Classic Sailor No16 June–July 2017 by Dan Houston

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Boats on a budget

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Ben Ainslie: Can he win the cup? HELPING THE MATTHEW BACK INTO PROFIT WATCH KEEPING DRASCOMBE AT 50 A GRP BOAT MORE LIKE WOOD

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THAMES TRADITIONAL

HENLEY-ON-THAMES

2017

Friday to Saturday 14,15,16th July Fawley Meadows

Now in its 38th year, the Festival returns with another impressive collection of vintage and classic boats, cars and aeroplanes! Highlights include: The exclusive Bluebird K3 • WWII Dunkirk Little Ships• WWII fast patrol boats • WWI dog fights Amphibious vehicles • Military vehicles • Over 180 traditional boats, all of which help make this the largest event of its type in Europe plus all the quintessentially English eccentricity that makes it so utterly unique!

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Contents

Wishing Neil Payter and other sailors fair winds in the OSTAR

Editorial

Keeping The Matthew of Bristol afloat

Signals

Sailing the Post Boat on Ullswater

Around the yards

Falmouth’s fine artists

This cruising life: Casting off

Alfred Centennial Johnson

Watch keeping

Des Pawson

Anchoring under sail

Joints

On Watch

Workmates

Off Watch

Artist of the Month

The Big Blue Zoo

Calendar and Next Issue

The last word: The retirement dinghy

Losing our chairman and our story so far Golden Globes goes for Plymouth; Pin Mill celebrates Ransome Maiden returns; Dunkirk film; Antigua anniversary More work on Havengore; Loftus heads north; Lynher relaunched Sussex Beach Boats; Powell’s Pellew; 3D printer

Association news

Barges to return to London; Gaffers and Luggers and more

The Post

Crewless ships – your views, Coble or Cooble? Folkboat wins

Classic Coast and Smylie’s Boats Seven Sisters and Beer Luggers

Andrew Bray Parking

Nardi’s nods

Dufour-designed Arpège

Instructor’s tales Missing the point

Change of heart

Swapping ‘permanent restoration’ for a GRP Heard 28

Ben Ainslie

Gael Pawson profiles Britain’s America’s Cup contender

Spirit of Bermuda

The island’s own unique sail-trainer

SCOD’s law

After restoration, Phil Russell takes her sailing

Boats on a budget

Buy a boat for £4,000 or less, and run it for under £1,000 a year – can it be done? We do the sums and provide some examples

Drascombes at 50

Half a century of the legendary lugger – and news of a party

12 14 17 19 21 23 24 30 36 40 46

The financial fortunes and misfortunes of the famous replica And how to get the best out of this displacement dinghy Henry Scott Tuke and Charles Napier Hemy together in one gallery Breaking free from the boatyard... Paris here we come! Who was he, how did he get from America to Wales, and why? Four hours too long? Try this new pattern Whipping, tallow and heaving lines Or rather, un-anchoring

Making a single-lipped scarph Kit for crew and ship On Watch extra compares different models Gin, books, and places to go Anthony Osler, East Coast watercolourist The caterpillar that eats plastic Forthcoming events, and what’s coming up in the next Classic Sailor

Sam Llewellyn on Sir Nicholas Serota’s parting gift CLASSIC SAILOR

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T RS E FI SU IS OCTOBER 2015 £3.95

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EXCLUSIVE

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EAST COAST FESTIVAL

Griff Rhys Jones gets serious

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CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF GRP AT SEA

Frigate for the future

120-YEAR-OLD FALMOUTH WORKBOAT SCOTTISH CRUISE DISCOVER GALICIA RIGGING: USING DYNEEMA A NEW TRAILER SAILER

WHY WHOOPER KEEPS WINNING JOHN RHYS DAVIES FOLKBOAT TO FRANCE START RESTORING A MIRROR SAILORS AS SPIES

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

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restored to go anywhere

... that I took to Cape Horn

DIY BOAT DESIGN NIGEL IRENS AND ANNIE COWES CLASSICS CLASSES THE CRUISING LIFE SEAGULLS: A STARTER’S GUIDE POLISH UP YOUR HULL

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Bargain boats

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mission to get us sailing

And why now is the best time to buy

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Getting into sailing

Man on a

THE CASE FOR LONG KEELS S&S GRP CLASSICS HOW TO RUN A SMACK QUEEN’S BARGE BUILDER

JAMES DODDS – ARTIST VOYAGE OF THE SNARK

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JULY 2016 £3.95

Trailer sailers An all you need to know guide 05

TALL SHIP TEENS ARE OLD WOODEN BOATS WORTH SAVING? THE SWEDISH FID COURSE TO STEER SAILING A LUGGER MADE EASY ANCHORING SOLUTIONS

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Getting stuck in!

Tow and go

Rival at 40

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FEBRUARY 2016 £3.95

HIGH SEAS HOLIDAYS

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CRUISE TO BEMBRIDGE BOATSHOW PREVIEW

Tranquil times on the Thames

Our family boat

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LEARNING FROM THE PAST

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21 GREAT BRITISH DESIGNERS ★ FIRST FASTNET ROCK STARS ★ TAMING THE JIB DINGHY CRUISING IN FRANCE ★ EAST COAST HERITAGE

FIFE ACROSS THE ATLANTIC DUTCH WELCOME 91 YEAR OLD BOATBUILDER PAINTING! EPOXY PLY PITFALLS FITTING QUADRANT STEERING

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The next classics

Celebrating the joys of the local regatta

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JANUARY 2016 £3.95

10 TOP PRODUCTION BOATS

Maldon magic

A comedian in a yacht race? But this is the Fastnet

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Cruise wild shores Restore your own boat Learn your island heritage Acquire forgotten skills ...all in this issue

Festivals fun and cross country cruising

The world comes to Brest

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2000 boats gather in maritime celebration

