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Our two sailing yacht features in this issue could hardly be more different. I’m talking about the 1930s Nicholson-designed 8-Metre yacht Vision, restored to probably better than new condition; and the Deben Cherub Ariel and her sisterships on Suffolk’s River Orwell. Vision, at around 48ft in length, is quite a bit longer then the Cherubs, for a start, at about 48ft versus 21ft. The real difference though, is the intention. The Cherub, although far smaller, is the cruising boat that could take you quite a way. Vision, at twice the size, is a pure racing dayboat. That gives yachts like her a sort of aesthetic extravagance that most of us can only marvel at, as you can probably make a guess as to the cost of her restoration! And guess you would have to, as it’s still taboo in this world to talk about these things. The question is which do you prefer? Or are they simply too hard to compare? They are both as legitimately classic as one another, and both types, and a hundred others, will be out on the water this summer – see our events guide on page 46 to find out where.
COVER STORY
4 . VISION
1930s Nicholson 8-Metre yacht restored
COVER STORY
20 . THE DEBEN CHERUBS
A well-loved eet back home on Su olk’s River
The meticulously restored 8-Metre Vision returns to the classic racing circuit after a major restoration and has immediately picked up her old winning ways at the 2022 8-Metre Worlds
WORDS AND PHOTOS RON VALENT
Back in 2006 I wrote an article in Classic Boat called The Future is 100 Years Old. In it I gave a short history of the International Rule since its inception in 1906, the 8-Metre World Championship of that year and the positive developments of the class at that time. Prophetic words it turned out as now, even more than then, the Metre Classes in general and the 8-Metre s in particular are experiencing a veritable renaissance with increasing numbers of old boats being sought out and restored, and the yachts being campaigned ever more seriously and competitively at a growing number of regattas and European and World Championships on both sides of the Atlantic.
After 1936, when the 8-Metre s had their last big moments in the limelight at the Olympic Games in Germany, and losing Olympic status after that, the class became slightly less active with only the Canada’s Cup taking place for the last time in 1954 and the Coppa d’Italia, more or less the European Championship, running from 1909 to 1950. In 1970 the World Cup was reinstituted and from then on, the popularity of the class has grown considerably.
The present 8-Metre Class has a very neat set up whereby the importance but also the variety of the many yachts built to the International Rule since 1906 is recognised. There are World Cups to be won in no less than four different categories, each reflecting a specific era of the development of the Rule (see the article: Growing 8-Metre fleet at Worlds in the December 2022 issue of CB for a full description of the classes). The overall World Cup for which every yacht ever built to the Rule can compete, remains the most important but the Sira and Neptune Cups are just as hotly fought over. The Sira Cup was instigated by His Majesty King Olaf of Norway when he donated this cup in 1983. It is for yachts built prior to 1960 or to a design from that period but whereby modern gear is allowed.
Some 8-Metre enthusiasts feel that the modern rigs and deck hardware of the Sira Class overstress the sometimes 100-year-old hulls. They feel that sailing in the Neptune Class, for boats built or designed before 1960 but rigged and outfitted as they were when built with wooden spars, flat-panelled Dacron sails and non-self-tailing winches, is more sympathetic to the continued existence of
Above: Vision arriving in Toronto from England on the deck of a freighter in 1930
Below: Vision crew at the World Cup in Visby 1982. John Gyles, Ian Smith, Richard Hudson Kirsty Clarke, John Weakley and Robin Clarke
Facing page: With a flat wake and trimmed to perfection at the World Cup on Lake Geneva in 2022
these slim, classic yachts. Obviously, this is a popular view as the Neptune Class is growing steadily year by year. A class that values historic aesthetics so highly should also have a trophy to match and the Neptune Trophy is an amazing piece of silverware dating from 1890 and donated to the class in 2005 by The Royal Northern & Clyde Yacht Club.
Over the years several classic 8s have been repeat winners, but none have been as successful as Vision winning the Sira Cup no less than six times. Her first win was in 1983 and the last in 1998. The amazing Bona from1934 is a close second with four wins, the first in 2000 and the last in 2022. The Glenn Coates/ Alfred Mylne designed Raven , built in 1938 and now called Pandora , has four consecutive wins from 2010 to 2013. Despite her former success in the Sira Class, Vision’s present owner decided to have her restored to the condition required to compete in the Neptune Class.
So Vision’s arrival back on the scene after a total restoration, that was started by Gilbert Pasqui in Villefranche sur Mer in France, and finished between 2021 and 2022 by Sibma Naval Italiana in Dolcedo near Imperia in Italy, was accompanied with high expectations. Surprisingly enough, higher expectations in the press and her competitors than from the owner and his Italian crew. Although each and every one of them are top sailors, mainly coming out of the Dragon scene, they are also a surprisingly modest and sympathetic group who saw the 2022 World Cup in Geneva as a learning exercise that they hoped to improve on at the 2023 World Cup in their home waters in Genoa, Italy. It was therefore a very pleasant surprise that they came second in a very competitive field with no less than five former World Champions as adversaries.
Vision started her life 1930 in Gosport at the Camper & Nicholson yard but was immediately shipped off to Canada. She was built for the Canadian Canada’s Cup syndicate as one of three yachts, of which the fastest was destined to sail against the United States in what many in those days called the America’s Cup of the Great Lakes. The Canada’s Cup syndicate had 150 subscribers among the Club members. They raised
DESIGNER: Charles Nicholson
BUILDER: Camper & Nicholson, 1930
LOA: 14.7m (48ft)
LWL: 9.2m (30ft)
BEAM: 2.5m (8ft)
RATED SAIL AREA: 80.4m2 (866 sqft)
$45,000, which was spent in building three yachts, tuning them up and maintaining them until the conclusion of the trial races. The three yachts were then sold at auction to members of the RCYC. The other two yachts were Quest, designed by Fife but built in Oakville, Ontario and Norseman, designed by Roue and built at the Royal Canadian Yacht Club Marine Shop. In the end Quest was chosen to defend the Cup. She lost to the Clinton Crane designed Thisbe. The Canada’s Cup was instrumental in creating a fleet of 8-Metres on the Great Lakes which has remained so to this very day where one of the largest fleets of 8-Metres is active.
Until 1991 Vision remained in Canadian ownership where she was based in Toronto. But she regularly crossed the pond, on a ship, to participate in European waters at various World Championships. In 1982 she came second in the World Cup in Visby, Sweden and in 1983 Vision won the Sira Cup in Norway and repeated that in 84 and 85 in Canada and the States. In 94 and 95, under the ownership of Frenchman Eric Mallet, she won the cup again in France and in Holland. A feat he repeated again on Lake Geneva in 1998.
When owned by Robin Clarke sailing Vision was very much a family affair with the crew often being his wife and their four young children. When she won the Sira World Cup in 1984 for instance her crew were Robin Clarke (helm), Tom Clarke, Nicki Clarke, Kirsty Clarke, Tony Bowman and Vanessa Case.
Robin commenting on the purchase of the boat, said: “When I bought Vision in 1978, I felt she would be a good family boat but I also felt she belonged in the club she was built for. At the time she was a real cruising boat with marble sinks, an electric organ in
Above: The Clarke family “hanging out”
the main cabin and a glassfibre skin on the hull. We transported her to Toronto and set up shop in an old waterfront warehouse.
“Much of the original mahogany planking was in reasonable condition under the glassfibre skin, which had to be stripped off by heating with a blow torch and ripping with bare hands and chisels. The frames are galvanised steel and oak and were in reasonable shape.
“We stripped out the old caulking and replaced it with epoxy, finishing with several coats of West epoxy over the hull. The deck was replaced with plywood, finished with teak planking. The original stern had been cropped and we decided to leave it that way. We were not restoring to the original but refurbishing to make a competitive racing boat. The interior was totally stripped out with minimal required replacement, no sinks this time!”
His son Magnus who was 10 years old at the time recalls: “Our family of six worked on her for about nine months. Together with my 14-year-old brother Tom and armed with crow bars, skills saws and hammers we were given the task to remove the deck and everything inside.” He still recalls his father’s words: “Everything you see here that isn’t hull goes over the starboard rail, we’ll be working to port, don’t drop stuff on us. Just leave one deck beam so the boat doesn’t fall apart.”
Magnus continued: “With that, Tom and I got going. We raced the boat as a family and with many friends and guests. Vision had always been known as a bit of a dog on the great lakes, she’d never really preformed very well. That changed with us. The boat was shorter on the waterline than both Quest and Norseman, her sisters from 1930. She had a deeper keel and a smaller sail plan. We took advantage of that in heavy air and soon we were almost untouchable in
Charles E. Nicholson, not to be confused with his nephew Charles A. Nicholson who came into Camper & Nicholson’s in the 1950s, was undoubtably one of Britain’s greatest naval architects. His creations were, and still are, among some of the most beautiful, impressive, and certainly most successful yachts ever built.
Despite his being mainly involved in the design and construction of the superyachts of his time such as the America’s Cup Challenger Shamrock IV, the 23-Metres Brynhild II and Nyria, the three J-Class yachts Shamrock V, Endeavour I and II, the mighty three-masted schooner Creole and large motor yachts such as Malahne (458 tons) and Philante (1.629 tons) he also had a keen interest in the smaller Metre Class
yachts. He designed and built 15 12-Metres, 14 8-Metres and 13 6-Metres between 1908 and 1939. Some yachting enthusiasts, myself among them, believe arguably that the magnificent ga schooner Margherita from 1913, and what in my eyes is possibly
his most impressive and beautiful design ever, was simply a 6-Metre that he stretched on the design table to 160ft (49m)! Ignore the internal accommodation and the towering ga rig and you are looking at a very nice 6-Metre hull indeed.
His first 8-Metre was Folly in 1909. She is still sailing and was once owned by the equally famous naval architect Germàn Frers who had her restored to compete in the 2000 World Cup. In 1930 something quite unusual happened and that is that four 8-Metres were built to identical plans. All four are still sailing today and it is quite possible that in 2023, and for the first time, all four will be present at the World Cup in Genoa. They are Vision , Suzette , Luna and Cutty Too
Clockwise from top left: As she arrived at the Pasqui yard, minus her original counter and with a modern deckhouse; Hull fully replanked by Pasqui; The simple but beautifully finished interior by Sibma Navale; A study of beauty and simplicity. Sweet lines and custom made deck-fittings; Custom Metre class winches by the Classic Winch Company and deck fittings by Toplicht; Fitting the interior at Sibma
those conditions. As we learned the boat we became much better at light air too and we could seeming outpoint everyone.
“Dad was fantastic about letting Tom and I reconfigure the boat to make boat handling easier. After the Worlds in 1984 and the explosion of new boats, we did a major overhaul to the deck layout fully modernising it. We certainly sailed the boat hard; it was a racing boat and we pushed it. Again, no engine, so each day we’d sail in and out of the constrained lagoon of the yacht club, which was always great practice for boat handling. We didn’t bother with any luxuries on board, nor did we ever really have any functioning electronics save for a Loran system at one point. We used the boat more like a large Etchells than a yacht.
“It was a very sad day when the boat had to go. We’d put an immense amount of resources, energy and love into her and all who sailed on her came to love her dearly.”
After the Clarkes, Vision moved to France and her new owner – Eric Mallet – continued her winning ways by adding three more Sira Cup wins to her tally. Mallet sailed her hard for many years. Somewhere in the mid 2000s she was sold to an Italian, and he realised that after more than 80 years of beating to windward competitively, she needed a thorough refit. In the end that turned into a total restoration. Milan Lawyer Mattia Conte is also a mountaineer who has a string of 8,000m plus climbs to his name and combining that with a restoration was too time consuming so the boat languished at Pasqui’s yard for about eight years.
In France, but for the well-informed also outside of it, Gilbert Pasqui, with his famous restoration yard in Villefranche sur Mer, is a bit of a cult figure in the classic circuit. I believe he is the only living boatbuilder in the world who has a regatta named after him where the only yachts allowed to take part are ones that have had work done on them in his yard. On his website he proudly shows, and very righteously so, a list of nearly
Above: Helm perfectly balanced and slicing nicely upwind through the chop
100 yachts that have passed through his doors. Some just for a new mast, others for complete rebuilds. Pasqui commented: “We took on the initial restoration. The ugly deckhouse was removed, the original, long counter reinstated. The polyester sheathing was once more removed but this time for good. Although the sheathing had helped the boat retain her shape and lines perfectly, it virtually destroyed the wood below it. In the end we completely rebuilt her from the keel up.” The images show the amount of work done and the quality of it before the next phase was undertaken in Italy.
The father and son team at Sibma Naval Italiana, Mario and Andrea Quaranta, took on the finishing of the project for the new owner, Paulo Manzoni. The yard was started in 1962 by Mario’s father and specialises in Dragon restorations and rebuilds but also takes on larger projects. The quality of work borders on perfection with a finish sooner found on luxury furniture than a boat. Both father and son are also very experienced Dragon sailors. Andrea chatting about the state of Vision said: “The hull arrived in our yard in September 2021. The hull was bare with no deck, some beams were missing, no cockpit, no interior fittings and without structural reinforcements in the areas of greatest stress such as at the shrouds, mast foot, bow and stern. All structural work was supervised by the Nicolas Fauroux Design Studio.” Fauroux is a well-known name in the 8-Metre Class having designed several successful modern 8’s.
Andrea continued: “A new deck was made, plywood with a thin layer of teak vacuum bagged to it, as well as the new teak cockpit and teak and mahogany skylights according to original plans. All deck equipment was supplied by Toplicht, the rigging by Gottifredi Maffioli and the electronics by Sailmon. The sails were made by the top Italian sailmaker Guido Cavalazzi. The Classic Winch Company supplied the beautiful bronze winches. Two months of work were dedicated to fairing the hull with particular
attention to the keel and rudder profiles. We then spray painted the hull with the Alexseal cycle. Below the waterline she then got a coating by Nautix.”
Mario and Andrea were also part of the crew of Vision that did so well at the 2022 World Cup in Geneva.
The current owner, Paulo Manzini, is an experienced sailor with an astonishing list of racing events in his bag. Admiral’s Cup, Sardinia Cup, America’s Cup and years of top-level racing in Dragons. Chatting about the purchase of Vision, Paulo said: “After a short break of a couple of years due to a busy job and family I wanted to get back into racing again and was looking for a wooden Dragon. Andrea Quaranta told me to go have a look at a boat in France. That was the half-restored Vision and I was immediately hooked. I bought her and moved the boat to his yard. We had a tight schedule but managed to get her in the water on time. We only had a few weeks to prepare for the World Cup but that was balanced by the level of sailors I had on board. All of them are top quality and some I even raced with in Fremantle on Italia when I participated in the America’s Cup Louis Vuitton series in 1987. We have restored Vision back to exactly as she was when built in 1930. She is very fast and I am really looking forward to this season. Apart from the World Cup in Genoa, we have organised a series of races for 8-Metres that will also include the classic regattas in Imperia and Cannes and Feeder Races in between.”
Since 1906 around 500 8-Metres have been built of which 170 are now known to still exist and the International 8-Metre Association keeps meticulous track of their whereabouts and activities. A total of 93 years after she was built, Vision is once more part of this flourishing 8-Metre circuit and her owner hopes her story will inspire other sailors to join this exciting class where corinthian sportsmanship and camaraderie are held in such high esteem.
For more information on the 8-Metre class, visit the International Eight Metre Association (IEMA) website at 8mr.org.
1930: George Gooderham – Commodore Royal Canadian Yacht Club – Toronto
1930-1940: RGO Thomson – Toronto
1940-1953: Wilfred Ballentine – Toronto
1953-1978: Bill (W) Inrig – Toronto
1978-1990: Robin & Nicki Clarke – Toronto
1991 - 2010: Eric Mallet, France
2010 – 2021: Mattia Conte, Italy
2021-present: Paulo Manzoni, Italy (pictured)
CIM, the rating system used for classic yachts in the Mediterranean, is breaking new ground by creating a class for boats launched between 1970 and 1984 – meaning for the first time glassfibre hulls will become eligible, writes Noel
Gazzano.Yachts of the composite and early glassfibre eras are eligible in some classic regattas worldwide, but most events accept only post-1970 yachts that are built in a Spirit of Tradition style or built to a vintage design. The cut-o date chosen by most regatta organisers has, until now, been mid-1970s at the latest.
The CIM decision marks a step change in the well-worn debate over what constitutes a classic yacht and it will change the visual nature of the spectacular Mediterranean circuit, by adding more modern hull forms.
The new class, called Classic IOR, will include one-of-a-kind and prototype sailboats launched between 1970 and 1984, in possession of an IOR certificate obtained within that timeframe, and ‘in perfect state of conservation’.
Details are being worked out and the class is being validated by CIM (Comité International de la Méditerranée du Yachting Classique) as an extension of the current handicap rule, known for the weighting it gives to ‘authenticity’.
The move was discussed in Rome on 4 February, during the event ‘È tempo di IOR’ (It’s the right time for IOR), organised by Vele Storiche Viareggio and AIVE-Associazione Italiana Vele d’Epoca (the Italian Classic Boat Association), following the presentation of the 2023 AIVE regatta calendar.
Yacht clubs and event organisers are already discussing the inclusion of the class in 2023 regattas.
CIM Secretary General Renaud Godard said: “Until now, these boats lacked a community and the possibility of competing. We are working to change that.”
The team behind a film about engineless sailing is inviting all engineless craft to join a ‘jolly’ – a day of friendly engineless races and seamanship contests.
The day will be filmed, with the finished film set to premiere at Royal Museums Greenwich, London, in the spring of 2024. It will also be shown as part of a sail training trip around the English east coast on the Thames Sailing Barge, Blue Mermaid
Filmmaker Huw Wahl and sailor Rose Ravetz are behind the initiative, with the jolly taking place from Pin Mill Sailing Club, on the River Orwell in Su olk. The sailing will be followed by followed by an evening of food, drink and music.
The pair are producing a documentary called Wind, Tide & Oar, described as “a 16mm artists’ documentary film project that explores the absorbed attention and artistry of engineless sailing”.
