III of Monaco as a gift in 1958 by a wealthy Milanese textile industrialist.

Signor Gianoglio had ordered two Tritones, but gave the first one completed, hull no 62, to the prince as a mark of admiration and gratitude. At the time the near-26ft (7.9m) Tritone was the largest Riva produced and dominated the luxury market in the Mediterranean until the arrival of the Aquarama in 1962.

With a select client list of kings, princes, potentates and sheikhs the Tritone became known as the “boat of kings”.

Rainier enjoyed Via – and its prodigious twin 5.5-litre six-cylinder Chris-Craft engines, each producing 175bhp – with his actress wife Grace Kelly and young family. So pleased was Rainier with his Tritone that he invited Carlo Riva to his palace and the pair became fast friends, with Riva granted the privilege of using

the tunnel of Monaco Boat Services for boat storage, a valuable privilege as berths at the Monaco docks were always at a huge premium. Rainier kept Via for some years until “downsizing” to a Riva Junior.

Recently restored, and still with its original engines, Via appropriately came to market in Monaco at RM Auctions’ £33 million classic car sale, where its unique provenance helped it fetch £329,700 (€412,337). For those who found that a bit steep, the same auction offered a freshly restored 1964 example of the smaller 177bhp V8-powered Riva Ariston, Swift II, which sold for £64,176 (€80,269).

RM AUCTIONS 2014

BY DAVE SELBY

Take a closer look at more Saleroom lots at classicboat.co.uk/saleroom CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

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Objects of desire Open sesame!

For a James Bond-style arrival, we recommend the super-swanky, Italian CRN floodable tender side garage, complete with 27ft (8.3m) Riva Iseo tender.

Shown is the sure-fire chick-magnet model that was delivered with the 190ft 10in (58.2m) superyacht J’Ade. The system has side-opening “wave gates”, which keep out the sea even when J’Ade is making way! The garage floods quickly and when the doors close it empties in just three minutes, or it can be kept as a pool. Fenders protect and hold the tender in place and it can be refuelled from here; underwater lights suggest a welcome cocktail.

Goldfinger price: undisclosed. Cat Severson crn-yacht.com Tel: +39 071 5011 111

Wonder winch Here’s a handsome heavy and robust two-gear anchor winch made from high-strength, seawater-resistant cast brass for yachts and ships of up to 66ft (20m) LOA. The driving mechanism is operated by a handle via a mechanical transmission system; the gear drive and all axles are made from stainless steel. The solid telescopic handle is made from bronze tubing and also activates the brake nut. On the port side of the winch a strong capstan head is fitted, which can be used for all kinds of traction work. Would be a smart addition to any foredeck. £4,012 plus p&p toplicht.de Tel: +40 0 40 88 90 100

Boat in a bottle This is timeless folk art done to a tee (and turned through 900) by New Jersey bottler Tom Applegate. It’s of the 4,409,250lb (2,000 tonnes) US Coast Guard training barque Eagle, built in 1936 and still in commission.

The model, hand-built from scratch, represents hundreds of hours’ work. It is presented in a clear, onion-style bottle, 9in (23cm) high with a 6in (15cm) diameter, and the ship floats on a sea of blue clay. Tom’s other creations include a Civil War scene, a dinghy race, and the schooner Bluenose. $3,200 (£1,883) plus p&p skipjacknauticalwares.com Tel: +1 757 399 5012

Famous fizz We love these meticulously restored, pre-war soda syphons from Munich-based specialists, Die Siphon Manufaktur.

This one is a 1930s D-Type model from Sparklets, the British company who made syphons under licence in London, New York, Paris, Berlin and Tokyo. It features a chrome-plated top and collar, handblown glass bottle covered in corrosion-resistant wire mesh, has a 1-litre capacity and weighs a reassuring 7½lb/3.5kg (empty!).

It comes with 11 CO2 bulbs (each one fizzes a litre of tap water), a smart wooden shipping crate and a handwritten certificate stating year of production, date of restoration, serial number and the place it was found before restoration. €650 (c£520) inc p&p siphonmanufaktur.de/en Tel: +49 89 38 15 3246

For more Objects of Desire, go to classicboat.co.uk/objects 48

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

Davey & Company NeilThompsonBoats

Est

1885

Wempe, for an accurate future and a beautiful present.

The Norfolk Gypsy Manor Farm, Glandford, Holt, Norfolk NR25 7JP • +44 (0) 1263 741172 info@neilthompsonboats.co.uk www.neilthompsonboats.co.uk

Dimensions Length 19’10”(6.10m) Beam 7’6” (2.31m) Draft 1’8”/3’11” (0.51m/ 1.21m) Sail 212sq ft (19.7m2) Weight 1.3 Ton

Style Quality Reliability

www.davey.co.uk Norfolk Urchin

Norfolk Oyster

Norfolk Gypsy

Norfolk Smuggler

Norfolk Trader

01206 500945

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

49

Horse power Power and provenance join forces on the pristine waters of Lake Como, as we ride shotgun with the exquisite, mahogany-hulled San Marco Ferrari hydroplane STORY GÉRALD GUÉTAT PHOTOGRAPHS HENRI THIBAULT

C

ontact. Sitting in the cockpit of his single-seater, the driver activates the fuel pump and runs the engine a few seconds using the starter, but no ignition. He gives the accelerator a few pumps to fill the carburettors and sets the magneto switch to position three. His finger pushes the starter button again: this time it instantly triggers an inferno.

The rev counter jerks up to 1,300rpm and the driver keeps his foot on the accelerator, but already the engine decreases by 100rpm and ticks over. The water in the tank is heated slowly, while the oil pressure drops gradually from 8 to 4kg/cm². If you listen closely you can hear all the moving parts of the historic Ferrari V12 F1 engine running like clockwork. Meanwhile, the water temperature has risen to 60°C. The pilot shuts down the engine so that the heat is distributed and continues to rise naturally. Three minutes later he fires it up again and engages the propeller shaft by means of a special gimbal and keeps his foot on the clutch pedal. He must now accelerate while slipping the clutch to drive the propeller without stalling. The red racer begins to trace its wake of white foam and now the driver can attempt take-off.

Lift speed is achieved at the point where most boats have already reached their limit. The party has just begun…

Above: owner Dody Jost takes time to pose for the camera as his incredible San Marco Ferrari hydroplane flies across Lake Como

Nearby, the author is driving a special forces RIB, trying to keep pace with the red fireball on the waters of Lake Como, with the photographer braced at the bows.

Unlike the other two Ferrari-powered classic raceboats still in existence (1953 Arno XI and 1954 Antares II), it is the only one equipped with a motor taken directly from a prestigious racecar. With its exceptional works Ferrari V12, this historic racer has rarely left its home on Lake Como, near Milan, but its amazing adventure started on the track at the 1953 Le Mans 24 Hours, the first year of the World Sportscar Championship.

mAyHEm IN mExIcO Enzo Ferrari, popularly known as “Il Commendatore”, unleashed three 340/375MM coupés for an all-out attack on the World Sportscar Championship. The final race of the season was the Carrera Panamericana – a border-toborder thrash through the Mexican desert – that was widely considered to be the most dangerous motor race in the world. The three sister Ferraris, racing under the private flag of Franco Cornacchia’s Scuderia Guastella team, all left, but one of them, chassis 0318AM, crashed at almost 180mph. Both drivers were killed and the car was destroyed – only the engine remained intact. It was then kept in the garages of Scuderia Guastella in Milan.

It is here where Guido Monzino bought it to mount in the 800kg-class racer he had ordered from the best raceboat builder in Milan, San Marco. The San Marco

yard, holder of several world speed records and countless race victories, has a strong reputation and was a perfect match with Ferrari.

THREE OF A KIND The hull of the San Marco Ferrari raceboat is constructed from solid mahogany longitudinal struts (like a keel), laminated mahogany members (laid transversely) and mahogany plywood for the deck. The body is in GRP. Although most competitors were using aluminium, San Marco was a pioneer of the use of moulded glassfibre on boats as early as 1955/56, which at the time was as high-tech as carbon-fibre is today.

The San Marco Ferrari was one of the so-called ‘three-point’ designs that dominated powerboat racing from the Second World War to the mid-1970s. Their typical hulls were designed with two wide sponsons at the front while the rear ended with a narrow transom supporting the propeller and rudder mounts. Therefore, at full speed the hull was in contact with water on only three zones: the extremities of the two sponsons and the tip of the propeller.

Cooling is a crucial point. The engine coolant is fed by a 4½ gallon (20-litre) buffer tank with a heat exchanger to heat lake water collected by a dynamic scoop under a forward sponson, which is only effective at speeds above 25mph (40km/h). The raw lake water must be heated before flowing into the engine. The pilot achieves this by revving up to 6,000 rpm and adjusting the clutch to get all the required torque to the propeller, which is rotating

“It is the only one with a motor from a prestigious racecar”

52

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

SAN MARCO FERRARI

Clockwise from top left: the famous Prancing Horse badge; the cockpit could have come straight from a 1950s Ferrari 500; builder’s badge; Dody’s extraspecial tractor and trailer; ready, steady…

at the same speed as the motor. Ideally, the lake surface should not be too flat: small ripples can even help to lift the hull off the resistance of the water at about 50mph (80km/h). Then the boat becomes a hydroplane, running faster and faster, as Monzino liked to drive it.

Monzino’s offices were in Milan, but he often resided in one of the most beautiful villas in the world, the Punta del Balbianello on Lake Como, the site of various Bond films, including Casino Royale. From the private dock, the servants loved to watch him, impeccably dressed, climbing into his red speedboat, firing up the V12 and speeding towards Como. Less than 15 minutes later, he would alight at the yacht club where his four-wheeled Ferrari awaited to whisk him off to Milan. The only race he took part in was the Pavia-Venezia event, which, at the time, was the longest of its kind in the world.

Ten years later, in the late 1960s, Monzino was using the boat less and less. The red racer was almost

Below, left to right: the ‘donor’ Ferrari 375MM at Le Mans in 1953; the San Marco Ferrari (No 33, in two-seater mode), driven by Guido Monzino and his mechanic Luigi Allione in the 1958 Pavia-Venezia powerboat race

abandoned when a young student of The Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera (the fine arts college in Milan), who also lived around Lake Como, discovered the strange machine and was bewitched by its aesthetics and power. This was in May 1969 and Italy was experiencing the same explosive events that France and others had witnessed a year earlier. Monzino reluctantly agreed to meet this young man by the name of Dody Jost. Finally, the deal was done and the young enthusiast took delivery of the boat, by then in great need of restoration.

prime provenance The classic three-point hulls are delicate and one doesn’t launch a raceboat with an F1-derived V12 Ferrari on the water without taking certain precautions.

Jost, who now owns the Nautilus hotel located on Lake Como with its private dock, protected his treasure for a few years before starting its full restoration.

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

53

SAN MARCO FERRARI

nB: tHese draWInGs do not depIct tHe san marco ferrarI, But a typIcaL 3-poInt HydropLane

Clockwise from top left: beautiful details abound, including the rudder, Ferrari F1 engine with its 12 glorious intake trumpets; the drilled aluminium accelerator pedal

54

sAn MArco FerrArI year of manufacture

enGIne

Loa

enGIne/cHassIs numBer

17ft 8in (5.4m)

0318AM

Beam

poWer

WeIGHt

maxImum speed

1957

8ft 2in (2.5m) 1,764lb (800kg) CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

4,494cc V12 (375 F1)

340hp +137mph (+220kph)

The hull was entrusted to Luccini, the reputed Como competition boatyard, and the engine went to Diena & Silingardi Sport Auto workshop, the well-known Modena-based Ferrari specialists.

Piece by piece, all the elements of the racer regained their strength and beauty, but the process still required years of effort before reaching original perfection.

Recently exhibited at the Museo Casa Natale Enzo Ferrari in Modena, the San Marco V12 fascinated not only the public, but also the historians of the Maranello factory. For years they have paid little attention to the presence of the “Il Commendatore” engines on the water in the late 1950s. However, in 2012, the Ferrari Classiche department, which is responsible for the authentication of the most outstanding Ferraris, made the trip to survey the boat. After a detailed examination, its engine received its official stamp of approval, thanks to its historical “matching numbers” originality.

You do not mess with the experts at this level because the stakes are incredibly high. Collectable Ferraris with an exceptional pedigree can reach sky-high prices at auction. Thus, the 375MM No 0320AM (“younger sister” of the 0318AM), recently found a buyer for nearly 10 million euros at RM Auctions’ Villa Erba auction in May 2013.

But that does not disturb the serenity and pleasure that the driver has experienced since he purchased this red racer more than 40 years ago. He keeps the adventurous spirit of Monzino alive on the same lake at full throttle, where only passion and taste for excellence has guided the hand of a then younger amateur and art connoisseur without any ulterior speculative motive.

SAN MARCO FERRARI

Riding high on the “hairy” hydroplane

T

he San Marco Ferrari racer belongs to the 800kg category, which evolved to 900kg and then 1200kg towards the end of the “three point” era in the mid-1970s. The dimensions of these craft were impressive for the time. Smaller racers were powered

by Alfa Romeo or BPM 2-litre engines or less, whereas these 800kg “monsters” had 4- to 6-litre engines, and sometimes even more.

“Driving was a delicate operation requiring a lot of concentration and faith because to go fast the hull must hover to avoid contact with the water, except for the extremities of the lateral floaters and the rear propeller.

The engine torque is critical because, when starting up, the boat behaves like a mono water-skier. The fast engine response is essential to get the boat to lift out of the water. The heavy-duty engine racers were equipped with BPM or Maserati V8 engines; this Ferrari V12 delivers less torque at lower revs. This is where the multi-disc clutch is crucial to help transfer maximum torque to the propeller.

“The hull of a racing hydroplane is built to go fast; it is much more manoeuvrable when it is gliding across the surface of the water. The profile of the rudder is designed for high speeds and responds immediately to the slightest input at the wheel, which requires a lot of concentration on the part of the pilot. The super-cavitation propeller is only half immersed in water and the pilot can hear its characteristic roar at full throttle. Here, the torque of the propeller rotates in a clockwise direction and tends to turn the boat to the right. This is why a small winglet is fixed under the left sponson to help the boat

turn in that direction. At the time all race circuits turned counter-clockwise around the buoys. Attacking a turn around a buoy is very tricky because it requires the pilot to reduce speed, but not by too much to prevent the hull from sinking back into the water, which would result in bringing the craft to an abrupt halt.