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GOING TIDAL 26FT DOUBLED ENDED LEGEND 1ST WOOD 12-M IN 50 YEARS CROSSING ENGLAND BY YACHT BOATHANDLING LIVING IN A DINGHY

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RACING PILOT CUTTERS TO SEA WITH L PLATES SWALLOWS & AMAZONS FILM SAILING TO BRITTANY

SUFFOLK CLASSICS ART OF PILOTAGE

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Eco trading under sail How a new lugger delivers the goods

YEARS OF THE

Folkboat

The Brits at Brest Our village at world’s best maritime festival

The most popular and versatile pocket cruiser ever – still going strong

THE £1500 SCOD SCHOONER CREW THE NEW SWALLOWS & AMAZONS FILM TRAILERS FOR YOUR BOAT CRUISING AN ENTERPRISE NELSON’S PICKLE

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HOW TO ANCHOR THE CLASSIC BROKER’S BOAT OYSTERS UNDER SAIL VALUATION SURVEY LIFEBOATS OF THE SURF TRAILOR MAINTENANCE

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ACHILLES 24 CRUISE DUNKIRK LIFEBOAT RESTORED EAST COAST RIVERS BOOKS! ROBIN KNOX - JOHNSTON ON BILL TILMAN FOLDING KNIVES

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AZORES SHIPWRECK SEA THERAPY FOR WOUNDED VETS SAILING THE SWALE NELSON’S SEAMANSHIP CORINTHIAN CLASSICS WYLLIE’S ART AND BOATS

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VIKING SHIP CROSSES ATLANTIC ANCHORING UNDER SAIL LEATHERING OARS AEROPLANE-INSPIRED BOAT WHALE DIVING ON A TALL SHIP FESTIVAL OF OZ

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Time to join our crew? After just two years in print we are proud to be able to say our growing readership is steadily steering us to becoming the UK’s best selling traditional sailing title.

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HELPING THE MATTHEW BACK INTO PROFIT WATCH KEEPING DRASCOMBE AT 50 A GRP BOAT MORE LIKE WOOD

Interested? Contact us now for a full prospectus, discover how our plans are rolling out and enjoy being part of an independent magazine that is for sailors by sailors. Tel: 01273 420730, email admin@classicsailor.com or write to Classic Sailor, Maritime House, Basin Road North, Hove, East Sussex. BN41 1WR

Ben Ainslie: Can he win the cup?

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Editorial Dan Houston

Off to Beale, losing our chairman and showing how boating can have a wider appeal

s this issue reaches the newsagents I’ll be pitching our tent at Mediterranean and Caribbean. And it was soon obvious that he shared Beale Park ready for the Boat Show. It has started to feel like an many views of the traditional sailor so after the second or third time we annual ritual and any readers who visit and camp during the asked if he wanted to be “our lord on the board”. show will know what I mean. You go to Kipperland for your And although he wasn’t a real titled lord he had the natural easy breakfast; marvel at the high degree of workmanship on the demeanour, unflagging generosity and leadership of blue-blooded nobility, gathered array of wooden boats; maybe take in the classic cars as well; hunt and we’ve been very lucky that he said yes. for a bargain at some of the bijou chandlery Before he passed David was working stands which are there; have a chat with on our second share issue... Although the dinghy cruisers; have a chat with some technically speaking it’s still part of the engagingly nutty types to be honest and then first and so we are rolling that out to the enjoy a Berkshire beer in the beer tent. I like wider world. I love the fact that we have Beale. It has a sense of unreality to it, like shareholders – it brings a sense of a wider a little living version of a weekend spent in family to things, which feels good when you the Wind in the Willows, amply recreated are an independent title. by being on a superbly verdant section of We’re even luckier to have built up a the River Thames, with all that history of old strong and loyal readership and that is England, as it rolls on down to Runnymede clearly on the strength of our stories and our before it meets its salt. stance on boating which is broadly inclusive Last year was our first year at Beale as to counter the idea that yachts are only for Classic Sailor and our chairman David the super-rich. Walker arrived with some Kentish beer from This month I asked the writer William the Old Dairy brewery, another business he Loram to see if he could find boats on the was involved with. With his sudden loss in market for less than £4,000, that could then May (see p9) I feel slightly bereft, not only be run for less than £1,000. It’s based on because he was a superb gentleman to have a what two people sharing a boat could afford beer with but also, obviously for his business for cash, say. We called it the shoestring nous. I feel a bit disrespectful to be thinking sailor and I am quite happy to identify in terms of his replacement, but I know it myself as one of those, albeit the boat is still will have to happen. out of the water at the moment! So how do you find a new chairman? Do Sailing and boating are great activities you just advertise? I met David through and we know people who are going on into a mutual friend as a business advisor on their eighties happily still sailing. But I think how investors to our business could take there is more worry about young people advantage of a generous government tax being able to get afloat in a small cabin boat. incentive scheme. Certainly I hope our feature on page 46 Once the technical talk was over the chat disproves the adage that “yachting” is only would turn to sailing, the news and the for the well-heeled. views; he’d sailed the waters of Weymouth I also hope everyone is rooting for Ben. The romance of a small boat is that you can get away to peace and hush to West Mersea and then wider to the Go Ben! Bring that mug home!

It’s based on what two people sharing a boat could afford for cash, say. We called it the shoestring sailor and I am quite happy to identify myself as one of those.

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Signals Around the coast, to Pin Mill, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Cornwall and Shetland, with Arthur Ransome, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston and Tracy Edwards SUFFOLK

Pin Mill celebrates its Arthur Ransome link The Pin Mill Arthur Ransome Jamboree on 13 May kicked off a summer of events, and some more permanent innovations, celebrating the author and his links with the area. It marks 80 years since the publication of his book We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea, set in Pin Mill, and the 50th anniversary of his death. Events included a Ransome lookalike competition, a 20-minute performance of We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea by a local school, and a ‘Literary Lounge’ where

speakers included Ransome’s biographer Hugh Brogan. Ransome’s boats Nancy Blackett and Peter Duck attended and try-a-boat dinghy sailing was on offer. A new information board was unveiled, one of several in the area which is now dubbed Arthur Ransome’s East Coast, a Ransome footpath has been declared along the River Orwell and an exhibition of Ransome’s photos (see p8) was opened. Future events include a flotilla on the Orwell.

