Classic Sailor No4 January 2016 by Dan Houston

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JANUARY 2016 Â£3.95

Frigate for the future

LEARNING FROM THE PAST

SURVEY TIPS: CLASSIC GRP FUNDING YOUR PROJECT HOME ON A BARGE SHIPPING FORECAST DECODED

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CRUISE TO BEMBRIDGE BOATSHOW PREVIEW

Contents Editorial

Eye opener

Going to the boat show, might be best by boat It’s a Brest Festival year, so here’s a sample of what to expect

Signals

Historic Ships apprentices project, plans for a new Cutty Sark to sail, Clovelly Fish Festival, Falmouth marina scheme ditched

Association News

New series: Classic Coast

Smylie’s boats

Around the yards

Historical Maritime Society, Sceptre, Hurley 22, Lysander Mousehole, Cornwall

Mike Smylie on Grimsay Lobster Boats Portsmouth Dockyard: IBTC moves into Boathouse 4, a big ship for Stirling’s slip, laying up a new Contessa 32, Staley and Dolly

The Post

Your favourite GRP boat? It’s a landslide for... which one?

Andrew Bray

A sextant in one hand and Mary Blewitt in the other

Nardi’s nods

Federico Nardi’s pick of GRP classics: Sparkman & Stephens 34

Guest column: Sam Llewellyn

Hoovering up the fish and to hell with the consequences

Sisters in the Solent

Two families, two Harrison Butler yachts, a summer’s morning and a simple passage from the Hamble to Bembridge

18 21 23 25 26

Dusmarie, the smack that went back to Gallipoli

The perilous coast

Pioneer’s project funding guide

Daybreak, the liveaboard Humber Keel

Silverleaf and chrome plating

Rowing: Up the Thames from Docklands to Ham

Practical: Decoding the Shipping forecast

Practical: Navigation

On Watch: Some things old, some things new

Sailing skills: Making the turn

Surveying: Assessing a GRP hull

Practical: Restoring a Mirror dinghy part 2

Her long-term owner served there at the age of 15 and was determined to return, but that’s only part of the story

Dinghy cruiser Roger Barnes nearly loses his boat when he sails into maelstrom of wind, waves and rocks off Brittany The secret of successful fundraising is working out what your boat will do once you’ve restored her, says Pioneer Trust’s David Tournay To her owners she’s home; to National Historic Ships she’s a Flagship Scottish ancestry, Kentish build, Suffolk restoration for Chinda Competitive, colourful and a bit crazy: it’s the Great River Race

Listen in on Longwave, and learn how to work out what it means Plotting your position

Tried and tested or net even on the market yet

Get it right and you can cut your turning circle by a boat’s length Simpler than wood, but they still have their pitfalls Finishing the outside of the hull

London Boat Show 1: What to see there

Practical: Heaving mallets and boards

London Boat Show 2: How to survive it

Over the Yardarm, Calendar and Next Month

COVER STORY Across the Atlantic with L’Hermione

The last word: Artist of the Month

Our concise guide to the must-see stands for classic sailors Guy Venables’ guide to some of the must-miss attractions The French frigate’s captain, above talks about her great sailing ability

Des Pawson on the portable lever that gives you added strength Christmas spirits, diary dates for 2016 and what’s in our February issue Janet Shearer, Cornish painter

CLASSIC SAILOR

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Editorial Dan Houston

Looking forward to the Boat Show and wondering whether to sail there.

utting this magazine together in late November it’s hard enough to good anchorages on the Thames, and they are charted features. And somehow ignore the all purveying messages of a western world’s Christmas, being at anchor on the Thames with the jutting towers of commerce beginlet alone the Boat Show. Yes I still call it the Boat Show, probably ning to dominate the landscape against the western sky felt like something out of old habit despite knowing the wider influence that Southmore adventurous than sailing to somewhere foreign. And I can certainly ampton claims on the boater’s mind and pocket nowadays. Many recommend the passage for the navigational challenges and the rewarding people seem to discount the ExCel venue of the London show since 2004, and sights. The Thames tidal barrier at Woolwich is a masterpiece of engineering it is true that the Docklands Light Railway hasn’t always been the best way to which makes it architecturally imposing... And through it all you can and get the show; nor has the car... But taking that into account, and putting up should sail – though if you have an engine and leave it running in neutral with it, the show is something I still look forward to, and reading Guy Venno-one will blame you. ables’ hilarious take on it on page 34 of this issue makes me a little nostalgic, Coming around the bend of Blackwall Reach into Greenwich Reach you almost for its foibles alone! are rewarded with the same sight that would The best way to visit the boat show in its have rewarded a young Nelson, navigating a We had been in surf among the Docklands location should properly be by cutter up from Chatham, in his early days in boat. And there are some services, but I have Goodwins the night before and we the Royal Navy. started to think about how Classic Sailor So who knows? I might yet find a way to had done that part of the passage’s sail to the Boat Show this year, and with Nereis can be represented at the show this coming ashore I am also open to offers! January and have been quite happily musing pilotage the old way This first year for Classic Sailor, we are conabout sailing up the Thames. serving our founder shareholders’ money and It’s something I have only done two or three sharing a stand with Nick Beck from Amelie Rose. He’s the chap on p78, but times; the first occasion was in an engineless yawl with the old pilot of the at the boat show he dresses like a pirate and has his picture taken with a lot Caribbean, Don Street. We had been in surf among the Goodwins the night of happy people. Whether he can persuade me to dress up or not remains to before and we had done that part of the passage’s pilotage the old way – with be seen... It’s a long time since I gave myself one of those rakish buccaneer me standing in the companion using a hockey puck compass – as he likes to moustaches, with a piece of burnt cork. call the nifty Plastimo – calling out the tacks as we came onto our clearing So do come and see us, drop by for a chat and let us know what you think bearings while he then swung the tiller over and we rocked away on the other of this new magazine. We should have the February issue out by then and tack. It probably felt windier than it was, being in the small hours of the night. we’d love to meet readers. We will put our stand number and its location on Happy to say we didn’t bump once! the website and I am planning to be there most days. In the meantime Happy Another time I was able to anchor overnight a couple of times while Christmas to all our readers – if it’s not too early to say that! making our reasonably leisurely way upstream into the capital. There are The 1881 half barge Cygnet arrives at the Maltings in Snape as part of a tradition that will happen on December 13 this year

CLASSIC SAILOR 5

6 CLASSIC SAILOR

Eye Opener: Brest 2016 In terms of area itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s one of, if not the, biggest maritime festivals on the planet. Every four years 2,500 or more vessels of every shape and size and from all over the world, converge on the historic French port of Brest for an international jamboree which draws around a million visitors. This photo is from the 2012 event and shows the impressive French lugger Cancallaise built in 1987 in the inner harbour with the 1932 Dutch built Saltillo. Crowds line the stone quays to sea the boats being handled. 2016 is a year which features a British village at Brest and at CS we would be happy to put anyone interested in taking part in touch with the organisers Photo by Nigel Pert

CLASSIC SAILOR

Signals Skills training, a plan to build a new Cutty Sark, Falmouth marina plan scrapped, and Sir Robin Knox-Johnston to race again at 76 SHIPSHAPE HERITAGE TRAINING

HLF apprentice scheme success It’s arguably one of the most successful training programmes around. The National Historic Ships’ Shipshape Heritage Training Partnership project has been running for nearly two years with a £261,100 Heritage Lottery Fund skills grant to train ten apprentices in the disciplines and skills needed across a range of subjects with five core partners. NHS received its grant in early 2014 enabling it to begin the programme with five trainees who have all since been employed in the industry. A second group of five are due to finish their 12-month training period in January. Under the auspices of the National Maritime Museum in

Greenwich the programme sent the apprentices out to the five partnerships who have acted as their main mentors for the year. The partners involved in the programme so far are: the Scottish Fisheries Museum in Anstruther, Trinity Sailing in Brixham, the Sea Change sailing trust in Maldon, Dauntsey’s School with Jolie Brise, and the Excelsior Trust in Lowestoft. Much emphasis is put on the practical aspect of sailing and looking after older craft – to preserve and run them as part of the UK’s living maritime history. But the apprentices also begin their training with a month at the International Boatbuilding Training College in Lowestoft and are also

NEW FERRY ROUTE

CLOVELLY

Portsmouth to Cowes

Herring-do

A new passenger ferry offers a 35-minute crossing time between Camber Dock Portsmouth (handy for Ben Ainslie’s America’s Cup HQ, and, with a free bus link, for Gun Wharf and trains from Portsmouth Harbour) and Trinity Landing, Cowes. Timings are roughly every 45 minutes at peak times and the cost of a 30-day return is £22.50. There are 41 seats and free wifi and charging. Bikes and dogs are free. www.scootferries.co.uk 8 CLASSIC SAILOR

Up at the breaking dawn to top up the sawdust of the Kipperhouse, I was, writes Mike Smylie. Trouble was there was no breaking dawn, just a mass of dark grey cloud hiding any pretence of a thin line between sea and sky. Waves continued to pound the stony beach as each brings its tumbling roll of stones that had kept me awake most of the night, in my adjacent camper. Nevertheless, when ten o’clock came and the shanty singers found their Sunday morning voices, people emerged down the cobbled streets from the galeblown cliff top. Below all was eerily calm and even the skies remained dryish. The annual Clovelly Herring Festival was in full swing and even though visitor numbers were severely reduced because of the autumnal end of Abigail – or was it the start of Barney – there

ending their year with a second six-week stint there. During the year they spend a week or more at any of the other partners giving them a much broader knowledge of historic vessels and curatorial values for the fleet. So far apprentices have been aged

‘Kipperman’ Mike Smylie, centre, with a couple of the evidently superhuman fishermen of Clovelly

from 21 to 30-plus and two girls completed the first programme last year. “With the success of the programme we are now hoping to secure more funding and to take the programme forward,” said project coordinator Francesco Marella.

was a good succumbing to the reality. Clovelly’s wonderfully ancient stone pier was lined with stalls selling herring in its various disguises. As well as Kipperland and our ‘small but sweet’ Clovelly kippers and bloaters, there were all things herring: fresh, pickled, marinated, in oatmeal and even deep-fried herring roe. Also there was the stall promoting the last West Country ketch Irene and her 2016 sailing itinerary. There were photo exhibitions, an open day in the

The five trainees on TSB Reminder in November. L-R Hilary Titchener, Gabriel Clarke, Luke Duckworth, Francesco Marella of NHS, Olivier Fleygnac, Daniel Taylor, skipper Richard Titchener and Martin Hendry

lifeboat house and children’s activities atop the lime kiln. Other children played on the sand by the beached boats – low tide all day – and got nicely wet! All the herring on offer were caught within half a mile of the end of the pier by brothers Stephen and Tommy Perham, the last of Clovelly’s herring fishermen, both following in their forefathers’ traditions. Stephen continues to fish aboard the picarooner Little Lily, built by Falmouth College’s students a few years ago, using a drift-net. Tommy uses more modern techniques such as a fibreglass boat and engine, though still fishes the same way. Clovelly’s herring go back a long way, and much of the village has depended on fishing as the only means of survival. That the last vestiges of such an ancient industry survives says as much about the fish as the inaccessibility of the village as it clings to the hillside, facing the unpredictable Bristol Channel.

CROWDFUND PROJECT LAUNCHED

QUAY PEOPLE

Replica build will see Cutty Sark sailing A new replica of the Cutty Sark clipper ship is to be built, using traditional methods, and with a target launch date of 2019 – the 150th anniversary of the original Cutty Sark’s launch. Director of the project is Vladimir Martus, who built the replica Shtandart, Peter the Great’s flagship, in St Petersburg, launched in 1999. The location of the Cutty Sark build is yet to be finalised, but the foundation, Cutty Sark 2Sail is registered as a charity in the UK. Timetable for the build is 2017-19, with the work carried out by professionals, assisted by volunteers, and as part of a

‘living museum’, interactive and open to the public. The cost is estimated at £19-24 million, and a crowdfunding scheme is already under way. The Cutty Sark 2 will have modern equipment on board, to provide her with the highest level of safety and she will be environmentally sound. However the rigging, sails, and steering will be made using traditional materials, tools and techniques – just as they were on the original Cutty Sark. Once launched Cutty Sark 2 will operate both as a sail-training ship and as an eco-friendly sailing cargo

Above: Vladimir Martus (in brown shirt) and friends on Shtandart – the replica Russian frigate of Peter the Great

vessel, as well as racing other sailing vessels. Sailors will live in historically accurate deck houses. For trainees there will be hammocks at twin-deck. The interiors of the Captain’s and officers’ cabins will elegant and refined as they were on the original Cutty Sark. www.cutty-sark.org

Cate Blanchett has been in Suffolk this summer filming The Dig, the story of the Sutton Hoo ship excavation in 1938. Blanchett plays Edith Pretty, the recently widowed owner of the estate where the famous 90ft (27m) Saxon burial ship and its treasure were found. The film, based on John Preston’s 2007 novel of the same name, is due for release in the summer.

BROADS NATIONAL PARK

Legal review granted The legality of the Broads Authority’s decision to rename its area the ‘Broads Nationsl Park’ is now to be the subject of a judicial review following a High Court ruling, reports Maurice Gray. Tim and Geli Harris, of Catfield Hall, Norfolk, have been campaigning to save Catfield Fen from irreparable damage ‘by abstraction’ during the past seven years and accuse the Authority of “Insufficient

attention to support the conservation objectives” and of “acting unlawfully”, “being irrational” and “unreasonable”. The renaming of the Broads has caused much controversy among the boating fraternity. The Broads Authority is adamant about having the ‘National Park’ name, but, “not in Law” and without the ‘Sandford Principal’, which would give conservation priority over recreation and navigation.

Tim and Geli Harris: legal progress after seven years

Rupert Marks, Chairman of the Pioneer Sailing Trust, set up in 1999, used a barn on his farmland as the initial space to restore the large smack. The trust secured funding that enabled it to thrive and take on apprentices – see story on p52.

SEAWORLD

Willy – not to be free yet What initially seemed good news from SeaWorld, the US based theme park/zoo that it was phasing out the “show element,” was rather undermined by the announcement they were going to introduce a “more natural setting” for their orca, and that they will carry a “conservation message inspiring people to act.” None of this addresses the actual problems that the orca encounter in captivity such as young being separated from their pod and put in with others (Orca have tightly bonded familiar groups which each have separate languages) which ends in stress and fighting as well as unpredictable attacks on the trainers. They suffer premature death, fin collapse and terrible mental suffering. The best thing the zoo could probably do to “inspire people to act” would surely be to tell them not to go to SeaWorld. GV

Suzanne Blaustone took over Barton Marine when her partner David Coleman passed away in May 2014. Coleman had built Barton into an international brand from when he took over the Whitstable firm in 1986. Suzanne has taken it further, with the launch of a new Heritage range of wooden blocks. See more on p76. CLASSIC SAILOR

Signals FALMOUTH QUAY VICTORY

It’s no to that marina A victory for opponents of plans to install marina-style pontoons in Falmouth’s historic Custom House Quay: Falmouth Harbour Commissioners have withdrawn their planning application, following a rethink by Historic England, reports Luke Powell. The initial view of Historic England was that – even though Custom House Quay is amongst the top 8% of listed structures nationwide – the proposals would have little impact on its structure. However, following “information since provided”, HE has now decided to

take into consideration the “communal value” of the quay, and the contribution its setting makes to its significance. “The traditional maritime character of Custom House Quay can partially be attributed to the current mooring arrangements, whereby boats are either tied to the walls or against each other in a seemingly ad-hoc manner.” This informality contributes to the setting of the quay, argues HE and the proposed pontoons would, in effect, detract from it. HE’s report also notes: “The primary significance is in the fabric of the quaysides, the

antiquity of which is apparent in the vertically-bedded Killas dry stone rubble used in the quay’s construction. There is also historic value

in the quay as representative of the town’s first phase of commercial docks in the 17th century, enabling Falmouth’s development as a port”.

SYDNEY HOBART AT AGE 76

IZMIR, TURKEY

Sir Robin races again

Site of sea battle discovered

Retirement is still far from an option for Clipper Round the World Yacht Race Chairman Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, 76, who will take part in his third Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race on Boxing Day. Joining his twelve Clipper 2015-16 Race teams, which are using the classic race as part of their circumnavigation, Sir Robin will be the Navigator on one of two Clipper 68s which are now based in Sydney to train future race crew. “There is a real buzz amongst our Clipper Race crew about

Archaeologists at Izmir in Turkey believe they have discovered the site of the ancient sea battle of Arginusae, between the Spartans and Athenian Greeks in 406BC. A team, led by researchers from the German Archaeology Institute, looked at underground rock layers around a peninsula near Bademli village at Dikili in western Izmir and discovered that it was once an island. Based on archaeological remnants and ceramics in the village, the archaeologists believe they have discovered the lost city of Kane, site of the ancient Battle of Arginusae. Kane was based on one of the three Arginus islands but the gap between it and the mainland had filled up, creating a peninsula; the other two islands still exist, today called the Garip Isles. Kane was a strategically important harbour during the costly 30-year Peloponnesian War between the Athenians and Spartans. The Athenians with newer ships were able to inflict heavy losses on the Spartans,

RKJ’s solo round-the-world in Suhaili

10 CLASSIC SAILOR

racing with the world’s best sailors again in one of the most famous offshore races,” he said. “The crew will have sailed half way round the world in order to participate” “The event was one of the highlights of the entire circumnavigation when we first competed in 2013, and we are very excited to be coming back to compete again. I’m looking forward to being back on the water and of course all the adrenaline that comes with having to make tactical decisions in a competitive racing environment.”

who were said to have lost 75 ships in the battle compared to the Athenians’ 25. A jubilant Athens was so delighted that it voted to free the slaves on the Greek triremes. However when news came that a storm after the battle had prevented the Athenians from rescuing their lost ships and that many sailors and wounded men had drowned there was fury and six of the eight naval commanders of the Athenian fleet were tried as a group and executed for neglecting their duty.

Falmouth’s historic waterfront – residents fought off a marina proposal Photo: Shane Carr

The sea battle of Arginusae, 406BC

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Signals: Association news Three pages this month: Hurley 22 and Lysander overleaf

The Historical Maritime Society It started, as all projects should, by peeling apart a beer mat and writing down the needs and wants. No doubt fuelled by alcohol, the project took wings and a series of decisions were made which meant that for some people, weekends would not be the same for the next five years. The group, The Historical Maritime Society (HMS), consists of re-enactors, those slightly strange people who like to dress up in old clothes and who become quite animated when discussing the number of buttons on a 1780s captain’s coat. Following a trip to the amazing frigate Trincomalee in Hartlepool in 1995, a large group had decided to re-enact the great days of Nelson’s Navy but quickly discovered that when away from the safety of a large wooden three-master, their presentation lacked something – a boat of their own. Hence in 2000 the beer mat was peeled and decisions were taken as to what they required: it had to be capable of being trailered, it had to carry a gun, etc. Frigates, at the beginning of the 19th century, carried several boats from the fast cutter to the workaday launch

12 CLASSIC SAILOR

HMS members, suitably clad, man the oars of their first boat, a replica Nelson’s Navy ship’s launch

and it was the latter that was chosen, mainly because it had a lot of potential to do different jobs. It could be pulled by up to 12 oars, it had a sailing rig, thwarts could be taken

out and several tons of water carried. These were the boats that took out the large kedge anchor swung underneath it to drop and then allow the rest of the crew to walk the ship up to it. They carried files of Royal Marines for amphibious landings, and of course could be armed with a cannon. All this and a date to aim at – the celebrations around Trafalgar which would be held in 2005. Marine architects SelwayFisher prepared the plans for the boat and construction began. Up until this point the builders had done little more woodwork than putting up a shelf or assembling the Swedish nightmare. But they persevered and finally the boat was ready, no sailing rig but oars. In fact as the boat was loaded on a trailer in Durham where it was built, en-route to

the celebrations in Portsmouth, the paint really was still wet and there had been no sea trials. However in the water it went, and guess what, it behaved impeccably, never fast compared to the Victory’s cutter but very, stable. Since then HMS members have refined the boat. It now has sailing rig – a gaff cutter, although with no keel, it doesn’t grip the water too well. It has a slide mechanism and can carry a 750kg 12 pounder carronade in the bow as well as swivel guns on the quarters. It is still the only example of this type of boat around so is quite well used. It is taken to all sorts of events from Gloucester Tall Ships to Liverpool Pirate Festival, Beale Park and much else besides. In 2012 it was one of the boats on the Queen’s Diamond

Then we had to work out how to handle the tides, which were up to 42ft in height – at one stage we were doing 13.5 knots up the Bristol Channel in the pitch black

Jubilee fleet on the Thames. Possibly one of the coldest, wettest days of the summer, when the crew’s woollen clothing came into its own. The Cox’n, an ex-RN Lt-Cmdr, steered them past the Royal viewpoint. Bit of a shock when the oarsmen looked up straight at the Queen and her consort. As this project was coming to a close, the next one was looming. The members of HMS turned their attention to WW2 and the construction of another vessel. This time, something a little smaller (by 3ft!), a Cockle Mk VIII. These were a development of the Cockleshell Heroes’ vessels, light canvas canoes, as used to attack the German merchant fleet in Bordeaux. The Mk VIII is a different vessel, used primarily for coastal reconnaissance. It is a fourseater plywood boat with the potential for rowing and also sailing with a large lateen rig. Best of all there is an engine. A small flat twin 2-stroke descends through the hull between the legs of the rear occupant causing frequent burns and small electrocutions! It was constructed from

photographs and help from the Special Forces Museum in Australia. Almost all of the parts had to be constructed specially including the metal work. More skills to learn. Earlier this year it was used to commemorate the life of one of Britain’s unsung WW2 heroes, Cmdr. Harold Goulding DSO, RN at Hayling Island. This was where the vessels were originally based. The final vessel in the fleet is still in build. It’s a WW1 boat this time and represents a boat used in Mesopotamia both for offensive purposes but also for the evacuation of casualties down the River Tigris. She is again 23ft long and is motorised by a 10hp side valve engine. Members have had a crash course in caulking as well as other traditional boat-building skills. This is due to take to the water next year. Where next? A RNAS seaplane? A 17th century shallop? Whatever it is you can be sure it will be an accurate representation of an historical vessel. After all, we’ve moved on from beer mats to pieces of paper now. Chris Jones www.hms.org.uk

Sceptre Preservation Society

Below: HMS’s latest completed vessel, the Cockle Mk IV

Sceptre, the 12-metre British challenger for the 1958 America’s Cup ended her 2015 season with one of the more unusual and, in its way, dramatic, passages in her preservation society’s 29 years of ownership. It ended with a cruise up the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal to Tommi Nielsen’s yard in Gloucester Docks for some routine end-of season maintenance. But to get there – having started out from Oban five days earlier – she had to tackle the Bristol Channel tides, at extreme high springs. “We got to Swansea in three days,” tells Tom Smith, of the Sceptre Preservation Society, “and then spent the next two working out how to handle the tides., which were up to 42ft in height. At one stage we were doing 13.5 knots up channel in the pitch black.” The Sceptre Preservation Society is in effect a syndicate, with 19 shares, of which a few are occasionally for sale. They emphasise it’s not a time-share. Members tend to sail together,

with their families, and take part in winter maintenance, or at least contribute to it. It’s worked remarkably well since 1986, when some members of the Fleetwood and Blackpool Yacht Club got together to form a syndicate to buy her. The shares are valued at £12,000 each, and holders also have to pay a yearly subscription of around £2,000 – it varies in line with the amount of maintenance work needed. Sceptre was designed by David Boyd and is 69ft long on deck. She has been adapted for cruising and has 12 berths, with dining seating for the same number. She usually spends at least part of the summer sailing the west coast of Scotland. “Members decide what to do and when they want to do it,” says Tom Smith. “There’s West Highland Week if you like racing, or just cruising with friends and family. It’s very laid-back.” The society currently has some shares for sale – see their advertisement in this issue, or look at sceptre1958.co.uk CLASSIC SAILOR 13

Signals: Association news The popular, seaworthy Hurley 22, now old enough to be considered a classic

Hurley 22 at 50 Owners of Hurley 22 yachts are planning a major event in Plymouth this summer to mark the design’s 50th anniversary, and achievement of classic status. Titled ‘Bring Your Hurley Home’ it will take place at the Royal Plymouth Corinthian Yacht Club – home club of George Hurley their builder, on the weekend of 22-24 July. Some 50 members of the Hurley Owners Association have expressed interest in attending, says membership secretary Ian Sinclair, “Most with their boats”. The Hurley 22 went into Lloyds approved series production in 1966, hence its eligibility under Cowes Classics Week’s criteria. It was in 1963 that builder George Hurley provided designer Ian Anderson with a brief to meet the demands of the family yachtsman, essentially to provide a medium to heavy displacement, safe, seaworthy yacht in both fin- and bilge-keel form, with berths for four and suitable for either inboard or outboard engine, while at the same time retaining classic lines.

