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STEFFAN MEYRIC HUGHES, EDITOR

TWO OWNERS, ONE RESULT

PAGE 23 MOTORBOATS! PAGE 56

Our lead yacht this month, Viveka, won our award for the ‘restored sailing vessel over 40ft’ category this year, an event celebrated at our annual ceremony at the Royal Thames in spring. She’s a staysail-rigged schooner that apparently measures to the 12-M rule. If that’s the case, she’s probably unique. It’s easy to think of boats like this – she’s 72ft long – as being completely unmanageable and unaffordable, and that would be true of many yachts like her racing in the Med, which lack the tang of the seven seas about them, such is their focus on racing. Many of them look terrifying, with large gaff rigs, no winches and big crews of tough sailors to handle them. Viveka, before her restoration, belonged to Merl Peterson, the ‘President of the Pacific’ for an incredible 57 years, 20 as a liveaboard. Merl maintained her and cruised her often singlehanded on a shoestring budget, such is the ease of the staysail schooner rig. He also kept Viveka alive for her new owner to rebuild her, no expense spared. It’s thanks to both of them, at opposite ends of the scale, that Viveka is sailing today.

COVER PHOTO: JAMES ROBINSON TAYLOR

ISSUE No 409

CONTENTS

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4 . WINNING WAYS The schooner that rates as a 12-M after a big rebuild and a win at Antibes 12 . SUMMER REGATTAS Action from the superyachts in Palma, the Stellas and more in Suffolk and Falmouth Classics Week 26 . BRYCHAN II Brand new strip-planked boat built in the modern classic design language of a Contessa 38 36 . BOSUN’S BAG Using ballast trim to improve windward ability with Tom Cunliffe 40 . UFFA FOX We trace the life and times of Britain’s greatest dinghy designer 46 . TENDER FOR LIFE CB Boater of the Year Hal Sisk and his Valentine punt 52 . MIRROR MAN A short voyage on the Dart to celebrate 60 years of the popular Mirror dinghy COVER STORY

56 . MOTORBOAT BASICS Planing, displacement or a compromise between the two?

For cruising and racing sailors

BRYCHAN II

UFFA

CF KOEHLER

MIRROR MAN

COVER STORY

64 . TOM CUNLIFFE A hard life aboard an old cargo ship with no electricity to help out

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VIVEKA

18 32 34 36

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38 . CLOSE QUARTERS 64 . TOM CUNLIFFE 78 . LETTERS 82 . STERNPOST

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

Tom Cunliffe

Jonah’s luck PAGE 6 4

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

POLE POSITION The 1930 schooner Viveka was a sleeper in California for half a century. Now she’s winning in the Med WORDS STEFFAN MEYRIC HUGHES PHOTOS JAMES ROBINSON TAYLOR

VIVEKA

tepping off the plane onto the deck of Viveka this late May, everything seemed new. At Voiles d’Antibes there was a sensation of waking from a bad dream, with bare feet on teak, sunny skies, hard shadow lines, laughter, cold beer and groups of friends hugging each other for maybe the first time in two or three years. The sky was washed pure blue and it seemed the planet had rebooted for Antibes, back in its rightful early summer slot as the opener of the classic yacht-racing season in the Mediterranean. Also new was the staysail schooner Viveka, winner of our 2022 award for the best restored sailing vessel over 40ft. Actually, she’s 92 years old, but her near-complete rebuild at Rutherford’s Boatshop in California, her unusual staysail schooner rig, and the fact she’s never raced on the Med circuit before, made her the boat to watch. On deck, skipper Gery Atkins is giving a quick briefing. “New boat, new crew” he says at one point, making it clear he expects neither breakages nor miracles. Despite a low-key showing at the Palma Vela in October 2021, this is really a boat still shaking down for a new chapter of her life, and nobody would expect a good result right now. Amid the heady summer holiday scent of sun cream, we head out for a day of sail-changes before the big race, the engine in the bows almost silent. Frank Paine is not the most lauded name in 20thcentury yacht design, which is still largely terra incognita, such is the overbearing prevalence of the big three (Fife, Herreshoff and S&S). Frank Paine (1890 – 1952) was

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

Above left: Off Antibes in June Above right: Racing in San Francisco Bay pre-restoration, under Merl Peterson Below: Each of the 76 bronze frames is new and cast to a unique pattern. Note the laminations on frames and ribs Facing page: Typical upwind sails: genoa, main and fisherman Inset: Crew at Antibes. Skipper Gery is second from left, front row. Owner’s son Alex, race helm at Antibes, is third from left, back row

one of a band of brilliant east coast American designers in the first half of that century. Chief among them was of course the godfather, Nathanael Herreshoff, but the next generation coming through included L Francis Herreshoff, the inestimably diverse and brilliant W Starling Burgess (who designed everything from cars to typefaces to America’s Cup yachts) and, of course, Paine. The one thing all these designers had in common, other than sailing, was aeroplanes. In 1912, Paine joined Burgess’s aeronautical business in Marblehead Mass, and after World War One, he and Burgess founded the yacht design firm of Burgess and Paine, employing among others L Francis Herreshoff and Norman L Skene. Flight was in its infancy. Speed records on land, air and sea were falling all over the world, and hydrodynamic and aerodynamic lift were on the mind of every automotive designer. In the same office, under Paine’s mentorship, was Raymond Hunt, who would go on to design the deep-vee hull and the world’s most popular outboard boat – the Boston Whaler. What an unbelievably heady time that must have been, as these brilliant, brave young designers breathed the heady air of unlimited possibility, and looked to a future defined by their ideas. This was this crucible that created Viveka. Paine, unusually, split his attention between the International and Universal classes, drawing a number of successful 6-Ms, 8-Ms, R and Q-Class yachts. He is best known for the J-Class Yankee, which he designed in 1929 to defend the America’s Cup the following year.

Also in 1929, Paine, showing the breadth of his practice, drew Thebaud, the last American fishing schooner to vie for the International Fishermen’s Cup, the race for the Grand Banks fishing schooners. There was a third boat designed that year too. She was a 72ft staysail schooner built to racing yacht lines. It’s said she measures to the 12-M rule, but it’s not been ratified. Either way, in 1930, Viveka (originally named Joan II) was launched from the Fred Lawley yard in Quincy, Massachusetts for an owner who wanted a fast cruiser. That owner was none less tan JP Morgan Jr. Not a lot else is yet known about Viveka’s early history, but it’s thought that she served in the war, by then named Seaweed, as part of the so-called Hooligan Navy, a government-requisitioned fleet of yachts used as spotter patrols on both coasts of the USA.

VIVEKA THE CRUISING LIVEABOARD Fast-forward to 2012. The Olympics had come to London, making it the first city in the world to hold the games three times. Great Britain was, pound for pound, taking more medals than any other nation, and nearly a billion people around the world watched on. Around this time, British sailor Rob Gray was looking at the magnificent, restored steam yacht Cangarda with its saviour, boatbuilder Jeff Rutherford, when he saw two masts in the distance. Soon he was crunching over mussel shells in a graveyard marina to have a look. “That’s always fatal”, says Rob now. It was, of course, Viveka. He knocked on the companion and was answered by a living legend, a man known to you or me as Merl Peterson, but to those who knew his feats, as the President of the Pacific. “Merl was an incredible man and it is a privilege to have known him,” remembers Rob. The late Merl Peterson, then in his 80s, had by that point owned Viveka for 57 years, the latter

20 or so as a liveaboard. He had kept the boat going on a modest budget, the old-fashioned way that included a recipe that came to be known as ‘Merlcrete’, an impregnable mix of epoxy and other bits. Merl had sailed Viveka far and wide, including at least one circumnavigation. Much of this was single-handed, which speaks volumes for the handiness of a staysail schooner rig. Rob agreed a sum for Viveka with Merl, but not wishing to harry him from his home, lodged the money with a lawyer and asked Merl to call him if and when the time came. When that call came, Jeff Rutherford was ready to start work. A familiar story now played out. What started in 2013 as a partial restoration became a complete rebuild. Planking that had looked good turned out to be brittle. In the end, all the frames and planking were replaced and that’s no joke on a boat this size and of this sort of build. Also, Jeff recounts, Rob was an owner who settled for nothing less than the best. Viveka, in common with many quality-built American yachts of this era, is doubleskinned in two layers of fore-and-aft planking, in this case with a mahogany outer layer of 1 1/4in (32mm) and an inner layer of 5/8in (16mm) in yellow cedar. The original build featured a conventional framing pattern of steamed timbers of 1 3/4in (44.5mm) by 2 1/4in (57mm) with every third time a sawn frame of more substance; 3 1/2in (89mm) by 3 1/4in (83mm). The hull planking was replaced like for like, but eliminating any butt joins with long scarphs. “Butt joins are where the problems begin” says Jeff. “They are also not so good for the paint finish, which is far more important these days than it used to be.” One particularly fine touch is in the deck beams, which are laminated, then capped and chamfered in solid timber to avoid ‘the laminated look’ that is so out of place on a yacht like this. CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

VIVEKA

Naval architect Jim Antrim, who had been on the team since Viveka came ashore, had worked out a new general arrangement. The thinking here was to preserve authenticity and originality where practicable, but not at the expense of making the boat unusable. There would not, for instance, be a half-tonne iron cooking range in the bows, but Jim thought the boat had the buoyancy up there to take an engine. “She had a lorry engine with a sidewinder at that time” remembers Rob. “With a metre-like yacht, volume is a precious resource. And it would have been sacrilege to cut out an aperture in her original teak rudder and post for a single propeller.” The eventual solution was a single 130hp Nanni diesel in the bows with a hydraulic transmission to two bronze sail drives mounted on each stern quarter. This unconventional arrangement means the diesel is in its own spacious engine room, the living quarters are left undisturbed, and noise in the cockpit is minimal. The deck was built entirely off site at Teak Decking Systems in Florida. “I thought at first – you can’t pre-fab a deck!” said Jeff, who’s now used this solution several times. Amazingly though, you can, after carefully making a pattern in pattern ply and shipping it to the company. The deck comes back in roughly eight pieces, with 8ft (2.6m) finger joints making the seams invisible. “It doesn’t save a whole load of money – but it saves a couple of weeks over the six or so to do it the usual way.” In 2019, Rob, with other commitments, sold the boat to a new owner, his friend Sir Keith Mills. If his name rings a bell, it will be because of his role as CEO of the Olympic bid, which brought the 2012 Olympics to London, and then running the show with Sebastian Coe. Keith has raced modern boats, including a TP52 and Farr 40 over the years, having got the racing bug after winning the 1998 Clipper round-the-world race with a young Alex Thompson skippering. He set up a yachtracing business with Alex after that race, and went on to be heavily involved with Team Origin then Land Rover BAR for Ben Ainslie. “Racing GP boats is a challenge as I grow older” said Keith. “When I looked at Viveka, I could see by the hull lines she was going to be quick.” The project continued, now under Keith, and with future skipper Gery Atkins 8

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

This page: The interior features two heads (owner and crew), both unusually large for comfortable showering. The saloon (above) and galley (below), and rest of the interior, is predominantly in mahogany with black walnut detailing. The laminated deck beams are capped in solid timber and chamfered for the traditional look

and his girlfriend (now wife), Maria moving to California for a year to oversee and help on the project. The other attraction for Keith is that the yacht was in development. “You never know what you’re buying if it’s already done. And I really enjoyed the million decisions that had to be made. With wooden boats, if it’s not wood, it must be cast in a foundry! There’s part of me in the boat now.” The year 2020 began with the pandemic and ended with a controversial presidential election that would lead to the storming of the Capitol. In the late summer, it must have seemed as though California was ablaze, as the state saw its biggest forest fires on record. Work on Viveka continued in an atmosphere that was sometimes politically heated, and on one occasion the real heat of nearby fires caused a wind that blew a tent down, nearly destroying a mast. Mark Niall, a 25-year-old boatbuilder from Australia currently serving on Viveka as sailing first mate, takes up the story: “I’ve never been involved in such a dynamic group of people than at Rutherford.” There were, at one point, craftsmen of 13 nationalities and nearly every continent at work on the yacht. “The talent – Jeff’s reach – is just huge.” One early morning in October 2020, traffic stopped, as two new bird’s-mouth spruce masts built in-house made their way the one mile down the street from Rutherfords to the sea, where Viveka was waiting afloat, having made a similar journey herself. Soon after that, she sailed away from the smouldering landscape of fire and pestilence, and under the Golden Gate Bridge, bound for Mexico, there to travel as deck cargo through the Panama Canal, and onto Palma in Spain, her new home port. Viveka’s rig was kept largely original. Merl had raised both masts by a foot (30cm) under his long ownership, to gain headroom under the mainmast and a little more sail area on the foremast. These changes were retained, and the boom was shortened, negating the need for a bumpkin. “I don’t think that sail area low down does a whole lot of good for you apart from give you weather helm anyway,” says Jeff. Bar a thousand smaller jobs to finish during the summer of 2021, Viveka was back to her original form and learning to fly again.