The new guide to ‘Arthur Ransome’s East Coast’ at Pin Mill

HISTORIC HARBOUR

SHETLAND BOAT WEEK

Charlestown’s new ship

Live boatbuilding at festival

Charlestown, the historic port on Cornwalll’s south coast, has acquired a new tall ship. Kaisamoor is a 33m Baltic trader, described as a Galeassrigged square topsail ketch. Built in 1939 at the Aasheim og Valvatne Skibsbyggeri ship yard in Norway, her name comes from Norse mythology

and translates to ‘Mother of the Wind Troll’. For the past decade or so she has chartered out of Tallinn in Estonia. In a ‘new chapter’ for the port which is now open to the public, people will be able to go aboard and explore below decks to learn what life was like in the age of sail.

Charlestown’s Galeass – welcome aboard!

Shetland Boat Week organisers are very excited to announce that a key activity at this year’s festival will centre on traditional boat building, thanks to Serco NorthLink Ferries, one of the event’s main sponsors. The ferry operators have provided support for local boat builders, Jack Duncan and Robbie Tait, to build a brand new, traditional clinker-built boat. The expert duo will prepare the keel prior to the beginning of the week, then build the boards during the main event from 7 to 13 August so the public will see the boat take shape each day. The Boat Shed at Shetland Museum and Archives will be open daily from 10.00am to 5.00pm for viewing, with local experts on hand to explain the processes Jack and Robbie will apply, and answer any questions. Shetland Boat Week co-ordinator Emma Miller, said “This project will be at the heart of the event this

year, with the boat build progressing each day. It’s a perfect opportunity for the public to see traditional boat building skills first hand and to see the process from beginning to end. We had lots of requests after last year’s event to showcase more boat building, and I don’t think we could have done better than this fantastic project. We’re very grateful to NorthLink and their staff for helping to make this happen.” Other events include large and small boat trips, art competitions, a shipwreck tour and s ship’s bridge simulator. Details at shetland museumsandarchives.org.uk.

Jane Leask from NorthLink’s Lerwick terminal stopped along the Boat Shed last week to hear about the plans for the boat from Jack Duncan (l) and Robbie Tait (r).

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On show alongside Suhaili will be Sir Francis Chichester’s Gipsy Moth IV, Sir Alec Rose’s Lively Lady and Bernard Moitessier’s Joshua ROUND-THE-WORLD ANNIVERSARY RACE

Golden Globe 2018 goes for Plymouth It’s official. The 2018 Golden Globe Race will start from Plymouth on Saturday June 30, 2018. Falmouth, where Sir Robin Knox-Johnston started and finished in the original 1968/9 race, is organising a 50th anniversary Parade of Sail to salute Sir Robin and his yacht Suhaili on Thursday June 14, exactly 50 years after he set out to become the first man to sail solo non-stop around the Globe. There will then be a yacht race to Plymouth, where the Race Village will open on 16 June. On show there alongside Suhaili will be Sir Francis Chichester’s Gipsy Moth IV, Sir Alec Rose’s Lively Lady, and Joshua, which Frenchman Bernard Moitessier sailed in

the original Sunday Times Race. There will also be a replica of Sir Chay Blyth’s original Golden Globe race yacht Dytiscus III, a standard Kingfisher 30 bilge keeler which carried him as far as

Port Elizabeth. An identical production yacht has been located at Coquet Yacht Club at Amble, Northumberland which the organisers intend to turn into a community project and donate to the organisation after the Race start.

Don Garman, John Davison and Maddy Clark, are respectively vice-chair and chairman of the Falmouth Classics Association, and General Manager for UK and Europe of Tilley Endurables (the hat people) major sponsors of the 30th anniversary edition of the event, which is held over the weekend of 16-18 June Meanwhile the Falmouth Boat Co has just ﬁnished a new metallic gold paint job on Antoine Cousot’s restored Biscay 36 contender Goldstar

PORTSMOUTH

ICONIC WHITBREAD YACHT

Memorial Fleet funded

Maiden’s return

A new Memorial Fleet project at Portsmouth Dockyard has received £2.4m LIBOR funding. The project will create, by restoration or replica building, an operational Memorial Fleet of small craft which have played a significant role in the defence of the nation during the twentieth century. The Portsmouth Naval Base Property Trust will work closely with the International Boatbuilding Training MGB 81 will receive new engines

College in Boathouse 4, as well as other bodies, and veterans. A WWI Armed Steam Cutter, a WWII Motor Gunboat and a Falklands landing craft will be restored, and a replica of Coastal Motor Boat (CMB) 4 which sank the Bolshevik cruiser Oleg in 1919 is to be built. LIBOR funding comes from fines levied on the banking industry for manipulating the LIBOR rate.

QUAY PEOPLE

Back aboard Maiden after 27 years

Tracy Edwards and eight of her 11 female crew were on hand in Portsmouth to greet the return of their beloved boat Maiden which came second in the 1989-90 Whitbread round-the-world yacht race. Maiden, after spending much of the past decade abandoned in the Seychelles, is to be restored at Hamble Yacht Services, and will then be unveiled at Cowes Week 2018 before joining in the final leg of the Volvo Ocean Race which will bring together yachts and crew from previous editions of the Whitbread Round the World Race.