“It was a great sport and the powerboat champions had no cause to be envious of their colleagues on the race track in terms of courage, strength and sense of anticipation. However, like car racing, you can recover on a straight stretch, easing the acceleration to maintain 6,000-6,5000rpm and attain maximum speed.” Dody Jost

Top and above: at full speed, the hydroplane touches the water in just three places; minus the mahogany, this is pure Ferrari racing car

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

55

ANDREW SIMPSON SAILING FOUNDATION inspiring the next generation

21st September 2014 Find out more about this spectacular event at Bartsbash.co.uk youtube.com/BartsBash 'Bring on the 21st September' - Jimmy Spithill 'The biggest race of all time' - Sir Ben Ainslie 'A great race between clubs with a lot of great sailors' - Robert Scheidt 'Everyone, every club, let’s get out there and celebrate this great man' - Iain Percy ‘ ’ - Loick Peyron Follow us on Twitter: @Bartsbash Find us on Facebook: facebook.com/bartsbash

Onboard DOWN THE LOIRE

CRUISING . SEAMANSHIP . EQUIPMENT

Uncharted territory Diehard dinghyman Roger Barnes had a plan: tow his dinghy to the Morbihan festival. Then he lost his car keys and faced a stark choice: come home or sail downstream on the Loire to the Atlantic coast. Fun or foolhardy? Read on to find out STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHS ROGER BARNES

Main: Avel Dro moored in a creek.

Right: our intrepid adventurer and dinghy aficionado, Roger Barnes

I

launch my dinghy into the wide river. Swinging around the end of the slipway, she enters the full force of the current. I sweep swiftly past a row of traditional river craft. They look like oversized Thames punts with garden sheds on their sterns.

Sculling furiously, I bring Avel Dro out of the fast stream and squeeze between the tarred sides of two of the river craft. Colourful pennants stream from their mastheads and their homely cabins are furnished with blankets and cushions. In the field beyond stand a group of marquees and open-air stages, draped in bunting.

It is May 2013. I have towed my dinghy Avel Dro from my home in Somerset to La Possonnière, near Angers, where I have been invited to attend a festival of traditional river life and music called Les Rencontres de Loire. I plan to spend three days exploring the Loire, and then tow my dinghy to the Golfe du Morbihan in time for the much larger La Semaine du Golfe festival. This is the great advantage of a cruising dinghy: you can explore distant waters without long delivery passages.

The Loire is in flood, flowing high over its normal banks, the current running swift and strong, racing past the navigation buoys and streaming through the branches of the overhanging trees. Only boats with powerful engines can make any progress upstream.

Exploration with a dinghy is impossible: I must be satisfied with river trips in other people’s boats.

Next day my plans are further curtailed by the alarming discovery that I lost my keys sometime during the previous evening’s entertainment. Frantic telephoning reveals that a replacement car key will take over a week to obtain, by which time La Semaine du Golfe will be over. Meanwhile, I am trapped at La Possonnière, so I share my disappointment with the skipper of the river craft moored alongside me.

“Why don’t you sail to Morbihan in your boat?

We can look after your car while you are away.”

“But I have never sailed on the Loire, and I have no charts,” I respond.

“Pas de problème – just follow the buoyage.”

“But what happens when I reach the estuary?”

“I wouldn’t risk going down there in this,” he says, kicking the tarred sides of his huge wooden barge.

“But you’ll be alright, you’ve got a proper seaboat.”

Everyone seems confident I can take my dinghy down river and along the coast to Morbihan, other than me.

I am fearful of the long lower reaches of the Loire.

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

59

ONBOARD DOWN THE LOIRE

Above: a traditional gabare navigates the wide stretches of the Loire

Le dernier grand fleuve sauvage de’Europe – the Loire is the last great wild river of Europe. It’s one of the great natural watercourses of the Continent, rising deep in the Ardèche region and flowing more than 600 miles towards the Atlantic seaboard at Saint-Nazaire, untamed by locks or navigation weirs.

Can I trust myself to the mighty brown waters of the river, with no preparation and no passage charts? – I do not have long to make up my mind. I must set off immediately or I will miss La Semaine du Golfe.

I am under way at dawn. As I row out from the bank, the current sweeps me rapidly away, towards whatever perils lie in wait.

Just downstream a road bridge spans the river. I lower my mast and the bridge roars towards me at more than four knots, waves piled in front of its cutwaters. I line up my dinghy with one of the arches and suddenly she is sucked into its shadow. The water is swift and smooth. I hold Avel Dro straight as she accelerates back into the sunlight and smashes through the standing wave beyond.

The Loire winds onwards through lush farmland, its course subdivided by long wooded islands, but the main channel is always clearly buoyed. The sun rises in the sky and soon it becomes very hot. There is not a breath of wind. The current is so swift I only need to row to avoid approaching buoys. Mostly I lie back and watch the scenery sliding past. My boat rotates slowly in the stream, drifting sideways and sometimes backwards

through rural France. I see few other boats on the waterway, other than the occasional fisherman.

Unknown towns and villages glide by and every so often a huge bridge sweeps overhead. At first they are of stone, but further downstream great multi-spanned iron viaducts march assertively across the wide river.

current affairs I enter tidal waters before the city of Nantes. The ebb combines with the freshwater stream to push me ever onwards. Now there’s a good wind, blowing up the river valley. Raising the mast and hoisting sail, I tack onwards through the city’s suburbs and the waterway soon begins to lose its rural charm. Hemmed in by embankments, tall buildings overshadow its muddy waters and modern trams swish past along the quaysides. The buildings blanket my wind, so I lower sail and resume rowing.

A long pontoon is provided in the centre of Nantes for visiting craft. Rowing hard against the current, I ferry glide into a gap between two moored yachts.

Then I reach out and grab a cleat. Instantly the bow of my boat swings out into the stream and the force of the water rips the cleat out of my hand. The pontoon disappears rapidly astern. I row on, past the preserved slipways of the old Nantes shipyard. Just beyond them, there is a grubby inlet in the left bank, where a motley collection of boats is settling into the glutinous mud.

I just manage to come alongside a derelict vessel lying to

“The current sweeps me away towards whatever perils lie ahead”

60

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

ONBOARD DOWN THE LOIRE a buoy, before I too dry out. The waterfront nearby looks very pleasant in the setting sun. I set up the boat tent and gaze longingly at the waterside bars of Trentemoult, inaccessible across the soft mud.

By the time the incoming tide has floated me off the next morning, there is already a strong current rushing downstream. Avel Dro drifts through the commercial docks of Nantes and out into the countryside beyond.

Now there are no more bridges. I pass a series of attractive waterside towns, linked to the far bank by car ferries. Eventually the river widens into a great estuary flowing through empty marshland, extending flat to the horizon, broken only by a few lines of trees. There is little traffic on the estuary, other than a couple of fishermen laying a net across the current. They ask where I am bound. “Bonne chance, monsieur.”

in at the deep end The fair tide is slackening. I must look for somewhere to moor, where I can await the evening ebb. There is a gap in the mudbanks. Entering, I find a homemade pontoon protruding from the reed-fringed bank of the creek. I make fast and go ashore.

I stretch out lazily in the shade of a tree and fall fast asleep, cushioned by the soft grass.

The foul current does not last long, there is so much fresh water coming down the river. Rowing downstream again, I feel the first stirrings of a sea breeze. Soon I am able to make reasonable progress under sail. I tack past a huge powerstation dominating the flat landscape and spot a small plywood yacht coming up astern under outboard motor. She overtakes me and whines towards Saint-Nazaire ahead.

By the time the docks of Saint-Nazaire are abeam, the breeze has freshened. I beat back and forth between the buoys, the muddy ebb pushing me towards a vast motorway bridge spanning the mouth of the river. The little yacht has also hoisted sail. Our tacks cross as we plunge through the steep brown waves under the great viaduct. The French yacht continues out to sea, and I follow her towards the empty horizon.

Saint-Nazaire has dropped a couple of miles astern when the wind abruptly drops away in the dusk. The yacht restarts her outboard and I bend once more to my oars. I may have no charts, but I am not going to sea

without navigation aids. My iPhone is loaded with a set of digital charts, I have the North Biscay pilot book and my chartplotter can still give a speed and heading readout, even with no local charts in its memory. I gaze at the screen of my smartphone, but it does not have happy news. The tide is setting me onto a large shoal in the middle of the wide bay, where swarms of grim brown rocks poke out of the water.

Various ships are approaching up the deep-water channel. There is no danger of them hitting me in the middle of the shoals, but I am not keen on spending the night in here. Hoisting my masthead light, I row diagonally across the tide until I reach the edge of the buoyed channel. Then I pause and wait for a gap in the stream of ships. My boat rises and falls in the smooth swell, illuminated by the blinking green light of a starboard-hand buoy.

I had planned to anchor close to the northern shore of the bay, but the swell is too menacing under the sea cliffs.

Even in the dark I can see flashes of white foam where it seethes over the shoals at their feet. There is no option but to continue rowing out to sea.

I will soon lose the ebb tide again, but once I have passed the lighthouse on the Pointe de l’Aiguillon, at the north-west corner of the bay, I should pick up the flood current that runs generally northwards up the Atlantic coast. I row with renewed vigour, keeping close inshore to avoid the off-lying shoals.

The occulting red light on the Pointe de l’Aiguillon hardly seems to move in the darkness. This is a wellknown optical illusion, when rounding a point. I break off rowing to consult the chartplotter for affirmation, but instead it tells me I have covered less than half a mile

Above, left to right: the huge powerstation en route to Saint-Nazaire; traditional riverboats in La Possonnière

“The tide is setting me onto a large shoal in the middle of the wide bay”

Below, left to right: time for some more rowing; minimal provisions and nav equipment under the camping tent; small boat, big sea – tackling the Atlantic swell!

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

61

ONBOARD DOWN THE LOIRE

in the last hour’s hard labour. It suddenly dawns on me that, despite my rule of thumb for North Biscay, locally the flood tide will set into the wide mouth of the Loire River. Five hours of foul tide lie ahead of me – five hours of continuous rowing, if I am to avoid being dashed onto the cliffs that roar off my starboard beam.

The VHF crackles into life. It is a pan-pan call from the little French yacht. Out of fuel, they too are worried about being set onto the rocks, and this is no place to anchor. Soon a blue flashing light appears, moving across the sombre sea. It stops a few cables away. Then the VHF reports that the lifeboat has taken the yacht in tow.

What would the lifeboat crew think if they knew I was close by in the dark, rowing an unpowered dinghy?

Just after midnight, the long-awaited night breeze finally arrives, blowing off the land. I hoist sail. It is a beam reach, Avel Dro’s fastest point of sailing. My speed over the tide increases to a much more acceptable 2 knots. Rejoicing, I continue up the coast and finally arrive in Pornichet’s vast modern marina at 2am.

Next morning I visit the chandlery and equip myself with detailed charts. Then I set off into the west. The wind is light, but at first I struggle to clear the wide bay off La Baule. By the late afternoon the wind has backed southerly and freshened, the sun has gone and finally I make good progress along the rocky coast to Le Croisic.

Above: what a sight – the fabulous flotilla of small craft that greeted Roger on his arrival in Locmariaquer

Rain begins to fall as Avel Dro slips into the interlinked basins of the fishing harbour: the grey town smells of fish and wet cobbles. I set up the tent and seek shelter in the warm glow of a crowded quayside restaurant.

By the following morning it is blowing hard from the south-west, but I reckon Avel Dro is up to it. La Semaine du Golfe will have been under way for some days now: I need to make a dash for it. I plot a course directly for the entrance to the Golfe – a full day’s sail, cutting straight across a deep indent in the French coast.

I reef Avel Dro well down, in preparation for a hard passage. Then I scull out of the harbour and hoist sail.

A long concrete mole protects the entrance to Le Croisic, and blankets the wind. Avel Dro drifts slowly out to sea, pushed by the strong ebb. At the end of the mole she emerges abruptly into the full force of the weather. She heels and lurches over the waves. The sea is steep with occasional breakers, and my chosen course is hard on the wind. I try to pick a smooth path, but the surging swell soon makes me seasick. It is a dismal day to be puking over the side, and there is no possibility of turning back.

I take a sip of water and return to the tiller. Soon the land disappears in the murk and I am alone: what lunacy has brought me out onto this horrible heaving waste?

Slowly the sea diminishes, the weather improves and my spirits rise. Finally, I can see the coast again. A group of indistinct white shapes breaks the horizon ahead: eventually I identify them as a flotilla of square-rigged ships – a poignant and romantic sight. Soon I am in among them and we all turn for the mouth of the Golfe together. We plunge through the tide race at the entrance to the Golfe and crowds of people cheering us from the shore. The grands voiliers carry on up the main channel further into the Golfe, but I turn aside for the little village of Locmariaquer. According to the festival programme I should find my flotilla there, but the harbour is empty.

They will not arrive for at least another hour, I am told.

I tidy up my boat and erect the camping tent. Then the little harbour is suddenly alive with 200 little sailing boats just like mine, scrambling to find spaces among the pontoons. I recognise various friends among the melee. “So what kept you?” I say.

NAVIGATION NOTES: Cruising from the Loire to the Golfe du Morbihan FRANCE

Carnac

La Possonnière Ancanis

Guérande NANTES BISCAY

Saint-Nazaire

Above: Roger’s route from La Possonnière to the Golfe du Morbihan

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CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

RIVER

LOIRE

I set off on this passage with only a detailed chart of the Golfe du Morbihan, and no chart coverage for the bulk of the route. I did not even have a map.

There was no reasonable opportunity to rectify this situation before Pornichet.

Fortunately, the Imray RCC North Biscay pilot was aboard. This has a detailed chartlet of the tidal Loire and a reasonably large chartlet of the sea area to the west, so at least I could orientate myself. Had I also studied the relevant tidal atlas in that volume, I would not have misjudged the tidal streams. Even so, my rock dodging at the entrance to

the Loire would have been risky without the Navionics software on my iPhone. This worked surprisingly very well – even though the phone kept going to sleep and the bright display affected my night vision.

In Pornichet I purchased two French SHOM 1:50,000-scale charts, 7395 and 7033, covering the coastal passage to the Golfe du Morbihan.

SHOM charts are virtually identical to Admiralty charts, but are helpfully printed on water-resistant paper.

Even so, I always put them in a quarter-sized chart case.

Sailing Tenders, Summer Fun

Choosing the right tender can make a big difference to your life afloat. It must be a practical workhorse, to carry stores and crew from ship to shore. It must be easy to stow and deploy. And, whilst a sailing rig is not on everyone’s must-have list, it’s great fun in harbour... if you can keep the kids or grand-kids happy, they’ll want to come again.

There are many solutions to the storage problem, and this is what we live and breath. Besides our own Nestaway UK-made range of sectional nesting dinghies, we are also UK importers for the Nautiraid skin-on-frame folding Coracles from France, and DinghyGo sailing inflatables from Holland.

_________________________________________________________________________

NESTAWAY Sectional Boats The 8ft Nestaway Pram Dinghy has a two-piece nesting hull - stored length 4ft 8” that joins together, tool-free, with hooks and oversize bolts in less than two minutes.