LAK II

Clockwise from top left: Period wheel on original bronze pedestal and steering gear; Short bowsprit, foredeck showing unvarnished teak capping rail; Engine controls – throttle and port and starboard drive levers; Merl’s compass refurbished with original patina; Rebuilt bronze rope and chain capstan; Companionway detail showing understated inset bronze portholes CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

VIVEKA

VIVEKA THE RACE-WINNER As soon as we are out in the bay of Antibes, Gery announces tacking practice: six tacks, one every two minutes. The number two is hanked on to practise peels. Croatian helm Stjepan says Viveka will sail as close to 500 in flat water, 520 in the rough. Now we bear away under twin headsails, staysail and fisherman, but there’s only 5-6 knots of wind by this point. The staysail and fisherman come down and the golliwobbler goes up. The golli immediately fills and pulls, unlike the staysail, that has seemed so dead this morning. We are now making 5.8 knots through the water at 680 off true. Looking around the cockpit, it’s apparent that the staysail schooner is not only closer-winded than the magnificent gaff schooners, but far easier to understand. The mainsheet goes on purchases to the horse, then down to the aft-quarter winches. There are cockpit winches for the jib and runners. Staysail and halyard winches at the mast complete the picture. We tack. The main is almost centred. The stay and jib are fuller, outside the bulwarks. “We need to keeps things soft” mutters Gery, an experienced schooner man. We spot a pod of dolphins breaching erratically. “They are fishing,” laughs Stjepan. The big ‘kite’ (jib) goes up instead of the dying golliwobbler. The wind has dropped to three knots. We’ve been out a few hours, switching to lighter and bigger sails, but it looks as though fun is finally over for the day. We are virtually becalmed on a flat sea set rolling by the wakes of the big motor yachts in the bay. The soundtrack now is of the kite pulling with the rippling sound of thin sailcloth, while a steady procession of helicopters thump by overhead, bound for nearby Monaco. We gybe and run downwind and notice that there are two small rips in the kite. We take the sails down and motor for home. Viveka has proved to be a fast, easy boat, making for a relaxed atmosphere on board as her crew learn her ways. Over the next few days, Keith’s son Alex, a capable yachtsman and enthusiastic racer in his own right, helmed Viveka around the cans. The result? First in class. The Mediterranean has a vigorous new campaigner in its fleet, one that will be gunning for more silver at Mahon, Cannes and Saint-Tropez this year. 10

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

VIVEKA DESIGNED: Frank

C Paine BUILT: Fred Lawley, 1930 LOA: 72ft 9in (22.2m) LWL: 48ft (14.6m) BEAM: 14ft (4.3m)

c9ft (2.7m) DISPLACEMENT: 36.6 tonnes PRISMATIC CO-EFFICIENT: 0.54 CONTSTRUCTION: Doubleplanked, laminated frames DRAUGHT:

EXHILARATING. LUXURIOUS. INNOVATIVE. SPORTY.

HULL #2 JUST LAUNCHED

HULLS #1 AND #2 UNDER CONSTRUCTION

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Logbook

GIORGIO ARMANI REGATTA

Catwalk sailing PHOTOS AND WORDS INGRID ABERY The Giorgio Armani Superyacht regatta, Sardinia, played host to the classics in early June. Set on the glorious Costa Smeralda coast, four days of racing launched the superyacht regatta season in the Med. The Herreshoff schooner Mariette of 1915, Shenandoah of Sark and the modern Spirit 111 Geist were in town. After taking part in 2019, it is a firm favourite for Mariette. Organised by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, the race committee was headed by seasoned pro Peter Craig. After a delayed opening start, light to medium breeze saw Mariette in the laad. The fleet headed upwind to the first mark, the Mortoriotto rock, before reaching to the Passo delle Bisce strait and entering the Saline Gulf, at which stage the breeze was up to 13 knots. After rounding the Secca di Tre Monti, the fleet had a quick beam reach to the Monaci islet before finishing the 24-mile course in front of Porto Cervo. The breeze increased to the mid-teens for the second outing. Negotiating a 30-mile course around the islands of Caprera and La Maddalena, Mariette won day two’s race in spectacular style, beating her eight diverse opponents. Representing Spirit Yachts, Geist, the largest single-masted wooden yacht to be built in the UK since Shamrock V, was in the running. Current member of the British America’s Cup team Paul Campbell-James added to the talent pool onboard calling tactics on the Spirit 111. Shenandoah of Sark (1902) and Mariette enjoyed a friendly sail before the regatta start. Although not competing, Shenandoah then shadowed her fellow schooner on the opening day of racing. With the stunning coastline, varied courses set around La Maddalena archipelago and good wind range, the emerald coast proved to be one of the great Mediterranean venues for racing. The Giorgio Armani Superyacht regatta is encouraging participation from Classic 2

divisions for next season’s edition. Watch this space for dates.

4 5

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

1 Mariette of 1915 and Shenandoah of Sark sailing towards La Maddalena archipelago 2 Balletic moves while preparing to hoist the topsail 3 The Spirit 111 Geist rounding Monaci island 4 Giorgio Armani’s inaugural year sponsoring the Superyacht regatta 5 Spirit 111 Geist and Mariette race to Bische island 6 View of the Superyacht fleet in Porto Cervo 7 Classic crosses tacks with modern 8 Mariette of 1915 takes the bullet on day two 9 Geist preparing a sail change 10 High on Mariette’s mainmast 11 Mariette of 1915 and Shendandoah of Sark putting on a show CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

Logbook SUFFOLK YACHT HARBOUR

20 years of classic racing PHOTOGRAPHS CLIQQ STUDIOS Suffolk Yacht Harbour (SYH) welcomed 50 classic sailing and motor yachts to its annual Classic Regatta in June, on its 20th anniversary. Among them first-timers and sailors who have competed in all 20 to date.

SYH director Jonathan Dyke said, “This year was undoubtedly the best yet. The weather was superb and the race management

delivered fantastic racing in all three classes. It was proof that the classic yachting scene on the east coast is very much thriving.” The sailing yacht fleet comprised a wide range from gaffers to spirit of tradition, IODs and Stellas. The oldest yacht was 1898 gaff cutter and Dunkirk little ship Cachalot, 123 years older than the newest yacht in the fleet; the Spirit 30 Lady Elena, launched in 2021. The three-race series for the Fast, Slow and Stella classes saw a range of conditions from full sun, 18+ knots and very

choppy seas in Race 1, to 11 knots and strong tides in Race 3. On Saturday, 13 motorboats took to the stage in the Parade of Power, among them eight Fairey Marine boats, the WG McBrydedesigned motor yacht Blade, 4 Teddington and the Gibbs of

motor yacht Ryegate. That evening, the fleet headed back to SYH for live music, free cold beers, and wood-fired oven pizzas. After Race 3 on Sunday, the winners were revealed. First in the Fast Class was the IOD Whisper. The Slow Class was won by the 1920 Alfred Mylne yawl Gudgeon and the Stella Class by Timoa. Enderlein Sloop Thistle took home the

Saffir Concours d’Elegance trophy, the Spirit Yachts “in need of a stiff drink” prize was awarded to Bonaventure, and the Stella of the Year went to Persephone. The Classic Marine Fast Motorboat of the Year was won by the Fairey Huntsman 28 Seaspray, and Classic Marine Slow Motorboat of the Year went to the 1919 Thornycroft Morn. The Fairey Marine Plate went to James Johnson in Speardancer, and the French Marine Motorboat trophy was awarded to Ryegate.

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

1 Close action with Fife Mikado leading West Solent OD Suvretta 2 and 3 Whooper, overall regatta winner for the first time since 2018 4 Crew of gaffer Sea Filly celebrate 5 Glorious weather on both days 6 Bermudan cutter Maresta 7 Cowes Spring Classics welcomes classic yachts of all types and sizes 8 S&S Swan Scherzo leads My Dream 9 Ed Burnett-designed gaff cutter Ivy Green 10 Close-up action aboard Suvretta 11 Crew dressed to suit the age of their yachts for Sunday evening’s dinner 12 and 13 Whooper 14 Step Back in Time, winner in the gaff class CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

Logbook 1

FALMOUTH CLASSICS

Sunshine and wind

PHOTOS AND WORDS NIGEL SHARP There could barely have been a greater contrast in the weather over the three days of Falmouth Classics. Friday’s two races took place in glorious sunshine, initially in a reasonably steady south westerly breeze and then – after a mercifully short period of calm – in a cracking northerly. On Saturday, however, the strong wind forecast kept many boats alongside and the increasing gusts prompted the race committee to cancel racing for all but the five classes of bigger boats. Despite a cold grey morning on Sunday, a surprising number of boats took part in a spectacular Parade of Sail, led by the Falmouth All Weather Lifeboat.

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

8 9

1 Lulotte, 1972 Swan 55, 2nd overall in bermudans over 45ft class 2 Alpha, 1904 Bristol Channel pilot cutter, 2nd overall in the pilot cutter class 3 West Country trading ketch Irene 4 Anny of Charlestown, Danish-built fishing boat 5 Peter Lucas, owner of the 1910 yacht Cynthia, 2nd overall in the gaffers over 40ft class 6 Tumblehome IV, Cornish Crabber 24. Runner-up for best-dressed crew in the parade of sail (theme: Queen’s 1953 coronation) 7 Amokura, 1939 Fred Shepherd yawl, 3rd overall in bermudans over 35ft class 8 Alva, 2011 gaff cutter, 1st in the bermudans over 35ft class 9 Proteus, home-built in the 2020 lockdown 10 Carlotta, built in 1899, won the pilot cutter class 11 Liberty Jane, Nicholson 31, winner of bestdressed crew 12 Parade of sail 13 Maybe, sail-training boat built in 1929 14 Close finish between the pilot cutters Mascotte (1904) and Agnes (2003) CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

Tell Tales

Classic Boat’s address: Jubilee House, 2 Jubilee Place, London, SW3 3TQ cb@classicboat.co.uk Follow the Classic Boat team on Twitter and Facebook

NORFOLK

Royal wreck discovered after 340 years The wreck of a royal warship that sunk while carrying the future King

household from Edinburgh. The ship had sailed from Portsmouth, with

James II has been discovered off the coast of Norfolk, writes John

the Duke and his entourage joining it off Margate, having travelled by

Greeves. The wreck of the Gloucester has lain half-buried on the

yacht from London.

seabed for 340 years, about 30 miles off Great

The Duke had argued with the pilot for control over

Yarmouth. It was found by three divers, Norfolk

the ship’s course and influenced the choice of route.

printer brothers Julian and Lincoln Barnwell and

They are thought to have been caught in a gale and hit

friend James Little. The wreck’s rough position

a sandbank. The Duke insisted they bail out water

was suspected, but it took four years of searching

rather than abandon ship. By the time James

an area of 5,000 nautical miles before the

eventually boarded a lifeboat, it was far too late for

discovery was made in June 2007.

many of the men.

Further time was needed to establish what the

It’s estimated that between 130 and 250 of the

wreck was – eventually the ship’s bell identified it

approximately 330 passengers and crew onboard,

as the Gloucester – and the site needed to be

including many accompanying courtiers, died. Protocol

formally protected. The announcement was made

dictated that no one should abandon ship before

publicly in June this year.

royalty.

Professor Claire Jowitt, a leading authority on

Artefacts recovered from the wreck include clothes,

maritime cultural history, said: “The discovery

shoes, navigational and naval equipment, personal

promises to fundamentally change understanding

possessions like a pair of spectacles and many

of 17th century social, maritime and political

unopened wine bottles. In spring 2023. a major exhibition, The Last Voyage of the Gloucester:

history.” In 1682, the 50-gun Royal Navy frigate was selected to carry James, then Duke of York, to collect his pregnant wife Mary Modena and her

Norfolk’s Royal Shipwreck, will be held for five months at Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery.

CRETE

Coral still on seabed The masts of the 1902 schooner Coral of Cowes are

photos of June 2022 show, the masts are still

still visible in the Bay of Souda, in north west Crete,

visible a few hundred yards off the beach.

a year and a half after she sunk. Press reports at the time said the body of Hugh Kerr Bradley Roberts, 74, the owner of the Fred

won the King’s Cup in 1926 and 1928. She

Shepherd schooner, was found with the boat,

underwent a restoration in Cape Town in 2005 and

which sunk in a shallow part of the bay, near

later at Peake Yacht Services in Grenada under the

Chania. The owner’s dog, Friar Tuck, was found

owner of the time.

clinging to the half-sunken boat. There are still hopes that the boat will be raised,

Coral of Cowes was built by White Brothers as Bamba III and renamed in 1923, after which she

The 98ft (30m) schooner was well-known and much loved across the classic boat world, having

with possible interest from the Greek classic

raced extensively at Cowes, in the Caribbean and in

boating hub that is the island of Spetses, but as our

the Mediterranean.