Rose Ravetz said: “This is a fantastic opportunity to get people together who are passionate about sailing and who want to have the chance to appear in the film. We are focussing on making an event that shows o the skills involved in sailing engineless, and want to build a celebratory atmosphere where we can enjoy using our traditional sailing skills together.”
Huw Wahl said: “For most of the production we have been filming
CIM Vice President Francesco Foppiano said: “This new class broadens the community of classic boat lovers, countering the abandonment of many valuable vessels.”
AIVE President Giancarlo Lodigiani said the move was in line with AIVE’s founding principles, saying: “The first charter extended membership to vessels older than 30 years. Specific years – 1950 and 1975 – were introduced only later.”
Gianni Fernandes, Chairman of Associazione Vele Storiche Viareggio, which organises the classic boat regatta in Viareggio, said: “It’s important to rethink traditions in order to keep this community alive by including new members, especially young ones. The new IOR class is an important step in this direction.”
See our comment on page 82.
boats individually, but we have always wanted to include a celebratory part of the film that involved seeing many engineless craft together. We think this gives the perfect opportunity for an engineless gathering, to see how many we can fit in the frame!”
Spectators are welcome. If people want to take part but don’t have a boat, they are encouraged to contact the Thames Sailing Barge Blue Mermaid, which is selling spaces onboard for the day, via judy@ seachangesailingtrust.org.uk
Join the engineless sailing day on 26 August 2023 by signing up via tinyurl.com/enginelesssailingjolly or for any questions email windtideandoar@gmail.com.
A limited number of tickets are up for grabs for the Classic Boat Awards.
The ticket gives you access to the exclusive ceremony, held at the Royal Thames Yacht Club in Knightsbridge, London, with a guestlist of classic boat movers and shakers including owners, skippers, sailors, naval architects, builders, regatta organisers, historians and enthusiasts.
The evening includes a champagne and canapés reception, the Classic Boat Awards 2023 ceremony and postawards celebrations.
The trophies for the event are made for the Classic Boat Awards by the team at Su olk Yacht Harbour. The marina, on the River Orwell in Su olk, is also the site of Classic Marine, the classic chandler that sponsors the Classic Boat Awards.
Winners and those who are Highly Commended in each category also receive a bottle of Dartmouth Gin.
When Maria CK21 was built by Harris of Rowhedge in 1866, railways were newly reaching the Essex coast, fisheries were booming and almost 400 smacks were working from the Colne alone, writes Sandy Miller. Today Maria is the last working boat to practise the art of stowboating during the winter months. When owner Paul Winter carried out his four-year restoration in 2004, the hefty windlass was a primary concern, enabling Maria to keep this traditional method of sprat fishing alive. Shallow draught sprat ski s used to ferry the catch from the smacks to Brightlingsea hard, where they would be smoked and pickled. Recently restored Lilian CK19, one such ski now owned by Mark Farthing, joined us to unload some of the day's catch, just as she would have done a hundred or so years ago.
Stowboating involves suspending a conical shaped net beneath the hull, held open by two parallel beams (baulks), while at anchor. The idea is to locate a shoal of sprats by spotting seagull activity, anchor downtide, set the gear and allow the sprats to drift into the net. In 1923, the Colne smack My Alice CK348 landed a record catch of 150 barrels on one tide.
The event is also supported by the Gstaad Yacht Club and Simon Winter Marine. The Classic Boat Awards will take place at 6.30pm on Tuesday 4 April 2023 at The Royal Thames Yacht Club in Knightsbridge, London.
Tickets are available for £90 via shorturl.at/oCOVW. Enter the password to access the secure booking form: CBA23VIP
Calancombe Estate, which produces and bottles Dartmouth Gin, has been named Small Visitor Attraction of the Year in the Devon Tourism Awards. The estate, near Modbury in South Devon, runs individual and group tours, tastings, a restaurant, a gin school and produces wine, cider and gin. The category was sponsored by Plymouth Gin. calancombe-estate.com
Entries are now open for the sixth edition of Cowes Spring Classics which takes place on the weekend of 12-14 May 2023.
Based at Shepards Marina, Cowes Spring Classics is a relaxed weekend regatta to start the season and the organisers look forward to welcoming a wide range of classic boats big and small, including cruisers and cruiser racers, classic day boats, oyster smacks, pilot cutters, raters and ga rigged boats of all types, also 6 and 8 Metres as well as modern classics.
The popular socials will again be based at the Sugar Store at Shepards Marina, with the Mermaid Gin Welcome Drinks and a new Moroccan-themed supper on Friday evening. Saturday evening will again feature a three-course dinner with live entertainment. The prize giving will be after the racing on Sunday afternoon.
There is a full programme of races on Saturday and Sunday organised by Cowes Corinthian Yacht Club, with separate classes for Bermudan and ga rigged yachts.
The regatta organisers are expecting a number of new yachts
currently finishing restoration to enter and they look forward to seeing many of the Solent’s leading classics taking part again this year. cowesspringclassics.com
The OGA’s Solent Ga ers will be holding its 2023 Ga ers Regatta at Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight over the bank holiday weekend of 25-27 May. There will be races, social events and other activities. The event is open to ga , sprit and lug rigged boats, new and old, whether or not their skippers are members of the OGA. Registration will open around mid-April with an email to members, while non-members should keep an eye out for further details on the OGA website at oga.org.uk
Famous for having starred in the film The Pirates of A fleet of 12 steam boats will add to the sounds and sights of more than 200 ga and Bermudan yachts, luggers and working boats at Atkins Ferrie Wealth Management Falmouth Classics this summer.
The Cornish event, one of the biggest classic regattas in the UK, will feature members of the international Steam Boat Association for the first time.
The steam boats will be based at Mylor Yacht Harbour for the weekend but will visit the port on Saturday from 11am – 2pm, where they can be viewed by the public on the Falmouth Haven. Later in the afternoon they will be alongside at the Royal Cornwall Yacht Club. The fleet will participate in the Heather and Lay Steam Small Boat Parade in the inner harbour on Sunday from 1.30pm-2.30pm.
The steam boats range from 15ft to 28ft in length and one of the oldest is Artemis, built in 1899 as one of two tenders (the other powered by oars and sails) to the 120ft yawl, Artemis. She still has her original 1899 quadruple expansion engine and is still coal fired. Mike Phillips, her current owner, says: “With a good stoker she can maintain a steady 6-7 knots”.
Atkins Ferrie Wealth Management Falmouth Classics runs from 16-18 June.
We
After a four-year hiatus, the Australian Wooden Boat Festival came back with a bang, welcoming more than 90,000 people to the Hobart waterfront in February to celebrate boats, boat builders and boat designers.
Around a third of visitors travelled from around Australia to display their wooden boats, with many cruising the Tasmanian coast afterwards.
The newest addition to the programme, The Spirit of Tasmania Classic Dinghy Display, at the local City Hall, was crowd-puller this year, with visitors enjoying a display of iconic sailing Australian
dinghies. Meanwhile the festival’s Wooden Boat Symposium was packed for every session.
Families could get involved in an array of nautical activities, including the chance to build a wooden boat together. Thousands also gathered to watch the Clennett’s Mitre 10 Quick and Dirty Challenge, the festival’s famed battle between school teams building and racing their purpose-built wooden vessels.
To add to the spectacle of the event, tall ships led the parade of sail around the harbour.
The next Australian Wooden Boat Festival will be 7-10 February 2025.
A wreck discovered o the coast of Sussex, England, under 104ft (32m) of water, has been identified as the Dutch warship Klein Hollandia, built in 1656.
The wreck’s identity has been a mystery since its discovery by dive operator David Ronnan in 2019. He reported it to Historic England, which has a orded it the highest level of protection under the Protection of Wrecks Act.
Now a UK-Dutch team of maritime archaeologists have used dive evidence, archival research and dendrochronological (tree ring) analysis of the wood samples to narrow down its identity. The ship was owned by the Admiralty of Rotterdam and was involved in all major battles in the second Anglo-Dutch war (1665-1667).
Mark Beattie Edwards, CEO of the Nautical Archaeology Society, said: “The impressive amount of wooden hull structure, the ships cannons, the beautiful cut marble tiles, as well as the pottery finds, all point towards this being a Dutch ship from the late 17th century coming back from Italy. Now, after four years of investigations and research, we can confidently identify the vessel.”
The GU Laws-designed 6-Metre Sioma which was built in 1911 for Claud A Allan, the Commodore of the Royal Western YC (Scotland). Allan only owned her for a year before commissioning Laws to produce an 8-Metre for him, but he returned to 6-Metres in 1927 with the Johan Anker Sioma II which is still sailing today. In the early years of the International Rule, the gunter rig was favoured amongst 6-Metres for which L was the designated sail insignia.
The Association of Yachting Historians has digitised 92 volumes of The Yachtsman (1891-1940) and the complete Lloyd’s Registers of Yachts (1878-1980) and these can be purchased on memory sticks. www.yachtinghistorians.org
The Thames Sailing Barge Trust has been awarded a grant of £19,600 from Trinity House to support the trust’s successful training scheme.
Over the last five years the trust has taken on a number of trainees to train them as future third hands, mates and skippers, so that there is a pool of people available to sail the historic Thames sailing barges in the future. The scheme has in the past been supported by Trinity House and the Heritage Lottery Fund as part of the outcomes from the Pudge Project which is seeing the Thames sailing barge Pudge restored and her accommodation upgraded.
In the last two years the Trust has had two trainees complete their skipper tickets, with two others completing their examinations in the
next few weeks and eight trainees be made up as mates. The funds from Trinity House will be used to cover the costs of RYA training courses, books and hire of barges to carry out practicable learning. Part of the grant will be shared with Sea Change Sailing Trust who are to provide specific training events for the trainees on their engineless sailing barge Blue Mermaid.
A trust spokesman said: “It can take up to five years or so to gain su cient experience to become a Mate, and ten years to become a Skipper. There is a real problem with skills disappearing coupled with the length of time it takes to learn the trade. There are currently only eight Skippers under the age of 50, and about 25 Mates.”
Spirit Yachts has announced a new management and ownership structure, with founder Sean McMillan taking a step back from his CEO role to become a consultant designer and brand ambassador.
As the company marks its 30th anniversary this year, it now becomes majority-owned by a group of Spirit yacht owners, who have committed "significant capital to strengthen future business growth".
The company will continue to be run by existing Managing Director Karen Underwood, supported by a newly appointed Production & Design Director and Spirit Yachts’ Marketing Director, Helen Porter.
McMillan will continue to be closely involved in the design of Spirit’s custom yachts working alongside Spirit’s award-winning designer Tom Smith, and the company’s in-house team of designers and naval architects.
Karen Underwood, Spirit Yachts’ Managing Director, said: “Since Spirit Yachts was founded 30 years ago, Sean has instilled his creativity and vision into the DNA of the business.
"From humble beginnings in the Su olk countryside to multiple award wins, yachts in two Bond films, and over 80 bespoke yachts located worldwide, Spirit Yachts is a unique success story that continues to push the boundaries.”
Looking to the future, Karen said: “Today, the challenges are greater with supply chain hurdles, sta shortages, and the need to remain agile in the face of global events, but our commitment to quality, beauty, and lowering the carbon footprint of our yachts remains at the heart of Spirit Yachts.
"With a full yard, a strong sales pipeline, and secure investment, the team and I are well-equipped to deliver a prosperous future.”
Spirit Yachts was founded by McMillan and Mick Newman in 1993.
The pair set out to o er yacht owners an alternative to fibreglass production boats, using modern technology married to a classic aesthetic. Today the company is the leading Spirit of Tradition builder in the world and has also led the marine industry on sustainable boat-building, winning numerous awards. Spirit also won a Queen's Export Award and recently featured in a BBC documentary focussing on companies that work in a sustainable way.
Some boats get all the luck. Good and bad. Ariel, Tim Everson’s Deben Cherub, won the Classic Boat Award for Restoration (under 40ft/12.2m) in 2020, but by the end of the following year, she was back in her builder’s yard after taking a beating from Storm Arwen. Between these events of course, covid and the lockdown had intervened, and to add to Tim’s troubles he was out of action for several months with complex eye surgery. The celebratory article in Classic Boat had to be repeatedly put on hold.
Meanwhile though, the renaissance of the Cherub class as a whole has continued apace, with other restorations, and the appearance of one of them, Jubilee, at the 2022 Southampton Boat Show. All in the context of a rejuvenation of the yard that built them.
Deben Cherubs, as the name implies, are a class native to the River Deben in Suffolk, specifically to Woodbridge, a charming riverside town about nine miles inland with a tradition of boatbuilding and maintenance – four yards survive to this day. The Cherubs were the brainchild of Alfred Everson who set up his yard there in 1889, after parting company with his brother-in-law Arthur Robertson, whose yard was, and still is, a mile or so up the river, above the famous Tide Mill.
Everson and Sons’ yard occupies a former coal yard about half a mile downriver from the town centre, between the Ipswich-Lowestoft railway line and the river, and near to Deben Yacht Club (DYC), founded half a century earlier, in 1838. The yard is notable for its clap-board timber workshops facing onto the River Walk. Known as the Phoenix Works they were built by Alfred after a fire in 1912, as a ‘temporary structure’
that has already survived over a century. It usually has its doors open so that passers-by on the River Walk can observe the work going on within. Opposite the workshops, the 70-year-old Priestman crane stands ready to lift or launch boats alongside the pontoons.
The yard passed out of the hands of the family in the 1960s (another legendary local boatbuilder Frank Knights took it under his ownership for a while) and its name changed to The Woodbridge Boatyard in 2010. In 2019, after being up for sale for a few years, it was bought by Eric Reynolds, founder of Evolution Yachts, current chairman of Save Britain’s Heritage and trustee of the National Maritime Museum, the Cutty Sark and the SS Robin Trust. He also created Camden Lock Market around the canal basins there, and the Trinity Buoy Wharf redevelopment on the Thames.
Since buying the yard, Eric has added further investment to consolidate the business and give it a new sense of purpose. He’s added more buildings facing the yard behind the Phoenix buildings, as well as bringing in a Thames lighter, moored in the river, to create more workshop space.
And between the lighter and the river wall, is a steel sculpture of two women in a rowing boat – ‘Molly and Ethel’, the sisters of the ‘and Sons’, who ran the chandlery, office and sail store, while their brothers Cyril and Bert Everson ran the yard.
The Deben Cherub was the brainchild of Alfred Everson, introduced in 1924 initially as a half-decked dayboat for a Commander Turner, who gave her the rather grand name of Trinity Hall. Her full, rounded hull is believed to owe something to an earlier design, Sea Mew, by Linton Hope. It was the owner of the next boat built to this design, HRT Curjel of Woodbridge, who saw the potential to turn what, in No 1 (Trinity Hall) had been a racing dayboat into a
Above left: Ariel and Lynette
Above: Ariel and Jubilee
Below: Another historic view of the Phoenix works
cruising yacht. He was instrumental in adding a cabin and turning her into a 21ft (6.5m) pocket cruiser. The addition of the cabin also gave the Cherubs one of their most distinctive and endearing characteristics, the fore-and-aft curve to the coachroof, which complements the sweep of the hull’s sheerline.
He called her Cherub, and the name became that of the builder’s class. In the following 13 years, a total of 17 of the jaunty, curvy little Cherubs were built by Eversons. Of the 12 known survivors, half are still in Woodbridge, with others in the Isles of Scilly, Dundee, Lowestoft, Devon, and there’s even one in the Netherlands.
Tim Everson is great-grandson of Alfred, but has no involvement in the yard other than as a customer. However, the Everson genes seem to have passed undiluted through the generations. He bought Ariel in 2011 as a retirement project, having been made
DESIGN Alfred Everson, 1924
BUILT A Everson & Sons, 1934
LOA 21ft 3in (6.5m)
LWL 18ft 8in (5.7m)
BEAM 7ft (2.1m)
DRAFT 2ft 9in (0.9m)
DISPLACEMENT 3 tonnes
SAIL AREA 315sqft (29.3m2)
redundant from his job as a local authority education adviser. Tim bought her from David Copp who had found her on the Broads at the Swallowtail Boatyard, Ludham, where she’d been ashore for some years. No CC11, she was built in 1934, originally named Annette.
Since buying Ariel, Tim has replaced the jib with one of a greater sail area for better balance on the boat, and swapped the Stuart Turner 8hp engine for a two-stroke Dolphin 12hp, in keeping with the original, but with ignition start. A new mast was built when internal decay was discovered in the original. Blocks have been fitted on deck to secure the anchor. He stripped the hull and removed caulking from the seams above the waterline; the yard then splined and recaulked the seams and Tim repainted. Rust has been removed from the internal pig iron ballast, now treated with coats of protective paint. The hood ends were refastened.
Above: Ariel at the start
Below: The Phoenix Works, 110-year-old ‘temporary building’ still in use today
In December 2021 came Storm Arwen, the scourge of many boats. Ariel , still moored on the yard’s pontoons, was an easy victim. Her samson post snapped off due to unseen rot below deck level, allowing her mooring lines to go slack, which then let her bang against the pontoon, opening up a gap between her deck and her hull. “I hadn’t noticed the gap at first,” explains Tim, “until the yard pointed it out to me. It looked as if the force of the wind had crushed the hull against the pontoon and sprung the deck off it. You could get your hand into it.” The samson post was replaced and the hull shape reinstated with the help of transverse steel rods.
At the beginning of this season after the stormdamage repairs had been completed Tim stripped cabin sides and coaming back to bare wood and revarnished. Every season he makes some improvements, such as re-rigging the mainsheet and new blocks… this winter/ spring he’s planning to replace the boom crutch (two of which have been lost overboard) with a fixed gallows, as seen on some of the other Cherubs.
By last summer, then, Ariel was ready for the water again. Matt Lis, yard manager since Eric took over the business, had wanted to revive Deben Cherub racing for several years and now saw an opportunity to do so. A date was found: the afternoon of Remembrance Sunday, 13 November. Plans were made, owners contacted.
Currently there are seven Cherubs associated with the yard – either owned by it or berthed there. Charity, bought by the yard as a restoration project is ashore and in a bad way, looking for an owner willing to take on a restoration project. Rohaise II is privately owned and wasn’t up for a race.