Neil Payter is sailing his 1981 Yamaha 33 Solent 1, designed by Peter Norlin, in the 15th OSTAR (due to start on May 29) along with 15 other solo sailors. Neil is a Yachtmaster Instructor and has written this month’s “Tale” see p23. This year the Royal Western Yacht Club is running the OSTAR alongside the TWOSTAR with six two-team crews taking their boats to Rhode Island Len Ritche, left, volunteer on Tall Ship Spirit of Falmouth of the Turn to Starboard sailing charity (see CS14) has received the Marsh Trust Award for his conservation work with the ship. He’s show here with TTS CEO Shaun Pascoe who nominated him.

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ISABEL

Change of heart How Aidan Tuckett learned to abandon the philosophy of permanent wooden boat restoration and instead fell in love with a practically perfect Falmouth workboat-lookalike Heard 28 in GRP which actually allows him to sail

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HEARD 28

bout twenty years ago I had the idea that a wooden boat could be bought for relatively little, restored for even less and sold on for a profit, and that you could probably repeat this until you reached something about the size of a Baltic trading schooner. So I found a small, clinker-built, gaff cutter that looked sound apart from a few splits to the mast and agreed what seemed a good price. Apart from having to bind the splits and avoid a few soft spots on the deck, she more or less did the job. We got to sea on fine days, towing a small inflatable for security, and we became good at boat handling under sail as and when the engine didn’t start. A few years on, the deck became weaker. The condition of the automatic bilge pump became critical and the boat was moved to a drying berth near the top of the tide’s range. Then one spring day the mast broke, hitting the car which was parked alongside on the hard. Undaunted, we pushed the roof out, claimed on the broken windscreen and scarphed in a new section. But then a few weeks later, the engine started adding seawater to its oil. Next a seeping keel bolt broke off when tested.

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AMERICA’S CUP FOCUS

Cometh the hour As Britain’s America’s Cup team gears up to do battle in Bermuda Gael Pawson profiles its inspirational leader Sir Ben Ainsley, principal and skipper of Land Rover BAR

f there was one name that might have the opposition quaking in their boots, one talent that might have the ability to inspire a whole crew to victory, one sailor you would never want as a rival, it would undoubtedly be Sir Ben Ainslie. One of the biggest sailing talents the world has ever seen, and the one man capable of leading a British team to victory in the America’s Cup. That determined kid, who started off sailing Oppies in Falmouth, rose to become the world’s most successful Olympic sailor… we look at the key moments that have shaped him. ‘Bang!’ There it was, once again the Union Jack-clad Laser tacked straight on its rival. It was like a cat mercilessly playing with a mouse, continually shutting the door, holding the increasingly frustrated Brazilian sailor back as the rest of the fleet raced away in the distance. Fortunately the TV cameras realised where the story was and focussed on the relentless

duel. Britain’s 23-year-old Ben Ainslie was in the driving seat, while Brazil’s Robert Scheidt was desperately trying to wriggle himself free without infringing the Brit. But there was no way Ainslie was going to let the gold medal slip out of his grasp. Not this time… Ashore Ben comes across as your typical polite Englishman. The years in the professional spotlight have made him more at ease with the media attention, but he retains some of the introverted, unassuming manner of his early career. Unsurprisingly he’s a very private person, as you would be if the world’s media had its eyes on you the whole time. He might be a superstar sailor, he might even be used to being in the limelight these days and hob-nobbing with royalty, but at the end of the day he’s a sailor, he’s there to sail, to do a job and that’s where his passion lies. He’s much more comfortable on a boat than in front of the camera ashore.

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BEN AINSLEY

‘This is a man who dominated Olympic sailing, who changed the tide of the last America’s Cup, who doesn’t have the word ‘lose’ in his vocabulary’

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AMERICA’S CUP BACKDROP

Spirit of Bermuda Bermudan by location, bermudan by rig, and built as a sail-trainer for the kids of Bermuda, ‘Spirit’ is something special, as Guy Venables discovered

had a day off and was swinging my feet in Bermuda. Once I’d scaled the obligatory Gibbs Hill Lighthouse I looked out over the commanding view of the entire island and noticed a Tall Ship sailing out of Hamilton harbour. Although her fine lines were of traditional curves and her masts were raked back, there was something unusual about her. She was a traditional tall ship with a low slung freeboard yet her masts were totally bereft of square sail.

This was the Spirit of Bermuda, the island’s sail training ship. Due to relentless lurking and the kindness of strangers at the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club I managed to be invited for a sail on board her. On close inspection I saw why I couldn’t place her in my thin volume of previous experience. Her design was utterly unique to my eyes. She was inspired by a simple painting of the Royal Navy’s The Shamrock. (The painting now hangs in Greenwich.) She was a very early three masted Bermudan sloop-of-war

Spirit of Bermuda's sail plan is modelled on a painting of the Royal Navy's Shamrock. Below: the view from Gibbs Hill

(the name sloop here is from the early Naval meaning, denoting the relatively small size of her as a Navy ship and the fact that she was unrated, meaning a low ranking officer could command her). She’s also known as a Ballyhoo schooner, a fast dispatch patrol vessel that sailed the north Atlantic triangle from the Royal Naval Dockyard northwest to Halifax and southwest to Jamaica to contain the rebel colonies. The front two huge triangular bermudan sails are loose-footed and the mizzen holds the boom. This enables these boats to go upwind well; they could be crewed short handed and the long decks meant they could carry a lot of firepower, making them highly prized for piracy as well as the Navy. Spirit of Bermuda has copied these lines, sail plan and loose rigging using only five 36 CLASSIC SAILOR

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BERMUDA

huge carbon fibre spars for the three masts, bowsprit and boom. It all started when a group of local enthusiasts decided it was time to build a sail training vessel for the kids of Bermuda. The Bermuda Sloop Foundation was duly founded in 1996 by Malcolm Kirkland, Alan Burland and Jay Kempe. The plan was to build a replica of the Shamrock as she was a local design. It took eight years to fund raise the money but eventually the design idea was given to Bill Langan who had only a painting and no original lines to go on. The initial design stages must have been constant steps into the dark. Rockport Marine, in Rockport Maine, got started on building the ship in 2004 and she was completed in August 2006. Once the varnish and antifoul had

dried she was sailed to her spiritual home of Bermuda in October that year. The hull of Spirit of Bermuda is made entirely of seven layers of cold-moulded laminate composite and as the skipper was