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

FOR SALE

Photo Gallery

$3 million

Broker Participation

M/V NYMPH M/V NYMPH

HISTORIC, 1913 Early American Motor Boat with Edwardian Old World Charm Last of a special breed, beautiful fiberglass hull, 30yr T&T hauls with 50 ton travel lift. This amazing vessel has been meticulously restored over a eight-year period. Originally built in 1913 by The Matthews Boat Company in Clinton, Ohio.

1913

75’- 0”

For more information: samwright0887@gmail.com

www.nymphyacht.com

TELL TALES

Eleonora sunk in collision This is the horrifying moment that the Westward replica Eleonora was struck by a commercial vessel in a Spanish port – and later sunk. The 49.5-metre schooner was struck by a 60-metre offshore supply vessel in Port Tárraco, Tarragona, at 8am on 10 June. A Maritime Rescue boat, the Punta Mayor, is believed to have lost control of her main engines in reverse. The crew stopped the engines and tried to anchor her with two anchors to avoid the collision.

Eleonora took on water and later sunk on her mooring, but she was

Eleonora has been available for charter from €70k per week and was on the market in recent years, priced at €7.9m. She was built in 2000 at the Van der Graaf shipyard in Holland as a replica, above and below decks, of Westward (above right), which in 1910 was one of the most famous racing schooners in the world and sailed successfully against yachts such as Britannia and Lulworth.

Eleonora’s interior is traditional, following NG Herreshoff’s plans, panelled in mahogany. She sleeps eight guests in three double cabins

raised within days and is now being assessed for damage. No injuries

and one twin cabin. The bathrooms are fitted out in marble. The boat

and no fuel pollution was reported.

was for sale following a major refit.

Win boat show tickets We have teamed up with British Marine to offer the chance to win tickets for the Southampton International Boat Show, which takes place from 16-25 September. The show’s new layout and expanded features will continue for 2022, encompassing everything from wooden boats and Spirit of Tradition yachts, to kayaks and paddleboards, plus kit and sailing gear for you and your

Classics in Round the Island Race

The 1952 Laurent Giles yawl Lutine enjoying typically lumpy west Solent conditions off the Needles as she competes in the Round the Island Race on 25 June. Lutine was one of a good

boat. Classic Boat is an official media partner for the event and we’ll be bringing you a full preview in our coming issues, as wel as online. But meanwhile you can get your show

number of classics in the race, the 91st organised by the Island Sailing Club around the Isle

tickets sorted by entering our prize draw to

of Wight. Line honours on the day went to the multihull N.R.B, who completed the 60-mile

win tickets, by clicking on the ‘competitions’

course in 4h19m. Photo by Ingrid Abery.

menu on our sister website sailingtoday.co.uk

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

Calling all classic boat enthusiasts 53rd edition of the UK’s leading boat show DEDICATED CLASSIC & DAY BOAT ZONE Explore beautiful day boats and classic wooden vessels, as well as the equipment, materials and training to make the most of your time on the water. Live demos by industry experts and trained craftspeople will showcase how the art of traditional boatbuilding is alive and well in the UK ... not to be missed! • 30+ boats in a dedicated Classic and Day Boat Zone • Share your passion with like-minded enthusiasts and gather advice from the experts • Explore our show’s tall ship • Get onboard with a Try-a-Boat experience and glide across the Solent under sail • All new VIP experience *Offer ends 31 August 2022 Book now and quote CB22 Get your tickets at Southamptonboatshow.com

Event powered by:

*T&Cs apply, visit the website for full details.

*2 KIDS

FREE

with any adult ticket

#SIBS22

TELL TALES

ENGLAND

IBTC Portsmouth to close IBTC Portsmouth has taken the “painful decision” to close next year after a review of the boat-building training college. Boathouse 4, where the college has been based, is not

Hamble Classics 2022

affected by the college’s closure. It is home to a collection of historic wooden boats owned by

The seventh Hamble Classics Regatta from 10-11 September is open

the Portsmouth Naval Base

for entries.

Property Trust, maintained by

The regatta will be co-hosted by Hamble River Sailing Club organising the racing, with the Royal Air Force Yacht Club as the

volunteers and staff, and “will remain a hive of activity”.

very difficult one to make and

A statement about the closure

onshore venue.

has not been taken lightly. Rising

of the college, which is also

costs and falling students

International Metre classes, Old Gaffers, Spirit of Tradition Yachts and

independent of IBTC Lowestoft,

numbers have made it impossible

Classic One-Designs, a key feature is the Concours d’Elegance Awards

said: “Since we opened our doors

to continue. Our current students

in five categories, for Best Yacht, Most Authentic, Best Spirit of

in 2015 we have trained over 100

will graduate as planned, but no

Tradition, Best GRP, and new this year, ’Spirit of Racing’ to recognise

students. Many have gone on to

more students will be enrolled

classic yachts modified to remain competitive in the contemporary

forge careers in boatbuilding,

and the college will close

racing fleet.

boat restoration, and allied

completely in March 2023.”

With racing for Classic Racers, Cruisers and Dayboats, the

Supported by Spinlock, Classic Marine, the Elephant Boatyard,

industries; preserving traditional

The statement pointed

Performance Rigging, OneSails, Blakes & Taylors, the Sandeman Yacht

skills for future generations. We

potential future students in the

Company and Salcombe Distilling Co, also welcomed this year is

are immensely proud of their

direction of the IBTC Lowestoft

Walcon Marine.

success and our small part in it.

and the Boat Building Academy

The decision to close has been a

in Lyme Regis.

Early-bird entries can be made via hambleclassics.co.uk

Vertue battles round Britain Sailor Matteo Richiardi was off the southern Kent coast as we went to press, in the final stages of the Round Britain and Ireland Race, where he is competing in a wooden Vertue against a fleet of mostly modern yachts. The race started on 29 May in

DUET

Plymouth,

1912

organised by the Royal Western Yacht Club, with stopovers in Galway, Lerwick and Blyth. Matteo’s Vertue,

Mea, is the smallest

The UK’s longest-serving sail training vessel,

founded the Ocean Youth Trust, set sail on the

in the fleet at 25ft

Duet, celebrated her 110th birthday in Levington, Suffolk, with three generations of the Courtauld family on board. Duet and Peter Duck, the ketch once owned by Arthur Ransome, were moored in Levington to coincide with the Suffolk and The Sea book festival in Trimley. Elizabeth Courtauld, widow of Christopher Courtauld, who co-

River Orwell with old and new friends of Duet.

and was granted a wildcard by the organisers as she is below the standard size requirement. The boat was built in 1959 to the famous Laurent Giles design.

Duet turns 110 years old

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

Built in 1912, the gaff-rigged yawl was bought by August Courtauld, the Arctic explorer, in 1931. She has been sail-training since 1960, having twice won the Tall Ships Race, and is now on permanent loan to the Cirdan Trust.

www.cirdantrust.org

oil on canvas

A GOOD RUN HOME

102 x 127 cms

40 x 50 ins

Exhibition 3rd – 26th August You can almost sense the relief of the skipper as the spinnaker is handed just before the arrival of a few extra knots too many beneath the clouds of an approaching summer squall. Now he can relax and concentrate on a sweet run for home and hoped-for line honours over his distant rival. Note the almost casual un-hanking of the downwind sail by the standing bowman; the crouched anticipation of the headsail sheet man, confident his skipper will make the right call, and the helmsman himself: the only sign of tension is a rolled-up shirtsleeve. Only a sailor can paint like this and Martyn Mackrill’s brush intuitively produces the sort of wounded sea that is testimony to one of the greatest hydrodynamic shapes ever drawn: the William Fife Bermudan cutter, Ierne, launched in 1914. The success of this first rule 8 Metre is also manifest in her arrow-straight tiller. Such an idyllic seascape was just a few weeks from extinction when Britain declared war on Germany that August. Visit www.messums.com to view the exhibition and download the catalogue

Dick Durham

Author and Sailor

DAVID ME SSUM FINE ART - E ST 1963

12 Bury Street, St. James’s, London SW1Y 6AB Tel: +44 (0)20 7287 4448

www.messums.com

Wooden boats on show Painter Lorenzo Mariotti launched a solo exhibition, Sea and Beyond, in June at the Rahmi M. Koç Museum in Istanbul. The

Wayfarers dominate 50-mile Three Rivers Race The 2022 edition of the 24-hour 3 Rivers Race, organised by Horning Sailing Club on the Norfolk Broads, proved once again that clever reading of wind and tides on the day is the key to success on this gruelling 50-mile course, writes Sandy Miller. A lively northerly made for exciting conditions, ultimately favouring smaller boats, but with competitors able to choose the order that they take the four turning buoys (Ludham Bridge and South Walsham Broad, and under the two bridges to Hickling Broad and downriver of Acle), those choosing Hickling first this year gained a clear advantage over early arrivals at Acle, with the latter punished by strong adverse tides at Stokesby. Fastest over the water was the Norfolk punt Comet helmed by Richard Whitefoot (7th on corrected time), but only 48 minutes behind was the Wayfarer Black

Magic, the overall winner on corrected time, sailed by Stuart Rix with crew David Ling. Stuart, a former Wayfarer World Champion, has now won the race a record seven times. Three of the top four were Wayfarers, but it was also delightful to see two Norfolk dinghies perform so well with Minnie (1933) finishing 14th and Bittern (1935) 46th. The leading river cruiser was Breeze, built in 1924 and skippered by Matt Ellis, with an 8th position finish on corrected time. As is often the case, the wind finally died soon after dusk and numerous boats spent a cold night afloat, helpless until the tide turned on Sunday morning. It was wonderful to see nearly 100 boats cross the start line and the only disappointment was the single Thames A Rater entry, which are usually such a spectacle. Hopefully they will be back in numbers next year.

museum has been behind a number of major restorations of historic boats. Mariotti has 34 oil paintings on display until 11 September. Mariotti, who has the honorary title of ‘meritorious painter’ of the Italian Navy, said: "I can’t even imagine a better place to exhibit my paintings than this museum. The attention to detail, the love for wooden boats reflect in all respects my taste and my passions."

Club of the Year Sailors in the UK have the chance to nominate the best sailing club they know for the annual RYA and Yachts & Yachting Club of the Year Awards, supported by Gallagher. The awards are backed by our sister title and organised by the RYA to celebrate the voluntary work put in by club members around the UK in making their sailing clubs successful. This year anyone can nominate any club, with a simplified process to encourage more entries. The public vote will be announced later in the year, with the winner announced at the RYA Dinghy and Watersports Show, 25-26 February 2023. To nominate a club you like, search for ‘Club of the Year’ on rya.org.uk

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

Yacht Brokerage 212ft New Classic Schooner

ATLANTIC

SALE, CHARTER & MANAGEMENT

Also specialises in Transoceanic Charter 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 or recreating a number of famous yachts, her owner built on 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 made her immortal 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 unmatched speed under sail.

80ft Long Range Gentleman’s Yacht Themara

60ft Gentleman’s Yacht Kiwi

87ft Wishbone Ketch Tamory

71ft Laurent Gilles Ketch Aitor

65ft Sangermani Marconi Yawl Giannella II

52ft Q Class Classic Bermudian Sloop Jour de Fête

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.

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 period while easy to manage even with just one crew. She accommodates up to 6 guests in 3 cabins and up to 3 crew in 2 cabins.

1966. Refit 2010. This Eugène Cornu’s design has been built by the legendary Cantieri Sangermani, 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. She features lovely interiors!

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

1914. Born from the drawing board of Herbert White and built by the Brothers Shipyard in Southampton (UK), despite her name - in recognition of her Kauri pine construction from New Zealand - KIWI was launched as an English gentleman’s yacht with an incomparable, but a manageable size. A rare opportunity to own a beautifully vintage historic yacht authentic yet very practical and unmistakably aesthetic.

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

1930. Refit 2017. Built as Falcon by George Lawley & Sons (Boston, USA) and designed by famous naval architect Mike Paine. She is optimised for racing. Since she became JOUR DE FÊTE in 2011. she campaigned very successfully in the Mediterranean classic circuit, earning a name for herself for her immaculate level of maintenance and her outstanding beauty on the water, as well as her ability to win.