The bulkheads at the joints are well above the waterline, so each section will float it’s like two small boats joined together, to make one useful one. The lugsail rig has a low centre of effort for stability, and she scoots along under oars. We also make a 9ft two-piece clinker dinghy, and a three-piece 14 footer. Prices from £1950.

_________________________________________________________________________

Above: Nestaway Pram dinghy. Inset (top) shows Pram dismantled and nested together, upside down on deck Left: Nautiraid Coracle 300, sailing version.

Far left: Coracle 250. Inset to text: Coracle 250 folded

NAUTIRAID Folding Boats

Nautiraid has been around nearly 80 years: their folding Coracle Dinghies utilise a fanlike joint that was patented in the 1940s. Whilst the frame has changed little since, fabric technology has, so the skins are now Hypalon (rather than oiled canvas), with subtly integrated tubes around the gunwhales for buoyancy and heeled stability.

Besides folding up, their most notable feature is weight, or lack of it. The 8ft model weighs just 57-lb. The smallest 6ft variant is lighter still and when folded up will fit down a spare bunk. All three row well and will plane under power when lightly loaded.

Sailing rigs are available for the 250 and 300 (10ft) models. Prices from £1,550.

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DINGHYGO Sailing Inflatables

A lot of testing has gone into the DinghyGo boats, and they sail surprisingly well. Extra large tubes make the hull notably stiff, so they can have a freestanding mast (for quick assembly), and there is a proper daggerboard slot for windward performance. Those tubes also give exceptional stability - handy when loading stores, reassuring when sailing. The inflatable V-shape floor means they will plane under power, with motors from 3.5-8 hp. Prices from £2,300 (including sailing rig).

MORE INFO

www.nestawayboats.com Tel: 0800 999 2535

SEE US AT SOUTHAMPTON BOAT SHOW

Below: DinghyGo 275 sailing inflatable.

Inset: also makes a practical motoring tender

Buehler/Colin Archer – 3-Masted Motor Schooner

20m, double-ended, schooner, completed in 2003. Powered by a 180hp Cummins Diesel, cruises at 8.5 knots, and has a range under power of 2000nm.

Extensive re-fit, 2013. She is currently hauled, lying under shrinkwrap at Port Saunders, Newfoundland, Canada.

Available for $695,000 Tel: +1 804 815 2835 •Email: walteradey@aol.com

BUY BRITISH, BUY QUALITY,

BUY Jeckells SAILS We’ve been making sails since 1832, so nobody knows more about sail design and production.

We offer exceptional quality and service at an affordable price.

YEAR

CRUISING SAIL

GUARANTEE

64

JECK237 Sailing Today ad 202w x 129d.indd 1

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

MANY SAILS IN STOCK FOR NEXT DAY DELIVERY

CALL 01603 782223

T: +44(0)1603 782223 E: sails@jeckells.co.uk W: jeckells.co.uk Jeckells of Wroxham Ltd, The Sail Loft, Station Road, Wroxham NR12 8UT 30/4/14 12:21:36

ONBOARD

New Classics

sMH

NEw BOATS fROM BEALE PARK

peter willis

GUILLEMOT DESIGN MerVYN MAGGs

perfect Oughtred miniature

Brian Kennell from Brightlingsea brought along one of his Smacks Boats, whose 12ft (3.7m) GRP hull was built to a mould taken from a Smack tender

by Alf Last, a design that is hugely popular with East Coast Old Gaffers.

They sell for about £6,000, bare hull, or £7,500 complete. Peter Willis

in serendipitous symmetry, another essex-based boatbuilder, Jamie Clay, who helped us judge our 2014 Awards, was alongside Fabian Bush (below) with another lovely sail-and-oar craft in clinker ply – this one from the British sail-and-oar maestro iain Oughtred, of course. she’s the 11ft 6in (3.5m) Guillemot design, with lightweight bamboo spars and lightweight oars by James Byam shaw, using obeche for the blades and Douglas fir on the looms. the detailing on this boat is particularly pleasing, with touches like a parcel shelf/breasthook. A similar boat would cost from around £15,000.

briankennellboatbuilders.co.uk tel: +44 (0)1206 331212

jamieclayboatbuilding.co.uk tel: +44(0)1621 853804

SMACKS BOAT

Nearly as nice, half the price

ABER DESIGN

sMH

we are starting to see the odd boat built by British boatbuilders to the designs by the French sail-and-oar maestro François Vivier. Adrian Donovan has built a beautiful, highly specced Morbic 12, and now this, the 1985-designed 14ft 5in (4.4m) Aber, has been built pretty much true to design by essex-based builder Fabian Bush for Dick wynne, owner of one of our favourite nautical publishers, lodestar. she’s a solid (550lb/250kg) raid boat for one to three souls, good to row with two positions, commodious and easily propelled by a good press of the ‘misainier-rigged’ lugsail (you have to clip the mainsheet from one quarter to the other as you tack or lug!). Fabian

sMH

Vivier raid boat

built her in ¼in (6mm) sapele ply on laminated African mahogany timbers. she’s sheathed in epoxy and glass and looks an absolute picture. Dick is downsizing from a larger boat,

Above, left to right: Fabian (left) shows off Aber; fine detailing on the stem

apparently, and will take Aber on the Falmouth raid later this september. lucky man! price for a similar boat, ready to go with rig and oars, is around £16,000.

for more new classics, go to classicboat.co.uk and search ‘new classics’ CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

65

TrinityMarine.co.uk TrinityMarine.co.uk TrinityMarine.co.uk The Worlds Leading Light in Marine Antiques & Collectables

Trinity Marine • Scattor Rock • Sheldon Lane • Dunsford • Exeter Devon EX6 7YT Tel: 01647 253400 • Fax 01647 252075 www.trinitymarine.co.uk • contact@trinitymarine.co.uk

Eve for Sale

This could be your day job…..

Rare chance to own the first pilot cutter built by Luke Powell of Working Sail. 38ft EVE OF ST MAWES has earned over £1 million in charter income since her launch in 1997. Small enough to be a practical private yacht or continue as a much loved charter boat, she sleeps 7. Available to purchase now and sail away after our 2014 charter season, so stage payments possible. Current owner Classic Sailing will continue to operate as a sailing holiday business with a fleet of 20 boats, so there are options for marketing assistance if required. £195 000 (Plus VAT - reclaimable if in commercial use) Eve is based Cornwall, UK. More details www.classic-sailing.co.uk/eve-for-sale or call 01872 580022 66

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

ONBOARD NEW CLASSIC

STiRLiNG DiNGHY

FIrST LOOK

Making an expedition WOrDS STeffaN meYRic HuGHeS PHOTOGrAPHS AnD DrAWInGS wiLL STiRLiNG

I

t was good to go for a sail on Will Stirling’s first ‘Expedition’ dinghy on a sunny day this June, not least as I’d spent a cold winter’s day in 2013 helping him prepare the ribs and steam them in.

Will has built 26 dinghies in the last 11 years, but this one is special as she’s his own, and built to take him on his self-appointed odyssey around every lighthouse in Britain.

She’s as traditional as you could hope for, planked in mahogany on oak timbers, copper-fastened, lug-rigged and with a heavy, brass centreboard and teak decking. Spars are spruce and Oregon pine, the sail is Clipper Canvas and the rope is three-strand buff polyester.

Oh – and everywhere you go, someone says “nice boat”!

She’s heavy for her size, as befits her role, but tows easily enough behind an ageing Toyota Starlet, as we discovered driving her to the slip.

A quick sail in Plymouth Sound revealed a boat that is simple to sail (with just the one large lugsail with three reefs), very solidly built and possible, if heavy, to row. She is half-decked and this, with the sole boards providing a flat bottom, make it possible to sleep with your head under the foredeck, while another expedition

SPecificaTiONS

LOA

15ft (4.6m) BEAM

5ft (1.5m) DISPLACEMEnT

55lb (25kg) PrICE

£925 ex VAT per foot for dinghies.

Plans also available Top and left: everything from the boat to the rigging to the fittings is trad – no plastic jammers here

crew member takes a turn on the tiller.

Most owners would find the space useful for gear. We tacked and gybed around the Sound and beached her on Drake’s Island on her brass keel band.

After leaving the island, we performed capsize tests. The high coamings give a

good, safe heel angle and she’s pretty stable for this sort of boat. She comes up easily from a capsize and hesitantly from a turtle. Both manoeuvres were easily conducted by two of us in benign waters, but left a lot of water in the cockpit to bail, something Will plans to remedy with more flotation.

However, this is straying away from the point. Very few owners of a boat like this will be going cross-Channel like Will. This is a boat for family days out, picnics and the simple pleasure of a beautiful, well-built dinghy. stirlingandson.co.uk Tel: +44 (0)1822 614259 CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

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ONBOARD

Past practice

Navigation lights Cruising expert Francis B Cooke’s 1904 classic sailing manual, Cruising Hints, is now in its seventh edition. And much of it is still relevant, especially to the classic boat owner. So we’re starting a new mini series extracting the best thoughts and advice from old tomes to help you make the most of your days on the water

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CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

there by lines. The illustration shows clearly the method of attachment. The screens should be fitted high up on the shrouds so that the bar will clear your head when going forward. As, when the yacht is sailing to windward, the weather shrouds are as taut as fiddle strings, both lights are held rigidly in their proper positions, while the lanterns are in a much higher position than customary.

PRISMATIC LENSES ARE BEST The best lenses for navigation lights are prismatic.

They are not so powerful as dioptric, but the dioptric lens is not suitable for a sailing yacht, as when the vessel is heeled, the light shines onto the water instead of far ahead. For riding lights the dioptric is the best.

The only form of riding light worth a damn that I know is a windproof burner, such as that made by Davey & Co Ltd. This has an inner glass shaped like an inverted cone and, provided it is properly trimmed, it will burn brightly in almost any weather and will not be jerked out by the motion of the boat, however violent.

The Davey lamps are most substantially made and will last for many years. A friend of mine has had one in constant use for more than 30 years and it is still in good order. A riding light of this type is a good investment as it will save you from anxiety. It is a mistake to use a cheap hurricane lantern for this purpose, for it cannot be trusted and if you cannot rely on your riding light you will have many a sleepless night.

On a cutter, the best way of hoisting the riding light is with the foresail halyard. A spring hank should be seized to the ring of the lamp and snapped on to the forestay when hoisting. Lanyards should be led from the sides of the lamp and set up to the bowsprit shrouds, or rail if the yacht has no bowsprit shrouds. Thus hoisted, the lamp cannot swing about and will not be damaged by knocking against anything. In a sloop with a bowsprit, the lamp can be hoisted in the same way, but instead of a spring hank, use a short length of line with a spring hook on the end, as shown in the illustration opposite. The lanyards can be set up to screw eyes in the covering board, or to the rail. Another way of hoisting the riding light on a sloop is to suspend it between the rigging and the mast, with lanyards to both to keep it equidistant.

“

“

Sailing at night is delightful in fine weather, when the moon is full and the heavens hung with stars, but all the same I think the best place for a small yacht during the hours of darkness is in some snug anchorage. Still, there are times when you cannot avoid being under way after dark… and a cruising vessel should be prepared for night sailing.

It is a popular delusion that the size of the navigation lanterns should be based on the size of the yacht, but, in fact, the opposite is true.

The beams from a small yacht’s lights are so close to the water that even if visible for the prescribed two miles, which they very seldom are, they are not easily seen from the deck of a big steamer.

It is advisable therefore to have some extraneous means of attracting attention. The light from a powerful electric torch flashed on the white sails is much more likely to be seen than the navigation lights, or a flare can be burnt. In my young days I was one of a syndicate owning an old 20-ton smack, which we sailed all the year round in the Thames Estuary. We were often under way after dark and it was our practice to keep a handful of cotton waste, steeped in paraffin, in a bailer. When a steamer came dangerously near, we put a match to the flare, and it never failed to do the trick.

Apart from the question of visibility, I am inclined to think that the navigation lights of small yachts seldom, if ever, conform to the regulations. The screens are fitted on the shrouds and when the yacht is sailing to windward, the lee shrouds are so slack that the screen waggles about with the motion of the vessel, with the result that at one moment the light is showing across the bow and the next it does not show right ahead and can be seen for more than the prescribed two points abaft the beam. (NB a point here is 11¼°.)

11¼° To overcome this difficulty, the late G U Laws devised a rather ingenious method of screen attachment. It is merely an iron bar with the ends bent back at right angles, to which the screens are attached. Each screen has two metal jam cleats on the back, which fit on the shroud, being secured

1

ONBOARD PAST PRACTICE

3

2

4

5

1 2 3 4 5

On a cutter, hoist the lamp with a shackle holding it close to the forestay and lanyards on martingales Alternatively, you can hoist it between the shrouds as shown.

The idea is to stop it swinging wildly Sailing at night is wonderful, but you have to have the right lights GU Laws’s idea for making sure that sidelights have a better chance of being seen at night Davey & Co’s famous anchor light with its inverted glass cone CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

69

ONBOARD

Lazarette TRIED & TESTED

Torqeedo Travel 1003 It is particularly satisfying to test a product which solves previous problems. The Torqeedo Travel 1003 is an electric outboard that doesn’t rely on a heavy acidic car battery. Instead, there’s an integrated and sealed clip-on rechargeable lithium battery that makes the whole thing one unit and, in turn, gives it the advantage of a petrol outboard without the petrol – leakage, noise, oil, winterising and upkeep. When you turn it on the digital display tells you how much power you have and, once quietly under way, the built-in GPS tells you your speed over the ground and the remaining range.