This was one of the first sympathetic combinations of traditional and modern designs I had witnessed. And it works explaining it’s incredibly strong. “She has ribs but doesn’t really need them!” This was one of the first sympathetic combinations of traditional and modern design I had witnessed. And it really works,

not just aesthetically but also practically. Because she is a sail training vessel and every kid on the island is entitled to have a go, any ratlines and yards would be an added hazard to inexperienced crew and indeed the strict coding also demanded that there were sealable bulkhead doors throughout. Once on board with all the other dignitaries, including the Mayor and local folk we set off from the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club under engine. The crew amassed on deck and started hauling up the sails. I joined in at the end of a line and looking up saw the azure sky against billowing white sails. I briefly felt like I was in an advert. The wind was warm and it whispered to the sails and she quietly made her way. The drinks were duly poured and I started talking to a local lad who’d been aboard almost a year. After a CLASSIC SAILOR

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SOUTH COAST ONE DESIGN

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£1500 SCOD

Call it SCOD’s law

After the restoration, the return to the water. And for Phil Russell putting Aurigny through her paces also meant refreshing his own sailing skills

urigny is a South Coast One Design we purchased from a yard in Cornwall for £1500 almost a year ago. She was looking shabby and neglected and I had some concerns as to her condition but having the advice of a wooden boat builder friend who gave her a good report we finalised the deal. The yard owner said that he would have burned her as he needed to clear the yard, though I am not sure he would have but she was now safe and during the summer months last year my wife and I managed to get her exterior looking amazing, as I described in an article in Classic Sailor last August. We had been at Plymouth Yacht Haven for a couple of weeks and were attracting quite a lot of comments as Aurigny stood out amongst all the dominating white fiberglass yachts and I of course could sit on her all day and listen to all the nice compliments. There had not been much in the way of wind for a while, so I was getting frustrated

and felt the need to get her out for a good shakedown. Everyone had said SCODs sail really well and I was eager to see just what she was like, so one day in early October we slipped her moorings and headed out, passing various curious onlookers who were giving us the thumbs up. I could not help feeling a sense of pride as we motored out into the Cattewater and on putting up the sails we could feel her responding, eager to show us her pedigree and she did not disappoint. I was delighted and had a grin from ear to ear as we heeled over and made for the breakwater and Cawsand Bay. For an old boat her performance was very pleasing and she was clearly not an old tub by any means. Designed as a cruiser racer in the fifties by Camper and Nicholson she clearly still has it in her and she will be able to give some of her modern counterparts a run for their money. She carries her way well, making short work of choppy seas though she does like to be reefed early or things can get a little difficult on the helm.

We found our way into the River Yealm – with the wind in the East the approach was fair but as the harbourmaster came alongside for the night’s mooring fee he advised us of a strong wind forecast for the following day. We took his advice and caught a visitor’s buoy where we stayed the night intending to leave early the next day. The morning arrived in bright sunlight, a fresh south-easterly wind whipping up the waves in the estuary so we decided to leave at the first available opportunity along with the Sunday racing crews, so clearly things were not that bad. We had prepared down below ready for a rough trip and headed out into the mouth of the river but once we were out there we found that there was no going back. I looked at the heaving breaking seas off to port and the waves breaking on the Mewstone to starboard. It was not a pretty sight, the race had begun, the yachts were all jostling for position and we were heading straight out under the iron topsail but once we rounded the Mewstone we could run into Plymouth

The South Coast One Design Aurigny, restored, relaunched and back with Phil and his wife in her natural element in Plymouth Sound

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eople’s perceptions are powerful. And sailing as a perceived by the man stuck in his car in traffic gridlock is that of a wet activity glued together by a collection of snotty clubs, whose members walk around sounding like seagulls in peaked hats and white ducks, and throw the price of a street of terraced houses in an ex-mining town at their ‘yachts’. Cycling does not have that image perception. ‘On yer bike’ gets you on a cycletrack to Bodmin as well as a velodrome in Manchester. However the RYA is keen to emphasise the accessibility of sailing as an inexpensive hobby: “Small boat cruising is a relatively easy, low cost and simple way to enjoy being out on the water and experiencing a form of relaxing adventure which is relatively hard to come by in today’s modern, busy world.” Any person can experience it, at any age and, with a wide variety of prior sailing experience. From those who have recently completed an introduction course as much as to those who are more experienced requiring a welcome respite from more competitive sailing or racing. Owning and cruising a small cabin cruiser has been compared to a camper van on the water, or camping but with more comfort. The analogy

is especially relevant to those cruisers with boom tents to give them more accommodation at night. And given the amount of money people throw at trying to find peace, tranquillity, and salving their soul – after the battering of being 24/7 wired and connected for a working and leisure life – being anchored up a creek, with the lap of water against the hull, and the long, low call of the wading birds providing the lift-music can be a highly cost-effective way of escaping from Twitter, texts, Instagram and Snapchat. With the latest RYA Participation Survey showing participation in “any boating activity” amongst those over 55 has been steadily increasing since 2011, it is time for these people to forget their retirement world cruise, and find a much deeper enjoyment and sense of achievement with small cabin cruiser sailing. If you want inspiration, visit the website of Charles Stocks and his engineless 16ft gaff cabin cruiser Shoal Waters, see shoal-waters.moonfruit. com where he – and sometimes his wife and grandchildren – covered some 70,000 nautical miles from the 1960s to his death five years ago. Cabin cruisers come in all shapes and sizes, but the good thing about them is that you can pick them up very cheaply, especially if they are wood or early GRP. The boat size we are talking about is really from 17ft to 27ft,

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23/05/17 2:34 PM

BOATS ON A BUDGET

Shoestring sailing The boating on a budget challenge: buy a small cruising yacht for around £4,000 or less and run it for under £1,000 a year. Can it be done? William Oram scans the brokerage sites and does the maths...

depending on your cat-swinging preferences. In the 20ft bracket there are plenty of trailer sailers, which are a category in themselves, but generally a 25ft cabin cruiser will give you up to 4 berths, a small galley, functioning heads, and the ability to sneak into small anchorages along the coast. The important thing to remember is the mindset: Keep it simple; reduce clutter; keep to your budget. So here is the challenge: Buy a suitable cabin cruiser for under £4,000, and moor and maintain her (excluding major gear replacement) for less than £1,000 a year.