The resultant Hurley 22 proved an instant hit. Quite aside from her pretty lines - she looked like a ‘proper yacht’ - she was solidly built and is a good performer. From the outset the Hurley 22 was intended to be raced as well as cruised. A 22 won the Round The Island Race in 1967 and they acquitted themselves well on the JOG circuit. But it has been the H22’s cruising performance that has won the respect of many yachtsmen over the years. Hurley owners speak fondly of the little boat’s performance and sea kindliness. The boats have proved themselves on long cruises; several 22s have crossed the Atlantic, and at least one has cruised the Pacific. The 22 was in almost constant production up to 1990 by which time 1203 had been built. The association, which also covers other Hurleys (the 18, 20, 24/70 and 27 and 30/90) and other classes, including the Robert Tucker-designed Silhouette, has around 250 members in the UK and around the world. There’s a lively website at hurleyownersassociation.co.uk

Hardey, the chairman, bases himself at the Swallowtail Boatyard on Womack Water near Ludham, and members literally drop in for some informal sailing during that time. The yard is next door

to the Hunters Fleet yard, and some members take the opportunity to sail these hire boats. There is also usually a West-Country meet, with more formal flotilla sailing. www.lysander-owners.org

Lysander Association The Lysander, a 17ft sailing cruiser, was designed in 1963, primarily for home construction using marine plywood over frames, although a number of boats were built professionally. During the 1970s a GRP version was produced by Febris Marine on Canvey Island. The Lysander Association was founded in 1971 with Percy Blandford, the boat’s designer, as president. The Association is still very much alive and organises a number of sailing meets throughout the sailing season. Two are on the Norfolk Broads, and consist of a ‘drop-in’ week or fortnight in May/June and August/September. Nick 14 CLASSIC SAILOR

Percy Blandford designed the Lysander with home build in mind

Smylie’s boats

Classic Coast

Grimsay Lobster Boats

or a tiny Outer Hebridean island with a small population, Grimsay has had an incredible amount of boats locally built for the lobster fishery. In 1846 the census showed 269 inhabitants, and this had reduced to 169 by 2011, despite the building of a causeway connecting the island to North Uist and Benbecula. There’s just one circular road around which isn’t much more than a mile in length, nevertheless there were at one time in the early 20th century three boatbuilders working at Kenary (Ceannaridh) on the southwest side of the island. These were all members of the Stewart family, renowned local builders who were descendants of the first Stewart who moved from Argyllshire to the island in the 1840s. Five generations later and they are said to have built in excess of 1,000 boats. The last survivor, Charles Stewart was still building a decade or so ago when I last visited him.

Mousehole, Cornwall There are two significant dates in the life of Mousehole, the tiny West Cornwall harbour. The first is the night before Christmas Eve, celebrated in the village as Tom Bawcock’s Eve in memory of the legendary local fisherman who saved the village from starvation after a long series of storms by putting to sea in dangerous weather and returning with hold-full of ‘seven sorts of fish’. They cook ‘Starry-Gazy Pie’ made of pilchards with their heads poking through the crust. The other date comes round just four days earlier, and is much more recent, and more sombre. On 19 December 1981, the Penlee lifeboat Solomon Browne was lost, along with its entire crew of eight, all from Mousehole. The old lifeboat station, just along the coast from the harbour, is now a memorial. The new lifeboat is stationed in Newlyn, a few miles to the east. Perhaps it’s the abiding consciousness of this history Ellen, a replica Gorran Haven Crabber owned by the Cornish Maritime Trust, is based in Mousehole harbour, and can be sailed

that gives the stone-built village a quiet dignity despite having become, inevitably, a bit of a tourist honeypot. The harbour itself is eastfacing, looking across Mount’s Bay with a stunning distant view of St Michael’s Mount, and is sheltered by the offshore rocks of St Clement’s. It dries out, revealing a sandy beach, so suits long-keelers well. Mooring is along the stone harbour wall, and you may well find yourself alongside the restored fishing lugger Barnabas or other boats of the Cornish Maritime Trust. There’s a good old pub, the Ship Inn, narrow streets to explore and a good walk up the cliffs towards the west, which will take you to the wild bird sanctuary, and beyond if you feel like it. The locals say it Mowzle, by the way. Peter Willis What’s YOUR favourite Classic Coast location? Tell us about it, with or without a photo, by email to editor@classicsailor.com

These open boats, differing in length but not over 22 feet, were all specifically built for the local lobster fishery that was centred on the nearby Monach Isles (Heisker), a small group of two main islands and a few offshoots that lie a couple of miles west of North Uist. To get there, the Grimsay boats had to navigate through the waters of Oitir Mhor, the channel leading out into the Atlantic where they would always encounter a stiff surf. Their design allowed them to ride over this, sail to the islands with enough fishing gear for a week’s fishing, haul in creels and return with their catch. They were rigged with two gaff sails, and their fishermen would sometimes race each other home on the Saturday. Whilst working they left the mizzen mast ashore. As usual motorisation had its impact, bringing a fuller hull shape and a transom (geola), although some boats retained the double-ended (eathar) influence that is longstanding hereabout. They were renowned for their seaworthiness , their lightness and fineness, especially at entry. The boat shown here is the Lily, CY173, which was drawn languishing in a bay on the north side of the island in 2001. Since then, boatbuilding has recommenced on the island and a fishing industry survives although the route out to the Monach Isles is today blocked by the causeway that brought so much hope to the island in 1960. Many of the boats working from the new harbour at Kallin are deepsea vessels although a healthy fleet of the small Grimsay boats remain moored in the inner harbour and work creels, mostly on a part-time basis. It’s worth mentioning that the Barra boats working long-lines around the southern end of the Outer Hebrides are similar in shape and are presumed to evolved through influence from Grimsay. The Stewart tradition, then, has travelled long and wide, from the far reaches of the southwest highlands to the far-flung outposts in the western islands.

They were rigged with two gaff sails and their ﬁshermen would sometimes race each other home on the Saturday CLASSIC SAILOR 15

Around the yards Large-scale is the theme this month with stories about big yards in both Portsmouth and Plymouth - plus a Contessa 32 PORTSMOUTH

IBTC moves into Dockyard’s Boathouse 4

After many delays, the International Boatbuilding Training College has moved into the massive space of Portsmouth Historic Dockyard’s Boathouse 4, from the temporary quarters of Boathouse 5 just opposite. As well as superb facilities for boatbuilding and maintenance, including a canalised entrance direct from the harbour, Boathouse 4 boasts a public viewing gallery with bar and restaurant, as well as a free-to-enter exhibition of small naval boats . One of the first boats to be brought in for a major refurbishment by the IBTC trainees is a local heroine, Sir Alec Rose’s world-girdling Lively Lady, now leased to Alan Priddy’s Around and Around trust and planning a further circumnavigation. Four of the local Victory class keelboats are also among the 20 or so project boats awaiting the students’ attention. 16 CLASSIC SAILOR

Above: Picture window overlooks Portsmouth’s Hard, with newbuild Dartmouth gig in foreground, and left. Below left: Boathouse 4 exterior, with Boathouse 5 in background. Right: Lively lady in suspense

“Her construction is enormous with more framing than room and space; she has all the attributes of a little ship” –Will Stirling PLYMOUTH

FAVERSHAM

Stirling’s biggest catch

Alan Staley and Dolly

The 160-ton Norwegian Search and Rescue ship JM Johansen is the largest vessel so far recovered by Stirling and Son at its No.1 covered slip in Plymouth Harbour. Built shortly after World War II as Redningsselskapet 53, she supported the fishing fleets off Greenland and rescued 100 lives. Will Stirling says “Her construction is enormous with more framing than room and space; she has all the attributes of a little ship.” Alongside her is the 72ft Silver’s motor yacht Life Aquatic (ex Thelma VI) which has been structurally rebuilt. Over the winter her systems and interior will be completed before a launch in the spring of 2016. Other recent work includes the 52ft Hillyard Aguila, in for a fast-track overhaul at the end of the summer. Framing, hundreds

It’s always fascinating to dive into any traditional boatyard and when we are in Faversham we try to see what projects Alan Staley has going on. This Sussex beach boat was a recent project (now stopped) which had been rescued from a bonfire near Chichester. Dolly Dawn was built by Lowers in Newhaven in the early 1960s and had finished her working life as a floating pontoon with scaffolding board nailed over her. Facing the scrap she was found and brought to Staley for new timbers, planks (she is elm on oak), decks, gunwales and bilge rails. Her engine, a three-cylinder aircooled Lister will go back into her.

Filling up nicely: Stirling and Son’s massive covered slip currently accommodates this Norwegian rescue ship and 72ft motor yacht

of bolts and planking were replaced. The yard also has three new dinghies in build. Two are rowing dinghies which are going to India and Chile respectively. The third is a sailing dinghy for the UK. These bring the dinghy tally to 32 new builds.

A recent purchase for the yard has been new railway wheels for additional slipway cradles, bought from the Devon based company which rebuilt the Flying Scotsman. “It is important to have good rolling stock!” comments Will.

LYMINGTON

Newhaven beach boat being rescued for posterity

Laying up a new Contessa 32 It’s not every day we see a new Contessa 32 getting laid up in the moulds made famous by this now-classic design. But this was the scene at Jeremy Rogers’ Lymington yard in mid November as the latest 32 – for a Norwegian customer – began to take shape. The two halves of the mould are being laid up with resinreinforced glass cloth by Will Davis (with his back to us) and Cliff Davies, who joined the firm aged 15 and has been there ever since. Designed in 1970 by David Sadler the Contessa 32 was one of the most successful British yachts of the era; 700 of these popular cruiser-

MALDON

Blue Hawk

The birth of a new Contessa 32, as the moulds are prepared for lay-up at Jeremy Rogers’ Lymington yard. This one will be in dark blue

racers were built before Contessa Yachts was forced into insolvency in 1983, which led to the company losing the moulds. In 1995 Jeremy Rogers Limited re-acquired the 32’s moulds and set up again building yachts, still to the original specification, using high

quality polyester resins, with Lloyds approved materials and polyester gelcoats. The skin coat behind the gelcoat is laminated with an isophthalic polyester resin to prevent water penetration. A new Contessa 32 costs around £189,000 plus VAT. The current project is the 26th to be built since then.

Reader Lloyd Middleton has written to let us know how he is progressing with work on Blue Hawk, a 19ft 6in cabin yacht built in Brightlingsea in 1939 by Douglas Stone and Sons. The work, now nearing completion, has included replacing 10 steamed ribs and fitting an inboard engine with new bearers. He has rebuilt the cockpit and sheathed the coach roof. We hope to bring more details in a future issue. Blue Hawk’s restored coachroof

The next Kite Demon Yachts of Harkstead, Suffolk, has started building the second production Kite, the 21ft Wolstenholmedesigned lightweight yacht reviewed in November’s Classic Sailor. She’s destined for the Lake District. CLASSIC SAILOR 17

The Post Email or post letters and replies to the editor – see opposite; we’ll make sure responses to queries are forwarded on. GRP classics: your responses

We asked readers for their favourite GRP classic designs and had a flurry of emails, most voting for the Contessa 32 – still in production at Jeremy Rogers in Lymington, see p17. Here is a brief selection of comments from owners: Contessa 32 – go anywhere, survive anything, cruise, race (their own class at Cowes), an active and large class association, still being supported by the Rogers yards – in fact still being built for the true cognoscenti! And, of course, one of the most harmoniously beautiful designs of all times. I’ve been bought drinks from France to Ireland on the strength of having the nicest looking boat in the anchorage. Chris North – Owner of Andaxi, CO 701 I have sailed various types of sailing yachts for more than three decades and owned six in that period. My wife and I are now the proud owners of a Contessa 32 and have no plans whatsoever to change that. When asked why a Contessa 32, three points come to my mind: She inspires confidence; ‘Don’t worry, it’s a Contessa’ is the title of a magazine article. We’ve started, double or single-handed

on various occasions when the weather turned out to be less friendly than anticipated, but with the Contessa any nervousness is smoothed away; she will take care of you. A fellow Contessa 32 owner sold his Contessa and bought a larger, faster sailing yacht in which he sailed a lot. Within two years he had bought his old Contessa back, with the words “I didn’t have an emotional bond with that other boat”; we have that bond too. Thirdly we’ve never sailed a yacht and got so much compliments from passers by as with the Contessa 32. Winfried Donkers, Netherlands In 2008 I started to look for the right boat for me. She should be a classic with soul, safe and clever. She needed to be comfortable to manage by one person, so rig type was also important. It took a few years, looking at many different types of boat but suddenly she was there, my Contessa 32. She is a dream to sail and with a formidable reputation for seaworthiness. We have sailed in very different conditions, on the Kattegat, Baltic Sea, North Sea, English Channel, Biscay, and now she is on the Atlantic; you can follow us on www.contessa-oceana.dk. She is easy to manage and she can be quite quick despite being a heavy little lady. And, she is so beautiful she puts a smile on people’s faces as we go past. Anna Chacon, Denmark PLUS from the web: Colin Baxter I’d say the Contessa 32, judging by the number of them I’ve painted over the years as comissions! Meraid Griffin Fond of the She 31 She of Feock myself.

Goldeneye (Co32) going round Fastnet rock is from Colm McVeigh, Ireland, who nominated the Contessa 32 as well

18 CLASSIC SAILOR

Barney Pearson This Rustler 31, 1967, just completed a major external refit, and paint job by myself and a refit team at Rustler Yachts. Definitely classic GRP!

Ben Peter The Trident 24... Perhaps not as graceful as the Contessa but as you row away you see a proper little yacht.

America’s Cup Jubilee Regatta, August 21, 2001 by David Bareford Oil 24 x 48in

John Danby Surely the east coast IRC 38? Grant Goulding Surely a Swan must feature in there too? Rupert Fowke The H boat? Philip Stringer Westerly Fulmar. Sails as well as a Contessa and you can live in it. Stewart Hyder I have a Van der Stadt 26 Invicta, they say a folk boat derivative, she can still show a clean transom to many modern boats.

Fancy helping restore this naval whaler? See letter opposite

Matthew Lingley S&S Swan 36 gets my vote. Classic Olin Stephens sheerline. Marcus Wright Nope. You’re all wrong. Rival. Rival 36 in particular!

Just ask – nicely please A new magazine always has difficulty in finding its readership [and we know from calls that there are newsagents which don’tn yet stock us]. But most will also order it in for you, if you just ask… Also we are happy to send out current copies for the cover price, plus postage Contact us at sales@classicsailor.com

December Eye Opener

David Bareford, whose painting featured as last month’s Eye Opener, has been in touch: I went to the Sesquicentennial of the America's Cup and raced around the Isle of Wight in 2001. I was there for a week leading up to and including the actual re-enactment of the race. So each day we went out on the water and chased around whatever was going on to enjoy the various races and in my case to take photos to paint from. This was one of many sights I saw that week that ended up as paintings. I just like the attitude of the boat and the way the figures complemented the action.

Within two years he had bought his old Contessa back, with the words: ‘I didn’t have an emotional bond with that other boat’

There are many times when it is impractical to do much more than take the shot. And I often don't know if I've got something good until I get the slides back from processing. David Bareford, Rockport, Maine

Excellent tack-tics

During a recent trip down river, we dinghy cruising members of the Marconi SC, of Southminster, Essex, witnessed an entertaining sight. It was a very still day, so we had a wonderful drift/run down river to Thurslett spit, followed by a paddle against the tide for lunch on the north shore. Opposite Bradwell. We were entertained by the Old Gaffers race proceeding slowly up river with the tide, but no wind. It was rather interesting watching the lead smacks round Thurslett buoy only to drift backwards towards Maldon. Surprisingly the tail end boat tacked way before the mark and drifted backwards, rounding the buoy in reverse. Fortunately the wind filled slightly, making them now the lead boat; excellent tack-tics! Martin Maloney, by email

Praise from Naples

Later J Class designs

Further to John Lammerts Van Bueren’s letter about the lost J Class, as far as I know Svea was not the last J designed; in 2012 I designed a J Class. Design No 133, 44 metres, 135 tonnes, on my fb profile; in 2011 I designed J Class No 9760, 37 metres, 173 tonnes. My designs are drawn by Graham Westbrook one of C&N’s last naval architects, who also designed the new Harwich Mayflower, Pete Radclyffe, Italy

Whaler project?

I am interested in restoring a naval whaler which has fallen on hard times at St Osyth, Essex. She is up for sale at £350. Is there anyone interested in helping restore her as a project? The engine is being removed as scrap, a pontoon berth is available at low cost, crane available from the boatyard. She is 27 x 7ft with timber diagonal construction, and would make a good launch. Dave Hart, Essex

Congratulations to Classic Sailor. I have seen it for the first time this morning in Naples and soon I bought it. It seems clear, complete and coherent, and a pleasure to read. Carlo Bertorello, Naples, Italy

Passion for barges

For some time we have considered perhaps it is time to look to a different kind of boating. Minnie has long held a passion for barges. So, here’s our next boat! De Sperer (Sparrowhawk) is a classic Dutch sailing barge, and with gaff rig! We hope that many of you will come and join us for a few days on our long and gentle journey from Stourport & Worcester to the East Coast, then down south to Birdham Pool, via the Severn, Kennet & Avon and down the Thames. We shall take two years, with week or two legs at a time. Chaloner Chute, Chichester

Letter of the month Miles and miles and miles

I am writing from the French cable layer Ile de Batz, off Fujaira UAE, about to start the last phase of a fibre optic telecoms cable installation project linking UAE, Oman, India, Sri Lanka and Malaysia. The other day I left my precious October issue of Classic Sailor on the bridge and before you could say “parallel rulers” the junior navigating officer was right on the case! But... John Clarke’s feature on navigational basics describes the nautical mile as being one sixtieth of a degree, approximately 2026 yards, 1.15 of a statute mile, or 1.4 Kilometres. My French colleague quickly pointed out that a nautical mile as defined by the First International Extraordinary Hydrographic Conference, Monaco (1929) is in fact exactly 1.852 Km, not 1.4 Km. Was this by any chance a deliberate mistake to see who is paying attention? If so, my colleague Paul Fremont would like to claim his prize.(There is a great deal of interest in CS

amongst the French officers. One of them delighted in telling me that his brother is skipper aboard Moonbeam III and they’re very much looking forward to getting their hands on future issues!) The measurement of the Kilometre or “Millaire” was first used in France in 1793 and was later named the “Myriametre” as defined by a Frenchman called Develey in 1802. One minute of arc on Mars is exacly 1 Km (well near enough at 0.987 Km). Was Monsieur Develey perhaps from another world? David Flack, at sea

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Andrew Bray It was DR and after that the sun and the stars – and hope

he names Marcq St Hilaire and Mary Blewitt will either resonate strongly or not at all with Classic Sailor readers. The former is the author of the intercept method of astronomical navigation, and the latter of the slim volume Celestial Navigation for Yachtsmen, the world’s most widely used primer on astro navigation. The art and science of astro navigation may seem somewhat arcane in these days of pinpoint GPS accuracy, practised for entertainment and education rather than navigational need except amongst a very few who view themselves as purists. Indeed the last time a sight was taken using my sextant was whilst crossing the Atlantic on Firefly in 2001, when the sight taker (not this author) rather spoilt his credentials by taking the time for the sight from the GPS. These thoughts have been prompted by a news report published in mid-October to the effect that the US Navy is starting to teach celestial navigation again because of fears of the GPS system being hacked. Whether or not this story came from the same source that reported on US security services using manual typewriters for the same reason isn’t revealed. I have never enjoyed being taught to do anything. I far prefer to find out by myself which is why one summer, somewhere off a beach in France, you might have spotted me wobbling along on a windsurfer, wishbone in one hand and instruction manual in the other. I fell off a lot but I cracked it. It was the same with astro navigation. I did attend one session of an evening class in astro at a London college, the September before I was due to head out on my first solo ocean passage the following June. This was in 1974 so there was no GPS, no Decca and apart from RDF, which had limited range, no form of electronic navigation suitable for small-boat ocean navigation. It was DR and after that the sun and the stars. And hope. I was so bored by that first lesson that I never went to the second or subsequent sessions. I could, I argued, better teach myself and anyway, inevitably, as the ‘jobs to do’ list grew, so the DIY celestial navigation lessons were pushed to the bottom of the list. I did manage to borrow a chronometer, not quite a Harrison but a fine, very early quartz crystal instrument that was probably worth more than the boat and all her equipment. I also purchased an Ebbco plastic sextant, the appropriate Nautical Almanac and Sight Reduction Tables. So, there I was out in the Western Approaches, a couple of hundred miles on my way towards the Azores and as the Round Island RDF warbled

into silence I sat there with the Ebbco in one hand and Mary Blewitt in the other. The only advice I had listened to before leaving was to ignore the first half of Celestial Navigation for Yachtsmen. I did. The second half starts if not literally then figuratively “take your sextant in one hand and point it towards the sun...”. That first sight took me some two hours to work and produce a position line, or LOP. The second one was a bit quicker and when the first

As the Round Island RDF warbled into silence I sat there with the Ebbco plastic sextant in one hand and Mary Blewitt in the other

was brought forward I had a position that sort of tallied with my DR. So I continued with blind faith in my ability for the next ten days, shooting sun sights when the weather permitted. I had absolutely no measure of the accuracy of my fixes, only the growing uncertainty of DR, as I neared my hoped-for destination. The Azores islands are small and if I missed them I could have found myself on the way to South America. My latest fix had placed me about 40 miles off the eastern end of the island of São Miguel and I calculated that if my sights had been right then I should see the light of Ponta do Arnel at around 0300 the following morning. I was on deck by 0200, scanning the horizon and then, almost on the dot of 0300, there was a distant light flashing. I timed it twice, three times and more before to make sure. This was, and still is, one of the high points and best memories of my sailing life. GPS is great but it doesn’t give you that same sense of accomplishment. CLASSIC SAILOR 21

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Nardi’s Nods

by Federico Nardi of Cantiere Navale dell’Argentario

S&S 34 Sea kindliness and the ability to sail close to the wind in a blow are just two great attributes of this large-hearted yacht

Down below, the headroom in the standard Australian cabin is 6ft 1in which f all the Sparkman and Stephens production yachts, the S&S 34 has become the most celebrated and perhaps the most successful. tapers to an inch lower at the main bulkhead. There’s a sea-going quarter berth The boat raced successfully, quickly notching up race victories – on port, with a navigation station slightly forward. To starboard is the galley. including the future British prime minister Ted Heath’s Morning Hanging lockers and a head are forward of the saloon and there is a rather tight Cloud winning its class in the Sydney Hobart in 1969, before it V-berth at the forepeak with headroom of 5ft 10in. became the boat of choice for solo circumnavigation attempts. Over 40 years on, the S&S 34 is still a quick boat. The hull is easily driven and Several versions were built by yards around the world. The only 20hp is required to drive the boat at hull-speed. When introduced the S&S 34 English version differed in having a slightly raised doghouse, was regarded as having exceptional speed to windward and in S&S 34 while the Australian version (built by Swarbrick Brothers) has heavy weather. Even today she is hard to beat to windward in LOA 33ft 6in (10.21m) an uninterrupted cabin trunk. A later Mark II version has an more than 10 knots, in fact owners have reported throwing in Beam 10ft 1in (3.07m) updated keel and rudder-skeg configuration. The Aquafibre hulls tacks of 80 degrees. Her 50% ballast ratio results in a stiff boat, Draught 5ft 10in (1.78m) were often finished by other yards. Some were exported to the US with the first reef taken at a hefty 25 knots of wind. As she Sail Area 484 sq ft (44.96m2) as the Palmer Johnson 34. They were also built in Denmark as the heels, the waterline length increases significantly. Displacement 9195lbs 4171kgs In my early 20s a friend and I took our Impala 35, which we Sagitta 35 and in Italy as the Impala 35. The boat has a remarkably modern shape for a design raced and cruised in the Tuscan Archipelago, across the Atlantic conceived in 1967. Looking down from above, the hull has a definite diamond to the Caribbean. Sure of being aboard a large and seaworthy boat, and in those days shape with a fine bow and a narrow stern. The lines show a short waterline, long 10m was long and safe, we wandered about the islands, with the pleasurable sensation overhangs, generous tumblehome and, for its era, a relatively high freeboard. of feeling at home in our own shell. Only today, once again cruising with an S&S 34 after Below the waterline is a short fin keel, with nearly all the ballast right in the years of sailing modern-day boats, have I rediscovered the magic of an extremely easymiddle of the boat and a skeg-hung rudder quite far aft. going and large-hearted boat, forgiving mistakes and rough treatment, robust in every The S&S 34 has a relatively tall masthead rig, with a high aspect mainsail detail, and (sea state permitting) not needing to be steered when beating to windward. and an enlarged foresail, a configuration that became popular in racers in the To buy such a timeless icon of elegance, for 20 to 25,000 Euros, fenders Translated by James Robinson Taylor years to come. In all, a very innovative configuration for its day. included, should be enough.