As for range, it depends on how you use it: two miles at full throttle, when the 520-watt-hour battery will be discharged in 30 minutes, or 16 miles at low throttle, when the battery will last eight hours (an alarm sounds when the battery drops to 30 per cent). It’s IP67 waterproof, well engineered and can be disassembled into three parts. We tested it on canals and at sea and the real treat for anyone used to a petrol outboard is that it starts with a simple twist of the throttle. For heavy use it’s a good idea to get two batteries or the solar-panel charger, otherwise you can charge it through your boat via an inverter or shore power. There’s even a Torqeedo Torq Trac smartphone app that can be used for waypoints, GPS, range status and trip logging. Long or short shaft will power up to 1.5 tons. We love this. £1,499 inc p&p torqeedo.com Tel: +44 (0)1502 516 224

Timber cleats Wood Cleats makes a range of handmade cleats in a variety of woods from its base in Pembrokeshire. Prices start at £12 for a standard 4in (102mm) mahogany cleat. The cleats illustrated are 10in (254mm) in American white oak, priced at £28 each. Reduce by 15 per cent if you want them unvarnished and undrilled. woodcleats.co.uk, info@woodcleats.co.uk

Pegless washline Wacky Practicals are at it again, here with a pegless washing line that’s stretchy and can hang from pretty much anything from 1m to 4m. The twisted shock cord simply clamps around the garments so there is no need to use plastic pegs that perish or wooden ones that rot. We tried it with a duvet cover and it stayed on all night in 70 mph winds, which pretty much covers it. £9.99 plus p&p wackypracticals.com Tel: +44 (0)800 599 9458

For more products for your boat, go to classicboat.co.uk/lazarette 70

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

Bristol Bronze cleats One of the hallmarks of genius about Nathanael Herreshoff is this design for his bronze hollow cleat. Although considerably lighter, it is stronger than the solid cleats. It is also aesthetically pleasing to the eye, especially when polished. Made by hand in the workshops of Bristol Bronze, they come in six sizes from 5¼in to 15in (13cm to 38cm) long. £65 to £232 respectively. bristolbronze.com Tel: +1 401 625 5224

Hatteras hat

We’re big fans of these Hatteras newsboy-style caps from Stetson, of cowboy hat fame. They are well made and stay in place. And on hot days in summer the plain linen model is delightfully cool, while the herringbone pure silk version is so comfy you barely notice you’re wearing it. This version is a wool/alpaca in brown, which is a cosy bonnet for the night watch... From £40 plus p&p stetson-europe.com Tel: +1 866 271 7077

ONBOARD

Books Finding Longitude Written by Richard Dunn and Rebekah Higgitt 2014 is the 300th anniversary of the Longitude Act, the parliament-ratified British prize to try to solve the tricky problem of telling how far east, or west, you were at any point on the earth’s surface. Since medieval times (14th century) navigators had been able to determine latitude – how far north or south you were from the equator, with the cross-staff but with only a ship’s log for distance and compass for direction, this gave innacurate position fixing out of sight of land. As many as one in five ships were being lost between Portugal and India from 1550 and 1650, the authors tell us. With the loss of five naval ships of the British fleet and 1,600 men on the rocks of Scilly in 1707 under the command of Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell, the need for a method of longitude and more accurate charts became urgent.

However, with the likes of Isaac Newton proposing the superbly complex lunar distances method and others wanting to measure the position of Jupiter’s moons, the idea of an accurate clock seemed absurdly simple to some. Yet, as we know, the rest is history. With the development of John Harrison’s clocks and Captain Cook’s subsequent endorsement, all intricately relayed – with the politics as well – here, time-keeping heralded the navigational accuracy we have today. It’s probably time Harrison’s descendants received the full reward. DH RRP £25, 255pp, hardback, published by Collins, 2014

CLASSIC BOOKSHELF

Manual of Seamanship, Vol 1, 1951 There have been many editions of this book over the years. It is part one of the mandatory two-volume textbook for naval cadets and it is a goldmine of useful, timeless information, presented with great clarity and filled with lovely hand-drawn technical diagrams – something of a lost art these days.

The sections on boatbuilding, ropework and general seamanship are as pertinent today as they ever were – and all the better coming from such an authoritative source. Some sections, like buoyage, are out of date so don’t use for navigation. And some parts, best of all, give detailed drawings of the warships of the day. One wonders how that information could not have been classified!

Published by HM Stationery Office, 1951 (this edition 1959). These books are freely available secondhand and online, from £5 upwards

SUNDOWNERS WITH GUY VENABLES

Connoisseurs of cognac It doesn’t take long to get into an argument with a Frenchman, but this time I think I trumped him. When embarking on a well-practised list of all the things that the French have invented, he started with cognac. To which I snorted: “No you didn’t!” The noise of 30 chairs scraping backwards echoed around the Dieppe bar. Moustaches dropped at the corners and Gitanes were spat across the room.

But they didn’t invent it. British, Dutch and Scandinavian sailors did. As soon as we found that sailing up the Gironde river enabled us to buy Bordeaux wine, we all used to meet up there on unusually popular and well manned sailing merchant trips. However, Dutch, English and Scandinavian taxes on wine imports in the 16th century were cripplingly expensive, so we set about an experiment of alchemic significance. The thought was if we could dehydrate the wine in France to reduce the weight and tax, ship it to Holland, England or Scandinavia in barrels, pay the tax on it, and then just add the water back in we’d be left with the Charentais wine that we started with. This, of course, didn’t work.

However, in the “what the hell” sailor’s tradition of waste management, some bright spark decided to try the dehydrated wine. Whoever that disappointed sailor was, sitting on a soggy quayside somewhere in Europe, he was drinking the first ever cognac.

Talk of this hero’s drink got around fast. Mr Martell turned up from the Channel Islands in 1715, Mr Hine arrived from Dorset and 50 years later Mr Hennessey came from Cork, an officer in the Irish Brigade and in the pay of the French king.

The English and Irish brought with them their already refined attention to detail and obsession with purity. It is notable that the acronyms such as V.S.O.P. are in English – Very Special Old Pale. Any mention of champagne on a bottle of cognac only goes back to the literal translation meaning “field” and a Napoleon Brandy does not denote that it was bottled in the Napoleonic times, but is a bit of a marketing ploy denoting that it must be at least five years old (cognac starts to spoil after 70 years and doesn’t improve at all once bottled).

Although, saying this, occasionally 1811 or 1815 bottles come up for auction and demand exorbitant prices. So, keep an eye on our Saleroom page and I’ll see you “rolling the bowl”.

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

71

ATYLA

BEAUTIFUL TRAWLER YACHT Refurbished and maintained by T. Nielsen & Company

SHIP.com 2014 European summer sailing: Mediterranean Sea, North Sea, Baltic Sea, English Channel, Atlantic Ocean...

Come on board to learn traditional sailing maneuvers and live a great experience. Or sponsor our adventures to get your company’s name on board around Europe.

BIG SABA Length Overall: 49 feet 10 inches Beam: 16 feet 10 inches Draft: 2 metres approximately

Built in 1944 by Bolson’s of Poole for the Admiralty, converted in 1984 and then rebuilt by T. Nielsen & Company in 2010. Constructed in larch on oak, Big Saba has full sails and a Gardner diesel engine. Fully equipped and finished to the highest standards, both interior and exterior is a testament to excellent craftsmanship. MCA Coded. Lying in Gloucester. Offers in the region of £250,000.

atyla@ atylaship.com

www.tnielsen.co.uk/boats-for-sale/ +44 (0)1452 301117

M.J.LEWIS & SON (Boat Sales) LTD DOWNS ROAD BOATYARD, MALDON, ESSEX. CM9 5HG

E-Mail: info@mjlewisboatsales.com • Tel: 01621 859373 • Mob: 07736 553487 Specialists in the brokerage of Classic Vessels, Traditional Yachts and Working Boats

Nelson 34, 1978 Robust GRP, Twin Perkins 6354s Aft cabin.

Enclosed helm. Full history, Ex RN tender.

Essex £24,950

32ft Fox’s Motor Yacht, 1932 Pine on Oak. Twin Perkins 4107s Enclosed wheelhouse. Inland waterways certified. Norfolk £21,500

Norske 35, Gaff Cutter 1977 Windboats of Wroxham. Yanmar 3GM. Seacrete.

Lines of a Colin Archer.

Exeter £ 24,950

Heard 28 Gaff Cutter, 1982 Commissioned for her only owner. Perkins 4cyl 1998. Robust GRP hull. Very competent vessel Accom 6. Cornwall £39,950

30ft Baltic One design, 1990 Lines from 1880. GRP hull. Traditional gaff rig plus bowsprit Open furnished cockpit. Inboard eng, double cabin frw’d. N.Essex £22,950

East Anglian. MkII, 1962 Re furbished. Re wired, Top condition. Wooden Bermudan Sloop Sole diesel eng. Accom 4.

Suffolk £19,950

35ft Prawner, 1900 Restored 2009-11 & sailing.

Crew accom for 4. Vetus ’07 eng Gaff Cutter Essex £19,500

11m Gostelow’s Smack, 1908 Rebuilt engine, new sails & rig.

Deep cockpit small cabin.

N.Brittany. £40,000 OIRO

29ft Felthams Bermudan Cutter, 1929 Pitch pine, teak decks. BMC eng.

Accom for 4. Lawrence Sails.

Suffolk £17,500

29ft Laurent Gilles Sloop, 1966 Fitted out by owners. Kept in commission, Mooring available. Accom for 4.

N. France £18,750

25ft Folkboat K22, 1995 Apprentice built. A basic boat. Outboard, Carvel wooden hull. 2 berths, 4ft 6ins h’drm.

Suffolk £4,950

10m Barge Yacht, 1939 Shuttlewooods built. Wooden hull Leeboards.

2ft draft. 5ft 3in h’drm. Gaffer cutter rig.Yanmar GM10 eng. Essex £23,950

24ft, Albert Strange, 1906 Canoe Yawl No; 63. Rebuilt 1990’s.

Beta 10hp eng. C’plate.

E.Yorks. £9,750

22ft Nicholson Dayboat, 1910 Gaff Rig, Gowens ’08 sails.

Pitch pine, lead keel. Much restored.

Essex £5,950

28ft Oakleaf, 1972 Sutton’s Gt Wakering. Centreplate.

Wooden clinker construction. Saab eng E.Sussex £12,500

www.heritage-marine.com

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CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

ONBOARD SECTION HEAD SUB SECTION

Classnotes Howth 17s

BY VANESSA BIRD To celebrate the Howth 17’s centenary in 1998, the first five boats of the class to be built recreated their maiden voyage, sailing a 100-mile passage from Carrickfergus on Belfast Lough, where they were built, to their home port at Howth near Dublin. It was a tremendous achievement for a class of such vintage, and particularly so considering the inclement weather conditions and the fact that the Howth 17s are only three-quarters decked, but it was an appropriate way to mark a class that has become a significant part of Howth YC’s history, and indeed the history of all classic one-designs. For this design, conceived in 1897 by W Herbert Boyd, can now claim to be the oldest one-design keelboat class in the world that is still raced today and which is as it was originally designed.

Remarkably, given the class’s age, only two boats in the fleet have been lost over the years – Sylvia in 1915 and Mimosa in 1984 – but the class returned to its original fleet number of 17 in 1988 when Erica and Isobel were built. Since then, the fleet has also been joined by Sheila, built by Charlie Featherstone in Wicklow in 2009.

Herbert Boyd designed the Howth 17 in 1897 as a replacement for Howth SC’s (now YC) half-rater class. A lawyer by day, Boyd was commodore of the club at the time, and a keen amateur boat designer and builder.

The design that the club required had to be rugged enough to withstand local conditions, of moderate price and for a crew of three. Boyd’s solution was an elegant 17ft (5.2m) LWL gaff sloop, with a long keel, short counter, bowsprit and topsail. The first five of the class were launched in 1898, built by John Hilditch at Carrickfergus, and raced as a class for the first time that Easter.

TIM JEFFREYS

Three more were built by James Clancy of Kingstown in 1900, and in 1906, Dublin Bay SC commissioned J Kelly at Portrush to build five more.

Launched in 1907, the Dublin boats competed against the Howth fleet for the first time at that year’s Howth Regatta, and continued to race together until the 1950s. Since then, most of the Dublin fleet has been bought by Howth YC members.

Three more boats were built between 1908 and 1913, before the final boat of the original fleet, Echo, was built

by G Holloway in 1914. It was another 74 years before the next one would be launched.

Interestingly, all the boats remain today very much as they were built, and have seen few changes. They’re still regularly and competitively raced, and show no sign of slowing down or of waning interest. It’s a testament to the skill of the designer that 116 years on, they are still a major part of the club’s activities and look set to be so for many more years to come.

Above: the Howth 17s Deilginis and Aura competing at the 2013 Cowes Classics Week (see p28)

The Howth 17s were planked in red pine below the waterline and yellow pine above, with a teak topstrake and oak frames. The keel was elm, the stem and deadwood oak and the deck beams larch.

BOYD’S BOAT

“Remarkably, only two boats have been lost”

Vanessa’s book, Classic Classes, is a must-buy.

Please bear in mind that this book provides only a snapshot of the myriad classes in existence.

CONSTRUCTION

The class is often referred to as “Boyd’s Boats” after the designer W Herbert Boyd. Boyd’s father owned Aura, which was built by John Hilditch of Carrickfergus in 1898. He owned her until 1919, when she passed to his son Cecil. Herbert Boyd continued to sail her well into his eighties.

HOWTH BORN AND BRED SPECIFICATIONS

LOA

22ft 6in (6.9m) LWL

17ft (5.2m) BEAM

6ft (1.8m) DRAUGHT

3ft 9in (1.2m) SAIL AREA

305sqft (28.3m²)

DESIGNER

WH Boyd

Although the class takes its name from the place from which it has sailed since 1898, it was not until 1988, when the class celebrated its 90th anniversary, that a boat was actually built in Howth.

Isobel and Erica were built by John O’Reilly at Howth Castle.

THE ‘HIP-RAYS’ When the class was first formed, after each race the winning boat would receive three cheers in recognition of their success from the rest of the fleet.

The ‘Hip-Rays’ still continue today.

PRICE The first five, fully rigged Howth 17s cost £90 each.

USEFUL ADDRESSES hyc.ie/howth-17 CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

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BOATS FOR SALE

Boats for sale Looking to sell your boat?

Sailing Yacht ‘Peace’

FLEUR DE LYS 52 BUILT BY DAGLESS OF WISBECH 1961

Reach over 50,000 readers each month

Classic gentleman’s motor yacht, built of Iroko on Oak. Spacious and comfortable yacht, large saloon, separate wheelhouse and well equipped galley. Sleeps 7 in 3 cabins. Twin 100hp diesel engines, generator. Extensive hull refurbishment 5 years ago and generally in good condition. Copper coat 10 year antifoul. Moored Heybridge, Essex. £79,500 Contact Peter Tydie Phone 07590046262. tydies@aol.com

To advertise call Edward Mannering +44 (0) 20 7349 3747 Edward.Mannering@chelseamagazines.com Copy Deadline for next issue is 28/07/2014 Mahogany skiff by banhaMs of CaMbridge Built in 1900.

Sculls; removable sliding seat; fast.

Lovingly maintained

by Olympic oarsman for the last 30 years.

SAILING YACHT ‘PEACE’

UniqueUnique opportunity to buy this steel yachtthis launched 1976.One owner from new. Sailed opportunity to buy steelinyacht launched in 1976. extensively on the East Coast, Holland, France, Belgium and south to the Channel Islands.

One owner from new. 4 berth. Fin keel, self-draining aft cockpit, skeg hung rudder. Bermudan sloop rig, steel decks

CHESFORD 18 CLASSIC MOTOR SAILER

Robust family sailing yacht. 4 berth internal layout in 2 cabins with around 6ft maximum and superstructure, epoxy coated from new. Last Mahogany on oak clinker, bilge keel, 2 berth, bermudan rigged headroom. Fin keel, self-draining aft cockpit, skeg hung rudder.

Bermudan sloopsurvey rig, steel decks and superstructure, epoxy from 1.8 new.litre Last55HP surveyinboard 1997.