Bernard Gallay Yacht Brokerage

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

GOING IT ALONE How a couple in their 70s built a modern classic in strip-plank with almost no help WORDS AND PHOTOS NIGEL SHARP

BRYCHAN II

e’ve got good news and bad news,” wrote Tony and Val Williams to naval architect David Alan-Williams in March 2015. “We’ve sold the boat but we didn’t really mean to!” The boat in question was the 42ft Brychan they had built themselves (just as they had their previous boat Breock) and which David had designed for them. They were now turning their attention to another boat and, once more, they wanted David to design it. Tony and Val’s involvement in boatbuilding began before they were married when, as teenagers, they played truant from college to work on a canoe, then built various small boats including an Enterprise and Fireball dinghy. Tony apprenticed as a toolmaker with Rolls Royce but by the late 1970s he was building boats full time. The first big boat they owned was a Holman & Pye ketch called Pleiades which they lived on for four years with their two young daughters. After selling Pleiades (to the TV presenter John Noakes) they decided to build Breock, a Giles 38. When they went to Irons Brothers in Wadebridge, Cornwall to discuss the casting of the keel, Henry Irons suggested they build the boat on his premises. “He was a pretty shrewd man,” said Tony. “He thought ‘if this guy can build a boat, I can make use of him’.” Sure enough, when Irons Brothers’ pattern maker retired a few years later, Henry recruited Tony although, as it turned out, the pattern making became a team effort with Val becoming as involved as Tony. Over the next few years the couple combined pattern making with other boatbuilding projects, then in 1990 they started building Brychan. They went to David AlanWilliams for the design not least, said Tony, “because he designs a boat for what you want, not what he thinks you should have.” David had previously worked in the design office at Jeremy Rogers where he had been responsible for the Contessa 38. When he subsequently set up on his own, he designed the Dawn Class range, unapologetic “developments of the Contessa 38 and aspects of the Laurent Giles era, with a classic sheer line on hulls with overhangs fore and aft,” he told me. “Seaworthy and Lymington style. If something is that good there is no point reinventing the wheel every time.” Tony and Val’s Dawn Class 42 Brychan – which was also built at Irons Brothers premises – was completed in 1994. With Brychan sold, the initial brief to David was that the next boat should be smaller: “about 35-38 foot so she will be quicker and easier to build, and we can

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

Previous spread: Brychan II powering along on the wind off Falmouth Below left: David and Tony examining the keel structure Below right: Val and Tony soon after the hull was turned over Facing page: Brychan II reaching past St Mawes and (inset) the part-built deck

be sailing her by our 75th birthdays,” said Tony. But after discussing Tony and Val’s ideas for the interior, the amount of space and their sailing plans, it became clear that the new boat would need to be a similar size to Brychan, but with a few changes such as more volume aft, a lower coachroof and wider side decks for ease of moving around, wheel steering instead of tiller, and a double berth on the centreline to allow access from both sides. One thing that would definitely not change was the build method. Both Breock and Brychan’s hulls had been epoxy strip-planked, and Tony, Val and David all recognise that this has all the advantages and none of the disadvantages of traditional timber construction. “It gives the feel and look of a traditional timber construction but with the durability of GRP, ” said David, “and it is the most cost-effective way to build a custom yacht. And as every glue joint is effectively a mini longitudinal beam, it doesn’t need stringers so there is more internal space and fewer areas for water to collect.” “I wouldn’t touch carvel,” added Tony, “it is under stress from day one.” Construction began – yet again at Irons Brothers – by setting up the 5 principal bulkheads and 14 temporary moulds upside down. The strip planking was 20mm by 40mm Douglas fir (from Timbmet and Stones Marine Timber), edge-fastened with stainless steel screws, with the beamshelf fitted in conjunction with the planking. “This was the most exciting part of building all three of our boats,” said Val. “You go to bed each night knowing you have made good progress.” Two layers of opposing diagonal 4mm ply, in widths between about 150mm and 200mm, were then laid over the outside, epoxied and fastened with stainless steel staples. The ply was sheathed with glass and epoxy, all of which was vacuumbagged and heated in 4m by 2m sections (the size of the heating blanket). With the hull being built upside down and in a shed with minimal space each side, there were concerns about fitting the substantial rubbing strake (with integral caveta line) without being able to sight it properly. But after David modelled it in CAD, a 2-D template was made, allowing it to be made and fitted perfectly. An elaborate steel structure was fabricated to act as both a fuel tank and a spacer between the bottom of the hull and the ballast keel. This was sheathed with an epoxy laminate to prevent rusting and fitted to the flat surface of a timber deadwood while the hull was still upside down. The hull was then taken outside and turned the right way up with two cranes, and the

BRYCHAN II DESIGN: David Alan-Williams BUILD: Tony

and Val Williams, 2021 LOA: 43ft 2in (13.2m) BEAM: 12ft 5in 3.8m DRAFT: 6ft 7in (2m) DISPL:10.5 tonnes SAIL AREA: 935sqft (85m2)

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

BRYCHAN II

temporary moulds were removed. Despite the extra expense, David favoured lead for the ballast keel “as it can absorb quite a lot of energy in the event of impact, and an iron keel would need to be deeper and half a ton heavier to get the same righting moment.” The threetonne lead bulb was fitted with each of its 12 bolts going down through both a transverse plywood floor and a tube in the steel structure before being threaded into a stainless steel grid in the lead. The deck structure consists of laminated ash hanging knees (some of which double up as handholds), laminated Douglas fir beams, coachroof coamings and the deck itself from two layers of 12mm plywood, and cockpit coamings from one layer. Grooves were routered into the top surface of the top layer of plywood to house electrical cables and the copper gas pipe (and their positions were carefully recorded for future reference) before the decks were sheathed in glass and epoxy. Fellow boatbuilder Martin Brake had some 5m-long teak boards suitable for the toerail and coaming cappings, which he was willing to sell and which came from an unusual source. It had been part of a cargo (supposedly destined to be used for World War One pallets) aboard the 330ft vessel Pegu which had been sunk by a U Boat off the coast of Ireland while on a voyage from Rangoon to Liverpool in 1917, and was salvaged in the latter part of the 20th century. The internal layout is designed specifically for Tony and Val to live aboard and cruise in comfort, but with space for occasional entertaining and inshore sailing with friends. Forward there is a large cabin with a double berth on the centreline; in the saloon there is a U-shaped seating area (which converts to a double berth) to port and a settee/berth to starboard; aft and to port there is a spacious galley with the engine below its centreline unit; opposite to starboard is the chart table with its seat and array of Raymarine instrumentation; and aft of that is the heads compartment with its Lavac Popular vacuum loo. The companionway is slightly offset to port to allow extra space for the heads. The internal joinery is predominately of American ash – mostly supplied by Devon Hardwoods – because, said Tony, “it is economical and when you cut it, it stays straight.” The plywood bulkheads are sheathed in 4mm Douglas fir, giving a tongue-and-groove effect, and the cabin soles are veneered in Honduras mahogany which Tony had acquired “a long time ago”. The upholstery was made by Lang and Potter. On the aft saloon bulkhead there is a Refleks diesel stove from Denmark. “They fit them in Danish fishing vessels and keep them lit all year round,” said Val. Marius Roux of Trecarne Pottery was commissioned to produce a wash basin to fit into a vanity unit in the forward cabin as Val particularly didn’t want stainless steel, and she also plans to get him to make a ceramic glazed fireproof decorative surround for the stove. This will incorporate a scallop shell which is an iconic symbol of the Camino de Santiago – a 500-mile route from Pyrenees to Santiago de Compostela which Tony and Val walked in 2009. Their two daughters Penny and Susan have also made cushions with the same shell depicted on them as their presents to the boat. 30

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

The engine is a 50hp Yanmar 4JH5E diesel driving a Halyard Aquadrive and a Featherstream feathering propeller. The centreline galley unit below which it is fitted can be hinged up with a simple block and tackle to give excellent all-round access. Fuel from the 295-litre keel tank is transferred by electric pump to a 205-litre tank under the cockpit which then supplies the engine, or to a 25-litre header tank in a cockpit locker that supplies the heater. There are three water tanks with a total capacity of 725 litres, one under the forward berth and one each under the port and starboard saloon seats. The deck layout and rig have also been designed for short-handed cruising. The masthead rig gives various sloop/cutter headsail options with a genoa or high-clew yankee set on the outer forestay and a staysail on the inner forestay. The mainsheet track is set forward of the sprayhood but with the sheet itself leading aft to the cockpit. The chainplates for the cap shrouds and lowers are set slightly inboard to allow easy movement outboard of them. The deep cockpit feels very secure and with no quarter berth there is plenty of cockpit locker stowage. The spars are by Eurospars/Sparcraft, the sails by Sanders, all the stainless fabrications were made by Phoenix 316 in Plymouth, and the steering system, the autopilot, windlass, self-tailing winches and blocks are all by Lewmar. Tony and Val will surely find the electric windlass a luxury, not having had one on previous boats. The new boat was launched into the Penryn River at Falmouth on 11 October 2021 – Columbus Day, as it happens – and christened Brychan II. Brychan Brycheiniog was a legendary 5th-century king who came from Ireland to Wales and then to Cornwall. Brychan II’s build time was somewhat longer than initially hoped: far from sailing her by their 75th birthdays, Tony and Val are both now 80. Tony says that he can “make all sorts of excuses” for this. The main one, of course, is that Brychan II is significantly bigger than initially envisaged but she is also more complicated and they hadn’t vacuum-bagged the glass/ epoxy on their previous boats. “And we had a few holidays,” he said. It is clear to anyone taking a close look that Brychan II has been built to an exceptionally high standard, but perhaps the most astonishing thing is that it is very nearly true to say that she was entirely built by Tony and Val alone: not only all of the timber, glass, paint and varnish work but all of the engineering, electrics and (almost all of) the plumbing. “No one else worked on this boat except a plumber who I had to get to sort out a problem I couldn’t solve, and the upholsterers,” said Tony. And the tremendous support they had from David was above and beyond what might have been expected as he visited the boat from his base in Lymington about twenty times during the course of her construction. Having cruised on their previous boats to France, northern Spain, Scotland and Ireland, Tony and Val think that – initially at least – Covid and Brexit will make UK waters a more practical proposition. They have certainly never had any desire to make long ocean passages, however, and still don’t: “I would rather be building a boat than staring at the ocean,” said Tony.

Top two pictures: Tony at the helm with David and his wife Laurel and Val Continuing clockwise: The forward cabin; Excellent engine access below the galley; The Refleks diesel stove; The galley and saloon

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

Saleroom

By Dave Selby BONHAMS

Like a DUKW to water The DUKW is arguably one of the most important ‘vessels’ yacht design eminence Olin Stephens had a hand in. With a major contribution from Olin’s brother Roderick, under the aegis of Sparkman & Stephens in partnership with General Motors, the World War Two six-wheeler propellerdriven amphibian transported troops and supplies on land and water all over the world, including the D-day landings. From 1942 to 1945 the US built more than 21,000 “ducks,” as they are colloquially known. Around 2,000 were supplied to Britain and today many still serve all over the world giving leisurely pleasure rides at a max of 5.5kn. ELDRED’S

After 60 years with the Royal Marines, this 1945 example was the very last DUKW to be released from UK military service, and more recently has served on a Scottish estate on land and water. Above: Westward under a cloud of sails, pictured around 1910, is one of

Reportedly in fine running condition, it sold for £32,200.

a group of four Beken of Cowes photographs estimated at $1000-1500. Below Left: TB Davis at the helm of his beloved Westward

ELDRED’S

Westward gone but not forgotten The memory of Nathanael Herreshoff ’s magnificent 1910 steel schooner Westward is preserved today in a dramatic photograph taken by Beken of Cowes. Westward cost $118,000, a mighty sum for most, but not for Alexander Cochran, who’d inherited $40 million and subsequently joined the New York Yacht Club to have a go at yachting. Cochran he trounced the Germans, beat the Brits including Tommy Lipton’s latest Shamrock, then sold her after barely a year

For those who want to know, DUKW acronym comes from an arcane General Motors naming terminology: D for initial model year 1942; U for utility; K, all-wheel drive; W, dual rear axles.

of ownership.

BONHAMS

immediately took the 135ft (LOS) Westward to European waters where

After a succession of owners, Westward bought by Jersey-born fisherman’s son TB Davis who made his own fortune in cargo handling, but not before an early mishap. On his first voyage

Ride ’em, sailor boy

as a ship’s boy he was cast adrift from a

I’m not sure this circa 1917 US

grounded vessel and presumed dead, only to

Navy recruitment poster

make it back to Jersey to catch the end of his

encouraged many to sign up.

own memorial service. Davis went on to pit

On the one hand the idea of a

Westward against King George V’s Britannia in

rodeo ride might seem

an enthusiastic and friendly rivalry that lasted

appealing. On the other,

until the king’s death in 1936, after which Britannia was scuttled on the

would-be recruits may well

monarch’s orders.

have got the idea the navy

After the loss of his friend and foe, Davis more or less gave up racing and Westward eventually suffered the same fate as Britannia. Davis died in 1942, but when no owner could be found with the

ONSLOWS

was developing manned torpedoes, which could result in a navy career even shorter

means to maintain Westward, the final clause of his will came in to play.

than the eight-second target

In July, 1947 Westward was stripped, loaded with dynamite and sunk off

for bull riding. This original

Jersey, some 60 miles from her old friend Britannia.

poster made £380.