Apart from these two, all the others made the start line: In order of seniority, they are:
l Cherub, CC2, the original Cherub, from 1924, white hull, outboard engine, helmed by her owner, Sebastian Watt
l Lindy Lou, CC6, 1931, recently restored by the yard, again white hull, with elegant sign-painted name on her stern, helmed by Matt himself for the yard
l Ariel (ex-Annette), CC11, 1934, sailed by Tim Everson, dark blue hull
l Jubilee, CC14, 1935, no engine, sailed by Andrew Lis, Matt’s brother, light blue hull
l Lynette, CC18, 1937, the last of the pre-war series, with the shorter coachroof, cream hull, sailed for her owner by Marvyn Godfrey of the yard
I’m aboard Tam Grundy’s tug, Fury, designated press boat for the event. Eric Reynolds, tall, erect in his trademark white overalls, keeps an eye on things from the yard launch. Even though it’s mid-November, the weather is absolutely beautiful – sun through light cloud. Not much wind though, so a drifting match evolves with boats separating then gradually
Above: Cherub, followed by Ariel
Above right: (from left): Cherub, Lindy-Lou and Jubilee battle it out in the light airs
Below left: Jubilee
Below right: Lynette
congregating at Loder’s Cut, a narrow passage for navigation made through the salting in the 1890s only a few hundred yards below the start line. The boats are held there by what’s left of the incoming tide – the scene takes on the dreamy torpor of a Dutch landscape painting – until it loses the will to live and gives way to the current and, one by one, the Cherubs drift through. They bear round to starboard to circumnavigate the right-hand island and head for home (through Troublesome Reach) – to the finish line at Deben Yacht Club. The sun drifts down, suffusing the boats and the river with a golden light.
Lynette gradually separates herself from the rest of the pack, which itself begins to string out – Jubilee, Lindy Lou and Cherub, who finish within a boat’s length of each other.
Their crews start stowing sails and picking up moorings, or seeking their pontoon berths. Eric’s wife Maxine appears with a tray of warm palmiers for everybody, there’s a tea urn on in the workshop, and
then we all adjourn to DYC for more tea and cake, and a short speech from Matt. Apparently this is the first Cherub race since the 1950s. There is – or was, he says – a Cherub Cup, presented by Alfred Everson himself (who used to start DYC races with a 12-bore shotgun) – unfortunately nobody knows where it is now. Matt presents the crew and owner of Lynette with an improvised plaque instead. Since the race, DYC has been in touch to say that the cup is still in circulation and will be returned to the class. Matt’s hoping to arrange another race this year for Cherubs and others, using the OGA rating system, and make it an annual event – the class centenary is in 2024.
But what’s happened to Ariel? She dropped behind right at the start, her hull encumbered, says Tim, with a season’s accumulation of weed and barnacles (unlike others, which had enjoyed a lift-out and pressure wash in the preceding week) and never caught up. I’d spotted her sails, immobile, in the distance poking above the headland of Kyson Point, and thought she must have gone aground. But no, as Tim explains: “By the time we’d sailed through the Cut and rounded the island, the ebb tide has started to flow and the occasional breaths of wind became less frequent. I suggested we motor back to the pontoons but being cruising sailors, not racers, we agreed to put the kettle on, make tea and watch the beauty of the late afternoon sunset reflected in the mirrored water.” They show up as the speeches end and the dusk begins to gather, to an ironic salute from the club’s starter signal.
The Deben is a river with a strong history of boating and boatbulding – both of which Woodbridge folk are always keen to keep alive. Reviving the Cherubs’ race was a welcome celebration of the class itself and the yard that built them – both look to have a bright future.
Right: Cherub lines
Above: Jubilee and Cherub racing for the finish
A decent 8m (26ft) twin-engined Riva Aquarama, the ultimate totem of ‘La Dolce Vita’, would set you back £300,000+, so why would someone splash not much less and pay a world-record price for a smaller single-engined Riva Florida? Perhaps this will explain.
In 1964, when actor Jean-Paul Belmondo was riding high as the male pin-up of French New Wave cinema, the heart-throb treated himself to a new Riva Super Florida. Good idea. Naming it Elodie 1 after his wife, not so good. The pair, who’d been married for 12 years, separated the following year.
Belmondo softened the blow somewhat by holding on to the 7m (23ft) mahogany Riva and falling into the arms of screen siren Ursula
Andress, after whom he didn’t name a boat – and the pair lived happily ever after…. for seven years.
Meanwhile, Elodie 1 ended up in Sicily where Belmondo is reputed to have swapped it for a Ferrari (a very good move). Rediscovered in 2015 in barn-find condition with its original 283cid Chris-Craft V8, Elodie 1 has since been restored to superb condition, and sold in a Paris sale in February for a record-shattering £268,000, the kind of money that would normally buy three top-notch Super Floridas. That’s down to the star quality of a national treasure who was revered by many as the James Dean or Marlon Brando of France, and mourned by all of France on his passing in 2021.
The subject of this truly stunning photograph is in some ways incidental, as the real star is the extraordinary New York photographer Morris Rosenfeld (1885-1968) ‘Rosy’ who lugged heavy, fragile equipment on to tippy motor launches to pioneer the field of yachting action photography.
The son of an immigrant carpenter, Rosy left school at the age of 13 armed only with a clumsy $5 plate camera and the ambition to become a star news photographer. Yet it was at sea that he really made his mark. Technically, and dramatically, with its sharp focus and crazy depth of field, this shot is simply staggering. For the record the yacht is called Nina and the print carried an estimate of $8001,000 in Eldred’s March marine sale.
If you can’t a ord that, posters, calendars and books of Rosenfeld’s work are available from the Mystic Seaport museum.
While many boat manufacturers in the fi ns ‘n’ chrome era borrowed US automotive styling cues – Chris-Craft and Riva included – none went to the extremes of Michigan boat builder Century which, in 1955, pitched its new fl agship 21ft (6.5m) Coronado as “the Cadillac of boats.”
Indeed designer Richard Arbib had previously worked at General Motors – owner of Cadillac. And in-line with US automotive practices the mahogany-planked Coronado also received major styling updates every two years. The hard top with its sliding frontal section evoked pre-war sedanca de villes. Power too was car derived, in this example a mighty Ford 427cid (7-litre) V8, as fitted to the awesome AC Cobra. In this case, Century’s claim that the 50mph Coronado could easily tow 12 water-skiers was probably no exaggeration.
This 1965 Coronado sold for $25,300; you won’t get a ’65 Caddy convertible for that.
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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.
For further information please contact:
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WILLIAM FIFE III 94FT BERMUDAN KETCH 1914/2019
22 Offered for sale ‘’SUMURUN’’
Our classic and vintage yachts & motor yachts are available to view at:
Market Street, Poole,
These rustic wall-hangings are by inventive German artist Thomas Froehlich, who also makes grander items, including tables, outdoor sculptures, indoor and outdoor tables, even sculpted grills for your barbecue. The classic anchor and line is made using stainless steel and locust tree wood, while for the compass rose piece he used reclaimed wood.
Anker mit Tau €125 (anchor)
Windrose mit Tau €750 (compass rose)
kontrastwerke.de
French/Persian artist Sina Vodjani, now resident in Hamburg, describes himself as a “photographer, painter, musician, composer, globetrotter, sailor”. His art “embodies versatility in all aspects... the art of visualising vibrance in spacetime…” His topics range vastly. This large-scale nautical work is made using photography, digital editing and hand painting, resulting in an ethereal, shimmering e ect.
vodjani.com
Inspired by the expressionist paintings of the 20th century, German artist Heinke Boehnert creates nautical collages utilising cast-o sails, overlaid on oil painting. The result is an intriguing 3D, textured e ect that brings the yachting scenes to life. She is a sailor herself and has a range of regatta scenes to view on her website.
‘Purple Green’, €1,750
segelbild.de
Canadian artist Paul Clark painted this poster-style image of a Riva Aquarama bow, size 135cm x 105cm, and has others for your delectation too.
Each €1,800
Available through kontrastwerke.de
Have your own yacht depicted in a rugged steel, wall-mounted work of art, which is backlighted to create a wonderful e ect that our group editor’s limited photography skills sadly didn’t manage to capture in the image here. Italian craftsman Marco Terni Poletti’s Technology Art and Style gallery, in Codogno, has some production models available, like this Jeanneau, but will produce one of these for your particular yacht, with whatever details you can provide. There is also a gold version. Steel, from €1,950 Gold, from €2,350
planisferi-itas.it
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night in a rising sea.
Iconfess never to have set a topsail, let alone a jackyard, in anger, indeed in any state of mind, but I did once foolishly nearly brain a brilliant yacht designer when the call came to lower the peak halyard away “handsomely”, or perhaps he said smartly? Fortunately Providence’s gaff came to a shuddering halt inches above his head, or we would not have had the likes of Zinnia, Thembi or any number of modern, wooden classics, albeit he is tragically no longer alive to give us more.
Unlike our Cunliffe for whom gaff is first nature, it’s always been a bit of a mystery to me. I can understand the arguments about downwind speed, and even upwind. Tom’s Irens-designed Westernman was a beast to windward. I have her in mind as I write, scudding up the island shore in a sou’westerly, tan sails as taut as a certain schooner’s were in that famous round the Wight race in 1851, whose name escapes me.
I have sailed a number of gaff-rigged boats –Britannia (not that one!), Moonbeam, Eda Frandsen, Kentra for example – and yet still could not say for certain which of the snakes coiled around the belaying pins at the foot of the mast did what. God help me if I were ever to ship aboard a square-rigger although a reading of accounts by the likes of Eric Newby or Adrian Seligman would have reassured me that after a week or two at sea you can lay your hands on a lower topsail buntline as surely as a topgallant clewline, at
For my narrow knowledge of nautical know-how I am often ridiculed, not least by an old friend who first appeared on the horizon trailing clouds of cigarette smoke to write about one of my first boats, a 17ft (5.2m) clinker double-ended sjekte based on a 1936 American design. Professing to know little about boats, he pressed me on how she was constructed, the names of the planks, the fastenings and generally came over as, well, clueless. I did my best, without sounding patronising as this was free publicity, and in an American yachting magazine to boot. My fledgling boatbuilding career was off to a fine start. We rigged the boat, stepping the tall, bermudan spar, and bent on the sails. When, however, I went to make figure-of-eights in the jib sheets I noticed they’d already been tied.
And thus we went for a sail on loch Achall, north east of Ullapool; he took photos, I fielded questions, by which time it was late so we packed up, trailed the boat home and we offered him a bed for the night.
Over dinner, it began to come out: several solo transatlantics in a Hurley 22, any number of deliveries all over the world; chief sailing instructor at sailing centres both in the south of England and Scotland; Fastnets and Admiral’s Cups; Southern Ocean; sailing master to the Sultan of Oman, whose naval cadets he taught to race Sigmas and so on, and so on, much to his amusement – for he has a merciless sense of humour –and my discomfiture. It was only later, when we had got to know each other better and were racing together on the west coast of Scotland on the lovely McGruer Kelana, that I discovered he had also been a bomb disposal expert and one of the divers on the scene when the Mary Rose emerged from the silty seabed off Portsmouth and which, as those who watched hand in mouth that day will remember, very nearly disappeared back again as the cradle, embarrassingly bearing the name of its fabricator, nearly collapsed.
John had sailed with some high-profile yachtsmen but equally admired those who sail without fanfare or fuss, often in small, open boats to far off, and often very cold, places. Robin Hawkes in his Oughtreddesigned heavily modified double-ender springs to mind. I wouldn’t say he does not suffer fools gladly; more that he doesn’t suffer fools. Well, that day on Loch Achall, as we readied Felicity John, he surely fooled me.
“God help me if I were ever to ship aboard a squarerigger”
CHARLOTTE WATTERS
1952. Designed & steel built by Koser & Meyer in Germany. She is a very nice ketch with a special character. She is ideal for long cruising periods while easy to manage, even with just one crew member. She accommodates up to 6 guests in 3 cabins and up to 3 crew members in 2 cabins.
2010. Replica of the legendary ATLANTIC which was commissioned by, New York Yacht Club member Wilson Marshall, and which was launched in 1903.
After owning, restoring, rebuilding and recreating a number of famous yachts, her owner built her with his vast experience, and has once again constructed a yacht that no-one thought would ever sail again. Her original lines were honoured to the finest detail, and her sail plan is identical to that of her victorious 1905 Transatlantic Race, which immortalised her in yachting history. Above all, she is again breathtakingly beautiful, turning heads wherever the wind takes her. Her dimensions are simply incredible; 65 m overall, 56 m over deck and 42 m at waterline. Thanks to her spars, which tower some 45 meters above the waterline and support a staggering area of 1,750 m² of sail, she performs at unmatched speeds under sail.
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!
1962. Refit 2022. Designed by the Scottish naval architects G.L. Watson & Co. and built along traditional lines to Lloyds class by Ailsa Shipbuilding, Scotland. She has a top speed of 11 knots and boasts a maximum range of 4,000 NM, thanks to her twin Gardner engines. She has cruised extensively in all latitudes including a circumnavigation. She was also a support vessel for the filming of Luc Besson’s Atlantis. Her interior has been rebuilt using varnished mahogany, in a timeless style, with modern details for comfort.
2004 From a Joubert Nivelt Design, LAZY DAYS is a new classic jewel, of which only 5 units sail across the oceans. She is spacious, comfortable and luxurious with a special character. The interior is built around a spacious saloon with beautiful dark woodwork and a galley to starboard. She offers 4 double cabins and two shower rooms, both with electric toilets.
Giacomo, the great grandson of the founder of the Sangermani yard, continues to uphold the company’s tradition of producing only the best when it comes style, quality of work, and attention to detail…
WORDS NIGEL SHARP
The Sangermani boatbuilding dynasty was started by Giacomo’s great grandfather, Ettore Sangermano (better known as Dorin), in 1896 in Mulinetti, Italy. He probably built about a hundred boats there, many of them commercial, before moving to Rapallo in 1934, by which time his sons Cesare and Piero were working with him. At some point, their surname inadvertently became Sangermani thanks to a ‘typo’ in a register. They built military vessels at Riva Trigoso during World War Two and then afterwards they concentrated on working boats. But Cesare and Piero wanted to build racing yachts and, after moving to Lavagna in 1946, they began to do so in earnest. Between 1949 and 1965 the company built 129 new sailing boats, almost entirely one-offs and many of them RORC Class II yachts. About half were designed in-house while the remainder came from the boards of notable designers such as Illingworth & Primrose, Laurent Giles, Alan Buchanan, Sparkman & Stephens and German Frers. One of the best known boats built at this time was Gitana IV, the winner of the 1965 Fastnet Race.
By 1978 the yard was in the hands of the next generation, Cesare’s son Cesare jnr and Piero’s son Ettore, and it was around then that they started to build composite boats, using various combinations of timber and carbonfibre.
“When I was growing up, the boatyard was my playground,” said Giacomo, Cesare jnr’s second son. In 2000 he went to the University of Nautical Engineering in La Spezia to study Boat Design. After three years (and before finishing his studies) he went to work for his father, specifically to help build two 10 metre boats at first, but he also digitised all of his father’s pencil drawings. He then decided to continue working at the family firm rather than go back to college and he has remained there ever since. Meanwhile his brother Filippo (seven years older and having previously been a computer programmer) has worked there since 2004. For many years Giacomo concentrated on project management, while Filippo looked after financial side of the business, but four years ago things changed fundamentally when their father died. Although he was 71 he had been working as hard as ever, but now it was time for his sons to take over.
Giacomo is quite candid about the fact that he misses his father in the work context as well as a personal one. “I was always able to ask his advice,” he said. “I would go to him and say ‘I think I have found a good way to do something’ and he would say ‘yes, but perhaps this is a better way’ or ‘yes, you have found a good solution’. It is hard not having someone like that to talk to.”
At the age of 41, Giacomo is very conscious of the fact that he is “quite young” and that it is “not easy to ask older people to do things, and it is easier to employ younger people and train them because older people only know one way to do things.” Sangermani employed about 50 people in the late 1990s but now only directly employ anything between four and 20, depending on the workload, while they also rely on subcontractors for the ancillary non-boatbuilding trades. Giacomo also stresses that “it isn’t just me and my brother who are the family, the whole shipyard is the family. And I don’t want people who come to work just for the pay, I want them to come to work because they enjoy what they do. They have to understand the importance of knowing about a boat and her history, because she is more than an object, she has feeling and she has life.”
The company continues to specialise in composite boats today, but is always experimenting with different combinations of materials. This allows the company to cater for the needs of different clients, some of whom might prioritise the appearance of a wooden boat while others will want to minimise maintenance. Refit and repair work also features strongly, normally involving a couple of boats each year, many of them Sangermanibuilt. For instance, the yard is currently carrying out substantial replacement of the interior on the 1953 18m (59ft) sloop Balin II.
Giacomo thinks that the classic boat market is changing. “Different kinds of people now have wooden boats, very often younger people,” he said. “Maybe they don’t have enough money but they are starting to understand that they have something different, something with a soul. It isn’t important to have a boat that is one metre longer than your friend. It is much better to have a boat that no one else has.” But he is concerned that things move so fast nowadays that younger people don’t understand that it takes time to build something by hand. “How do you explain to a man who made his money on the internet that it takes many hours to build a galley,” he said. “He thinks it should take five minutes!”
It probably isn’t very common for a company to continue to thrive under the management and ownership of a family’s fourth generation, but Giacomo already has hopes that this will continue still further. The fifth generation itself is unlikely to be thinking about this yet, however, as his son Cesare is not yet three and Filippo’s son is just one.
A’dora Blu is a shining example of a Stephens Brothers 43ft Fast Commuter motoryacht that served her country in more ways than one. Leo Aarens, the current owner, delves into the history of this distinguished yacht
My fascination for yachts and wood has led to several restorations of wooden yachts. Although I mainly dealt with steel as part of my marine engineering schooling, wood has a much more accommodating character. Incidentally, that love gradually developed without losing sight of the properties of other substances. Clearly one cannot do without the other.