1997.coated Leyland diesel engine (1980), sailing boat - built Kingswear, Devon in early 1960’s and now fully

Offers over £8,000 Phone Simon Crosse on 01603 621 628

complete rebuild and overhaul in 2004. Indirect cooling. restored. Original refurbished Stuart Turner P5 4hp inboard. Sails, Leyland 1.8 litre 55HP inboard engine (1980), rebuildsale. and overhaul Competitively priceddiesel at 7,250 Tax Paidcomplete for a quick For in 2004. covers and Seagull outboard included. Boat safety certificateENGINE: to Indirect cooling. more information contact Peter Clayton 01621 772841 / 2016. £5,000. Contact: alexanderfenton@me.com, 01635 or email2006) peteclayton@btinternet.com 579317 or 07917 832749. In storage near Henley-on-Thames.

SAILS & RIG: Slab07801 reefing 712904 mainsail (Wilkinson, with mainsail cover. Separate hank on sails Photo: McGruer & Co

including No 1 Genoa, No 3 Genoa, No 1 Jib (Crusader, 2010), No 2 Jib (Crusader, 2010), storm Jib (Cranfield, little used). Aluminium mast and boom (Sailspar and Kemp). Mast new in 1982 and boom new in 2006. Stainless steel standing rigging professionally replaced 1995 to 2006.

ROB ROY

NAVIGATION EQUIPMENT: Sestrel compass, Raymarine Fluxgate compass, Lowrance EVR880 Classic 1956 racer/cruiser DSC/VHF radio, Raymarine Smart Pilot X5 tiller pilot, MLRFX312 GPS.

yawl, 56 feet. One of

Competitively priced at 7,250 Tax PaidArthur for a quick salemost Robb’s

legendary designs and

For full inventory or more information contact Peter 01621 772841 or email mostClayton successful racers.

peteclayton@btinternet.com Built to unusually superb

standards by Herbert Woods Ltd of Norfolk.

Lovingly owned, restored, raced and cruised by the current owners for the last 18 years. Currently cruising in the Adriatic. €295,000 Email: ddostall@yahoo.com

PHASELUS OF LORNE, 1968 (SIMILAR TO ABOVE)

McGruer Lorne class yacht for restoration. Designed by James McGruer, built McGruer & Co, 1968. 28ft LOA, mahogany on laminated frames. Keel bolts replaced by Stirling & Son 2013.

Lying under cover, Greenock.

Asking £3,000. Contact: gordondrysdale@hotmail.com

TARANTELLA

Traditional built on east coast by Alan Pratt, Iroko clinker planks on oak frames. Built in 1973 and has the original Yanmar 9HP diesel engine. Tarantella’s deck is cream that harmonises with the varnished coach roof with a flash of Fighting Lady yellow. Location Plymouth Devon, UK Price GBP £4,500 Contact Chris at 07747 162018 or peter@ulee.us

Beautiful Black hulled Norfolk Smuggler

Very well equipped with separate folding chart table and mast lowering ‘A’ frame permanently rigged, (doubles as pulpit) £52000 Ashore South Coast Oliverphilip@btinternet.com

Norfolk Gypsy ‘Tilly’ Boat no. 63.

1st launched 1995.

One family owner.

Yanmar 1GM. Road/launch trailer.

V.good inventory.

Lying ashore, South Devon. £20,950. email: shh.simonhunter@ gmail.com Tel: 0117 9298583

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CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

ALEXANDER ROBERTSON, CLYDE 1904

Elrhuna- 28ft unique vintage yacht, 12HP dolphin engine, professionally maintained and near original build. A joy to sail, great fun, well balanced. She is a beautiful sailing yacht in excellent condition. £27,500 mungo_watson@hotmail.com +447970294652

GOLANT GAFFER NO3.

Roger Dongray designed 19 foot, 2 berth cruiser. Built 1998, Yanmar GM10.

Well equiped, new cover and hood.

Lovely boat, beautifuly maintained.

Lying St Just in Roseland. £9,000 ono.

Tel. 07802 853203. mgarfath@yahoo.com

BOATS FOR SALE

1930’S ANDREWS SLIPPER ‘CHIN CHIN’

SEABIRD

Design by WILLIAM FIFE III in 1889. Built in 2003 by STAGNOL in France. Hull Strip Planking 8,22m, AOL 10,85m. Beam 2,08m. 5 sails + Spi + Covers. Motor YANMAR 9 H.P. Sailing in Costa Brava, Gerona, SPAIN. €65,000. Contact: Louis +34 609 28 08 38 l.mulliez@verdecora.es

Romilly

‘Riant’- could be the lowest priced Romilly for sale ever and she is in excellent condition ready for the new season. Romilly is a unique boat. Perfect for day sailing or weekending in her two person cabin. Masham, North Yorkshire. £14,950 ONO. T: 01765 650079 E: phil@grewelthorpe.org.uk

A graceful mahogany & teak 25 ft Thames launch, including canopy, traditional bench seat across her stern plus wooden table and two Lloyd Loom chairs at helm. Fully restored, her engine was also overhauled in 2008 & hull re-furbished by Henwood and Dean in 2014. A stunning and timeless example of a true river classic. Essential viewing ashore in Henley £34,950 Please call 07973 154 038 or email toby.fletcher@gmail.com

ROXANE NumbER 11 (1998)

The GRP hull is from Bridgend Boat Company (Plymouth) and she was fitted out

by Gemini-Teak (Enkhuizen). Unique teak cockpit and decks, a deckhouse from mahogany and beautiful wooden interiors.

Main and mizzen; carbon/expoxy fibre masts and spars. Bronze winches and cleats.

Sleeps 2 in the forward cabin and 2 in the main saloon. Galley with a double burner and a sink with footpump for fresh water.

Ample shelves, lockers, cupboards; a marine toilet and a paraffin heater. Motor: 1GM10 Yanmar diesel and a 25 litre fuel tank. More pictures on www.roxane-romilly.co.uk Euro 55,000. Tel +31641934855 or email fwvdhorst@gmail.com

1968 John Alden design Built 2000. Excellent build quality. A pretty boat with good performance under power or sail. LOA 42 feet. Lying Portland.

Offers on £115,000.

For details contact 07508 278980 or eajrowe@yahoo.co.uk

INTERNATIONAL ONE DESIGN

FAIRWIND

An-eye catching classic Harrison Butler 25ft LOD, built in 1935, Perkins diesel, recent sails by Quantum. Lying Aldeburgh Suffolk.

Price £20,000. Contact Rory Wilkinson 07921310559

Riva BeRtRam 25ft spoRts fisheRman

This classic beautiful 1970’s boat has had a major re-fit in 2010 with all new electrics, cabin linings, bunks,cooker, fridge, oven, cushions, loo, teak swim board, shower, windless and many more new extras. Engines 2 yanmar 200 hp only 500 hr. Top speed 28 knots. £47,000. Contact guytrench@aol.com 07710 021010 Lying Burnham Marina Essex.

A great example of this classic racing class, Sanchia (built 1958) has raced regularly with the IOD fleet in St Mawes and in Falmouth Week.

She has been based in the Carrick Roads, Falmouth for many years and has been well looked after. She has been upgraded for racing since 2007. Length 33ft 5”, draft 5ft 6” £15,000 negotiable. Call 01872 580184 or E-mail: ncoppin@gmail.com for more information.

WHO WANTS TO TAKE HER HOME? Miranda of Lleyn, an 8 ton Gauntlet built by Berthon Boats.

Lying in Bodø, NorthNorway.

Fair condition, Reasonably priced at £19,000 Contact: kembo@online.no

BUILT IN 1972 AND NEWLY RESTORED

Clinker wooden construction with green painted topsides, varnished toerail and cabin sides, cream painted coachroof top, long keel with centreplate, aft-cockpit, tiller steering with transom hung rudder. Sleeps 6 (6 berths in 2 cabins. 18 horsepower Saab engine. Price: £12,000 Please call: 07842 245169

J. SAMUEL WHITE 40FT STEAM POWERED ADMIRALS BARGE Built Cowes 1892. Hull construction double skin teak.

Historic vessel, in active service with the Admiralty between 1892 and 1912. Period compound steam engine. New oil fired boiler installed 1992 POA Contact Peter Freebody & Co 01628 824382 www.peterfreebody.com

GREY MERLIN

Roxane hull, standing lug yawl rig, 30’ lod, 45’ length over spars, built 1996. Beautiful, distinctive, fast shoal-draft cruiser, excellent condition.

For details and photos see website: http://southern.unospace.net/ £47,500, ashore Birdham Pool.

Contact 07964314792 or email southernpeter@googlemail.com

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

75

BROKERAGE

Brokerage

To advertise Call Patricia Hubbard +44 (0) 207 349 3748 Patricia.hubbard@chelseamagazines.com Copy Deadline for next issue is 28/07/2014

2 Southford Road, Dartmouth, South Devon TQ6 9QS Tel/Fax: (01803) 833899 – info@woodenships.co.uk – www.woodenships.co.uk

40’ Dandy rigged Penzance lugger built in Mevagissey in 1903. Gaff rigged main with lug mizzen. Major rebuild in previous ownership she is now in great structural condition. Cruised extensively around France and south west in recent years. One of the most beautiful boats afloat in UK! Cornwall £65,000

26’ Gaff cutter designed by MG Duff and built in Birdham in 1948.

Honduras mahogany hull above the waterline, pitch pine below all bronze fastened. 4 berths with heads and galley. New sails and standing rigging in present ownership. Lovely little boat in smart condition Hants £15,000

35’ West Country gaff cutter built in Falmouth in 1982. Major bare hull rebuild 2000 including new decks, interior and systems. New Beta diesel 2011. Cavernous aft cabin, 6 berths and a workshop. Large beam for the length, rare to find a gaff cutter of these dimensions with so much interior volume, manageable and attractive yacht. Hants £39,000

62’ Trawler yacht. Quite simply the best of her kind we have ever seen.

Built by Forbes, Scotland 1938. Fitted out for present owner 1995-99.

Typical massive Scottish construction. Dedicated engine room with Gardner 6L3 114hp @ 900rpm. 2000 hrs since pro rebuild. 1 + 3 phase generator. 5 double cabins plus owner’s suite aft. Go absolutely anywhere, anytime, any weather in safety and comfort. Devon £175,000

35’ Laurent Giles Sloop built by J.J. Bickford in 1956. Teak hull all copper fastened. Exceptionally high quality construction and a lovely cruising yacht design, spacious cabin with 4 berths, sheltered comfortable cockpit and manageable size rig. Yanmar diesel 2006, large inventory. A great crusing yacht in super condition. Suffolk £46,000

32’ Francis Jones sloop built by Percy See in 1963. Planked in Mahogany and larch all copper fastened to C.R. elm timbers. In present ownership for 40 years she has been a great family cruising boat, absolutely immaculate condition complete with custom trailer. 4 berths with plenty headroom. New Beta 28hp diesel. Fast and comfortable cruising yacht. Belfast £26,500

34’ S55 double ender built by the Navy yard in Copenhagen in 1938.

Pitch pine on oak hull with solid teak deck. Major rebuild in 2011. New Nanni diesel. 4 berths in superb new interior. An immaculate yacht ready to sail. Mallorca 85,000 Euro

Another fascinating selection of traditional and classic yachts only from Wooden Ships. Call for true descriptions, genuine honest values and a service from people who know their boats.

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CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

BROKERAGE

33 High Street, Poole BH15 1AB, England. Tel: + 44 (0)1202 330077

60 ft Charles E Nicholson Ketch 1924 Charles E Nicholson in the top league of early 20th century designers imbued HURRICA V with all elegance of a classic yacht of the Edwardian era. Now fully restored, she lives on as an exemplar of the history of yachting and its legacy. The updating as a family yacht has been done wherever possible to maintain the character of her era and discrete modern sailing systems enable shorthanded family use. While not totally original, the accommodation has been beautifully arranged yet is extremely practical to a degree that is rare in a classic yacht. $2.5M USD VAT unpaid Lying Australia

63 ft Samuel White Gentleman’s Motor Yacht 1963 CARAMBA’s supreme good looks are not accidental – the sheer line, beautifully balanced proportions and purposeful profile are all in immaculate good taste.

We first met her as a family yacht in Corfu, professionally skippered and run by two people. Her current owner by contrast looks after the boat - and often cruises her alone. Her versatility is therefore impressive. With her wide and protected bulwarks, expansive aft deck, her little ship ambience with charming saloon and intimate cabin layout, she is living testament to her old school designer Fred Parker’s skill. Why don’t they make them like this anymore? £850,000 Lying UK

46 ft Herreshoff Gaff Cutter Racer Cruiser 1903 A carefully researched, museum quality, keel-up restoration means NELLIE is today in a condition that befits her status as a rare Herreshoff yacht. The care of the 2010 restoration has seen many of today’s modern sailing aids incorporated without sacrificing the vintage Herreshoff feel. In his biography of his father, L. Francis Herreshoff wrote of the trio of 35 ft Waterline Sloops, AZOR, TRIVIA and NELLIE: “These three were among the nicest all-around sail boats of their size ever built.” Fast and able she is hard to fault either structurally or cosmetically. €530,000 VAT unpaid Lying USA

46 ft John Alden Ketch 1939 Attributed to John Alden DELFINO was built by an Italian yard on the eve of WW II - this yacht exhibits many of the characteristics of John Alden’s designs, well known for their beauty as well as their ability offshore. There is a shortage of well restored yachts of this size that can be cruised extensively as well as exhibited and raced in classic regattas. The current ownership are lucky enough to own a fleet of classic vessels so with their knowledge and passion DELFINO has been optimised for Med cruising, with generator, air conditioning as well as new Hood sails. Thus wonderfully set up she is ready. €450,000 Lying Spain

44 ft William Fife III 8 Metre 1924 EMILY took the Silver medal for Great Britain at the Olympics of 1924 in Le Havre. Fast forward - from a state of considerable decline EMILY was totally and traditionally rebuilt during 1998 99 to original plans by David Vieira’s yard near Lisbon and is once again a pure classic racer.

Sea trialing during her reappearance at the Europeans in 1999, EMILY was winner of the Concours de Elegance with other eights such as ARIA, BAMBA and CARRON II sailing in the Coupe Cartier – she remains in near perfect condition. €290,000 Lying Germany

51 ft Laurent Giles Royal Huisman Ketch 1971 Launched in 1971 this yacht is a remarkable combination of Jack Laurent Giles’s design, a Wölter Huisman build and finish by A.H. Moody & Son; three of the greatest names in yachting at that time – and frankly they didn’t get much better than that. BUCEPHALUS is a strong, comfortable classic yacht equipped to the highest standard and fitted out not so long ago with the intention to sail around the world, but the owner’s plans have now changed. She however is more than capable and absolutely ready to go.