Eldred’s next marine sale: East Dennis, Massachusetts, USA

Onslows next poster sale 25

4-5 August (eldreds.com)

November (onslows.co.uk)

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

ONSLOWS

entered a new golden era in 1924 when she was

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

52’ Philips of Dartmouth Motor Yacht designed and built by Philips and Son of Dartmouth in 1963. Lovely classic motor yacht built to Lloyds 100A1 and professionally maintained in present ownership with major 2019/2020 refit. Twin Perkins 6354 diesels. 8 berths in 3 sleeping cabins including with 2 ensuite heads. Very attractive and capable motor yacht in full sea going condition. Devon £190,000

62’ motor yacht designed by Archibald MacMillan and built by the Fairlie Yacht Slip Ltd in 1968. An elegant yacht built for a wealthy Scottish couple. Mahogany hull with solid teak decks. Aluminium superstructure. 4 sleeping cabins with 10 berths and 7’ headroom. Twin Gardner 6LX diesels with new 2021 generator. An excellent yacht with plenty of pedigree and class. Turkey £250,000

45’ Saunders-Roe Medina Class motor yacht designed and built by Saunders-Roe of Cowes in 1937. Major rebuild in 2010, since cruised over 20,000Nm from the Med to the Baltic. Nominated for Restoration of the Year in 2011 by Classic Boat, described as ‘the epitome of the gentleman’s motor yacht....immaculately restored.’ An exquisitely beautiful motor yacht with a superb history and pedigree. Isle of Wight £245,000

54’ Silvers Brown Owl motor yacht designed by John Bain and built by Silvers Marine in 1934. Teak hull planking and teak superstructure, the best money could buy at the time. Twin Cummins diesels. 4 sleeping cabins plus 2 heads. Well cared for in current 25 year ownership, cruised every summer around the Brittany coast and professionally maintained each winter.

26’ Kim Holman Stella built by tucker Brown in 1971. Slightly modified Stella with masthead rig, thicker planking, self draining cockpit and heavier ballast keel. Long and very experienced ownership, a lovely little yacht well equipped for cruising. Currently sailing the English Channel. A very capable small cruising boat for sensible money. Hants £8,000

16’8” H.J. Mears and Son motor launch built in 2022, due for completion in the coming weeks. Brand new boat in clinker mahogany on oak frames complete with road trailer built by the well known Mears yard in east Devon. Beta Marine 14hp diesel engine, brand new. Ready for a new owner to name and launch for the summer season. Devon £34,000

Brittany £145,000

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 7 berths in 3 sleeping cabins. An eye catching yacht with an excellent classic regatta record, fast, elegant and extremely smart. Netherlands €175,000

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. Cornwall £45,000

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.

Objects of desire SHAPE OF THE WIND We’re admirers of the work of photographer Kurt Arrigo, who is known widely for his Rolex Fastnet images. This bulging headsail on a wooden bowsprit is part of a series he’s done

(60cm x 40cm), white frame, £550

called The Shape of the Wind, focussing on the intriguing shapes that sails make when blown by the breeze. Flying High, €158–€495 (approx £136-£395). Each image is printed on Hahnemühle Fine Art 325gsm Baryta paper and can also be printed on canvas, metal or under acrylic glass.

sheenabevis-white.co.uk

shop.kurtarrigo.com

SHEENA’S LATEST WORK Falmouth artist Sheena Bevis-White won the Classic Boat prize at the Royal Society of Marine Artists exhibition six years ago. Sheena held a successful online exhibition over lockdown and now again we can peruse her latest 2022 works on her website. She depicts local sailing as well as scenes from international regattas in the Med and elsewhere.

Working Boats racing, Falmouth Week, oil on board, 24” x 16”

COMPASS WATCH

Wow! We can’t help but admire this unashamed timepiece from Thomas Sabo, which is perhaps more Voiles de Saint-Tropez than Burnham Week. With its nautical design, it will surely suit the wrist of any sailor big enough to wear it. £249

thomassabo.com

WATERPROOF PHONE KIT This photo of the sea bed, 25 yards off a beach in Crete, is somewhat less exciting than Classic Boat’s group editor Rob

CUTTY SARK BOOK

Peake suggested when he returned from his recent holiday on

It claims to ‘bust the myths’ of the great ship’s birth

the island, but Rob was right on one count – it’s not a bad shot

and it comes with A1 credentials, published by the

for an iPhone that is two metres under the water. Rob was

Scottish Maritime Museum. Authors Alan Platt and

enjoying a spot of snorkelling while using one of Catalyst’s new

Robert T Sexton “follow the story up to [builder]

iPhone waterproof cases, which he reports are a matter of

Scott & Linton’s bankruptcy, exposing important

seconds to clip on, while leaving all functions available, above

misconceptions and contributing new

or below the water. Catalyst’s most recent launch is the Total

knowledge”. They also address questions over the

Protection Case for your AirPods, pictured. The company does

design of the Cutty Sark – was it Linton’s genius or

a range of cases for smartphones and accessories.

simply an evolution of clippers gone by?

Total Protection Case for AirPods approx £41.99

The Birth of an Icon - Scott & Linton and the Building of the Cutty Sark, The True Story, £19.99. Email visitorservices@scotmaritime.org.uk

Total Protection Case Apple Watch Series 7 approx £61.99

catalystcase.com

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

Congratulations

Nigel Sharp’s photos

Tony & Val Williams on the beautiful construction of Dawn Class 43 Brychan II

David Alan-Williams • Ocean Home and Yacht Ltd email: info@oceanhomeandyacht.com YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxFOvIMd8IQ

Cleaners & Protectors Ask for AquaMarine at your local chandlery

www.aquamarineint.com AQM_Classic Boat_HalfPage_Advert.indd 1

31/05/2022 16:16

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

BOSUN’S BAG PRACTICAL TIPS FOR THE TRADITIONAL BOATER

WORDS TOM CUNLIFFE ILLUSTRATION MARTYN MACKRILL

Once upon a time, as fairytales usually begin, I sailed in a boat that had truly shocking helm balance. This, however, was no fairy story; it was horribly real. She was a well-built little 28ft (8.5m) sloop from a classy designer but, when I joined her to assist the owner on his inaugural passage, she was not at all happy. The weather helm was such that when she took a gust as we left harbour she almost tacked herself. One gets used to this sort of wretched behaviour in certain modern yachts with flat floors, excess beam aft and no forefoot, but this boat’s sweet lines bore no relation to such monstrosities. Her rig seemed all in order too. There was no retro-fit overhanging boom or shortened bowsprit to play havoc with the designer’s intentions, but I did notice one thing. As I joined her, she looked perhaps a little down by the head. Perhaps, I wondered, she’d been trimmed like that on purpose to allow for a couple of hefty crew in the cockpit. It’s sometimes a good plan with smaller boats, but there was a pair of us back aft right now and her manners were still shocking. What was going on? An hour or so into the trip I went forward to use the head. As I sat in mute contemplation of the nicely varnished mast, the comparative silence was broken only by what I took to be the slosh of the bow wave on the planking. I’ve heard a lot of water running past planking in my time and this didn’t sound quite right. It was more like liquid sloshing around in a tank and it was coming from somewhere up near the stem. I completed my private mission, then squeezed myself into the small fo’c’s’le to investigate. There, on proud display, was a large stainless steel water tank making gurglings as if it were as full as it was ever likely to be. I estimated it to be around 50 gallons (230 litres), and 50 gallons is a quarter of a ton. The tank had obviously been sited so as not to rob the main accommodation of space, but it was wrecking the trim of the boat. I went back aft and reported. The owner, who had personally had the tank fitted as he liked plenty of water onboard, was reluctant to believe me, but as we laboriously pumped the tank dry, the yacht steadily blossomed into the beautifully balanced lady she should have been. I left the boat soon afterwards, so I can’t report on whether the tank was ditched to make the boat into an honest girl once more, or whether the lust for hot showers proved too great a temptation, but the incident reminded me of how critical fore-and-aft trim can be. When we first launched my boat Westernman, a new 40ft (12.2m) gaff cutter, we found we could ease her tendency to weather helm by shifting a quarter-ton of lead trimming ballast from the mast area and packing it tightly under the companionway. I had picked up the trick by reading Maurice Griffiths, who

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

claimed similar success with a smack before World War II. I’ve no direct experience of ballasting issues where the boot is on the other foot, so to speak, but sometimes a boat is slow to tack where really she shouldn’t be. When a backed staysail is needed to help her round, or maybe if she sometimes misses stays altogether, shunting ballast forward will probably cheer her up no end. So, if you have a long-keeled sailing boat that is reluctant to balance as she should, things might not be so extreme as they were with the water tank, but it’s still worth taking a hard look at her trim. And if some smart individual on the dockside suggests that you are wasting your time because when you shift ballast aft, you tip the rig back too and thus increase weather helm, he’s talking rot. The effects of the two are hardly comparable.

DON’T WHIP THE END I’d been whipping ropes’ ends for more than 30 years before the late Peter Martin showed me how the professionals do it. Peter was one of the great riggers of my generation, so I listened when he talked. Here’s what he said. Start your whipping well away from the end of the rope. It doesn’t matter if it’s three-strand or braidline, make it a few inches from the end, finish it neatly then cut the rope to the whipping. It’s so much easier than trying to hold the end of the rope together as you work. Take a palm and needle. Load the needle with flat twine and double it so you only have to make half the number of turns. Bury the end of the twine in the rope and start making your whipping turns towards the end. Once you have two on you can heave them up tight. The end will stay buried so that’s the last you see of it. Now lay on all your turns, making sure not to twist the flat twine. When you have enough, drive the needle through the braidline close above the last turn and bring it out on the other side. If the rope is three-strand, drive the twine between two strands. You can now make the ‘up-and-down’ frapping turns, either following the lay of the three strands and dipping between the lays, or stitching them into braidline, moving spirally round as if it were with the lay, driving the needle in at 1200 intervals. Because the twine is doubled, you only need go around once. When all three frappers are in, drive the twine into the body of the splice and out again, heave it tight and cut it off short so no ends are in sight. Stow the needle and cut the rope off above the whipping with a sharp knife using a chopping board. Lovely job!

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

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

FOR THE WORK OF MARTYN MACKRILL, VISIT MARTYNMACKRILL.CO.UK OR MESSUM’S GALLERY, ST JAMES’S, LONDON

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

CF KOEHLER

California dreaming We meet a time-served boatbuilder in San Diego WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHY WILL SOFRIN