Insurance

Buying the boat

Mooring

On the day of writing a quick flick of the main websites to look for boats of a certain age and manageable size produced a haul of a wooden 27ft 1949 Fred Parker Tumlare for £3,995; a 25ft 1961 two-berth Folkboat ready to cruise for £2,000, and a 25ft GRP Westerly Windrush for £2,950. Apollo Duck, www.apolloduck.co.uk had 10 appropriate boats; Boatshed www.boatshed.com listed 29 boats between 20-30ft; Boatsandoutboards www.boatsandoutboards.com listed 11; and eBay www.ebay.co.uk listed 14 appropriate GRP and wooden cruisers on their current auctions.

Dave Selby sailing his Sailﬁsh 18 from Maldon to the Solent last year (CS 12). Boats like this cost less than £2,000 and many are in great condition

Don’t forget that on top of the purchase price you’ll need to factor in the transport cost of getting it to you, and so set your search area accordingly. And then start totting up the running costs. Insurance is advisable for the damage that you might inadvertently cause to other boats etc, rather than looking at your own vessel. The cheapest online quote for third party cover was £59.23 for an old Folkboat, with the rest coming in at just under £100. Where you keep your boat is not only important to your budget, but important for the sense of adventure. And some of the best adventures come in small packages. The problem with a marina berth for the shoestring sailor is that it offers all the home comforts, just a step away from the sidedeck. And that costs. Another fact is that your cabin cruiser needs to come ashore for antifouling and drying out if GRP, and antifouling and painting topsides for wooden boats. Some moorings will be from April to the end of November, in which case you need to find boat storage. CLASSIC SAILOR

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23/05/17 2:34 PM

THE MATTHEW OF BRISTOL

Matthew:

navigating choppy financial waters As Bristol’s historic replica celebrates her 20th anniversary, William Oram reports on the management changes that have helped her survive

he world is full of good intentions, and that includes all the good intentions about preserving for posterity historic ships that are intrinsic to the history and heritage of our island nation. But good intentions are never enough, and what is often needed is a blueprint of how to go about something properly. And often the best way to learn what you can do is look at what successful operations have done, and adapt it to your own circumstances. On 2 May this year The Matthew of Bristol , the only sailing replica of a Tudor caravel, celebrated the 20th anniversary of her re-enactment of John Cabot’s voyage across the Atlantic to discover and lay claim to Newfoundland for King Henry VII. Bristol’s Lord Mayor arrived to join the trustees and volunteers who have helped to keep the Matthew afloat and sailing over the years. The Lord Mayor’s Chaplain blessed the ship and all who sail in her, so that she can continue to be a key attraction to the Floating Harbour, and an icon and

ambassador for the city, before captain Rick Wakeham took her on a tour of the harbour, and back to her docking pontoon for a celebratory glass of fizz. However, it could have all been very different, had it not been for the determination, energy and enthusiasm of proud Bristolian and former Lord Mayor Royston Griffey. The 2nd of May is a significant date for Royston. It’s the date he joined the Matthew Society in 1997, as well as his son’s birthday and the date he bought his Queen Anne house on the fringes of Bristol after 17 years as a Crown Counsel in Hong Kong. And this year, using a stump of the old mast from the Matthew he launched a new fund-raising scheme of nailing ‘colours’ to the mast – the colours being the colour of money exchanged for a washer to be signed and hammered home. When the Matthew was first launched during the first International Festival of the Sea in 1996, she caused such a buzz of excitement that the Harbour Master had

The Matthew of Bristol, launched 1996 – she was dedicated at Bristol’s International Festival of the Sea, in time to recreate Cabot’s 1497 voyage of discovery

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THE MATTHEW OF BRISTOL

There was concern about the long-term future of the ship, and proposals to turn her into a static exhibition on the quay wall were even being considered

to force a passage for the ship amongst the spectator boats that thronged around her when she toured the harbour. After the successful re-enactment voyage, tour of the US eastern seaboard, and over-winter in Toronto, the Tudor caravel replica became an incongruous bolt-on to the SS Great Britain, Brunel’s great steam and sail beast, part of the same trust and docked close by. Before 2008 traditional sail festivals paid good attendance money, but as the banking collapse bit into the economies at large, these reduced and so did the Matthew’s excursions outside the Floating Harbour and the Avon. By this time the SS Great Britain Trust had leased out the Matthew to be run by a private operator, but there was concern about the long term future of the ship, and proposals to turn her into a static exhibition against the quay wall were even being considered. Royston, who had enthusiastically joined the Matthew Society as the ship left Bristol and continued his support by volunteering to sail and maintain her, working his way up “from teaboy to chairman”, was not going to let this happen. It became apparent to him that a separate trust for the Matthew was needed to ensure it a healthy future, and so recruiting as many Lord Mayors of Bristol he could lay his hands on, he formed The Matthew of Bristol Trust in 2010. By 2011 a business plan and structure were in place, ready for the gifting of the ship from the SS Great Britain Trust to The Matthew of Bristol Trust on 29 February 2012. However, the gift was not all nicely wrapped and packaged. When Rick Wakeham, as new captain of the Matthew, took command on 1 January 2013 of running the ship for the trust, full MCA and structural surveys were carried out. “The full structural report found five rotten planks in the stern,” he says. “We found corroded fuel lines and worn-out bearings, and the electrical system needed replacing. And the bilge pumps were not working, Also, someone had thought they were saving money by dousing the whole boat with raw linseed oil, which never went off, so had a sticky texture that just attracted dirt, and everything was black.” CLASSIC SAILOR