S&S 34 ASSOCIATION/ RICHARD BENNETT

The S&S 34 was drawn just after Olin Stephens designed the 1967 America’s Cup winner Intrepid – the first 12-M to be given a separate rudder and keel, which surely influenced the lines of the 34. The first production boat was Morning Cloud in which Ted Heath won the Sydney Hobart in 1969

CLASSIC SAILOR 23

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Guest column: Sam Llewellyn “Hoovering up fish and to hell with the consequences”

pparently the Margiris, the world’s second-largest trawler, is trundling up and down off the west coast of Ireland having been thrown out of Australian waters. She is towing a net 600m long, with a mouth that can open to a width of 200m. The fishermen of Donegal are reported to be unamused, and meditating direct action. Here they have much in common not only with most of the seafaring public, but also with the authors of a petition laid before Edward III in 1376, which complained about the use of a towed engine: ‘certain fishermen for several years past have subtily [sic] contrived an instrument called ‘wondyrechaun’ made in the manner of an oyster dredge, but which is considerably longer, upon which instrument is attached a net so close meshed that no fish be it ever so small which enters therein can escape, but must stay and be taken. And that the great and long iron of the wondyrechaun runs so heavily and hardly over the ground when fishing that it destroys the flowers of the land below water there, and also the spat of oysters, mussels and other fish upon which the great fish are accustomed to be fed and nourished.... to the great damage of the commons of the realm and the destruction of the fisheries, and they pray for a remedy.’

This engine bore a startling resemblance to a miniature version of a modern beam trawl. The attitude of the fishermen, who were interested in hoovering up fish and to hell with the environmental consequences, also has a modern ring. Like all governments since then, the King seems to have paid little attention to the damage caused by trawling, so it was left to local populations to rescue their ecosystems by a spot of off-hand lynching. This direct action was echoed in anti-trawling riots by East Coast inshore fishermen in the 19th century, a growing swell of public protest caused by fish population crashes since the 1960s, and the entirely understandable anti-Margiris murmurings of the fishermen of Donegal this year. Trawlermen are reluctant to allow that trawling damages stocks and seabeds. The evidence, however, is mounting. Areas trawled for Dublin Bay prawns or langoustines, Nephrops Norvegicus, are reckoned to take some five years to recover, and it is not unusual for productive areas to be trawled five times in two years. But

The factory trawler Margiris at work, with a net, the majority of which is invisible. Below: a ﬁsh-eye view, courtesy of Greenpeace

Fishing and ﬁshing and swearing because for some incomprehensible reason they are not catching much any more

outside my saloon window in the Firth of Clyde backwards and forwards they go, fishing and fishing and swearing on VHF channel 6 because for some incomprehensible reason they are not catching much any more. A hundred metres under their feet the ground looks like a wellploughed field, and the by-catch, which used to feature great lusty cod and plaice the size of scout-troop frying pans, is now a miserable scatter of immature whiting. The trawlermen, cry the politicians, are the last hunter-gatherers, plying their immemorial trade. But the real hunter-gatherers are the inshore men doing the best they can with creels and trammels and longlines in the waters beside which they live. The face of trawling is not a jolly pink fisherman in a souwester, but a Filipino semi-slave contemplating the world from between the rusty bars of a scuttle. Meanwhile the boat’s owner and his federation are fighting tooth and nail to sabotage Marine Conservation Zones, no-take areas, and anything else that will stop him wrecking stocks and seabed for private gain. Fish have been on earth for a few hundred million years, and humans have known about the damage caused by trawling for a mere 650. In that context, it is all pretty new. But trawling damage has been enormous, and there is no end to it in sight. One day soon, many fisheries will die. It is possible to imagine a time when activists reluctant to see such destruction apply the same techniques to trawling as Sea Shepherd has used on Japanese ‘scientific’ whaling. Come to think of it, quite a lot of us might want to join in. CLASSIC SAILOR 25

SAILING TO BEMBRIDGE

Sisters across the Solent Sabrina and Destina, twin Harrison Butler yachts, and their two families set out on a summer’s day to enjoy a simple cruise from Hamble to the Isle of Wight and, as Craig Nutter relates, it’s an early start...

y eyes opened. I could see the early morning sunlight through the portholes and the slanting light on the surrounding varnished wood of the cabin sides. I was lying on my bunk in the saloon and my watch told me it was not long after five in the morning. I undid my lee cloth so I could sit up and survey the scene in the early morning sleepy quiet. Jack and Molly were up forward on the double bunk and Kate was peacefully ignoring me, in her bunk on the other side of the cabin. The alarm was set for 0530hrs, and it felt great to be up before it. I was excited – we were going sailing. Not just us in Sabrina, but Destina’s crew would also be starting to stir for the day ahead. The gas was lit for the kettle and I put my bunk away in a comfortable well-practised manner. The clothes for the day were handy and I put them on and turned the alarm off before it sounded and poured the coffee. I slid the hatch back and opened the cabin doors to see the bright, blustery day I had envisaged whilst below. Our day had started and I could hear Kate stirring and heard a “Morning” from Jack. On deck I was breathing in the day and started to undo the tie-downs for the tonneau cover so I could roll it up for stowing on the coachroof. Across on board Destina I could see the face of Mark peering out behind the glass of one of his portholes. Good, they were awake. I bimbled around the deck making sure we were shipshape, checking the lashings holding the dinghy on the foredeck and 26 CLASSIC SAILOR

generally casting an eye over our little world. This also gave a chance for Kate to get up without me bundling around down below. After a few minutes I joined her for coffee and a greeting from Jack and Molly, our wonderful children. The night before, as the drizzling rain fell Mark (Tommo) and Susie from Destina had joined us on board Sabrina and over a takeaway curry at our cockpit table under the tonneau cover to plan the passage across the Solent. We had decided to depart for Bembridge at 6-ish to still get the tide with us, and not arrive too early for the entrance channel at Bembridge. The coffee was drunk and kettle refilled and put back on to boil. The engine started on the button. After the ritualistic visual check of the water coming out of the ex-

We started to fairly romp along, pushing spray into the air as we drove past the waves

haust in the transom we prepared to leave knowing the sound of our engine would energise Tommo into action. By the end of our second coffee, we were all ready. Sabrina was alongside a pontoon facing downstream with the tide coming in against us and we had to reverse out to get into the main course of the river Hamble – which we both managed using generous throttle and big tiller movements. Before 6am we are both heading towards the mouth of the river and getting a feel for the day. The wind was blowing from the west right on the nose as we motored out. I had already decided to hoist the main with two of the three slab reefs hauled in tight; this kept the sail nice and flat and looked sensible. As we were able to turn to port in the loose turn of the channel at the mouth of the Hamble, I went forward and unleashed the staysail and pulled hard on the halyard purchase to tension the luff before the sheet was pulled and stop the angry flapping. I was pleased to have put two reefs in the mainsail! Once the old girl was sailing along the engine was stopped. I like to hide the blades of our 14in two-bladed prop behind the deadwood – I lock the still-spinning shaft by putting the throttle in reverse when the painted mark on the coupling is vertical. Both boats were still close together, within a few lengths as we turned to go down the mainland shore past Lee-on-Solent. We let the boats and crew settle down to the rhythm of the wind and sea. Feeling sporty, although accepting that we were still sheltered by Calshot, I unfurled the flying jib. This sail is only 100sq ft or so,

Rafted up together, with a game of Monopoly in Destina’s cockpit

similar in size to the staysail, and the main in its reefed state could only be 160sq ft, so a snug rig for the breeze. As we escaped the lee of Calshot and felt the full force of the breeze and run of the waves coming down the Solent from the west, we started to fairly romp along, pushing spray into the air as we drove past the waves. Down below Jack and Molly could hear the rush of the water as it moved past the hull, and we were off, racing to Bembridge!

But we were sailing in company, so after ten minutes or so the decision was shared to roll the jib. We bore away quickly to unload the force of the wind, and with the sheet easing progressively we rolled it up with the furler. Only then could we bring the bow back up to course paralleling the mainland shore, feeling the force of the wind. The water, the wind and the sky were all around, and at this early hour not many other boats. The sky was laced with grey

clouds, the bottom edges cast in the shadow of their height. The wind was quite fresh, pushing us along towards Bembridge. Nearby was Destina, another Harrison Butler and a sistership to Sabrina. We were both sailing well, the rolled jib in front of the staysail on a broad reach, the bermudan mainsail double-reefed. We were moving along nicely with the flood tide flowing to the east, eventually filling the North Sea.

From far left: Sabrina (left) and Destina; Tommo and Susie sailing Destina; Destina and Sabrina at Bembridge CLASSIC SAILOR 27

SAILING TO BEMBRIDGE Sabrina is our family boat; she is 80 years old and only 26ft (7.9m) long on deck, but sails well and we were sure to make good time to Bembridge, and have enough tide to get through the channel into the harbour with our draught of 4ft 6in (1.4m). We were sailing into the eastern Solent towards the forts. These massive structures seem to be floating, yet the swirling currents of the tides flow past them, leaving long tails of disturbed churning water downtide. We

The sails were still pulling us along so well that it was with a sigh that we decided to drop them could see this swirling water as the tide and wind pushed us past as we left No Man’s Land fort to port, cutting the corner towards the Isle of Wight, past the village of Seaview on the island shore before we then passed the area of the Priory Bay Hotel, hiding behind the woods that lie beyond the ribbon of the sandy beach, and wondering, yet again, what it would be like to stay there. Turning south-east, we used our chart plotter to show us the depth contours. The little black triangle on the screen, crudely representing our fine silhouette, was skirting the edge of the purple 5m line; the echo sounder display, mounted just below the GPS, was, pleasingly, showing roughly the same depth. The sails were still pulling us along so well that it was with a sigh we decided to drop them. This would give us more time to focus on the entrance and surrounding landmarks and enjoy the process. We were all happy on board – Kate, Jack and Molly and I were enjoying the day. I normally drop the headsails first, then drop the main. The staysail is hanked on the inner forestay and drops down easily once the halyard is uncleated (it doesn’t get coiled but is just laid down in its bag). The sail is tied and rolled up at the stem. The mainsail slides down the track, and is rolled into itself along the boom and tied up with the regular three sail ties as we have always done. Jack and Molly were

Craig and Tommo relax in the traditional manner. 28 CLASSIC SAILOR

SAILING TO BEMBRIDGE

Turns sharply to port close enough to shore to see people eating ice-creams at the Baywatch café

Above: Harrison Butlers moored up together Left: Three views of a feast

in the cockpit steering the boat. Molly had started the engine – she always remembers to put the throttle into neutral and use a little pre-heat. Kate was in the cockpit also, tidying the mainsheet and waiting for me to settle down with her for piloting into Bembridge. The channel is well marked; the pilot book and GPS showed as much, but coming from the north-west as we were the marks looked all askew. Destina chose to follow us so we skirted the purple and moved along on easy throttle at about 4 knots waiting for the alley of red and green channel markers to show the way. There was a bigger boat ahead of us, a good indication of the depth on the way in. The channel opened out so we felt confident we could turn into it. It heads towards the beach, then turns sharply to port close enough to the shore to see people eating ice-creams at the Baywatch Café behind the sandy beach at St Helens. We made the turn and were able to wave to the children playing on the beach. Destina was following closely as we moved along the ribbon of beach. Then the channel turns to starboard, inside the southern arm of the harbour, a natural sandy promontory you pass closely on your port side. The flood tide was moving with us and after the turn to starboard around the end of the ribbon that runs into the water, the harbour opened up showing all the boats, regularly spaced on their moorings in front of the variety of houseboats around the south-western edge. Adjacent to the main road on the right hand are the collection of boats and buildings that congregate around a boatyard. These passed quite closely because we kept to the dredged channel leading us towards the long pontoon ahead. We had pre-booked a berth, so called up on the VHF to request permission and directions of where to find our pontoon. CLASSIC SAILOR 29

PATRICK ROACH/PRPA

SAILING TO BEMBRIDGE

Aerial view of the channel into Bembridge Harbour and, below, chart extract showing Bembridge Ledge

oth boats were snugly reefed down as we set off from the Hamble towards Bembridge after an early morning start just after 6am. This was all part of the plan evolved over dinner the night before, as we passed around the curry dishes. The evening sky hinted there was breeze in the air and our phones showed weather forecasts that prepared us for the wind that was to come. Several other Apps we had on our phones agreed with the Almanac about the tides and currents. HW was going to be at 0919hrs BST off Cowes. So leaving at 6-ish, we would have the tail end of the flood helping us cover the 13.5 miles and arrive at St Helens Fort just off the Bembridge channel entrance by HW. The general description of Bembridge is that it is a largely drying natural harbour on the east coast of the Isle of Wight, with access restricted to High Water plus or minus 3 hours for a draught of 1.5m. The seaward sides are bounded by sand spits, and the notorious Bembridge Ledge is nearby. The entrance to the harbour goes between these sand spits along a twisting, well-marked channel that is dredged to maintain a reasonable depth. Just to the north of St Helens Fort is a tide post. Its specific position is marked as a waypoint in the pilotage notes for Bembridge in the Almanac. From our notes we sailed along the

30 CLASSIC SAILOR

Pilotage sources Reeds Nautical Almanac contains most of the basic information for cruising in the Solent (and much further afield) and contains telephone numbers and relevant VHF channels as well as tidal and navigation information. It is a heavy yearly tome but is also available digitally. Among our favourite paper charts are the Admiralty’s Small Craft Folio of the Solent and Approaches (SC5600 - £44.30) which is now in its 15th edition. Eleven double sided charts contain everything in scales from 1: 5,000 out to 1: 150,000 for a planning chart. Imray also produces an excellent chart pack - 2200 (£39.50) and there are individual charts from UKHO and Imray as well as several pilot and cruising guides.

Bembridge: a largely drying natural harbour, bounded by sand spits and the notorious Bembridge Ledge

depth contour from No Man's Land Fort towards the St Helens Fort keeping both forts on a transit that led us close to the post where we expected it to be. The depth indicated on the tide post tallied with our prediction. The chart shows the shallowest section of channel as a bar near the Fort. We were in close company with our chums on Destina and had enjoyed a great sail over; we had made sure that all sails were properly stowed and shipshape so we could then motor in. The deeper water of the channel winds along between the red and green markers before it turns sharply south and continues along the beach, just in front of the Baywatch Café, and past the iconic groynes resisting the flow of sand and gravel. The gap is quite narrow with a hard right turn between the sand spits into the harbour. The channel carries on down the edge of the opening lagoon past Attrill's, Will Squibb yard and Bembridge Boat Storage on the Duver towards the long pontoon of the Duver Marina. The harbour is lovely and the interesting entrance channel and necessary pilotage adds to the appeal. The staff at the Duver pontoon who showed us to our berths are always friendly, helpful and competent, a pleasant combination. Once alongside we passed time enjoying a hearty breakfast cooked on the Cobbs as we waited for our friends to arrive from Chichester harbour with their tales of derring-do.

BOATSHOW PREVIEW

The London Boat S There’s always something to see at the London Boat Show, even for hardened traditionalists like us. Here’s our selection...

Cornish Crabbers’ new Shrimper 21

C Arthur Beale’s 1953 Boat Show stand

32 CLASSIC SAILOR

hanges are afoot at this year’s London Boat Show. For a start, the ‘Berlin Wall’ of the Sunseeker stand between the motorcruisers and the rest of us is coming down, or at least being moved to one side, to give a more open feel to the hall. It will have just one entrance from the Boulevard, and this – taking a leaf out of Southampton’s book – will be flanked with a selection of dinghies and small boats. The southwest corner of the hall is to be transformed into a Mediterranean Bay, with “faux villas and cafés” and the Med itself represented by a large tank, 20 x 25 metres which will contain several boats and 500,000 litres

of water. There will also be a 60s revival display that promises somewhat improbably to reunite Sir Francis Chichester, the Beatles and the Mirror dinghy. And Classic Sailor will be there! Here’s our choice of stands to visit before (as Guy Venables advises overleaf) heading for the Guinness Bar. Arthur Beale Arthur Beale was at the very first Boat Show in 1953, and in fact helped organise it. Now the central London chandler’s new alter ego, Alasdair Flint, is bringing its mix of old-world charm and seaworthy equipment back to the show with a 400m2 stand featuring all sorts of desirable things – including the latest issue of Classic Sailor.

Anglia Yacht Brokerage As well as its Deben Lugger, Anglia will have its recent 10ft Roach sailing dinghy, the mould for which was taken from a hundred-year-old clinker hull. Character Boats Down from the Lake District, Martin Dooley will be bringing the 14ft Post Boat from Character Boats’ range of sturdy GRP traditional designs. Find them near the Guinness Bar. Cornish Crabbers There will be not one but two examples of the new Shrimper 21 at the show – one on the stand near the entrance, the other afloat on the Med pool. The lift-keel 21-footer features four berths, easy rigging and an inboard en-

BOATSHOW PREVIEW

t Show preview

gine option. Based on the Roger Dongray Shrimper 19, it provides extra space for a modest weight increase and is the company’s first new boat since 2010. Drascombes Did you know the Drascombe Lugger is heading for its 50th anniversary, a year from now? Churchouse Boats is already making plans for celebrations, and meanwhile owners Simon and Sharon Harwood are getting ready to welcome visitors to their prominent stand, near the entrance at this year’s show. IBTC Lowestoft The boatbuilding college will have a ‘composite’ boat – part clinker, part carvel and so on, specially created to demonstrate

London Boat Show ExCeL 8-17 January londonboatshow.com

Drascombe, celebrating 49 years and counting

Amelie Rose/Topsail Adventures

Nestaway’s new Tiwal

Swallow Yachts’ new Bay Cruiser 26

the various building techniques taught. There will also be details of a new course designed mainly for boat-owners and covering boat maintenance, including GRP and diesel engines. Jeckells the sailmakers Sailmakers since 1832, they know a lot about it – so call in for some advice or just a chat.

Swallow Yachts Flanking the show entrance, Swallow Yachts will be showing its new BayCruiser 26 and the established and popular 20ft BayRaider Expedition. The 26 combines Swallow’s water ballast system with a lead-tipped drop keel, and an innovative cabin layout which maximises space below decks.

Nestaway Portable boat specialist Nestaway will be featuring two innovative imports. There’s a new, larger Oru folding kayak to join the 12ft model featured in our November issue. This is the 16ft Oru Coast, a sea kayak which weighs just 31 lb. The show offer includes a free paddle. Also on show is the Tiwal, a new inflatable dinghy.

Topsail Adventures/Amelie Rose/Classic Sailor Nick Beck, master and owner of charter pilot cutter Amelie Rose (and Classic Sailor contributor) will be donning his pirate gear again to encourage holiday bookings on his own and other traditional vessels. Classic Sailor will be sharing the stand, so be sure to come and say hello.

IBTC Lowestoft

CLASSIC SAILOR 33

BOATSHOW BUFFOONERY

How to survive:

The London Boat Show It’s not what it was, but navigating the aisles is as problematic as ever. Guy Venables’ guide to the show seems to begin and end with the one perennial port of refuge...

ong, long ago the London Boat Show used to be Reach and Lewisham, hopefully in Earls Court where you could pop by on the waving passes at anyone they see and way somewhere else by tube and, on staggering asking people where the Guinness Bar out again, could continue on into central Lonis. If you do make it there however, your don and all the wonderful sleazy pubs and bars. mission has only just started. That was in ‘the beforetime’ when we were still On entering you used to have the choice of quite pleased with fibreglass and waxing our turning right or left, but it’s shrunk in recent own jackets. Earls Court however was far years and there’s now only the one hall, too small and convenient (and anyway divided in two by a massive display of large it’s been earmarked to be made into empty Russian plastic motor yachts. On one side you find flats) so the whole show was moved to an aircraft what seems to be an overlit fridge full of hangar in an industrial post-apocalyptic zone enormous white goods that look like known locally as “Dog Lands”. they’ve been put through a crusher. Nowadays the first problem about These are ‘boats’ to any the Boat Show is getting there. For a non-boater out there. To us they non-Londoner (or ‘human’ as we call are ‘stinkpots’ to be as polite as them) deciphering the complex possible. The buying market for loops and one-way systems of the these seem to be exclusively Docklands Light Railway can self-made mobsters, lottery add many days to the jourwinners, uber-plebs and ney. Transport for London odious car salesmen in find Musto-clad vagrants slightly shiny suits. for weeks afterwards They will be swanning wandering the tracks around talking in Musto-clad vagrants wandering the tracks waving passes and asking where the Guinness Bar is between Gallions loud voices about 34 CLASSIC SAILOR

BOATSHOW BUFFOONERY

“My favourite area is the ‘freelance zone’, the bit that starts with the gloomy bloke selling an apparently very special type of glue”

how many K things cost and drinking cheap champagne handed to them by varying degrees of confusion. There is a book area which sells books you bored but grinning models who can barely suppress their disdain. Women want other people to read for you. Then there is a clothing area where all the never buy these kind of boats. They have better taste. If you put on surgical big names in sailing gear compete to show their new ranges. (Similar clothing and shoe bags you will be allowed to walk around on the boats in to last year except they have drastically modified the price to incorporate much the same way that you can visit Monte Carlo as a hitchhiker but you’re their head of department’s new bonus.) Beware of trying stuff on. There is not really encouraged. a new zip on the market that once done up will not undo during the boat If you pass into the other half of the hall show so you feel obliged to buy the garment. you will find yourself in a cross between a popMy favourite area is the ‘freelance zone’, the up chandlers and a Moroccan Bazaar. The first Beware of trying stuff on. There’s bit that starts with the gloomy bloke selling thing to do is to find the Guinness Bar and an apparently very special type of glue. Then a new zip that once done up will there’s the home-made varnish wizard with his get a three-pint advantage (but no more) over anyone trying to hard-sell you their stuff. Now varnished rings of trees. The trail goes not undo during the show, so you lovely you are ready. If you want to find a specific through the ‘new’ one-size-fits-all spanner stall, ask a rollerblading info kid. They are invention, past the man demonstrating the feel obliged to buy the garment difficult to stop as they are on rollerblades. Try fluffing of a self filling syphon tube and ends using one of those new complex boathooks or in that bloke making those violently coloured set a neck-high tripwire of anchor chain to slow them down. boat paintings on the spot with a butter knife. These are the freelancers – If however you want to see it all, you can try to use the logical grid system with far more faith in their products than they deserve but taking advantage of walking up one aisle then back another. This method was fine up to 2011 of the four-pints-of-Guinness crowd desperate to leave with something but they’ve caught on, so nowadays once you start going up a middle row it more than a bag full of brochures and a hangover. will split in half and guide you back past the Coppercoat salesman who has If however you are not interested in boats but your partner is, simply say already sold you antifoul you don’t really want for a boat you don’t yet have. to them: “If we get split up, meet me in the Guinness Bar at the end of the Each general area is mapped out to be selling something specific (although show,” then lose him or her at the first opportunity and spend a relaxed five they’ll stick in a massage chair or a magnetic foot pad stall just to keep you hours drinking and empathising with strangers who are enjoying exactly the on your toes). There is a tech area where fat men sell tiny screens with same circumstance as you. CLASSIC SAILOR 35

L’Hermione THE FOREMOST FRIGATE After completing a feat many considered to be ‘mission impossible’, Yann Cariou explains his task of commanding L’Hermione – the replica of an 18th-century frigate – on a tour of the Atlantic Ocean, bringing her back to her home port with no breakages or injuries and with a performance log that would put many a modern vessel to shame. Words: Sandrine Pierrefeu Photos: Nigel Pert

36 CLASSIC SAILOR

FRIGATE L’HERMIONE

Classic Sailor: How did the project of this

voyage come about?

