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SEPTEMBER 2021

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Nigel Irens ketch

HAITI BOUND Aid mission by schooner

BRITISH CLASSICS Cowes is back on TROY STORY TWO Cornish dayboat rebuilt NICK SMITH BOATS

Trad motor launch

PORQUEROLLES

Fun in the sun

JACK LONDON AT SEA The author and his muse HEALTHY JOINTS

Dowelling jig

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Come and see us on stand J119

A CL A SSIC E N V I RON M E N T FOR T R A DI T ION A L BOATS Birdham Pool is the oldest marina in the UK and our haven for classic and traditional boats. Even its location, just four miles from the historic county town of Chichester, nestled in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, reflects the pace and elegance of a bygone age. S T O R A G E , R E PA I R A N D M A I N T E N A N C E Looking after traditional boats is what we’re exceptionally good at. Our 30 tonne hoist and transport, dry storage ashore and a boat yard of modern

and traditional skills offered by our tenant artisans means we’re geared for storage, repair and maintenance of all watercraft.

To complete the experience, we have five-star customer facilities, café and great transport links complementing the enviable one-hour access to the Solent and sheltered inland location. Birdham is owned by Castle Marinas, a group of 11 coastal and inland marinas each with its own unique character. We are, and always will be large enough to cope, small enough to care.

Boatyard services by

STEFFAN MEYRIC HUGHES, EDITOR

IT’S NEVER PLAIN SAILING

BRITISH

CLASSIC WEEK The plan was simple, as I went over it in my head on the Red Jet to Cowes at this year’s British Classics Week, PAGE 12 script in hand, plastic moustache in my back pocket. I was going to run onto Josh Major’s newly-restored Fairey Huntsman Flower Power, zoom away from the quayside, then have him push me into the sea, with the words “It just isn’t your day, is it?” This will sound insane if you’re not familiar with the chase scene in From Russia with Love where Sean Connery drives a Fairey Huntress away from the baddies pursuing him in ‘Huntsmen’. We were planning to re-enact the start of that scene with Josh, dressed in a suit with yachting cap, pushing me (dressed in a sense of hopelessness and a plastic moustache) off the boat and roaring away, with a drone filming. Then one of the boat’s two diesels gave up. It’s never plain sailing, is it? Even when you’re not sailing. The actual sailing, despite the light winds, was magnificent. The sun was out and Cowes felt like Cowes again, humming from high street to waterfront. It’s the sort of place where land-based things, to paraphrase Arthur Ransome, seem barely to matter at all. COVER PHOTO: NiIGEL SHARP

ISSUE No 399

classicboat.co.uk Jubilee House, 2 Jubilee Place, London, SW3 3TQ EDITORIAL Editor Steffan Meyric Hughes +44 (0)203 943 9256 steffan@classicboat.co.uk Senior Art Editor Peter Smith +44 (0)203 943 9246 peter.smith@classicboat.co.uk Group Editor Rob Peake Publisher Simon Temlett Publishing Consultant Martin Nott ADVERTISING Andrew Mackenzie +44 (0)207 349 3779 andrew.mackenzie@chelseamagazines.com Advertisement Production Allpointsmedia +44 (0)1202 472781 allpointsmedia.co.uk Published monthly ISSN: 0950 3315 USA US$12.50 Canada C$11.95 Australia A$11.95 PUBLISHING Managing Director Paul Dobson Director of Media James Dobson Chief Financial Officer Vicki Gavin Group Sales Director Catherine Chapman Head of Sales Operations Jodie Green Publishing Consultant Martin Nott

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CONTENTS COVER STORY

4 . NEW WAYS New Nigel Irens-designed, stripplanked centreboard ketch from Elephant Boatyard COVER STORY

12 . BRITISH CLASSICS WEEK Summer’s back on this year, at the annual BCYC bash in Cowes COVER STORY

24 . TROY STORY TWO Barbara was first built in 1947. Now she needed building anew 40 . REACHING FOR THE SKY How designer Andrew Winch went from yachts to jets to buildings

4 24

NEW KETCH FROM NIGEL IRENS

RESTORED TROY

IN SEARCH O F T H E R E AL MR PIKE

SCHOONER VOYAGE TO HAITI

NICK SMITH HARBOUR LAUNCHES

COVER STORY

42 . JACK LONDON AT SEA Jack London’s inspiration – Fred Morton, the real Mr Pike COVER STORY

48 . SCHOONER TO HAITI An aid mission aboard Nat Benjamin’s self-built schooner Charlotte 54 . PORQUEROLLES CLASSIC The low-key French regatta that celebrated its 18th birthday this year 58 . NICK SMITH LAUNCHES A look at Flow, the latest in a line of clinker-built wooden motor launches 58 . BOATYARD VISIT John McShea is a boatbuilder using clever techniques to save on labour

with SEPTEMBER 2021 £4.95

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41 BOATS YOU HAVE TO SEE The multihulls, yachts and race boats changing the game

BOAT TESTS PLUS BOAT TESTS

10 REASONS TO VISIT THE SHOW

BOAT TEST

ADVENTURING IN COMFORT Windelo 50 cat

OLYMPIC COUNTDOWN GB stars going for Tokyo gold ESSENTIAL SAFETY KIT For you and your boat CRUISING ON THE EDGE

Unintended adventure

ST+Y&Y September Cover v6.indd 1

ROUND THE ISLAND

We sail in 90th bash

SCOTTISH CRUISING DREAM Island-hopping holiday

19/07/2021 16:18

For cruising and racing sailors

To subscribe, chelseamagazines.com/marine

REGULARS 18 32 34 36

. . . .

TELL TALES SALEROOM OBJECTS OF DESIRE ADRIAN MORGAN

38 . BOSUN’S BAG 64 . AFFORDABLE CLASSICS 78 . LETTERS 82 . STERNPOST

CRAFTSMANSHIP

70 . YARD NEWS 74 . YARD VISIT 76 . BOATBUILDER’S NOTES

COWES CLASSI C WEEK PAGE 18

CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

CENTREBOARD KETCH Saecwen of Lymington is a new stripplanked centreboard ketch, built by the Elephant Boatyard to a Nigel Irens design. Hardly run of the mill then... WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS NIGEL SHARP

SAECWEN OF LYMINGTON

he story of Saecwen of Lymington begins in 1962, when the first Saecwen was built by Priors of Burnham – one of about 25 Alan Buchanan-designed Saxon Class sloops, all given Anglo Saxon names. Saecwen (pronounced saykwen) is Anglo Saxon for sea queen. In 1970, Saecwen was bought by Captain Colin McMullen, whose grandson Charles was born the same year the boat was built. “My earliest memories were on that boat,” Charles told me recently. The Watson family kept Saecwen for 28 years and she was, at one stage, co-owned by three generations – Charles, his parents and his grandfather. They regularly sailed her across Biscay to Spain and they took her across the Atlantic and back six times. “Summers were spent afloat,” said Charles. In 1989/90, Charles took a ten-month sabbatical and sailed her to Venezuela’s Orinoco Delta, back up through the Caribbean, then home to the UK again. By this time he was the ‘main owner’ of the boat but it wasn’t long before “small children and incredibly busy career periods took over” and that was clearly incompatible with the time-consuming nature of owning a wooden boat. “It was with great sadness that we decided to sell her,” he said. Over the next quarter of a century, Charles did some sailing in friends’ boats including numerous Round the Island Races, but he mainly got his “adventure fixes” from mountaineering and off-piste skiing (while maintaining his subscription to CB, of course). All the time, he had at the back of his mind that one day he would build a new wooden boat along the same lines as Saecwen. A couple of years ago the idea started to bear fruit after the sale of his PR company. “I woke up in the middle of the night and said ‘right, we’re going to do it’,” he said. “It was easy to say it but I had absolutely no idea what to do!” Charles has been a member of the Royal Cruising Club – of which his grandfather was once the commodore – since he was a boy, and through that ‘extended family’ he has been good friends with Tom Cunliffe for many years. So he phoned Tom and explained what he had in mind, as a result of which he met up with Tom and his wife Ros, and the three of them discussed the matter for several hours. “We all felt that, if he was still with us, Ed Burnett would have been the logical designer to approach,” said Charles, “but then Tom said ‘you could ask Nigel Irens’.”

CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

Above from left: Teak dorade vent with dovetail joints; Compass mounted between the wheel and mizzen mast; Bronze winch from the Classic Winch Company Below: Hobbit stove

Charles’s initial thoughts were to have a bigger version of Saecwen “but the more we talked,” said Tom, “the more he realised that in some ways things have moved on and there might be other ways to look at it. I have known Nigel for a very long time and I thought he would have some different ideas while still understanding the original Buchanan concept.” Nigel recalls that when he first met Charles, they “didn’t really move forward as I wasn’t Alan Buchanan!” But after they next spoke, Nigel produced a quick sketch which Charles thought looked “interesting” and that formed the basis for refinements that suited both of them. Three fundamental aspects of the new boat, which Nigel proposed and which Charles soon accepted, were that she should be a heavy displacement, ketch-rigged centreboarder. “Heavy displacement gives a much more endurable motion,” said Nigel, “and if you are spending several weeks at sea you need to be comfortable and you don’t want to be thinking ‘when is this going to stop, I want to get off’. For short-handed ocean sailing a ketch rig is very handy as you have so many more choices in terms of balancing the sail plan. And with regard to a centreboard, I like to think that the ability to get into nice anchorages is a secondary advantage, but the main thing is that the board can be given a decent aerofoil section to provide more lift upwind than a long deep keel, and with much less wetted surface area.” Choosing a yard to build the boat seems to have been a relatively straightforward process. Throughout the Watson family’s ownership of Saecwen, they had frequently had her refitted at the Elephant boatyard on the Hamble which, coincidently, had also been run by three generations of the same family. The boatbuilding side of the company is run by Matt Richardson whose father Tom is now retired, but is still very much around, and whose grandfather founded the yard in 1952. “I’ve known the family for many years,” said Charles, “and I particularly wanted to build the boat by the water, surrounded by beautiful, amazing historic boats.” Charles originally had in mind that the boat would be built of traditional carvel construction, but then he was “very, very gently introduced to the concept of glue, which was a new thing for me,” and so it was agreed that epoxied strip plank construction would be a better option.

Above left: Mizzen mast and cockpit table Right: Ros Cunliffe, Charles Watson, Tom Cunliffe, Nigel Irens

Stay

Offset From Centreline

BWL

3.27 metres

Draft Centreboard Down

3.43 metres

Draft Centreboard Up

1.60 metres

1385

Displacement

19.13 tonnes

1092

16.06 metres

Longitudinal Position From Datum

Height From Dwl

Forestay

-37

1717

Inner Forestay

-1.737

1538

Mainmast V1

1600

-5798

Mainmast D1

1129

-5796

Mizzen Forward V1

1598

-11193

1153

Mizzen Forward D1

1596

-11140

1150

Mainmast Backstay

1676*

-10818*

1090*

SAECWEN OF LYMINGTON

5.35 metres

15.69 metres 5.42 metres

Mizzen Aft D1

1255

-13302

1179

Mizzen Aft V1

1244

-13369

1183

BAS

1.40 metres

P Mizzen

8.82 metres

Note - Figures in Table are the Pin Centre.Folding * To Be Confirmed

Worktop

E Mizzen

3.07 metres

BAS Mizzen 578

2000

Trotter Box 2236

16351.51 metres

Mainsail Area

49.9 m^2

Mizzen Area

15.75 m^2

100% Foretriangle Area

47.32 m^2

1512

1856

Black Tank

672

478

225

2000

10.0° 1275

1295

11243

11028

9200 Main 49.9msq

M en izz

282

zen

a ys

Miz

Sta Main, Mizzen & Yankee 107.8msq

il ysa Sta

10.0° Yankee 42.17 msq

1625

1600

Mizzen & Yankee 57.92 msq

36.6°

Bac ksta ys

768

Mizzen 15.75msq

Split

1033

12.5°

231

261 12.6°

wer Aft Lo

552 Spreader

1900

2008

Ru nne

Wet Locker

wer d Lo

1868 1160

sta

war

550

701 Forward

ore er F

For

4794

Inn

1399

Bosun's Store

Staysail 17.63msq

1176

Head Under

1244

1596

1255

1598

Over 1000 mm ±5mm Under 1000 mm ±1mm Angles ±0.5° Bolt Centres are ±1mm over any length Unless otherwise stated

© 2019 This drawing and the information contained within the drawing are the property of Fish Composites Ltd. and may not be copied or used without the express written permission of Fish Composites Ltd.

All dimensions are in millimeters. All measurements to be checked in-situ. If in doubt - ask.

Tolerances:

Over 1000 mm ±5mm Under 1000 mm ±1mm Angles ±0.5° Bolt Centres are ±1mm over any length Unless otherwise stated

CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

NIGEL IRENS DESIGN Ltd

Mizzen Mast

Tolerances:

Jumper

The hull was built upside down but, unusually, the Notesbuild process started with the plywood sub-deck. This "I" is measured to the Top of Bulwark. was laminated from two layers of 9mm plywood on top Spreader Angle is measured to the centre of the Mast. of concave shaped formers to give the required camber. Preliminary RM 30 degrees to be taken as 115 Knm. Grooves were then routered into the upper face (which Main Mast is Keel Stepped. would become the deckhead when the whole thing was Mizzen is Deck Stepped. turned the right way up)Final which was then painted Rigging Geometry to be agreed with Spar Manufacturer. wherever the deck structure wouldn’t be fitted to it. Meanwhile the 35 hull frames and deck beams (some of which were combined as ring frames) were laminated from 10mm khaya veneers then assembled upsidedown and fitted to the underside of the ply deck with the beam shelf and carlins. After the khaya centreline components were fitted, the hull was planked in 22mm-thick tongueand-groove Alaskan yellow cedar from Stones Marine Timber. Two diagonal layers of 6mm khaya veneer was then laid over the top of the planking and then this, in turn, was sheathed with a heavy epoxy/glass laminate. The hull was then turned the right way up to allow the ballast to be fitted (the 7,200kg lead keel and 800kg bronze centreplate were both cast by Irons Brothers), the deck to be completed and the interior to be fitted out. The deck structure was completed with an FRP foam-cored moulded cockpit, coachroof coamings in khaya, and a swept 10mm-thick teak deck (with the timber supplied by John Moody and laid by a team from Centreline Marine). Charles chose to minimise the amount of brightwork to try to keep maintenance to a minimum, so the whole of the coachroof and coamings are painted, for instance, and the teak handrails and bulwark capping rails are scrubbed. Varnished areas include the teak hatch surrounds (in which Solimar hatches are fitted) over the saloon and forecabin, both of which Charles insisted on varnishing himself. The bronze winches were supplied by the Classic Winch Company while many of the other deck fittings – including the deck prisms and fittings for the boom gallows – were supplied by Davey & Co. All the bespoke deck fittings, including the pulpit, pushpit, stemhead All dimensions are in millimeters. All measurements to be checked in-situ. If in doubt - ask.

ed Fix

Flag Locker Over

Mizzen & Staysail Partial Genoa 44.78msq

Mizzen & Staysail 33.4msq

59.2°

Tanners Yard House, St Lawrence lane, Ashburton, Devon. TQ13 7DD. U.K. Tel: +44 (0)1364 652554 E mail : mail@nigelirens.com Irens 50

Project

General Arrangement

Title

P1 P2 P3 A

Rev.

Preliminary

Chris

10 Aug 19 21 Aug 19 2 Sep 19 5 Sep 19 Nick

Revised after meeting 16th Aug Chris Aft Heads Corrected Chris Sections Added Chris Notes

28 2 8

Drawn

27 2 7

26 2 6

25 2 5

24 24

23 2 3

Date

22 2 2

21 2 1

Drg No

5 Sep 19

Checked

20 2 0

19 19

1 : 40 @ A3 048-0004

Scale

Date

18 1 8

17 17

Fish Composites Ltd.

16 1 6

15 1 5

14 1 4

13 1 3

The Old Dairy Tiebridge Farm North Houghton Stockbridge SO20 6LQ United Kingdom

12 1 2

11 11

10 1 0

9 9

8 8

7 7

Issue

Sht 1 of 2

Sheet

6 6

5 5

Tel: +44 (0) 1264 811763

4 4

3 3

E-Mail: info@fishcompsites.com www.fishcomposites.com

2 2

1 1

NIGEL IRENS DESIGN Ltd

SAECWEN OF LYMINGTON DESIGNER

Nigel Irens BUILDER

Elephant Boatyard 2021 LOA

50ft 9in (15.5m) BEAM

12ft 9in (3.9m) DRAUGHT

11ft 3in (3.4m)/5ft 3in (1.6m) DISP

19.1 tonnes

Tanners Yard House, St Lawrence lane, Ashburton, Devon. TQ13 7DD. U.K. Tel: +44 (0)1364 652554 E mail : mail@nigelirens.com

fitting, chainplates and stanchion bases – made by various local fabricators such as Duncan Barr, Solent Welding, Colin Kelly and Bob Young – are in stainless steel which was bead blasted and passivated as Charles “didn’t want them shiny”. The spars were made by Selden, the rigging by Performance Rigging in Hamble and the sails by Sanders Sails. Stowed on the foredeck is a glued clinker tender, which was built by Solent Wooden Boats in two halves (the stern section stows over the bow section) to an Iain Oughtred design. To launch her, the stern section is tilted up so it rests on the transom, the bow section is then lifted with a halyard attached to the stem, and the two halves are then bolted together. The halyard then continues to lift the whole boat over the guard wires. “She rows beautifully too,” said Charles. Below decks, Charles was particularly keen that the hull’s internal structure should be as visible as possible and this is especially evident in the case of the 50mm x 125mm bilge stringer (“you can’t escape it, it appears everywhere”). For additional reassurance, he was also keen to see evidence of mechanical fastenings, including some substantial bronze bolts, even in places where the epoxy resin may be doing a perfectly adequate job without them. “I do understand Charles’s approach,” said Nigel. “If he is at sea in difficult conditions, alone or with a small crew, he has to be confident that everything will be OK. That way his enjoyment of sailing the boat will be enhanced. Every decision on this boat has been led by him saying ‘I just don’t want it to break’.”