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

ocated on the northern tip of Shelter Island in San Operating other people’s boats helped CF expand the visibility Diego Bay, you will find an impressive fleet of classic of his business and provided the opportunity to explore a yachts tied up to the docks outside the 9,000sqft broader range of craft. He came to prefer the classics more than (836m2) shop owned and operated by CF Koehler. the newer production boats being turned out at the time. He observed a trend of runabouts being built that resembled his Founded by CF’s father, Clarence Koehler Sr 1938, Koehler father’s designs from the 1930s. CF knew he could improve his Kraft became famous for designing and building highfather’s designs by making them lighter and faster using the performance fishing boats, sport fishers, and racing runabouts. cold-moulded method. Like father, like son; CF drew up a new Clarence was a maestro of all the disciplines required to run a boat and built it. Unfortunately, the timing was off with the boatyard. He was the guy who could put on a coat and tie to economy, and the boat didn’t sell. CF learned the hard way that sell a boat or draw up a plan freehand. He was a gifted his high-quality, small-production boat couldn’t compete with the woodworker able to fit complicated wood cuts perfectly without more prominent manufacturers’ supply side and marketing needing to make templates. mechanism. Today, CF and his wife own and maintain a fleet of While his friends were out playing and exploring, young CF boats; some small, some large. instead worked around his father’s yard, helping with projects Many are ones he once worked on and came to be his because and taking care of customers. His hard work didn’t go the owner went through their enjoyment phase and, after a period unnoticed when one of his school shop teachers recognised the of neglect, had to get rid of the boat. skills and experience he was acquiring. One of his boats, a 1951 65ft (19.8m) CF was promoted from student to Eldridge-McInnis trawler he rebuilt shop assistant, creating an opportunity from the hull down, had cycled through for him to begin developing his a couple of owners before being run into leadership skills. CF continued to the ground and making it back to him. expand his skill set by taking “You wind up with them. Some of advantage of trade classes offered at them are boats that I restored or rebuilt his school, such as mechanical for someone. I thought, how can I find a drawing, pattern making, foundry, purpose for these great boats that could machine shop, and wood shop. His promote the passion for classic boats? If school also participated in a local they could be put to work as luxury wooden model boatbuilding contest “You wind up with charter boats, it could inspire a future where the model boats would race in a restoration or maybe a new build.” series of regattas against the other local them. Some of them Fortunately, CF had a customer schools. The model boat designer for are boats that I rebuilt turned friend looking for a boat like the CF’s school was Jim Underwood, an trawler. He didn’t have the confidence in-house designer for Kettenberg. for someone” or experience to take care of a boat, so As a teenager, CF memorably cut his they formed a partnership and restored teeth as a builder by finishing the trawler together. Today, they share the use of the boat for fun constructing one of the boats his father started for a client who and charter. Being one to evolve with the times, CF has had given up on the project. Working at the yard, CF was transformed and modernised the business his father started nearly learning more than just building; he was learning about repair, a century ago. Koehler Kraft now specializes in restoration, design, owning, and operating. He began to recognise that the custom woodwork, and yacht management. With his captain’s era of boat construction and maintenance, the way Clarence license, CF makes all of his boats available for charter. If not in his Koehler Sr did it, was fading, as the older generation of builders shop, one will likely find him out on a boat or playing jazz began aging out. Despite the encouragement from his father for trumpet with one of his bands. him to run away from home and get a real job, CF was hooked. CF had achieved a journeyman level of skill by the time he graduated from high school in 1982. He gave college a go, but the lure of boats could not keep him away for long. Unfortunately, his father passed in 1986, and his mother stepped in to take over the yard. Busy learning how to fill his father’s shoes, CF, at the age of just 21, somehow found time to buy Sally, one of the two surviving Starling Burgess 10-Metre yachts built at Abeking & Rasmussen in Germany. She was too big for the yard to haul, so in the water, Sally became CF’s after-hours project, receiving a new deck and interior that he designed himself. In the late 1990s, CF bought his family out of the yard, renewed the lease with the port, and upgraded the facility’s infrastructure. By that point, he had earned his captain’s license and supplemented his income by delivering boats. He was a great bargain because his clients knew he could fix anything en route, which was a good selling point.

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

FOX IN THE DOCKS Uffa Fox – sailor, designer, boatbuilder, author, raconteur... Next month, the UF50 regatta will mark 50 years since his death WORDS BARRY PICKTHALL PHOTOS PPL MEDIA

e was my boyhood hero. I collected all his books, and as a cub reporter working for Yachts & Yachting magazine back in the early 1970s, I had the great privilege to meet the man. It was one of those lazy days during Cowes Week when what little wind there was continually boxed the compass and brought mayhem to the racing schedule. Too doddery by then to continue his usual role as sailing master to the Royal Family, Uffa Fox still had the mark of mischief that coloured so much of his life. Wearing nothing more than a night shirt, cap and carrying a candle he greeted Prince Charles back to the dock in the early evening light with “What kept you all this time?” Uffa was one of the most significant 20th-century characters within the sport, and certainly the most innovative, particularly in the field of dinghy and keelboat racing. He was one of the first to master the concept for a planing hull, the first to develop a reliable rotating mast, and the first to embrace mass-production techniques. Many of his designs have stayed the test of time: boats like the Firefly, Albacore, Flying Fifteen and National 18 continue to enjoy active class status, and many others have been brought out of garages, lofts and the Cowes Maritime Museum for display on Cowes Parade during the UF50 regatta. One of his most innovative designs was the International 14 Avenger designed in 1928. She proved far ahead of her time, winning 52 of her 57 race starts, including the coveted Prince of Wales Cup. Uffa also sailed her three-up in stormy conditions 100 miles across the English Channel in 27 hours to race against the French fleet in Le Havre. They won, then sailed home again in 37 hours. Avenger set a pattern for many years to come. She had a fine bow with prominent vee sections that developed into a flat floor aft. Carvel built, she was narrow, with a beam of just 4ft 8in (1.4m), narrowing to 3ft (0.9m) at the transom. Her mast was also an advance. Up until that time, spars had been limited to 15ft 6in (4.8m) in order to fit inside a standard goods wagon. The Int 14 hull was the largest that could be sent by train – which dinghy sailors did in those days to compete in other parts of the UK, for 6 Shillings anywhere in England. It had been these

Left: The man... the legend! Uffa Below: Uffa Fox (left) and Charles Currey pictured on the Hamble in 1946 with the first prototype of the National Firefly dinghy

size restrictions that had prevented the use of a bermudan rig. Uffa overcame this by producing a jointed mast similar in principle to a fishing rod, with the top mast fitting into a metal sleeve – a concept revived many years later with the Laser. Avenger’s real advantage was her ability to plane. While other Int 14s could do so on occasions, Avenger would pick up her skirts and fly across the waves at the slightest provocation, and on the wind, she was just as efficient. Was Avenger the first planing dinghy? Almost certainly not, but she did it better than most and set a design trend that was followed by other great designers like Ian Proctor, Jack Holt and Peter Milne. Another design that marked Uffa’s career was the 12ft (3.7m) Firefly. Launched in 1946 to provide budget boating immediately after the war, the first Fireflys, named after Sir Richard Fairey’s famous fighter plane, were priced at £56 in kit form or £65 complete. That was £30 less than a National 12, and a third the price of an International 14. The boat used build techniques developed by the Fairey Aviation Co to produce wooden airframes for the Mosquito bomber which Charles Currey, then an innovative young sailor and dinghy builder, newly demobbed from the Navy, adapted to produce the world’s first mass-produced one-design dinghy.

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

UFFA FOX

The idea was sparked at the tail end of the war when Fairey Aviation was looking to diversify production at their Hamble facility to provide peacetime employment. Sir Richard, Colin ChichesterSmith, then chief executive, and Alan Vines, Fairey’s Chief Engineer, were all keen International 14 sailors, and the idea of using Fairey’s revolutionary hotpressure moulding system to mass-produce lightweight dinghies, had immediate appeal. Fox had already built up a close working relationship with the company during the war, designing among other things an airborne lifeboat that could be dropped from aircraft to aid crews who had ditched into the sea. Just prior to hostilities, Uffa had been commissioned to design a 12ft (3.7m) carvel sailing dinghy for the Oxford and Cambridge Sailing Society that he had dubbed the Sea Swallow. The war had brought a halt to the project, and when he learned that Fairey was looking for a 12ft sailing dinghy, he simply scratched out the name Sea Swallow from the plans and replaced it with Firefly. Needing someone to run the operation, Colin Chichester Smith fired off a letter to fellow 14 sailor and boatbuilder Charles Currey, encouraging him to resign from the Navy by guaranteeing him a job for two years. For Charles, it turned into a lifetime’s work. He arrived at Fairey’s then top-secret aircraft factory spread out across the marshes at the entrance to the River Hamble, on Friday 3 May, and worked through the night to complete the first hull. The following day, he was joined by Uffa for a first test sail. Ignominiously

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

Above: Firefly production shed; Charles Currey with a Firefly Below: Uffa and Charles Currey trial the first prototype of the Firefly, River Hamble, 1946 Facing page, c/ wise from top left: Uffa and Nora ChichesterSmith race a Firefly prototype, Henley, 1946; A Jollyboat at the London Boat Show; Atalanta at 1958 London Boat Show; Rodney Pattisson sails his Firefly; Fireflies at Plymouth Race Week, 1959; Albacore in Chichester Harbour, 1959

the alloy mast broke and crashed down, but undaunted, Currey repaired the spar with a wooden section pushed up at the base and set off the following day to race the boat with Nora Chichester-Smith against the latest National 12 class dinghies for the Henley Challenge Cup – and won. The class became a spawning ground for many of Britain’s top sailors. Stewart Morris, Charles Currey and his sons Alastair and Gordon, Bruce Banks, Rodney Pattisson, Robin Judah, the Jardine Brothers, John Maynard, John Oakeley and of course Mimie Currey, Charles’ daughter who remains the only female to have won the Sir Richard Fairey Points championship trophy... all cut their teeth in this highly adaptable design which can be sailed as a single hander, raced two up, or used with a cut-down rig as a junior trainer. Some 200 boats were built in the first year of production, many of them bought for recreational sailing by colleges and for Britain’s military bases abroad. The biggest breakthrough came with the boat’s nomination as the single-hander class at the 1948 Olympics held in Torquay. By all accounts, it was a very windy regatta and the boat proved something of a handful to all but the 19-year-old Danish sailor Paul Elvstrom, who won the gold medal by lowering the jib when sailing to windward in the strong conditions, and re setting it on the reaches. Uffa Fox could turn his hand, and mind, to designing and building almost anything. One example is an innovative rocking cot in the form of a miniature

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

UFFA FOX

clinker dinghy he made to mark the birth Max Aitken’s daughter Laura, now on display at the Max Aitken museum in Cowes High Street. Just before the outset of hostilities in 1943, he foresaw the need for an airborne sailing lifeboat to be dropped from an aircraft to rescue downed aircrew in the sea. From there came Britannia, the rowing boat used by John Fairfax to row solo across the Atlantic in 1969 which was self-righting, self-bailing and had a shelter to sleep under. In his latter years, he developed the concept further with Britannia II, used by Fairfax and Sylvia Cook to row across the Pacific in 1971/2, which remains the basis for the modern ocean rowing boats today. Always one to steer his own course, Fox showed his distaste for authority from an early age. As a 23-year-old Scout leader, he set out for the western Solent with a crew of nine young Sea Scouts in a 27ft (8.2m) open whaler on a weekend camping adventure. He decided to extend the itinerary to cross the Channel and row up the Seine towards Paris, returning the same way 12 days later. They were met by the Coastguard, and understandably perhaps, Uffa was relieved of his leadership role within the troop. Uffa had no real interest in money – other than to avoid paying whenever possible. At one point, his boatyard and drawing office was based in an old chain ferry on the West Cowes side of the river. Letters, especially formal looking ones, were invariably left unopened until the bailiffs arrived to serve notice on his rate arrears. Undaunted, Fox simply slipped mooring lines and had the ferry towed across to East Cowes, a separate rating district, and continued as before. Cliff Norbury, a long-term compatriot of Ian Proctor, tells a wonderful story when Uffa joined a group of 12ft 44

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Above: Prince Philip races with Uffa Fox in the Flying Fifteen Coweslip in the 1957 Cowes Week Below: Uffa Fox’s house in Cowes, Isle of Wight

National sailors crossing the Channel by ferry to race in a French regatta. Word got round that Fox was short of cash and knowing perhaps how hard it might be to recoup any loans, the group gave him a wide berth. During the regatta, Uffa was not to be seen until the ferry return home. There on his arm was a young French woman, and despite he not speaking any French, nor she English, they lived happily together for many years. Photographer Eileen Ramsay recalls his passionate side in her book Queen of yachting photography. “I was commissioned to photograph Uffa for a book cover and decided to picture him overlooking Cowes Roads from his terrace roof garden. I don’t know how many bedrooms he had in that house, but he tried to push me into each and every one of them. In the end, I had to tell him very firmly, ‘I’m here to take your portrait and think we should get on with it!’ Both he and Max Aitken were notorious lotharios, and between them got up to all sorts of mischief.” To mark the wedding of the Queen to Prince Philip, the people of Cowes presented the Royal couple with the Flying Fifteen keelboat Coweslip. It led to a lifelong friendship with the designer, who looked after the boat and raced with Philip during successive Cowes Weeks during the 1950s and ‘60s. Fox, always the life and soul at a party, reputedly gave Queen Elizabeth a playful slap on the bottom when following her up the gangway steps to board HMS Britannia at the end of a day sailing, telling her “Hurry up Ma’am, or we will be late for dinner!” Perhaps the most enduring and endearing memorial to Uffa’s lifelong sense of fun must be the annual seaside cricket match held at low tide on the Bramble Bank every year. He was one of the founders and the game is marked around the world as one of England’s greatest eccentricities – much like the man himself. The Uffa Fox 50 Celebration will be held at the Royal London Yacht Club in Cowes, IoW, from 18-21 August

“Incredible craftsmanship and knowledge of classic yachts”

For all enquiries please call 01621 782150 or email admin@burnhamyachtharbour.co.uk. Visit our website at www.burnhamyachtharbour.co.uk

Burnham Yacht harbour provides all the facilities you require from a modern secure marina with 24 hour tidal access and 350 fully serviced berths. Our heated workshop is fully equipped and our qualified Shipwrights and Engineers are on hand to make, rebuild and look after yachts from any era. Our marina also boasts the lovely Swallowtail Restaurant and Bar, with stunning views of the marina and an onsite yacht brokers.