Yann Cariou: As the reconstruction of this

frigate was starting twenty years ago, no one was certain that it would ever sail. Then, little by little the idea ‘the return to America’ started to germinate in people’s minds. The programme of the voyage and its stopovers was formulated with reference to the historical journey, existing infrastructures and the enthusiasm of our American friends, even though some had no real connection to La Fayette’s original itinerary. The programme finally chosen was to cover some 11,000 miles, with 16 stopovers spread over four months of sailing, including two Atlantic crossings. The outbound crossing took 37 days and the return 17. CS: How did you equip and prepare the

replica for such a voyage?

YC: We sought advice from people having

sailed similar vessels, notably the Shtandart and Götheborg. We sailed on these vessels to try and glean as much as possible from their experience. Some of the experts from the Götheborg, including the rigger/bosun Jens Langert, were integrated into our team,

Above: Captain Yann Cariou in full dress. Right: All sails set, to catch what little wind was available after leaving Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, for America. Left: Linen sails billowing on day 15 of the Atlantic crossing CLASSIC SAILOR

Nobody knew how the frigate would react nor how to handle her 38 CLASSIC SAILOR

ON BOARD L’HERMIONE who were consequently instructed by the best tall ships specialists that I know. Their competence married with the experience I had acquired commanding the Belem and other traditional sailing vessels (Etoile and Mutin) allowed us to equip L’Hermione with respect to tradition yet incorporating all essential modern navigational and safety aids.

The 6 best days: 1301 miles, that’s to say an average speed of 9.03 knots. The best 24 hours: 245 miles; 10.2 knots. The best 12 hours: 130 miles; 10.8 knots. The best watch (4 hours): 45 miles; 11.25 knots. The highest speed registered: 13.3 knots – but we are now certain that she can go faster.

CS: Was having an experienced crew part of

CS: What precautions does a vessel like this

the key to success? YC: Not really! The crew contains only 13 professional sailors. To select the 60 volunteer crew members I chose those who show initiative, sporty people with a great capacity for adaptation, but no experience of sailing was insisted on. You must understand that nobody knew how the frigate would react nor how to handle her. So, in fact we were all neophytes to a certain degree. I preferred having enthusiastic novices, capable of learning quickly, to hardened sailors whose ingrained habits would have to be changed. Hence we all learnt how to sail L’Hermione together. Everyone’s enthusiasm and desire to succeed were probably the key factors in the success of the voyage. And of course the exceptional qualities of the ship. CS: Were the seaworthy qualities of

L’Hermione a surprise to you? YC: We knew that the frigate was one of the most rapid vessels of the French Navy in her time. But it was only during the sea trials in autumn 2014 that we could see for ourselves to what extent she is manoeuvrable, reactive, rapid, robust and stable. Even then we didn’t realise all her secrets. It was only during this summer’s four-month voyage that the fullness of the marine qualities of this frigate retrieved from the clutches of history were fully revealed. We can now better appreciate the knowledge of naval architecture and shipbuilding at the end of the 18th century. CS: How does L’Hermione handle at sea? YC: L’Hermione demonstrated her strength,

her adaptability to all situations and her qualities as a sailing ship: holding her course and speed through all forces of wind. We went through five depressions, four violent storms, three cold fronts and sailed in temperatures varying from 14° to 40° Celsius. L’Hermione holds her own in winds up to 50 knots, constant; over that, risk of problems increases rapidly and the crew is subjected to a great ordeal. The frigate also showed her ability to sail to windward (65° to 55° to the true wind angle), her low drift going to windward (3° to 4°), her large capacity to manoeuvre even at low speeds and her low heel angle (less than 8°). For proof of her performance I can cite a few statistics:

require?

YC: The vessel and the crew went beyond all

our hopes, but the meteorological conditions of the summer of 2015 presented us with many difficulties. Low reliability of weather forecasts forced us to revise our plans frequently and we had to take into account the local conditions we were experiencing. Wind speed and direction, atmospheric pressure, clouds, air and sea temperature and intense study of the surface charts were all considered to try to predict the weather. The Azores anticyclone stayed in very low latitudes, forcing us to take a very southerly route; both for the outgoing and return crossings. South sector winds accompanied us along the Portuguese coast and the trade winds remained very weak. On the other hand, fields of high pressure persisted to the east of Newfoundland giving rise to north-easterlies in the zone and the sea temperature of two degrees above the normal average in the Gulf Stream zone gave rise to much storm activity over land. This situation required us to be extremely vigilant. We had to permanently adopt a sailing strategy that would avoid being caught out in zones with too little wind while also not running into violent storms. CS: How do you look back on the journey? YC: The ship suffered no damage and there

are no breakages reported. Not one of the natural fibre rig’s ropes, running or standing (total of 35km), gave way, not a single sail blew out and no spars snapped. This beautiful machine of wood, hemp and linen perfectly fulfilled its function in all situations. The great starboard anchor does carry the scars from holding L’Hermione firm through winds reaching over 50 knots at the anchorage in Saint Pierre et Miquelon. The return was particularly impressive. In February 1782, de la Touche, with his crew of 250 experienced sailors, made an average speed of six knots; his frigate, returning from a two-year campaign, was probably a little less than on top form. In 2015 the replica Hermione, sailed by 15 professional sailors and 57 volunteers made an average speed of 7.2 knots. The courage, stamina and professionalism of this contemporary crew is an example to us all. These sailors and ‘extreme topmastmen’ achieved a maritime feat of which they can be justifiably proud. Translation by Nigel Pert

Top: Ready for the daily deck scrub in port Middle: Adding a small extra knee to reinforce one of the prow rails while at sea Bottom: Yann hands-on with part of the rigging CLASSIC SAILOR

ON BOARD L’HERMIONE

Life aboard L’Hermione ‘To sail L’Hermione is to practice historical research. The more we sail, the more we respect the knowledge of those contemporary 18th-century sailors’ By Jens Lengert, L’Hermione’s bosun

ay 28, 2015. The trade wind blows and fills 2,000m2 of linen sails. Twelve hundred tons of wooden ship runs through the water with a speed of 10 knots as the hull squeaks and makes other noises with the motion of the waves. Masts are bending like fishing rods as 65 tons of rigging stretches, bends and twists. Forty days ago we left France to follow the north-east winds in a southerly arc towards the USA. The great ship is a little spot on the big blue ocean and oneself only a small dot on the deck. There are 70 of us on board: 15 professionals, 50 volunteers and five journalist/photographers. The volunteers are young men and women, average age 27, here to experience the adventure, selected from over 1,000 applicants. Few had previous experience of sailing and ships and their strongest merit was motivation and enthusiasm. They were trained at the shipyard in Rochefort where they learned the trade, participating in rigging and fitting-work on board. Now they are taking turns on the different legs of the voyage to America. We left France in April 2015, passing via the Canary Islands, towards a dozen ports of call on the east coast of the USA and Canada before heading back to France in August. The crew is divided into three watches which take turns on deck, mainly trimming sheets and braces, setting and handing sails

and taking reefs. The rig needs constant love and care. Everything is moving up there, which causes a whole lot of chafe and wear. We constantly put up chafing gear made of old ropes and grease it with tallow to reduce this wear and tear. The standing rigging stretches and needs frequent re-tensioning. Furling sails is hard work. You have to climb the rigging and lay out on the yards. The linen canvas is very heavy, though the weight also gives a great advantage: it does not flap like crazy as polyester sails do; it actually behaves very nicely. The cloth is soft and easy to grab and one can get hold of it even in strong winds. When you stand on the yard to furl the sail you soon realize that it is useless to work independently. You have to lift the canvas in time with your crewmates on the yard, synchronized with a call of, “Un, deux, trois – tire!” In this way you can gain on the canvas inch by inch. Once it is rolled and tucked into a tight pocket you can put the gaskets on to secure the sail. One foot in the 18th century

We live with one foot in the 18th century, sleeping in hammocks and working as hard as they did, but on the other hand we have modern facilities on board: an engine, electricity, water maker and a modern galley. But surely the best of the modern equipment is that giving access to weather forecasts, without which we would certainly run in to troubles every now and then.

Top: Bosun and author Jens Legert. Above right: Amandine at the helm Left: Amandine and Manon out on the bowsprit rigging a new forestay under the watchful eye of bosun Jens 40 CLASSIC SAILOR

Back in the 1700s sailing was a serious matter; it was top-notch science. The shipyards were enormous high-technology plants where the sharpest brains were researching how to design and build perfect ships – frigates that had speed and manoeuvrability in all kinds of weather. To sail L´Hermione is to practicse historical research. We trim, brace, manoeuvre, constantly searching how to realise her full potential. The work is hard and heavy; your hands and arms ache from the daily climbing and hauling, The more we sail, the more our respect grows for the knowledge of those contemporary 18thcentury sailors, knowledge that is largely lost today and needs to be recaptured. A simple ship to fix

When you sail this type of ship you discover the good things about traditional rigging and materials. First of all: It is all made of wood, rope and canvas. This means that you can fix and repair things by simple means on board, no need to order peculiar spare parts. Most things can be fixed with a knife, a spike and a heaver, tools that anybody can quickly learn how to work with. At sea there

ON BOARD L’HERMIONE

“When you sail this type of ship you discover the good things about traditional rigging and materials”

is plenty of time to repair and improve, so that the ship is usually in better condition coming into port than when leaving. Many modern sailors think that a square-rigger is some sort of cumbersome vessel with sails of a hopeless shape that cannot be trimmed. To some degree this is true – you can never point her as high to the wind compared to a bermudan sail. The aerodynamics are not as sophisticated. But on the other hand the square sail is the winner downwind and in heavy weather. As the sail area is centred over the ship instead of way out on the leeside, it makes the ship easier to steer and you do not have to worry about losing the rigging in an unintentional gibe. The square-rigger is well adapted to be manoeuvred by a small crew under tough conditions. A glimpse at sailing history quickly confirms this. The goal was to build and manoeuvre the biggest ships possible, still capable of being handled by manpower. Fore-and-aft rigs were never a good alternative. It is simply impossible to handle such big bermudan or gaff sails in a safe way. On a square-rigger one can easily adjust the sail area by setting or handing

individual sails. Wearing, tacking and heaving-to are comparatively safe and easy. For example: the other day we had to take out some debris that had got in to the propeller tube (L’Hermione’s props are directional pods with a short cowl around the blades). We hove-to by bracing aback in the foretop. We had 18 knots of wind but the ship could practically lie still while the divers were working. Sharp underwater, buoyant above

At a quick glance an 18th-century frigate could give the impression of a rather clumsy-looking hull compared to modern ships. The bow is round and the stern is wide and looks more like a floating castle with all its decorations and woodcarvings. But everything has a purpose. A closer look reveals a hull that is very sharp under the waterline, but having volume and buoyancy above. This permits the carrying of a large sail area up front without submerging the bow. At the time, with the construction material of wood, which is not as strong as steel, the length of the keel was the limiting factor of the size of vessels that could be built. The material and the joints were not

Two French ladies meet in New York: L’Hermione and the Statue of Liberty

strong enough to build bigger vessels, as a longer hull would suffer more from bending forces when sailing in big waves. So, in order to make a ship of the biggest volume/ tonnage possible they were obliged to start with a relatively short keel and still design a fast vessel. To obtain as big a sail area as possible, the foremast is placed way up forward, close to the stem. This transfers a lot of pressure to the bow and when sailing before the wind it gets pushed way under the original waterline. The hull of L´Hermione makes a lot of noise when sailing, it is squeaks and cracks everywhere. With every wave the frames, knees and deck beams move a few millimetres against each other. It is said that as long as a wooden hull is noisy it is healthy. It’s when it becomes silent you must watch out. That’s when it is getting old and worn out.

About the Author Jens Lengert has worked on L´Hermione for four years, in charge of construction of the rigging, and now sails aboard her in the capacity of bosun. Previously he helped build and sail the Swedish 17th-century East-Indiaman replica Götheborg. CLASSIC SAILOR

1884 SMACK YACHT DUSMARIE

Dusmarie’s Dixon days She’s probably the best travelled of all the Essex smacks, with nearly 60 years being sailed offshore by one family, including her skipper’s return to Gallipoli. By Dan Houston. Photos by Emily Harris.

ometimes boats carry a story which gives them a special distinction beyond their design, age or performance. The River Deben in Suffolk is home to one such – the converted 1884 Aldous oyster smack Dusmarie, owned for several decades by Lieutenant Commander Douglas Dixon DSC RN. Dixon won his Distinguished Service Cross 100 years ago while a midshipman with HMS Bacchante, commanding a steam pinnace towing barges of troops, ammunition and horses to the beaches at Anzac Cove at the beginning of the Gallipoli campaign – which lasted from Sunday 25 April 1915 to 8 January 1916. He was just 15 years old. His logbook of the first two days of the operation tells in a matter-of-fact style how the boats were hoisted out just after

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midnight in the early hours of that Sunday morning. He took his tow to HMS Prince of Wales to embark troops while the squadron steamed in to within three miles of the shore: “The tows then went ahead and formed line abreast. About half way we got an order to alter course two points to the north. About half a mile off, the dawn began to show over the ridges. About 50 yards off the shore the enemy opened fire with rifles and quick firers and bullets were everywhere… I was the third boat to land my tow but in some boats only about a dozen troops landed there being killed or wounded and dead men hanging over the gunwales…” The action carried on, towing in men and weapons and towing off the wounded in lighters until Tuesday, when exhausted he reports: “I slept most of the day and did not see much.” The work continued

for weeks and he was in action again at the Suvla Bay landings in August 1915. He left HMS Bacchante in November 1915 to serve in destroyers, including the evacuation of Gallipoli in December and January 1916, by which time more than 100,000 allied and Turkish soldiers were dead – with many more wounded and missing.

About half a mile off the dawn began to show over the ridges. About 50 yards off the enemy opened fire with rifles and quick firers, bullets were everywhere

Dixon had already seen action at the Battle of Heligoland Bight in August 1914. He had joined the navy in 1912 as a cadet at Osborne College on the Isle of Wight and by the time the war ended he was training to serve in submarines. One of the more extraordinary aspects of Gallipoli is the way some soldiers would strip off and swim while shells were dropping in the water around them. And at some point Dixon developed a desire to return there and swim – perhaps as a personal act of remembrance. With the war over he married in 1921 and, partly because his wife was ill, sought early retirement from the service. Tragically his wife died and in 1928 he was concentrating on teaching navigation and yachting while also writing. He navigated for Claude Worth in Tern IV and also in offshore races

Above: Richard Howe helms Dusmarie in the Deben Opposite: Stuart White, ex skipper of the large Lowestoft smack Excelsior looks after the boat

CLASSIC SAILOR 43

Top: Tim Llewellyn is regular crew. Above: her old working winch and the foredeck arrangement – changed in 1947. Above right: a battered brass binnacle houses an extremely well used compass

including the transatlantic and then the Fastnet in Amberjack II in 1931. In 1932 he had become engaged to Mary Turner and the couple looked for a boat to make their home. They found the engineless Mersea oyster smack Daisy, which had a reputation for being the fastest smack on the River Stour and so Mary bought her and Douglas paid for her conversion to a yacht; they were married aboard by Mary’s father, Reverend Henry Turner in 1933. The boat was renamed Dusmarie – an amalgamation of Douglas and Mary. The Dixons used their smack yacht as a youth training ship and sailed her far and wide in the 1930s, including a Channel race in 1933 and crossing the North Sea in 1936. They also took her to the Baltic – reaching the head of the Gulf of Bothnia in 1937. They wintered the boat ashore in Lulea,

44 CLASSIC SAILOR

Sweden, and that year joined the Laplanders herding reindeer. Their pioneering experiences of the voyage were written up in 1938 in the book: Sail to Lapland. They returned to the northern Baltic again in 1939 but were trapped there by the outbreak of war. Dusmarie was laid up at Bergshamra north of Stockholm and the couple returned home; Douglas rejoined the Royal Navy. Their daughter Astrid was born in 1940. After the war he returned to Sweden to find Dusmarie had been left exposed to the elements. She needed a new deck and stem and the yard practically rebuilt her, flaring her bows somewhat, giving her a raked stem and a poop deck aft (where now a cross beam carries her original name Daisy), which changed her old Brightlingsea lines above the waterline. Underwater her larch

on oak framed hull was preserved. Her mainmast was moved eight inches forward and she was given a mizzen, changing her rig to yawl. She also had an engine fitted, a two (yes, two!) horsepower Solo two-stroke with the propeller taken out through the starboard quarter. Nowadays she sails with a 3-litre Lister Petter Alpha. The work was paid for with help from friends and he formed a new adventure training school with the help of Admiral Lord Mountevans as patron. The summer school expeditions were known as Mannö after the remote Swedish island near Lulea where the first took place in 1947; the idea was to teach teamwork and leadership through sailing small craft with Dusmarie as the mothership. In 1951 the first Mannö just for schoolgirls was held in the Netherlands.

The Dixons were also racing Dusmarie – in Royal Harwich YC regattas and in the West Mersea Smack race – which she won in 1954. By this time they were sailing with their daughter Astrid and developing plans to sail to the Mediterranean. If Dixon was aiming to get back to the Dardanelles and swim in Anzac Cove he kept quiet about it. However in 1955 the Dixons left the UK for an extended cruise of the Mediterranean. They raced from Plymouth to La Rochelle and then coast hopped Portugal and Spain to winter in the Balearics. Over the next two seasons they made a complete tour of the Adriatic but in September 1957 disaster struck when she was in the Gulf of Corinth. Aiming for the canal in strong winds and making five knots under bare poles the Dixons tried to anchor but dragged and Dusmarie was blown onto rocks and

the crew had to abandon her. She was badly holed and was taken to Perama for repairs. The following spring saw them in the northern Aegean and the Bosphorus and Dixon finally revealed his long-held ambition to return to Gallipoli and swim in the cove but without the horrific scenes of war which must have scarred the memory

...finally revealed his long held ambition to swim in the cove but without the horrific scenes of war which must have scarred the memory of his 15-year-old self.

of his 15-year-old self . He was able to get permits to visit the still sensitive area of Anzac Cove but not until after Anzac day on April 25 1958 had passed. He wrote about it in a book A Sail to Gallipoli. The Dixons returned for the winter but Mary did not go back to the boat the next season, instead setting up a small sixth-form tutorial college at the couple’s home near Ipswich. Dusmarie eventually returned to the UK in 1961. She was to take part in the 1962 Tall Ships race but Dixon’s crew of Dartmouth naval cadets went down with chickenpox. Dixon died at home in 1964 and his Gallipoli voyage was published in 1965. Dusmarie was sailed by Mary and then their daughter Astrid, who also took on a lot of the upkeep of the well-travelled smack. She skippered in the 1974 Tall Ships race with the first all female crew and Dusmarie

Dusmarie was built as a smack but altered in Sweden after the war with a raised poop aft and flared bows to reflect her new offshore role

CLASSIC SAILOR 45

1884 SMACK YACHT DUSMARIE

Douglas Dixon with Dusmarie still in her earlier cutter rig in Sweden, pre war. The boat was stuck there during the Second World War years. Sweden is where he first held his expeditions for young people from 1947. Dusmarie would return to Sweden through the 1970s and 1980s with his wife and daughter after he had died in 1964.

I had thought that if I ever did buy a boat it would be Dusmarie so after a 40-year gap, when I found she was for sale, I boarded her and the deal was done

Dusmarie’s present owner, since 2001, also sailed with Dixon, in 1961, bringing her back from the Mediterranean through the Canal du Midi as far as Bordeaux. Richard Howe, now a retired businessman, remembers the first time he saw the boat in Carcassonne: “I thought, isn’t she small, how will three of us fit in? “I had thought though, that if I ever did buy a boat it would be Dusmarie so, after a 40-year gap, when I found she was for sale in 2001 I boarded her at Ramsholt and the deal was done; she was in top shape.” Richard had known Stuart White since his schooldays – Stuart was one of the main skippers for the Excelsior Trust and so became an occasional skipper for Richard as well as taking on the boat’s upkeep. “We’ve cruised the east coast from Aldeburgh to Walton on the Naze,” says Richard. “Of many good memories I liked the day

Stewie (because there was no-one else) promoted me from galley slave to deckhand, the rank I am happy to hold to this day! We slipped the mooring at Kirton creek, sailed over the last of the flood through the bar up to Cutler Sand and back through the bar on the afternoon flood to pick up the mooring at 5.00 pm... without once starting the engine. “We have raced her. Once. It was the Pin Mill Smack and Bawley race in 2006 with Astrid, Tim Llewellyn, John Crossman and me (effectively the owners since 1933), the skipper was Stewie. We came last-but-one. Gys Olink on Good Intent had a mishap so only she was slower than Dusmarie... and the only boat older (1862) as far as I remember.” Richard is proud of the Gallipoli connection and a couple of years ago was considering a cruise to recreate the Dixons’ visit to Anzac Cove in time for the 100th anniversary. In the end the plan could not be realised but instead he invited Astrid to witness the dawn on 25 April this year with bugler Jack Popay from the Combined Cadet Force at nearby Woodbridge School, and Tim Llewellyn. The three assembled on Dusmarie’s foredeck to witness the Last Post at dawn (05.37) in memory of Astrid’s extraordinary father. “It was a very moving morning. Enough said,” said Richard. But Richard has now retired to live in Cameroon and feels he cannot keep up with the boat. “Stewie has meticulously maintained her and we’ve had the occasional repairs done by Robertsons at Woodbridge,” he says. “And she is, I am proud to say, in very sound shape. Recently she has wintered in Tide Mill Yacht Harbour where she is currently. “However at 71, (me not Dusmarie) I need to pass her along to a new custodian who will be only the fourth owner since she was converted to a sailing cruiser from fishing smack in 1933. I am proud to have played a small part in preserving a unique piece of British maritime history - with the Tall Ships (the first all-female crew skippered by Astrid), a Channel Race, Baltic, Mediterranean and Gallipoli. All who know her and have sailed on her understand the “Dusmarie magic”; and so we will pass her on to a custodian who will cherish and even enhance her achievements.

Dusmarie: the Swedish connection

became a regular contender doing the races in 1977, 78, 78, 79, 80, 83, 84 and 85 under Astrid’s command. The boat would also regularly cruise to Scandinavia. When Mary died in 1983 the private tuition college closed and Astrid was on her own with the boat. “But without the impetus of my mother having to be in Scandinavia every summer there was less incentive to keep her and we weren’t really day sailors – we were long distance people and we were always offshore. My second husband was also seasick, and so after having her for nearly 60 years in the same family we sold her,” she says. In 1990 Dusmarie was bought by Lt Cdr John Crossman RNR who was a fan of Dixon and also wrote about his exploits. He restored the smack with a new deck in 1996 and cruised the harbours of Suffolk and Essex on the east coast. 46 CLASSIC SAILOR

Dusmarie Built 1884 Brightlingsea by Aldous LOA44ft 7in (13.6m) Beam10ft 3 in (3.1m) Draught 5ft 7in (1.7m)

A FOLKBOAT TO FRANCE

CLASSIC SAILOR 47

DINGHY CRUISING IN BRITTANY

A beautiful but p Leaving the shelter of his mooring Roger Barnes finds himself swept up in “a waste of hissing, brutal water” that threatens to swamp his small sailing dinghy. Can he cope?

vel Dro is moored at the head of a deep rocky inlet, almost bisecting the Île de Bréhat on the north coast of Brittany. It is the last day of September and the morning sun has barely warmed the air. I blow on my chill hands and begin packing away my sleeping gear and taking down the boat tent.