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23/05/17 2:57 PM

POST BOAT TRY OUT

Ullswater by Post Boat Sailing a Post Boat on Ullswater was a great way to experience in the Lake District in traditional style, says Dan Houston. With sailing notes by Adrian Deneye

here is a part of Ullswater – one of the great Cumbrian lakes – that is supposed to have inspired Willliam Wordsworth’s most famous poem, Daffodils. Returning home to Grasmere after staying in Pooley Bridge in 1802 he and his wife Dorothy came across a swathe of the yellow flowers “as wide as a country turnpike road” dancing in the wind or “resting their heads upon the stones as on a pillow for weariness”, Dorothy wrote in her diary. It was in an area of woodland south west of Gowbarrow and Dorothy goes on to describe the sound of the waves as if they were the sea. While the roar of disturbed water might be fuelled and amplified by the ring of mountains around this end of the lake it’s still one of the prettiest places to have a boating holiday. And you can tack up Wordsworth’s sometime daffodil shore or gaze up the majestic valleys of this Eden district from the better vantage point of being on the water. And what better way to

do it than with a seaworthy gaff rigged boat based on west highland workboat lines? We borrowed a 14ft 6in (4.4m) Post Boat from Character Boats’ Martin Dooley who builds them in Lancashire. She’s an old workboat design; her moulds were taken from the Loch Broom Post Boat, which is now in the Scottish maritime museum at Irvine. We immediately liked the simple design with its deep chested lines which promised comfort aboard in a bit of weather. Martin showed us how to set up the rig and within a few minutes we were launched and away. During the next few days we had several sails up and down the lake – sometimes with five people on board. There is no centreboard or keel on the Post Boat, but she is heavy enough to hold onto the wind and while we probably did not get the best out of her pointing ability we loved her surging movement once we came off a point of two. The lack of centreboard creates extra space and she has comfy side seats with plenty of room to lounge around. Main photo: the Post Boat is comfy with several crew aboard. Inset top: She has plenty of room. Inset above: Martin Dooley of Character Boats. Left: launching from Glenridding, note her flared entry sections and bilge “keels”

Coming about was always easy as her weight brings her through the wind; you’d seldom need to back the jib (see notes later), which, hanked onto a bowsprit has plenty of drive to lead her and you don’t get a sense of being thrown back by waves. Her high peaked gaff – she’s practically gunter-rigged – also helps in low airs and you can be slipping along doing a knot or two in almost no wind. She’s also stable, with her 6ft 8in beam, and has a confident quiet feel to her. If the wind really does die, then you can destroy the peace with her little 2.5hp Yamaha in its inboard well. We did find this engine useful and almost like an inboard as you carry on steering with the superbly constructed curvy tiller. Like the other bits of wood on the boat, it gives

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A traditional displacement craft usually has a curved underwater hull form and cuts a hole for itself as it moves through the water

a sense of tradition without the work that sometimes goes with it. The whole boat is very low maintenance, and a few happily sit out under their covers all year round. She’s small enough to beach easily where her bilge keels help in pulling her up; she weighs 450kg though, so you don’t lift her! We had a great time with this boat and above all loved that she felt so safe. For getting the best out of her though we turned to an expert: Adrian Deneye who used to run Character Boats. Here’s his advice on sailing her and craft like this.

Sailing tips from Adrian Deneye Nowadays most people learn to sail on courses in a class dinghy. They are lightweight craft usually with a flat bottom

section aft designed to plane over the water. For stability they rely on the crew weight to balance the boat when sailing. With these craft it is a power to weight ratio game, so carrying large sail areas in higher winds can give high speeds when planing, providing you can keep it balanced, and not capsize. This is a very different sailing technique than is required for a traditional displacement craft such as the Post Boat. A traditional displacement craft usually has a curved underwater hull form. It sits slightly deeper in the water and cuts a hole for itself as it moves forward through the water. It will never plane and maximum hull speed is governed by its wave making linked to its waterline length. The Post Boat is a 14ft 6in displacement craft with a top speed of 5

knots. It has a generous sail area of 135sqft for good light wind performance and is a seaworthy craft. Carrying excess sail area in strong winds will not give more speed, as with a planing dinghy, but just cause more heeling and create bigger bow and stern waves, so it is equipped with reefing gear which must be used in wind force 4 and above. It takes less than two minutes to reef underway. When reefed it will maintain its speed of 5 knots but be heeled less and still be easy to sail. In wind force 5 go to the second reef in the mainsail and take in a couple of turns on the jib furling gear. In wind force 6, a competent sailor can still handle the Post Boat but most leisure sailors would not be thinking of going out.