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

VALENTINE PUNT

TAKING A PUNT Hal Sisk, our 2022 ‘Classic Boater’ is well known for his many yacht projects – but it all started with a humble tender

hildhood memories may be randomly stored. About 65 years ago on my father’s yacht, we were motoring in fog towing a clinker tender, close to the cliffs between Crosshaven and Kinsale on Ireland’s coast. I still vividly recall a fortuitous glance aft when I spotted the tender disappearing into the mist as her painter had chafed through the gunwale. We were able to double back and rescue this boat which has now enjoyed a long life, and even generated some replicas. Her life started in 1926 when my grandfather John Valentine Sisk commissioned a new 10ft (3m) rowing boat as a tender to his motor launch. This small boat was built by Pierce Power of Passage West in Cork Harbour and she was always simply called ‘the punt’. John Sisk’s launch Cuileann is understood to have been built around 1915 and acquired by him around 1924 in the Kenmare River in County Kerry. He used her for fishing trips around and outside Cork Harbour until his death in 1957. Family tradition has it that the punt was bought because its predecessor was so unstable that “it tossed a Miss Barrett into the water”. Pierce Power was a well established builder of quality small craft, including several ‘Uffa King’ National 18 clinker racing dinghies for yachtsmen of the Royal Munster Yacht Club in Crosshaven.

WORDS HAL SISK Above: The replica punt with the GL Watson yacht Peggy Bawn

My siblings and I all learned to row in our grandfather’s punt, before we graduated to sailing a Cadet dinghy and later an Enterprise. When many years later I eventually acquired a motor yacht that could carry a tender, a replica of the 1926 punt seemed the obvious choice. Until the 1970s, marinas were unknown and all yachts and motor launches used free swinging moorings. Crosshaven is at the mouth of the estuary of the Owenabwee River as it opens into Cork Harbour. With no club launch service, all yachts were accessed by rowing boats. Outboards were little used because these tenders had to be lifted and dragged down the foreshore or launching slips. There was no need for the cost, weight and complexity of an outboard motor for what was usually a brief but sometimes strenuous row in the fast-flowing tidal currents of the estuary. One quickly learnt to use the shallows in adverse tides. The word ‘punt’ can mean different types of boat, for example a narrow canoe-like vessel for shooting ducks and geese, or a shallow flat vessel propelled by poling instead of rowing on inland waters. On the Irish south coast it usually means what we now call a tender, a small rowing boat used as a to access larger boats on a mooring, and sometimes towed behind the main CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

VALENTINE PUNT

vessel. The word is also in common usage in Cornwall, and it had the same meaning for English writer Eric Hiscock in the 1930s. Another local nautical term for a rowlock is ‘spur’. My replica was built in 2009 by James Miller of Helensburgh, Scotland, using yellow pine for the stem, keel, thwarts and laminated knees and glued clinker plywood planking. Because of plywood’s strength in two directions, no ribs (which were traditionally called ‘timbers’ in clinker construction) are needed as in the original construction. In memory of my grandfather who commissioned the original, I named the replica ‘The Valentine Punt’, after his middle name. The Valentine Punt has a fine shape for her intended purpose. A flattish bottom and tight bilge make for a stable craft, and the slight rake in her ‘wineglass’ transom, together with a neat turn in the garboards, makes this little boat as elegant as possible for its 10ft (3m) of length. The original did occasionally take a Seagull outboard but because she is so comfortable to row, no outboard has sullied the transom of the replica. The duplicated rowing positions on the main and the forward thwarts make it easy to balance the boat fore and aft. Thus to carry four people, two can sit aft, one forward, and one rows from the main thwart. Yet with just two people, an excellent balance is obtained using only the forward and aft thwarts and rowing from the forward position. And for me and my brothers learning to row, the Valentine punt provided great fun, sometimes rowing one oar each from different thwarts. The replica has even been rowed against a stiff headwind from the forward position with four adult passengers on the other two thwarts, an impossible task for any equivalent sized inflatable. She really comes into her own in a moderate crosswind. For minimal effort, and an equal load on each oar, a rowing boat needs to enough lateral resistance in her keel, but not too much, for the right amount of leeway. Thus one rows ‘above’ one’s course with an equal weight on each oar, while slightly crabbing sideways, making just enough leeway just as 48

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

Above: Pal Jim Nugent rows the replica Below: The original Facing page: The finished replica afloat and (inset), Hal and builder James Miller lifting the light hull off the MDF moulds, notched for the planks

with a cross tide. Too big a skeg, or too much keel, and she would track straight through the water but then one would be forced to heave unevenly on the leeward oar to make up for the crosswind. After John V Sisk’s death in 1957, the punt continued up to 1970 as a tender to his son John G Sisk’s yachts: Marian Maid, Stern and Sarnia. Later she passed on to his son in law, Niall O’Connell in Schull, West Cork, where she ended up with commercial fishermen on nearby Long Island where her yacht-style varnish was painted over and she was coated in tar. From there I rescued her, stripped off the paint and tar and brought her in 1980 to boatbuilder Hugh Tweedie of Portaferry, Co Down, at the mouth of Strangford Lough. Hugh had already built my 14ft (4.3m) Water Wag Good Hope in 1977. Hugh replaced the damaged topstrake and fitted a few new steamed timbers. My dream of using the punt to teach my children to row didn’t happen as on the few occasions we launched her she leaked badly, as do most old clinker boats after drying out in storage. Toddlers and their mother don’t appreciate leaky boats. So I lent her for display to the Maritime Museum in Dun Laoghaire. As part of the 14-year genesis of the book Traditional Boats of Ireland, Michael Tyrrell of Arklow was commissioned to take the lines and make tables of offsets of many Irish traditional craft. I also got him to do a similar job for the punt in July 1998 at the museum as the punt is an excellent representative of a once common traditional boat type. Eventually, after briefly putting her back into use as a tender to my superb 1894 GL Watson cutter Peggy Bawn, I concluded that she could have a better longterm role as a stylish tender to my unique motor yacht Molly Bán but only as a practical vessel which would not leak. Accordingly, I commissioned Alec Jordan in Scotland to prepare plans and make a laser cut kit of the MDF moulds, the planks, and the transom for a glued clinker ply replica. This construction technique is

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

VALENTINE PUNT

much lighter than the traditional clinker method and the end product is much easier to keep clean. But the biggest plus point is that the ‘lands’ of the planks are now bonded and sealed with impervious gap-filling epoxy resin. Now she embodies a tangible, stylish and practical link with the past and a family tradition. She can be launched singlehanded off Molly Bán with an inverted mainsheet horse from under her extended canopy acting as a gantry. Depending on how sheltered the anchorage, or how far to the shore, Molly Bán can deploy either the Valentine or a RIB, launched through a removable transom. Molly Bán cruised the River Thames in between getting to the All-Ireland Heineken Cup Final at Twickenham, where Leinster beat Ulster. The Valentine Punt was used at Shepperton where she ferried the crew across to a waterside pub, avoiding a long walk around a bridge. Another highlight was subsequently participating in the Historic Squadron of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Water Pageant. Unfortunately, in the

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

This page: Hal Sisk in the original punt at the Ocean to City Race in Cork Harbour, Hal at 71, the punt at 88 Below: A detail from the glued clinker replica

driving rain and murky conditions of the latter event, few could notice Molly Bán and the sweet lines of her suspended tender. Later, I donated a Jordan kit for another replica Valentine Punt to be built as the tender to Conor O’Brian’s 1926 Ilen, built as the post boat for the Falkland Islands and now restored in Oldcourt, Baltimore, County Cork. Ilen visited London in May with a special reception at Greenwich. She originally carried a 10ft (3m) punt so the Valentine Punt, another Cork craft also dating to 1926, complements the Ilen appropriately and authentically. The new boat was beautifully built by Matt Dirr and Donegal man Elan Broadley and formally launched at the 2017 Baltimore Wooden Boat Festival. Father Anthony of the Bendictine Abbey blessed the new boat and, for good measure, both the orginal punt and my earlier replica. Now, thanks to Alec Jordan’s technique, laser-cut plywood kits are available so that anyone with limited woodworking skills can build replicas of this charming and practical little craft. But there was another other significant outing for the original punt. In 2013, shipwright James Madigan of the Ilen Boat building school on Limerick completed another excellent repair when we found the stem to be soft. So finally, in the original punt, in 2014 I competed in Cork Harbour’s Rás Mór, the Ocean-to-City rowing race held in Cork Harbour in early June from the mouth of the harbour to the city. For singlehanded boats, a shorter course to the city is seven miles from Monkstown and this leads very close to Passage West, where Pierce Power built the original punt for John Valentine Sisk 88 years earlier. Even with a partly favourable tide, it took me over four hours but I was the oldest single competitor (71) in the shortest and oldest boat (88), and certainly the combination of 159 years was special! Another great memory to store with the childhood one by which the punt was rescued.

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CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

MIRROR MAN Jonathan Lee celebrates the 60th birthday of the Mirror – the revolutionary flatpack dinghy that democratised sailing – by voyaging up the Dart WORDS JONATHAN LEE PHOTOS POPPY LEE

MAN IN THE MIRROR

asping from cold-water shock, I swim around the bow and grasp the centreboard. A few hefty pulls and Florence flips upright, shivering river water from her spars and sails. As I haul myself over the gunwale I curse my error: not predicting a lightning-fast gybe and inevitable capsize. Devon’s tidal Dart has a reputation for such legerdemain. She’s one of Britain’s most beguiling rivers – a majestic, snaking ‘ria’ flanked by oak forests and dotted with boathouses and country estates – but her gusts and hidden mud banks can outwit the most experienced sailor, let alone a newbie like me. My voyage started so well, too. The mission: to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Mirror by sailing my 1978 craft solo from Dartmouth to Totnes; a meander of around nine nautical miles from the Devon coast inland. The sun is beaming as I rig up Florence on Dartmouth’s harbour wall bang on low water to catch

Above: Rigging Florence at Dartmouth’s harbour wall before the off, and boning up on Mirror journeying with AJ Mackinnon’s The Unlikely Voyage of Jack de Crow Below: Quick stop on the shoreline at Ashprington Point

the push upstream. “Hey,” shouts a teenager, “look at that weird boat,” before leaping high and plunging into the wash. We Mirror sailors are used to such brickbats. Designers Barry Bucknell and Jack Holt eschewed a pointed bow, creating a blunt-nosed pram dinghy out of marine ply, copper stitching, tape and glue. Drawn by the Mirror’s affordability and versatility, the British public took the plunge en masse and shattered sailing’s elitist image for good. I can see the attraction: Florence runs like the clappers in a force four, can be rowed during slack winds and will happily power along on an outboard motor. And at under 11ft (3.4m) bow to stern you can even transport her on the roof of your car. I cast off, and south-easterlies puff me past Kingswear’s pastel-coloured houses, safely through the ferry line and beyond the Royal Naval College. I race a passenger ferry bow to bow, then settle into a beam reach. A few tacks and I’m already zipping past Greenway, Agatha Christie’s holiday retreat. The Georgian mansion inspired her Poirot tale Dead Man’s Folly: an apposite reminder as I skirt the Anchor Stone, a dangerous outcrop of rock to port. A pint at the Ferry Boat Inn tempts here at Dittisham, once home to Sir Walter Raleigh’s hunting lodge, but wind and tide persuade me to plough on. Florence picks up speed and heels as I pass Flat Owers, a cockle-rich sandbank. I’m now easily outrunning my Drascombe lugger photography/safety boat. To my surprise I make a smart gybe west at Galmpton where boatyards once dedicated to building Brixham trawlers turned out armed fishing boats in the war. I relax as I settle onto a run south of Sandridge Barton, the new home of Sharpham wine with its 32 acres of vines. I aim for a tea stop on the shore at Blackness Point, only for disaster to strike – I totally misread the wind, fail to switch to a port tack, gybe and pay heavily with a capsize. CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

MAN IN THE MIRROR

After righting Florence, bailing out and paddling ashore for a restorative cup of tea I set off again, extremely gingerly at first, past my home clubhouse at Stoke Gabriel and around the gentle curves of Ashprington and Sharpham points. This is my favourite stretch of the river: amid vast oak forests and total silence, I feel as though I have the entire Dart to myself. On previous jaunts I’ve spotted seals, cormorants and herons on these sweeping curves. It’s where the

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

Above: Racing a ferry en route to Greenway, Agatha Christie’s retreat Below: Stowed oars form a

Mirror lives up to AJ Mackinnon’s tongue-in-cheek description: “It was clearly designed some time in the 1900s,” he writes in his Mirror odyssey The Unlikely Voyage of Jack de Crow, “as a joint project between Arthur Ransome and Heath Robinson, with Ernest Shephard (sic) chipping in occasionally on the blueprints.” Although this stretch feels timeless, life has moved on. The fishing nets of Duncannon are no longer, while the Sharpham estate – its Palladian villa bankrolled by bounty from the captured Spanish ship Hermione during the Seven Years War – is now a mindfulness retreat complete with bookable bathing house. Despite the light fluky winds, Florence picks up the lightest puff and I’m still making good progress thanks to 69sqft (6.4m2) of sail (main and jib) on a boat that weighs less than 137lb (62kg) fully rigged. The Dart narrows and woods give way to rushes as I enter the final strait, St Mary’s 15th-century church tower guiding me in. Boho Totnes, with one foot in 1967 and the other in the Middle Ages, delivers a fitting reception: a lilting mediaeval melody floats in the evening air, courtesy of a hurdy gurdy player on the river bank. I moor, dance a short celebratory gig and flop down on the pontoon, utterly exhausted after four hours and 20 minutes of challenging voyaging. Sailing home to Stoke Gabriel the next day I pass scullers and paddleboarders enjoying the Dart sunshine. A canoeist shouts across the water: “Mirror dinghies rule!” And so they do. Many happy returns, the Mirror.

makeshift bowsprit; and rowing the Mirror

The author would like to thank accompanying helm Richard Hoyland and photographer Poppy Lee.