As a young machinist, I had a lot to do with repairs. Making something that was broken or worn out, polishing it and making it smooth again so that it shines beautifully under the lamplight. A job in the crankcase of a large slow revving engine, large conrods, white metal bearing slips dripping with oil, nicely worn and shiny. So strong, so tangible. I had never held real wood in my hands before.
That real wood came when we bought a Trewes sailing yacht. There, the combination of steel and wood was my first confrontation with what the years can do to materials. Built in a combination of steel and wood and usually it does not last long. The wooden planks of the hull are much more durable than the steel ribs where they attach to. The builders of that time however, cannot be blamed. And as the years go by, this combination shows its flaws.
But more importantly, the satisfaction of a successful restoration is partly why you do it. And the fact that you are privileged to be a ‘caretaker’, to proudly own and care for such a classic yacht.
Our Dora is now 90 years old. After a number of major repairs, refits and overhaul, she has been stripped of harmful metalwork and looks young and fresh again. That’s wood. That for which a tree gave its life. Carefully chosen, decades if not a hundred years old. Quiet in the woods, setting its rings year after year. The quality of the teak used for deck and superstructure is unprecedented.
Full named A’ Dora Blu (say it fast and its sounds like adorable) was built at Stephens Brothers in Stockton, San Francisco. Her keel was laid in 1931 and was delivered in 1933 to Mr A. Botti under the name Armador. That would mean Shipowner. Quite a special name for a pleasure craft. Numerous boat builders were operating in San Francisco. The wood for the hulls was mostly Port Orford Cedar and came from the woods north of San Francisco. Port Oxford Cedar wood is light, long grained, strong and resistant to moisture. But also especially beautiful. Very tactile with a wonderful scent.
Apparently she was built in stock. It was not unusual to do that after the big financial crash. There were many active entrepreneurs emerging who wanted to celebrate their success and wanted the yards to be able to deliver quickly and so it happened. Until the war she sailed under several names such as Zest and Sans Souci II.
Fortunately, there is the internet and an association of CYA America (Classic Yacht Association). Through members of that club we found out that several yachts
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on the west coast have a war history. The designation YP stands for Yard Patrol vessel and was given to small vessels that were requisitioned by the government immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor. After all, after that day, 7 December, 1941, a threat arose for both coasts of the USA, and protection was built for those emerging threats. It was initially formed by steel torpedo nets that were rigged in front of the harbour entrance. Of course, these nets also had to be checked and vessels were needed for that. On 15 December, 1941, many proud yacht owners lost their private pleasure crafts. They had to remove all private inventory and hand over the keys. This is also the case with our Dora, which was renamed YP 135. The US Navy placed the boats with the US Coastguard and in May 1942 Dora returned to the US Navy. Not much is known about the ups and downs of our YP 135 other than surveying the San Francisco harbour entrance.
Cdr David Bruhn writes extensively about this in his book Cactus Navy. It is of course not only about private yachts, but also many fishing and other auxiliary vessels were requisitioned. All ships were manned by local naval personnel and skippered by commissioned officers. The boats were painted green on the inside and grey on the outside. Imagine patrolling the San Francisco Bay at night, floodlights on and looking for a potential enemy? Not much has been registered, no names, no logs and no transfer documents. Not even when the US Navy left in 1945. Most boats were offered to the former owners, but not necessarily returned. The ships that did not go back to their former owners were auctioned off. The book naturally gives the most attention to ships that have had remarkable adventures and that was not for Dora, or has escaped that attention. Famous or not Dora was a Yippee. That’s how the ships were jokingly called as a result of their YP Navy registry.
Dora may not be a Dunkirk Little Ship but in our experience she is a naval hero who has contributed to a freer world in her own way.
So in the end, Dora stayed where she was, in San Francisc. With its large bay and extensive estuary to explore, it’s a great place for such a motor yacht. The design is typical for that time, several shipyards and designers came up with this boat design – also known as Fast Commuter. To commute quickly from A to B as kind of private water taxi. One characteristic is the steep stem that allows the boat to move smoothly through the water, even at higher speeds. She is semi planing that needs some extra horsepower to be fast. Doing 20kts was certainly no exception. They were usually equipped with petrol engines although diesel engines – mostly marinised truck engines – came on board later. Dora also had two large Perkins diesels on her wooden foundation. We had them overhauled initially but with with lots of noise, smoke and vibrations, they were not only uncomfortable but we found that slow cruising was not an option in that engine configuration. Instead we opted for two modern and lighter Yanmar engines.
Clockwise from top left: Amply sized cockpit; 360-degree views; Practical wide sidedecks; Comfortable pilothouse; A helm position to be proud of; Aft saloon for seating and guests’ sleeping
Although we always sailed classic wooden yachts (including a 12-M and a 100m2 Burmeister), and said we would never stop sailing, we did exactly that and started looking for a nice classic motorboat to restore. We were looking for something like a Little Ship from Dunkirk. I don’t know how many we looked at but there were many. Some were already restored (good and not so good). Some had lines that did not meet our requirements, or they were simply beyond repair. I’ll spare you the details, but during our search we finally ended up in California. We discovered Dora under cover in San Rafael together with several sister ships in her vicinity. With overdue maintenance, not really neglected, she lay quietly rocking and gently tugging her mooring lines. We did a deal but the boat still had to be transported to the Netherlands, which is where and things went badly wrong. Many documents and red-tape was required for the transport through the different states because transporting old wood in the US is only allowed under certain conditions.
After a lot of headaches and worries, three months later she finally arrived in Rotterdam in a dried out state where we made a plan to start her rebuild. We were careful to keep as much of the original as possible, with the exception of the sunshade over the cockpit, something that characterised every boat in the warmer regions of the US. Those parts have however, been preserved so maybe the roof will come back one day. As previously mentioned, the hull was constructed in Port Orford Cedar. It was decided to caulk the hull as it was originally with approximately 800m (2,626ft) and all seams two-three layers. Upon completion, all seams were sealed and the hull primed and painted using a high gloss, moisture-regulating paint system.
The original Port Orford Cedar hull planks and oak ribs were all fitted with new bronze screws in 2008. What was needed to replace it was Yellow Pine, as Port Orford Cedar is no longer commercially available. In 2008 a new Asob keel beam was also mounted and fitted with new bolts.
The entire foredeck and cabin roof was removed and stripped. New pine planks were mounted and covered with glued plywood and sealed with an epoxy laminate. The wheelhouse roof was intact, so only new sealing was needed.
The teak deck was in good condition but the seams needed to be done. The old seals were removed, the old holes in the deck were sealed and all the seams fitted with the correct sealing compound. All teak such as the superstructure and deck details are stripped and varnished with Epifanes hardwood oil varnish.
During this period of restoration, the fuel tanks were also done, new stainless-steel water tank installed, new electronics, wiring, chargers, pumps, hoses, anchor, anchor chain, galley equipment such as stove, hood, refrigerator, hot water boiler etc installed and the bathrooms completely renovated. A particular detail of Stephens’ boats is the abundant use of bronze. In addition to the usual propeller shaft bushings and brackets, the rudder bearings, stuffing boxes and the
DESIGN Stephens Brothers
BUILT Stephens Brothers, Stockon USA, 1931
LOA 13m (43ft)
BEAM 3.5m (12ft)
DRAFT 1m (3ft 4in)
DISPLACEMENT 11 tonnes
ENGINES 2 x Yanmar 110hp (2019)
rudders themselves are also made of bronze. But not only that, the lids of the lockers, the interior lighting and the many floor protector-plates are also made of the same material. The most beautiful are the railing staunchions. All custom made, so different lengths, all tapered and cast from a kind of monel metal and of course identically numbered. Some parts such as the hawse pipes are chromed. The use of stainless-steel was certainly not yet fashionable and I actually like the bronze better. In any case, it is Dora’s custom ‘makeup’ that keeps her look eternally young and who wouldn’t want that?
After three years of hard work in a covered enviroment, the result is impressive. A beautiful classic appearance and one of a kind on this side of the Ocean, or is it? Allure has now arrived in Sweden. She is is Dora’s sister and also crossed the pond. Maybe they’ll meet someday. That would be nice. It certainly shows that others have an affection for these Commuters.
Our hands are unfortunately a bit worn out but most of the work is done and we have experienced a lot of beautiful moments and made long trips with Dora . As with all classic boats, regular maintenance is important, but it is very rewarding. If you sand down any part of a boat like this, the smell and appearance of 90-year-old wood reaches out to you. This together with all the admiring glances from everyone who sees her, really does make you feel as though all the hard work has been worthwhile.
Now she is complete, however, it is time for new enthusiastic owners to enjoy Dora as she is now for sale. As the saying goes: “We hate to see her go, but we like the way she leaves”. A new chapter of history for her logs is surely in the making.
The Paul Spooner design Niebla was built at the famous Fairlie yacht yard in 2005. She comes as a beautiful and very traditional long keel yacht with considerable design input from the very experienced owner. The deck is set out with all halyards lead aft to the cockpit, so the sails can be easily handled whilst short-handed. The cutter rig allows easy shortening of headsails as the wind comes up, helped by a ‘Formula Spars’ boom mainsail reefing system. Weight was never spared in sacrifice of strength
and security, but keeping the boat light so she doesn’t need big winds to enjoy the peace of cruising under sail and being able to do it in hard wind conditions and heavy seas. Niebla is the result of the fusion between the elegance and the comfort of a classic hull and the performance given by a latest generation rig and sails, that allows you to sail safely, even shorthanded. After a major refit at Robbe & Berking Classics, Niebla is offered in sound condition and ready to sail.
In the post-war period and the 1960s, water sports became more popular and, above all, more accessible to a wider public. New materials such as fibreglass and plywood were touted as new products and made their way into boat building. But the world of boats is often one that is slow to change. Not many of all the popular designers of the 1950s used the new materials. Varen was one of such projects and was built in 1961 at Moody
& Sons Swanwick in teak, planked on oak frames. Major MSB Vernon commissioned the yard to build her from a design by G.L. Watson’s already well-known design office. Varen has been refurbished and maintained by her owners several times during her life, but she has never lost her charm and charisma. A recent refit offers a new owner the opportunity to start their holiday right away.
Battling the high seas aboard the 111-year-old White Cloud was just the challenge new owner Paul Stevens was after
Welcome aboard White Cloud from sunny Portugal. At 25ft (7.7m) LOD she’s only a little yacht but with a very big heart (of oak). She has 111 years behind her while I have a mere 70, but I still creak more than she does.
So how did we end up here?
Back in August 2019 in the pleasant warmth of a Portuguese evening I was idly perusing boats on the internet and came across her for sale through the same yard (these days known as Heritage Marine Maldon), where I had bought my first cruising boat, a little canoe yawl called Arklight, 50 years ago. She had been to the bottom but after whacking on a few tingles, (actually rather a lot), we went sailing, as you just did back then. There were a few other coincidences about this delightful little ship going back decades, and it was very pleasant idly reminiscing about my youth. And sometimes we all need to sail away on an impossible dream.
Fast forward 24 hours I was driving my hire car from Stansted Airport to Bradwell Marina thinking how on earth did this happen? Happily resident in Portugal, already have a boat but I’m on my way to see this little ship in Essex. But best to never let logic get in the way of boat stuff though.
Just 48 hours later, and even more inexplicably, I found myself as her new owner. White Cloud had cast her spell and had clearly decided to give me a try, so I guess I was on probation now.
Actually life was good but I was thirsting for another adventure, and after having been given a new lease of life by her previous owner Les Weeks, I think White Cloud was too.
Les had done an amazing job between 2008-14, and it is only through his consummate skills and meticulous work that I have been able to enjoy my adventures. It is incredible to think however, that her hull planking, timbers, centreline structure, (apart from some deadwood), and her deck are virtually all original.
She is of conventional carvel construction, pitchpine on CRE (Canadian Rock Elm), oak centreline and copper/bronze fastened, and had been returned, as far as possible, to her original state but with a new Beta 20 engine and basic electrics. She was built by Messrs Gann and Palmer in Teignmouth in 1912 on the lines of a Falmouth Quay Punt, on the site that would become the legendary Morgan Giles yard.
When she acquired me, her accommodation was charming but more suited to day sailing and the odd night aboard. On deck her gear was entirely traditional and pretty much as it would have been when launched, apart from
synthetic sails and running rigging. With autumn time arriving fast and money leaving even faster I added stanchions, a servo pendulum wind vane gear from my previous boat, a tiller pilot, and not much else.
The trip down channel and then to La Rochelle was largely uneventful but I was disappointed to find she carried more weather helm than expected, giving both the wind vane and tiller pilot too much to handle in more boisterous conditions. Eventually I moved and re-stowed about half a ton of trimming ballast aft and that improved things a good deal. Upon looking at her original Blue Book registration, I was intrigued to find that she had originally been fitted with a 4 cylinder Ailsa Craig engine, which would have been extremely heavy, and as such I felt she was now floating closer to her original marks.
During this part of the voyage I was to get a taste of things to come and how White Cloud handled the conditions. Where the channel chop meets the Atlantic swell off the Brittany coast we encountered some turbulent seas but White Cloud made light of it and handled things rather better than her skipper. Seems I was forgiven though and she didn’t try to drown me!
We had some good sailing down to La Rochelle where I had to leave her, and it wasn’t until the last day of October that we finally set off again, this time towards Santander. We made a fast passage with some very good sailing and, after a few hours sleep in the club marina, we set off along the beautiful north Spanish coast. Santander is pleasant and the main marina is within walking distance of the airport (but not much else) and also handy for the Brittany Ferries terminal, but for a real taste of Cantabria, Castro Urdiales a few nautical miles east is superb.
This lush green coast with the spectacular Picos da Europa mountains as a backdrop and countless small harbours and rias is, in my opinion, one of the finest cruising grounds in Europe, but also one
where swell and sea conditions count for everything. The Atlantic rollers come hurtling in and crash against the iron bound cliffs. A great deal of that energy is reflected back to meet the incoming breakers, and the sea is much confused for some distance out. It is, therefore, no place to linger at the beginning of November.
My Insurance company agreed and imposed various conditions, some of which I was able to comply with.
The passage along this coast was both frustrating and challenging, waiting for weather windows and encountering some very unpleasant sea conditions, with huge unpredictable gut-wrenching holes into which White Cloud plunged.
I found myself reflecting on that old fashioned virtue of sea-kindliness, and thinking about how many more modern designs with capacious hulls and large flat panels would cope. Anybody who has sailed such boats in these conditions will know what a highly unpleasant experience it is, as the vessel bottoms out with alarming slamming and crashing, enough to knock one off one’s feet and even cause injury. Indeed I fell to speculating whether my previous boat of that ilk and the same size as White Cloud, might actually have sustained structural damage.
One thing I learnt in my early days sailing leaky old tore outs, was how to nurse a boat through testing conditions but such treatment was hardly necessary with White Cloud. She just fell into these black holes with a loud hissing, as if expressing her complete displeasure at such conditions, but with a complete absence of that awful slamming or crashing, just rather a lot of heavyish water on deck. And it is very reassuring to realise that while it’s all rather dramatic, one is not actually subjecting the hull to undue stress.
So by the time we reached a Coruna, such a lovely iconic place to pause and bask in the joy of heading south and meet with so many other kindred spirits, White Cloud had become a real slum below decks. The conditions had exploited every minor deck leak so it was time to dry out and buy some more mastic.
By now White Cloud had decided she liked me and I was besotted with her, but my head was full of modifications which would be necessary if I was to be comfortable and, more importantly, safe onboard, particularly as a singlehander. Sadly all the women that come into my life dislike boats and the sea, but I live in hope!
Above: Steering with the excellent oak “Hebridean” Servo Pendulum gear built from kit
Below: Ponte Luís 1 Bridge in Porto, opened in 1886, designed by Gustave Ei el. The top deck now carries the Porto Metro
We finally arrived in Porto in the first week of December, and a highlight was ghosting under the Pont Luis Bridge under sail and going up the fabulously beautiful Douro river for 12nm to the first dam and lock. True to her heritage White Cloud has a short pole mainmast and no topsail. Of course many yachts would have had their mast lowered and gone under but it’s quite possible White Cloud was the first UK yacht to arrive on her own bottom and do it under sail. One day I’m going to make a tabernacle and go right up into Spain.
Over the next three years we sailed around the Portuguese coast, back to the UK between lockdowns, then back to Portugal last spring. This included the 2021 season in Cornwall attending most of the Classic boat events, which was wonderful after the dark days of covid. Meanwhile, I was hard at work on those modifications and by the time we left the UK again in April 2022 I felt she was in optimum shape to be sailed safely and to live aboard for long periods.
I had become acutely aware that the most difficult task aboard was raising and lowering the mainsail, and felt very vulnerable when the sail was down and its damping effect on the motion was lost. In boisterous conditions I was knocked sideways on a few occasions
Clockwise from top left: Arriving in the Tamar after return from Portugal; Back in Teignmouth, 109 years after being built there; Bijou double berth in the fo’c’s’le with small set of drawers forward; The saloon. The big mug top left was won on the 1974 Heineken Old Ga ers Rally to Amsterdam; The sink slides out above the heads; The boom gallows/ windscreen and folding sprayhood arrangement
and felt that injury was inevitable. The journey along the deck was also very difficult as my harness lifeline had to be so short that I could be knocked over but not knocked overboard, which basically meant crawling. So I led both halyards back to the cockpit and fitted downhauls to the throat and aft end of the gaff. The latter comes down to the aft end of boom, then forward to the mast and then back to the cockpit. She has roller reefing and, with this downhaul block attached to the swivelling part carrying the topping lift and mainsheet, reefing is not affected. With this arrangement raising and lowering could be done under control from the cockpit, but this still left stowing the mainsail. To overcome this I built a gallows at the forward end of the main hatch. Now I can stand in the companionway and lean forward securely braced against the gallows, enough to get a reasonable stow on the mainsail, so all can be done from the safety of the cockpit. Obviously this is limited to small boats but it works like a dream for us. The first stage is to slacken the halyards enough that the boom settles in the gallows, then sheet the main in hard to restrain it. After that everything is nicely under control, safe and easy. She heaves-to nicely under mizzen and jib so that is the favoured manoeuvre to raise and lower the main.