58 ft Laurent Giles Sloop 1965 Intended for the dual role of cruiser racer, SHELMALIER’s construction

by Berthon in 1964 was both durable and light weight for her day. Her current owners have focussed not only on what can be seen but no less importantly on the detail that in other hands might have been ignored.

Structurally and cosmetically impressive therefore SHELMALIER is a real class act – with much of her original detail also intact. She carries all of her designer’s characteristic trademarks of elegant efficiency and fully restored this fine classic yacht is a credit to the genre. €245,000 Lying Italy

45 ft A M Dickie & Sons Motor Sailer 1936 Dickies knew better than most how to build a strong and supremely seaworthy vessel. Designed on the lines of a fishing boat - but as a yacht – her finer lines make her the more beautiful while retaining all the seagoing qualities of a working vessel. TUNNAG’s wonderful varnished teak hull and the warmth of her characterful interior are fully revealed. These inherent qualities have kept her in long and loving ownerships – Her most recent having lavished a superb refit, fully revealed in her wonderful condition today. She is totally ready. £125,000 Lying UK

40 ft Aldous Gaff Cutter 1922 Built by Aldous to Lloyds A1 in 1922 to a design by A Boyes, AYESHA has inspired her owners to enjoy her very much as originally intended. In 2001 she won her class in the Prada classic series in the Med – having sailed across Biscay to compete! There is something refreshing about her honest fit out and no mistaking her beauty – a capable vintage sailing boat and worthy regatta contender. She is easily handled, even with a crew of two

email: info@sandemanyachtcompany.co.uk

£265,000

£45,000

Lying UK

Lying UK

www.sandemanyachtcompany.co.uk CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

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BROKERAGE

www.TallShipsforSale.co.uk www.ClassicYachtsforSale.com

38m (124ft) Steel Brigantine Sail Training Ship.

23m (75ft) Replica Dubrovnik Karaka, built 1901, rebuilt 1996.

17.6m (58ft) Classic Teak and Mahogany Italian Yawl by Sangermani, 1948.

15m (49ft) on deck, Brigantine rigged Motor sailer. Built Oak on Oak 1970.

14m (46ft) Modern Classic Sloop built Astilleros Mediterraneo, Spain 2003.

10m (33ft) Fairey Marine Swordsman, fast cruiser.

10.66m (35ft) Super Sovereign GRP Long Keel Ketch.

10.7m (36ft) Maldon Fishing Smack, Built Howards, 1889 Larch on Oak.

Air conditioned accommodation for up to 36 in 17 cabins plus 12 crew berths in six cabins; Bar and lounge. Well-equipped, comfortable. €1,900,000 - Location Valencia, Spain

Construction is cold moulded, double diagonal over strip plank Cedar, all epoxy / glass sheathed.

BACKGROUNDa.pdf 3/30/11 6 berths. Yanmar 40hp diesel. A real stunner! €139,000 - Lying Costa del Sol, Spain

10 guest cabins, 25 pax, Air conditioning.

Very different! €895,000 - Lying Croatia

Up to six berths, two heads, excellent galley, Twin Volvo Penta TAMPD41P-A 200bhp diesels installed 2:06:50 PMmaintained. One Owner from new.

2000.

Superbly 2010 Survey £39,000 Offers Invited! Location River Colne, Essex

Beautifully restored, great performer on the Med. Classic Yacht racing circuit. Eight berths.

Recent Sails. €300,000 - Italy

Built Uphams 1975, to the Kim Holman design.

Comfortable, serious passage maker, with 4/5 berths, good galley, Nav station, heater, fridge, radar etc., and 36hp Diesel £34,750 location - North Essex

6 berths, Perkins Sabre M115T 114hp diesel.

A real eye catcher! €165,000 - Location Netherlands

Professionally sheathed in 1991, re-decked in 1995. 4 Berths BMC diesel. Great fun!

2007 Survey available, please ask! £15,000 - Location River Colne, Essex

www.EasternYachts.com See Website for Photos, Specifications & Surveys 19 Colne Road, Brightlingsea, Essex, CO7 0DL • Tel: +44 (0) 1206 305996. Planning to sell: Please call Adrian Espin for details.

Lady Penelope - A rare 1958 Chris Craft Silver Arrow - £30,000

Tramontana - A 1965 Chris Craft Supersport

Hey Jude - 1960s runabout £5,000

Manima - 1957 Riva Tritone with all its original fittings in concourse condition - £295,000

Duet - Victorian steam launch with trailer, easy to launch and operate - £40,000

Debonair - Gibbs launch 1923, mahogany on oak, own trailer £18,500

Peerless Admiral - One of three Andrews day launches - from £20,000

Chris Craft Continental - 1961 with Chevrolet engine and trailer - £25,000

Y

Kitty - Chris Craft deluxe runabout 1930s - £25,000

For more information about any of these boats call 01491 578870 mobile 07813 917730 email sales@hscboats.co.uk www.hscboats.co.uk 78

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

Calypso - 1954 Riva Florida £35,000

For model boats, dockside clothing and boaty curios visit www.boatique.co.uk

BROKERAGE

STEWART MARINE Classic Boats for sale 1932 Andrews Slipper

Original Baby Greyhound Fully restored 2005 Original Austin engine Very rare original craft In excellent condition

1950s Andrews Day Boat

Ford Watermota engine Lovely interior New Winter cover Re-furbished by Freebody In A1 condition

£25,500

£35,950

STANLEY & THOMAS BROKERAGE

SPECIALISTS IN RESTORATION & REPAIR OF CLASSIC WOODEN BOATS

SWEET MOLLY Exceptional 31’ Cabin Launch by Ljungberg, 1938. Volvo 180 PK (25 knots). Sleeps 4.

Location: Holland £67,000

BOESCH 510 SPECIAL 17’ Ski Boat built 1970. Chevrolet V8, 5.7 ltr, 210 hp, plus 4 Wheel Trailer.

Location: Newark, Notts, UK. £16,000

JABBERWOCKY 25’ Jet Stream Classic, built 1992.

Volvo Penta KAD44P-C. Supercharged diesel (30 knots). Plus Trailer.

Location: Ipswich, UK. £30,000

SWIFT Smart 22’ Triple Cockpit Runabout c. late 1920’s. Chevrolet V8, 5.7 ltr, 220 hp. plus Twin axle Trailer.

Location: Windsor, UK. £39,000

Wanted all types of classic launches Classic Boats for Charter 1897 Day Launch “EM”

Based in Kingston Upon Thames this boat is ideal for special events for up to 12 people with skipper.

Catering available on request.

www.hartsboats.com

1974 Fairey Spearfish

Based in the Solent this boat is ideal for film and TV due to its stability and speed.

Available for Cowes and other Solent regattas

Mobile:07799-654113 Tel: 01753-833166

sarah.woolley@stanleyandthomas.co.uk www.stanleyandthomas.co.uk Tom Jones Boatyard, Romney Lock, Windsor, Berkshire SL4 6HU

0208 399 0297

CLASSIC YACHT BROKERAGE 42ft CLIPPER FORTY-TWO KETCH, John Alden design, Gweek Quay, Helston 2003. GRP moulded hull, cedar decks, teak brightwork.

Seven berths. 75hp Vetus diesel engine, bow thruster. Well balanced, stylish passage maker. Immaculate. £115,000 Dorset

60ft MFV TRAWLER YACHT, Admiralty design, Curtis & Pape, Looe 1946. Larch on oak, iroko deck-house. Accom for eight, two ensuites. Gardner 8L3B diesel. Top quality re-fit, undoubtedly the best example available. May 2014 re-paint. £130,000 West Wales

35ft KETCH MOTOR-SAILER, John Bain design, Newmans of Poole 1962. Six berths in saloon and aft stateroom. Galley, Blake heads. 63hp Thornycroft diesel. Good strong rig and sailing performance. Fully re-fitted with 2012 survey. £35,000 East Coast

31ft VIKING CLASS CRUISER / RACER, Alan Buchanan design, Shuttlewood of Paglesham1968 to Lloyds 100A1. Four berths, 24hp Volvo diesel. Recent rig and sails. Fully re-fitted to high standard.

Good example. £17,750 Venice

38ft S & S SIGMA 38 CRUISER / RACER, Olin Stephens design, Cheoy Lee Shipyard 1967. Moulded hull and deck, teak brightwork.

Five berth interior. 27hp Volvo diesel. Good original example, owners retiring from sailing. £19,500 Cyprus

49ft RORC CLASS 11 RACER, Robert Clark design, Morgan Giles, Teignmouth 1937. Famous well documented Ocean Racer with a history spanning eight decades. Recent full re-fit. Seven berths in three cabins. 72hp Sole diesel. Rare opportunity. £150,000 Spain

37ft NOORDSVAADER 900 CLASS YAWL, Moedt design, Jachtbouw, Netherlands 1976. Refurbished steel hull and decks.

Four berths. 16hp Sabb Diesel. Extensive inventory. Successful Dutch blue-water cruising yacht. £19,500 UK Flag Portugal

53ft THORNYCROFT MOTOR-YACHT John Thornycroft design, built Hampton on Thames in 1938. Teak hull, decks and interior joinery.

Twin 90hp Thornycroft diesels. Rare and original vintage vessel, ideal for French Canals or good liveaboard. £75,000 Norfolk

24ft BERMUDIAN CUTTER, Harrison Butler style, Uphams, Brixham 1939. Pitch Pine , teak brightwork. Two berths. Galley.

Heads. Chart Table. 10hp Yanmar diesel. Extensive re-fit, recent rig and sails. In full commission. Superb condition. £8,950 Essex

30ft WATER CRAFT MOTOR-CRUISER, Thames built in 1935 for John Bushell Ltd. Four/Five Berths in two cabins, spacious galley and Blake heads. 50hp BMC diesel. Same family ownership for over sixty years. Good condition, ready to use. £10,950 Worcester

31ft. MISS SILVER CLASS MOTOR-SAILER, John Bain design, Silvers of Rosneath 1963. Keel-up professional restoration. Four berths in saloon and aft stateroom. Galley. Heads. New ketch rig 2013. 50hp Beta diesel. Exceptional. £95,000 (mooring included) Cornwall

43ft NICHOLSON BERMUDIAN SLOOP, Camper & Nicolson design, Halmatic, Portsmouth 1970. GRP moulded hull and decks, teak fitted. Seven berths. 48hp Perkins diesel. Pedigree yacht, ready to sail. Good value. £36,000 Italy

www.classicyachtbrokerage.co.uk

Tel: +44 (0)1905-356482 / 07949-095075 • info@classicyachtbrokerage.co.uk CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

79

Craftsmanship Yard News

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

COUNTY ROSCOMMON, IRELAND

Water Wag for Olympic sailor

C/O MERyON BRIDgES

One classic dinghy was not enough for the unlikely boatbuilding duo of ex-Olympic sailor Cathy Mac Aleavey and Jimmy Furey, the 88-year-old Irish wooden boat maestro. Their first project, launched and raced in 2012, was an 18ft (5.5m) clinker Shannon One-Design (CB295). As we went to press, they had nearly finished planking their second project, a Water Wag. The 14ft 3in (4.3m) Water Wag, also clinker, is the world’s oldest one-design class, dating to 1887.

BERWICK ST JOHN, DORSET

The new 1,000-year-old dinghy

Workboat to gent’s launch

C/O ADAM WAy

The clinker launch Betty was recently relaunched from A & R Way’s yard. She was built just 40 miles away by Curries in Oban in the early 1970s and worked as a fishing boat. She has been restored for new owner Ian, a long-haul airline pilot, who found her near Arisaig.

Adam Way and team have kept the hull and backbone mostly original, with new timbers, decks, seating, engine (Beta 20 diesel), and even scanning sonar so Ian can enjoy the topology of the seabed. Adam has found two similar projects for potential clients. Next to launch from the yard will be a David Cheverton ocean racer of 38ft ( (11.6m).

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CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

.

Harbour Marine expands Harbour Marine Services (CB311) is expanding, with a third yard to create a further 2,100sqft (195m2) of covered space.

They are also nearing the end of a Silver cruiser rebuild. This follows news of their earlier Silver cruisers, as well as two in restoration at Stirling & Son, (p84), and one recently restored at Iron Wharf, in Kent. Other works include Magyar, sistership to gralian (CB280).

PORNIC, BRITTANY

She sails!

Anelor, the 28ft (8.5m) Normandy Class sloop mentioned in yard News just two months ago, was launched on time! She was restored by the non-profit group Coques en Bois (wooden hulls) to be ready for this year’s summer regattas.

C/O COquES EN BOIS

SUFFOLK

LOCH FYNE, SCOTLAND

C/O CATHy MAC ALEAvEy

On the strength of just two one-week courses at the Boat Building Academy in Lyme Regis, local man Meryon Bridges has almost finished his first home-built boat. As we reported in CB299, she’s an Iain Oughtred-designed Shearwater, stretched to 13ft (4m) and built very unusually of Huon pine from Tasmania. This slow-growing softwood is completely immune to rot and mature trees are 2,000 to 3,000 years old. Meryon’s new dinghy, from wood felled in 1965, is about a millennium old. He is now thinking of a name for her.

CRAFTSMANSHIP

TOPSHAM, DEVON

C/o BeN JeFFeRIeS

Restore, sell up and sail away!

In late July, boatbuilder Ben Jefferies will sail into the sunset on his 1960s-built 36ft (11m) wooden sloop Dhanu (CB262). Wth him will be his wife and two daughters – aged two, and three months! “My days typically start at 5am and end at 10pm and still there are miles of wiring hanging out of lockers that never disappear,” said Ben, who writes for CB’s practical pages. Wife Phil is off doing her Competent Crew and Ben has also been busy finishing a fairly serious rebuild of Brian Reeves's 34ft (10.4m) bermudan yawl Amaryllis (pictured) built in 1937 by BR Rigden of Whitstable, Kent, to a design by JM Soper & Son (CB260). The big cruise will take the young family away from the rat race to the Caribbean, then Cuba. The rest is an open book. The planned duration is two years. Fair winds!

ZAANDAM, NeTHeRLANDS

SÈVReS, FRANCe

An Ilur for Ireland

C/o MICheL DeFAux

Amid heavy showers at the Club Nautique de Sèvres regatta on the Seine near Paris this May, a home-built 14ft 6in (4.4m) Vivier-designed Ilur dinghy (see also p58) slipped into the water for the first time. She was built by retired journalist Michel Defaux in clinker ply in two-and-a-half years. “I was amazed at the flexibility of the 9mm-thick marine plywood as shown by the installation of the first garboard,” says Michel.

The boat, called Baidin Mhichelin (‘Michel’s little boat’ in Irish), is for coastal sailing on Ireland’s west coast. Michel has more boatbuilding projects in mind at the sailing school in Sèvres. If you are interested, email him at michel.defaux@yahoo.fr.

one of holland’s best known shipyards has started a major expansion. The first phase, to be completed by the end of the year, will feature a new 61ft (18.6m)-high and 200ft (61m)-long build hall, which is an expansion to the main build hall, and new design offices. The yard has also appointed Geert Kuijpers as its new commercial director.