Stability and a feeling of being secure are attributes of sailing the Post Boat which is based on the lines of a Scottish workboat (once used by the postman) of Loch Broom in Wester Ross

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23/05/17 3:15 PM

WATCHES AT SEA

Keeping the watch at sea Wnen setting watches at sea you need to ensure that everyone is getting enough sleep to be awake when they need to be. For yacht crews Dan Houston reckons a three hours on, six hours off changeover works better than the naval four-hour system

eing on watch at sea means exactly what it says – you keep a lookout, principally for potential dangers like other ships on a collision course, rocks, or squalls and, of course, for sea marks that will eventually guide you to your destination. And keeping a watch is a legal requirement, as outlined in Rule 5 of the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (IRPCS): “Every vessel shall at all times maintain a proper lookout by sight and hearing as well as by all available means appropriate in the prevailing circumstances and conditions, so as to make a full appraisal of the situation and of the risk of collision.” The traditional Naval system of watches (overleaf) splits the day into four-hour segments, beginning with the First watch, from 20:00hrs to 24:00hrs, with a Middle watch from 00:00hrs to 04:00, a Morning,

Forenoon, Afternoon and then two Dog watches from 16:00 to 18:00 and 18:00 to 20:00. This creates seven watches and, with the crew split into three watch systems, the Dog, or dodge watches have the effect of kicking over the time of watch every day so that if on the first day you are assigned the Middle watch then on the second you will be on the Morning and on the third you won’t be needed on deck until the

The hardest watch at night is the middle, or graveyard watch and if a watch system gives you this day-in day-out you are going to be more tired

Forenoon. It goes without saying that the hardest watch at night is the Middle (or Graveyard) watch and if a watch system gives you this timing day-in day-out you are going to be more tired than if it’s something you have to do every three days. On short voyages the effect of sleep deprivation is not so debilitating but on longer passages it could affect performance: I remember a passage to Santander where three crew were doing the four-on, eight-off system and the skipper and I as mate rotated eight hours on and eight off. Doing a long stint of the Graveyard every other night was exhausting since I wasn’t really catching up in the day. Sailing home on the ninth or tenth day during a north-westerly gale I came off watch and never even made it into my bunk; waking up stuck in the door jamb of the forepeak some time later. The main reason for keeping watches is so that a crew can respond with energy to a

Being on deck for watch duty needs to be taken seriously but can also be fun and a great tme to chat to crewmates. Top left: night binnacle on Kiuros, heading south west by west

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WATCHES AT SEA

Sailing west under this lemon moon one can sense the track of sailors at sea for centuries. Helmsmen can follow a star when sailing along a line of latitude, confident that they are on course

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24/05/17 12:38 AM

Last word: A dinghy to which to retire Sam Llewellyn on Nicholas Serota’s retirement ‘gift’ from Tate staff

s all seafaring folk are aware, Sir Nicholas Serota is leaving his job as Tate Gallery Supremo this month. Friends and sycophants organised the traditional leaving present whip-round. ‘We are asking colleagues if they wish to contribute towards the purchase of a small dinghy on an entirely voluntary basis’, says a spokesperson. This caused a certain amount of indignation among the Tate’s shockingly

ill-paid staff, who like much of the British public associate yachts with big-money yobs like “Sir” Philip Green, not striving jams like you and me. So what to do about Sailorboy Serota? It might be better to lend him a picture or two, on marine themes obviously. Le Bateau Rouge by Odilon Redon would give him that Mediterranean feeling. A large breezy Turner to stand in front of would let him enjoy the thrills

of the maritime life with none of the annoying surplus moisture. A couple of pickled sharks would give him that real deep-sea feeling – not only because of their horrid teeth, but because the sense of having paid big money for something that is falling to bits would give him a proper insight into boat ownership. If he really does want to experience the joys and anxieties of boat ownership and the hands-on sense of the wind up his trousers,

he could have one built. Not, one suspects, by one of our homegrown geniuses like Luke Powell or Adrian Morgan; but by members of his own flock. Sails by Tracy Emin, perhaps, complete with embroideries and anomalous stains. Inside-out hull by Rachel Whiteread, deviser of houses with solid interiors and nonexistent walls. Interior paintwork by Chris Ofili in marine quality elephant dung. Absolutely marvellous, darling. Though come to think of it all this stuff is a bit, well, concrete. Next thing you know he will be wanting actual oak frames and elm deadwoods and the whole schmear. The obvious solution is to go entirely conceptual. Take one paper chart. Stick a dirty great X somewhere in the middle of, well, up to you really, Pentland Firth? Dover Strait? And frame it, and

Next thing you know he will be wanting actual oak frames and elm deadwoods and the whole schmear... The obvious solution is to go entirely conceptual

GUY VENABLES

hang it on the wall of the house in Islington. And when people stop nodding sagely and fingering their chins and pluck up the courage to ask what the hell that cross is doing on that sea map thing, you can tell them that there lies the whole Serota Leaving Boat project sunk full fathom five. And the underpaid masses of Tate workers will no longer hear their children crying for bread, and N Serota can buy himself an Oppie from his personal resources and get on with a bit of nice quiet sailing. PS: Should any Tate staff reading this have been unable to sell a Turner or other painting lurking in the basement to gratify the great leader’s leaving wish then can CS helpfully point them to our useful “boating on a budget” feature: p46. 98 CLASSIC SAILOR

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23/05/17 4:26 PM

Announcing the 7th Biennial

CLASSIC CHANNEL REGATTA 2017

DARTMOUTH • ST PETER PORT • PAIMPOL

JULY 8TH-14TH 2017 Bringing together an international fleet of classic yachts and their crews for a week of friendly competition and informal social events, the Classic Channel Regatta has an established reputation for a week of highly enjoyable classic sailing. Three of the finest ports in the English Channel provide the perfect backdrop for a unique and varied series of races. Two days of racing off Dartmouth, then the Classic Channel Race from Dartmouth to Paimpol - this year with a stopover in Guernsey - are followed by the Round Ilê de Bréhat Race, a night in Lezardrieux and a grande finale in Paimpol as a central part of the town’s Bastille Day celebrations. Classic yachts designed before 1974 and those built more recently in classic style are welcome. Racing will be to the JCH Classic Handicap which is free. We invite you to join us in 2017 to experience everything that makes the Classic Channel Regatta such an enjoyable event.

For full information and to pre-register, visit www.classic-channel-regatta.eu

The Classic Channel Regatta is run in association with the Yacht Club Classique and the Royal Dart Yacht Club, and is part of the Challenge Classique Manche-Atlantique. Photograph credit