I have a tide to catch, but everything is sodden with dew, and making her ready takes far longer than expected. This anchorage is sheltered from the northeasterly by the clustered granite houses of the island, so I have to guess how many reefs will be needed out at sea. Two seems reasonable. Three is ridiculous unless it’s blowing a hoolie out there. Finally, an

hour later than planned, my little dinghy is squared away for her passage along the coast. Slipping past outcrops of sea-sculpted granite, Avel Dro glides towards the mouth of the inlet. Suddenly she emerges into the full force of the wind. She heels sharply and lurches across the Trieux River like a whipped stallion. Two reefs are obviously inadequate and I hanker after the third, but this is no place to linger. There is a big tide today, 10m range, and the ebb stream is already running powerfully past the island, throwing up lines of breakers across the river mouth. We pitch madly into them, spilling wind from our brown lugsail. A granite beacon marks the mouth of the river, coated in faded green paint. Cutting between it and the rocky shoreline, I shape

The ebb stream is already throwing up lines of breakers. We pitch madly into them, spilling wind from our brown lugsail 48 CLASSIC SAILOR

DINGHY CRUISING IN BRITTANY

t perilous coast a course northwards, hard on the wind. The view is wild and sublime. Glistening waves lift under our bows, and dash spray over the gleaming gunwale. Boiling seas hiss amongst gargoyle-shaped shoals close under our lee. My course lies north and then west around this great reef of granite projecting out from the Breton coast, before I can enter the River Jaudy – perhaps two hours’ sail away. A pale vertical line bisects the grey horizon ahead – the sunlight shining on the slender lighthouse marking the off-lying shoal of Les Héaux-de-Bréhat. My route lies to the south of it, through the narrow passage between the shoal and the coastal rocks – La Passe de la Gaine – the short cut into the River Jaudy from the east: “The waters are generally calmer than outside,”

says the Shell Channel Pilot, “and the rockscapes well worth the trouble.” Finally we clear the sea-washed cardinal off the northern extremity of the coastal plateau, and the passage into the River Jaudy begins to open up to leeward. But there is a growing air of menace about the sea. The waves are lumpy and confused, with spume bowing off their tops. Two days before, moored in the canal at Pontrieux, a neighbouring yachtsman had shared his local knowledge of the coastline: “la plus belle de la Bretagne, mais aussi la plus périlleuse.” He warned against La Passe de la Gaine at half tide, particularly when the current was running against the wind. “The seas there are dangerous – bad enough to sink a small boat like yours.”

But wind and tide are in the same direction and, despite my delayed departure from Bréhat, half tide is still over an hour away. I am congratulating myself on my timing, when suddenly the sea changes. The waves leap up like pyramids, tall as my mast. My little boat is surrounded by a waste of hissing, brutal water. Avel Dro rises to a precipitous wave, plunges down its back and pitches her bow straight into the face of the next. It breaks clean over the boat, leaving me gasping. Releasing the sheet on the run, I let the deeply-reefed sail flog, shaking the mast. Avel Dro lies broadside on to the seas, heaving viciously. A breaking crest comes out of nowhere and smashes down into the dinghy, followed by a second. I have never experienced such seas in an open boat.

Below: Dubious shelter of the Île d’Er.

CLASSIC SAILOR 49

DINGHY CRUISING IN BRITTANY

Much more of this and she’ll be swamped. The bilge water is already sloshing well above the bottom boards. I crawl forward, and flick on the electric bilge pump. A spurt of water emerges from the side of the boat and immediately slows to a trickle. The impeller must be blocked. I start working at one of the hand pumps, but it is no use: I have to get her sailing again, and I need two hands for that. I dare not bear off into la Passe de la Gaine and put these thuggish seas on the stern. They would surely broach us and we’d be overwhelmed. I must get away from this perilous stretch of water, out into the relative safety of the open sea while we are still afloat. This is the sort of place people drown in. I crawl back to the helm, grab the tiller, sheet in and coax her onwards. Slowly my waterlogged dinghy claws her way out to sea: rolling, pitching and battling for progress. I try to dodge the worst of the waves, but there is no pattern to this spiteful sea. We have too much sail up and are making tremendous leeway towards Les Héaux-de-Bréhat, less than half a mile away, directly under our lee. Foaming water swirls

50 CLASSIC SAILOR

Above left: The author and Avel Dro in rough water. Above Right: View from Bréhat Below: Anchorage at the Île de Bréhat

Roger Barnes is president of the Dinghy Cruising Association and author of The Dinghy Cruising Companion, see below right

amidst the rocks around the lighthouse. If we get swept in there we will be smashed up long before anyone can help us. I glance around me. To leeward is a mass of rocks. To windward the horizon is totally empty. No one else is out sailing today. At last we have a comfortable offing from the shoal. I lower sail and raise the plate so Avel Dro slips sideways in the swell. Suddenly I find myself shaking with delayed fear. But I cannot give up. There is no one to help me out here. I try the hand pump again, but seasickness starts welling up in my throat. Reaching for the water bottle, I gulp down its cool contents. Then I take a deep breath and begin rolling in a third reef, taking care to snug down the points tightly. I consider lifting a floorboard to inspect what is clogging the electric pump, but that will certainly make me sick. I rehoist the triple-reefed sail, return to the helm and bear her off onto a run. Avel Dro accelerates and begins surfing down the face of the swells, sailing much easier now under her tiny spread of canvas. A yellow and black north cardinal comes past with a

wake like a powerboat. There must be a good three-knot tide running along the coast. I have to get into the Jaude River before it sweeps us past the entrance. But I did not pre-plan an approach from this direction. I never expected to pass north of Les Héaux light. I wipe the spray off the chart. Between Les Héaux shoal and the cliffs to the west is a wide opening, choked with rocks. There is a charted transit into the river from the north cardinal, but it crosses many shoals. Tiny figures, leaping around with the motion of the boat, give their drying heights. I peer at the small screen of the chartplotter; it is not much help either. Instead I gaze towards the coastline, over to port, where the waves roll in towards the distant shore and break on the underwater reefs. There are rocks everywhere, but there seems to be a gap in the line of breakers, on the alignment of the transit. I decide to go for it. Avel Dro comes storming in towards the coast, on a close reach across the shoals. Then I bear off onto a run into the River Jaude, smashing through the mass of waves thrown up by the full ebb running out against us. The tide is falling rapidly now. I must get in somewhere before everything dries. I look around for a sheltered anchorage, but the wind is blowing directly into the river mouth, a mass of granite outcrops on both sides. She powers in past the Ile d’Er on the starboard side of the channel, a group of rocks rising out of a long curving sand bar. I bring her sweeping round into the lee of the island, dodging the inshore rocks by eye. Will I get into shelter before she grounds? The sand rushes past close under the keel. I throw out the fisherman in less than 2ft of water, under the dubious lee of a pile of granite boulders. It bites and the boat swings sharply head to wind. By the time I have dropped the sail, she is already dried out on the sand. It is 12.30pm. Only two and a half hours since I left Bréhat, a lifetime ago.

Discover more at www.tnielsen.co.uk +44 (0)1452 301117 Our dry docks and workshop facilities in Gloucester. www.tnielsen.co.uk

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PROJECT FUNDING

How to get:

project funding What is the key to raising the funds to restore a historic boat? The Pioneer Sailing Trust’s David Tournay tells Richard Johnstone-Bryden how the Trust has secured £1.4million to help it to grow

RICHARD JOHNSTONE-BRYDEN

ince 2003, David Tournay has been heavily involved in successfully obtaining approximately £1.4 million to pay for the Pioneer Sailing Trust’s projects through a combination of Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) grants, and funding from the European Union (EU) and Regional Development Agency. The origins of the Pioneer Sailing Trust can be traced back to a conversation over a cup of coffee in 1998 between Rupert Marks, owner of the 36ft sailing smack Hyacinth, and Brightlingsea-based shipwrights Shaun White and Brian Kennell. While they were chatting about some of the wrecks that had recently been recovered from nearby creeks, Shaun casually remarked, “Wouldn’t it be nice to restore one of the deep sea Essex sailing smacks?” Rupert asked, “What deep sea smacks?” Shaun responded by telling him about the locally built ‘Skillingers’, large smacks that once dredged for oysters and scallops from the French coast to Denmark. He knew there were still a few rotting away in mud creeks along the Essex coast and one of them could potentially form the basis of a successful restoration. Inspired by the prospect of saving an important piece of their local maritime heritage, the trio began inspecting the surviving wrecks and concluded that the remains of the 70ft Pioneer, which were lying in a small creek at West Mersea, offered the most potential. The wreck was subsequently recovered from the mud and taken back to Rupert’s barn for restoration. 52 CLASSIC SAILOR

Operating the restored smack would be beyond the means of most people, so the trio decided that she should be owned by a charity and used for sail training to ensure her long term survival, thereby leading to the formation of the Pioneer Sailing Trust. Although the use of Rupert’s barn removed the burden of storage costs, the embryonic organisation still required funding to pay for materials and the shipwrights’ labour. Rupert launched the fundraising programme by approaching potential donors as well as local charities for financial support to cover the costs on a piecemeal basis. His initial target list consisted of people and organisations that he already knew about. The number of people involved in the project steadily grew and included the well known local sailor, auctioneer and writer Charles Harker who became the Trust’s first chairman. In 2003, their hard work resulted in Pioneer’s relaunch amid great fanfare in Brightlingsea. This attracted several curious spectators including David Tournay who had recently moved to the area. His experience as the director of a company specialising in skills project management and design was to prove extremely useful in the Trust’s future development. Fortunately, the original trio’s gamble paid off and laid the foundations for a successful organisation that is safeguarding important elements of the East Coast’s maritime heritage. However, it could have been very different – anyone thinking of taking on such a project should put the

romantic dreams of saving a wreck to one side and view it in a cool calculated manner starting with the establishment of a clear set of objectives. Funding heritage projects these days requires much more than a tale of woe that tugs at the heart strings followed by the rattling of an empty tin. The increase in funding opportunities has been matched by the number of competing applicants and the level of work that is required to successfully secure major grants. Although volunteers still form the

PROJECT FUNDING

“Even though your organisation may become a charity you will effectively be setting up a company that will have to perform the full range of business related tasks”

backbone of heritage groups, enthusiasm coupled with guesswork is no longer enough to secure the all-important funding. “To succeed, preservation groups need to take a professional approach from the very beginning of the process. Even though your organisation may become a charity, you will effectively be setting up a company that will have to perform the full range of business related tasks such as preparing accounts, paying taxes, claiming VAT and complying with the appropriate statutory requirements.

David Tournay: “Preservation groups need to take a professional approach from the very beginning.”

The only real difference is that the entire surplus will be ploughed back into the project itself rather than shareholders’ pockets,” explains David Tournay. Whilst the prospect of writing a set of objectives at the outset may not seem as exciting as digging a wreck out of the mud, it will play a pivotal role in determining how your project evolves and the most suitable potential sources of funding. “To maximise your chances of success,” he continues, “approach this stage with an entirely open mind and think laterally about what will actually be involved in each stage of the project because this could create additional unexpected opportunities. For example, could you involve apprentices during the restoration process? If so, this could prove of greater interest to HLF, if preparing a grant application, by demonstrating an ability to regenerate the skills required to restore and maintain historic vessels. Even this needs lateral thinking because the real opportunity may be the chance to train a new generation of sail makers or upholsters rather than boat builders. Focusing on training could also create the chance to secure alternative sources of funding such as an income for delivering part of a local college’s training programme or applying for EU funding as part of a local regeneration project.” Ideally, the setting of objectives should coincide with attracting a strong group of volunteers who between them have the right breadth of skills to tackle the entire task. Describing one of the common mistakes at this stage of a project’s development, David Tournay says, “All too often, preservation groups concentrate on recruiting people who can repair and operate their chosen boat without thinking about the other expertise that will be required over the lifetime of the project. Even though these skills are essential, a successful scheme will need to attract people who can prepare applications for grants, organise fundraising programmes, produce marketing literature, communicate with the media, deal with the administration, look after the accounts, handle the legal issues, and someone who can co-ordinate the overall project. “Some of these services may have to be paid for and these costs will have to be factored into any subsequent plans. If possible, a well-known individual with plenty of useful contacts should be approached to act as the project’s figurehead. Although such a person can help generate momentum by opening some doors more quickly, don’t be fooled into

thinking that they can deliver miracles. Their assistance will only be of use if your group has prepared realistic plans.” During the planning stage it should be remembered that over a project’s lifetime it will effectively behave like a chameleon. In the case of the Pioneer Sailing Trust it started out as a boatbuilding project supported by a small number of people. On completion of the restoration, the Trust evolved into a sail-training organisation which in turn triggered a raft of new requirements such as complying with statutory regulations and liaising with other organisations in order to generate the bookings for Pioneer. This in turn drove up the number of people who were required including a professional skipper and a full time administrator. Whilst these developments increased the Trust’s standing costs it created the right framework to ensure its long-term sustainability and the meeting of its commitments to funding bodies. Having determined your scheme’s parameters, it’s time to start identifying potential sources of funding. National Historic Ships UK (NHSUK) and your local council should be among the first organisations to be contacted. Those trying to safeguard a vessel from an immediate threat of destruction may be able to apply for a NHSUK grant of up to £1,500 to provide enough breathing space until additional funds can be secured. Make sure your chosen vessel appears within one of the NHSUK’s registers and that the committee knows about your plans. Its officials are a useful source of advice and can put you in touch with other groups that may be of assistance. If you apply for a HLF grant NHSUK will be consulted so it is worth ensuring they have the right facts to hand to be in a position to offer an opinion based on the most relevant information. Your local council could be another important source of advice and information. Depending on its interests, it may even be able to directly provide some funding either in the form of a grant or by commissioning the delivery of a service on its behalf such as a training package in conjunction with a nearby college. The Pioneer Sailing Trust has always benefitted from the support of Colchester Borough Council. For example, the council used to employ people specifically to apply for EU funding which enabled the Trust to access this financial resource over the years as a member of larger projects without having to negotiate the associated bureaucracy on its own. CLASSIC SAILOR

PROJECT FUNDING

“You will have to accept that the boat itself is almost irrelevant because you’ll have to engage with non-boating people who do not share the same passions” Although EU funding can provide a useful method of paying for facilities, it can be a long winded and very complex process from which you will not make any surplus. When approaching a funding body take the time to read its objectives very carefully. It may sound obvious, but if a particular fund has been set up to support a specific activity such as the regeneration of skills make sure that your bid actually explains how it can be achieved via your project. Not every funding body will be attracted by or even interested in the overall story behind your project so on some occasions it will actually help the situation if you do not focus on certain aspects of your project. For example, if you want to apply for a training grant it might pay to think of your boat as a floating classroom. In these circumstances, ask yourself if she can accommodate a group of young people in an environment in which they can learn how to handle a boat? If the answer is yes, you may have a good chance of securing a grant. The fact that your boat is the sole surviving example of a particular class is completely irrelevant to the process and should not be mentioned. Equally, if you want to apply for a grant to support the generating of manufacturing skills, presenting wooden boat building as a heritage skill could be counter-productive because the assessors may assume that such skills are irrelevant in the modern world. However, in the same situation, your chances could be significantly improved by not using the word heritage and highlighting the need to create an opportunity to train the next generation of boat builders for the area’s maritime sector.

The Pioneer Sailing Trust’s application for EU funding to support the development and construction of its 24ft East Coast rowing gig is a good example of this flexible approach in action. Although the design is based on East Coast rowing gigs of the 19th Century, it was developed by Shaun White for cold-moulded construction to keep the building costs down, whilst providing relevant experience for apprentices training for their NVQ and City & Guilds qualifications. Therefore, the Trust secured EU funding to develop and build the first example of the gig because of its training benefits rather than its historic merits. In a further demonstration of lateral thinking, the East Coast Gig’s building costs were kept low enough to make them attractive options within the scale of finance offered by some sport-focussed funding organisations, thereby enabling rowing clubs to purchase one using a grant. For those communities where there is a demand for a new rowing club, the Trust is happy to provide direct assistance to the club’s founders including the application process for a Sport England grant. Thus, with an additional revenue stream for the Trust’s Brightlingsea boatyard, the generation of a constant flow of training projects for the yard’s apprentices and the development of an affordable coastal rowing boat for local clubs, the Trust has created a scheme that genuinely benefits itself and local communities alike. Occasionally, you may encounter a completely illogical problem when trying to secure funding, even if your project appears to tie in perfectly with the funding body’s

Boatbuilding is now just a part of the mix at Harkers Yard. Tournay surveys the work in hand

Above and left: Pioneer as a wreck in the mud and restored to sail

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requirements, as David Tournay recalls. “When we set up Harkers Yard in 2010 to offer apprenticeships, we approached the then National Apprenticeship Service and the Skills Funding Agencies. When we asked for help we told them that we are an employer that could employ apprentices and wanted to offer apprenticeships. These agencies refused to help because they were only interested in offering assistance to major organisations that could offer hundreds of apprenticeships rather than smaller bodies that could only offer a few places at a time. It was incredibly annoying for us because we were trying to fill a gap in local provision.” The Trust resolved the situation by joining forces with its local further education college, the Colchester Institute, as David continues. “Although we have developed a great working relationship with the college which enables the Trust to provide a valuable training opportunity for young people, the arrangement has inevitably cost the taxpayer more money per apprentice to cover the college’s involvement. If the agencies had been prepared to deal directly with the Trust it would have helped to reduce the cost of this important service at a time when the Government is fighting to reduce public spending as a whole.” For many preservation groups their primary target will be trying to secure a HLF grant. If you want to pursue this option, it’s important that you do not start any restoration work, unless you have to perform an emergency repair to safeguard

LIVEABOARD LOVE AFFAIR

Daybreak domestic bliss

A loving couple whose lifelong ambition was to live on a barge have celebrated 36 years living on a Humber Keel. By Maurice Gray.

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hen Tony and Sally Woodward first got together they both had similar ideals – one of which was to live on a boat. And so, initially, they took up residence on a 46ft narrowboat, moored on the Grand Union Canal at Rickmansworth. They had met at teacher training college and Tony would go on to teach a range of subjects to people with disabilities before specialising in training and management for adult education, while Sally taught a range of subjects in primary schools. Although the narrowboat was comfortable, their ultimate dream was to convert a barge large enough to fulfil their ambitions and plans for a family. With Tony’s planning and carpentry skills they were confident about their future and found the ideal solution – in the shape of Daybreak, a 61ft 6in Humber Keel with a 15ft 6in beam and weighing in at 55.06 tons.

Daybreak was built in 1934 and was the last vessel built in the UK to carry cargo under sail alone. She was built by Richard Dunston Ltd at their yard in Thorne, south Yorkshire, specifically for Thomas Hanley and Sons, a flour millers, based in nearby Doncaster. Daybreak had an older sister ship, Danum, launched two years earlier. Both were built to the largest size that could be accommodated in the locks to Sheffield and carried up to 110 tons on a 7ft draught, eventually reduced after engines were installed later. She was constructed of riveted steel although some welding was being introduced by this time and would lead to fully welded vessels during the 1940s. Daybreak was built to carry grain, imported by ships to the docks in Hull, and then transshipped to be carried to Hanley’s mill in Doncaster. From 1937 she and her sister ship would be towed along the tidal Humber by Hanley’s Pride, the mill’s first motor vessel. She continued to trade under sail until 1939 when

she, along with many other sailing vessels at that time, was fitted with an engine – a Lister JP2 diesel. Fortunately the engine room was taken from the hold space, thus preserving the traditional aft cabin. For many keels, having an engine installed and being no longer dependent on wind meant they did not require living accommodation aboard. Unlike the families on narrowboats, keel men had homes ashore, so the cabins were frequently removed to create space for the engine area while retaining the full carrying capacity. After the engine was installed on Daybreak all the sailing gear was removed and she continued carrying grain from Hull to Hanley’s mill – which was later taken over by Ranks. Then, in the late 60s mills began to close down and in 1969 the mill at Doncaster closed, followed by Mexborough. In 1977 the Rotherham mill stopped receiving grain supplies by water which caused Daybreak to be sold out of trade.

Above: Sally and Tony Woodward at home on Daybreak. Opposite: The simple rig of the Humber Keel

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LIVEABOARD LOVE AFFAIR

Above: Tony Woodward sizing up the job in Daybreak’s hold, soon after purchase. Note her old nav lights. Left: Daybreak at Brentford in 1979

Right: the generous, comfortable saloon. Below: Daybreak under sail

After various owners the Lister engine was eventually replaced with a Gardner 5LW – that was apparently taken from a bus. However the Lister gearbox was retained which was not a good arrangement because the Lister engine and gearbox together had an integrated lubrication system which included an oilway running through the centre of the crankshaft. As this wasn’t present on the Gardner it meant parts of the gearbox were not adequately lubricated. After many rebuilds the gearbox was eventually replaced with a Gardner 2UC gearbox. “Daybreak carried predominantly dry cargoes throughout her working life and as a result the interior of the hold was in very good condition”, recalled Tony Woodward, “Hanley’s vessels seemed to have been unusual in not carrying return loads,” Tony added. “Other Humber Keels would carry return loads of coal after delivering goods from the docks in Hull to industrial areas close to the coal pits.” 58 CLASSIC SAILOR

As well as delivering coal to the numerous coal-fired power stations operating alongside the waterways adjoining the Humber, the keels would deliver various chemical and raw materials, all of which took their toll on the vessels’ interior and structure. Daybreak was then sold to a Mr Maurice Dowdal who operated River Barge Holidays, a hotel boat business on the Thames along with another barge Lex. Lex was eventually converted into a hotel boat, and was last known to be moored at Penton Hook Marina on the Thames. But he decided to sell Daybreak before converting her. Then in 1979, Tony and Sally Woodward, both fulltime teachers, grabbed the opportunity and bought Daybreak for £5,500. “She was just what we were looking for”, Tony confirmed, “although that was a lot of money in those days”. From the outset both Tony and Sally were determined to refurbish Daybreak back to her former glory with some refined alterations,

CONVERTED HUMBER KEEL

During the mid to late seventies the trade on the waterways had declined considerably and working vessels were up for sale at very reasonable prices.

which included retaining as much space as possible in the hold with a large open-plan galley and split-level saloon. “In contrast the three sleeping cabins are small but together with the cabin and the fo’c’s’le means we can accommodate eleven people,” said Tony. The fact that Daybreak’s conversion to engine power had entailed the removal of her sailing gear presented a challenge to Tony and Sally when they decided to restore her to her original sailing rig. It had been removed “very thoroughly,” recalled Tony. “The original riveted fittings such as the chain plates had been removed and new rivets put into the holes. Probably at the same time Daybreak was converted to wheel steering with a small wheelhouse constructed on the aft deck, but this was soon removed after a ‘close encounter’ with Henley Bridge. The wheel was removed and replaced with a tiller”. Initially, they replaced the lutchet (the case that supports the mast) and painstakingly restored Daybreak’s exterior to how she would

have looked when she was originally built. For the mast they were fortunate to be given a 50ft telegraph pole they found in a field owned by a local farmer who was very pleased to donate it to Daybreak. “He told us that we had just rescued it in time as he intended chopping it up for fire wood”, remembered Sally. Luckily the pole was the right length, but it was much too wide, so, they had to square it off and round it to the right diameter, which took a great deal of time. Over the years Tony and Sally searched out as much original sailing gear as they could find but there seemed to be very little available and they had to fabricate many of the winches – known as ‘Rollers’- using the Humber Keel and Sloop Preservation Society’s Comrade as a guide. Although this idea worked reasonably well, they found problems arising due to the fact that Comrade was originally built as a lighter rather than as a sailing keel with some important differences – for example the height of the coamings.