Main

Main picture: Below decks, white paint and varnished khaya Above left: Galley Above right: Varnished teak hatch surround

CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

SAECWEN OF LYMINGTON

The internal layout, from forward to aft, is as follows. The forward cabin has a conventional vee-berth with an infill to form a double; then to port there is a heads with a separate shower, while to starboard there is a pilot berth, and in the passageway between the two there is dedicated tool stowage and a work bench that folds down and rests on a support on the mainmast; in the forward starboard corner of the saloon there is a Hobbit wood-burning stove and aft of that there is a settee berth and another pilot berth outboard of it; to port there is a large seating area around a table made from cedar of Lebanon from a 400- year-old tree that blew over in a storm near Salisbury; then there is a galley to port and a chart table opposite; finally, there is a double cabin to port and another heads compartment, with an oilskin locker to starboard. At the aft end of the saloon there is what Charles calls “the focal point of the whole boat”: a substantial 6in (150mm) square section oak post going from deck head to bilge. It is much more ornamental than structural but it is clearly very important to Charles as it came from a tree that he thinks was around 500-years-old and which fell down in the New Forest about ten years ago. “I grew up in the New Forest and have always felt very connected to it,” he said, “and I also knew this tree as well. And the warships of Nelson’s navy were built from New Forest oak including HMS Elephant, where the yard is now.” The fit-out and the attention to detail is impressive. The two pilot berths, for instance, have integral stowage, USB charging ports and curtains. “I think it’s important for all crew members to have personal living space and to keep the main part of the saloon as a communal area,” said Charles. There is also dedicated stowage for tools, spices, different vegetables, Charles’s favourite malt whiskies, and also the bowls, plates and cups made from various wood species – including cherry, oak and ash – by David Fairman. The upholstery was made by Charlie and Penny Arton. Charles gives much of the credit for the well thought-out interior to Ros Cunliffe who “really should write a book on the dynamics of living on a boat”. Charles wanted simple systems, particularly an engine “without lots of microchips and electronics which would need an expert with a laptop to diagnose a fault, which is not a practical proposition in the middle of an ocean” and this led him to a Beta Marine 75HP diesel. After being strongly advised to do so by Tom Cunliffe, he 10

CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

Above left: Cleaning up the inside of the hull before turning it the right way up Above right: Applying the first layer of khaya veneer

decided to have a bow thruster – a Vetus Rimdrive – which he describes as “a necessary evil for a long-keel boat of this size” and which he hopes will minimise the “potential for embarrassment”. The boat also has a Schenker Zen 30 watermaker for “far greater independence” and a B&G navigation system that includes an electronic autopilot (in addition to the transom mounted Windpilot self-steering gear). Throughout the design and build, Charles thoroughly researched every detail and sought the advice of many people and “traipsed around all the boat shows in Europe” looking at equipment and other boats, while Tom Cunliffe remained his ‘mentor’ throughout. “I would say that hundreds of years of collective experience has gone into creating this boat,” he said. And even while “running a large company and travelling all over the world,” he tried to visit the yard weekly and is full of praise for the “incredibly enthusiastic and wonderful team” who built his boat. Below the brass builder’s plate on the big oak post is an oak board with the signatures of 24 of these craftsmen and women carved into it. Charles’s new boat was launched in May and christened Saecwen of Lymington, after Charles had tracked down the original Saecwen to ask her current owner for permission to use the name. He found her in Gweek at the top of the Helford River where her owner was restoring her. To help him do so, Charles has provided him with countless offcuts of timber from the new boat. “That’s a rather lovely circular story,” he said. Nigel Irens and the Cunliffes joined Charles for Saecwen of Lymington’s maiden voyage, from Hamble to Lymington. Even in light winds, Tom was impressed. “Of course she is fast as she is a Nigel Irens’ boat,” he said, “but she delivers the goods in a proper, seamanlike way. The Solent produced its typical sort of ‘washing machine sea’ but she drove through it most delightfully.” Soon after, Charles took Saecwen of Lymington to the Scillies and back to the Helford, during which he was “delighted with the boat’s sailing performance in all conditions.” For the rest of the year he will stay in home waters, at some point being joined by his partner before returning to Lymington with friends. He will avoid marinas as “the boat is designed to be anchored, not tied up, unless it’s to a lovely old harbour wall.” In time, he hopes to take Saecwen far, including “a proper circumnavigation of the British Isles and all its remotest extremities”.

EXHILARATING. LUXURIOUS. INNOVATIVE. SPORTY.

ALL CLASSICS. What does owning a Lyman-Morse yacht mean to you? Perhaps it expresses your individuality. Maybe it’s how you unplug and reconnect to a simpler way of life with family and friends. Or it could be the thrill of enjoying performance and quality on a boat with soul. Let Lyman-Morse show you why owning one of our yachts will change you forever. See the LM46 and Hood 57 at the Newport International Boat Show Sept. 16-19

LOGBOOK SPECIAL BRITISH CLASSIC WEEK

PHOTOGRAPHS CHRIS BROWN This year’s British Classic Week, hosted by the British Classic Yacht Club, attracted 50 sail and motor yachts to Cowes for a week of sunshine, sailing and socialising. Despite challenging light conditions at the start, the Royal Yacht Squadron race committee led by Race Officer Dai Prichard went ahead with all six races in the series, as well as the annual Ladies’ Race. The two longer passage races (sponsored by Classic Boat and Spirit Yachts respectively) took place at the end of the week, with winds of up to 17 knots and champagne sailing. Social events included drinks at the Royal Yacht Squadron and the Classic Boat pontoon party. On the Thursday, finishers were passed Hattiers Rum Dark and Stormies, and gin and tonics by Dartmouth Gin, as they crossed the line. Th regatta was also supported by BRIG UK, Adnams, Suffolk Yacht Harbour, Classic Marine and OneSails GBR.

CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

1 Spirit 46 Whisper of Lymington

2 Njord during the Ladies Race

3 Whooper’s crew on the rail

4 Kelpie, a class winner 5 Crew from Cereste enjoying drinks at the Royal Yacht Squadron

6 Mikado was a cass winner 7 Cheers from Spirit 63DH Gwenhyfar

8 Infanta, Border Legend and Illiria 8

LOGBOOK BRITISH CLASSIC WEEK

9 12 11

9 and 10 Gareth

Griffiths of the Spirit Oui Fling, overall winner of the event

11 Stiletto was celebrating her 60th anniversary at the regatta

12 Tim Blackman at the helm of Infanta

13 Jody Wincer helming Cereste in the Ladies’ Race

14 Stepping ashore from Cetewayo

CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

Moonbeam Of Fife III William Fife & Sons | 1903/2017 30m/98ft | 4 guests | €1.495

Tigris A. Mylne | 1899/2014 | 18.60m/61ft 4 guests | €450.000 VAT exempt

The Edmiston Classic Yacht Fleet The No.1 specialists for classic yachts proudly presents a selection from its peerless fleet. The finest yachts, beautifully maintained and presented, keenly for sale and available to view. Contact Mike Horsley today to introduce you to some very special vessels. Tel: +33 6 09 53 16 56 - MJH@edmiston.com

LOGBOOK BRITISH CLASSIC WEEK

16 19

15 Drinks on the Squadron lawn 16 Flower Power, a Huntsman 28, was one of six motorboats at the regatta

17 Suvretta (featured in last month’s issue)

18 8M Erica crewman 19 Katie Craven (in blue), a beneficiary of the regatta charity, the Tall Ships Youth Trust, on Border Legend

20 Stormvogel

CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

PIONEERING MARINE GRADE EPOXIES & ADHESIVES “I think of my work as a bit of a blend of old and new; it’s classically styled boats that inspire me and they have to be made of wood!” Dan Lee | Boatbuilder

READ OUR INSPIRING PROJECT MAGAZINE FOR ENTHUSIASTS AND PROFESSIONALS

For inspiration, technical information and expert advice visit www.epoxycraft.com For a full list of stockists visit www.wessexresins.co.uk Photographs © Dan Lee | www.danleeboatbuilding.co.uk

+44 (0) 1794 521111 @epoxycraft_ @Epoxycraft www.wessexresins.co.uk

THE UK’s HOME OF EPOXY

Tell Tales

Classic Boat’s address: Jubilee House, 2 Jubilee Place, London, SW3 3TQ cb@classicboat.co.uk

ALL PHOTOS BY TIM JEFFREYS

Follow the Classic Boat team on Twitter and Facebook

Cowes Classics Week a huge success Cowes Classics Week, held from 5-9 July, continued the

Clokwise from

1924 Bentley Speed Model outshone 37 other classic cars to

post-lockdown trend for big turnouts, with a record entry

top left: Tight

win the Concours d’Elegance Trophy.

of 214 yachts.

racing in the 6-M

Good, consistent breezes most of the week enabled the

compromised to some extent by Covid-19 regulations,

race committees to run a full schedule of races for most of

class from

competitors were still able to enjoy many club-based

the 17 classes on the four race circuits, sponsored by

Portsmouth; The

activities including the MDL Marinas tea and cakes, evening

marine insurer GJW Direct and the shore line by Robert

X One-Design

drinks and dinners.

Oatley Wines.

fleet; 10-M yacht

Racing was cancelled on Tuesday due to too much wind

Prizegiving on Thursday included tours of a new

Bojar; A good

Shannon Class lifeboat, thanks to the RNLI, and drinks at

but that enabled competitors and visitors to Cowes to enjoy

showing in the

the Royal London Yacht Club.

the spectacle of Cowes Classics Day, in which classic cars

gaffers' classes;

There were thanks to all the sponsors, including Red

and classic power boats joined the classic yachts on and

The Loch Long

Funnel, which helped reduce the cost of getting to Cowes

around The Parade in Cowes.

fleet; Sir Robin

for crews and boats.

Sir Robin Knox-Johnston’s Suhaili and a WWII Motor Gun Boat were the top attractions on the water, while a

Although the usually busy social programme was

class; The Victory

CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

Knox-Johnston

Next year’s event will run 27 June to 1 July 2022

132-page Souvenir edition

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Classic

In association with

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YACHTS

FROM THE PUBLISHER OF CLASSIC BOAT MAGAZINE

STUNNING BOATS

and how they were saved

J-Class SAILING ON THE EDGE

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Classic Yachts is the must-read publication for admirers of the most stunning boats afloat. Detailing some of the most sumptuous restorations of recent years, this lavish luxury magazine is a visual feast. We reveal the incredible stories behind the finest yachts on the water – stories of abandonment and rediscovery, stories of passion and ancient skills kept alive. We delve deep into the history and we share the secrets of traditional shipwrights today as they recreate the magic of yesteryear. Order your copy for just £7.99 (UK mainland free post) / $10.95+Postage and have it delivered direct to your door Order online www.chelseamagazines.com/classicyachts

TELL TALES

ESSEX

ALL PHOTOGRAPHS BY SANDY MILLER

Barges race on the Blackwater The 2021 Blackwater Match was a day of tight starts and tense finishes, reports Sandy Miller. Four staysail barges lined up almost bow to bow in a light northerly for the first start. Repertor was the fastest start, by a smidgen, but Niagara was first to the outer mark and first home to take the President's Cup. In the bowsprit class, Mirosa was both the fastest start and the first to the outer mark but Blue Mermaid fought it out with Marjorie for line honours. After 6 hours and 4 minutes of racing, just 36 seconds divided these two, with Blue Mermaid helm Richard Titchener receiving the Keeble

Clockwise from top left:

Cup and the Match Pennant. It was a similar story for the smacks. Although

Blue Mermaid, winner in

the 1906, Aldous-built, Maldon-registered smack Lizzie Annie was first over

the bowsprit barges'

the start line it was Peace and Alberta that battled the dying breeze across

class; Peace, winning

the finish at Osea Island. After 5 hours 40 mins racing, the 1909 Stone-built

smack; Lizzie Annie,

Peace beat Alberta by 3 seconds! The Tankard went to Angus Milgate while

Special Award; Puritan,

Lizzie Annie helm Bob Fawkes received the Special Award. The two 1950

newcomer to the fleet

Rebels, Rothay and Rebel, finished 17th and 18th respectively.

NEW

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n with

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FROM THE

Classic Yachts is a lavish new, one-off publication featuring the

MAGAZINE SSIC BOAT HER OF CLA

greatest stories

PUBLIS

STUNNING BOATeyS

from the classic boat world. We’ve

and how th were saved

put together the most incredible

lass J-C ILING

restoration

SA ON THE EDGE

stories, new build projects, voyages and

IC BEST CLAFSS BOATS O R THE YEA

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modern classic scene worldwide.

SOUTH COAST

Arthur Beale moves to Portsmouth Arthur Beale, the 500-year-old London chandler that was forced to close its Shaftesbury Avenue premises last month, has opened a new shop in

We cover everything from the latest J-Class to one of

Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. Arthur Beale famously kitted out Shackleton,

the oldest gaffers afloat, and even a GRP launch

among other adventurers.

inspired by the lines of yesteryear. It’s a rich feast for

The new site has been facilitated by the dockland’s landlord, Portsmouth

all classic boat lovers and is on sale at your nearest

Naval Base Property Trust (PNBPT). The greater size of the new shop means

quality newsagent or via our parent company’s

much of the space will be dedicated to Arthur Beale’s rich history, with

website chelseamagazines.com/shop.

memorabilia and archive material on show. This is the first time that Arthur Beale has displayed any of its archive material to the public.

CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

Calling all classic boat enthusiasts 52nd edition of the UK’s leading boat show ALL NEW FOR 2021: DEDICATED CLASSIC & DAY BOAT ZONE Explore beautiful day boats and classic wooden vessels, as well as the equipment, materials and training to make the most of your time on the water. Live demos by industry experts and trained craftspeople will showcase how the art of traditional boatbuilding is alive and well in the UK ... not to be missed! • 30+ boats in a dedicated Classic Boat and Day Boat Zone • Share your passion with like-minded enthusiasts and gather advice from the experts • Explore our show’s tall ship • Get onboard with a Try-a-Boat experience and glide across the Solent under sail

*2 KIDS

*Offer ends 31 August 2021 Book now and quote CB21

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Attended by leading associations, including Atalanta Owners Association • Broom Owners Club • Hunter Association • Legends Owners Association • Nicholson 32 Association • Old Gaffer Association • Westerley Owners Association

#TheBoatShowisback #SIBS21

TELL TALES

Italian city gets its own classic yacht

This stunning 1963 Sangermani-designed and built yawl, Beatrice, has been donated to the city of Imperia. The handover ceremony was held on 15 July in the Ligurian town’s naval museum and was followed by a flag-raising ceremony, attended by local authorities and Diana Bracco, president of the Bracco Group and last owner of the 51ft (15.6m) boat. Mrs Bracco said: “When I was asked one evening what should we do with this boat, I enthusiastically embraced captain Gaudino’s idea of donating Beatrice to the City of Imperia, to use her for the student’s sail-training after her restoration. I liked the idea of giving to a second life to Beatrice, and I hope that she will be able to participate in some of the classic yacht events, teaching and furthering the work-study programmes that are so important to me and that I firmly believe in.” Claudio Scajola, the Mayor of Imperia, thanked Mrs Bracco for the donation, saying: “I am proud that our harbour will greet this splendid vessel, restored by the loving work of the young and talented students of Imperia’s Nautical Institute.” As part of the ceremony, a new book about the boat was launched, written by Fabio Pozzo with photography by Carlo Borlenghi. CARLO BORLENGHI

SCOTLAND

Historic paddle steamer slipped The 430-tonne Loch Lomond paddle steamer Maid of Loch has been hauled out for

HALLUF 1907

restoration work, only the second time she has been out the water in over 40 years. The major operation saw the 191ft (58.2m) vessel hauled out by the original steampowered winch, in its A-listed winch house, onto the 120-year old Balloch slipway. Once on the slipway, urgent repairs to replace steel beneath the boiler room are to be carried out, following a survey of the hull. Funding permitting, a refurbishment of the starboard paddle box will also be carried out before the ship is repainted in her original ‘white goddess’ colour scheme, with yellow funnel and green waterline. The operation follows more than two years of planning after an unsuccessful winching operation in January 2019 that saw the original carriage of the Category A-listed slipway fail and the ship slip back into the water. Iain Robertson, chairman of the Loch Lomond Steamship Company, said: “This is a momentous occasion and we are confident that the new carriage will deliver a run by volunteers, we are incredibly humbled that we are able to slip the ship with

Original Mermaid

this new and improved equipment, which wouldn’t be possible without the many

Taking part in Cowes Classics Week was the 1907 Halluf,

generous donations and hard-working volunteers.”

a Seaview Mermaid, designed, as all the Mermaids were

successful operation and a huge step forward in the ship’s restoration. As a charity

then, by GU Laws. Sail number U3 and prominent with her green topsides, Halluf is one of only two 1907 designs at Seaview Yacht Club on the Isle of Wight. It is believed that there were eight yachts built between 1907 and 1910 at the Woodnutts yard. Halluf has a distinguished racing record, so much so that she was banned from racing against the east coast gaff-rigged fleet in the 1970s. Forced to race against the bermudanrigged classics, she trounced them too.

WORD OF THE MONTH

CHOCK-CHANNELS Those filled in with wood between the chainplates, according to a plan introduced by Captain Couch, RN Sailor’s Word Book of 1867

CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

MEMBER OF THE ROBBE & BERKING FAMILY

YA C H T S

VA NI T Y 1936 W ILLIAM FIFE 12MR

In principle, all 12s are beauties, but there are some in the fleet of boats that are particularly striking for their beauty. Vanity V is definitely one of them. The beautiful lines came from the pen of William Fife in 1936 and since then she has always been proud of her lines and her appearance. Vanity V, is now offered for sale, or comes with the option to become a LOA: 21.58 m

Beam: 3.72 m

syndicate partner. Between 1997 and 2000 Vanity received a completely rebuilt, sticking close to the original design. Since then she always has been kept to perfect conditions and even totally equipped for cruising with an elegant interior, she shows her strength successfully at international regattas. Please give us a call to receive additional information. Draft: 2.65 m

Price: EUR 1.195.000

A NI T R A 1928 STARLING BURGESS 12MR

Abeking and Rasmussen built six 12mR yachts in 1928 commissioned by the New York Yacht Club. These boats were designed by Starling Burgess and two of them are still alive and one is Anitra. She has been built matching the second rule of the 12mR regulations in 1928. In 2003 Anitra was brought to Germany in a much-desolated condition and was restored by Martin Yachts in southern Germany. After her major refit, which gave LOA: 21.10 m

+ 49 (0) 4 61 31 8 0 3 0 65

Beam: 3.75 m

her a brand new and beautiful look, Anitra was brought to Flensburg where she took part in several regattas around the fjord and the Danish south sea, as well as in world and European championships. Her interior design is high end and Anitra is not only a good boat to sail regattas but also appropriate for cruising trips. She comes fully equipped, so that going on holiday or on long deliveries for races is not a problem at all. Draft: 2.58 m

Price: EUR 1.350.000

B AU M+KO E N I G @ C L A S S IC-YAC H T S . D E

W W W.C L A S S IC-YAC H T S .C O M

TELL TALES NEWS FOCUS

Classics at Southampton Boat Show The Southampton International Boat Show, which runs from 10-19 September, is expanding in a big way this year and taking over more of the city. There is plenty lined up for classic boaters and others British Marine, the organiser of the

between the pontoons and shore will

Southampton International Boat

be used to create a safe and active

Show, has confirmed that the 52nd

water park. There will be chances to

edition of the UK’s largest

demonstrate, compete and entertain,

watersports festival will take place

all with live commentary.

from 10-19 September 2021. LIVE MUSIC AND GUEST SPEAKERS

This year more than ever the show really does celebrate, in British Marine’s

Throughout the show there will be

words, “everything that is great about

stages, live music, entertainment and

being out on the water,” with the full

guest speakers, all aiming to

gamut of boating included from SUPs

showcase the boating lifestyle and

to dinghies to raceboats and

create a buzzing show atmosphere.

wooden yachts to all manner of kit. There will be more than 450 marine brands on show and more than 600 boats. Lesley Robinson, CEO of British Marine, says: “It is a great pleasure to announce that Southampton International Boat Show is back in 2021; the show is such a key event in the boating calendar and a real

Ticket offer for Cla s Boat reade sic rs Rea

for Classic Boat readers. This year’s new Classic & Day Boat Zone will

ders of Cla ssic Boat ca boast a variety of n claim reduced en try for the craft on show, So ut hampton Internationa l Boat Show including day boats, . Using the code YY21 , readers ca n buy two vintage wooden and for £34 (tw tic kets o children ca n go free w new classic boats, ith one adult tic ket). Book plus equipment and via southampt onboatshow .c materials. British Marine om . The ticket offer ends on 31 says that “this zone August, 20 21. celebrates the boats and

celebration to the end of season.

craftsmanship that stand the

British Marine is using our years of

test of time… classic boat

MORE SUSTAINABLE To mark World Oceans Day on 8 June, British Marine has pledged to make the 2021 edition of the Southampton Boat Show the “most sustainable and environmentally friendly” in its history. RECYCLABLE GIVE-AWAYS All exhibitors must pledge that any promotional items at the show will be sustainable and recyclable. This means no single-use plastic water bottles on stands, outlets, or hosted events, among other measures.

boat show experience to deliver the

enthusiasts and seasoned boaters will

52nd edition at full size and to

be able to find all the equipment they

RELAX AT FESTIVAL GREEN

welcome visitors back in style. We

need to keep their treasures gliding

Also new this year is the Festival

cannot wait to see you all in person

across the water”.