Having built the gallows, the next step was to fill it in with a sort of windscreen, yes it’s not the best aesthetically but under certain conditions it improves the quality of life on board beyond measure.
I fitted second-hand reefing gears on the jib and staysail, these working around additional forestays hoisted on the original halyards, but it was not a success. With deadeyes and lanyards, the jib luff was often too slack, allowing the foil to bow and thus become difficult to rotate. So I discarded the foil and modified the bottom drum to use in conjunction with the original Wyckenham Martin gear top swivel. The drum has a large diameter and this arrangement works well now the sail is set flying.
The reefing gear for the staysail expired in Biscay and I heaved it overboard, minus plastic parts and in very deep water. The staysail is now back to hanking on the forestay but with yet another downhaul. I found that the sail would come part way down operating the halyard from the mast but required a trip onto the foredeck to get it right down. I had fitted a ‘granny bar’ at the mast, actually a heavy galvanised object like one sees on footpaths etc that I bought on ebay in Cornwall for £10, not quite sure of its provenance but I don’t think Cornwall Council will miss it. So now I can get the sail down with one arm through the granny bar by the mast in complete security. The procedure is to sheet the sail in hard with both sheets to bring it as close as possible to the centreline, then pull it down and make the downhaul fast. At this point all three corners are held tight so the sail can’t go anywhere. Sometimes not pretty but as safe as can be.
The little mizzen is simplicity itself, with an uphaul on the end of the boom it’s a few moments’ work to
lift the boom up against the mast, roll the sail round and put on a sail tie.
Of course none of these ideas are new but brought together with a little thought they make sailing her so much more enjoyable and, of course, safer.
Down below I made some major changes, stripping out the forecastle and installing equipement such as a rather posh slide out sink, calorifier, pressure system and shower, a bijou fixed double berth forward, microwave and toaster. She is now very comfortable with no wasted space and everything in its place. A solar panel takes care of 12v power requirements which are modest. I bought a second-hand tablet and use Navionics for primary navigation, with the app also on my phone as backup. The big weakness in this is the connection of the charging cable to the tablet, so this is left in permanently and secured/sealed with a fillet of silicone sealant around it. I found that a normal 12v charger didn’t keep up so I use a 230v one via a tiny inverter which plugs directly into a standard 12v socket. The consumption is minimal and the solar panel easily keeps pace. I also have passage charts and decent pilot books as paper backup.
A few weeks ago I received an email out of the blue from Sheila Gann, the builder’s granddaughter. She explained how he lived for boats and sailing, which really struck a chord with me, and it felt like a hand reaching out from the past. This was a very very special moment, thank you Sheila!
Some of my changes may offend the purist but White Cloud, as well as being a beautiful little classic yacht, also has to fulfil the role of a practical cruising yacht and sometime liveaboard. That she is still doing this and giving such pleasure after 111 years is something money can’t buy and a real privilege for me. She is currently resting in Nazare’ marina ready to head south soon.
2 Southford Road, Dartmouth, South Devon TQ6 9QS Tel/Fax: (01803) 833899 – info@woodenships.co.uk – www.woodenships.co.uk
7 berths in 3
Netherlands €147,000
Cornwall £37,500
Hants £39,750
with a well documented history.
Isle of Wight £12,500
Cornwall £17,000
Hants £19,950
. Scotland £20,000
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. 32’ 9 ton Hillyard launched by Hillyards in 1965. Perfect family cruising boat with centre cockpit, double aft cabin, saloon and twin fore cabin. Significant refit work done in 2010, further refit in 2021. 6 berths with good headroom. Perkins diesel engine. A nice tidy example 34’ John Alden Malabar sloop built by the Wing on Shing shipyard, Hong Kong in 1961. All varnished teak hull, decks and coachroof, newly varnished in spring 2022. Beta 35hp diesel. 5 berths including a double. Very large cockpit with tent and bimini. A beautiful classic yacht, professionally maintained and upgraded in long present ownership. 44’ Max Oertx Bermudan cutter built in Germany in 1925. Pitch pine hull with new teak on ply deck in 2019. New bottom planking, ballast keel and keel bolts in 2013. New Lombardini 60hp diesel in 2007. Smart interior with sleeping cabins. An eye catching yacht with an excellent classic regatta record, fast, elegant and extremely smart. 38’ John Alden Challenger Yawl built by Halmatic Ltd in 1962. An elegant yacht built in the early years of GRP yacht construction with a GRP hull and deck. Varnished teak coachroof and cockpit with laid teak deck gives her the feel of a classic yacht. Elegant design that offers a vast amount of internal volume for the length, easily handled rig with a spacious cockpit. 18’6” carvel motor launch built by Percy Mitchell. Professional refit in 2022 including new gunwhales, thwarts, sole boards and engine box. 25hp Nanni diesel engine. Very smart launch with a professional finish, complete with road trailer. Proper motor launch in great condition. 36’ Alfred Mylne sloop built by the Bute Slip Dock Ltd in 1961. Elegant yacht with generous beam and a wide coachroof giving her a real feeling of space below decks. 5 single berths with 6’6” headroom. In need of some refit work to the deck and systems but being prepared for sailing this season. A really eye catching boat priced to reflect the work required 32’ Maurice Griffiths sloop designed by Griffiths for himself. Built by Seacraft and Co. Ltd in 1956. Major professional rebuild finished in 2004. 4 berths in a comfortable interior. Volvo 29hp diesel with low hours. A rich history and lovely pedigree including original hand written letters from Griffiths. Super little yacht for sensible money. 40’ Sparkman and stephens 8 meter Cruiser Racer built by McGruers in 1965. Superb blend of top class designer and builder, the result is perhaps the most elegant of the 8mCR fleet. Very well maintained, excellent 2021 survey. Very nice yacht ready to go this season be it for cruising or some competitive sailing in classic regattas. Hants £67,500
The classic sailing scene in the British Isles continues to grow, around the established centres of the Solent, East Coast, West Country and further. This summer sees the first Richard Mille Cup, a summer of celebration for the OGA at 60, the 6-M worlds and more
12-14 MAY
Cowes Spring Classics
Cowes, cowesspringclassics.com
Broad-church regatta for classics, sail and power
18-21 MAY
Looe Luggers Regatta
Back with a bang after four years’ absence welcometolooe.com/events
29-29 MAY
Yarmouth Ga ers Festival oga.org.uk. Flagship OGA bash
10-25 JUNE
Richard Mille Cup
Falmouth – Dartmouth – Cowes – Le Havre. richadmillecup.com
The inaugural event will see a fleet of yachts race o shore, with parties at stopovers. Expresions of interest are welcome at the website
1 JULY
Round the Island Race
IoW, roundtheisland.org.uk
One of the world’s most popular yacht races
8-14 JULY
Cowes Classics Week
IoWight, cowesclassicsweek.org
100+ boats in many classes
9 JULY
Southsea Rally
oga.org.uk. informal gathering for boats of all sizes
15–22 JULY
British Classic Week
Cowes, britishclassicyachtclub.org
AKA the British Classic Yacht Club Regatta – one of the big regattas
14-16 JULY
Taittinger Regatta
Yarmouth, Isle of Wight royalsolent.org
Popular for mixed classics
22 JULY
Start of the Rolex Fastnet Cowes, Iow, rolexfastnet.com
50th holding of the world’s most famous o shore yacht race
29 JULY – 4 AUGUST
Cowes Week
IoW, cowesweek.co.uk
Huge event, but Includes some classic classes
15-18 AUGUST
75th Anniversary
Edinburgh Cup
Cowes, IoW, britishdragons.org
26-27 AUGUST
Hamble Classics Regatta
RAF Yacht Club, Hamble hambleclassics.co.uk
31 AUGUST- 8 SEPTEMBER
6-M World Championship RYS, Cowes, IoW, 6mr.org.uk
EARLY SEPTEMBER (TBC)
Bosham Classic Boat Revival
Chichester Harbour, boshamsailingclub.com
Popular new event. Last year’s 10th anniversary regatta was cancelled – keep an eye out for this year’s bash
MAY-SEPTEMBER
Barge matches thamesbarge.org.uk
27 MAY: Medway (Kent)
10 JUNE: Blackwater (Essex)
24 JUNE: Pin Mill (Su olk)
8 JULY: Thames (Essex/Kent)
29 JULY: Swale (Kent)
AUGUST (TBC): Southend (Essex)
SEP (DATE TBC): Colne (Essex)
9-11 JUNE
Su olk Yacht Harbour
Classic Regatta
Levington, R Orwell, syharbour.co.uk
Popular regatta for sail and power with a seperate Stella class
17 JUNE
Heybridge Basin Regatta
Nr Maldon, Essex, jenny@pa-angels.co.uk
7-12 AUGUST
Annual OGA East Coast
Race and Rally
Blackwater, Stour, Orwell, Deben Essex and Su olk. oga.org.uk
19 AUGUST
West Mersea Town Regatta
Mersea Island, Essex mersearegatta.org.uk
16 SEPTEMBER
Maldon Town Regatta
Essex, maldonregatta.co.uk
3-4 JUNE
Three Rivers Race
Ant, Bure and Thurne rivers
3rr.uk. Wild 24-hour Broads race
14–16 JULY
Thames Traditional Boat Festival tradboatfestival.com
Henley, Upper Thames
Big traditional river craft event
16 SEPTEMBER
Great River Race greatriverrace.co.uk
Docklands to Ham, 21-mile race for rowed or paddled vessels
27-28 MAY
Brixham Heritage Regatta brixhamheritageregatta.uk
Sailing trawlers and more
16-18 JUNE
Falmouth Classics
Cornwall, falmouthclassics.org.uk
Huge, traditional regatta, 170+ boats including, this year, steam vessels
24-25 JUNE
Dartmouth Classic Regatta
Devon, royaldart.co.uk
23 JULY
Clovelly Maritime Festival
Devon, clovelly.co.uk
Shoreside with some racing
25-28 JULY
Fowey Classics
Cornwall, foweyclassics.com Friendly event in a scenic setting
24-25 JUNE
Dartmouth Classic Regatta
Devon, royaldart.co.uk
23-26 AUGUST
Dartmouth Royal Regatta
Devon, dartmouthregatta.co.uk
Modern regatta with ga ers class
26-29 MAY
Scottish Series
Loch Fyne, scottishseries.com
Some classics in IRC
27 MAY – 3 JUNE
Sail Caledonia
Raid from Atlantic coast to North Sea coast, sailcaledonia.org
1–2 JULY
Ace Winches Scottish Trad Boat Festival
Portsoy, stbfportsoy.org
Rowing, sailing, 100+ boats
SEPTEMBER (DATE TBC)
Clydebuilt Festival
Glasgow, galgael.org
River maritime festival
14-16 JULY
OGA 60 Celebrations
Cardi Bay, oga.org.uk
14-23 JULY
Conwy River Festival conwyriverfestival.org
Includes Nobby and Ga ers races
31 JULY – 12 AUGUST
Menai Strait Regattas
Nr Beaumaris, Anglesey menaistraitregattas.org.uk
JULY (DATE TBC)
Volvo Cork Week corkweek.ie
Race at the world’s oldest yacht club
11-13 AUGUST
Galway Trad Boat Festival galwaytourism.ie
Ireland’s famous working boats race
The Med season, centre of the classic sailing world, kicks o at Antibes and ends at Saint-Tropez, at the biggest classic regatta in the world. These days, the Vintage Classic Yacht Club runs a four-race series, Mediterranean Champions Cup, at Voiles d’Antibes, Argentario Sailing Week, Vela Clasica Menorca and Régates Royales (Cannes). Other highlights this year are the biennial Monaco Classic and the 8-M Worlds. vintageclassicyachtclub.com
29–30 APRIL
Les Dames de Saint-Tropez St-Tropez, France societe-nautique-saint-tropez.fr/ snst
27–29 MAY
Calanques Classique Marseille, France lanautique.com
31 MAY – 4 JUN
Les Voiles d’Antibes France, voilesdantibes.com
6-10 JUNE
Giorgio Armani Superyachts
Porto Cervo, Sardinia, Italy yccs.it
10-12 JUNE
Vela Classica Costa Brava L’Estartit, Spain velaclassicacostabrava.com/en
14-18 JUNE
Argentario Sailing Week
Porto Santo Stefano, Italy argentariosailingweek.it
16-18 JUNE
Les Voiles du Vieux-Port Marseille, France, lanautique.com
30 JUNE – 2 JULY
Vele d’Epoca a Napoli
Naples, Italy ryccsavoia.it
22-25 JUNE
Spetses Classic Yacht Regatta
Spetses, Greece spetsesclassicregatta.gr
23-25 JUNE Superyacht Cup
Palma, Mallorca, Spain thesuperyachtcup.com
24 JUNE – 5 JULY
Trophée Bailli de Su ren
St-Tropez – Bonifacio – Trapani –Malta. tropheebaillidesu ren.com
1-3 JULY
Grandi Vele a Gaeta
Gaeta, Italy, aive-yachts.it
12-15 JULY
Puig Vela Clàssica
Barcelona, Spain puigvelaclassicabarcelona.com
17–20 AUGUST
Regatta Illes Balears Classic Mallorca, velaclasicamallorca.com
28 AUGUST – 2 SEPTEMBER
8-M World Championships
Genoa, Italy, 8mrworldcup.com
22 –30 AUGUST
Corsica Classic (France) corsica-classic.com
7-10 SEPTEMBER
Vele d’Epoca di Imperia Italy, veledepoca.com
13-16 SEPTEMBER
Monaco Classic Week monacoclassicweek.com
24-30 SEPTEMBER Régates Royales Cannes, France yachtclubdecannes.org
29 SEPTEMBER – 8 OCTOBER
Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez France lesvoilesdesaint-tropez.fr
7 OCTOBER (DATE TBC)
Barcolana Classic Italy, aive-yachts.it
12-15 OCTOBER (DATE TBC)
Vele Storiche Viareggio velestoricheviareggio.org
The north of Europe is a mixed bag, more so than the Med, with everything from huge maritime festivals to the sleeker side of yachting, embodied annually by various events in Germany and Scandinavia. This year marks the return of a giant – the Semaine du Golfe du Morbihan – a moving regatta for all kinds of classic workboats, yachts and dinghies
2 JULY ÅF O shore Classic Race (Around Gotland) Stockholm-Visby-Sandhamn, Sweden; 220nm passage race race.ksss.se
27-29 JULY (DATE TBC)
Airisto Classic Regatta
Abo Batvarf, Turku, Finland airistosegelsallskap.fi
3-5 AUGUST
Sandhamn Regatta Sandhamn, Sweden O shore race for classic yachts ksss.se
12 AUGUST
Viaporin Tuoppi
Helsinki, Finland Big wooden boat regatta english.viaporintuoppi.fi
3-5 AUGUST
Risør Traditional Boat Festival Risør, trebatfestivalen.no
15-21 MAY
Semaine du Golfe du Morbihan Brittany, semainedugolfe.com
23-25 JUNE
La Belle Plaisance Benodet, Brittany, yco-voile.fr
14-16 JULY Voiles Classiques de la Trinité Brittany snt-voile.org
22-23 JULY Voiles Classiques des Sables Les Sables d’Olonne, Loire yachtclubclassique.com
2-6 AUGUST Voiles de Legende yachtclubclassique.com
10-19 JUNE
6-M European Championship
Sanxenxo, Galicia 6metre.com
7-11 JUNE
Robbe & Berking Sterling Cup Flensburg, fsc.de
15-18 JUNE Kiel Rendezvous fsc.de
AUGUST (DATE TBC) Hamburg Summer Classics fky.org
18-21 AUGUST German Classics Laboe, fky.org
11-12 AUGUST (DATE TBC) Svendborg Classic classicregatta.dk
2-3 JULY
Dutch Wooden Boat Festival dutchwoodenboatfestival.nl
SEPTEMBER (DATE TBC)
Dorestad Raid Echtenerbrugge, natuurlijkvaren.nl
1-4 JUNE
Oostende Voor Anker oostendevooranker.be
29 JUNE – 6 AUGUST
Tall Ships Races 2022
Den Helder (NED), Hartlepool (UK), Fredrikstad (NOR), Lerwick (UK), Arendal (NO) sailtraininginternational.org
15 AUGUST – 10 SEPTEMBER
Falmouth to Cadiz
Falmouth (UK) – A Coruna (Spain) – Lisbon (Portugal) – Cadiz (Spain) sailtraininginternational.org
With classic yacht racing around the world, it’s always summer somewhere from the schooners of the USA to a vibrant scene in Australia and New Zealand. Like the Mediterranean, the USA has a classic racing series across 11 regattas organised by the CYOA – see classicyachts.org
CARIBBEAN
19-24 APRIL
Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta West Indies, antiguaclassics.com
5 JUNE Race to Alaska
Port Townsend, WA to Ketchican, Alaska, r2ak.com
700 miles in small craft
7 JULY Great Schooner Race greatschoonerrace.com
Penobscot Bay, Maine
20+ vessels in this evocative rig
7-9 JULY
Vineyard Cup
Mass, sailmv.org/vineyard-cup
Mixed fleet of classic and modern
15 JULY
Belvedere Classic Regatta
San Francisco Bay, California sfyc.org. Includes Great San Francisco Schooner Race
20-27 JULY
Salish 100
Port Townsend, Washington nwmaritime.org
Popuiar small-boat cruise
23-25 JUNE
WoodenBoat Show
Mystic Seaport, CT thewoodenboatshow.com
Big exhibition of wooden boats and related craft
31 JULY 12-M World Championship Newport, Rhode Island 12mrclass.com
27–29 JULY
Camden Classics Cup
Camden, Maine camdenclassicscup.com
Fourth year in this lovely location
5 AUGUST
Eggemoggin Reach Regatta
Rockport, Maine erregatta.com
125+ boats – one of the big events in the American calendar
12-13 AUGUST
Corinthian Classic Regatta
Marblehead, Mass corinthianclassic. org
16-20 AUGUST
Nantucket Race Week nantucketraceweek.org
Classics and moderns
20 AUGUST
Opera House Cup
Nantucket, operahousecup.org
The jewel of the east coast classic regatta scene
25-27 AUGUST
Herresho Classic Yacht
Regatta and Rendezvous
Bristol, RI, herresho .org
Herresho s and other classics organised by the Herresho Museum
3-4 SEPTEMBER (DATE TBC)
IYRS Newport Classic Yacht Regatta
Newport, Rhode Island, iyrs.edu
8-10 SEPTEMBER
Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival
Port Townsend, Washington woodenboat.org
300+ boats, main west coast event
9-10 SEPTEMBER
Newfoundland Rendezvous
New Hampshire, newfound.com
Celebration of cedar-strip craft
26-27 JANUARY 2024
Australia Day Regatta
Sydney, australiadayregatta.co.au
Claimed to be the world’s oldest continuously conducted sailing regatta. Moderns and classics
9-11 MARCH 2024
Wooden Boat Festival of Geelong woodenboatfestivalgeelong.com.au
Big event with racing in many classes
31 JANUARY 2024 (DATE TBC)
Ports of Auckland
Anniversary Day Regatta
Auckland (New Zealand) classicyacht.org.nz
Sailing and watersports clubs get together for this epic event
MARCH 2020
FEBRUARY 2024
CYNZ Classic Yacht Regatta
Auckland, classicyacht.org.nz
Famous celebration of New Zealand’s classic yachts
Cordage has played a central role in our sport for many years yet, as Nic Compton discovers in unraveling its history, the basic principles of ropemaking remain constant
Question: What do the Egyptian pyramids, Britain’s cotton mills, the USS Constitution and the first Space Shuttle all have in common? Answer: They all depended on rope.