Right, from top: Sally and Tony in the galley; interior, with a glimpse of the bathroom; Tony doing some chartwork in the original aft cabin; Tony in one of the pilot-berth style cabins; the engine room

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LIVEABOARD LOVE AFFAIR

Top: Tom and Kate, Sally and Tony’s children, who grew up on Daybreak. Above: The original builder’s plaque. Above right: Daybreak flying the flag of the 2014 Flagship of National Historic Ships

Originally, the only accommodation on Daybreak was the skipper’s cabin in the aft end and the remains of the fo’c’s’le in the bow which created a slight problem for Tony and Sally, so when they moved aboard they lived in this aft cabin, converting a spare bed into a cot for their one-year-old son. A daughter was to follow a few years later. “Using largely recycled materials, we gradually worked down the hold to build the galley, heads and saloon, then the sleeping cabins,” recalled Tony. The original hatch covers were retained, but with curved skylights to provide extra light. “It has taken us years to achieve the end result, but well worth all the effort,” he added. “We have been happily living on board for all that time with our children and motored and sailed Daybreak for all those years,” Daybreak was re-rigged and sailed again in 1998. Tony and Sally have worked continuously to improve the refurbishment of their happy home. They are always on the look-out for

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any artefacts that may have once belonged to Daybreak to further enhance their Humber Keel and, in their spare time, they relax and enjoy their memories, including bringing up two children aboard. Sally even taught their children on board for a few months when they moved Daybreak to new moorings. They are now in their thirties and have left the nest, and their dad pointed out proudly that they each now have a classic sailing vessel of their own. As they reflect on their achievements – including the satisfaction of seeing Daybreak chosen as National Historic Ships’ Flagship for 2014 – and the satisfaction of living aboard for over 36 years, Tony and Sally still enjoy sailing her from place to place, and have a burning ambition to sail her to Belgium. Daybreak’s Cog Boat All Humber Keels traditionally towed a cog boat, which was used as a general tender, for carrying out lines or anchors and as a lifeboat should the keel have the misfortune to founder.

Cog boats were always sculled with a large sweep over the stern, rather than being rowed with oars. This made them much easier to manoeuvre in the confined spaces of a dock. Cogs are clinker built of larch planks with oak frames and up to 12ft 6in long with a beam of 5ft. They are very bluff in the bow with flat floors and then a fine run aft to a wineglass stern. They are very stable, able to carry several people or a large anchor. It is possible to step off the stern of the keel onto the bow of the cog boat without it capsizing. Cog boats were raced at the annual water sports regattas held in locations in south Yorkshire such as Thorne. Daybreak had a new cog boat built by Ken Ward Foxton of Whitby in 2010. Ken carried out extensive research to make sure the cog boat was as authentic as possible. Cog boats were traditionally painted in the same colours as their keel and after delivery Daybreak’s cog boat was painted in her colours before being re-launched.

CONVERTED HUMBER KEEL

They reflect on their achievements and the satisfaction of seeing Daybreak chosen as National Historic Vessels’ Flagship for 2014

Above: A rare picture of Daybreak in her working life at Hanley’s mill

DAYBREAK: A YEAR IN THE LIFE Daybreak, National Historic Ship no 1834, was chosen as the National Historic Ships Flagship for 2014. Logged movements 2014 June Set off from Staines via Thames to Queenborough. July Passage to River Crouch. Passage to Blackwater, moored in Heybridge Basin, plus trip down Blackwater to Pyfleet. Passage to Harwich Sea Festival. Passage to Mistley, River Stour. August Passage to Pin Mill, River Orwell. Passage to Maritime Festival, Ipswich. Passage Pin Mill to River Deben – moored at Tide Mill Quay, Woodbridge. Passage to Lowestoft and Oulton Broad. September Passage to Breydon Water. Meeting with Norfolk Wherry Albion at Cantley and sailing in company. Passage to Great Yarmouth Maritime Festival. Passage to Humber,and Hull Folk Festival. Passage to Beverley Beck for Humber Sloop Amy Howson’s centenary event. October Recreated Daybreak’s original trading voyage from Hull to Doncaster carrying a token cargo of half a ton of wheat, under sail as much as possible and being towed, as they would have done before engine power was introduced, stopping on the way to give people a chance to learn about Daybreak. 2014/ early 2015, last winter Moored at Goole, adjacent to the Waterways Museum, before being lifted for a check-over and anti-foul, (Tony and Sally do the antifouling) which takes two weeks, approximately. Weather permitting they ventured out along the local canals and made plans for the coming year. CLASSIC SAILOR

CHINDA

A shining example Silverleaf by class, and chrome-plated by her first owner, Chinda was built on the Kent coast, and has now been restored in Suffolk. By Peter Willis; photos by Gill Moon

he immediate thing that struck me when I first set eyes on Chinda, nearing the completion of her restoration in Harbour Marine’s main shed, was the unusual amount of chrome trim bouncing back the strip lighting. Chinda is a classic Silverleaf 46ft twin-screw motor cruiser, designed by John Bain of J & A Silver, of Rosneath in Scotland. They are handsome craft but go in for an almost Presbyterian level of restraint when it comes to decoration, the main concession to showiness being a signature broken sheerline encasing varnished mahogany panelling towards the after end of the hull. So all this bling – chrome porthole surrounds, ventilators, deck fittings, door

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handles, rails – anything metal really – seemed distinctly out of character. As if someone had demanded, in the modern vernacular, “Pimp up my Silverleaf ”. And, it turns out, that is exactly what had happened, back in 1946 when Chinda, or Lady Dot II as she was then called, was first built. The fact that she wasn’t built by Silvers themselves might also have been a contributory factor. Her builder was the Whitstable, Kent, firm of Anderson, Rigden and Perkins. Harbour Marine’s John Buckley suggests that, as well as the trim, a “southern softness” has crept into her lines, when compared with Rosneath-built examples, such as Meridies, which he’d previously restored and which still lives at Harbour Marine’s Southwold yard. One can see what he means – there’s a more pronounced fore-and-aft curve to the

wheelhouse roof, a gentler sweep to that broken sheerline. As for all that chrome, there is an even simpler explanation: her original owner also owned an electro-plating business. “It’s said that even the propellers were chromed,” says present owner Nic Seal with much amusement. “They aren’t now, of course,” he adds. Nic and his wife Bertie found Chinda a little over three years ago, on the Isle of Wight, in Island Harbour, Cowes. “She had terrible electrolysis problems – rotted wood around the shaft logs and the A-frames. When she was brought out of the water, a lot of other problems were discovered. The Cascover nylon sheathing had stopped her from sinking but it had concealed a lot of problems,” says Nic. They kept finding more and more things wrong with her, “and that was another several

Chinda surges up the Orwell towards Levington at the end of her maiden voyage from Southwold

CHINDA

“Her ﬁrst owner had an electro-plating business... it’s said that even the propellers were chromed. They aren’t now of course”

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CHINDA

thousand pounds each time.” They talked to other owners, including Jonathan and Helen Lewis of Gralian, the Saunders-Roe motor cruiser also restored by Harbour Marine. At one stage they thought about suing the original surveyor, who had failed to spot all these problems pre-purchase, but decided not to, after advice from Jonathan and Helen – “two years of hell, they told us”. They got in David Cox from Cornwall to do another survey, and decided to follow Jonathan and Helen’s example and talk to John Buckley at Harbour Marine. “John came down to Cowes, and said she’s got her problems, but they’re all repairable and she’s a good boat, well-built.” So up to Southwold she went, John and his team got stuck in and Nic passed the time researching her history. One link that particularly pleased him was the discovery that one of the HMS shipwrights, Laurie, who did a lot of the work on Chinda, had been apprenticed to Faversham boatbuilder Alan Staley who himself had worked at Anderson, Rigden and Perkins. Alan has done a lot of research on the

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yard, and was able to tell Nic that his boat had been washed ashore at Whitstable in the great flood of 1953. A gantry fell on her and she then fell onto another boat. Nic has also inherited correspondence about the boat, passed down from the original owner, Mr R A Swinnard of Tunbridge Wells. Much of it is carbon copies of his side of a perhaps typical exchange between owner and yard: April 1948: “I am rather concerned regarding the news you gave me about ‘Lady Dot II’ the previous figure was not too bad but with the addition you now state the ship will be a very expensive one and not at all in keeping with your original rough estimate.” In May he queries the “considerable increase” in estimates for labour, materials, overheads and electrical work, and the yard’s attempt to land him with its own insurance costs on the ship. He also complains “The plumbing on the ship is absurd” with some apparent justification – “no stop cock or drain plugs are provided anywhere, consequently in the event of a leak the water cannot be shut

Above: Owners Bertie and Nic Seal relax in the wheelhouse. Right: There’s a period feel to the saloon

Below, from left: Bookshelf; owner’s cabin with stern window and twin (infillable) berths; original light fitting

off from the tanks nor can they be drained in frosty weather”. The deck needs to be recaulked and properly pitched, due to “bad workmanship” and at the yard’s expense. And the cost of the carpets and upholstery is excessive. He is particularly bitter about the saloon seats: “very poor and unsprung and are naturally going out of shape, I contend they should be sprung and shaped deeped (sic) in the front than the back to avoid the feeling of slipping off, perhaps you will take the matter up with these people as one should surely have something good for £68. 6. 6.” In the end he gets a deduction of £138.2.10 on the final settlement and thanks the yard for “having produced such a very nice ship, she is admired by everyone who has seen her

CHINDA

Chinda (ex-Lady Dot II) Construction: Larch on oak Length: 46ft (14m) Beam: 11ft (3.35m) Draught: 4ft (1.2m) Displacement: 20 tonnes. Engines: Originally 2 x 30hp Coventry Now 2 x 72hp Yanmar Builder: Anderson, Rigden & Perkins, Whitstable 1946-7 Restored: Harbour Marine Southwold 2013-15

Above: Under restoration in Harbour Marine’s yard

particularly by old hands who ought to know”. There is also a letter from John Bain himself, on Silvers’ headed notepaper, with some detailed advice on ballast. “I note that the yacht behaves well in a heavy sea but that the angle of roll is rather excessive. A slight addition to the ballast would probably improve this but care should be taken to wing it out as well as possible; do not have it all in the centre of the bilges: if, for instance, you could get some in the angle space beneath the bottom drawer below the beds in the aft cabin, this would be a most suitable position.” Possibly in the early 50s, she was sold to a Mr Holland, who did a lot of trips to the Channel Islands, to buy cheap beer. In 1962, he sold her to a Brinley Stewart, who changed

her name, but kept her for just a year. Then she went to a Mr Temple, who took her to the Medina at Cowes to use as a houseboat, and where she was left to rot until Nic found her. John Buckley describes the state of her when he went down to inspect: “Some badly-informed chap had put anodes on the A-brackets, causing severe electrolysis, not only to the brackets themselves and the shaft logs, but also to the first four planks, of oak, either side of the garboards, as well as to some of the floors, timbers and frames.” All of this had to be replaced, as well as the garboards themselves. A new laminated floor was built right across the stern to support the frames, new stern tubes added and new keel bolts fitted. New bearers were built for the two

Below,from left: Topsides, more chrome, the external steering position, and the mahogany dining table on the afterdeck

new 72hp Yanmar engines. These replaced two 52hp units which had been there since 1962 and themselves had replaced the original 30hp pair. Three new tanks, diesel, water and holding, were installed, with the fuel tanks relocated to the engine room, leaving space for a cavernous lazarette below the afterdeck, and the boat was completely rewired. Externally, the portlights were all rechromed and reseated, and all the planks in what John Bain would refer to as the “fake break of sheer” were replaced with Brazilian mahogany, of which HMS holds a stock. And below the waterline, for the aftermost 26ft (7.9m), the Cascover sheathing has been replaced – with Cascover. “About a year ago,” relates John, “we bought the last roll of Cascover, down in Southampton. It was the right thing to do – she’s now exactly as she was in 1946. And we’ve still got some in stock.” But the main work was the new deck. When John learned that Nic planned to take Chinda down to the Mediterranean, “That knocked a teak deck on the head.” Instead they

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Anderson, Rigden & Perkins Described by its biographer and former apprentice Alan Staley as: “The last proper shipyard that operated from the Whitstable foreshore,” Anderson, Rigden & Perkins was formed by local shipowners in 1917, following the demise of the Whitstable Shipping Company. Most of the initial work was on the workhorses of the coast: barges, freighters and oyster dredgers. Stormy Petrel, see CS1, p10, built by Charles Perkins, one of the partners in ARP, and his brother Richard, came in for some work in 1920. But as working sail faded away in the 1920s and 30s, yachts became the mainstay. An Albert Strange gaff cutter, Ariel was built there in 1925; Claud Worth had a yacht built there in 1929, and the yard built a great number to the designs of Dr T Harrison Butler. It also built dinghies including National 12s, and the Essex One Designs. The outbreak of war in 1939 saw this kind of work disappear, but it was eventually replaced by Admiralty contracts, including HDMLs and motor fishing vessels. Post-war, the business of fishing vessels and leisure craft resumed – including Lady Dot II in 1946-7. The yard took an active part in the new London Boat Shows; Bob Anderson became president of the Ship & Boat Builders National Federation in 1958, and later chairman of National Boat Shows. The yard’s latter decades reflect the decline and consolidation of the boatbuilding industry: in 1962, RJ Perkins went into liquidation and some of its staff transferred to AR&P, and in 1969 AR&P took over the premises next door. But in 1973 a disastrous fire destroyed the main yard. Production moved along Island Wall to what became known as No 2 Yard – back to the site of the original Whitstable Shipping Company. The end of the business came amidst cheap overseas competition, planning delays over the new sea wall, where the yard needed gaps to launch its boats across the beach, and an unsuccessful effort at a merger with Conyer Marine. Anderson, Rigden and Perkins went into liquidation in 1983.

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Above: Stern view. Below left: Lady Dot II, as she then was, ready to emerge from the boatshed of Anderson Rigden and Perkins in 1947

installed a ply deck with epoxy recesses, “a complete monocoque structure for strength, and still very attractive”. It was laid on top of the original triple-diagonal teak deck, “still structurally sound, as were the beam shelf, hanging knees and lodging knees”. Nic’s verdict is that the new deck “has done her the world of good – stiffened her considerably”. “We also rebuilt the rear of the wheelhouse to accommodate an external helm,” adds John. Inside the wheelhouse they’ve gone to some lengths to conceal what John calls the “nasty electronics” – or at any rate their dials and switches that tend to clash with the classic ambience. As Nic says, “We wanted the wheelhouse to look as original as possible,” so all the dials have been cleared from the dashboard and put behind a low-level mahogany panel. Below decks, the saloon also remains, very elegantly, ‘as was’, and though the adjacent galley is completely new, it has been designed to blend in. The aft cabin, however, which boasts a splendid stern-facing window, has been remodelled so that the original double bed has been replaced with a V-shaped ‘occasional double’ which can serve as two singles if needed for crew accommodation. Finishing touches include moving the mast to the after deck – “It should be there for the steadying sail, and it keeps foredeck clear,” observes Nic. There are new deck boxes, and a splendid mahogany table for the after deck, plus a resplendent boarding ladder, found by David Worthington, owner of fellow Silverleaf Meridies, at a boat jumble. And a little tailpiece – on the Chinda name, painted on the stern, the dot on the letter I has been replaced by a discreet leaf, a tribute to how Nic earns his living. And before your imaginations get to work, I’d better explain that it’s the rather elegant leaf of the

“If I’d known how much work was needed I’d probably not have started, but now we’ve ﬁnished I’m glad we did” Japanese knot-weed plant, scourge of gardens and countryside which Nic spends his working days eradicating. Photographer Gill Moon and I met up with Chinda, along with Nic, Bertie and their son Freddie, at Levington Marina in July, after what was in effect their maiden trip down from Southwold. “ Bit scary at first,” admitted Nic. “It was, ‘Oh my god, I’m going to break this expensive new toy’.” But he hadn’t, and he manoeuvred her with confidence for the camera, talking confidently of the next leg, across the Thames estuary, and his long-term plans to eventually take her through the French canals to the Med. “The rebuild took about one and a half years,” he estimated. “Two people, full-time. If I’d known how much work was needed I’d probably not have started, but now we’ve finished I’m glad we did.” From Levington, they went down to the Thames, and then upriver as far as Chelsea, then down to Ramsgate, and via Brighton and Portsmouth back to Cowes, where they’d found the boat, and on to Weymouth. “Then we turned round and did it all in reverse, stopping at St Katharine Dock for the Classic Boat Festival which was a great success, before reaching Southwold after a long wet and cold trip fighting wind and tide! Knackered but still alive!”

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THE GREAT RIVER RACE

Rowing upstream fro m It’s colourful, hugely competitive and a bit crazy. But above all the Great River Race is a celebration of the Thames By Chris Partridge. Photos by Ray Little

he big problem with rowing as a spectator sport is that it can be a bit…boring. The boats are identical, the crews are all clad in Lycra onesies and the races are over in minutes with just a few inches between the contestants. But the Great River Race is something else. A fleet of more than 300 boats of all shapes and sizes from Cornish pilot gigs to antique skiffs races race through London from the Isle of Dogs to Richmond, flying colourful flags and wearing anything from blazers and boaters to gorilla suits. One crew was dressed as a heavy metal band, complete with guitars. Cross-dressing is rife. The event was always intended to bring a bit of pizazz back to a river left empty by the extinction of the docks. The days when watermen plied their trade on the Thames are recalled by specifying that every boat must carry a passenger and fly a flag. From small beginnings as a local event it now attracts crews from all parts of the UK and abroad, with a particularly strong contingent from the Netherlands. The start on the Isle of Dogs is a mass of boats moving apparently randomly but actually drifting upriver towards the start line marked by a Thames barge. The slower boats start first, a sophisticated handicapping system ensuring that although nearly an hour separates the starts, there is an exciting scrimmage at the finish. However, the staggered start means carnage over the first few miles as the faster boats fight their way through the pack. And the Pool of London usually has a nasty chop that can swamp boats from more tranquil inland waters. Dragon

68 CLASSIC SAILOR

Every boat must ﬂy a ﬂag... and every crew has the chance to observe London’s ever-changing riverscape

THE GREAT RIVER RACE

o m Docklands till dusk Rowing through the historic city is a fabulous experience – Tower Bridge, St Pauls, the Houses of Parliament. The sense of the Thames as liquid history is overwhelming boats are especially vulnerable to a big wave sweeping from bow to stern and filling them in seconds – this year, exceptionally bouncy conditions in the Pool forced all the dragon boats out of the race. Rowing through the historic city is a fabulous experience that is worth the entry fee on its own – you pass under Tower Bridge, past St Paul's and the Houses of Parliament the sense of the Thames as liquid history is overwhelming. Then it turns into a long, hard pull as the river gets narrower and less urban. Actual trees appear. If you weren't working so hard, it would be very pleasant. The final stretch at Richmond is the killer. At this point, every competitive crew is trying to fend off challenges from behind and catch a few more boats before the finish. And what a finish. At Ham, crowds line both banks and the line is marked by military re-enactors with a real cannon. And you release the oar handle with a sigh of relief. Only to join the scrum to get to the slipway and haul the boat out. At that point the best and worst in rowers come out, with everyone joining in to help manhandle heavy boats out of the water, but also viciously competing to get out first. Then the partying starts. The area is covered with food stalls and a huge beer tent and the rowers get stuck in as rowers all over the world always do. The awards are dished out, and I am happy to report that my boat, Langstone Cutters Rowing Club's Gladys, won the Veterans Over 60 cup for the 11th year in a row. It’s 21.6 Miles from London Docklands to Ham in Surrey. The next race will run on Saturday 3 September 2016. www.greatriverrace.co.uk From far left: Getting ready for the start in Docklands; passing the London Eye; a bucolic upstream reach; stretching out for the ﬁnish

CLASSIC SAILOR 69

WEATHER PREDICTION

How to interpret the

Shipping forecast How to make sense - and then to make use of the formalised shorthand information read out on Radio 4, four times every day and audible on Longwave well out into the Atlantic By Trevor David Clifton

won a race once, only a friendly, between four matched boats that later went on to sail around the world. We were in Guernsey. A rainy night had merged into a grey day: low, damp cloud was scuttling across the sky, almost touching the aerials at the tops of the masts. We crossed the start line at the northern end of the Little Russel on port tack, reaching fast in the 4-5 WNW wind; the finish line was the outer end of the entrance channel into Poole. We hauled in the sails and turned about 10° upwind of the plotted course, bashing into the waves, gradually losing ground to the other three boats. Then it rained hard and the wind strength increased; we reefed and hoisted a smaller jib. The sails started to flap and the helmsman bore away, shouting above the noise that he couldn’t hold the course. The wind had veered about 25° as the cold front passed. We couldn’t see the other boats but we knew they’d now be hard on the wind. We were fine-reaching towards the finish line. We were tied up and drinking tea before the others got in.

What prompted this successful upwind strategy was a basic appreciation of the anatomy of the depressions which regularly sweep across the British Isles, and the Shipping forecast. Aah, the shipping forecast; that Radio 4 transmission which we dragged ourselves out of our sleeping bags to listen to, half awake, scribbling the predictions for ‘our area’ in the ship’s log, sometimes hoping for a gale 70 CLASSIC SAILOR

warning so that we could get back into bed. I dug out my old RYA log book. The first entry is dated 8 July 1974. Under ‘Meteorology’ in the syllabus for the Yachtmaster course, item 6: ‘Ability to sketch a weather map from a shipping forecast’. We used to do that. And now, despite having up-to-theminute electronic forecasts in words and pictures, I’m still grateful for what I learned all those years ago. Here’s a reminder of the basics: Buys Ballot’s Law (pronounced ‘Bows’ – like the front end of a boat – Bal-lot. He was Dutch):

‘If you stand with your back to the surface wind, in the northern hemisphere low pressure will be on your left.’ That’s useful if you keep a proper log. Wind circulates around depressions in an anti-clockwise direction in the northern hemisphere.

Below: Diagram 1 shows wind directions as a depression (‘Low’) passes through from west to east

The diagrams below show surface wind direction and your boat, hove-to so relatively stationary, as a depression (usually referred to as a ‘low’ and abbreviated to ‘L’ on surface pressure charts) passes W to E to the north of your position, with extracts from the log entries you might have made. Wind direction and barometric pressure are the key. Atmospheric pressure at the

At the very least the shipping forecast will tell you if there’s a gale heading your way, and how quickly

Identifying the precise position of the low, wind speeds and where the ‘fronts’ are is a little more complex but that’s where the shipping forecast can provide the answers.

The shipping forecast, compiled by the Met Office, relates to a map of sea areas (p73) around the British Isles; it is broadcast by the BBC, on Radio 4; but to hear it offshore you need a radio that can receive Radio 4 longwave,198 kHz to be precise (the Roberts Sports 925 at about £17 is not a bad option). The real benefit is that reception stretches all the way across Biscay and out into the Atlantic, well beyond the range of the coastguard VHF broadcasts or your telephone or even Navtex. At night, when conditions are more favourable, people listen to Radio 4 Longwave in Majorca! But why bother listening to the shipping forecast if it only covers areas around the British Isles? Well, the forecast gives the positions, direction and speed of movement of depressions way beyond the sea areas on the Metmap – the furthest area reported on is Trafalgar which includes Spanish and Portuguese Coastal waters all the way down to Gibraltar.

At the very least the forecast will tell you if there’s a gale heading your way and how quickly. Here’s an example. The shipping forecast issued by the Met Office, on behalf of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, at 0015 on Friday 17 July 2015. There are warnings of gales in Shannon, Rockall, Malin, Hebrides, Bailey, Fair Isle and Faeroes. The general synopsis at 1800 (on the 16th). Low Shannon 997, expected south Hebrides 990 by 1800. Low 300M west of Trafalgar 1014, expected south Fitzroy with little change by same time. Low northern France 1008 losing its identity.