Green, located next to the new main

again!”

entrance up near Westquay shopping

Chelsea Magazines, the parent

PRODUCT DEMONSTRATIONS

centre. This is one of many spots to

company of Classic Boat, is official

Above: New

There will also be hands-on product

relax in, a very important part of any

media partner for the show.

classic and day

demonstrations, an education special,

boat show experience! In the evening,

boat zone

talks on traditional and modern boat

visitors will be able to sit here and

NEW CLASSIC AND DAY BOAT ZONE

Below: Onwater

building techniques, and accounts of

enjoy live music “under a sea of lights".

The wooden boat sector in previous

experiences for

how boating supports mental and

shows has always been the key area

kids

physical wellbeing.

GREAT FOOD FOR ALL There will be a range of food outlets,

BIGGER LAYOUT THIS YEAR

from fresh-out-of-the-water oysters

The show has a new, bigger layout this

to international street food, and drinks

year, taking over more of the city with

outlets, with bars offering everything

new zones for every kind of watersport.

from champagne and cocktails, to

Working in partnership with

mocktails and soft drinks.

Southampton City Council, British

To widespread dismay, the 2020

Marine has agreed the use of more

show was cancelled by Southampton

land stretching inland towards the

City Council at the 11th hour amid Covid

Westquay shopping centre.

concerns. The 2021 show will take place well after restrictions have been lifted.

CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

ON-THE-WATER EXPERIENCES

Nonetheless, British Marine is ready to

There will be more on-the-water

implement any Covid-related safety

experiences and the natural arena

measures at short notice.

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RKING HOME WOODWO

shelf Suhaili’s galley

04/08/2020 17:36

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TROY STORY TWO

Barbara’s first owner ordered her in 1947 with the money that should have been a deposit on a family home. Now she’s been rebuilt as new boat, with just her lead keel to remind her of the past WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS NIGEL SHARP

BARBARA TROY RETURNS

he 20 January 1947 was a big day for Arthur and Olive Bate, residents of Polruan just across the harbour from Fowey in Cornwall. Not only was their daughter Barbara born but it was also the day that they had planned to put a deposit down on a family house. So it must have come as something of a shock when Arthur visited the hospital that evening and told Olive that he had used the money to order a boat instead. Whether or not it softened the blow that the new boat would also be called Barbara is not recorded. The boat in question was a Fowey Troy. Arthur had ordered his from Fowey boatbuilder Archie Watty who had designed the Troy almost two decades earlier and had subsequently built 11 of them. Arthur owned Barbara for seven seasons during which his racing record gradually improved, winning 26 out of 42 races in 1952, for instance. After he and his family moved out of the area, Barbara had consecutive lady owners – Mrs Gilchrist and then Miss Bradbury – both of whom kept her where she belonged in Fowey Harbour. Around 1960, her fourth owner, Commander Campbell, took her to Padstow on Cornwall’s north coast and put a Stuart Turner petrol engine in her. He kept her on a drying mooring with legs to hold her upright when the tide went out until, that is, the day that she fell over and stove in some of her planking. She was taken to a local boatyard to be repaired but, while she was there, Commander Campbell died. Meanwhile in the early 1980s, Fowey boatbuilder Marcus Lewis and Troy sailor Richard Kitson were keen to track down all four of the Troys that were no longer in Fowey and whose whereabouts were unknown. After finding Janet (T3) in Gateshead, they purchased her and brought her home to Fowey. When she was relaunched, a reporter from Radio Cornwall interviewed Richard, who took the opportunity to appeal for information regarding the other three missing boats. This resulted in a boatbuilder from Padstow getting in touch to say that Barbara was in the Outer Hebrides. After Commander Campbell died, Barbara had been passed on to his soldier nephew Colin who decided to take her to Scotland where he planned to start an outward-bound training camp. After the repairs were completed, he began to sail her from Padstow, round

CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

Above left: Arthur Bate and crew collecting trophies at Polruan Regatta in the 1950s; Barbara in the Hebrides at the first visit in 1990

BARBARA LENGTH

18ft (5.5m) BEAM

6ft 2in (1.9m) DRAUGHT

3ft 10in (1.2m) WEIGHT

1,200kg (2,645lb) UPWIND SAIL AREA

1,200kg (2,645lb)

Land’s End, along the south coast and up the east coast, short hops every time he had leave from the army. At some point the sea voyage ended and she was trailed by road across country to the west coast of Scotland, and then sailed out to the island of Flodaigh in the Outer Hebrides.

PICKING UP THE PEICES Marcus and Richard were able to make contact with Colin who still owned her, but who reported that she had sunk in a gale 15 years earlier and had then been dragged up a beach. No repairs had been carried out and she was now “falling apart” alongside a quay wall. A coastguard originally from Polruan and now based in Stornoway took some photos of her and sent them to Marcus who could see that she was still “moderately together”. Marcus then contacted Arthur Bate who said that he would try to rescue Barbara but five years later – by now getting on in years – he admitted that he was unable to do so. Marcus and his partner Sue Rodwell then took a trip to the Hebrides to see the situation for themselves. When they got there they found that Barbara had deteriorated badly since the last photos were taken. Nonetheless they decided to go back a few months later, this time with Richard, to mount a rescue operation. This initially involved borrowing five 45-gallon drums from the RAF base at Benbecula airport to strap to the hull so that she could be floated and then towed to a causeway. Marcus, Richard and Sue then made their way back to Fowey, leaving things in the hands of the armed forces. First an RAF lorry with a Hiab crane picked Barbara up and transported her 10 miles or so to a jetty. Then the army supply vessel Arakan – based in Marchwood which regularly shipped supplies to the Hebrides – was made ready to load Barbara on board. However, when Marcus, Richard and Sue arrived back in Fowey, there was an urgent message (sent by fax to the Fowey harbour office) for them to contact Arakan’s captain. He was concerned that Barbara was too fragile to load, so Marcus sent a message back absolving him of any blame should there be any further damage. But there was a shock in store when Arakan arrived in Fowey. Looking down into the hold Marcus could clearly see that there were three separate pallets with various parts of Barbara on each of them. “Maybe it was naive to

BARBARA TROY RETURNS

Above: Marcus Lewis and Sue Rodwell sailing Barbara past the Royal Fowey Yacht Club

BARBARA TROY RETURNS

think we could rebuild her, but that was what had been envisaged,” said Marcus. “But it was now obvious that there was no way that was going to happen.” Barbara’s remains were then stored until 2015. By that time Marcus had built five new Troys and restored several others, and he had a new workshop with some additional space. A quiet August then prompted him to think about what to do about Barbara and he briefly considered reusing the transom, garboards, and some of the centreline structure. “But then I decided that there was no point putting very weathered 70-year-old bits of wood into an otherwise brand-new boat, because in 10 years’ time, they would have to be replaced,” he said. “It was now clear that it would be impractical to try to use any of Barbara’s remains other than her lead keel.” So after the keel was cleaned up, a new oak centreline was assembled on top of it, and the moulds were set up and braced, ready for planking. However, due to the demands of paying work, nothing much happened for the next five years, but when the first Covid lockdown was introduced, Marcus found he had some time on his hands. All of the early Troys, among them Barbara, varied in shape, especially in the bow section, but all the boats produced over the last 20 years or so have been built to a much stricter specification – including the use of an extra mould forward of mould number one to standardise the bow section – and they have to be inspected by an official measurer at various stages of construction. Barbara’s new hull was built with all the centreline components in oak, the planking and transom in Brazilian cedar, and steamed oak timbers. The class rules specify a certain density for the planking timber species and Brazilian cedar has been used for the last eight boats as it “fits the rule requirements, looks good if it’s varnished and doesn’t necessarily soak up so much water perhaps as pine or larch.” Until he built the new Barbara, Marcus had been sailing Janet since he restored her in 1984 (since when he 30

CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

Above left: Bow and transom sections brought back to Fowey Above and below: Back sailing in Fowey

has bought Richard Kitson’s half of her) and he has had regular top-three results in the past dozen or so seasons. But this year he and Sue have been sailing the new Barbara and he has found that her performance is superior to Janet’s partly, he thinks, because Janet is more tender because her ballast keel is lighter and also because the shape of her bow means she doesn’t cut through waves as easily. He also says that Janet is “in need of a bit of attention because, being a boatbuilder’s boat, she doesn’t get the maintenance she deserves.” So he plans to get her up to his workshop and give her some TLC when he is less busy in the summer. “Then, I guess, she will be for sale,” he said. “There is not a lot of point having two of them. I can only sail one at a time.” It isn’t strictly true to say that it was only the Barbara’s ballast keel that was used in the new boat as Marcus cut up one of the garboard planks to make her nameplate and tiller handle. “I am a bit sad that we weren’t able to use anything else,” he admits, “but I’m also pleased that we’ve ended up with effectively a brand new boat, because that is a good thing to have.”

Yacht Brokerage

2000. Refit in 2008/14/18/19/20. Steel hull with teak superstructure, ELEONORA is an exact replica of the schooner Westward which was designed in 1910 by Nathanael Greene Herreshoff, the ‘Wizard of Bristol’, the designer of the America’s Cup defenders which turned back all six challenges from 1893 to 1920. Westward was arguably one of the most famous racing schooners in the world. ELEONORA not only follows Westward’s heritage of big schooners racing but she also offers with her comfort and space unforgettable cruising and relaxation experience. She was built at the Van der Graaf shipyard in Holland and was launched in March 2000. Since then, she has successfully participated in a number of classic sailing regattas and hosted on board a number of high-profile guests during her charter activities. ELEONORA shows astonishing beauty under sail, her slender hull cutting a pathway through the sea, an elegant combination of beauty and power. With no sacrifice to luxurious standards of comfort, her staterooms and the entire interior display the ambience and elegance of another age. ELEONORA is registered as a commercial vessel under MCA and classed under Veritas.

162.5ft New Classic Schooner

ELEONORA

2011. As a replica of the schooner ‘Germania’ launched in 1908, she was built at Factoria Naval de Marin in Spain. As opposed to Germania, which did not include a motor or generators or air conditioning, GERMANIA NOVA has been outfitted with these important features for a charter yacht of her kind. In fact, GERMANIA NOVA has full charter class under LY2. External decks, and sail plan are impressive. Under deck she is composed of two main zones (guests and crew). Guest area is composed of 5 cabins, including a master cabin and 4 guest cabins. All cabins with unsuited bathroom. One large saloon and a bridge house with all necessary radio and navigation equipment, complete the guest area. Crew area is all located forward, and houses 10 crew in bunk areas, two cabins for officers and captain, a crew mess, a laundry and a galley.

SALE, CHARTER & MANAGEMENT

Also specialises in Transoceanic Charter

196ft New Classic Schooner

GERMANIA NOVA

71ft Laurent Gilles Ketch Aitor

1964. From a Laurent Gilles Design, AITOR is a very nice Gentleman’s classic yacht for blue water cruising and live aboard thanks to her cockpit and deck house. She is very well built and has been regularly maintained. She has a special character thanks to her classic style. She is easy to handle with 2 main engines.

FRANCE: Montpellier (Head Office) - Paris - La Ciotat - Antibes Monaco • Palma, Majorca • Italy • Moscow Hong Kong • USA California • New Zealand

65ft Sangermani Marconi Yawl Giannella II

1966. Refit 2010. This Eugène Cornu design has been built by the legendary Cantieri Sangermani in Italy, one of the best wooden boat shipyards in the world. She is a wonderful classic sailing yacht ideal for family cruising in absolute comfort. She has won many regattas including The Voiles de St Tropez and Conde de Barcelona. She features lovely warm interiors and is easy to sail!

Bernard Gallay Yacht Brokerage

1 rue Barthez - 34000 Montpellier - France +33 467 66 39 93 - info@bernard-gallay.com www.bernard-gallay.com

Saleroom

By Dave Selby

Right: In 1877 iron clipper Coriolanus made the run from the Scilly Isles to Calcutta in 69 days, a record never surpassed in the era of sail. Display model sold for £1,860.

CHARLES MILLER LTD

How clippers lost the race against time The survival of the Cutty Sark is all the more remarkable when you consider that most clippers had short, precarious careers often ending in calamity. Such was the price to pay for prioritising speed over cargo capacity, as with their massive spread of canvas, clippers were driven hard and often over-pressed in efforts to secure best market price for their precious freights. The average life of the six clipper ships represented in Charles Miller Ltd’s most recent marine sale was just 31 years. Three of the

CHARLES MILLER LTD

six were lost at sea, but the overall average active working life is much reduced when you consider that those that survived into obsolescence spent years, even decades, languishing as hulks before being broken up. The composite-built tea clipper Maitland (1865) survived just nine years before being wrecked on a coral reef off China. Sir Lancelot, also built for the tea trade in 1865, survived for 30 years before she Above: Builder’s half-block model

was lost in a cyclone bound for Calcutta; by then she’d

of the Maitland, built 1865, reveals

been reduced to carrying a low-value cargo of salt. By contrast, the 1876 Coriolanus, often considered

the composite build with traces of internal criss-cross iron

one of the most beautiful all-iron clippers, ended her

framework; model sold for £3,100

days as a migrant ship running from the Azores to the USA in the 1920s, before being broken up in 1936. The brief glory of the clipper era was ended by the

Right: The composite Sir Lancelot would be more celebrated today if

opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 and the rise of

she’d set off earlier in 1869 Great

steam. By then consigned to history by simple

Tea Race. She set a new record of

economics, they finished their sailing lives scrabbling

89 days, but Thermopylae arrived

for cargo as stately but tattered tramps of the seas.

first after 91-day passage;

Charles Miller Ltd’s next sale: 2 November, London

HISTORICS

watercolour sold for £496.

HISTORICS

Italian style and English speed There’s no doubt automotive styling and engineering enormously

very extensively restored 1967 example was estimated at £55,000-

influenced the evolution of post-war speedboat design, but the

66,000 at the Historics’ 17 July classic car sale.

inspiration for the Italian firm Riva and the small British Albatross outfit came from vastly different well sources. When Carlo Riva went on a trip to the USA to negotiate engine

Meanwhile the ethos of aluminium-hulled Albatross (above right) came straight out of Lotus sports cars and founder Colin Chapman’s mantra of “add lightness.” Moreover, at the heart of this

supplies, he also brought back the design motifs that would

restored early 1960s Series A sports and race boat is the famed

become a Riva signature in glamorous wooden craft garnished

Coventry Climax engine that propelled the original Lotus Elite to

with bedazzling chrome flourishes, glittering dials in a car-type

giant-killing feats on the race track. Series A Albatrosses with

dash, curved windscreen and flamboyant two-tone upholstery.

Coventry Climax FWE race engines could easily hit 45mph, and

Adopting the American terminology, the 5.7m Riva Junior (above

this example with engine bored out to 1440cc and twin Weber

left), with white-painted wooden topsides, was classed as a

carbs must surely exceed that. That’s a lot of performance in a

“utility,” but was much more than utilitarian. And of course, at its

lightweight 3.9m two-seater, and with an estimated of £18,000-

heart was a General Motors automotive-derived 180hp V8. This

23,000, a fraction of what a road-going Lotus Elite would fetch.

CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

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Objects of desire YACHTS: THE IMPOSSIBLE COLLECTION Showcasing the world’s “most grand and luxurious ocean vessels worthy of praise” comes Yachts: The Impossible Collection, whose publishers tells us includes everything “from original J-Class yachts of the late 1800s”. History lesson aside, it looks like a lavish tome. Text by Miriam Cain, Featuring photography by Guillaume Plisson £695

WOODEN WALLET

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New brand Wuzzos has made its mark with deck shoes

Dartmouth, Devon, “very slowly” to produce a

and is now expanding with polo shirts and these soft shell

remarkably smooth, full-flavoured spirit that

gilets, each one manufactured from 12 discarded

ensured our recent pontoon party at British

polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic bottles. The

Classic Week went with a bang. It comes in a

bottles are cleaned, crushed, chipped, melted and then

handsome bottle, carved to depict a replica of the

extruded into thread which is spun into yarn for knitting.

wrought-ironwork on St Saviour’s Church door in

The zips are also made from recycled plastic. There is an

Darmouth, showing the two leopards of Edward 1

inner microfleece fabric layer, which is also 100% recycled

and the tree of life. US readers might note that

polyester, providing warmth. The outer has a Durable

alcohol is now more easily sendable by post, after

Water Repellent (DWR) coating. The cut is slightly longer

the UK left the EU. £38

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shop.teamgb.com 34

CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

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

52’ Philips of Dartmouth Motor Yacht designed and built by Philips and Son of Dartmouth in 1963. Excellent condition classic motor yacht built to Lloyds 100A1 and maintained to an excellent standard in present ownership with major 2019/202 refit. Twin Perkins 6354 diesels. 8 berths in 3 sleeping cabins including large en-suite owners cabin aft. Very attractive and capable motor yacht in full sea going condition. Devon £220,000

45’ Inchcape Motor Sailer built by the Eyemouth Boat Building Company in 1989. Very thorough professional refit over the last 5 years, equipped and maintained to MCA Cat1 standard, ready for a commercial licence if required. Huge interior volume with 6 berths in 2 sleeping cabins. Very well equipped and fully up to date. Ford Mermaid 135hp diesel. A capable live aboard ‘go anywhere’ cruising home. Wales £210,000

52’ RNLB Barnett Class motor yacht built for the RNLI in 1957. Served for over 30 years with 400 active service launches. Very nicely converted to make her a practical up to date cruising motor yacht but keeping her pedigree and history intact. 4 berths in 2 cabins. Twin Gardner 6LW 72hp diesels plus electric bow thrusters. A very sound and smart vessel with a clever blend between originality and modern practicality. Devon £79,000

Laurent Giles Vertue V45 built by Aero Marine Ltd in 1952. The commissioning owner requested slightly higher freeboard and the ‘ocean’ style doghouse as well as an altered rig,. She was sailed single handed from the UK to Nova Scotia on her maiden voyage. A well documented history of extensive offshore cruising. Volvo MD7A diesel, new rigging 2021. A historically significant Vertue in nice tidy condition. Scotland £17,500

40’ Millers MFV built by James Miller and Sons of St Monance in 1953 for George Clark of Clarks Shoes. Refitted to current standards in present ownership with a nicely proportioned gaff ketch rig with new rigging and sails in 2011. Gardner 6LX 110hp diesel in lovely condition. 5 berths with double cabin forward and large wheelhouse. Tidy yacht, well equipped and fit to put to sea this season. Isle of Man £75,000

36’ Alfred Mylne sloop built by the Bute Slip Dock in 1961. Mahogany on oak hull, all bronze screw fastened. 2016 mast, 2011 rigging. Re-wired 2021. 5 berths with 6’6” headroom. Nicely cared for yacht with good pedigree and lovely lines, in commission this season. Scotland £29,950

21’ Herreshoff Islander Class built by Port Hamble Ltd in 1953. Designed as a small but capable day sailer with enough cabin to accommodate 2 berths. Mahogany on oak hull with iron keel. Rigging and sails new in 2015. At only 1.25 tons she can be towed on the road easily for cost effective sailing. In commission and ready to sail. Hants £5,750

50’ Admiralty MFV built in 1944 as MFV 625. She has a well documented service history, most of which was in the Med. Converted in 1974, she is a comfortable and attractive motor yacht. 5 berths in 3 cabins plus saloon and spacious deck saloon in the wheelhouse. Foden 6cyl diesel in lovely condition. Marina berth and 4000l of diesel included in the sale. 2018 survey. Bristol £85,000

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

CHARLOTTE WATTERS

Adrian Morgan tale cracks in the enamel that might suggest a little water has been creeping in behind the Toplac. And then, as always, there is The Question of the Waterline, which has been a bane of my ownership since I don’t know when. Will I ever manage to get it quite right? But, as I said, there comes a time... That time came in May 2021 when Sally was slipped at the yard a few miles south of Ullapool. For the first time I was tempted to let the yard do the hard work that has kept Sally afloat in sound condition – not pristine I hasten to add – throughout my ownership. Top of the list was to get that *%$£$!! waterline sorted. I despair to think of the times I have laid on the masking tape, squinted both sides, readjusted, measured down from the sheer only to see as I rowed ashore a slight – and I am talking 1/2in (12mm), no more – pesky bump just aft of the chainplates, and I thought this time I had cracked it. Naturally, no one else notices these things, but that is not the point. I do. And it was on the list of things I could pass over to the guys in the yard, with their fancy lasers or, as Humphrey Barton would have done before Sally was launched in 1937, and what he did for every Giles yacht, a system of pipes and water levels. Incidentally, the waterline may have been spot on, but as Sally slipped into Christchurch harbour, dressed overall, she was woefully down by the stern, a ballasting error that cost her designer compensation worth nearly a fifth of her £400 or so building price. For old times’ sake, and seeing as I had a roll of that fancy blue masking tape in the car, and as the sun was shining, I decided to have a go. From the smudge of discoloration, I could see where the waterline wanted to be. And yes, the port side differed from its twin. How could I have missed that in all the years, unless Sally was simply not (wash your mouth out) symmetrical? Once started it seemed a pity not to do a bit of varnishing of toerail, and painting of coachroof, etc and soon the regular business of fitting out had begun and the thought of turning Sally over to virtual strangers seemed impertinent. Thus, for the 27th time since I first saw Sally on that Hamble mooring, her owner buckled down to the task of fitting her out, and on the first beautiful spring day of 2021, it could not have felt a better time to get acquainted with the old girl again. Was it straight? I didn’t dare look...

Floating on her waterline Will he ever get that waterline painted on right?

here comes a time in any wooden boat owner’s life when – in my case after 26 years – you just want to throw some money at a boatbuilder and let them get on with it. From what I have read in pre-war magazines, an owner would simply entrust his yacht to the yard with instructions, some detailed, some taken for granted, as to what should be done by the time he returned in the spring. It might entail pumicing the topsides, and applying a flawless coat of white Llewellyn Ryland enamel; or ripping out the Rippingal, grinding the valves in the Stuart Turner and renewing the Kobe antifouling (“red please this year”). Come early May, owner would arrive – I like to picture him in casual suit, check shirt and tie, at the wheel of an Alvis, but it might as well have been a Morris Oxford or perhaps a Bentley. In whatever case, he would have been well heeled. The task of fitting out Sally every season I have always undertaken myself, not just because I am not well heeled or own a Bentley (let alone a suit). I have got to know every inch of her, inside and out. If there’s water in the bilges after two weeks with no rain, I will know she’s taken in a little seawater, and have been known to dip a mug in her bilges to taste. I keep a keen eye on those tell

CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

“For the 27th time, I buckled down to fitting her out”

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CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

BOSUN’S BAG PRACTICAL TIPS FOR THE TRADITIONAL BOATER

WORDS TOM CUNLIFFE ILLUSTRATION MARTYN MACKRILL

TRICING UP OR SCANDALISING? One of the hidden benefits of gaff rig is that shortening sail drastically in a couple of seconds comes in two exciting flavours, neither of which is available to the bermudan hordes. Tricing up has been considered before in this column so I shan’t dwell on it at length. It is, in my opinion, the superior of the two, but in order to execute it the sail must be loose-footed on its boom and must be held in to the mast by hoops. Given these two premises, all that’s required is a tricing line run from the tack of the sail up to the gaff jaws, around a turning block secured up there, and back down to the deck. To ditch a third of the sail’s area in no time at all, simply cast off the tack and heave up the tricing line. Because the peak halyards remain undisturbed, the leech tension doesn’t change so there’s no need to set up the topping lift. The aft section of the sail and the lovely flat run-off to the leech still pull with uncompromised aerodynamics and the boat simply sails more upright and a bit slower. There’s also an unexpected spin-off that comes for free. The helmsman’s view is improved by 100 per cent once the tack is up and out of the way. Many of the gaffers I sail on these days do not have hoops, so this glorious option disappears. The alternative of using a well-tallowed lacing works well enough to stop the sail from escaping when hoisting or lowering, but that’s about all it does. It is a poor substitute in every respect, but it’s cheap, convenient to rig and many owners are stuck with it until the next time the mast is out. That’s the moment to get shot of it for good and equip with a nice set of hoops. Fortunately, however, all is not lost. Even a laced-on main can be de-powered in a hurry by dropping the peak in a process often called ‘scandalising’. Scandalising is a lot less elegant than tricing up and, for a similar reduction in sail area, the difference in performance between it and tricing is dramatic. The head of a gaff sail goes some way to increasing the luff length, so the sail loses power as well as area once robbed of the straight edge of the gaff. Because part of the sail may now be flogging, it’s not a state of affairs one would want to hold all night long in a hard breeze. Nonetheless, scandalising can still be useful. Here’s the procedure: • Set up the weather topping lift. Since the peak halyard is effectively supporting the boom via the leech of the sail, the spar is going to drop like a brick when the halyards are eased away. If you’ve only a single topping lift you’d better hope it’s on the windward side of the sail and consider rigging a pair at the next refit. • Ease the throat halyard a little way. When you let go the peak, the geometry of the sail goes to pieces, a hard ‘girt’ often appears

CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

between clew and throat and an unfair strain comes on the luff of the sail. This can manifest itself in terms of an unfair stretching, or even damage in way of the throat cringle. Easing the halyard to settle the throat a few inches before ditching the peak protects against this. • Finally, let off the peak halyard. How low you let the gaff go is a matter of taste. All the way does no harm, except that the lower it goes, the worse the angle for the halyards when it’s time to heave it back up again. A well-rigged gaffer with hoops, a loose foot and twin topping lifts can make her mainsail virtually disappear by tricing up then scandalising. This isn’t something you’d do every day, but the technique is priceless when picking up moorings or anchoring with wind against tide. The modern yacht can drop her main and cruise in under a half-rolled genoa. Most will even tack without a main. Not so the gaffer. She needs her main up almost to the end to keep way on, but she still must be rid of it as she heads into the tide for the final pickup, because at this point it won’t spill wind and she can’t stop while it’s setting. Scandalising alone is often not enough for this refinement, but there’s nothing quite like it when caught out by a squall. And when the wind has settled back to where it should be, you’ve only to sway the peak back up, fine-tune the leech with the halyard purchase and let off the topping lift, while your threecornered chums are shaking out reefs and struggling to discover why the pennants have somehow got themselves stuck.

AND ONE FOR GOOD LUCK Speaking of mast hoops, classy yachts often have them leathered all round to protect both them and the mast varnish. This gospel of perfection lies beyond those of us with less well-found wallets, but it isn’t a serious matter. When the sail is fully hoisted, the hoops do very little if the halyard tension is sufficient to keep the luff straight. This is easily achieved in smaller craft. On boats with mainsails of 500sqft (46m2) and more, a purchase permanently rigged on the standing end of the throat halyard ensures all the grunt required with minimal effort. Thus, as the vessel sways down the trade winds, her mast hoops are idling, awaiting their moment of glory when the sail is dropped, triced or during a reef. Greasing them with tallow averts friction and looks after the varnish very well. It smells nice too, once you’re used to it. When the great day dawns and you are clattering the new mast hoops onto the spar as it waits on its trestles, always slip on an extra. Sooner or later you’ll break one and its time will come…

Squadron. His depictions of classic boats, from clinker rowing boats to Edwardian schooners, have made him one of the most sought-after marine artists, and his work forms part of major collections worldwide. He and his wife, Bryony, sail the restored 1910 gaff cutter Nightfall (CB328).

CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

FOR THE WORK OF MARTYN MACKRILL, VISIT MARTYNMACKRILL.CO.UK OR MESSUM’S GALLERY, MAYFAIR, LONDON MESSUMS.COM

MARTYN MACKRILL Son of a marine engineer and grandson of a trawlerman, Martyn is Honorary Painter of the Royal Thames Yacht Club and the Royal Yacht

ANDREW WINCH

Sky’s no limit His first design was for a 36ft sailing yacht. Now, Andrew Winch is designing a dozen super yachts, including the biggest the world has ever seen. Then there’s the jets and houses...

KATHY MANSFIELD

WORDS STEFFAN MEYRIC HUGHES PHOTOGRAPH KATHY MANSFIELD

CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

he Thames towpath by Barnes in west London is the “The challenge in yacht design, when talking to clients, is picture of modern English sobriety. The river and its to translate the pictures in my head into pictures that they can banks are in their usual state of abandonment; even the see.” The artist David Barker used to do this but these days, tide is leaving town. A few runners sweat past and two there’s a team of 10 computer visualisers who do the work. members of the wealthy and idle stand looking across the water The same clients that had yachts then wanted jets. The to the opposite side. It’s the last place you would expect to find a first jet was a BBJ2, based on a Boeing 737, in 2002. Andrew design studio working on the largest private yacht the world has smiles at the memory: “We got a load of journalists on board ever seen – not to mention the private jets and fantasy mansions. with the owner. This was so unusual – owners seldom allow But it’s here, in a riverside complex of old buildings that used to it so the journalists hardly ever get to go on board the planes! house the fire station, that Winch Design has its home. It was all over the press, and suddenly I was known as a jet We met founder Andrew Winch at the tail end of 2020, when designer!” Aviation interiors pose lofty challenges: everything the clouds of Covid parted briefly to allow a test run of his on a plane, down to a table lamp, must be able to withstand PTS26, a Pettersson-inspired 26ft (8m) motor launch. His the weight of a human body flying into it in a crash, a figure Tofinou 7, a spirit-of-tradition daysailer, was out that day too. set at 16g. For this reason, aircraft interiors are three to four There’s time for a whistlestop tour of the offices and sample times the cost per square foot of yacht interiors which are in rooms. The top floor of the main building is a modern office with turn about three times the cost of house interiors. a balcony overlooking the river and it’s home to the yachts and The houses started in 2012, and Winch now employs aviation department, which employs 34 designers split equally around 50 staff in the buildings division, including 15 between sea and sky. This is the lair of Spanish naval architect architects. Again, it was repeat business that started the Ignacio Oliva-Velez, head of yacht design, who explains the bighouses – and understanding the clientele: the typical Winch yacht design process in a nutshell. The builder or a naval client may have around seven houses, one yacht – and two architect working on its behalf will provide Winch with a bare private jets. His ‘n’ hers, obviously... “We have patrons rather hull, often to a standard design. This “platform” is everything than clients,” he says. “Everything we do is unique.” but that hull, and from that point on it’s all down to the designer. Tenders have seen huge development over the last decade “From the waterline up it’s ours,” as Ignacio puts it. The design or two: the Winch studio is currently designing half a dozen schedule is set by the shipyard programme, but anything from limo tenders for different yachts. Beach landers are also three to nine months might be typical popular: “If you’re landing to go to on a 200ft (60m) sailing yacht. a smart restaurant, you don’t want “We are usually changing the design to turn up in wet trousers. They are “We have patrons until the very last moment,” says also good as you can wheel a pram Ignacio. “Like those last stitches going straight off – and the baby won’t rather than clients. into a dress as the model starts walking wake up!” Everything we do down the catwalk at a fashion show!” Andrew clearly breathes the We walk through the storerooms of high, thin air of a different world, is unique.” samples, a wonderland of timber but he’s reassuringly normal. He’s a Andrew Winch pieces, fabrics, fossilised snails and kindly, gentle soul with the sort of more... Willy Wonka’s factory. twinkle that suggests the inner child Andrew and marketing manager Joe has made a den in his soul and is Clarke have appeared now, and we refusing ever to leave. And his own head across the courtyard to Winch Design’s neighbour, a tastes are far more earthly: in addition to his motorboat and riverside Rick Stein. We stop briefly to look at a wall of framed sailing yacht, both under 30ft (9.1m), he is still happily awards. Andrew points out Hetairos – the last wooden boat built married to his first wife Jane, who managed the company for by Abeking & Rasmussen. “The thing that inspires me about its first three decades, and has more grandchildren (two now, wood is its ability to be made by hand,” he says. The 1993 Bruce three by Christmas) than houses; not to mention the new King hull was “built by men who had previously built puppy. Andrew, Jane and the directors of Winch Design have minesweepers for the German Navy.” Andrew rarely works in now created the Winch Employee Ownership Trust and wood these days, despite a childhood sailing and building Andrew, now nearing 65, is remaining at Winch Design as wooden boats – including a Hunter Sonata. But it’s clear he’d ‘Founder and Trustee’, but leaving much of the running of the jump at the chance: “The smell when you go into a boatyard is company to its existing management. so sweet. A wooden boat comes out fair, or close to it. Steel Winch Design has taken on 33 more staff since the needs so much fairing with putty. Wood is stronger and stiffer pandemic, despite the downturn in private jets it has caused. than aluminium or steel if built well. Only carbon fibre is stiffer.” The company is now working on 11 motoryachts ranging Over a giant, grilled Dover sole, Andrew casts his mind back to from 200ft (60m) to the 728ft (222m) yacht Somnia, the his first private project: the interior and exterior of a Swan 36, over largest yacht ever conceived. Then there are three big sailing three decades ago, with German Frers as naval architect. “I sloped yachts, 60ft and 55ft production yachts for Jenneau, a private the back of the deckhouse so you can recline against it. It also jet and 12 residential and commercial properties. The team had the first sugar scoop stern fitted to a cruising yacht – they’d recently completed a Seyhchelles marina resort and a sevendone it on racing yachts before for weight saving, but never on a storey house in Cape Town. The company’s tally to date is 48 cruising yacht. They sold 110 of these things. They were about motor yachts, 38 sailing yachts, 27 aircraft and 22 buildings. £100,000 at the time – the most expensive yacht in the world Andrew’s immediate plans are much simpler – he’s looking then for its size. My next commission was a 140-footer!” forward to a fortnight in Emsworth with his two dayboats.

CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

Left: Fred Mortimer, the inspiration for Mr Pike in Jack London’s (right) novel The Mutiny of the Elsinore

ON THE TRAIL OF THE REAL MR PIKE Fred Mortimer, one of the last sailors of the age of sail, inspired Jack London to create the character Mr Pike in The Mutiny of The Elsinore WORDS LAURENT CHARPENTIER PHOTOGRAPHS JACK LONDON AND THE HUNTINGTON LIBRARY, SAN MARINO CALIFORNIA

CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

;

THE SEARCH FOR MR PIKE mile trip to Seattle, via Cape Horn, to experience a way of life that would soon be history. “To me, any ship is a dream ship. One of the utter wonders of the world,” wrote Charmian in her diary. The JPL 511, ALB 73, P33 HUNTINGTON LIBRARY, SAN MARINO, CA

148 days they spent on board were an invigorating retreat and served to provide material for a future novel. Qualified sailors by then preferred the metronomic comfort of steamships, so the crew of the Dirigo, around 30 men, was mostly made up of raw recruits; “landlubbers and weaklings” as Charmian put it sarcastically. The Londons quickly developed a relationship of mutual respect with Mortimer: the novelist was already famous for his prolific literary output which included White Fang and Call of the Wild and he and Charmain were awed by Mortimer’s ability to fashion a crew of 30 green men into a team capable of guiding an enormous sailing ship across oceans. It was a productive time for Jack, who added 1,000 words daily

to the book he was working on – The Valley of the Moon. By May, the ship was rounding Cape Horn, gaining a sight of the snow-covered rock.

ailor Fred Mortimer never wrote his memoirs, so

Above: A Jack

he could have remained an anonymous man of

London snap of

sea, eternally taciturn, admired by his peers for his

Fred Mortimer

tell you, I’ve made this passage more times than I can

skills as a navigator and steely eye, but unknown

aboard the Dirigo

remember, and I haven’t laid eyes on that island since

“Gee – you folk are lucky,” Mortimer told the couple. “I

1882! The fog has never raised.” The four-masted ship,

to other earthlings. However, his wandering life left a paper trail, thanks to a handful of journalists and writers, including

Below: Charmian

carrying the burden of its own decline – a cargo of 2,600

novelist Jack London and his wife Charmian.

with the couple’s

tons of coal – cleared the area a few days later.