C/o AReY’S PoND BoATYARD

Expansion for Holland Jachtbouw

MASSACHuSeTTS, uSA

Arey’s Pond is 60 Arey’s Pond Boat Yard has launched its first 19ft (5.8m) catboat, in the 60th year since the yard was founded by retired Coast Guard officer Jim Kidd, on the edge of Arey’s Pond. Since then the yard has built hundreds of boats, including 175 14ft (4.3m) catboats and 49 16ft (4.9m) catboats. The yard has also built four wooden Arey’s Pond Launches, four wooden Arey’s Pond Daysailers, custom 20ft (6.1m) and 22ft (6.7m) cruising catboats and a 38ft (11.6m) Spencer Lincoln powerboat. The new boat is 18ft 6in (5.7m) long, with a huge (or average in catboat terms) beam of 8ft 7in (2.6m) and seating for eight adults. Catboats are unrivalled in terms of cockpit space.

For more yard news and building techniques, go to classicboat.co.uk and search ‘yard news’ CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

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CRAFTSMANSHIP

2 2

1

YARD VISITS

3

Restoring faith CB visited the East Coast of America recently and witnessed some great work going on. Here is our round-up revealing some fascinating stories STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHS DAN HOUSTON

I

nspirational, I think, is the one word I would use if forced to keep it that short about my trip to Rhode Island, Maine and Massachusetts in the early summer.

I arrived, as you do, by sea, at the hallowed spot of the Herreshoff Museum, Bristol, Rhode Island. I’d voyaged there aboard the Gannon & Benjamin schooner Rebecca, riding the warm Gulf Stream conveyor current north from the Caribbean on a voyage that would show how the schooner is after a dozen years at sea (more on her next month). Rhode Island was where the pilgrimage began, seeing the famed IYRS school set up by Elizabeth Meyer and seeing Joe Loughborough’s yard where they restored the second-time-famous Dorade (see p23). From there it was a road trip up into the beautiful leafy land of Maine to see some of the people behind the restorations that have graced the covers and pages of CB for so long.

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4

1 It was near to launching day at the International Yacht Restoration School in Newport, Rhode Island, and the place was buzzing with students hammering away at restored Beetle Cats (first years) and yachts (second/final years) under the watchful eye of their tutors. Loved this place!

2 Taylor Allen, president of Rockport Marine, the yard behind Adventuress – CB’s 2013 Restoration of the Year winner. The Fife III schooner had just arrived back at the yard for some work for the first time since her launch, and we went down to see her...

3 Alec Brainerd is the forward-thinking boss at Artisan Boatworks, in Rockport, Maine. The company specialises in 20ft to 30ft (6.1m to 9.1m) sailing craft and there are some beautiful examples starting to look really good in the sheds. They have a great philosophy about rebuilding boats at this yard.

CRAFTSMANSHIP

5

8

6

7

4 Behind IYRS they have begun planking up the schooner Coronet. We are thinking that she is possibly the most important restoration in the world at the present time, now that the Charles W Morgan is sailing. Here, Sam Wagner said they were getting a 28ft (8.5m) plank on each day.

5 Greg Rössel is well known to long-term readers of CB for some of his insightful boatbuilding articles written a few years back.

We found him setting up shop early one morning in Searsport, Maine, where he is teaching high school kids maths and physics via boatbuilding.

The 33ft (10.1m) Reliance Model at Bristol, RI, is a nod to the 1903 genius of Nat Herreshoff.

6

9

10

7 Bob Stephens and Paul Waring have drawn some stunning Spirit of Tradition lines. We went to their Belfast, MA, offices to find out more and then went for a test run on a SoT powerboat.

This is the recreation of Nat Herreshoff’s workroom in the museum at Bristol – on the site of the famous yacht and boatbuilding company.

Capt Nat – the Wizard of Bristol – built his own half-models here. The place makes you want to linger; it’s also full of some of his famous boats.

8

9 Nat Wilson is a traditional sailmaker based at East Boothbay, just about an hour south of Rockport. Using the good-feeling North Sails classic cloth, but also able to source a heavy

11

natural cotton canvas duck – for the suit of sails for the restored whaleship Charles W Morgan for instance – Nat and his team make sails by hand.

10 Joe Loughborough (Loughborough Marine Interests) is a Brit who moved to Rhode Island after decades skippering boats. He’s now restoring Humphrey Bogart’s Santana, which the famous actor sailed with actress/wife, Lauren Bacall.

11 New Bedford was built on whaling money and for generations whalers were built by the Beetle Co, until 1921 when they switched to Beetle Cats (boss Bill Womack pictured). Now based in nearby Wareham, the company is going strong and has just built a new whaler… for the Charles W Morgan!

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

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Craftsmanship CRAFTSMANSHIP

IRON WHARF, FAveRSHAM

A very busy yard

yArd viSiT

STirLing & Son, devon

got it covered WORdS ANd PhOTOgRAPhS STeffAn Meyric hugheS

2

PhOTO 3 C/O STIRLINg & SON

3

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4

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

1

Plymouth’s No 1 covered slipway was a shell on our last visit in winter 2012. Stirling & Son was a one-man band based out of a nearby farmer’s shed, and Will Stirling and I spent a cold day shovelling sawdust and steaming ribs into his 15ft (4.6m) clinker expedition dinghy. This June, the sun shone as I drove past disused rope walks and rocket launchers to the yard. The slip, built in 1763 for building Royal Navy ships, is the oldest of its kind in the world and still stands on MOd land, although these days nuclear submarines and frigates rather than wooden warships ply the estuary of the Tamar River, just a few feet away.

The slip is a Scheduled Ancient Monument (like Stonehenge), which means the yard can only, by the terms of lease, be used for its original purpose: building and repairing wooden boats. One of Will’s ancestors, Eliza Barlow, launched Nelson’s flagship, hMS Foudroyant, from this very spot in 1798 and now, buzzing with the hum of a diesel generator, the yard is at work again. The slip and building were restored by Stirling & Son (now a nine-man team!) with the aid of a £150,000 development grant. Now, boats up to 200 tonnes can be slipped – and most boats under about 50ft (15.2m) can be slipped fully rigged!

1 Silver motor yachts Thelma IV was on the slip on our visit. She’s a 72ft (21.9m) Silver motor yacht recently arrived and waiting while Will and her owner plan a course of action. At the nearby ABS boatyard, four of Will’s men are on contract to completely rebuild a 62ft (18.9m) Silver yacht. Recently, there has been a sharp increase of interest in these venerable gents’ motor yachts. On the left of the picture is Alert, the 37ft (11.3m) replica of an 1835 smuggling lugger. Will built her in 2007, and she was slipped for annual maintenance for her owner, who plans to cruise the West Country this summer.

3 Little and large The Brixham Trawler Leader was in for annual maintenance in March, the yard’s biggest boat to date at 207,235lb (94 tonnes). Next to her is the Stella Tom Thumb, subject of a recent, deep restoration. Both boats have now left the yard.

2 The winch The winch was once used to haul out the old Lizard lifeboat and was found in a field and bought. It’s a

4 Mast up Integrity (CB292), another Stirling-built boat, this one 43ft (13.1m), can be slipped mast up!

century old, built to last forever and powered by a tractor engine. It can haul boats up to 440,925lb (200 tonnes) on one of the two railway slips that Will and team restored and built new cradles for.

Each cradle wheel weighs 220lb (100kg), and boats take 30 minutes to reach the top!

Colin Frake Classic Yacht Fittings Probably the finest fittings in the world

Blocks ‫ ׀‬Deck Fittings ‫ ׀‬Rigging Mast and Spar Fittings ‫ ׀‬The Faversham Stove

Vist our new Web site www.colinfrake-classicyachtfittings.co.uk or phone 07968 041 322 sales@colinfrake.co.uk

COPACABANA Andre Mauric designed classic barquette built 1960 by Chaberte Marseilles. 7.5 x 2.5m. Original Bermuda rig. Complete restoration 2003. Original mast. Yanmar diesel 30hp. Lying Hyeres. £37,500. Mooring available.

Contact robertpage@talktalk.net or 07799411733

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

85

CRAFTSMANSHIP

Boatbuilder’s Notes dIy AdvICE

these boots are made for clamping the fixed and swivel jaws of metal C-clamps are notorious for leaving ‘half crowns’ on timber surfaces. this problem is avoided by using sacrificial softwood offcuts between the jaws and workpiece, but in the sometimes chaotic environment of a busy boatshed it is a solution that depends on serendipity – finding some conveniently sized offcuts in the bin. Even then it can be awkward juggling the randomly shaped offcuts into position, while also tightening the clamp’s screw on the work

roBIn gatEs

story and photographs ROBIN GATES

if several components are involved – you just don’t seem to have enough hands. and while gluing up, it is all too easy to overtighten the clamps and risk starving the joints of adhesive, which then squeezes out. When the clamping is done it is tempting to progress with the job and forget the woes of the operation

Above, left to right: the fitted boots protect the work from damage; bore part way through the boot with a centre bit

just completed – until next time. one solution is to make dedicated wooden boots to fit over the clamp’s jaws, using a centre bit to bore part way through the timber. If you use clamps en masse for large components you can prepare lengths of timber with recesses for jaws spaced at regular intervals.

ExpERT AdvICE

roBIn gatEs

hOw TO… STABIlISE wASTEd flOORS

Chisel marker story and photographs ROBIN GATES

Boatbuilding advice from naval architect John perryman

86

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

the maxim ‘use the right tool for the job’ is often undermined by practical considerations demanding that best use be made of whatever comes to hand, so the more you can do with each tool the better. Marking work accurately for sawing or planing is every bit as important as cutting exactly to the line, and it is often preferable to be cutting to a knifed line than one pencilled on the surface. With a knifed line you can feel – not just see – where to cut, and it isn’t so easily erased. But you don’t need a purposemade marking knife for this – just use the corner of a sharp chisel. a chisel is bevelled on one side only, just like a good marking knife, enabling the flat side to ride smoothly along the straight edge while the corner severs the fibres of the timber.

CRAFTSMANSHIP

Traditional Tool Bismarck scrub plane If there’s a need to flatten a roughly hewn surface, or perhaps reduce the width of a board by an amount too little for the rip saw, a boatbuilder across the North Sea would reach for his schrupphobel, better known here as the Bismarck scrub plane. With its elongated toe, ‘cow horn’ front handle and hollowed rear grip, this plane looks very different from the wooden “coffin smoothers” and cast iron planes familiar in British yards.

It also cuts like no other, being the most voracious hand plane in the boatbuilder’s tool chest.

The key to the scrub plane’s capability lies in the tightly cambered edge of its heavy duty iron set well proud of the sole, taking shavings so thick they are only one step removed from the chips that fly from an axe.

The iron is also narrow, typically 1½in (38mm) or less, making it easier to push, and the mouth is wide to let the meaty shavings pass through.

Plane with a fast-paced rhythm similar to using a hand saw, visibly

reducing the thickness of the workpiece with each pass while leaving a characteristically fluted surface. With a freshly honed iron this old timer gouged through a mahogany board like a scoop through chocolate ice cream.

To minimise tear-out when working on the face of a board, plane at an oblique angle, first having chamfered the far edge to avoid splintering. Then, with the ridged surface, plane at 90 degrees to the first line of cut, resulting in a lattice-like texture. The process is repeated as necessary and, in surprisingly little

Clockwise from above: note the distinctive horn and elongated toe; the hollowed rear grip and strike button; the plane’s radiused cutter leaves a fluted surface

time, the board is ready for taking down to the line with a jack plane.

In terms of adjustment the scrub plane is simple, being set by sighting down the sole following a gentle mallet on the heel’s strike button.

The Bismarck scrub plane is thought to have been named as a tribute to the achievements of Otto von Bismarck, the “Iron Chancellor” who united Germany in the mid-19th century, and this example may well date from that period. Certainly, it has endured a long and hard-working life judging from its worn iron and cracked strike button.

roBIn gatEs

story and photographs ROBIN GATES

roBIn gatEs

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

87

FOR SALE BY OWNER Th e 1 9 3 0 J o h n A l d e n S c h o o n e r {Design No. 458}

70’ loa • 61’ lod • sail area 2,200 sq. ft Full compliment of sails & equipment On the market after 30 years of ownership, this meticulously maintained schooner is currently available for sale by owner. Located in San Diego, California, USA, Dauntless has been featured on several covers and issues of Sailing Magazine, Wooden Boat, Nautical Quarterly and Santana magazines.

Dauntless has a competitive record including races from San Diego to Hawaii, biannual Master Mariners Regattas, and numerous races and cruises along the California coast.

History, Specifications, Gallery & Contact Information

www.schoonerdauntless.com Photos ~ Bob Grieser Dauntless_CBHP_0513.indd 1

88

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

5/13/14 9:04 AM

CRAFTSMANSHIP

Charlotte watters

Adrian Morgan

It’s dirty work…

have been far off, albeit somewhere to the south in lighter conditions.

Hestur’s keel, however, will not fall off. It will never fall off, if I know the man who built it. I saw the size of the bolts, the bearers and the precision of the fit. I watched the steel armature being fabricated out of rebar, and heard about the pouring of the concrete by a bunch of Dan and Charlotte’s friends in the old sawmill next to where I work.

No, Hestur’s keel will not fail and by the time you read this she will be riding to her mooring buoy off Ullapool and stories will be told.

None of which will involve vacuum cleaners, I suspect, for like a naval officer, umbrella and a suitcase, a vacuum cleaner on a boat is probably not a good idea, unless you own something the size of Abramovich’s superyacht.

Of course, you need a level floor for a vacuum cleaner to follow you around like an obedient dog, not the uneven stone of my old milking parlour. My vacuum cleaner (Wickes, £49.99), though, used to dog my heels and, if provoked, send me crazy with its demented howling.

It went like this: plug in and switch on. Strident screeching, but bearable. Suck, suck, suck (for it is a splendid sucker for all its other faults) and then, as you reach over to grab that curl of wood shaving in the far reaches of the bilge, it decides to play up. You tug the lead, for which I mean hose. The little trolley wheels spin and wobble in a feeble effort to steer the damn thing closer. You reach further. Then, teeta teeta teeta, crash. It topples; the little ball (think snorkel) that stops the water getting into the motor jams up against the intake and it’s weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! until you right the *&**! thing. Switch off and wait what seems like an eternity for the sound of the little ball plopping back to where it belongs, at the bottom of the cage.

Furious, but forgiving, you fire it up again for another chance. A minute later and… weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

This time, however, I had a solution. Savagely, I ripped off the little trolley wheels. Then, emboldened, I tore the lid open and set to on the little snorkel ball, taping it down so that it could never rise again.