Even from that little bit of information you can sketch a useful picture: you can see how the wind direction in Malin changes as the CLASSIC SAILOR

NASA

surface is measured in Millibars (mbar) or hectopascals (hPa) – as far as seafarers are concerned these two are interchangeable. 1000mbars = 1 bar (or 1,000 hPa) which approximates the sea level atmospheric pressure at around 45° N. The ‘normal’ range of pressure is between 950 and 1050 mbar, which means you only need to write down the last two digits. You will certainly know if the barometer is reading 950! Try it yourself. If the pressure is dropping there is a depression heading your way. If the wind gets stronger and doesn’t change direction the depression is heading straight for you. If the wind veers, in the northern hemisphere, the centre of the depression will pass to the north of your position; if the wind backs it will pass to the south.

WEATHER PREDICTION

low moves. See Diagram 2, above ‘Wind Arrows’ conventionally have their ‘feathers’ on the side of the arrow nearest the low pressure, each feather, in most diagrams, represents ten knots of wind, half a feather equals five knots. There is more detail in the area forecasts, which follow the general synopsis: ‘Malin, SE 6-8 veering SW 7-9 possibly 10 later’ So where do we start? Listening to the forecast on BBC Radio 4 four or five times in succession isn’t a bad place. Clock times: 0048 - Transmitted on 92-94 FM and 198 kHz LW. Includes coastal station reports and the inshore waters forecast. (A forecast for Trafalgar is found only in the 0048 forecast). 0520 - Transmitted on FM and LW. Includes coastal station reports and an inshore waters forecast. 1201 - Normally transmitted on LW only. 1754 - Transmitted only on LW on weekdays but on FM and LW at weekends. The area forecasts begin with an area to the north-east of Scotland called Viking – often linked with North and South Utsire (pronounced Ootseera) off the coast of Norway – then follow a clockwise direction around the British Isles via all the sea areas in the shipping forecast – whose names you may be familiar with – to the Shetlands. You have to write quickly to get it all down – a simple form of shorthand rapidly evolves if you do it more than a few times. There is of course a formal list of symbols This is an extract from the ‘middle of the night’ forecast on 17 July 2015.

72 CLASSIC SAILOR

Left: Diagram 2: As the Low (L) moves north, the wind direction, shown here in red with the ‘feathers’ indicating 30 knots of wind, veers from south-east to south-west

Clockwise from below right: Diagram 3, barometric pressure at Malin Head, 1006 and Machrihanish, 1007 mbar. Diagram 4: movement of Low, and isobars inserted. Diagram 5: Met Ofﬁce surface-level pressure chart

Trevor’s shorthand symbols for writing down the forecast quickly

WEATHER PREDICTION

The shipping forecast areas

CLASSIC SAILOR

WEATHER PREDICTION

Now put it all together: plot the wind strength and direction, pressure and precipitation on the Metmap and abbreviations, and you can get a degree in meteorology, but it’s not difficult to learn the basics. On p72 are the shorthand symbols I use, some from the official list, see Table 1 left and some my own design: . By the way, in weather forecasting terminology, ‘imminent’ means within six hours, ‘soon’ means between six and twelve hours and ‘later’ means after more than twelve hours. On p72 there is an extract from the ‘middle of the night’ forecast on 17 July 15. For the complete picture you need to record the reports from coastal stations in the 0048 and 0520 broadcasts; they include wind direction and force, visibility, sea level pressure and tendency for approximately 20 locations around the UK. These details provide the means of making your own weather chart. You need to be aware of the difference in times between the General Synopsis and the Coastal Station Reports; by the time this one in Diagram 4 was recorded, the ‘low’ over Shannon would have moved at least to Rockall. Now put it all together: plot the wind strength and direction, pressure and precipitation at each coastal station on the Metmap – Like this: MH is Malin head where the wind direction and strength were South-East by East Force 5, it was raining (visibility was 3 miles) and the barometric pressure was 1006mbar. T is Tiree, and MC Machrihanish. See Diagram 3. With all the coast station information plotted you can sketch in the isobars by joining points of equal pressure, interpolating where the reported pressure doesn’t exactly match your chosen isobar pressure. See Diagram 4. With 4mbar intervals you should end up with something like this. Wind direction follows the isobars with a deflection towards the ‘Low’; careful study of the rainfall pattern and, often, places where the wind is veering gives an indication of the presence and location of a cold front. There’s nothing like an honest, independent critic! For a snapshot from the Met Office’s Surface-Level Pressure Chart for the same time as our forecast. See Diagram 5. It’s not perfect but accurate enough to persuade anyone anchored off Tobermory to stay a while longer! It takes time and practice but taking down the forecast and drawing your own weather map is probably the best way there is of learning about sailing weather. 74 CLASSIC SAILOR

Navigation: the basics Estimated position By John Clarke, Principal of Team Sailing Now it's time to put what we know into practice by fixing our position, and calculating our speed and course

n the last article, in the November issue we went through how to measure distance and bearing on a chart, using a Portland plotter and dividers. We also looked at variation on a chart, i.e. the difference between the true north pole and the magnetic north pole. This month we shall examine putting this into practice and also look at estimating your position. For this exercise we shall pretend that we are on passage from St Peter Port, Guernsey, to St Helier in Jersey. We know that we are north-west of Jersey – but where exactly? If we use the hand-bearing compass and line it up on a point on the northern edge of Jersey, we can read the bearing. It is 124o, but remember this is 124o round from the magnetic north pole, which in the Channel Isles is 2o west of the true north pole. So on the chart it will be on a bearing of 122o (T). So we now draw a line at an angle of 122o(T) from the northern edge of Jersey back towards where we think we are. Similarly we can line up the hand bearing compass on the south west edge of Jersey, and we see that it is a bearing of 163o(M), which equates to 161o(T). So we now draw a line at an angle of 161o(T) from the southern edge of Jersey back towards where we think we are. Where the lines cross is our position, And we are at position A on the chart. (Incidentally it always makes sense to look at the depth shown on the echo sounder as a way of confirming your position. In this case we had a depth of 52 metres, which appears to make sense.) See figures 1 and 2. We can see from the ship’s compass the direction we are sailing along, in this case 190o(M), which equates to 188o(T). And an hour later we can see from the ship’s log that we have covered 5.4 nautical miles through the water. So we can measure 5.4 miles from the latitude scale and this will give our position as B – usually called the dead reckoning position. See figure 3 However we are not on a lake, we are on a moving body of water, so we have been pushed in the direction of the tide. Referring to the tidal stream atlas or the tidal diamonds (this will be covered in a later

Fig 5: A-C now shows our actual course, and, Fig 6, with plotter and dividers we can work out our COG (course over ground), 196oT and SOG (speed over ground), 7.1 knots Fig 1: Lined up on the northern edge of Jersey, bearing 122oT

Fig 2: And a bearing on the southern edge gives 161oT: the cross A shows our position Fig 3: One hour later, and 5.4 nM further along, at a bearing of 188oT, at point B. Perhaps... Fig 7: And we can conﬁrm our position with visual ﬁxes on the two ringed headlands

... however, Fig 4, the tide has pushed us 1.6nM in the direction of 225oT. We make allowance for this, which puts us at point C

article), we see that the tide has moved in the direction of 225o(T) at a rate of 1.6 knots (i.e., 1.6 nautical miles during the hour). So what we must do is to draw a line from B in the direction of 225o(T), and a length

of 1.6 nautical miles, which makes our estimated position after the hour at point C. See figures 4 and 5. We can work out our Course over the Ground (COG) and Speed over the ground (SOG) using the plotter and dividers, and we read these as COG of 196o(T) and an SOG of 7.1 knot 7s (nautical miles per hour) See figure 6. Incidentally we can confirm this by doing a visual position fix, using the headlands at Point Corbiere and Grosnez Point, as we did earlier when we found that we were at A. See figure 7. Any discrepancy will be caused by a combination of: insufficient tidal data, estimating leeway wrongly (again this will be covered in a later article), or the ship’s log not reading accurately.

CLASSIC SAILOR 75

On watch: New Year shopping

Kuhn Rikon Duromatic 5l pressure cooker We consider a pressure cooker an essential item on board nowadays. They’re easy to use, they retain flavour, they’re efficient and time friendly as well as – nowadays – totally safe. They enable you to make complex meals that usually takes hours in 20 minutes, saving you time and gas not to mention the boost in morale that comes with a hearty meal (especially a massive curry). This is a particularly good one that has a non-stick bottom and can be used as a frying pan. We even made bread! Smaller sizes available for smaller crew. £115 www.kuhnrikon.com

Bosch pmf 10.8 li Multi tool

Having a multi tool around on board is the equivalent to having a multi tool on your belt. It’s a grab it and use power tool with plenty of application in one package and in this case it’s battery operated so you’re always “off grid” so to speak. You can plunge cut, segment saw, sand, grout remove and scrape all at adjustable speeds. Plenty of power and long life. £155 www.bosch.com

New block on the block

We first saw the new Barton Victory Heritage collection of ash-cheeked blocks when Barton’s Suzanne Blaustone visited our stand at Southampton Boat Show. At that point the blocks were still in development but we liked the concept and the no-nonsense approach. The ash cheeks (varnished or plain) are for cosmetic purposes only – they cover a stainless-steel cage which holds the ball-bearing sheaves. These are 25% more efficient than a plain sheave according to Barton’s Paul Botterill: “We also use more ball bearings so there is less load across the sheave.” Four sizes, 30mm, 45mm, 60mm and 80 mm cater for ropes from 8mm to 14mm and loads from 245 to 1200kgs – or a dinghy up to a schooner. “Sailing classics is a growing area and so we produced this high performance range for the discerning sailor – they are not just for racing,” Suzanne told CS. Prices are being fixed as we go to press. www.bartonmarine.com

Montague Paratrooper

At last a full size super tough folding mountain bike meaning you only ever need one bicycle. Developed to allow airborne soldiers to drop out of aeroplanes and helicopters into combat, this bike will take anything you throw at it yet boasts 24 speeds, 26inch wheels and weighs just 29lb. In real terms it means you can go where you want to on a boat, then go where you want to on your bike. The world is yours. £799.99 montaguebikes.com 76 CLASSIC SAILOR

Helle floating knife

A really good sailing knife can be a lifelong companion until it goes overboard and is lost forever. Here however we have a really well made knife that also floats. The Hellefisk has a stainless blade of 12C27 steel. It’s thin and stiff, weighing only 2oz. To look at their website (www.helle. no) is to witness true craftsmanship, each knife and sheath demanding up to 45 separate handcrafted manual operations using stone, horn, bogaged wood, leather and in this case cork for the handle. It also comes in a traditional Norwegian stiff leather sheath and with a lifetime warranty. Expect to pay around £70. www.helle.no

Cobb Barbecue

Invented as a cooking system in rural Africa this is a shoe-in for use on a boat as, firstly it’s a barbecue and oven that you can pick up and move and secondly you can roast an entire meal with it, as the fat drips into the moat for roast potatoes and veg. We have had nothing but success with it (using their clean burning Cobble Stones is the best way to cook mussels and smoking an entire chicken means we no longer use our oven on Sunday.) We can wholeheartedly recommend it for boat and house. See also p26. £100 for a basic set www.cobb-bbq.co.uk

Michael Kahn Over the Dunes

Flover 33 TG electric motor

We have been testing this state-of-the-art trolling motor from pub to pub in the Chichester canal and channels now for three months and cannot fault it. As well as the silence, which helped our fishing stealth, its green credentials, the healthy thrust (34lb)and the fact that it weighs so little (making it really handy for the single boater) as well as the extending tiller, the one thing that it has that most don’t is a very handy LED battery power level gauge. In tests we got ten hours out of a standard marine 12v battery at low level and three hours at maximum. Ideal for tenders, rowing boats, inflatables, kayaks, dinghies and small boats. Price tba. www.flovermotor.com

We have long been fans of Michael Kahn’s timeless calm emulated by his photography. In this book he also reaches out to the dynamic drama of the J Class boats cutting the scenery in half as well as his signature serenity, all depicted in sepia tones, displaying the beauty of form and composition without distraction. This book is a collection of his finest prints (normally handmade silver gelatin photographs) taken from over 20 years of work, each one of which you will be torn between keeping them in this tome or cutting out to frame. £55 www.michaelkahn.com

Henri Lloyd 3D

Although we like to have a good look at things before we recommend them here’s a newsworthy exception. The new Henri Lloyd Flex 3D Jacket has won the Clothing and Crew accessories Category at the 2015 DAME Awards at Holland’s METS. Looks good too with multi directional stretch and thermal spiral Wadding. It’s also, by all accounts, incredibly light. Available Feb 2016 www.henrilloyd.com

Compiled by Guy Venables

CLASSIC SAILOR 77

Sailing skills: Boat handling under engine. Part 3 Last month we looked at ways to get our boats heading backwards without offering too much entertainment to the harbour-side gawkers. However, the vast majority of us are going to feel far happier when we’ve got our little ship heading the “right” way once more. This month, as our series on close quarters boat handling under engine continues Nick Beck tackles turning around.

n the face of it an about-face sounds easy, a simple matter of putting the rudder hard over and keeping it there until the bow is pointing towards our target. The surprise for most folks graduating to traditional boats from their more modern finkeeled offspring comes in the form of quite how much space this can require. Weighing in at 24 tons, with a plumb stem and full forefoot, Amelie Rose needs a channel width of at least 3.5 boat lengths (50-plus metres) in order to execute a turn in this way – even in favourable conditions. That kind of swinging room is not always on hand, so here are a few ways that we’ve learned to reduce the turning circle to something a little more realistic.

Technique 1: Tighten a simple turn

A boat’s momentum will incline her to resist any turn and to try instead to continue on her previous track. A quick check on Wikipedia confirms that this momentum is a product of her mass and her velocity. Even a traditional long keel doesn’t have a perfect grip on the water 78 CLASSIC SAILOR

in the way that a car’s tyres do on a dry road, so her momentum will cause her to ‘skid’ sideways through the water. Even if she were to grip the water perfectly, increasing her forward velocity in a simple turn will increase the size of the turn as she will always be travelling forwards as well as turning. The faster she is moving the more ground she’ll cover before completing the turn. As we are intending to travel forwards during the turn we have the option of using propwash (see Issue 2) to assist. The benefits gained by this will be most apparent at slower speeds. Travelling too slowly through the water will cause the rudder and keel to “stall” – resulting in a loss of steerage. If we’re trying to turn into a stiff breeze then the wind pressure on the bow will exacerbate this effect. It follows that the tightest possible turn will be at or near minimum steerage speed for the prevalent conditions, with the assistance of prop-wash.

Putting it all together: A simple turn

On Amelie Rose we’ll generally start a ‘simple’ turn by popping the throttle into neutral from tick-over forward then pushing

Tightening a simple turn: The outcomes of a simple turn to starboard. 1) Leaving the engine in tick-over forwards with the rudder hard over the turn takes nearly 3.5 boat lengths to complete. 2) Putting the engine in neutral as we commence the turn and then re-engaging tick-over at the apex shaves half a boat length from the turning circle. 3) Engine in neutral to the apex then pulses of forward throttle to keep steerage and help to complete the turn. Trims a whole boat length from the space required.

Done well this technique looks like an elephant performing ballet and will result in folks asking you where you fitted the bow thrusters turn, leaving the engine in tick-over throughout. Once you’ve established how much room you need for this you can try tightening the turn using the techniques discussed above. Having a few goes will help you to zero in on your minimum steerage speed and should also show you the effect of the wind as you circle back and forth.

Technique 2: You spin me right round

the tiller hard to port or starboard. By the time she reaches the apex of the turn, drag from the rudder and resistance from the water will normally reduce her speed to just above minimum steerage. We then use “pulses” of forward power to utilise prop-wash to keep steerage way and to help complete the turn without unnecessary and unhelpful acceleration. If we’re turning to windward we may find we need to start the pulses of power earlier in order to maintain steerage. Conversely when turning away from the breeze we may allow the boat to stall out for a short while, aiding a sharper turn as the bow is blown away from the wind.

Practice makes perfect:

Practicing this manoeuvre is pretty simple – especially if you have a nice wide fairway with minimal traffic somewhere to hand. First, try a fully powered

Done well this technique looks like an elephant performing ballet and will result in folks asking you questions about where you fitted the bow thrusters and why it is that yours don’t make that annoying whining noise. Essentially the aim is to use the effects of prop kick and prop wash to drag the stern of the vessel around her pivot point with the minimum of collateral movement (or damage) fore or aft. This is such a useful technique that on Amelie Rose there is a standing joke that “she doesn’t turn to port” in that we would always rather head to the port side of a narrow channel and spin her to starboard rather than try to turn her against her prop-kick. Before you start be sure to check what the tide is up to. Remember that you are going to spin the boat around on her axis, and so during much of the manoeuvre you will not be able to negate any tidal effects. You will therefore be drifting towards wherever the tide is headed (one notable time in Amelie Rose’s history this was at a knot and a half towards a closing bridge). It’s also worth knowing that wind pressure on the bow will impede (or even stop) your progress if you are turning into it but that it will help the bow through the turn if you are heading away from it. In describing this I’m going to assume that your prop kicks to port (as most seem to) but if you have a starboard kicker then you’ll need to reverse port and starboard to make it work.

Spin round: Using prop wash and prop kick to spin the boat around her centre of lateral resistance. Note that the boat will have a tendency to move around unless you are spot on at switching back and forth between forward and reverse before she gets any way on.

Putting it all together: Spinning the boat

Begin the process by putting the helm over for a hard starboard turn where it should remain for the entire event. It’s tempting to reverse it as you reverse the engine but this is completely unnecessary as the aim is that at no point will the boat actually be travelling forwards or backwards and so the only time the rudder is doing anything is when we’re firing wash over it from the propeller. Now fire pulses of wash back at the rudder with the throttle in forward gear. The rudder will deflect these, pushing the stern sideways. As you are using the prop in the way that it was designed (i.e. for forwards propulsion) the boat will tend to gain forward speed quickly as you do this, hence we only fire pulses as these will maximise the sideways effect for the minimum of forward push. Don’t be afraid of revs here, each pulse should be to 2/3rds or even more of maximum donkey. As soon as the boat picks up her skirts and begins to move switch to a long hard blast of astern (pausing for a second in neutral to spare your poor little gear box). The long blast of astern will kill her forward way and give you a good hard kick to port. Remember that the prop doesn’t work too well in reverse so this can be a long (not pulsed) blast, and again, don’t be afraid to give it the whole can of beans. The second she starts to move backwards (and if she’s tiller steered you’ll feel that) it’s back to pulses of forwards again. From here on in it’s a simple case of “rinse and repeat” until you find she’s facing the right way. Using transits on the shore will help you to figure out when she starts to creep forward or back (and also to monitor tidal drift). If you’re able to see the bow from your CLASSIC SAILOR 79

Sailing skills: Boat handling under engine: Part3

of hanked-on sails and roller reefing systems (but not roller-furling ones) is that you can reduce the amount of sail that you show to the breeze if things are getting lively.

Putting it all together: Tight turn on staysail

helm position then you can watch to see how well she’s turning, as well as catch the looks of concern and amazement as you swing your bowsprit past (or for even more kudos, over) the assembled onlookers.

Practice makes perfect:

If you learn no other closequarters technique then learn this one. Not only learn it, but practice it until you can spin your boat around in spaces that are barely wider than she is long (in fair conditions at least). There’s no need to start off on the most difficult level of this game though. Find a sheltered space with stuff ashore to help you monitor fore and aft motion and give it a go. Once you get the hang of your boat you’ll probably find that there is a rhythm to the throttle (on Amelie Rose it’s three short blasts of forward to one long blast of aft). You may also want to get the hang of starting the spin whilst still moving forwards – an extra-long blast of astern both stops the boat and initiates the turn (especially useful if the wind will assist by blowing the bow off).

Technique 3: Clap on canvas!

As observed back in issue 2, our canvas can also be pushed 80 CLASSIC SAILOR

into service to help us turn the boat when the other methods aren’t working but Mother Nature is being kind with the wind direction. Remember, the sails won’t be available to you if you’ve got them triced up with the covers on so be sure to have them ready for action if there is any chance that you may require them. If the sails are prepared but the crew aren’t then don’t be too surprised at the result – which will probably involve the use of fenders and a fair quantity of colourful AngloSaxon language. If you do hoist some canvas be aware that once its job is done it can become a hazard with alarming speed so be ready to get it down (or rolled away) again rapidly. The most common use of canvas whilst manoeuvring Amelie Rose under engine is to encourage the bow around a tight corner with the wind either blowing on the nose or from one side or other. We generally use her staysail as it’s easy to get up, easy to back and easy to get down in a hurry. If you have one then even more leverage will be available using a roller-reefing/furling jib, but be sure of your ability to dowse the damned thing quickly. An advantage

Clap on canvas: Using the staysail to aid a tight turn counter to the prop-kick. 1) As we approach, slow the boat to minimum steerage speed. 2) As the pivot point approaches the turn push the tiller hard over, hoist and back the staysail. 3) Once the turn is complete get some way on quickly and dowse that canvas!

Preparation, clear briefing and good communication are all important when using canvas in a confined space. On Amelie Rose, where we often sail with plenty of crew, we’d normally have a different crewmember briefed, stationed and ready for each possible task. This includes separate hands on both sheets so that we can back the sail or let it draw, one at the halyard to haul it up and let it fall and one at the stemhead to control how much goes aloft and pull it all down sharpish when required. With fewer hands you’ll need to double up the tasks or think about another option. As you’ll generally be using a foresail to encourage the bow to blow off in the direction that you require you’ll benefit by slowing the boat down as you reach the corner that you’re trying to negotiate – giving the wind more time to get to work. If your prop-kick will assist by turning the bow into the corner then consider using reverse to slow her down, but otherwise dropping the boat into neutral as you approach should suffice as it’s likely

that the wind will be slowing you too. As the boat’s pivot point approaches the corner, call for the hoist and almost immediately ask the sheet crew to back the sail. Remember, perfect sail shape is not the point here; you’re just increasing the windage at the bow to assist the turn. At the same time steer hard into the corner and use pulses of engine, both to keep steerage and to add some prop wash to the party of turning forces. As you approach your new heading you can call for the drop, pop the engine into gear and tootle away.

Practice makes perfect:

This is another easy one to practice on a wide fairway somewhere with no audience and an hour to spare before the pubs open. Try it first with the wind on the nose and a backed foresail and then with various angles of breeze on the helpful side and even with the breeze initially on slightly the ‘wrong’ side of the bow. Different combinations of timings for the hoist and drop and backed and drawing sails will work best for the different angles and only experience will tell you how your boat will react. Next month we’ll top up our close quarters toolboxes with a look at ferry-gliding, warping and winding.

About the author: Nick Beck is a commercially endorsed RYA YachtmasterTM Offshore and YachtmasterTM Instructor. In 2009 he left the world of Investment Banking IT to start an adventure holiday and sail training business (Topsail Adventures) aboard Amelie Rose, his Luke Powell replica Scillonian pilot cutter. Since then he has introduced hundreds of people to the wonders of traditional sailing.