Rope has been around for so long that we tend to take it for granted, yet it’s no exaggeration to say that it has been associated with almost every major development in human civilisation. From creating buildings and bridges, to catching and taming animals, creating weapons, and of course playing a central role in farming, fishing and sailing. Rope also features in art, from the Ancient Egyptians through to Leonardo da Vince and right up to the present (viz Tomo Mori’s work). It’s even been used for mathematical purposes (by the Incas) – and don’t even get me started on the core rope memory system used by early computers…
“String,” as Spike Milligan wrote, “is a very important thing.”
The oldest piece of ‘string’ was discovered in a cave in France in April 2020. The fragment, just 6mm (0.24in) long and 0.5mm wide, was made up of three strands which were each twisted clockwise then grouped together and twisted anti-clockwise to make a cord – the principle of ‘laying up’ three-strand rope which survives unchanged to this day. The fragment turned out to be 50,000 years old – 33,000 years older than the previous ‘oldest bit of string’ discovered in another French cave in 1940 – and its sophisticated structure challenged the assumption that Neanderthal man was mentally inferior to Homo sapiens. For, if a creature can make rope, it must have brains.
But rope is probably even older than that. Circumstantial evidence in the form of beads, bone needles, fishing net weights, and wear marks on objects suggest that some kind of rope and, by extension, knots have been in use for at least 250,000 years, and probably a lot longer. The use of rope could possibly even outdate the use of fire (c400,000 BC).
The first type of rope used was probably just natural shapes such as vines, palm leaves and strips of bamboo, but this kind of rope was limited by the length and strength of the plant. To make longer, stronger rope required twisting and braiding, which is where more advanced cognitive abilities were required.
The basic method of making rope goes something like this: Spin the fibre into yarns by overlapping the lengths and twisting them together. Twist three or more
Above: The ancient Egyptians used rope to build the pyramids and (as shown here) to measure fields
Below: An elaborate rope bridge in the Andes – where rope was also used for accounting purposes
sets of yarns together to form the strands. Twist three or more strands together to form the rope. At each stage, twist the line in the opposite direction from the previous stage – this is the basic premise of rope which stops it unraveling and turning into a pile of shredded wheat.
Rope soon became integral to the survival of prehistoric man, being used to make fishing nets, hunting traps, bows, arrows, harpoons, rafts, shelters, baskets, clothes and, later, harnessing animals to pull carts and, later still, ploughs. As civilization advanced, rope helped man’s growing ambitions and was used to drag, lift and lay stones, most notably for the Egyptian pyramids but also for the construction of countless other structures, from Stonehenge to the Parthenon and the Easter Island statues – none would have been possible without rope.
In the Andes, the Incas were great lovers of rope, not only building the world’s first suspension bridges entirely out of rope but also using clusters of string with knots tied in them as abacuses to record ownership of livestock and suchlike. The brightly-coloured quipus were the Inca equivalent of books, and the knots were their letters.
It’s no coincidence that one of the early settlers to America was ropemaker John Harrison who moved from Salisbury, UK to Massachusetts, USA in 1640 on the promise of having a monopoly of the rope trade for the duration of his life. He duly profited from the arrangement for 30 years, establishing two ropewalk factories in the process.
But of course the most visible consumers of rope were ships – from triremes to square-riggers, anything that set a sail needed rope. And the bigger the vessel, the more and bigger rope it needed. The USS Constitution needed a spectacular 40 miles (63.5km) of rope of various sizes to set and to control its rig. Even the Cutty Sark, which gained some of its famous speed by having wire standing rigging, still needed eight miles (13km) of rope to complement its three miles (five kilometres) of wire rigging.
To meet the world’s growing appetite for rope, increasingly sophisticated ropewalks were built. The principle was the same as ever: three sets of yarn were attached to three hooks on a ‘jack’ and the hooks rotated to twist the yarn into strands. Once the strands were made, the ends were attached to a single hook on wheels (the carriage) at the other end of the ropewalk, which was in turn rotated in the opposite direction to twist the stands into rope. As the strands contracted, the carriage was rolled closer to the jack, with the finished rope being about two-thirds the length of the original strands.
Rope made of three strands was called plain or hawser-laid; rope made of four strands was called shroud-laid, and rope made of three or more lengths of three or four-strand rope was called cable-laid.
By the end of the 19th century, most seaside towns had ropewalks, especially those with a nautical tradition: Boston, USA boasted 14 ropewalks in 1794, followed soon
Above: Nylon mooring lines
Below: An 18th-C rope walk, using child labour
Above right: Synthetic ropes in traditional style aboard Eleonora Facing page: The ropewalk at Chatham Docks was built in 1790
after by Plymouth, UK which also had 14 by 1816. So important was rope for the Royal Navy that it built its own ropewalk at Chatham Docks in Kent. When it was completed in 1790, the 1,135ft (346m) building was the longest brick building in Europe and it remains the only traditional ropewalk producing rope commercially to this day.
The central role that rope played in everyday life was celebrated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in his 1858 poem The Ropewalk, in which he starts by describing the scene in a rope-making factory where “human spiders spin and spin” before launching into a detailed account of all the places where that rope might be used: children on a swing, a performer in a circus, a housewife collecting water from a well, a sexton ringing a bell, someone being hung in a prison, a boy flying a kite, sailors sounding the ottom with a lead.
Even with increasing industrialisation, rope still had an important part to play. The great cotton mills that gave Britain such a great commercial advantage might have been powered by steam but that power was transmitted to each floor of the factory and each individual loom by means of rope. Even when steam took over from sail and wire took over from rope towards the end of the 19th century, other markets for rope were soon found in the expanding farming and fishing industries.
A variety of materials was used to make rope at this time, but hemp (made from the
cannabis plant) was the favourite from the 17th century onwards. It was eventually superseded in the 19th century by manila (made from the abacá plant) and coir (made from coconut shells), as well as sisal, cotton and jute.
Despite the increasingly sophisticated means of production, rope itself remained unchanged for hundreds or even thousands of years – until the mid-1930s. That was when the American chemicals company DuPont spent millions of dollars trying to invent a substance that would replace silk – not for making rope or any such useful enterprise but for making for ladies’ stocking. They succeeded spectacularly, of course, and when the first nylon stockings appeared on the market in 1940, they sold out within hours. But America’s ladies would have to
wait a little longer for their miracle hosiery as from 1942-5 most of DuPont’s nylon went towards the war effort – helping to make tyres, parachutes and glider leads. Thus the world’s first nylon rope was born, and there would be no looking back.
The advantages of nylon rope were overwhelming. It was about 20 per cent stronger than natural fibre, more resistant to abrasion, and didn’t rot when wet. Overall it lasted four to five times as long, and was much nicer to handle. Nylon was more slippery than natural fibres, but nothing that couldn’t be addressed by adding an extra hitch to a knot or a couple more tucks in a splice. Nylon also stretched more than natural fibres, but in some situations (such as mooring lines) that was an advantage. Nylon soon became the rope of choice for mooring lines and anchor rodes.
Nylon was quickly followed by Polyester – invented by Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) in 1941, acquired by DuPont in 1946 and marketed as Dacron in 1953. Although it wasn’t quite as strong as nylon, it didn’t stretch as much and was unaffected by being in water – unlike nylon which became 15 per cent weaker when immersed in water. Polyester/Dacron soon became the rope of choice for halyards and sheets.
Nylon and polyester were followed by polypropylene in 1957. Cheap and not very pleasant to handle, its main USP was that it floated. It found a useful function in rescue and waterski lines.
Along with the new materials, new methods of making rope were also being developed. Braided rope (usually 8 or 12 stands braided together) had been around for centuries and became more prevalent during the industrial revolution when the process was mechanised. It really took off, however, with the advent of nylon and polyester ropes. The process took another big step forward in 1957 when the Samson rope company (est 1878) invented doublebraided rope – essentially a rope within a rope. Not only was this stronger than single-braided rope but it allowed a soft jacket to be woven over a strong core, producing the best of both worlds. It was quickly taken up by sailors and mountaineers alike.
High modulus materials such as Kevlar, Dyneema and Spectra were all invented in the 1960s and 70s and were soon used on top end racing boats, such as the America’s Cup yachts – Australia II was fitted with Kevlar running rigging (along with a carbon-fibre boom) back in 1982. Even more impressively, when it came to building the first Space Shuttle in 1977, NASA used these lightweight ropes (also made by Samson) to operate the shuttle’s cargo bay doors.
Due to their high cost, however, it took decades for these high modulus ropes to filter down to the level of the average sailor. Their main disadvantage (apart from cost) was they
Above: Squareriggers need literally miles of rope just for the running rigging
Below: Even the 1977 Space Shuttle used rope to operate the cargo bay doors
were difficult to tie, being extremely slippery (the triple fisherman’s knot is the usual solution here) and difficult to splice (the needle and thread made an unexpected comeback here). Despite this, Dyneema is now used on most new dinghies and is even accepted on classic boats as a less abrasive option than wire for certain applications, such as strops and even standing rigging. Not only that, but the strength of these high modulus ropes has enabled a return to soft fittings, such as shackles and rigging eyes, which were once regarded as outmoded. Plus ça change.
Although rope made of natural fibres is now mainly used for decorative purposes, it can still be found in most households either in the form of Spot Cord – a cotton rope invented by Samson in 1884 and still finding a role making sash cords and clothes lines – or in that most common of ‘strings’: the shoelace, where the friction of natural fibres helps compensate for most people’s tendency to tie a granny knot instead of the much more secure reef knot.
From three-strand to braided, from hemp to Kevlar, rope has evolved in the 40,000 years since that French fragment was made, yet the basic principles remain the same. The Neanderthal cave-dweller who made that ancient rope could turn up today and, while much of what they saw might amaze and appal them, they would instantly recognise a rope and understand what it was for. Rope, then, represents a continuous line to the past and, no doubt, to the future. Long may it remain unbroken.
A Knot A Day by Nic Compton is published by Adlard Coles.
A beautifully bound 500 page hard back book, with over 700 photographs, illustrations, and designs
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Stephens Brothers 43’ Commuter 1931/2019
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For thousands of years there was no choice for sailors but to use natural fibre ropes and to accept their disadvantages. They were prone to rot, although that could be lessened with tarring or waxing, and their construction – by necessity from countless, relatively short pieces twisted together, known as ‘spun yarn’ – determined that they were not particularly strong.
Soon after the Second World War synthetic ropes –more durable and inherently-stronger – started to appear. For many years, however, these ropes were only available in colours that wouldn’t suit classic boat owners who were keen to retain a traditional appearance.
All that began to change in the late 1960s when several rope manufacturers produced a three-strand
polypropylene in a beige colour with a slightly matt furry finish. In the 1980s rope specialists Jimmy Green Marine took things a stage further by commissioning Bridport Gundry to make a hemp-coloured, threestrand polyester: stronger and less stretchy than polypropylene and with better UV properties.
Subsequent developments included polyester braid-on-braid ropes, and then different core materials inside polyester braided covers to give better strength and/or stretch properties including Marlowbraid, Gleistein Cup and finally Dyneema cores (or Spectra, the equivalent trade name in the USA). There are now more than 50 different hemp-coloured rope products on the market, all of which – in fact many more – are also available in white, which may also be acceptable to some classic boat owners.
Ropes must, of course, be manufactured so they are practical. “Our products need to be durable, spliceable, flexible, and work in jammers and on winches and so on,” said Paul Dyer, Marlow’s Technical Manager. “All rope design and manufacture is a compromise and the trick is understanding what you are trying to achieve – it is often not about simple break strength.” In fact it may be misleading to compare different companies’ published breaking loads and stretch figures as they may be measured differently.
The quality of modern ropes is such that, in many cases, the selection of a rope based on its diameter (so that it will be easy to handle) will provide strength and stretch characteristics which are more than adequate for the task. In fact with classic boats there is a danger that you will over-specify your ropes, particularly with regard to stretch qualities. You need to be certain that your deck and hull structure, your spars and your fittings can take the sort of load that a modern rope will put on them.
A great variety of rope types including braid-onbraid, braided covers with various cores, three-strand polyester and polypropylene, which are highly suitable for various applications, are available from numerous companies such as Marlow, Liros, English Braids, Kingfisher, FSE Robline, Jimmy Green Marine, Gleistein, Master Ropemakers, Cousin and Langman Ropes. Natural products such as hemp, manila, coir and sisal are also still available.
Above: Doubleended mainsheet
Right and below: Coils of hemp rope and tarred marlin
Bottom right, top to bottom: Spliced Liros Classic threestrand polyester; Liros Top Cruising braid-on-braid; Marlow D2 Racing 78
Generally speaking, stretch is least desirable in halyards. Occasionally two different products might be used for halyards – one on the working part to ensure it has the desired strength and stretch characteristics, and another on the tail so that it is easy to handle, economical, or just so it looks traditional when coiled and stowed. Bermudan-rigged yachts built by Spirit often have Dyneema-core halyards but it is important to remember that they are designed and built to take the associated loads. Low stretch is less crucial – in fact, often less desirable – for a gaffer’s halyards.
Stretch is much less of an issue with sheets and may be undesirable on a classic boat with hi-tech, low-stretch sails where the combined loads would otherwise simply be too much. However, Dyneema spinnaker guys are more effective in keeping the pole off the forestay when reaching, and in this instance it might also be beneficial to remove the cover on the
Above: Spinning a braided cover at Lirios
Above right, top to bottom: Double-braided polyester line; POSH rope in beige; And a traditionallooking rope fender, all from Langman Ropes
forward part which you won’t have to handle. Uncovered Dyneema in its own right is also becoming increasingly popular for the main part of running backstays as it is much safer than wire rope, and less likely to damage spars and sails. In fact Dyneema seems to be used increasingly for standing rigging, including on the reconstructed boats in the revived Dublin Bay 21 class.
Owners of spirit-of-tradition boats may not be particularly worried about the colour of ropes – Spirit Yachts’ owners are just as likely to choose white, grey or beige, for instance – but a beige hemp-like colour is likely to be first choice for most classic boat owners. But eschewing the advantages of the myriad of the available coloured ropes could lead to identification problems. This can be helped to some extent with distinctive but discreet whippings on the ends of ropes, but in many cases – on a professionally-crewed boat or one that is only ever sailed by the same small crew – the problem will be solved simply by growing familiarity.
It seems like only last week that I was hove to in a pilot cutter off Newfoundland, wasting a fair wind and wishing I was anywhere else on the planet. In fact, it was 40 years ago, but time does funny things to one’s perspective. I was lying to because I was unsure of my position, but so much has changed in the four decades since then that the situation is barely recognisable today. The shape and performance of mainstream yachts has moved on, with wide-sterned cruisers and race boats careering around on foils, but the real revolution that affects us all is GPS. Even first-voyage tyros know where they are far out at sea. This astonishing fact is accepted as ‘read’ by the modern-yacht sailor who has grown up assuming the chart plotter will tell all, but the classic seafarer’s roots run deeper than that. Because our boats remain essentially unchanged and our seamanship is steeped in the traditional, we have a hotline to the days when position could only be found by observing the sun, moon and stars. Some degree of inherent doubt was always part of the picture then, and dealing with it had a profound affect on how sailors thought.
My situation back in 1983 illustrates the point. The shipmates and I were on passage in our 35-tonne, 1911 pilot cutter from Iceland towards the Belle Isle Strait between Labrador and Newfoundland. We had not had a good time of it. The original plan had been to call at southwest Greenland as we went by, stretching our legs ashore and looking over what was left of Erik the Red’s old Norse colony. The weather, however, didn’t play ball. Several weeks of southwesterlies had piled ice into the Greenland fjords, rendering a landing dubious to say the least and dealing us a rough ride dead to windward as a bonus. It was foggy off Cape Farewell, but the visibility cleared for a couple of hours. Just long enough to take a noon sight for latitude and to note that pack ice lay between us and the icy mountains we could see rising behind the coast. Then the fog returned. We had no radar, no GPS of course, and no radio for an up-to-the-minute ice report that might, or might not, have offered hope.