Now, with no wheels to trip it, and no ball to jam, it matters little if it’s upright or on its side. I can drag it around the workshop upside down if I want, obedient at last… until that is the hose parts company with the collecting bin.

Meanwhile, fair winds Hestur…

Adrian takes his tiresome workshop vacuum cleaner to task

F

orgive me if this month’s column is somewhat dysfunctional. Thing is, Charlotte (the illustrator) emailed from Barbuda (nr Antigua) to say that they were off across the Atlantic the next day and did I have any clue what I was going to write about.

Nope, in short. Clueless, total blank, so why don’t you just draw something – Hestur under full sail, heading out across the Atlantic, for example – and maybe I’ll write about the time I crossed the Atlantic many years ago and a drunken crew member fell through the hatchway during my off watch; how the skipper had to lock the drinks cabinet (and then the crewman’s wife wouldn’t speak to him for days), and how I was thrown off the boat in the Azores for consorting with the skipper’s girlfriend…

And then, teeta teeta teeta, crash, weeeeeeeeee… the muse struck. Far more useful than reminiscing, I’ll write about my workshop wet’n’dry vacuum cleaner.

The one with four wobbly wheels and a ball inside that stops water getting into the motor; how it would drive me mad, and how I solved the problem… but by then Hestur was over the horizon with no chance for Charlotte to add it to her illustration.

Hestur, incidentally, was heading for Bermuda about the time tragedy befell Cheeki Rafiki, and would not

“I tore open the lid and set to on the little snorkel ball”

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

89

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Wind Hunter 19’

Looking ahead Things to do in the next few weeks

NEXT MONTH

2 AUGUST River Swale, Kent www.oga.org.uk, www.kentishsail.org The racing of the sprit-sailed Thames Sailing Barges is one of the oldest sporting events, predating the modern Olympics by years.

A Thames Barge match is a sight to see, particularly on the Swale where there are also the attractions of Iron Wharf Boatyard (wander around looking at restoration projects all day!), wonderful walking along the Swale and – of course – the Shipwright’s Arms, a classic sailor’s pub

MARVELLOUS MARIQUITA We’re crewing the foredeck aboard the 1911 Fife III 19-M as she wins three times in a row at Argentario

Last minute entry

UK

21-25 JULY Cowes Classics Week www.cowesclassicsweek.org The alternative to Cowes Week and Britain’s largest annual classic sailing regatta (see p28). There’s still – just – time to enter!

25-27 JULY Taittinger Royal Solent Yacht Club Regatta Yarmouth, IoW, royalsolent.org, +44 (0)1983 760 256, IRC, Swans, cruisers, gaffers, 6-Ms, Dragons, Folkboats, XODs, Yarmouth ODs… Over the years, this has quietly developed into quite a big classic sailing regatta.

Classic yacht racing from the lovely island of Corsica. This year marks the event’s 5th birthday.

1-3 AUGUST Antique Boat Show and Auction Clayton, New York State, USA www.abm.org, +1 315 686 4104 This popular wooden boat festival has been running for 50 years!

26-30 AUGUST Copa del Rey Mahon, Menorca, Spain www.velaclasicamenorca.com Part of the Panerai Classic Yachts Challenge. The usual turn-out is 50 yachts or more

23-31 AUGUST Corsica Classic www.corsica-classic.com

BUZZARDS BAY

18-20 September Portofino Rolex Trophy www.yachtclubitaliano.it +39 010 246 1206 Invitational big-yacht rally

Spirit of Marion is a new build Herreshoff Buzzards Bay 15 – just launched in Poole. We jump aboard!

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From the publishers of Classic Boat Welcome SAILING TODAY

IN THE LATEST ISSUE

Highlands

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Champagne sailing in whisky waters

 Current affairs – testing the latest electric outboards

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CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

TOP TO BOTTOM: DAN HOUSTON, PPL, DAN HOUSTON

CB ARCHIVES

Swale Barge Match

95

Letters Art attack

LETTER OF THE MONTH SUPPORTED BY OLD PULTENEY WHISKY

Eighty years ago it would not have looked out of place; however, at the recent Panerai regatta in Argentario, three of the biggest classic cutters still sailing were battling it out. Argentario put on a fantastic show, setting courses in difficult conditions and putting on brilliant parties in the evening. Trips laid on to local vineyards, oysters and Prosecco, and sunset cocktails with stunning views helped make it one of the best regattas I have been to.

Seeing Shamrock V – the original (and wooden!) J-Class, plus Fife III’s Cambria (1928) and Mariquita (1911) racing so closely might just have been

DAN HOUSTON

Three cheers for Argentario Above: 1930 J Class Shamrock V overtaking 1928 23-M Cambria

the most beautiful sights afloat.

Can you imagine adding Candida, Astra, Moonbeam IV and Lulworth to this fleet? That would surely be the best Classic Boat cover shot ever.

Well done Argentario, you couldn’t have done better. Of course, there may be a slight bias from us on Mariquita since we earned three bullets. We believe in her history she has never won every race of a regatta.

Billy Butler, bosun, Mariquita

While I fully appreciate that art matters may not be high on your list of priorities, nevertheless the fact that your unsolicited expertise on that putative Constable painting hit the headlines (I feel that it should have hit many more) in some newspapers, and I felt put considerable egg on the faces – and huge question marks on the real expertise of those art specialists – does warrant further comment.

The excellent letter on the subject (CB312) surely further exposed a startling lack of genuine art expertise in certain quarters, and when these specialists now try to maintain that the boats that you had so well identified “were painted in later” – obviously by another hand a hundred years later. I must say that it sounds like a very weak “cop out” to me.

For when the owners of the painting had always thought that it was by our great English artist, would they have actually stooped to allow another hand to bastardise the work?

I cannot believe that genuine art experts could allow such vital questions as these to pass without comment and proper examination.

David Johnston, Ormskirk

Search for “skimming dish” parts

CB ARCHIVES

I came to visit a few months ago in the desperate search for the missing part of the 1953 Royal Navy Fast Motor Dinghy called Dragonfly (also known as a “skimming dish”), which I am restoring. I finally found the correct original engine and as the boat is one of only four remaining out of 954, I want to get her as near to the original as possible.

If I can do that then she will be the most original one left in existence. I really need to find the control unit. I have emailed almost 100 sources but I’ve had no luck at all at present. I am sending you a drawing (pictured below) to see if you can help. Even if I could find one on someone’s boat that I could copy, that would work. Teleflex did not keep any archives either!! Any help would be gratefully accepted. Thank you…

Erik Benson by email

I am about to start restoring two SARO Terrapins. These 14ft (4.3m) aluminium speedboats were built in the early 1950s

by Saunders-Roe at their Beaumaris factory on Anglesey.

I wondered if any CB readers were working there at the time and may have any information or memories about these boats that might help us.

Martin Nott, East Cowes, UK 96

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

C/O ERIK BENSON

Saving SAROs

LETTERS Send your letters (and also any replies please) to: Classic Boat, Jubilee House, 2 Jubilee Place, London SW3 3TQ email: cb@classicboat.co.uk

At the turn of the 20th century, while the British Empire still held sway, the Highlands and Islands of Scotland were dotted with grand homes and lodges, owned by those who had been successful colonists.

Two such stately homes were built in Portree, by families of MacDonalds, who had made their fortunes in Bengal growing indigo.

Viewfield House and Redcliff House still stand on Skye, looking out towards Raasay.

The current story begins with the plans of Cloudie MacDonald, a daughter of Redcliff. She was to travel to India and the first stage of her journey would be by the small local steamer from Portree to Strome. There she would catch the train to Inverness, then the sleeper south from Inverness and embark on an ocean vessel.

However, for whatever reason she missed the steamer and called a Colonel Jock MacDonald of Viewield for help. Road travel in those days was extremely slow, so there was no prospect of a brisk

C/o roW ST kILDa

St Kilda to Skye rowers raise over £20,000 for charity

drive to intercept the steamer.

However, Jock owned a rowing boat and the call went out to find a few sea-hardened local men. With her luggage stowed, the men set off.

Fortunately, all ended well. The oarsmen had the advantage of a 25nM direct route, south of Raasay, skirting the Crowlin Islands and into Loch Carron, while the steamer plied south to Broadford and Kyle, before returning north and east to Strome.

Their charge duly delivered, the homeward row would have been at a more relaxed pace, no doubt.

Above: the brave and hardy oarsmen tackling the St Kilda to Skye rowing challenge

Now, 100 years later, Jock MacDonald’s grandson, Hugh, and Portree lifeboat crewman Donnie Nicolson, whose family home was Fisherfield, had an idea.

The skiff had been stored in the attic of the MacDonald boathouse and Donnie suggested re-eneacting their great-grandfathers’ amazing feat. This time the route would be more daunting: rowing from St Kilda to Portree, a distance of more than 100 miles.

The vessel is an 18ft (5.5m) larch skiff built in the late 1890s

by Thomas Orr of Greenock and to prepare for the challenge, she had a new stem, keel, transom, sternpost, timbers, thwarts and rubbing strake.

On 1 June, the team completed their mission in record time, taking just 30 hours, and raising in excess of £20,000 for the Royal National Lifeboat Institute and a local charity called Skye Carers.

For more information, go to row-stkilda.co.uk.

Alexander MacDonald, Skye

The original is in the BFI National Film Archive, so I am going to see it next week.

Anyhow, I wondered if you’d be interested in an interview with Bill 50 years on? He is good on Frank’s preparation, the importance of taking risks, the awful cold and tiredness, Frank’s seamanship, the four capsizes, the Force 9 gale and the awful hope of being rescued when they saw first a ship and a plane, but couldn’t attract the attention of either.

Charlie English, by email Ed – Definitely. Watch this space…

C/o BrIaN ByrNeS

It’s 50 years since Frank Dye (right) did his extraordinary 650-mile, deep sea Scotland-Faroes-Norway voyage in Wanderer, his Wayfarer dinghy.

The anniversary of their landing in Norway is 1 August.

I’ve long been fascinated by Frank and his film Summer Cruise, and recently interviewed Bill Brockbank, his crew on the Norway trip, who is now 71 and commodore of a London sailing club, and who still races today.

Bill is due to give a talk and show the film on 4 July, and Wanderer, the little boat at the heart of it all, is being put on display at the National Maritime Museum of Cornwall, from July through to the autumn.

The film, like Frank, has something of a cult following (or perhaps it’s just me!). If you haven’t watched it I’d really recommend it, even on a low-quality YouTube version (http://tinyurl.com/l22l3mb).

CB arCHIveS

Relive Frank Dye’s mission impossible

Long lost Dublin Bay 24s In the November 2013 (CB305) issue of Classic Boat I read Nigel Pert’s interview with the French boatbuilder Gilbert Pasqui.

I was interested to read a mention of the Dublin Bay 24s. Since the liquidation of the yard of Hubert Stagnol where they were being restored, they seem to have disappeared. I have enquired as to their whereabouts, but to no avail. Would you or your readers have any information that would enable me to find out what’s happened to them? I am including one of my paintings of the fleet as they would have looked in the 1950s.

Brian Byrnes, Dublin CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

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Sternpost

BEKEN OF COWES

Right: the gaff cutter Tern III

several days. “We bought a newspaper and for the first time realised that there was a likelihood of a great war,” Worth wrote later. They set sail that evening.

In the early hours of Sunday morning, Brunette arrived in L’Aber Wrac’h where the crew of another boat “pointed out the mobilisation flags flying from the signal station, and informed us that Germany had declared war on Russia and France”, her owner later wrote. Back in Cowes, another telegram had arrived with a message from the King who thought the regatta week should be cancelled; by noon it was. That afternoon, about 200 naval reservists who had thought they would spend the following week racing – some of them on board King George V’s Britannia – left Cowes for Portsmouth to take up more serious duties. The Commodore of the Royal Yacht Squadron was among the well-wishers who saw them off.

Tern III arrived in Torquay that evening, and the next day sailed to Studland Bay. Early on the morning of Tuesday 4 August, the day that Britain declared war on Germany, Tern III set sail for Hamble. “It was a fine day and there was a jolly breeze from the SSW,” wrote Worth. As they approached the Needles Channel, the crew of a tug told them that it was closed and they would have to sail round the back of the Isle of Wight. “Though we were anxious to get home, we did not regret the extra 30 or 40 miles sailing in such ideal conditions.”

Two German schooners – Germania and the Kaiser’s Meteor V – had left their home ports the week before bound for Cowes, where they had been expected to race, and were still at sea that day. Germania was captured by the Royal Navy, but Meteor V escaped.

Meanwhile, Thomas Lipton’s Shamrock IV, escorted by his steam yacht Erin, was in mid-Atlantic on her way to compete in the America’s Cup. When the crew heard the news of the outbreak of war, they hastily made their way to Bermuda. The Cup was initially postponed until 1915, and was eventually held in 1920.

Erin was subsequently requisitioned for the war effort, but was unfortunately sunk by a torpedo in the Mediterranean with the tragic loss of six hands. “For the life of any of these I would gladly have given the ship,” wrote Lipton.

The crew of Brunette eventually arrived in Fowey having been prevented from leaving L’Aber Wrac’h until Thursday 6 August. “Among the many British enterprises that Kaiser Wilhelm II can boast of having spoilt in 1914, he will be able to count the annual cruise of a certain British vessel of 10 tons,” her owner later wrote.

Cut short by the Kaiser

Nigel Sharp recalls how the Great War ended a summer cruise

O

n Sunday 19 July 1914, the 10-ton yawl Brunette left Hamble for a summer cruise with a crew of four on board. Having previously considered going to Germany, they had, somewhat fortuitously as it would turn out, changed their plans and were heading to France. On the afternoon of the 28th, they heard that Austria had declared war on Serbia when they arrived in Lézardrieux. Tensions had been building over the past month since the assassination of Austria’s Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Bizarrely, Yachting Monthly’s July portrait study featured another Austrian archduke, Charles Stephen, who owned another steam yacht and was a cousin of Ferdinand.

On Friday 31 July, the German Kaiser’s brother, Prince Henry, arrived in Cowes to stay with the commodore of the Royal Yacht Squadron, of which the Prince was an honorary member. Later that day, the Squadron received a telegram to say that the international situation had forced King George V – the Kaiser’s first cousin – to cancel his plans to attend Cowes Week, which was due to start the following Monday.

On Saturday, Claud Worth, with his wife and three others, sailed his gaff cutter Tern III into L’Aber Wrac’h having been cruising in isolated parts of Brittany for

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CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2014

“We bought a newspaper and for the first time realised that war was likely”

Congratulations to the

Kelpie team for completing such an inspirational project.

We are proud to have supplied the teak decking and Oregon Pine for the masts and spars.

© Photo by Emily Harris Photography

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“Kelpie” Rebuild

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