Classic Boat June 2015 Preview

Classic Boat JUNE 2015

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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

THE SEASON OPENS Antibes and the

Where the wild things are...

Bears and whales on Alaska’s coast

Med regattas

Greek legend Restoring an Aegean schooner Swallows forever Sailing on Ullswater WINNING WAYS

CLASS NOTES

Refits on the Solent

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9 770950 331141

06

seth

250 years of Victory The Sound Interclub

THE FRIENDLY BIG-BOAT YARD

CRAFTSMANSHIP

Contents

CRAFTSMANSHIP

NIC COMPTON

8 . ANTIBES AND ONWARD Looking back at 20 years of Antibes – and forward to a new Med season

COVER STORY

22 . GREEK SCHOONER A much-loved caique restored to fulfil this man’s boyhood dream

COVER: GUIDO CANTINI/PANERAI

COVER STORY

32 PETER WILLIS

30 . THE APPEAL OF BEALE The waterborne boat show is on the up, with more boats 32 . STEAM TO ELECTRIC Victorian steam launch to River Thames motor yacht COVER STORY

56

DAN HOUSTON

42 . HMS VICTORY A look back at 250 victorious years for Nelson’s flagship 50 . EG MARTIN RORC founder and greatest yachtsman of his generation

8

GUIDO CANTINI/PANERAI

FEATURES

JUNE 2015 Nº324

62 . ALASKAN CRUISING Ellen Massey Leonard sails where the wild things are

ELLEN MASSEY LEONARD

COVER STORY

PETER WILLIS

REGULARS 16 . TELL TALES 39 . SALEROOM 40 . OBJECTS OF DESIRE 96 . LETTERS 98 . STERNPOST ONBOARD 70 . LAZARETTE 71 . BOOKS AND SUNDOWNERS 73 . NEW CLASSICS 75 . CLASS NOTES 77 . GETTING AFLOAT

COVER STORY

56 . RANSOME SAILING Ullswater on a Kittiwake 16: and the dos and don’ts of towing

42

62

CRAFTSMANSHIP 84 . YARD NEWS 86 . YARD VISIT: SOLENT REFIT 88 . BOATBUILDER’S NOTES 91 . ADRIAN MORGAN

For the latest news or to browse classic boats for sale please visit classicboat.co.uk

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2015

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HOUSTON

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@classicboat.co.uk Senior Art Editor Peter Smith +44 (0)207 349 3756 peter.smith@classicboat.co.uk Senior Sub Editor Henry Giles +44 (0)207 349 3708 henry.giles@classicboat.co.uk

FROM DAN HOUSTON, EDITOR

Contributing Editor Peter Willis peter.willis@classicboat.co.uk Technical Editor Theo Rye Publishing Consultant Martin Nott Proofing Peter Willis

It’s been an honour

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As she was: Britannia at Son in Norway

Classic Boat JUNE 2015

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THE SEASON OPENS Antibes and the

JUNE 2015 sailingtoday.co.uk £4.20

Where the wild things are...

Bears and whales on Alaska’s coast

GULL’S EYE

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GO FURTHER I SAIL BETTER I BE INSPIRED

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Greek legend Restoring an Aegean schooner

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WINNING WAYS

CLASS NOTES

THE FRIENDLY BIG-BOAT YARD

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seth

250 years of Victory The Sound Interclub CB324 Cover June.indd 1

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KING OF THE CASTLE

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CHELSEA

E M A R I:NNereis Top afloat after a six-year restoration Above L-R: Lively Lady at Trafalgar 200 – I later sailed with her into India; HM the Queen taking the small boats’ salute at the same event MAGAZINES

I’m leaving Classic Boat. After 15 years at the helm it took me all day to write one line, in a resignation email to my boss and as I pass this last issue to press there’s an air of surreality as to what comes next. The wide blue yonder of a freelance horizon will hopefully encompass more time for sailing. The last time I went freelance, from a magazine in 1990, I finally got time to do my shorebased offshore navigation course at night school. I got so confident I took over the class and managed some practical teaching – after passing the practical Yachtmaster exam, as well as a few yacht deliveries.

I remember going back into the office to learn about magazine production as a sub-editor. I was only going to do it for a year and then it would give me another string on the freelance bow (sorry to mix those metaphors, but if I’d said another tip on the free-lance then no-one would, ahem, understand). Instead I went back into reporting and when the next break came it was to staff on Classic Boat, in 1998.

Classic Boat was the magazine I read. I remember the first issue as a reporter on a newspaper in east London in early 1987. I’d recently come off the topsail schooner Vanessa Ann and had found lying in a bed less comfy than the naval hammock I had become used to.

Swallowing the anchor when you are young and fit can feel like you’re gagging – for the sea; but I was in a busy job and at least I had Classic CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2015

5

THE

MED PREVIEW

MED PREVIEW Les Voiles d’Antibes this June marks its 20th year and the start of the Mediterranean yacht racing season. We take a look back at its history – and a look ahead to this year’s sailing season in the centre of the world

GUIDO CANTINI/PANERAI

STORY STEFFAN MEYRIC HUGHES

MED PREVIEW

250 VICTORY’S YEARS

42

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2015

HMS Victory has survived many battles over her 250 years, from the American War of Independence onwards. Now the battle to preserve her is in full swing

©THE TRUSTEES OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM

STORY BY PETER WILLIS

C

hatham. Here, HMS Victory was launched on 7 May 1765. Her keel had been laid down nearly six years earlier, on 23 July 1759 in what was then the Old Single Dock – which was rebuilt and renamed No 2 Dock in 1858. In 2005 it was renamed again, and is now called the Victory Dock.

Today it contains the 1944 destroyer, HMS Cavalier.

Victory’s build period was unusually long, thanks largely to the successful progress of the Seven Years’ War. It was normal to cover up the frame, once completed, for a few months to allow it to season, but in Victory’s case this interval lasted three years.

A first-rate one-hundred-gun ship of the line, she was hailed in the London Public Advertiser on the morning after her launch as “the largest and finest ship ever built.” But the launch itself narrowly avoided complete disaster. On the night before, shipwright Hartly Larkin, designated ‘foreman afloat’ for the event, realised that

Above: Chatham Dockyard 1771, by Thomas Mitchell.

The ship on the right is probably HMS Victory Left: HMS Victory in Portsmouth Harbour 1920

the ship was too broad in the beam to fit though the dock gates. Measurements at first light confirmed the gateway was 9½ inches too narrow. He broke the dreadful news to his superior, master shipwright John Allin, who considered abandoning the launch. However Larkin asked for the assistance of every available shipwright, and they hewed away enough wood from the gates with their adzes for the ship to pass safely through. Had the action not been taken, “At best, the gates would have gouged lumps out of the timbers – at worst, if she had stuck in the dock entrance, and sat there unsupported as the tide fell beneath her, the keel could have broken,” says Naval historian Brian Lavery.

Tackles were set up to haul her out into river, and they would have got her – stern-first – about 60 or 70ft (18-21m) out, but they would have had no means of dragging her back into the dock. She would have been destroyed, and the usable timbers recycled.

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2015

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