Our sailor’s name first appeared on 31 August, 1887 in

dog Possum

“Mortimer, who looks much younger than his age, 62, is

The Sun, a New York daily. A five-line article towards the

a dark, scowling Popeye living without Olive Oyl, his

back tells that the 36-year-old “Second Mate F Mortimer

fiancée. His die-hard smoker’s cough wakes his guests up

of the ship St Francis was up for examination yesterday,

at night, when it isn’t the scraping of his footsteps pacing

before Commissioner Griffiths, charged with beating and

the poop, right over their heads, when he’s on watch.

maltreating Joseph Miller, a sailor.” This took place during the voyage of this three-masted

“The character’s whole shell of roughness cracks when he unwraps his phonograph and lovingly takes out his

wooden clipper from San Francisco to New York, passing

classical music records. This is the case on 28 June,

Cape Horn in the middle of the southern winter. Two

sailing up the Pacific, when he gives the crew a full concert

decades later, on 13 April, 1908, in the Pacific Commercial

performed under a huge moon... He became human and

Advertiser, a daily in Honolulu, Hawaii, an article states

thoughtful, his mighty frame untensed from the stresses

that the Andrew Welch, a 184ft (56m) steel three-master,

of his profession and his major disappointment in life.”

had just crossed from San Francisco in 10 days, 17 hours

Jack shares the same impression as his wife. “We

and 45 minutes. Averaging 200 miles a day, the sailing

could not be in better hands than Mortimer’s. The more I

ship carrying 1,270 tons of general cargo had

see of that iron-fisted old fellow, the more I admire and

sensationally matched the speed of the steamers that

pity him. A grand old mariner, who somehow missed the

normally plied that line. Mortimer was chief officer.

high seat and must always do the bidding of a master

Tall and muscular of silhouette, Mortimer sailed for

above him.” A year and a half later, Jack London released

more than four decades. With his tanned complexion and eagle gaze, he had mastered the rigging of the greatest hauliers of his era, and their crews; by force if necessary.

only paper to have devoted a portrait to him, we read that Fred Mortimer went to sea a teenager and, passing from schooners to clippers, grew up gaining the respect of his peers. “His home is on the ship he sails, yet he is at home in nearly any harbor in the world,” adds the article.

SAILING WITH THE LONDONS It was in Baltimore that Jack and wife Charmian London met Mortimer. On 1 March 1912, the couple (with Nakata their Japanese servant and Possum, a fox-terrier) embarked the Dirigo, an American steel, four-masted barque of 312ft (95m). Aware of the impending end of tall ships in favour of steamers, they chose this 18,000-

CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

JPL511, ALB73, P34, HUNTINGTON LIBRARY, SAN MARINO, CA

He was born around 1851, but we know nothing of his childhood. In the Baltimore Sun on 21 March 1926, the

;

JPL511, ALB73, P10 HUNTINGTON LIBRARY, SAN MARINO, CA

THE SEARCH FOR MR PIKE

Above: Crew work aboard the Dirigo. Mortimer can be seen on the right

(right) with the helmsman of the Dirigo, taken by Jack London Below left: St Francis Below right: Setting sail

JPL511, ALB73, P8 HUNTINGTON LIBRARY, SAN MARINO, CA

JPL511, ALB73, P5 HUNTINGTON LIBRARY, SAN MARINO, CA

Left: Mortimer

CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

THE SEARCH FOR MR PIKE IMPRESSED INTO STEAM Mortimer was forced to embark on British steam cargo JPL511, ALB73, P39 HUNTINGTON LIBRARY, SAN MARINO, CA

ships. For the first time, this insatiable canvas torch had to contend with the noise and smell of machines, as second captain, until the US joined the war. Over 22 Atlantic crossings, Mortimer learned to loathe steamships. “Too many bosses and too little sport aboard the steamer,” he told the Baltimore Sun as an epitaph to the experience. By the 1920s, sailing cargo had become so rare that the sight of a sailing ship made the press, making it possible to follow Mortimer’s nomadic trail. On April 12, 1925, the Tampa Sunday Tribute reported that the threemasted barque Belmont had docked carrying 1,800 tons of guano, two cats, a dog, a flock of pigeons and 17 men including an old man from the age of sailing; Mortimer. In 1926, the Baltimore Sun boarded the four-master Cecil P Stewart in port to interview Fred Mortimer, then The Mutiny of the Elsinore, a novel inspired by this voyage

Above: All hands

75. Mortimer disappointingly taciturn, summed up his life

around the Horn, in which he gives protagonist Mr Pike

to the windlass

as “A couple of shipwrecks, a few little mutinies, a lot of

the traits and personality of Fred Mortimer.

aboard the Dirigo

voyages and a lot of work.”

FIGHTING LIKE DOGS

Below: Jack

MORTIMER’S TRAGIC LAST VOYAGE

On a later voyage to Japan aboard the Dirigo, Barney

London wrote a

Mortimer’s last voyage sparked articles from the New York

Burnett, a windy topman, quick and nimble in body and

number of

Times to the Boston Globe and many locals. The Wausau

mind, shipped aboard as mate of the port watch. “I was

nautical classics

Daily Record-Herald of Wisconsin published a photo of ‘Mr

not sorry a bit, for although hard, Mortimer was a good

alongside his

Pike’ as the papers then called him, on 4 August, 1926,

man,” he wrote. The nine-month journey involved a

tales of the North

smiling but emaciated, as dry as a buccaneer without

bloodless collision with a Japanese three-master, and a

American

booty, aboard the four-master Kingsway, his fourth ship in

typhoon during the return leg in ballast. Barney records

frontiers

18 months, bound for the African coast in timber.

the preparation for the typhoon as follows : “‘Mr. Mortimer!’ Captain Mallett shouted through his megaphone. ‘You can send down on deck the sks’l and royal yards, then lower your t’gallant masts and lash

66, failed to win over his crew, not least Mortimer. “He nursed a grudge because he was not made

everything!’ What an order! Few men today could carry

master after the death of the ship’s first captain,” Lawry

its equivalent, yet Mr Mortimer never blenched. He executed

later affirmed in a New York court. “Sometimes the crew

that tremendous piece of seamanship with the ease born

obeyed his orders in preference to mine.”

of complete knowledge of the problem at hand. Hardboiled,

A new cook, 24-year-old Earl Battice, joined the ship in

yes. Hard, undoubtedly. But without question, Fred

Puerto Rico, insisting that his wife accompany him. Out of

Mortimer deserves to be on the scroll of immortal seamen

jealousy, Battice slaughtered her on 5 February 1927, south

for that day’s performance on a square rigged ship.”

of the Cape Verdes. The crew bound the murderer in irons

The Dirigo’s next trip, in 1915, was to Karma, Sweden,

and on they sailed, unable to offload their criminal.

in barley. Even for a ship under a neutral flag, venturing

Meanwhile, Mortimer’s health began to deteriorate on 29

into European waters in the midst of global conflict was

May. He, who loved to lie down on the poop in the

not without risks, and an imposing American flag was

evening to gaze at the stars, retired to his cabin with a

painted on the hull of the four-master. Barney Burnett

fever. The old man without a family stopped eating. His

decided to re-embark anyway for a salary of $25 a month.

feet and legs swelled as he continued to smoke cigarette

During the first night at anchor, a fight broke out in

after cigarette. According to the logbook, copied by The

the crew station at 5am. “I saw Mr Mortimer and Jack

Evening Independent, Lawry gave him milk and whiskey

Malone, the second mate, fighting like very dogs,”

three times a day and set sail for Barbados to see a

wrote Burnett. “They were liquored up to a point

doctor. But Mortimer would never set foot on terra

where there was no stopping them. And, with the

firma again, dying shortly afterwards at sea. The

skipper still ashore, the ship was theirs.” Other than a

arrival of the Kingsway in New York caused a

few bruises, the incident left no mark. By 2 March the next year, Dirigo had reached the Shetland Islands in northern Scotland. Suddenly, around midnight, after five and a half months without touching land, the ship was boarded by the

The ship’s captain Chase became ill and disembarked in Florida where he died. His replacement Frederick Lawry,

sensation: the cook was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment. The death of Mortimer, 76, initially considered suspicious, did not lead to prosecution. In California, Charmian London, Jack’s widow since 1916, learned of the sailor’s disappearance in

Royal Navy. The admiralty was concerned that such

a newspaper, without knowing the details. In her

a large amount of barley will be delivered to a port

diary she wrote: “We became fond of him on the

so small and so close to Germany. The Dirigo was

Dirigo for his sterling figure of a passing tribe of men

seized, the cargo confiscated and one of the

who sailed the renowned American clipper ships. I like

sailors, a German citizen, sent to prison. Mortimer

to see him now with face wiped clean of its furrows,

would suffer a different fate.

mastering his own ships in Elysian waters!”

CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

LESSONS IN SCHOONERING For a top racing skipper with two transats under his belt, sailing a schooner to Haiti was going to be a piece of cake – right? WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS CHRIS MUSELER

very new experience brings anxieties that lighten the stomach and clutter the brain. My first adventure aboard the schooner Charlotte in 2015 provoked more than a fair share of these. A course of anti-malaria pills and a pre-dawn departure from JFK that ended in the trash-choked, shoulder-to-shoulder bustling streets of Port au Prince was just the start. By the time my travel companion and I left our security escort and shook off the salt spray from a six-mile skiff ride to Isle a Vache, I could have kissed Charlotte’s wide, hourglass transom in relief. Nat Benjamin, the co-proprietor of Gannon and Benjamin Marine Railway on Martha’s Vineyard and Charlotte’s designer and builder, invited me on his humanitarian mission to this little-known, impoverished but stunning gem of the West Indies. He had buttered me up, excited to sail with me for the first time. I am a champion racing sailor and have sailed more than 15,000 miles offshore with two Transatlantic races to my credit. He had been asking me to sail with him for years and this was the golden opportunity. Hired to be the backup captain of Charlotte was Ian Ridgeway. The then-30 year-old is a former captain of

CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

the schooner Alabama, and a student of the legendary Captain Bob Douglas, sailing master of the Shenandoah, another grand training and tour schooner on Martha’s Vineyard. Ridgeway is one of the best in the business despite his youth and has spent his adult life teaching all walks of life the ways of the schooner. He even brought his childhood friend, Bo Petersen, who was a mate aboard Alabama, to share the adventure. Our efforts brought clothes to orphans, art supplies to the community centre and tools to the subsistence fishermen to maintain their beach-built sloops. The following provisioning stop in Jamaica and our momentous entry into Cuba on the day President Obama further opened diplomatic relations with the socialistas had me well outside my comfort zone. As for the two ocean passages that linked these outrageous destinations? No problem. “I got this,” I thought to myself. Well, I didn’t, as it turned out. From the morning we left that little island with no electricity or roads, until I was rowed away from Charlotte for the last time in Cienfuegos on the south coast of Cuba, there wasn’t one instinct I had aboard this cozy, unintimidating schooner that was sound. And after more than 10 days

CLASSIC BOATSEPTEMBER 2021

VOYAGE TO HAITI living, transiting and exploring with two professional schooner captains and their first mate, I realised I had been given a master class in schoonering.

hatch to the lit binnacle to keep his night vision and followed a star through the rigging. His confidence produced pure enjoyment. I wasn’t as relaxed. The following day, refuelling in Port Antonio, Jamaica, I was too eager. Before I had a chance to bring a fuel jug aboard, Ridgeway stopped me while Petersen hurried over with the boat’s saltwater hose to wet down the silver Bali cockpit sole. Any spills would cruise along the wet surface and down the scupper.

SKINNING THE CAT From the pokiest of cruising boats to the latest carbon fibre canting-keelers, modern sailing boats have a common thread in terms of sailing systems. Most are sloop-rigged, and the owner of a Hunter 336 can take a day sail aboard the Sydney to Hobart Racewinning Wild Oats XI and know how to use one of the winches or halyard clutches. Equipment on modern boats is “off-the-shelf” and the efficiency of these products has lead to standard sail-handling practices. Even reefing systems, whether electric or manual, are well understood by the average sailor. This is my world. Traditional, or older, wooden boats, particularly schooners, are a mixed bag. Every boat demands a different treatment and has its signature way of being managed. Owners add their preferences after years of intimate sailing and manoeuvering. Charlotte is a well-known 50-footer (15m) that has been plying her trade as a charter boat between her birthplace in Martha’s Vineyard and the Caribbean since she came off the G&B railway in Vineyard Haven Harbor in 2007. Like just about every schooner, she is custom, a one-off. And though Benjamin has allowed a few comforts, conceding a few self-tailing winches in key locations, the gaff main and foresail have the traditional manual controls of sway hooks and pin rails. “Charlotte is a working-class boat,” says Benjamin of his personal schooner. “But she is also a yacht and has winches. She has a gaff main but that’s not a major difference. There’s a general way these boats are sailed, a universal order in the way things are done, but there are more options. Every captain has different techniques.” My indoctrination into schoonering aboard Charlotte came in the most benign situation. I jumped in to take sail ties off as we were preparing to sail off the anchor in Haiti. I gathered them up and looped them through themselves once, like a luggage tag, one by one on the port side handrail. By the second tie, Ridgeway stepped around the mast and gently grabbed one. “Thanks, Chris,” Ridgeway said with a gentle smile. “Is this okay?” I asked. “That’s fine, but we like to double them up before we put them on the handrail. It keeps them from flapping around too much against the varnish.” I must have had a momentary look of confusion when he said, “There’s more than one way to skin a cat.” I determined to do better, but my next move saw me hoisting the main throat halyard too quickly. Then I put it the wrong way around the sway hook. I tried to redeem myself by coiling the nearly 80ft (26m) long halyard but hung the finished product with a clove hitch. Wrong again. “You want to use a hanging coil,” said Ridgeway. “When we need to get this down fast, we don’t want to be messing with knota.” The Windward Passage between Jamaica and Cuba did not produce its famed heavy trade winds and we slid along sailing and motor sailing. I was all eyes and ears, and had plenty of lessons two write down. Ridgeway casually rested his hand on one of Charlotte’s wheel spokes under the starry night. He had closed the 50

CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

Above: Coconut refreshment

DEBATABLE OR ABSOLUTE? Ridgeway and Benjamin’s approach to managing Charlotte was a collaborative effort. Though the type has been around for more than a century, skippers and crews pick up tricks and add to their quiver of sailing ideas. “He watched pretty closely,” says Benjamin of Ridgeway. “If he disagreed, he’d ask. He bought into the programme with few exceptions.” He added that they were always transferring ideas. Working boats like the Alabama operate differently to a yacht. The Alabama is sailed quite conservatively, with little attention paid to sail trim. “We sail Charlotte to the best of her ability,” says Benjamin. “The boat is more responsive. I’d come up on deck and could tell instantly if something was over sheeted. This wouldn’t make much of a difference on Alabama.” Differences of opinion on sail trim aboard Charlotte and other schooners are often welcome aboard schooners. Where things are left and how the sheets and halyards are ‘finished,’ however, is generally not up for debate. “One of the most important things you can do is to have a consistency of practices,” says Nicholas Alley, captain of the 1930s bermudan schooner schooner Brilliant, out of Mystic, Connecticut. “Lines go to the same place and are done in the same way. On the

Ian ridgeway’s notes on ropes Tugboat hitch The tugboat hitch, as the name implies, is used commonly on tugboats for their hawsers or tow lines. It is able to endure any amount of load without compromising the strength of the line, but it can also be slipped quickly or eased under any amount of load. The knot is tied by taking four turns around a bit or piling then bringing bights of line up and over the line, making half turns in alternate directions around the line and the bit. Four of these turns in alternating directions is more than adequate. Buntline hitch (used on Charlotte’s topsail) The purpose of the buntline hitch to secure a line to a sail, flag, etc, is that it allows the object being hitched to get as close as possible to a block or sheave. It’s tied by bringing the line through a grommet or around an object then tying two half hitches around the line, working toward the object being hitched to. Hanging Coil This coil, also called a ‘halyard coil’ is used for lines to be hung from a cleat or belaying pin. Start with the end next to the cleat or pin and work clockwise unless the line is left-hand laid (very rare) or braided. Make as many equal length turns as it takes to use up all the line with the bitter end hanging down past the coil so it can’t foul. Once done, reach through the coil and grab a 10-18in bight of line next to the pin or cleat and pull it through the coil. Give it a clockwise twist or two and loop the end on the cleat or pin.

Clockwise from top left: Jamaican landfall; Captain Ian Ridgeway dips underway from the bobstay; Provisioning in Port Antonio alongside the Herreshoff schooner Mariette; Nat Benjamin off watch

VOYAGE TO HAITI

proverbial dark and stormy night, you want to know that this line is made off on this pin in this way even though you can’t see it.” . Benjamin’s approach to passage-making is laid back until it is time to go. Then his ‘up and going’ approach starts a methodical deconstructing of a pier-based ship and starts construction of an ocean-going home. He gives the crew the leeway to manage the boat and themselves on their own, within reason. Order is important and efficiency of movement, physical movement, is a hallmark as Nat will pick up a bucket on his way from stern to foremast. Next the scrub brush, then a slight reach to turn on the spigot before he reaches his destination, a neatly coiled hose tucked behind the foremast pin rail. A quick wash down then removes the grime of Port Antonio. Aboard Charlotte, the philosophy of leaving when the sailing conditions are good avoids the pitfalls of scheduled departure, or worse, arrival dates. Deadlines often put mariners in compromising weather situations. He is a purist in many ways, wanting to sail no matter what, but Benjamin is a master at motor-sailing. He balances the sails and the boat to reduce pressure on the helm, lessen the oceanic roll and puts the engine in a diesel-sipping condition that can be felt in pleasant harmonic vibrations through the teak cockpit sole on your feet. Before coming onto watch, Benjamin methodically walks through his log checklist. Torch in hand, he quietly peaks under a floorboard, looks at the chart plotter and paper chart, and pokes his head out of the companionway hatch for a 360-degree look. Then, in the antithesis of his departure routine, he sits almost motionless, carefully filling in his watch log. In meticulous print he documents: course, speed, wind direction/force, bilge, barometer, engine hours and sails. Every four hours, Benjamin and his opposite watch captain diligently capture the same data. As the sun sets, the hose comes out again and the decks are hosed down with salt water to maintain the integral strength they provide by swelling to meet each other. The salt also doubles as a preservative. The carvel-planked, cedar dinghy, one of Benjamin’s first designs and creations, gets a shower, too. This is like watching your neighbor smartly watering plants at night. You know they are astute and you smile as they make their way around their garden, knowing that this is why the grass is greener on the other side. The day before we arrived in Cuba, Benjamin broke out a diminutive topsail sleeved over a carbon windsurfing 52

CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

Above left: First mate Bo Petersen sorts fresh provisions after a six-hour round trip to a grocery store Above right: Nat Benjamin’s detailed log includes running times of the bilge pump

spar to potentially add a half-knot to our reaching speed. Ridgeway reached in to tie the halyard to the spar and produced a buntline hitch, a rolled knot specifically designed to save space where a sail or spar meets its halyard block. My overhand knot suggestion added two inches and was harder to undo. My only value came when I finally mentioned a hard spot below the throat of the foresail. It was bugging me. And as Ridgeway shrugged his shoulders, Benjamin looked up, focused on the spot. We played with the peak and throat until it almost went smooth. “It’s refreshing to have you on board,” said Benjamin before he went off watch that day. “I love getting the most out of the sails. That’s part of the challenge and reward.” I may not speak the language of schoonering yet, but the vernacular I gained on Charlotte will be understood by my children aboard our little schooner at home as I transfer some of the lessons and learned each year in New England. Maybe the next time I ship aboard a big schooner, I can say, “I got this,” and mean it. Since this was written, Chris has sailed his own schooner Magic the breadth of the eastern seaboard between Maine and the Exumas. Nat Benjamin continues to sail Charlotte and has built a community garden and boat building operation for the locals of Isle a Vasche. Ridgeway is championing a new-build 100ft (30m) training schooner for experiential learning with a program called FUEL and Bo Peterson finally became a medical professional practicing emergency medicine in California.