What do you think? Join in the conversation on our Facebook page: facebook.com/classicsailormagazine Have any problems with your boat that you’d like us to address? Let us know via Facebook or email us at post@classicsailor.com

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The turn of the bilge Buying a classic: GRP hulled boats The role of a marine surveyor within the boat-buying process can be a more complex affair than you might expect. In this new series Aidan Tuckett explains how to get the most out of it.

his month we’re going to cover what you might look for when buying a classic GRP or glassfibre yacht. This is relatively easy territory for surveyors compared to wood or steel. Most of a survey report on a wooden boat might be used to describe the problems besetting the hull, leaving the engine, rig and systems as peripheral matters whereas a GRP yacht survey can usually cover the mouldings in a page. There are also advantages in that early GRP boats were built when the material wasn’t entirely trusted and when oil, the main component of polyester resin, was relatively cheap. Consequently, up to the 1970s boat builders often moulded hulls far thicker than they needed to be. As a result problems tend to be more cosmetic than structural and usually ones that will be apparent after 30 years or more. So assuming you can get past Francis Herreshoff ’s description of GRP as frozen snot, if an old GRP hull is sound then it will probably stay that way. The main difference compared to wood or steel is that GRP is made as the boat is moulded, not selected from a stockpile, so the quality of the finished product will depend on how good the laminators

are. The material is essentially fine glass strands set within a cured resin and coated with a relatively impervious gel coat or flow coat. Moulding flaws are not always obvious and best left to a surveyor who can inspect and hammer sound for voids or delamination and use a moisture meter to check for potential blistering or other damage that might be evident from water ingress. But that still leaves plenty of things you can look for before you take the plunge and pay a deposit. If you see the boat out of the water one of the first things you might be concerned about is osmotic blistering. Don’t be. It is virtually unknown for a heavily laid up GRP moulding to be structurally weakened by osmosis. Blistering is caused by flaws in the gel coat and laminate whereby minute holes on the surface will allow water into small pockets of uncured resin within the lay up where it can form an acidic solution. This can lift the gel coat away from the laminate as a result of osmotic pressure. It might be unsightly but it is very unlikely the underlying laminate will absorb water or break down to the extent the boat’s integrity is compromised, certainly not within the timeframe everything else on board will last for, and that probably includes the owners. If a smooth bottom

Hulls were moulded far thicker than they need to be, so if an old GRP hull is sound it will probably stay that way 86 CLASSIC SAILOR

Subject: a Mark 1 GRP Trintella. She looks really nice.

Pimpley bottom: Osmosis is not pretty for passing ﬁsh.

Consider things that can go wrong as a result of careless use – heavy grounding or a yard accident could weaken the keel

Photographing chainplate damage

Plywood bulkhead rotted by rainwater standing inside the boat

A plywood chainplate support rotted by water leaking through the deck plate.

Worn and leaking teak overlay

Wooden linings damaged by a leaking hatch. Not structural but a lot of work to make good.

is really important to you then osmosis can be fixed, but at a cost unlikely to make economic sense in an elderly boat with dated equipment. The latest techniques involve peeling both the gelcoat and outer layers of the laminate off, re-laminating these layers using more moisture resistant vinylester resins and coating with epoxy based barrier coats. Just peeling away the gel coat and then drying the hull over many weeks before recoating is not done so much now because of the time and space it takes in a busy yard. Incidentally epoxy barrier coats are fine for preserving an already dry hull but not much use to prevent a blistered hull from getting worse. You should also beware of hulls with steps around the waterline or skin fittings where the gelcoat has been removed and replaced with a thin layer of epoxy – this will not do the job. Whilst you are outside, also consider things that can go wrong as a result of careless use. This might include a heavy grounding or yard accident that weakens the keel to hull fastenings and shows up as cracks along the line of the joint. A well-raced boat may collect a few bumps so check the perimeter of the hull for damaged rubbing strakes or cappings, or for large radiating circular crazing, or changes in gel coat colour that show poorly made repairs. These are all fixable but should be reflected in the price you pay. Early GRP hulls were usually stiffened with plywood bulkheads and floors, and with laminated stringers. Internal mouldings were lightweight affairs to make fitting

out easier, not the structural members they are nowadays. Decks were often made with a sandwich construction using a balsa core between two thinner layers of laminate. So keeping the presence of all this wood in mind, look for signs of deterioration beneath GRP surfaces. On deck, unusual amounts of give and light cracking sounds as you walk about might show where a cored construction has separated. Crazing around high load areas such as the foredeck, or depressions around a deck stepped mast base can also show problems. Be particularly wary of teak plank overlays, especially if they are fastened by screws driven into the core material and have worn to the extent the screw heads are visible. If the deck has any give from a failed core, this has to be repaired and renewing a teak overlay can easily cost more than the boat is worth. Down below, look for where water may have been trapped and soaked into the end grain of plywood bulkheads – again if these structural members are weakened, repair costs will be significant. Chain plates are often bolted to plywood knees laminated into the hull which can rot where water gets through deck plates. Leaks from hatches and windows can damage wood linings that are often lightly made and can be expensive to restore to a reasonable standard. Next month we’ll go through what to look out for in the more expensive systems on a typical classic – so hopefully we’ll have reached the stage you can put in an offer by the Spring edition! CLASSIC SAILOR 87

Repairing a Mirror dinghy Part 2: Resheathing by David Parker David reveals a little more about his inner fix-it chimp and the first boat they bought together before cracking on with the Mirror job

n Part 1 of this feature, in addition to showing you how I prepared the hull, I also explained how I was unintentionally Shanghaied into the project in the first place by my ‘inner fix-it chimp’. Other delusional boat restorers will recognise this creature as the irrational monkey inside your head which compels you to take on projects your rational self knows you should scream and run away from. There are psychology books about this stuff but I can prove it happens by explaining exactly when my wooden boat chimp first infected my reason. It took place at the end of an overgrown garden in Essex on a run-down estate with windswept mud flats in the distance. Here a fateful encounter took place in the way that many glamorous meetings were initiated before the internet – from an advert in the Exchange & Mart. I had come to see an old wooden gaff rigged estuary boat. The old East End rogue in a bobble hat who sold it to me said it

would take two weeks to do it up. “Sheath it!” he kept repeating between roll-ups. I didn’t. But it was too late for me then anyway because the monkey was in fact a stowaway living inside the ‘Essex Estuary Princess’ and had convinced me this was my future of sailing off into the wide blue… In fact what my future actually turned out to be was a total rebuild which took over three years. I’m not bitter. The boat deal was £650, with the Stuart Turner engine (not running) and the ‘trailer.’ The ‘trailer’ was made of recycled building girders and blew a tyre outside St Paul’s Cathedral in central London on the way back from Essex. While I changed the tyre the chimp sat on the hatch and laughed at me, chewing the sails which were thrown in. Literally. Where they were beyond hand sewing, I used calico patches stuck on with Copydex. How we laughed. Now of course monkey and I are an inseparable team and here’s what we did next on the Mirror dinghy…

Retaping seams

If like me you are short of space, then rigging a temporary cover will really help when working outside. Here I have used a cheap tarpaulin hung over a line fastened between two trees and made fast with guy lines to shrubs on one side and my shed on the other 88 CLASSIC SAILOR

As has been described earlier, in the original construction glass fibre tape was used along the seams and the panels were joined using the ‘stitch and glue’ technique. This would have been done both on the internal and external seams of the panel joints. Due to the fitted seats, buoyancy tanks and bulkheads I did not have access to this boat’s internal joints but I could see that the external tape bonds had clearly failed. Originally polyester resin would have probably been used as the adhesive but for the new tape I would be using epoxy which is far stronger.

The original tape was 50mm wide but because I hoped to leave the internal bulkheads in position I decided to use wider tape where possible on the outside of the hull to reinforce the whole backbone of the boat. I would then re-bond the seats/buoyancy tanks and bulkheads; these are integral to the boat’s construction and again would help stiffen the whole hull. Using wide tape over the keel also meant that it would help strengthen areas of the hull which had been patched as the wider tape would help cover some of the repair areas. These would then be sheathed which would come later. (See sheathing panel)

The original tape was 50mm wide but I decided to use wider tape on the outside of the hull where possible to reinforce the whole backbone of the boat

1 The first job was to remove all the old tape and this was done with a heat gun and flat blade scraper

2 I was careful to direct the heat source away from areas where repairs had already been carried out so as not to affect previous glue bonds

8 On the bow the curvature was more suited to a thinner tape so 50mm width strips were used

3 Here a section of the bow had been replaced at sometime. The â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;stitch and glueâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; copper wires used to secure the panel prior to bonding were still in place

9 The areas to be taped were primed with resin before applying the fibre glass tape strips

4 Previously quite a lot of fairing material had been used to cover the tie wires so I cut the protruding ends off with snips

10 When in position the glass tape was further wetted out with resin using a high density foam roller

5 The wire ends were then filed flush to the panel so that the new tape would sit tight along the joint; gaps in the joint were rebonded using thickened epoxy

11 Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t cut the tape when still wet with resin, this will disturb the tape and cause a mess with loose fibres being pulled out. On butted joints let the first bonding strip cure first

12 For the chines I used 75mm glass tape and the resin was allowed to go slightly tacky to help hold the tape in place as I applied it around the external joint

6 A strip of rolledup newspaper was inserted to fill the gap to protect the centerboard slot when applying the new tape and resin

7 The tape strips were cut to length and for the keel I used 100mm wide glass tape from West System

Scraper sharpening 1 One of the handiest tools when removing old paint and filler is a sharp scraper and I find the type with the triangular blade shown here particularly effective especially on small areas. Replacement blades however are very expensive and being so small it is tricky to sharpen them. However with this simple home-made sharpening aid the blades can be kept in good condition 2 The blade can be sharpened just like a chisel if you remove it from the scraper and place it in a small slot cut in a conveniently sized stick. Here I have made a blade holder out of plywood with a shallow cut from a standard tenon saw in one end which is the ideal fit for the blade 3 Both sides of the stone are used to sharpen the blade and it can be honed to give a keen edge. If using a diamond sharpening stone as shown here remember to use oil or cutting fluid for the best results

CLASSIC SAILOR 89

Repairing a Mirror dinghy: part 2

13 Take care on external angles to apply the tape so it sits evenly across the panels and make sure it is thoroughly wetted out

14 On small areas of damage under the tape a thickened mix of epoxy was applied through the cloth and then levelled to provide a smooth surface

18 Taped areas were sanded so they could be given another coat of epoxy at the same time as the remaining joints were being done

Fairing and filling Fairing on a hull is used to get a smooth surface prior to sheathing or coating. Fillers used for fairing with epoxy should be the low density type so they are easier to sand down. Certain areas of the hull would also require filling where the wood was not rotten but the surface had softened and become irregular over time. Here a thickened epoxy mix using high density fillers would be used

15 Similarly a thickened mix was applied through the tape where wire â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;stitchesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; had been left in place and there was a gap between the panels

16 When the epoxy was cured over the centerboard slot the tape was cut with a sharp knife and the newspaper packing removed

90 CLASSIC SAILOR

17 The ends of the tape were trimmed flush when they were cured

19 The joint areas were primed and the bow tape applied

20 I wanted to leave the transom varnished and 50mm tape was adequate over these shorter joints

21 When the main joints were taped they were given an extra coat of epoxy. Previously the butt joints in the side panels had not been taped so for added strength I also reinforced these with 50mm wide glass tape before moving on to the next stage.

1 Here previous repair patches can be seen and these were sanded flat with a 60 grit abrasive sheet and then the edges faired in to cover the fixings

Wooden patches had been fitted where there was either rot or impact damage in the past. By sheathing I would be able to stiffen and protect the hull

2 Surface damage in the laminate and under the bow gunwale was raked out and sanded clean

3 An initial filler was applied using West System 405 filleting blend

4 When the filler had cured fillets of thickened epoxy were then applied to reinforce the damaged areas and strengthen the bow gunwale

5 A fairing mix was used to smooth out the edges where the joints had been taped. When the fairing mix has been made up transfer it to a small board or hand palette

6 When cured the faired areas were then sanded back with 120 grit paper

7 The fairing on the hull was now complete and ready for the local sheathing on the areas which had suffered heavy repairs in the past

Sheathing In the restoration of this dinghy I planned to sheath a particular area which had undergone quite a few repairs over the years. In fact in this section four wooden patches had been fitted into the hull where there was either rot or impact damage in the past. Most of these repairs were on the port side of the boat in the forward area which internally was enclosed by the two forward bulkheads. It was therefore not possible for me to inspect the integrity of the repairs or the bonds from the inside, but by sheathing the outside section I would be able to stiffen and protect this part of the hull skin, cover the fixing holes and improve the abrasion resistance of the patches.

Next Month In part three the dinghy gets turned over for the internal repairs and the centreboard case is strengthened. To finish the job the hull gets the two-pack treatment with paints and a few interior coats of varnish

1 There was a small area I planned to sheath where cracks in the ply laminate had appeared. Sheathing would strengthen this

2 Areas were first primed with epoxy resin prior to sheathing

3 Sheathing cloth was then placed over the area and wetted out. In this case a lightweight Gurit fabric from Marineware was used which is 165 grams per square meter

4 Peel ply was then placed over the sheathing cloth and smoothed in place with a squeegee to ensure it was thoroughly wetted out

5 The next day when the epoxy had cured the peel ply was removed

6 The repair area is now sheathed. The lightweight cloth blends so that it will not show through the final finish and gives a smooth slightly textured surface ready for coating

CLASSIC SAILOR 91

Tools: Heaving mallets and boards A tool that puts power to your elbow, yet is relatively unknown, is the Heaving Mallet. Essentially it is a form of portable pivot, with the handle serving the function of a lever. A board adds extra force. By Des Pawson.

hilst at one time these tools were issued in the Royal Navy, many of them appear to be individually made, either by the rigger himself or a friendly turner or engineer; it certainly was not something normally bought from a ships chandler. The heaving mallet is a great help in tightening ropes and small stuff, and also in the working tight of whippings, seizings, stitches, lashings and all sorts of bindings, in both fibre and wire. By hitching the line to be tightened round the head and handle, and using the head as a pivot, pulling on the handle, a great deal of leverage can be exerted. Heaving mallets are also very useful in pulling tight the strands of splices, especially in ropes of 24mm and above. They come in many sizes, mostly with long metal handles (usually brass) filled with wood and a wooden hand grip, the heads being either wood, or tubular metal filled with wood. One of the main tasks these mallets perform is to tighten wire seizings, and many of the heads of old ones show evidence of that use As well as tightening the seizings, 92 CLASSIC SAILOR

they would have been used to hammer them flat. There are variations with a short metal neck and longer wooden hand-hold above the head and, in some mallets, steel rather than brass is used. Smaller sized ones may be all wood for use by a sailmaker or on small stuff. The one I made and use has a turned oak head and a piece of gas pipe with an inserted wooden part for the handle. At a pinch an engineerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ball pein hammer can be used. A serving mallet could also be used to tighten a serving in the manner of a heaving mallet. This makes some sense where a serving is being applied. It may, however, break down the edge of the groove on the serving mallet, so a heaving mallet would work the best. Whilst a heaving mallet can be used on its own, it will work so much better with a heaving board as a base against which the head can pivot. This device also has many variations; it is basically a piece of scrap board with a hole or slot cut into it, something you can easily make yourself and will make your heaving mallet work so much better.

Above and right: Using a heaving mallet with a board to tightening the end of a monkeyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ďŹ st doorstop. Below: The heaving mallet and board that I use

Whilst a heaving mallet can be used on its own, it will work so much better with a heaving board as a base against which the head can pivot

Heaving mallets ranging in size from 6 to 24 inches overall.

Left: brass head and short neck and possible replacement handle, 18 inches overall. Right: mallet steel head and long handle, 17 inches overall

All wood heaving mallets 6 ½ - 9 inches overall From the collection of the Museum of Knots & Sailor’s Ropework

From “Admiralty Manual of Seamanship”, volume 2, 1951

CLASSIC SAILOR 93

Boats for sale Deadline 20th of every month. Email: catherine@classicsailor.com tel 07945 404461

Chadrak has gained the 22 square metre Championship both in Sweden and UK. In 2015 she has been equipped with a new spruce mast, brand new stainless steel and dyneema rigging Chadrak comes immensely equipped and with a fantastic suit of sails. £27,900. t 01752 823927 or email barbara@cremyll-keelboats.org.uk

International 30 Square Metre K21 ‘Aeolus’ Reimers design, built in Sweden 1989,41’ GRP hull, teak deck, lead keel, Proctor spars. Fast and beautiful boat, surprisingly sea kindly. Winner of many local Regattas and Classic Events. Sleeps 3/4. Aﬂoat in Penzance.

£35000 ono. Richard Sadler - 01736 731500 rsadler@toucansurf.com

Sulya is a very pretty long keel Morgan Giles classic, 1955. Honduras Mahogany on CRE Oak backbone. Alloy spars s/s rigging. Complete restoration, traditional style retained, with modern comforts. Lying Inverness. (20mins airport/train) L/0 30ft W/l 26ft Draft 5ft 6ins.Good survey 2011, OIRO £20,000. 01997 421909 rossmoira@hotmail.com

1931 16 ton Scottish Fiﬁe ‘SWEET PROMISE’

Let us help sell your boat!

Weatherheads of Cockenzie. Length 42.62 feet Her present owner has had her for over 20 years. Sweet Promise had a full rebuild and restoration which cost 165k from 2006-10 including new planking and frames complete new laid deck, new rig, all new systems. 4 berths including large double, full standing headroom throughout. BMC diesel recently rebuilt with new shaft and prop. All sails and spars new in recent years. A superb boat with a rich history, in stunning condition.

Email ads to: catherine@classicsailor.com Include a nice big picture together with a description and your contact details, and we’ll do the rest. Please send in ads by the 20th of each month for inclusion in the next issue. We take major credit cards and you can call us on 07495 404461 and speak to Catherine catherine@classicsailor.com

£47,000 john@tradboats.com

“LOVEDAY” 1969 VOLKER 1000 Steel ketch built 5mm thick steel and still is. Re-engined with Thorneycroft 2.5 litre,10 metres long with good sail inventory. Interior ﬁtted out throughout in Teak. New navigator and Radar and Autohelm this year.(Raymarine) Fitted with A frame so that one person can lower and raise both main mast and mizzen. Outside steering position complete with engine controls Aft double cabin with hand basin. Double berth forward. Sleeps 5 in comfort. Life raft serviced this year with certiﬁcate. A very good cruising Ketch £35,000 Tel 01502 712311 John@tradboats.com

NB We will check your details but cannot be responsible for errors.

Choose from 3 styles 5 x 2 130mm x 50mm either 160 words or 80 words and picture - £180 5 x 1 63mm x 50mm either 80 words or 30 words and picture - £95 3 x1 64mm x 10mm 30 words - £40

Boats for sale M J Lewis & Sons (Boat Sales) Ltd Tel:01621 859373 -

Email: info@mjlewisboatsales.com

www.mjlewisboatsales.com

19m Luxemotor motor barge, 2003 Essex. OIRO £175,000

52ft Fleur du Lys by Dagless 1961 Essex £69,500

86ft Thames Sailing Barge,1926 Steel, Essex POA.

41ft Silverleaf by John Bain 1935 Suffolk. OIRO £50,000

32ft Gaff Ketch 1903 Kent £19,950

35ft Berthons W.Solent Edwardian Yacht Essex OIRO £40,000

Heard 28, 1984 Gaffers & Luggers Essex £29,500

South Coast One Design 1961. Sussex £11,500

1959 17m Dutch Mussel Cutter Essex £45,000

Dunkirk Little Ship, Osborne 35 1937 Essex POA

19’ Golant Gaffer 2007, Essex £6,950

As new 25ft Gostelows Gaffer 1935 Essex £19,950

HM L

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- Sceptre -

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26/10/2015 12:31

SHARES FOR SALE IN A CLASSIC YACHT Due to changing circumstances amongst the syndicate, there are a number of shares for sale in the International 12M, Sceptre. “I’m Tom Smith, a Yachtmaster and very keen sailor, and thought I couldn’t aﬀord a 70ft sailing boat… BUT I COULD! I bought a share in Sceptre, the classic wooden International 12M, 1958 America’s Cup challenger. Twenty years later, I still enjoy her good looks and love sailing this iconic yacht!” You can too, for £12,000 for a 19th share, plus an average annual subscription of £2,500 – have a look at www. sceptre1958.co.uk for more details, photographs, and videos of this beautiful boat. You may not have considered a boat share, but there are many advantages to this approach to going sailing: No trouble ﬁnding people to sail with, lower costs, share the responsibilities of owning a yacht.

On Sceptre, you will also enjoy the following: Superb sailing in a thoroughbred boat that eats up the miles - Eighteen friends to go sailing with - Working together to maintain and improve a historic yacht - It’s not a time share, so sail when you can (depending on qualiﬁcations, schedule etc) Recent upgrades include a new main sail, jib roller reeﬁng, new navigation instruments and many other improvements Interested? Visit www.sceptre1958.co.uk and then ring me to book a trial sail, Tom Smith on 07576 909141 for a chat.

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Jeckells of Wroxham Ltd, The Sail Loft, Station Road, Wroxham NR12 8UT

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10/09/2015 16:38

Over the Yardarm

Calendar

Send us your events!

Guy Venables gets into the (ahem) Christmas ‘spirit’ (sorry)

Some notable dates for 2016

Brest Festival (see also p6) 13-19 July

London Boat Show Excel 8-17 January Mahurangi Regatta and Anniversary weekend New Zealand 29-31 January HISWA Amsterdam 16-20 March Yarmouth Old Gaffers 2-5 June

Panerai British Classics Week 16-23 July America’s Cup World Series, Portsmouth 21-24 July Great River Race, Thames London 3 Septemer

Beale Park Boat Show 3-5 June

um: athough it’s the sailor’s favourite hooch we sounded out only one new one worthy of making this hallowed list this year but it now has a place as the rum of choice on top of my bar. Afro Head 7 Year Old is my favourite kind of rum. It’s a dark rum but not in that tar-stained and stodgy navy way, it’s much more subtle and refined with a dry finish and plenty of big wide woody flavours. Only £23. Can’t blimmin’ wait to try the 15 year old. www. afroheadrums.com Whisky: Ah yes. I do enjoy the Christmassy flop in front of the log fire with a huge glass of scotch. Mornings can be bitterly cold in December. I used to be I do enjoy the an unenlightened whisky Christmassy drinker insisting only on the heavy peaty smoky Islays. I flop in front of still like them but there is so the fire with a much more and I was taken to school by the Compass huge scotch. Box whisky company which delivers small batch whiskies of totally varied styles and tastes. I have been lured by the rich vanillas of their Oak Cross, astonished by their 195-year-old forest oak maturing ‘illegal’ Spice Tree and lifted off the ground by their award-winning delicate Asyla. The giftpack, five whiskies (each 5cl) £45, makes a bloody good present to a whisky lover. www.compassboxwhisky.com Brandy/Cognac: Until recently the LeCat house was making eau de vie for the top Cognac houses until one day they said let’s make our own. Since then they’ve been the toast of the Cognac tasters, winning several awards with their superb range. For me their best, and incidentally their cheapest, is the light straw and honeyed VS at £31.44. www.finewinesellers.co.uk Another cognac, from a far less exclusive source but equally great, is Chevalier Cognac VS. It’s dry, fruity and aromatic and part of the ‘super premium’ range from Aldi. £15.99 a bottle. www.aldi.co.uk While you’re there I strongly advise you to pick up a bottle of Ducastaing 1973 Armagnac if that’s your poison – it’s a shockingly good Armagnac at a low price.

Round the Island Race 2 July

Southampton Boat Show 16-25 September

Charles Stanley Cowes Classics Week 11-15 July

Your event not here? Please send details to editor@classicsailor.com

In Classic Sailor in February

Clifford Adams – of Looe Meet the 91 year old boatbuilder Clifford Adams, who just can’t seem to put down his tools.

Harwich to Ostend and Holland Classic crossing to the continent and coastal sailing into Holland and the annual Van Loon Hartzeildag at Veere.

The She 36

Smack Alberta

A classic in mid 1970s GRP from S&S which was considered one of the top yachts of her day. What are they like to sail and how much do they need by way of upkeep?

Ever wondered what it would be like to own and sail an Essex Smack? We go aboard the restored and well kept Alberta to get a candid account from her owner. CLASSIC SAILOR

Artist of the month Janet Shearer

anet Shearer has been painting and sailing all her life. Since moving to Cornwall in 1980 and living so close to the sea, her love of water in all its forms has become the focus of her paintings. She now regularly exhibits her sea paintings in Cornwall and has found an appreciative audience for them. Her recent paintings vary in size from quite small sketches on paper to large canvasses, but all capture in essence the unpredictability of light and weather conditions from which she draws her inspiration. Their prices range between a few hundred pounds to a few thousand. She also runs painting classes. Find her most recent work on Facebook â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Janet Shearer Artist or on her website at www.trompeloeil.co.uk.

Three paintings by Janet Shearer: Top: Clear Water Left: Shrimper racing Right: Tim at Portquin

98 CLASSIC SAILOR