The season was late and time was running out, so taking a punt into the pack from an unconfirmed position didn’t seem
the brightest of ideas. Reluctantly we hardened our sheets and stood out to sea, close-hauled to the southwest towards our destination 700 or so miles away. Progress then became intermittent as a series of low pressure systems swept across us. When the wind backed southerly, or even east of south before the next warm front, we made good distance on the port tack. The front would veer the wind to dead ahead and it would blow with the best part of gale force. At this point we threw in the towel and hove-to as we waited for the blessed cold front. Unhindered by any land mass, this would show up unmistakably with a blast of icy air, a sharp veer in the wind and a few choice hailstorms for good measure. As the glass kicked up sharply, we’d let draw on starboard and hit the rhumb line for a day or so until the whole pantomime was repeated with the next depression.
Another benefit from the cold front was that we got to see the sun. Often it was through the clouds, but when you’d been finding your way round the oceans with only a sextant for 20 years or so, that was no problem. A single sextant sight doesn’t give you a fix. It leaves you with one position line. For a two-point fix, you need another sight later in the day. The first is run up to the second by good old dead reckoning, a transferred position line is plotted and the fix is the point at which the second observation was taken. Since this is already half an hour or so old and typically three miles adrift by the time the plot is on the chart, you’ll see that astro is, by comparison with what we have now, an inexact science. Happily though, taken by and large, it didn’t usually matter. With obvious exceptions like parts of the Pacific, the oceans are wide and there isn’t a lot to hit. Today’s fixation with super-accurate positions isn’t really relevant at all. So long as you can get within a couple of miles, you’re going to find a respectable landfall. That was the level of accuracy to hope for. Five miles, or even ten would get you there, especially on a well-lit coast after dark. Stars were even more accurate if conditions were right, and I still have one or two old star plots where several position lines cross within the width of the pencil point that is plotting them. Classical navigation only started to get challenging when you couldn’t see the sky, and it
Despite the brilliance of GPS, sometimes the best thing is compass, echo sounder, log, lookout and trust in the Lord
ILLUSTRATION CLAUDIA MYATT
was a lot worse when this went on for several days with landfall approaching.
As the Belle Isle Strait came within realistic reach, we only had one jib left and that was the tiny spitfire. The rest had blown out. The heavy canvas main was holding on but we were down to it, the staysail and very little on the bowsprit, which wasn’t doing a lot for forward progress. Not to mince words, we’d been beating our brains out, everything was wet and we were stone cold despite having the coal stove roaring away continuously from Iceland. Morale was struggling until one morning the wind shot round into the northeast and freed us. Most gaff cutters don’t sail worth tuppence to windward without the right jib. We were no exception, but on a reach or a run she manages a whole lot better and away we went at six knots. The prospect of ‘all night in’ and a beer in a warm, friendly bar was suddenly realistic and morale shot through the deckhead. The hands were jubilant, but not me. I had a new problem. I didn’t know where we were.
We hadn’t seen the sun for 72 hours of close-hauled sailing with two or three tacks thrown in to muddy the water. Infuriatingly, the clouds refused to break. If anything, visibility had taken a turn for the worse. Navigation from our last astro fix was down to dead reckoning or, to slightly misquote the great Captain Lecky, ‘Compass, echo sounder, log, lookout and trust in the Lord’. The only certainty was that an ironbound coast and our destination lay dead to
leeward. Our DR position could well be as much as 30 miles adrift and it was blowing harder every minute. Running in was simply not an option. We’d just have to wait. And so, after a fortnight of the sailor’s hell of hammering to weather through ice and fog, when at last we were served up a fair wind, we couldn’t use it. That night it blew great guns as we lay under double-reefed staysail and deep-reefed main. In the morning the screaming wind eased down to a moderate gale, but still the scud drove across the sky. Just on noon, it finally broke for a snapshot of the sun. We had a latitude. Unbelievably, this plotted within a few miles of the DR. Two hours later with the breeze down to Force 5, a second sight gave us a fix just 30 miles from l’Anse aux Meadows where shelter of sorts awaited us. We let draw and crammed on what sail we could. Soon, the land appeared, with salient points stacking up with the chart. At seven knots we were in well before dark. Boats were wrecked in the harbour. Bollards were ripped out of the concrete docks. It had been a memorably bad night all round. Goodness knows how we’d have fared if we’d been sure of our position the previous afternoon and had run in for shelter. Looking at the carnage, it didn’t bear thinking about. We’d been saved by our uncertainty and a seamanlike decision about how to handle it. Although nobody in his right mind could lament the GPS revolution, sometimes there’s something to be learned from the old ways.
Grand Banks motor cruisers are a legend in the USA, as American as blue jeans and freeways, and their popularity is catching on a little in Europe, where we’ve seen a few restorations recently, like Freya. They are the quintessential trawler yachts, well-built and seamanlike in their behaviour as well as their appearance… and they hold their value well, because of that quality, and the brand. This one, Alaskan Star, is an Alaskan 49 model, built, as they all were, by American Marine in Hong Kong, this one in 1974. Her current owners had had her since 1978 – an amazing 45 years. She’s mahogany planked on yakal frames and, according to the broker, has been loved and cherished as a member of the family throughout her life so far. She’s powered – as many of them are – by two of the stalwart Ford Lehman 120hp engines – and is apparently a well-known yacht in her home cruising grounds of the west coast of Scotland. She o ers sleeping for six across two cabins and her interior is “beautifully crafted throughout and is superbly comfortable or long-term cruising or full-time living aboard.” Those are the broker’s words, but past experience with these boats corroborates them. This is a proper little ship at a very fair price.
Lying Scotland, Asking £155,000, michaelschmidt.co.uk
If the events guide in this issue has you thinking about the Med scene, but you don’t have millions of Pounds to spare, you can’t be doing with the constant need for a crew of gorillas and you also want to cruise, this is your boat. The 51ft 1in (15.6m) bermudan cutter Bufeo Blanco was built by Sangermani of Italy (see our interview with Giacomo Sangermani in this issue) in 1963 (as Luimar) to cruise fast and race, and she’s fulfilled both those briefs quite breathtakingly ever since, almost since the dawn of the classic yacht revival. After her first restoration in 1992, she won the Prada Trophy at the Vele d’Epoca di Imperia in 1994. Various owners and refits followed, and her campaigning on the Med circuit has been so vigorous, particularly in the last 15 years, that a record of her wins would read like the Yellow Pages. Monaco, Naples, Barcelona, Trieste… Bufeo Blanco has won the lot and more. You only have to look at the boat to realise that despite that list, she’s essentially a cruiser, and she’s done that with equal vigour over the years, with a proper comfortable, well-equipped cruising interior. “She may be the perfect owner-driver size and ticks so many boxes” as the broker puts it. Build is mahogany on laminated oak with
galvanised steel floors, lead ballast keel, teak laid deck on plywood and mahogany superstructure. The engine is a recently rebuilt Volvo Penta 75hp. No one would describe this as a “cheap” yacht, but she comes with a price tag that makes her a possibility for many more people than yachts of this pedigree and capability normally do. She has been in present ownership since 2019.
Lying Italy, Asking E220,000, sandemanyachtcompany.co.uk
Having launched the first 8m ‘CLARA’ with a 20 hp outboard, we are now refining the performance of ‘FARADAY’ - the first of this design to be electric powered (pictured below) Whichever power source may be chosen, these non-planing slippery hulls offer a different way to explore the waters around us – while leaving behind only the smallest of footprints. The 20 hp outboard version offers a maximum speed of 12.5 knots, while the 6kw electric equivalent offers 8.5 knots.
More info can be found on our website (below) or by contacting us on +44 7834 336651
Call us to book a test run on our latest electric boat at the ‘Green Tech Boat Show’ which takes place at Ocean Village, Southampton on the 21st, 22nd and 23rd April. Awards
Since 1638 producer of world’s highest quality classic ropes, made from natural and synthetic fibers Well known among a wide range of tall ships. Our ropes are world-wide available from our distributors
JASMINE
Classic 4 berth mahogany Great Ouse river boat / Fenland cruiser. Built by Banhams of Cambridge in late 1950s / early 1960s. Forward drive cockpit, main salon, midship galley, toilet compartment, rear sleeping cabin. Length 8.66m (28ft 5”). Beam 3.0m (9ft 10”). Draught 0.71m (2ft 4”). Vetus 414 4-cylinder diesel engine. Price : £9,950 ONO Contact: sue-green@hotmail.co.uk or 01676 533377
custom Huon Pine carvel planked launch is o ered for sale. Powered by a 90 HP John Deere and along with her generous list of options including a 12KW Generator, Inverter charger, Diesel heater , Reverse cycle A/C, Recently upgraded Furuno Electronics package she is turnkey for day cruising or weeks away at a time. A Double forward cabin with separate Head and Shower give her a great accommodation space and her light and airy saloon with large windows makes for a very comfortable vessel both on route, at anchor or in the marina. Currently lying in Singapore ‘BELLE’ is not to be missed. $800000 SGD Contact – James or Christian +61418699818 sales@hallettboatbrokers.com.au for a full inventory or to arrange an inspection of this fine craft.
LE TEMPS PERDU
French ga 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
Design by W.M.Blake. Built by Whisstocks Boat Yard at Woodbridge (Yard No. 337) Engine Beta Marine 14hp Coral II is a beautiful and historic wooden sailing yacht seeking a new owner. She was the 2nd Deben 4-Tonner launched after Second World War. Having been kept on the hard for several years Coral II now needs a new owner who is willing to restore her to her former glory. This could be an excellent project for those who wish to use their wooden shipwright skills. Happy to o er the boat to a boat building school as a project. Lying Beaulieu River. Price: Nominal £1.00
Contact: fintanwalton@me.com
DRAFT 4’
This unique and beautifully finished Gentlemans Motor yacht is a modern classic in excellent condition and equipped to a high standard. Designed with a Dutch influence and built using modern techniques, she was privately commissioned and completed in 1991. Constructed in the UK by McMillan Yachts (Spirit Yachts). Built by hand using Cedar Mahogany Ash and Teak her sweeping lines and topside flair o er Amali her unique charm and beauty both internally and externally. On deck there is a traditional helm station with a raised dining area. The bow area has plenty of space for sunbathing and socialising with two custom made awnings providing shade. Below decks there is the helm room, a full galley along with a wood burning stove and a wonderful salon with a dining area and convertible berths for three. Sleeps7/8 with two further double cabins and a shower room with electric toilet. Powered by two fuel e cient Volvo Penta Diesel engines on shaft drives, approx 10 litres per hour with a range of 500NM. Lying Cap D’Antibes (or UK by arrangement). Price: £149,500 Contact: jvg@amalioflondon.co.uk or (+44) 07785 954 900
Brokerage listing
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.
1937/2011
2004
TRADE WIND was commissioned 1937 by a prominent Great Lakes yachtsman wanting a comfortable cruising boat for two, able to go anywhere - a yacht he could use as a tender to the 8 Metre he campaigned as well as to accompany the race fleet to Bermuda. Eighty five years later, and following a three year restoration by Rockport Marine, she still has her classic good looks and style but with concessions to modern convenience. The best of both worlds: power under sail for peaceful cruising, and powerful diesel engines to get you where you want be when you need to be there. Superb functionality in traditional good taste.
$1.7M USD VAT not paid
29FT ALFRED MYLNE GAFF SLOOP
1909/2007
NIÑITA is a striking, strong and well proven blue water cruiser with an amazing pedigree: a hull lines and rig replica of the Starling Burgess-designed schooner NIÑA, once described by Olin Stephens as, “the only boat he knew of that looked good from any angle”. Built of strip plank Douglas fir epoxy by one of the great schooner builders of the modern age, since launching in 2004 NIÑITA has been in almost constant commission as a very able eastern north Atlantic cruiser and exceptionally comfortable floating home, with a Baltic cruise north of the Arctic Circle and many classic rallies and regatta wins - all just two-up – also included in her impressive sailing programme.
£450,000 GBP Lying France
LADY TRIX is an Alfred Mylne gem: celebrated, as are many Scottish-designed classic yachts in France, with Monument Historique Classé Patrimoine Maritime et Fluvial status, and by Yacht Club de Monaco as “The Atlantic Stradivarius”; given a new life under present ownership after 6000 hours of artwork by restoration expert Bruno Barbara; and with a reputation backed up by a superb trophy list for a turn of speed larger yachts would be jealous of. This is sailing in its purest, least complicated, and most aesthetically pleasing form; her first owners collected art works by the likes of Dürer, Rembrandt and Whistler – it all make sense. What fun can be had sailing LADY TRIX with a bunch of friends, or simply as a couple!
€230,000 EUR
For further information please contact:
+44 (0)1202 330077
info@sandemanyachtcompany.co.uk
Lying France
For over 60 years, Kim Holman’s Rummer Yawl Class design has quite rightly been held in high regard as a paragon of all-round near perfection in a handy-sized classic cruiser-racer. Racing results and excellent press reviews ensured not only the class’s success, but also the designer’s. This is the original RUMMER, beautifully built by Whisstock’s for Holman himself. Apart from her fame, she’s a thoroughly practical, well behaved, short-handed cruiser-racer with a large, deep and safe cockpit, wide decks, and spacious accommodation for a 35ft classic. RUMMER has come through a major refit in very safe hands that has dealt with all the necessaries while preserving her authenticity.
£75,000 GBP
Our classic and vintage yachts & motor yachts are available to view at:
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Lying UK
22 Market Street, Poole, Dorset BH15 1NF, UK MEM BER OF ABYA
62FT ALDEN MOTOR SAILOR
Kaléa is a 70ft (21m) Italian yacht from the 1960s, designed by Bruno Veronese and built at Cantieri de Pisa in 1964. From the era of yachts like Blue Leopard, Gitane IV and Blue Sapphire, Kaléa was designed to have excellent sailing qualities matched by an equally good performance under power with comfortable accommodation for the owners, four guests and two crew.
Kaléa was sailed from her home port in Rome to Genoa and shipped to Southampton and sailed to Cowes in April 2019 to be restored for her new owners Josephine and Tim Blackman, who is the founder of the British Classic Yacht Club. For some years there had been rain water ingress through the covering board at the mainmast chainplates which are bolted to 2.2m x 0.75m galvanised plates inside the hull. The space between the plates and the hull had been backed between the frames with timber which had become waterlogged and as a result rotted out the planking in that area.
The survey was conducted in Rome by Will Stirling from Plymouth. Due to the quality of the structure and build, it was decided that repair would be successful and viable. Originally it had been intended she would be slipped at Wooden & Steel Ship Repairs at Clarence Yard, East Cowes, but the yacht ahead of Kaléa in the schedule, the 90ft Fred Parker motor yacht Somerset, would be on the slip far longer than scheduled.
Kaléawas lifted at Wight Shipyard in June 2021 and a team of shipwrights from Clare Lallows of Cowes joined their in-house shipwrights and technicians to undertake the hull repairs and all ensuing restorative works, removing and overhauling the engine, replacing the generator, wiring, plumbing, installing new skin fittings to return Kaléa to her best condition.
All deck fittings and rigging screws were re-chromed and Spencer Rigging replaced all the standing and running rigging. A new suit of six sails was supplied by Sanders Sails in Lymington and all detail deck covers to protect the new varnish work were designed and supplied by Island Canvas.
She is being launched at Wight Shipyard on 20 February 2023 for commissioning and sea trials before final systems are completed in Cowes Yacht Haven during March.
The owner Tim Blackman, who has previously revitalised a number of classic yachts including the Philip Rhodes-designed Josephine and Infanta, says “It has been a privilege to be able to restore such a glorious yacht and particularly to do so in Cowes with its wealth of yachting history and skills.”
It is planned that Kaléa will participate in the British Classic Yacht Club Regatta at Cowes in July 2023, and then sail back to the Mediterranean attending the Regates Royales in Cannes and Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez on her way to her new berth in Corfu.
In a makeshift tin shed, marine surveyor Mike Smith is building a replica of Sir Robin Knox-Johnston’s famous ketch Suhaili. The build had already started at the time of the first Golden Globe Race in 2018, which was held in era-correct boats to commemorate 50 years since Sir Robin –then just ‘Robin’ – became the first person to sail solo and non-stop around the world, winning the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race in the process. “The original was a 32ft (9.8m), nine-tonne bermudan ketch made entirely of teak, very thick 32mm planking and iron fastenings to William Atkin’s Eric plan and based on Norwegian sailing lifeboats by Colin Archer,” explains Mike. “It was made in Bombay with traditional techniques using bow drills and is very heavy, but very seaworthy.” Mike’s replica is strip planked in red cedar with plywood for the bulkheads and decks, and a sloop, rather than cutter, rig. He missed that first race, and the one that is ongoing now, having started in September 2022 from Sables d’Olonnes on France’s west coast. Instead, he has his eye on the 2026 event, but is aiming to get Suhaili on the water by the end of this year. “In 2024, I will be testing and optimising her by sailing locally, most
likely in o shore races such as the Gosford to Lord Howe Race, maybe circumnavigate New Zealand. I need to harden myself up as well as the boat,” he jokes. “And a Trans-Tasman would give me experience of diverse conditions.”
As well as the hundreds of feet of red cedar, Mike has been using glassfibre, resin and glue supplied by ATL Composites, who told us that Mike, although modest about his skills, is a step above the average amateur builder. Having worked on many other projects and currently as a marine surveyor and insurance assessor.
“It’s taken so long because I can’t throw all my resources at it,” Mike says. “I work on it four to six hours a day, but I have to work smart and not get tired, or I’ll do something stupid to the boat or myself.” And in case you ever wondered how Suhaili got her name, here’s the explanation from the great man himself (pictured below): “There’s a star called Suhail but Suhaili also has a number of meanings. It can mean girlfriend or best friend in Urdu and my wife’s name was Sue, so it seemed to me quite tactful to choose the name.”
It is now 10 years since Stirling & Son moved to its current premises in Plymouth, a few hundred metres up the Tamar from Mayflower Marina. Prior to that the company had been based further up the river at Morwellham Quay near Tavistock, then in a farm shed where Will Stirling built his own boat Integrity, a 43ft (13m) ga cutter based on yachts of the late 19th century.