Nat Benjamin’s next challenge Nat and friends continue to sail Charlotte, making passages to the low latitudes whenever possible. He and his better half, Pam, have been working with the Centre Communite in Kay Koq, Ile a Vache, Haiti. They have started a music and art programme for local kids and raised money for two community gardens. They have also contributed to a solar-powered water pump to bring potable water to the village. The next challenge is to build a slipway and boatbuilding shop where traditional boats can be built and repaired and visiting yachts hauled and maintained.

Tax deductible donations may be made to their non-profit organization, Sense of Wonder Creations, PO Box 1558, Vineyard Haven, Ma 02568

CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

PORQUEROLLES CLASSIQUE

THE ISLE OF LIGHT Off the French Mediterranean coast, famed for the big regattas at Cannes, Saint-Tropez and Antibes, a smaller regatta has been hiding in plain sight – for 18 years WORDS JACK KELLEHER PHOTOS STUDIO PORQUEROLLES/YCP

louds of creamy topsail, steeped in the scent of needle pines, wild herbs and sea salt; piercing bows crossing like swords on sparkling blue swell. Spirited trials in the day, spirits and smiles in the evening, while cicadas sing and the crews reminisce: there is a comforting timelessness to the Mediterranean classic circuit, especially after a year of loss and frustration. But among the parade of wellknown names from Marseille to Saint-Tropez lies a unique gem of an event, timed perfectly this year to take advantage of easing restrictions: Porquerolle’s Classique, a three-day entry on the official calendar of the Association Francaise des Yachts de Tradition(AFYT), run by the Porquerolles Yacht Club (YCP). In a normal year, 40-50 yachts spend a long weekend competing in the bay and around the island. Even in 2021, in an event staged just days after the 9 June loosening of health rules, 36 pedigree yachts nestled into the tiny harbour. They ranged from the local ‘enfant terrible’ Alcyon 1871 (CB308), to the towering Fife 15-Metre Tuiga, and all three of the P-Class yachts in commission – and tested their mettle on a challenging set of light-wind courses.

THE GOLDEN ISLES Porquerolles’ history is as eventful as those of the craft taking part. The westernmost of three isles known collectively as the Îles d’Or – the Golden Isles, which together represent the southernmost point of mainland France – Porquerolles bears the marks of many passing civilisations, including the Celts, Etruscans, Ligurians, Ancient Greek and Romans. The isles long represented a 54

CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

major protection point for the approach to Toulon harbour, which was and remains a key base for the French Navy. Lookouts and gunneries of all ages dot the lush hills, many still bearing the scars of the Second World War, in which the isles represented the first foothold for Allied special forces retaking southern Europe in 1944. Porquerolles has its share of romantic history, too. The island was bought in 1912 by François Joseph Fournier, an accomplished Belgian explorer and founder of silver mines in Mexico, as a wedding present for his wife. His grand estate survives as the Mas du Langoustier hotel, run to this day by his descendants, including YCP founder Sebastien Le Ber. Fournier planted 200 hectares of vines that formed the backbone of the Domaine de L’Île vineyard, one of two now on the island, which produce red, white, and notably exceptional rosé wines. (Domaine de L’Île now belongs to Chanel, which released their first interpretation of the wine in 2019.) The island was a favourite of the post-war jet set and Jean-Luc Godard used it as a location for his 1965 film Pierrot le Fou. Today, an intoxicating spirit of the ‘old’ Riviera, recalling the spirits of Fitzgerald and Hemingway, pervades the island. The French government bought a large portion of Porquerolles in 1971, and much of it now forms part of the larger Parc National de Port Cros, a protected nature reserve that provides immunity to overdevelopment and modernisation, while ensuring Porquerolles remains of conservation and marine management. An annual jazz festival in the hilltop fort, the prestigious art museum at the Fondation Carmignac, and a variety of native artists and artisans maintain a thriving cultural scene.

PORQUEROLLES CLASSIQUES

Tuiga looses her spinnaker; France rounds Les Medes rocks at full steam; The fleet points for Hyères; Jericho passes Palynodie II on the way to the committee boat CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

PORQUEROLLES CLASSIQUES

PORQUEROLLE’S REGATTAS In the midst of this charm, the YCP, founded by Mr Le Ber in 1986, runs a variety of regattas. The wide Rade d’Hyeres (well known in international competition for its fine winds and moderate fetch) allows windward-leeward courses in the bay, while the isle offers entertaining roundthe-island races, including an overnight full-moon jaunt in September. The most unusual of these is the Porquerolle’s Cup, a whimsical May/June event for all-comers. First raced in the 1950s and revived by the YCP, the race is staged around the island in a direction decided by skippers the evening before the start. All contestants begin sitting on the beach. At the clap of a cannon, the crews sprint seawards and swim to their anchored boats in a scramble which recalls classic Le Mans starts. The results are announced at a grand party in the village square. Only then may one register protests, as described in Article XVI of the NOR: “Orally at low volume… during the course of a meal that [the protester] must offer to Committee members in the three days following the race. The quality of the meal… will permit the race committee to make a fully impartial decision.” Decisions are without appeal, and are returned within three years of the dinner’s conclusion. Porquerolle’s Classic was raced in 2003 to celebrate the centenary of Moonbeam of Fife. This year’s edition – the first classic regatta in the Mediterranean for 2021 – saw 36 boats compete in 3 classes, designated as ‘Marconi Era’ (17 entrants), ‘Classic Marconi’ (10), and ‘Golden Age’ (9). Lulu (1897), 124 years old and a perennial entrant, was the oldest. Ganbare, a 1973 Doug Peterson 56

CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

Top: Jour de Fête leads the fleet past the Plage de Notre Dame Above: Corinthian’s crew sweat the lines for a little more power

Above: Bruno Bich

One-Ton Cup racer, was the youngest. The influence of Bruno Troublé, longtime friend of the club, was ably represented by the P-Class yachts Chips, Olympian and Corinthian and the Q-Class Jour de Fête. Three days of racing offered exciting, if light, conditions. The first day, over a triangular 8.7-mile course, Jour de Fête led the Marconi-era boats, while the 1971 S&S sloop Sagittarius took honours in the Classic Marconi category, and the beautiful Fife cutter Eva coasted home to win the Golden Age class, building on a class win in 2019. Day two began with a moving tribute to Bruno Bich, the late BIC tycoon and sponsor to the first America’s Cup challenge outside the English-speaking world, who died on 1 of June. The 12M yacht France, a returning competitor, led the fleet to the start line, her crew on the rail for a minute of silence, during which they scattered rose petals on the water. It was only fitting that France should then cross the finish line first over the 15.7-mile course. Chips and Olympian took first and second in class respectively, pushing Eva to third, while Jour de Fête and Sagittarius maintained their class leads. The final day of racing saw the much-anticipated round-the-island course. With a settled 10-knot breeze gusting to 15, all canvas was flying. On the boat of this year’s chief sponsor, data management company Generis Enterprise Technology, spectators were treated to a procession of spinnaker hauls as each boat came off a beam reach and ran the length of the southern coast. A while later, Chips and Olympian crept for the finish line in a thrilling battle of wits in the dying breeze. The red and green P-Classes crossed in appropriate port and starboard configuration. When all was counted, were upsets across the fleet. Jour de Fête, slipping in at 8th, finished 3rd overall in class, behind the 1951 Nicholas Potter California 32 Andale and Med circuit veteran Windhover (1904). Sagittarius lost her place to S&S sloop Espar II, and Eva ghosted into second between Chips and Olympian. YCP secretary Aurélie l’Huilier says that while increasing its reach, the club “wants to maintain as professional an organisation as ever, without losing the warm welcome that makes our events memorable.” The famous regatta dinner, normally held for up to 200 among the vines, will return from hiatus next year. The club is keen to bring more regular participants to come and experience a glimpse of these yachts in their natural habitat, almost their own era. And some of the best rosé in the region.

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GOING WITH THE FLOW We’ve admired Nick Smith’s fiercely traditional gent’s harbour launches for years – finally, it was time to hear their story and have a go in one WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS NIC COMPTON

Above: Nick Smith (standing) and owner Pete Gough take Flow for a spin off Brixham

HARBOUR LAUNCH

ick Smith has more reason to believe in destiny than most. His life was transformed by a chance encounter on a beach on the Isle of Wight one fateful day 30 years ago, and he has been reaping the benefits ever since. It was 1991 and Nick had moved from Devon to the Isle of Wight to work with Harry Spencer on the restoration of the 1896 Camper & Nicholson cutter Avel. One bitter cold winter’s day while he was taking a walk around Newtown Creek he spotted an old clinker boat dragged up on a slipway. He had already seen the boat before on a mooring and been struck by her shape. “I guess she was originally a ship’s boat, but there was something about her that was just right,” he remembers. “The hull had sagged and twisted, but you could see that she had been built right.” Despite the cold, he rushed home and got some plywood, some string, a tape measure and a pencil and lofted the body sections from the boat then and there. The following year he built a 16ft 4in (5m) boat to the design for himself, straightening the lines to get rid of the wracking and to rediscover the boat’s original hull shape. It turned out it wasn’t that different from the workboats he grew up with in his home town of Salcombe. And so, by combining her lines with the styling and scantlings he knew so well, he was able to create a traditional-looking launch with his own distinctive stamp on it. He’s been building boats based on that idea ever since. Some have been longer, some shorter, and he had to make space to fit an engine, as the original didn’t have

CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

Above: Flow has plenty of space inside. Her transom is made of oak, though Nick often uses mahogany or poplar instead

FLOW LENGTH

17ft 11in (3.6m) BEAM

6ft 4in (1.9m) DRAUGHT

16in (0.4m) WEIGHT

1,433lb (650kg)

one, but all are loosely based on the shape of the boat he came across in Newtown, tweaked and adjusted with every new commission. “Each boat is different, because every sheer line is different, depending on how I eyeball it in the workshop,” he explains. “Different workshops produce a different shape. One workshop was so small I had to cut a hole in the wall just so I could see the boat from the side. But in each case you never really know what it’s going to turn out like until it’s on the water. I build them all for myself really, even if they have been commissioned. The internal layout is up to the customer, but if they want a console and a bathing platform then forget it. I won’t do it.” Nick started his boatbuilding career aged 16 with a four-year apprenticeship at the now famous Edgar Cove Boatyard in Salcombe – starting the very same year that Concorde started flying commercially, to give you a sense of the timescale. As part of that apprenticeship he built a pretty 8ft (2.6m) clinker pram dinghy called Clover, which is still in use in nearby Noss Mayo. Apart from that, for the next 12 years he only built one other boat from scratch: Bumble, a copy of the classic 12ft (3.6m) Edgar Cove hire boats, with their unusually pointy bows. The rest of the time he worked as a jobbing shipwright, repairing and restoring boats in the UK and overseas, including stints in Australia and West Africa, until his fateful encounter with the ship’s boat at Newtown. Since then, he has produced a remarkable variety of boats based on the same basic premise. From a 17ft

Main picture: Nick built the 20ft Bamboo Viper on the Isle of Wight in 2004. She’s now based in Salcombe

Above from top left: Halloween dinghy rebuild 2015; Oracle 18ft Thames launch 2019; Moiety, first own launch 1992-6; Mona Louise 2010 & Isla (halfdecker) 2015, both 16ft

CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

HARBOUR LAUNCH spray out. There’s no flare to speak of, but the hull is full enough forward to just shoulder the waves out of the way. And the clinker planking does ‘flow’ beautifully – as you’d expect from a builder with Nick’s experience. Like most of Nick’s boats, Flow has khaya mahogany planking on steamed frames made from locally-sourced oak. The keel is made of iroko for durability, while the transom is oak – though Nick is just as likely to use poplar or mahogany, depending what he has in stock. Inside, the boat is fitted out entirely in oak and mahogany, apart from the Douglas fir gunwale. As this boat was built on spec, Nick fitted a simple set of three thwarts, with the forward thwart extending forward to make it easier to get on and off and provide dry storage space under. The engine box is located immediately aft of the middle thwart. Other versions of the boat have proper fore and aft decks with closed locker storage underneath, but the open version gives a greater feeling of space. Flow is fitted with a 14hp Beta – which Nick believes creates less vibration than the Yanmars which he’s used up until now – to give an estimated 6 knots cruising speed.

ENGLISH RIVIERA

(5.2m) tender for a super yacht, to an 18ft (5.4m) day boat for the Thames and several 20-footers now resident in Salcombe. He’s even built a 20ft (6.1m) version fitted with a steam engine. Another interesting variation is the 16ft half-decker Isla, which looks exactly the same as the other boats except that the top strake has been raised by 6-10in (15-25cm) forward of amidships and decked over to create a small cabin/cuddy,with sliding hatch and a simple double berth below decks. The result is a sweet half-decked cruising yacht in miniature. I joined Nick in Brixham to try out the latest in the range: the 18ft Flow. We were joined by the boat’s owner Pete Gough, who was looking decidedly chipper about his recent purchase. A retired programme manager, Pete has enjoyed more than 30 years on sailing yachts all over the world, including three Moodys, a Hallberg Rassy and a Jeanneau, before eventually switching to ‘the dark side’ and buying a motorboat. Following a health problem he decided to sell the motorboat too, but quickly realised the error of his ways. “After a few weeks I decided I couldn’t live without a boat,” he says. “I had a look at the Wooden Ships website, which I often look at for the boat porn, and spotted this brand new wooden launch. My partner said, ‘If you see it, you’ll buy it!’ I went to see it anyway and, sure enough, on the spot said I wanted it. It’s such a gorgeous boat, as well as being functional and just the right size to take lots of people out on. Sometimes I enjoy coming down and just sitting on her.” And there’s no doubt there is something ‘just right’ about Flow. She has a jaunty sheer, with a high, proud bow that gives her a strong presence as well keeping the 62

CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

Above: In build in 2021, Lady Bird, 20ft

It was an idyllic early summer’s day when I joined Flow at her mooring in Brixham – the kind of day when the south Devon coast actually seems to deserve its title as the ‘English riviera’. My first impression stepping on board was how stable the boat was – and also how spacious. The boat’s full bilges and 6ft 4in (1.9m) beam produce a huge amount of space for an 18-footer – more than enough for a gaggle of children and grandchildren and all their associated pets and other clutter. As we powered up, the boat took off with ample acceleration, belying her 650kg displacement and the weight of three adults on board. No doubt that would slow down if the boat were more laden and her wetted surface area increased, but it was certainly fast enough with just the three of us on board. The boat turned well in open water, turning through 180° in slightly more than a boat’s length. She does have a noticeable ‘kick’ to port in reverse, but at least this is consistent which means you can use it to your advantage when manoeuvring. Although it was calm on the day we went out, it wasn’t hard to imagine that the boat would feel extremely safe in a chop – and indeed Pete has already taken her out in rough weather just to see what she was like in those conditions and reported back that she performed extremely well – though his cocker spaniel did get a bit wet peering over the bow. It’s certainly easy to envisage all kinds of uses for this sort of boat – from family days out on the river or around the coast, to yacht’s tender, fishing boat and even harbourmaster’s launch. And all because Nick was walking on a certain beach on a certain day and happened to spot a certain boat which struck a certain chord within him. If you believed in fate, you might just think it was meant to be. For more information see nicksmithboatbuilder.co.uk

Enjoy the E-motion 1000 in silence. This fully electric aluminium sloop has classical lines and colours with the modern touch. Equipped with a large battery package, touchscreen monitoring and controlling, bow thruster, toilet and refrigerator. The E-motion 1000 gives you and your company the perfect day at the water. Price 125,000 Euro including VAT. For more information visit:

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CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

By Peter Poland

INGRID ABERY

LESS THAN £10K

AFFORDABLE CLASSIC Honey Bee

CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

GUIDO CANTINI RAGDOLL PANERAI 2016

K ‘Sandy’ Balfour is not a name that often hits the headlines as a designer of classic yachts. But he was responsible for several beauties. Born in Glasgow, he served a boatbuilding apprenticeship with Harland & Wolff’s Scottish branch then joined designer David Boyd at Robertson’s yard. Here he was involved in the design of several leading 6-Metre yachts. But when the Scottish yacht design and building industry declined after the war, Balfour headed south in 1947 to become yard manager and in-house yacht designer at Berthon in Lymington. Among many Berthon-built beauties of that era, the most famous was the 50ft (15.1m) Norlethe, launched in 1949. Even though her design was attributed to the builders, Balfour was the in-house designer of this famous yacht. Commissioned by successful racing owner Ronald Burton, she now resides in Ireland under Anthony O’Leary’s ownership. Balfour later moved to the J Loynes yard at Wroxham and while working here, he achieved a design breakthrough. In 1958 the Clyde Cruising Club and Glasgow Herald ran a competition for a 28ft (8.5m) cruiser-racer design costing under £1,000 and suitable for cruising off Scotland’s west coast. Two designs headed the field; one from Sandy Balfour and another from Alan Buchanan. The judges reckoned that Balfour’s Honeybee design might cost more to build so she came second to Buchanan’s boat. However, the Honeybee 28 took off and around 60 were built by various companies, including a German yard. William Boag built the first in 1958. Her predecessor and near sister – the Queen Bee 28 – was built from 1955 in smaller numbers by yards such as Dixon Kerly. Liz and Mark Rushall (rushallsailing.com – sailing coaching, tactics and racing rules expertise) own a Honeybee 28 for cruising, relaxing and – not surprisingly – occasional classic regattas. Liz told me they often sailed on her brother’s coowned Honeybee Ragdoll. When his co-owner wanted to sell up they bought in, having just sold their Laser 5000. Liz added: “she’s a very pretty boat and full of character. At that stage in our dinghy and sports boat racing careers, we weren’t looking for a classic boat. She was just too good an opportunity to miss and everyone loved her.” On the cruising front Liz said: “One of our best trips was an ambitious tour around the St Malo Bay. It was an epic – sailing to Alderney via Cherbourg, then Jersey, calling in on sailing friends. Then down to Granville, Les Iles Chausey, St Malo, and Dahouët. Back up to the Iles de Bréhat, Tréguier and Lézardrieux. Then home via Beaucette Marina in Guernsey and Alderney, somehow all packed into just over two weeks. We’ve since learned to slow down a bit…” And is she comfortable? Liz replied “ My brother is 6ft 4in (1.9m) and can stand up below decks. Cruising with four is fine for a couple of days, although it can be a bit crowded for longer if everyone has brought full sailing bags.” Ragdoll has four good-sized berths, a heads, a galley, and a clever folding table built by Nick Gates & Co that

Opposite and top: The Honey Bee 28 Ragdoll Above: Accommodation and lines

HONEY BEE

LOA

27ft 6in (8.4m) LWL

21ft 0in (6.4m) BEAM

8ft 0in (2.4m) DRAFT

5ft (1.5m) WEIGHT

9,520lb 4,320kg

doubles up as a chart table or cockpit table and dismantles when sailing. Liz adds: “One of our best bits of kit is a Magma BBQ which attaches to the pushpit and doubles as an oven.” Nick Gates has also fitted in a fridge and battery charger. Liz sums up Ragdoll’s charm saying “By modern standards, she’s small but beautifully formed and perfect for the two of us on a cruising holiday. “We love the beautiful woodwork inside her and the detail in the laminated beams and joinery in the cabin. It’s a lovely cabin to snuggle up in with just the two of us on a rainy night with the oil lamp on.” On the racing front, Ragdoll’s best performance at the Panerai British Classics was a second in the Panerai Round the Island Race and third overall in Class Four in 2016. As with any classic, there are jobs to do. Liz commented “Nick Gates, classic boat specialist in Emsworth Marina, has been advising us and looking after Ragdoll for about 15 years. Around 12 years ago he stripped the hull right down to the bare wood and started over. “As well as building up 14+ layers of varnish, Nick renewed the floors and secured them to the keelbolts. The end result has been amazing and made her a lot more robust.” The only trouble since was caused by the first lockdown. Ten weeks spent standing in the sun led to new leaks and even after the planking had taken up, they fitted an automatic bilge pump; just in case. As Liz philosophically concluded: “I guess 2020 has affected everyone!”

CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

Getting aﬂoat

NAIANDE

Mystery Class The 39ft (11.9m) bermudan cutter Mystery Class made yacht designer Robert Clark’s name in the 1930s. The first boat was launched in 1936 from AH Moody and a further 10 were built from then until 1946 at Sussex Yacht Works, with pitch pine and mahogany planking on a frame of oak, with teak coachroof sides, cockpit and coamings. Niande was launched in 1938 and restored in Holland in 2014, with a further rigging renewal in 2017. The engine is a 2003 Volva Penta threecylinder of 30hp, first used in 2014. The interior remains original. “Something about Robert Clark’s Mystery Class yachts really catches the eye both at rest and at play,” says the broker. “It’s about an enticing mix of elegance and simplicity. This is what classic yachting should be all about.” Lying Netherlands, Asking £75,000, sandemanyachtcompany.co.uk, Tel: +44 (0)1202 330077 C/O SANDEMAN

MATAMBU

Mystery development Matambu, a Robert Clark design built by AH Moody & Sons of Swanwick in 1961, was commissioned by David Norton, who raced her under RORC, including in three Fastnets, throughout the 1960s. She is, says her broker, “a fine example both of Robert Clark’s cruiser-racer development through the mid-20th Century, and the high-quality boatbuilding and carpentry skills of AH Moody & Son.” The 37ft 5in (11.4m) sloop is an ideal size for a family to take part in regattas, staying on board between races and cruising from event to event. She’s teak planked below the water, mahogany planked above, all on rock elm frames, copper fastened. “Matambu has been lucky to receive a lifetime of just deserts and sympathetic upgrading from a handful of loving owners” continues the broker. Matambu comes fully equipped with 2016 sails, covers, Yanmar 3GM (1995, with recent top-end rebuild) and a three-bladed feathering propeller. Lying UK, Asking £58,000, sandemanyachtcompany.co.uk, Tel: +44 (0)1202 330077

To see more boats for sale go to classicboat.co.uk 66

CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

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CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

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‘AMALI’ 47’

Beautiful elegant wooden classic with unique charm, sweeping lines and topside flare. Privately commissioned and constructed using modern techniques in 1991 by Sean McMillan (now Spirit Yachts). Cedar Mahogany Teak & Ash. Fully equipped and offered in excellent condition. Two helm stations, ample entertaining areas on deck and an interior with spacious and well thought out accommodation. Sleeps 8. Semi displacement. Cruising 8 KNOT (max 12). Twin very fuel efficient Volvo Penta diesel engines. Range 500NM. £185,000 Contact: jvg@amalioflondon.co.uk • Tel: 07785 954 900

classicboat.co.uk/buy-a-classic-boat

GAFF RIGGED WOODEN CUTTER FREJA 42’ FOR SALE BUILT BY LUKE POWELL, UK 2012 LOD 42’, Beam 12’2”, Draught 7’, Displacement 18 ton Mainsail, staysail, jib x 2, outer jib, topsail, trysail 35 HP BetaMarine Fully equipped for long distance sailing Sleeps 4 in comfort Registered in Falmouth UK 2012-2019 Since then registered in Sweden, homeport Skillinge. For further information contact Anders Johnson andejohn@actrix.co.nz

36FT SPARKMAN & STEPHENS BERMUDAN SLOOP Built to exceptionally high standards in 1966, Rumbuster is fast and sea-kindly – ideal for racing or comfortable cruising. Long keel, mahogany on oak, teak deck, all bronze floors & fastenings, alloy keel stepped mast, Furlex roller, new genoa and main 2019, asymmetric and full spinnakers, Volvo diesel, 6 berths. Lovingly maintained and upgraded, Rumbuster is looking for a new owner who will take care of her and use her more than the current owner has time too. £68000 ono. rumbuster@icloud.com

TZIGANE Tzigane built by Jack Powles of Wroxham in 1958. Fully restored over the last 15 years. Five berth in two cabins with separate shower & heads compartments. Webasto warm air heating. Single 5 cylinder nanni diesel engine. Quick silver tender available by separate negotiation. Kept fully covered when not in use. Moored Norfolk Broads. Price £65,000. Email: robertmoore001@hotmail.co.uk Mobile: 0780 325 2154

NEW GLORIOUS 50FT TRADITIONAL WOODEN GAFF YAWL

Built by Butler & Co 2012. Strong, fast, comfortable, ocean going yacht. All new sails, Beta 50 engine, rig and fit out. Commissioned and ready for season 2021. £350,000 Further details visit: www.mathaprimrose.co.uk Email: GeorgieHare@hotmail.com Tel: 07776 145859

£29,500

1937 40 FOOT MOTOR SAILOR Powered by 4 cylinder 4.236 Perkins Diesel Engine. Lying in Angelsey. Nicely fitted out with large single bunk in Focs’l with full headroom. A ‘midships double bunk, wood burning stove, Galley with separate heads. Double bunk in wheel house. Aft cabin. Double bunk, separate heads and shower. WE CAN DELIVER OVER LAND Telephone 01565 654416

FREYA

A double ended 21 foot 6 inches centreboard, Gaff rigged sailing boat, (based on a West Highland skiff), Built By McGruer of Clynder in 1951, Larch on Oak, with a Vetus 11HP inboard diesel. Much work has been carried out, repair to the mast head, new oak frames, replacement of some planking with larch boards, and much more (all documented). she is in sound condition, with an un braked trailer, made to fit. Lying the Isle of Mull. £11,500.00 ONO Ian Mazur Email: ianmazur@icloud.com Tel: 07887 950126

LE TEMPS PERDU

French gaff cutter, LOA 12,60m, length on deck 9,60m, Beam 3,30m, Draft 1,80m, engine Volvo Penta. Built in Granville, Normandy 1964. Hull iroko on oak frames, coachroof mahagony, teak deck. Successes in several Classic Boat regattas. Well maintained with boatsmancare and in first class condition. Owner selling now for reasons of age. Location Andratx, Majorca. GBP £49.900. Contact: canvey@hagengrote.de Phone: 0034 606379226

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2021

FISHER 25

Many extras including higher mast with furler bowsprit, ketch r. 2 foresales. 30 hp engine just been rebuilt. Offers in region of £25,000. Lying Hayling Island Phone: 07764 581 601

BOATS FOR SALE

Brokerage listing

C L A S S I C A N D V I N TAG E YAC H T S We hope that you enjoy our selection of vintage and classic sailing yachts. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you require any further information on any of the yachts featured here.

73ft Summers & Payne Ketch 1897/2006

57ft Alfred Mylne Gaff Cutter 1903/2012

45ft Philip Rhodes Bermudan Sloop 1954/1999

Noted naval architect/ historian John Leather considered Arthur Payne second to none in the design of fast cruising and racing yachts - the equal of William Fife and GL Watson – and JAVELIN rightly fits into this category. Leather also recorded how pleased their owners and crews were to be sailing such seaworthy yachts. Assiduously restored in 2006, she is hard to tell apart from the Beken pictures taken a hundred years ago. Notwithstanding, modern systems have been discreetly fitted to make her luxurious to live on and a wonderful family boat.

KELPIE is a race and regatta winner: one of the most beautiful and fastest classic yachts of her size. Late in the intense 2018 Mediterranean classic regatta season she notched up 1st overall in the Vintage Gaff Class at both Cannes Régates Royales and Les Voiles de St-Tropez - only typical of the way this superb Golden Age survivor has been cared for and campaigned under present ownership, including restorations 2009-2012 at Fairlie Restorations - the rebuilders of TUIGA, THE LADY ANNE, KENTRA and MARIQUITA. KELPIE is ready to continue sailing, racing and thrilling. Her recent success has been achieved crewed mainly by family and friends – are you ready?!

A Philip L. Rhodes design from 1954; her sheer is elegant and coach house wonderfully proportioned. The large cockpit typical of many American fifties yachts is a very comfortable and spacious asset. Her rig and sail plan is well proportioned and simple for both single handed cruising as well as efficient. In comparison with English yachts of this era, JOSEPHINE has a broader beam making for a hull of considerable initial stability and offsetting the effect of the comparatively shallow draft. Spectacular indeed this is a typical example of the 1950s American style yacht of moderate size and designed “to be worked by her amateur crew, yet having a performance which should enable her to hold her own in any company” - YWA 1956.

€1,500,000

€295,000

£180,000

Lying Italy

Lying UK

41ft Robert Clark Bermudan Yawl 1963/2017

40ft Alfred Mylne Island Class Gaff yawl 1913/2013

32ft Berthon 8 Ton Gauntlet 1939/2014

PAS SEUL is a fine example of Robert Clark’s relationship through the 1950 and 60s with the renowned skills of Dutch yacht builders in steel, resulting in sleek and strong race winners that could be pushed hard. In original ownership a regular on the 1960s RORC offshore circuit, she completed the 1963 and 1965 Fastnet Races, then cruised extensively from her River Hamble mooring. Rescued by her present owner from a less happy period, an extensive restoration gives PAS SEUL a new lease of life: a delightfully practical and easily handled classic yacht with modern comforts, and a relatively low-maintenance possibility for reliving her racing days on the Mediterranean and other classic regatta circuits.

Six very evenly matched one-design cruiser-racer 40-footers coming to the start line in any century stirs the hairs on the back of the neck. When they were as beautiful and efficient as Alfred Mylne’s Belfast Lough Island Class Yawls, it must have been quite a thing. Five were built in the space of just a few months winter 1910-1911, then TRASNAGH’s commissioning owner, the advisor to Sir Thomas Lipton’s SHAMROCK America’s Cup challenges, decided the party was too good to miss. Two of the six survive, one a project, and TRASNAGH, the subject of a meticulous restoration awarded a runner up prize in the Classic Boat Awards 2014. TRASNAGH is ready to go for regattas and cruising – true to the original raison d’etre.

The Gauntlet Class’s elegant and instantly recognisable lines, sturdy seagoing reputation, and jaunty air have endeared generations of yacht sailors who know a good thing. Most are still going strong, many have enjoyed restorations, but few with the finesse relatively recently applied to the 8-Tonner NAUSIKAA, once owned by author Graham Greene. The aim: to compliment the essential qualities above with accommodation in which a family could enjoy time aboard in comparative luxury: rare even on even a modern boat this size. The result is a success in our view, and moreover NAUSIKAA is no slouch, beating the entire fleet of the British Classic Yacht Club on corrected time in their 2014 Round the Isle of Wight race in often boisterous conditions.

£155,000

£130,000

£80,000

Lying UK

For further information please contact: +44 (0)1202 330077 info@sandemanyachtcompany.co.uk

Lying UK

Our classic and vintage yachts & motor yachts are available to view at:

22 Market Street, Poole, Dorset BH15 1NF, UK

– www.sandemanyachtcompany.co.uk –

MEMBER OF ABYA CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2021

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27/07/2021 11:07

Craftsmanship Yard News

SECTION HEAD SUB SECTION

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

GERMANY

Starling Burgess 8-M from history A new 8-M yacht designed by W Starling Burgess but never built at the time, has just been launched on the shores of Lake Constance, at the Josef Martin boatyard. The design, from 1937, was discovered and published by Burgess biographer Llewllyn Howland back in 2014, and was just waiting for the right person to come along and have it built, plugging another gap in the unbuilt history of yacht design. Starling Burgess was an extraordinary polymath, as Llewellyn Howland points out in his 2015 biography No Ordinary Being. He was a pivotal figure in early aviation, a published poet and designer or co-designer of every J-Class ever to win an America’s Cup. It seems the owner of the new yacht is aware of the size of her designer’s legend, as he

level of detailing, which started when Juliane Hempel lofted the boat,

has named the new yacht after him: Starling Burgess. John Lammerts van

marking the position of every fastening hole and plank bevel. The result,

Bueren, who has been intimately involved with the project, thinks this

says John is a yacht that is symmetrical to a 1.5mm tolerance. “The planks

build represents a new high-water mark in terms of precision in traditional

fit as if grown together. She went in the water and was so tight that the

build. The yacht was built as she would have been in 1937, but with a new

dust in the bilge stayed dry.”

ST OSYTH’S, ESSEX

Oldest wooden barge to be restored On 22 July, sailing barge May, the oldest

Barge Association and who with husband

wooden barge afloat, swept past Gas

Andy runs the St Osyth boatyard and

House Creek in Harwich, home of the

multiple barge champion SB Edme) and

famous Cann’s boatyard where she was

Helen Swift (who formerly ran her own

built, 130 years to the day after she was

catering company and now runs Essex

launched. A quick stop on the posts at

Heritage Workboats with traditional

Brightlingsea for a scrub and a fresh

boatbuilder husband Gerard), plan to work

coat of tar and she was on her way up

with groups and institutions aiming to

the narrow creek to her new berth at St

improve the lives of women who have

Osyth’s Boatyard, where she will spend

suffered trauma. May will visit communities

the next year while funds are secured

along the Essex coast as a safe haven for

for her restoration.

regaining confidence and trust, selling

bread and running sourdough bread

mills at Cranfield’s in Ipswich and flour to London, so her new life as a

workshops and sailing trips. Why roses? The trio explain that there have

floating bakery will be particularly appropriate. The female trio of

always been capable women in the shadows of a male-dominated

Connie Gadd (aspiring artist and potter, and whose late husband Gerald

barging world. This is a chance to blossom and come to the fore.

was May’s last owner), Jane Harman (first female chair of the Sailing

You can donate to the project at thebreadandrosesbarge.com

CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

SANDY MILLER

May was built to carry grain to the

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Photo: Peter Chesworth

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CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

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CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

CRAFTSMANSHIP

YARD VISIT: JOHN MCSHEA

MIND OVER MATTER Boatbuilder John McShea is finding cleverer ways to do things, from laser-guiding fastening positions to multi-purpose knees WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS NIC COMPTON

t’s not often you walk into a boatbuilding workshop in rural

with ease while it was being worked on – both now and, in the future,

England and find yourself confronted by an art installation. Yet

for maintenance. As John wrote on social media: “There was a time

that was how it seemed when I visited boatbuilder John McShea

when this [turning a boat] would have taken around four people, a

at his workshop near Kingsbridge in Devon. At first sight, I

whole bunch of matresses and a lot of grunt. Now I’m weak and old, I’m

assumed that the fairy lights attached over the moulds of the new

having to use my brain a little more.” (Not that he’s either weak or old.)

wooden launch he was building were a leftover from a birthday

In a similar vein, the keel was fitted with a 1/2in (12mm) stainless

celebration (after all, he does have two young daughters). But then

steel shoe, with two eyebolts running through the keel and tapped

John turned off the main overhead lights so all that was left was a

into the shoe to act as lifting hooks, so the boat can be hung from

series of parallel red lines shining over the keel and ribbands from

davits at the owner’s home overlooking the Kingsbridge estuary.

what turned out to be laser lights carefully spaced out on a copper

Even before the first plank had been fitted, then, the new boat had

bar.

all the makings of a sophisticated, carefully thought-through piece

“We use those for lining up the fastenings, to make sure they are evenly spaced,” he explained. “We had to make special fittings to fit

of work. Whisper, as the new boat is called, is only the third boat John has

the lights on the track, but we’ll save time on measuring as well as

built from scratch. His first was the 18ft 6in (5.6m) Tempest, a motor

increasing accuracy.”

launch designed by Ian Howlett for Tristan Stone of Stones Timber

And the innovations don’t stop there. When I visited Frogmore

and Stones Boatyard fame. She was followed by the 19ft 6in (5.9m)

Boatyard, the launch’s centerline had been assembled and the first

Tenacity, which John designed himself and started building on spec,

plank was just being fitted. Where most boatbuilders would fit a

before a buyer turned up and paid for the boat to be completed. The

socking great oak knee between the keel and the transom, John had

finished boat had a more traditional shape than the Howlett design,

fashioned a ‘three-in-one’ stainless steel knee with a tube running

with wineglass stern sections rather than Tempest’s flatter run.

down through it for the rudder stock and a rounded lifting nut

For the new boat, John took his lines for Tenacity and pumped

welded onto the aft face. True to his wooden boat roots, he then

them into a CAD program. It so happened that he had just cut the

sandwiched the metal knee between two pieces of oak to give it a

end of his thumb off on a bandsaw and, in the resulting month off

more traditional appearance.

work, decided to “do something I’d never done before” and learn to

With the knee in place, the lifting nut emerged through a

use CAD. The result is a slightly leaner boat – John reduced the

specially-cut hole in the transom and was matched by another nut on

beam from 8ft 2in (2.5m) to 7ft 6in (2.3m) – with a finer bow, which

a stainless steel plate at the bow, allowing the whole boat to be spun

John hopes will build on his previous design. Elsewhere in the yard, John and his team (boatbuilder Jim Day and apprentice Jake Raine) were restoring a 112-year old launch called Diane, built by Brooke & Co in Lowestoft. Their main task was replacing the keel, which involved drilling a 6ft (1.8m) hole for the propeller shaft, drilling 3ft from one side, then 3ft from the other – much to John’s delight, the holes met perfectly. John has also been helping with the restoration of the 1896 gaff cutter Moonraker of Fowey, rebuilding the hatches and making new spars. Moonraker (ex-Lily) was sailed extensively in the Caribbean by the former GP Peter Pye who wrote a celebrated series of books about his adventures. But it’s not all about boats. John is married to artist Naomi Vincent (you might remember her floating sculpture at the Beale Park boat show a good few years ago) and produces his own line of organically-shaped (mostly wooden) sculptures. When I visited, a pair of wooden forks which I took to be the wishbones for a small

Above: Jim Day prepares the first plank

windsurfer on closer inspection turned out to be a sculpture in

for the new boat; the three-in-one knee

progress. Renaissance man indeed.

CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

CRAFTSMANSHIP

DIANE

BROOKE ENGINE

John and his team replaced

The refurbished engine from Diane. Brooke

the keel on this 1909 Brooke

started off building engines and cars and

launch. Behind is a new spar

subcontracted its boatbuilding until 1911

being made for Moonraker of Fowey

WHISPER This 19ft 6in launch is only the second boat John has built to his own design. Look closely and you can see the laser light lines for lining up the fastenings. CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

CRAFTSMANSHIP

Boatbuilder’s Notes

By Robin Gates

Making dowels BY ROBIN GATES A sure way of ensuring dowels are a 1

good fit is to make them using a dowel plate, if you can find one of the right size. Lie-Nielsen make both metric and imperial plates (costing around £70) but lacking a hole for

the 7/16in (11.1m) dowels favoured by some joiners. An alternative is to bore a plate to the size you need, or better still find one already bored for another purpose. For 7/16in dowels the mounting holes in a sturdy field gate hook (costing £7) were spot-on. For strong dowels use dry straight-grained wood which can be rived into square-sectioned blanks (1). The blanks are approximately rounded using a plane inverted in the vice (2), aiming for slightly greater than final diameter. Next position the plate over a dog hole in the bench and hammer the over-sized blanks through the hole (3).

You might need to experiment; some find the plate works better if the hole is tapered on the exit side, but I achieve better results with a taper filed at the top of the hole (4). The blanks are easier to start if pointed slightly with a knife. So that surplus glue can escape as the dowel is knocked home, the doing this but I find a tenon saw effective, using a shop-made slotted jig to guide the blade (5). Next cut the dowels to length, for which a bench hook is useful, and lastly bevel the ends to ease fitting, for which I use an inverted Surform block plane – a tool with a blade like a

cheese grater (6). Where boards are glued edge-to-edge,

well-fitting dowels

2 Using an inverted plane to round corners

reinforce the

Hammering a blank through the dowel plate

chemical bond

A fistful of dowels ready for grooving

with considerable

The grooving jig guides the saw

physical strength

6 Bevelling ends to ease fitting

(7).

Riving blanks from straight-grained timber

CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

Preparing the joint for assembly

ALL PHOTOGRAPHS ROBIN GATES

sides are grooved from top to bottom. There are several ways of

Boatbuilder’s TraditionalNotes Tool By Robin Gates

DOWELLING JIG In our world increasingly dominated

tenons of round mortise-and-tenon

Clockwise from

7/16in bit – it is clamped into the jig

by impersonal machines, the minor

joints, akin to the technique used by

above: Boring the

and centred on the spot marked for

irregularities in work done with hand

ancient Egyptians to join the planks of

hole for a 7/16in

boring. Here you can see that 7 on

tools are often prized as evidence of

their large wooden hulls.

dowel; Setting

the scale of the guide clamp aligns

the No 7 guide at

with 7/8in on the jig frame, setting

the human touch. Aboard boats this is

A dowelling jig can be as simple as

especially true of interior surfaces and

one or more holes in a block or metal

7/8in from the

the distance from the face side of the

decoration, the texture of surroundings

plate, but for use across a range of

edge; A mark on

wood. The jig is next clamped in

we like to examine and touch. Tiny

widths, spacings and dowel sizes, the

the jig aligns with

position and the hole bored, the

imperfections imparted to the wood

Stanley 59 (and others) offers great

the mark on the

depth being limited by a gauge

by a moulding plane or fret saw

advantages. Not least is the range of

wood

screwed to the flutes of the bit.

steered by the feeling hand give life to

six bevelled guides matching bit

Repeating this procedure on the

the wood. But in those hidden parts

diameters from 3/16 – 1/2in (4.8-

adjoining component ensures the

making up the skeleton of the

12.7mm), ensuring dowel holes are bored

joint will assemble squarely and close

structure – the carcase of a drawer

vertically and to consistent depth.

fully.

unit, desk or lockers – it’s more important that the fit is accurate if

Having paired the guide with the bit – in this instance guide No7 for a

NEXT MONTH: Stair saw

doors and drawers are to open and close smoothly. Only once that’s achieved can we afford to indulge in the looser tolerances of tools guided by observation, skill and muscle. Even so we needn’t abandon basic joinery to the robots. Happily, there are jigs. The Stanley 59 dowelling jig is a delightfully engineered device ROBIN GATES

providing precision in placing dowels. Dowels join components in a variety of ways but chiefly at corners and edges. In essence they are the loose CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

Letters LETTER OF THE MONTH SUPPORTED BY OLD PULTENEY WHISKY

Raising funds to restore my father’s boat

I remeber the ’57 Fastnet The 1957 Fastnet is not forgotten here in Cowes. My family and I watched the fleet that evening from above the Needles as my father, Bill Thirlby, helmed the elderly 12-M Vanity out through seas so rough that one watcher recalls seeing 12ft of her keel visible abaft the mast. As my father later recounted, with almost every sail blown out straight away, he decided to turn her and run before the gale round

I’m trying to restore my late dad’s sea king wooden sailing boat,

the back of the Wight. Under almost bare poles, her long keel gave

Alcyone. My dad passed away in 2017 after a brave battle with

her some steerage way until they got to Bembridge and the shelter to

vascular dementia.

rig a scrap of canvas, just enough to claw her way up Spithead.

After my dad passed away, I started to think about Alcyone.

Having learned to sail in Portsmouth Harbour before the war, my

Alcyone was found behind a shed in Southwold. My parents

father knew a mud bank that would stop her onward rush, but as they

restored her and brought her back to the Norfolk. I had many

shot through the harbour entrance about midnight, the last Royal

happy and memorable holidays with my parents on the Norfolk

Navy liberty boat was crossing from Gosport and the crew managed

broads.

to get a line to Vanity and stop her before any more damage was

When my dad was no longer able to sail Alcyone, He had to make a heartbreaking decision to sell her. Alcyone was sold and

done. So, not forgotten, and much remembered here in ‘79. Rosemary Joy, Cowes, IoW

went to Woodbridge where she was for four years. A few times my parents went to Woodbridge to see Alcyone. My parents loved Alcyone and I knew my dad missed sailing. For three years I looked for Alcyone but didn’t have much luck. After loads of searching I came across a blog by Nick Ardley. I could not believe my eyes, but there she was, looking rather sorry for herself at a boat graveyard in Titchmarsh Marina. Thanks to Craig Trickett and his wife, I could store Alcyone at theirs. Now I have got Alcyone back, I have made it my mission to restore her to her former glory. I have spent the last six months saving money and raising money. By selling items of clothing etc, I’ve saved up nearly half of the money needed for the restoration. I am now in need of help to raise the other half. I have a boatbuilder who his willing to restore Alcyone. The BEKEN OF COWES

£6,000 what I am asking for will be put together with what I have saved. I will then have enough to restore her. In October if funds have been raised the boatbuilder can start. Sarah Spinks, alcyone213k.com

Designer credited for West Solents It is some time since I have

thought in 1924, of a 35 foot (10.6

submitted a contribution to Classic

M) craft as a larger edition of the

Boat. Having read with interest the

Sunbeam Class of 1922 (there is a

article on the West Solent Class

great similarity of profile). The late

(Suvretta, August issue), it

Theo Rye was of the opinion that

triggered memories of my

Louis Jacobs could have been the

employment at the Berthon Boat

designer, not Westmacott. Berthon

Co Ltd, 1947 -1961. On a number of

constructed a large shed especially

occasions it was necessary to

for the winter lay-up of the West

retrieve the beautifully prepared

Solents. Walking by the stored

drawings to answer clients’

craft in the bow down attitude put

enquiries, keel bolts being coloured

one in mind of a group of elegant

yellow to signify bronze and

ladies gazing at something of interest, with their counters high in

centreline structure in sepia to

indicate English Oak. The main purpose of this note is to draw

the air! W8 Dinah, now named Ripple, is in the ownership of Brian May,

attention to the fact that the designer of the West Solent Class was

the company’s MD, and restoration is being undertaken by the

Louis Jacobs as signed on his drawings, not Harry Jacob as published.

shipwright apprentices as an introduction to traditional construction

It is quite common practice for the person who commissioned the

methods.

project to be credited as co-designer. I can well imagine HG May’s

Jim Hazel, Locksheath, Hampshire

CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

HAVE YOU

CHECKED?

Anne T. Converse PHOTOGRAPHY MARINE • TRAVEL • EQUINE PEOPLE

Life Jackets, and in particular the inﬂation mechanism should be checked at least annually.

Check the expiry date on your cartridge and replace with a new cartridge from your local chandler or service agent.

P.O. Box 209 Marion, MA 02738 | USA 508 728 6210 anne@annetconverse.com www.annetconverse.com

www.uml.co.uk

ANNE T CONVERSE IBC CB Aug19.indd 1 Untitled-147 1

PS Elite Check Your Cartridge Iss3 - 2020.indd 1

Brokerage

26/06/2019 01/03/2019 17:34 14:53

04/02/2020 13:00:31

• Management • Storage

Are you looking to buy or sell a classic yacht?

The Mere Yard has a wonderful collection of classic yachts for sale to suit everyone’s tastes, from fully restored to projects. We are always looking for new listings and are more than happy to discuss this with you . Whether you are looking to purchase or sell a classic, please visit our website or contact us. info@themetreyard.co.uk themetreyard.co.uk +44 (0)7771606747

CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

Next month CELEBRATING CLASSIC BOAT’S 400 ISSUES THE LOVELIEST OF ALL?

SAILING TODAY WITH YACHTS & YACHTING

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To celebrate 400 issues, we ask something we’ve never asked before: what is the most beautiful boat in the world?

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41 BOATS YOU HAVE TO SEE The multihulls, yachts and race boats changing the game

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10 REASONS TO VISIT THE SHOW

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ADVENTURING IN COMFORT Windelo 50 cat

OLYMPIC COUNTDOWN GB stars going for Tokyo gold ESSENTIAL SAFETY KIT For you and your boat CRUISING ON THE EDGE

Unintended adventure

MOTORBOAT MOTHERLODE A visit to Museo Della Barca Lariana, the world’s biggest motorboat museum on the shores of Italy’s Lake Como

SECOND AGE OF SAIL We set sail on Tres Hombres, a Dutch-owned schooner that trades commercial cargo under sail

PLUS...

Solent racing yacht legend Clarionet restored; the houseboats of Mersea that became the most famous classic yachts in the Med; the wild Barton Hirers’ Regatta on the Broads and much more

OCTOBER 2021 ON SALE Friday 10 September, 2021 Or why not subscribe?

30 YEARS AGO SEPTEMBER 1991, CB38 Editor Pete Greenfield starts the issue with a spirited defence of the high prices charged by chandlers’ wares. Why does a galvanised shackle cost so much, he asks? Because the marine industry is seasonal; because it employs skilled people; because manufacture is generally in small runs; because the industry is not big enough for effective bulk-buying discounts of the expensive raw materials; because high-quality chandlery is made to survive the horrendously ruinous marine environment. Inside the magazine is a feature on the National Swallows, a fast, planing keelboat class designed by Tom Thornycroft in 1946 and that raced in the 1948 Olympics. Robin meets the Swallows in Chichester Harbour, where they still race to this day. In contrast, we featured an article on the ‘zeesboote’, fishing boats of the eastern German Baltic – or the ‘former DDR’ as we used to call it in 1991. And for sheer elegance, speed and glamour, we had the story of the world’s only surviving M-Class yacht, the Starling Burgess-designed Formidable, 82ft (25m) of the sleekest sort of racing yacht, spreading an incredible 3,000sqft (279m2) of sail.

CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

ST+Y&Y September Cover v6.indd 1

ROUND THE ISLAND

We sail in 90th bash

SCOTTISH CRUISING DREAM Island-hopping holiday

19/07/2021 16:18

IN THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE l The cutting edge: 41 boats that are changing everything l Essential safety kit: all you need for you and your boat l Round the Island 2021: we sail on the 90th anniversary race l Island hopping holiday in Scotland l Boat test: the comfortable Windelo 50 catamaran Available online or order now post-free from chelseamagazines.com/shop

Considering an Electric Outboard? “Using a well-engineered electric outboard has been a revelation.’’ TOM CUNLIFFE Classic Boat

Quiet, Convenient, Reliable and Easy-to-Use In the popular 2-4hp category, the latest electric outboards – with their integral and rechargeable lithium batteries – have transformed the market, rendering petrol motors all-but obsolete. Advantages include: From £1650 Epropulsion Spirit PLUS 1276Wh battery Faster to charge Battery floats if dropped Foldable tiller means only one cable to connect › Three shaft length options › Direct drive (no gearbox) › › › ›

› Ease of Use Switch on, twist the tiller handles, go. Almost anybody can do it; no experience, strength or mechanical knowledge is needed. › Ease of Handling The batteries are removable, and the “pass up and down” weight (the shaft/motor assembly) is then 10kg or less. › Ease of Storage These electric motors divide into components, don’t leak oil or petrol, and don’t mind which way up they’re stored. › Quietness & Smoothness Electric motors are a delight to use.

From £1750 Torqeedo 1103 › 916Wh battery › GPS data on tiller gives speed & range indication › Removable tiller (more compact for storage) › Near‐silent direct drive › Much more robust than the previous model (Torqeedo 1003)

› Power Forget slow speed “trolling motors”, these 1kW electrics have huge torque (more like a 3hp petrol). › Range There are many variables, but most users achieve at least 9 to 10 nautical miles per charge, at 4 to 5 knots (2.5m inflatable dinghy). Much more if you slow down a little. › Reliability Many outboard motors don’t get used very often, and small petrol motors hate this. Electric outboards have fewer parts in general, and in particular there’s no carburettor to “gum up”.

Of course, it’s not all perfect. The range may still not be enough for some users. And they’re undeniably More Expensive than petrol outboards, mostly because lithium batteries are expensive. But that extra upfront cost is largely offset by their Lower Lifetime Running Costs, including (almost) No Servicing.

NESTAWAY BOATS is the UK’s number one retailer for both Torqeedo AND Epropulsion. You can find out more on our website, and we are always happy to discuss further – and offer advice – by email or phone. If you’d like to see them before making a purchase, we are based in Christchurch, Dorset (UK).

www.nestawayboats.com mail@nestawayboats.com Tel 0800 999 2535

Sternpost Bringing clarity to varnish

Dave Selby reveals the trade secrets behind a perfect varnish finish masts up to 59ft, but that’s not how SAVD works. The most common symptom is that even mild sufferers have a poor grasp of economics and think they’re better off varnishing outside my empty boatshed, which is insensitive and foolhardy because, as everyone knows, yacht varnish was originally developed as a fly paper coating and has over the years been constantly improved by top marine chemists to attract flying insects as big as hedgehogs. If you varnish over live insects that would be cruel. On the other hand, if you varnish over dead ones you’ll end up with a mast that looks like a health food bar. The third option, favoured by marine varnish suppliers and all good chandleries is to rub the varnish off with 12 types of marine-grade sand paper, buy more varnish and sand paper and repeatedly repeat the process. Once you’ve applied the recommended minimum 27 coats you will have achieved tennis elbow. on’t get me wrong, I love wooden boats, as do my brethren Next, without wincing if possible, you should take a moment to of the waterfront trades, because, as the owner of a 60ft by stand back and admire your handiwork and notice how smooth 20ft boat shed, I find that wooden boat owners are among the mast is, but a lot thinner. The benefit of this is that the mast’s my most regular and least troublesome customers. In fact they’re reduced girth requires less varnish, but that’s a false economy, and my only customers, as fibre-glass boat owners are always off if you persist you may end up with a flimsy runner-bean pole at sailing, which is downright disrespectful and of no use to anyone. best, or no mast at all. Apart from not going sailing wooden boat owners are exactly It’s normally round about the bean-pole stage that these wood the same in their lack of respect for our honest endeavours, and worriers sidle up to enquire about shed space, baulk at the affront us further by actually attempting to do work on their boats extremely reasonable rent and head off to buy more extremely themselves, which, as we’ve explained countless times, is beyond expensive varnish and brush restorer. Then, as is the way of the their capabilities and will cost them more in the long run. Worse, punter, they have the affront to ask for varnishing tips, to which I Classic Boat actually encourages this delinquent behaviour. effect an Essex burr and say: “I’s heard of some folk what swear by A while ago alarming news got out on the waterfront that mixing yacht varnish with insect spray. Others reckon on Marmite.” Classic Boat was publishing a “varnishing master class” (CB385). Neither works, but it’s fun watching. Another thing that Naturally, in the spirit of co-operation that exemplifies the Maldon exercises wood worriers is UV damage, which doesn’t happen in waterfront trades, we did our best to buy up every copy, which boatsheds. Basically, if by some miracle they eventually get their impoverished us even further, and left our children without shoes masts varnished and leave them outside, and perhaps even fitted because we had to eat them…the shoes, that is. But that’s of little to a boat, it will only be a question of time before it will peal and consequence because, as ever, our main concern was philanthropic, flake to resemble acne. When pressed I reluctantly reveal my or as we put it, to save boat owners from themselves, so you can solution: “Round here there’s some what mix varnish with imagine our horror when we opened the mag and saw pages of factor 50 sun-block, though others reckon on Marmite,” in-depth libellous factually correct slander on how to do it! It was adding in conspiratorial tones: “But keep it to yerself, it more than reckless because it omitted the only bit of advice the ain’t strictly legal.” yotter needs on varnishing, namely: “For the perfect On one such occasion a posse of varnishers finish pay your trusted artisan to do it, to save accosted me outside my empty shed and accused me yourself money, time and humiliation. End of.” of all manner of things. As they all had tennis elbow Now, as you know, wooden boat owners are in both elbows I wasn’t particularly frightened, so I generally reluctant to get their boats wet, on account countered: “You did use Ambre Solaire, didn’t you? of them being prone to sinking, which obscures the The Super Drug stuff ain’t up to it. There’s others as gloss finish they’ve laboured so hard to achieve. In swear by Marmite.” spite of this, they just can’t help themselves At that one of them stepped forward with his varnishing. And in recent months there’s been a “As everyone varnish brush clamped in his teeth, on account of his major outbreak of the very debilitating affliction arms not working, and growled: “You’re having a known as Seasonally Affected Varnishing Disorder knows, yacht laugh, aren’t you?” (SAVD) outside my boatshed which has space varnish was Next, they stormed off to buy 60ft marquees to available at rates so criminally low I don’t how I do developed from erect over their prone masts. As I write some have it. Like Harry Markle, our sole aim is “to build a flypaper.” nearly finished the footings. You’ve got to admire the better world, one act of compassion at a time.” You lengths some people will go to to avoid sailing. would think a 60ft boat shed is ideal for varnishing

CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

Rustler 33 and Rustler 24

Modern Classics by Rustler

Beautiful yachts, beautifully built

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OCTOBER 202

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IRONS BROTHERS

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TOOL TRADITIONAL

The mortise gauge

05/01/2021 15:49

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THE GREAT WAR

Troubled waters

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RKING HOME WOODWO

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04/08/2020 17:36

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