The chance to move to one of the oldest covered slipways in the world was too good to resist. The slipway was built in 1763 while the roof – 54ft (16.5m) high at the top of the slipway and much of it still original – was added in 1814. It is now a Scheduled Ancient Monument, the same listing as Stonehenge. Submarines were built here before and during World War One, but when Stirling & Son moved there, it hadn’t been used for 50 years. “It was derelict,” said Will, “and had a hole in the roof and no electricity.” After a Regional Development Grant was secured, electricity was installed, the roof was fixed, new rails were fitted to the slipway, and a redundant Clarke Chapman winch once used to haul the Lizard lifeboat up its slip was acquired from the RNLI and connected to a tractor engine.
Since then, Will has attracted a number of significant restoration projects including the Silver motor yachts Kingfisher (1935) and Life Aquatic from 1952 (CB342), the 1898 Camper & Nicholsons’ schooner Greylag, the 1968 McGruer yawl Rinamara and the steel motor yacht Caramba.
At the time of my visit, there were two timber vessels on the slipway. One was the 96ft (29.3m) topsail schooner Johanna Lucretia that belongs to sail-training organisation The Island Trust. Built as a fishing vessel in Belgium in 1945, she is having “a winter overhaul, but quite a thorough one,” said Will. This includes a new Beta 150hp diesel, new tanks, recaulking of the hull and decks, overhaul of the windlass and a new galvanised steel hawse pipe and anchor plate. “We are checking the fundamentals and getting everything on a really good footing for the coming years.”
Alongside Johanna Lucretia is the 1926 Brixham Trawler Vigilance, now owned by the Vigilance of Brixham Preservation Company. “She has lost her shape and had many large and small repairs,” said Will. “We are clarifying just how much we need to do. She is a historic boat so we will do the work sympathetically and retain as much original material as we can, but we have to make sure she is structurally sound.” All hull renewals will be in oak, and Will has already taken the time to source “the right wood at the right price” from companies like Anton Coker, Vastern Sawmill, and Somerscales.
About five years ago, Will was given a 27ft (8.2m) ga cutter called Pierette, which was built by Teignmouth Ship & Yacht Co in the 1870s. “According to folklore
Above: Will Stirling at the yard
Facing page, clockwise from top left:Vigilance and Johanna Lucretia share the slipway; Pierette with her port-side planking removed; Johanna Lucretia’s deckhouse temporarily removed; Vigilance and Johanna Lucretia; A Stirling clinker dinghy; Another Stirling clinker dinghy with Pierette, Vigilance and Johanna Lucretia in the background
Pierette has always had lady owners,” said Will, “so in this case it is my wife Sara who now owns her!” Pierette is now being restored thoroughly on an “as-and-when basis” with no time considerations. All the frames are being renewed as is the non-original deck, but it is hoped that almost all the pitch pine planking will be retained.
In addition to all this, Stirling & Son has just completed its 55th clinker dinghy. Most of these have been rowing boats varying in size between 9ft and 12ft (2.8m and 7m), while the sailing dinghies are a little bigger. All of them are to Will’s design and the vast majority have been built by Will himself – he tends not to do hands-on work with the company’s major projects as he finds that the constant interruptions are too disruptive, but that has been less of an issue with the dinghies – but latterly he has been handing them over to colleagues.
Stirling & Son currently employs 16 people, including two apprentices. Up until relatively recently, Will only directly employed shipwrights and boatbuilders, and brought in sub-contracting ancillary trades as necessary. The company now has its own engineer/electrician and welder which is “more e cient and gives more control”.
Apart from the work carried out in Plymouth, there are two other branches to the Stirling family marine ventures. While Will also carries out regular wooden boat survey work in the UK, Europe and North America, his wife Sara runs Treluggan Boatyard just over the border in Cornwall where up to 170 boats are laid up and serviced.
Outside of work, Will somehow manages to find time to undertake some epic voyages on Integrity, along with various friends and colleagues. About five years ago they sailed her via Jan Mayen – the world’s most northerly volcano, which they climbed – to Iceland. Having been based there until last year, they took her to Greenland, Labrador and then Nova Scotia. Will then commissioned Old Town Boatworks in Lunenburg to thoroughly inspect and service her rig and so on – “the boot is on the other foot!” – in readiness for an attempt on the North West Passage this summer. Along the way he plans crew changes at Disko Island on the west coast of Greenland and at Resolute, and a certain amount of mountaineering. There is no guarantee, of course, that the passage will be clear enough of ice to allow a successful transit, but Will describes it as “significantly more probable” than it used to be. All being well, they will safely exit the Bering Straits in September and then leave Integrity in Nome, ready for the next adventure.
The projection or ‘hook’ of a plane’s cutting iron is set according to the type of plane in use, the nature of the wood and the quality of finish desired. Extend the iron too far and the plane will not only be hard to push but risk ripping up the surface like a garden hoe. Extend not far enough and the job will go on forever. Get the hook right and the work should prove easy on both the wood and the worker. We are not always looking for a millpond finish. The role of the scrub or roughing plane (1) with its heavily cambered iron is simply to remove waste fast and its projection as coarse as 1/8in (3mm) may be judged by eye alone. Projection of a wooden plane is usually adjusted by tapping with a light hammer, and for the more precise setting of a jack or smoother you get a better feel for the process by placing fingers below the mouth (2). Alternatively, invert the plane and
sight along the sole for which a plain light-coloured background aids visibility of the cutting edge. If tapping an inverted plane while the wedge is less than tight, be sure to grip the iron’s sides in case it should loosen and fall, meanwhile holding the plane over the bench. If tapping results in projecting too far, you may be able to back the iron out a fraction by knocking above the plane’s toe, otherwise whack the heel with a mallet to release the iron and start again. A sharp tap on the wedge locks the setting.
1 The coarse hook of a scrub plane’s cambered iron leaves a rippled surface
2 Tapping a wooden smoother’s iron while feeling for projection
3 Projection of a Bailey-type plane is adjusted by screw thread and levers
4 Setting a PlaneMaster’s projection and alignment by hand and eye
5 Tissue-thin oak shavings from the PlaneMaster No 10
Adjusting the hook of a Baileytype metal plane is more predictable and far easier thanks to the mechanical advantages of screw threads and levers, even allowing for fettling on the fly (3). Bailey planes have a separate lever for lateral adjustment, by which the cutting edge and sole are aligned parallel, but in the mid-1960s She eld toolmakers Parramore & Sons neatly integrated both adjustments in its PlaneMaster No 10, an innovative rebating and smoothing plane also pioneering the use of disposable blades. A large diameter wheel enabling micro-adjustment of projection also pivots sideways for fine tuning alignment, making for a good test of hand and eye coordination (4). The proof of the setting lies in the planing, producing tissue-thin shavings of uniform thickness if the gods are smiling (5).
The chalk line listed among essential tools in John Leather’s classic book Clinker Boatbuilding has been snapping a straight course for the saw to follow over hundreds of years. All manner of spools, frames, bags and boxes have been used to stow the line but a simple wooden reel has endured the longest. A threepenny boxwood reel from a tool store of the 1900s was almost identical to reels recovered from the wreck of Henry VIII’s Mary Rose, a warship which foundered in the Solent in 1545.
The chalk line comes into its own when a board is too long or too rough for marking with a straight edge or a gauge. The hemp or cotton line loaded with chalk is stretched between two nails, lifted a fraction and then let go to snap a dusty mark su cient to follow by eye. As to the length a chalk line will, in theory, go you might ask ‘How long is a piece of string?’ but there is always a limit to what is practical.
Ever striving to o er the world ‘a better mousetrap’ toolmakers have taken that simple piece of string and made of it a complex piece of machinery typified by the Stanley
Chalk-O-Matic, a long-lived design launched in the 1950s. Looking into patent history suggests designers took inspiration from fishing reels, tape measures, washing lines and even tanks used for developing photographic film in their search for making a tidy job of chalking, paying out and recovering the line. For the purposes of demonstration, the board I’ve used here is atypically short and the line overloaded but the blue chalk mark shows well enough. Ergonomically the Chalk-O-Matic is a little wonder. Its tapered aluminium body fits snugly in the
1 Snapping a line with the Stanley Chalk-O-Matic
2 The cap unscrews for topping up the chalk
3 Dismantled to show the reel and pivot
hand and doubles as a plumb bob, while the handle stows flat for snagfree carrying in the tool box or pocket. While paying out the line at speed it’s usual to stand the handle upright. Whereas the Tudor shipwright loaded the line by drawing it across a solid lump of chalk, the Chalk-O-Matic is filled with powdered chalk which, being jumbled about in use, maintains the line in readiness. A felt gasket around the filler cap prevents leakage but with the cap unscrewed while topping up, the powder might go anywhere.
NEXT MONTH: Shooting board
OLD PULTENEY WHISKY
I liked the article about Kelpie’s rig, which prompted me to look out one of my old logbook/journals about sailing up to Norway with Crispin Rushworth-Lund aboard her in 1974. The ga yawl rig she carried at that time was very di erent, but so easily driven. It allowed us to work her under sail into the tightest little harbours and anchorages, so we had a lot of fun. I was amazed by her speed, and we certainly drove her at times, but her deck, hatches, and topsides leaked quite badly, and we were always wet... We had some grand adventures that summer. We pushed her a bit hard before an early September gale, running down on the Swedish coast and she was comprehensively pooped, fi lling the cockpit and taking about a ton of water on board, fi lling the cockpit right up. The stern sank right down for several seconds under the weight, but she shook it all o and was soon sailing fast again, swooping and surfi ng and rolling down towards the lee shore, as the night came on....
Roger Robinson
Since my article about Cape Horn was published in Classic Boat (CB414), the mystery of her provenance has largely been solved – thanks to Martin Versteeg, a volunteer researcher at the Dutch Maritime Museum in Amsterdam. Through some assiduous research, he has managed to identity her as Vrouwe (ie Lady ) Emilia built in 1950 by the De Vries Lentsch yard in Amsterdam, build number 2300 and design number 1651. Her fi rst owner was a Mr Merkx, who also owned the very successful V&D department store in Heerlen. She was painted white and rigged as a
bermudan sloop at that time and was raced extensively in the local ‘big boat’ class. In 1969, Merkx sold her to Richard Fox from Los Angeles California, USA, who renamed her Cape Horn . She disappeared from the Lloyd’s Register of Yachts in 1971 –possibly relocated in the USA – before reappearing in Europe in the late 1970s.
I wonder if any of your American readers have heard of her, and does anyone know what happened to her during those ‘mystery years’ in the 1970s?
Nic Compton
Makes varnish or paint last Glues the top coat to the wood Glues wood bres back together Waterproof but breathable Made largely of wood resins
Penetrates deeply
Stops tannin bleed
Christian Carleton used Epifanes varnish over CPES on Taurus (pictured right) in 1991. He writes:
“ You are welcome to use my name, my experience, and any photos of the boat in your testimonials. I am a true believer in your CPES product. I have been using it since 1991 on every piece of wood I put into a boat.”
www.makewoodgood.co.uk
Support and advice on: +44 (0)1732 824 700
Nauporos : A nineteen thirties open cockpit motoryacht with steel hull and delightful spacious interior. Possible mooring in northern France or easy to import across the Channel.
suit your individual needs — for a day or for a lifetime.
With 30 years of experience specialising in traditional and electric boats we will do our best to nd the ideal craft to suit your individual needs — for a day or for a lifetime.
For more information contact HENLEY SALESAND CHARTER LTD
With 30 years of experience specialising in traditional and electric boats we will do our best to nd the ideal craft to suit your individual needs — for a day or for a lifetime.
For more information contact HENLEY SALESAND CHARTER LTD
+44 (0) 1491 578870 | sales@hscboats.co.uk
www.hscboats.co.uk
With 30 years of experience specialising in traditional and electric boats we will do our best to nd the ideal craft to suit your individual needs — for a day or for a lifetime.
For more information contact HENLEY SALESAND CHARTER LTD
For more information contact
+44 (0) 1491 578870 | sales@hscboats.co.uk
We look at the history of Bob Dylan’s schooner Bequia, through the eyes of his sailing friends and current owner
The glassfibre Nic 55 Quailo III has had a long life in the armed services, but now she’s back in private ownership
All the winners in this year’s 2023 Awards, from motorboats to sail, restored and new, small and large
Early Jeanneau wooden runabout; the first woman to sail around the world; meet Thames boatbuilder Michael Dennett; Golden Globe yacht models; and much more
April 1993, CB58
Boat test: Beneteau Oceanis 60, innovative bluewater flyer
Boat test: Bavaria C57, German engineering meets Italian design
Montenegro: hidden jewel of the Adriatic
South coast sailing: plan a dream summer cruise
Clothing: new styles for a new season
Friday 6 April, 2023
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As the Royal Thames Yacht Club approaches its 250th anniversary in 2025, we look forward to events and other things planned to mark the occasion. In the April 1993 edition of Classic Boat, 30 years ago this month, yachting historian Ian Dear trawls through the club’s archives and visits its famous model room. What he says about the club in his perhaps inappropriately titled article ‘Gentlemen of Leisure’ rings true today – that it’s “never been content to luxuriate in padded leather armchairs”. Issues of Classic Boat back then contained hard-backed image from yesteryear, this one from The Sutcli e Gallery in Whitby, Yorkshire, recalling how it was “the women’s work to bait the hooks …and the women also cleaned the lines when the cobles came back from fishing”. On page 56, Stephen Mann asks: “Why are some sailmakers so obtuse?” He wonders why traditional sailmakers haven’t embraced advances in sailmaking over the previous four decades. The magazine’s cover shows Stormy Weather, “a Fastnet winner”. Will she take part this July, the race’s 50th edition?
The news this month that the Commité International de la Méditerranée (known by tout le monde as CIM of course), is softening towards glassfibre-hulled boats seemed serendipitous, coming as it did just a few weeks after an editorial meeting where we agreed, with some enthusiasm, that a glass boat could feature on the cover of Classic Boat – and soon probably will. Before alarm bells ring, don’t worry: nothing will ever replace the magic of a wooden boat, and this will remain the principal focus of this magazine. But some of those old glassfibre yachts are really attractive and their heritage appeal is clearly on the rise.
A decade ago, serious restorations of glass yachts from the 60s and 70s were rare. These days, I can think of half a dozen going on right now, and that’s probably the tip of an iceberg. The past might be static – things that have happened are immutable after all – but as a magazine, our envelope of history shifts forward with every tick of the second hand. This envelope… I think of it as history’s moving shadow keeping pace with us… starts roughly with the dawn of yachting – call it 1850 if you like – and ends about 50 years ago. The start and end points, logically, must move forward as we do, so this shadow is moving into the 1970s now. In other words, it’s moving firmly into the glassfibre era of boatbuilding, and into new design territory too. Retrousse counter sterns and fin-and-skeg hull forms are entering the picture, and soon we’ll be forced to look at sugar scoop sterns.
Regattas have always struggled with this. What do you list as your criteria? 1971? 1975? Or a period that walks in step with history’s moving shadow and states that boats must be 50 years old or more? Or do you do the sensible thing and simply reserve the right to decide on each entry on a case-by-case basis? And surely, glass boats must be under consideration these days. Most regattas are still only taking entries from wooden boats, increasingly classic motorboats too, and the reluctance to accept glass doesn’t usually stem from a disregard for the material or the era, but from a realisation of numbers. It’s the nature of the beast: glassfibe boats were mass-produced; so there are quite a few of them around. Then you have the slippage. With the best intention in the world, imagine accepting glass because the owner of something like a Nic 55 or an early Swan 36 wants to take part. No one’s going to argue with that. Then the Contessa 32 owners will want in. They’re gorgeous boats… but they have a separate fin and skeg underbody. But very moderate fin and skeg, the owners might argue. So you let them in
too; it would be rude not to. Then the Westerly Centaur owners get in on the act. All 2,000 of them. And why not? The design year is one year earlier than the Contessa 32 – first shown at London in 1969 – and they are great boats by all reports... tough, voluminous, comfortable, dry upright... They must be, or they wouldn’t have sold 2,500 of them in the first place. So it continues, until you end up with rotomoulded Toppers in the classic dinghy fleet. As we all know, there is no road as smooth as the road to hell. Sticking to wood is very simple and it’s what most annual regattas have done.
Other regattas, though, have experimented with glass. Antibes, for instance, annually welcomes a fleet of Tofinou 9.5s, which are good, fast attractive, clean-lined boats, but hardly the equal in spectacle of those on the other side of the pontoon – S&S yawls, Universal Class yachts, big schooners and the rest of it. They effectively form an invitational class that’s separate to the main event. In one-design classes, the picture is very different. Classes like the Victories and Solent Sunbeams have accepted glass into the class, but that’s a much easier decision to make, with the vessels looking and performing almost identically and still racing as one fleet without handicap.
Some American regattas have what’s sometimes known as a ‘glassic’ class. It’s clearly a mixed picture on the racecourses of the world, but what nobody’s seriously denying any more is that a glassfibre yacht can count as a classic. On that basis, how about we stop calling them plastic? It’s hard to find a definition of ‘plastic’, but most sources agree that it’s a range of mouldable materials containing oil. Glassfibre has a different history and make-up, as it was developed and patented in the 1930s, resulting in the first commercial product, called Fiberglas, in 1938. And it’s made from sand, not oil.
The word ‘plastic’ is used as an insult, originally to denote lack of quality or authenticity, but in recent years, the word has accreted even worse connotations, becoming redolent with images of dying oceans and choked rivers, the products of single-use plastic. The joke’s not so funny any more, and old glass yachts that have maintained and used for half a century are anything but ‘single-use’. Whatever the organisers of regattas of the world might decide over the next few decades, we will continue to view old glass boats as potential classics and feature them in the magazine – so don’t be shocked when one appears on the cover. You can’t, after all, ignore the shadow of history that’s always just behind you.
time
“It’s in our DNA. We wake up in the morning, knowing it’s going to be another day of creating history. To us that is essentially different from building a boat. Our yachts not rarely outlive both their owners and their builders…”
As proud Dutch yacht builders with a passion for perfection, we realize dreams that enter the history books.Tim van Daal, CEO at VMG Yachtbuilders Truly Classic 78 “Bontekoning” by Hoek Design, refit by VMG Yachtbuilders