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POWER PLAY Motorboats have steadily evolved since the first petrol, parrafin and electric versions in the 19th century, and despite a few forks in the road like hovercraft and hydrofoil, today they fall into three familiar categories WORDS STEFFAN MEYRIC HUGHES

e’ve featured countless powered vessels in Classic Boat, starting from the very first issue (January 1987). In those early years, there was a leaning towards steam and electric vessels for use on inland waterways. The classic motorboat scene has developed and matured in the last two decades, and some niches have appeared. These days, there is significant interest in collectable runabouts (Rivas, and a rising interest in classic Chris Craft, Hacker, Albatross and many others), restoration of big

inter-war motor yachts (Nahlin, Malahne, Marala and plenty more), and motorboats for inland waterways, where electric power is now a popular choice. The biggest growth has been in newly-built, semi-displacement fast ‘picnic’ boats (the name is a misnomer that belies the capability of most of these vessels). These are usually fast, powerful offshore craft with semi-displacement hulls, classic looks, often a very high finish level and built in modern timber or GRP. These are a popular choice for retiring sailors, whose sensibility won’t allow them

HENRI THIBAULT

to be seen on any craft too modern or contrived of appearance. There has also been a rise in the restoration of small to mid-sized motorboats: in England we’ve seen what can only be described as an explosion of interest in mid-century, twin-engine motor cruisers around the 40-50ft range, many of them built by Silver of Rosneath, a name that is once again becoming a recognised marque. And in terms of larger planing craft, restorations of old Fairey Marine powerboats – the ‘James Bond’ boats – is on the rise too. It’s

time then, to go back to basics, and look at the three principal types of motorboat available today. We are leaving behind, for now at least, considerations of engine configuration, transmission and placement, as well as accommodation. As a very rough guide, a planing craft will often be an open boat to cross a lake in, a semi-displacement craft will be a cabin yacht ideal for a fast Channel crossing or similar, and a displacement boat will take you down the river, then around the world.

Magyar is the perfect example of a mid-century, twin-screw gentleman’s yacht at a typical size of 45ft (13.7m). She was built by Saunders Roe in 1938 and relaunched after rebuild by Harbour Marine Services in 2018

The 233ft (71m) Haida 1929 is a recent example of the explosion of interest in large, inter-war motor yacht restorations. She was rebuilt at Pendennis Shipyard in Cornwall and still sports her original diesel engines, thought to be the oldest in-situ diesels in the world today

CB ARCHIVES

MOTORBOAT BUYING GUIDE

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DISPLACEMENT

Cielito, our featured motor boat last month, classic displacement hull yacht

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

Displacement craft – whether powered by sail, motor, oar or steam – are the oldest type of vessels, dating back from when man first sat astride a log. Everything from Noah’s Ark to RMS Titanic is a displacement vessel, and they are the most similar in hull form to a sailing yacht. The maximum speed of a displacement vessel is limited by its wave-making: at maximum displacement speed its transverse wave length will equal that of its waterline with a crest at the bow and a crest at the stern – to increase its speed it needs to increaser the wave length but is unable to push the stern wave further aft and is locked in the trough between the crests. That speed is called hull speed. It’s given in knots, and equates to 1.34 times the square root of the waterline length (in feet). So a 30ft (9.1m) yacht with a 25ft (7.6m) waterline will travel at a maximum speed of 6.7 knots. There are ways for displacement hulls to exceed hull speed, by reducing weight and reducing

JOE MCCARTHY

C/O THE BUILDER

It’s not just big boats and ships that suit the displacement form. These two Mayfly river launches at 16ft (4.9m) and 21ft (6.4m) from Landamores boatyard in the Broads were recently built in GRP with electric motors for cruising inland

The 46ft (14m) Ariel II was designed by Sidney Herreshoff and built at the nadir of the depression in 1931. Restored by Ballentine’s Boat Shop

TYLER FIELDS

C/O THE BUILDER

The imposing Scout was designed by Walter McInnis and built by the Defoe Boat and Motor Works in 1930 as a Great Lakes commuter yacht. She’s 73ft (22.3m) long and her twin 500hp diesels will take her well beyond hull speed to 19 knbots. Retoration by Lyman-Morse Boatbuilding

waterline beam – just think of fast multi-hulls, or even a sliding seat single sculler, of similar length but extremely low beam, that will nearly double its hull speed. Early motor boats too – Consuta is a good example – could easily exceed hull speed. For a boat with any accommodation though, the hull speed trap remains a good guide to performance, and these days, as people have found better ways to go faster than extreme low beam, displacement boats are generally used by sailors in two ways: on inland waterways, where pottering – usually enforced by a speed limit – is the order of the day; and for blue-water cruising. In both instances, the qualities of a displacement craft remain undiminished: fuel economy can be the best among all three basic hull types, and that also means a smaller engine, more tankage and longer range. The hull shape also means better comfort and more internal volume. In fact, such are the qualities of this type, that any deviation from it is only for one purpose: speed. CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

C/O THE BUILDER

MOTORBOAT BUYING GUIDE

The much-loved British Albatross speedboat. The best of these, like this example, were powered by the famous Coventry Climax petrol engine, also used in F1 car racing

The familiar silhouette of a flybridge sport fisher. This one is Double Bogie, 1963 GRP Betram, 31ft (9.4m) relaunched in 2014 after a 17-month rebuild at Yachting Solutions in Maine. She packs a hefty 680hp from her twin Mercruiser petrol engines

A simple clinker wooden launch planing under an economical 8hp outboard motor... this one’s by Isle Ewe Boats in Scotland

C/O THE BUILDER

The three-point hydroplane Bluebird K7 is one of the two fastest boats ever built, famously crashed by Donald Campbell at over 320mph on Coniston in 1967. She’s seen here after salvage and rebuild by volunteers

PLANING

CB ARCHIVES

A planing craft is a far more recent development. A flat or vee-bottomed hull with the bottom lines running straight and parallel create hydrodynamic lift, letting the boat skim, or plane, easily over the surface of water. These are the fastest of all powered vessels, but that speed comes with many limitations. The first of these is size. As the planing surface increases, the weight of the craft it must lift into the air increases exponentially, so for large craft, planing becomes increasingly difficult. Fuel economy suffers at low speed, when the large immersed transom is dragged through the water. Then 60

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

JOE MCCARTHY

The recently-restored Fairey Huntsman 28 Flower Power, a 1960s design by Alan Burnard. Her twin diesels give nearly 40 knots and the Huntsman is also well known for its sea-keeping. The type was made famous by From Russia with Love

ABOVE: C/O JOHN FILDES

BELOW: HENRI THIBAULT

First Light in America build a number of these ‘inboard/outboard’ petrol-engined launches in wood, giving good speed and a seamanlike look, with some shelter

HENRI THIBAULT

C/O THE BUILDER

They may not be the original mahogany runabouts but Rivas are, simply, the most desirable, valuable motorboats in the world. This one, Ribot III, is a 27ft 3in (8.3m) Tritone built in 1960, powered by twin Cadillac Crusader V8s (petrol) for a total of 650hp and 50 knots. She was restored by Giacomo Lazzari and is arguably the best Riva in the world. Yards like Freebody in England and Riva RAM in Italy specialise in rebuilding boats like this

The San Marco-built Ferrari-powered hydroplane capable of reaching speeds of around 140mph

there is the slamming: any waves take on the feel of concrete as a boat jumps over waves and slams down into the troughs, placing a strain on vessel and passengers alike. It’s fun for a short blast, but not feasible for cruising. In short, the planing craft sacrifices almost everything for speed. The extreme trade-off makes sense more often than you might assume. On lakes and sheltered waters, planing boats can be supremely elegant (think Riva and so on); and the larger, offshore planing craft like the Faireys have proven their seaworthiness. CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

MOTORBOAT BUYING GUIDE

C/O THE BUILDER

This is a new, twin-diesel design from Arthur Mursell for Welsh builder Dale Nelson. The Dale Classic 37 is the culmination of years of experience and, like all the boats on this page, the options are endless, and the fit-out is of a very high level

The Hardy 42 is a venerable name in power boats, known for its rugged sensibility and seakeeping. The marque now belongs to Cockwells, who finished this one with a disel/ electric power train C/O THE BUILDER

SEMI DISPLACEMENT This is the compromise between the two extremes and out of all three, the type that has gained most popularity in recent years. These boats fall into two sub-categories: chine hulls and round-bilge hulls. The former, with its uneven stability curve, will give better initial stability and the potential for higher speeds – up to 25 knots is typical. The trade-off is firmer motion in bigger seas. Depending on their exact form, the round-bilged boats may be less efficient at higher speeds but have a more neutral stability curve. This means a little more rolling in calm conditions, but an easier motion when things get rough. In both cases, the formula involves finer sections forward and a straight, flat run towards the aft, and generally a keel or skeg to aid directional stability. 62

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

LAK II

CB ARCHIVES

Bristol 32 and 16 from Star Yachts in Bristol. These are modern, strip-planked diesel launches designed by Andrew Wolstenholme and available in a range of sizes. Note the attractive stepped sheerline, a common feature of semidisplacement motor yachts

This is a modern replice of Ernest Hemingway’s original Wheeler Playmate named Pilar. The new Wheeler 38, as it’s known, is a strip plank boat with twin diesels good accommodation

C/O THE BUILDER

A semi-displacement craft will manoeuvre well at low speeds and give better comfort and fuel economy. Going upwind is where the semi-displacement craft is king, its speed and softness of ride seeming to crush waves before it. Downwind, this type can ‘squirm’ with a slight broaching moment, but semi-displacement hulls are, overall, excellent sea boats, so much so in fact, that if you come to peril at sea, your orange and blue saviour with the letters RNLI painted on the side will probably be a semi-displacement craft. These boats tend to have a handsome, workmanlike appearance that appeals to sailors, one reason for their popularity. The author would like to thank yacht designer Andrew Wolstenholme for his technical help in this article. CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

TOM CUNLIFFE

LIFE BEFORE ELECTRICITY Tom remembers a trading vessel that ran on compressed air, oil and human exhaustion – even in the 1970s ILLUSTRATION CLAUDIA MYATT

ast week I was on passage overnight. The first watch – the 2000 to midnight–- fell to me, and my job was to turn on the navigation lamps. I thought about choosing the mast-head tricolour with its well-publicised advantages of being visible above the waves and of saving battery power. It was a calm night, however, and lights dancing around at the masthead do tend to create an odd perspective in the eye of the beholder. So, since vis wasn’t going to be an issue, I opted for side and stern instead. After all, in these days of the light emitting diode, amphour anxiety over navigation lamps is history, so I lashed the helm, scanned an empty horizon and nipped smartly below to the switchboard. As I settled back behind the wheel, the watch below finally stopped clattering around and all was peace. When Jupiter materialised over the port spreader, I abandoned the tyranny of the compass and steered for him instead. Steering by a star is so easy that my mind was freed up to wander the years and, with lights in mind, I found myself remembering an ocean trip in an ancient trading vessel. It was in the winter of 1970 and somehow the revolution of electricity had passed her by. Her engine was started by compressed air from a large cylinder charged by shutting down one of its two cylinders and, if that failed, by all hands toiling muscle-cracking shifts at the manual backup pump. Since amps and volts were nonexistent, it followed that the navigation lights were powered by oil. The port and starboard units were big - nearer two feet in height than one. They were also heavy. When deployed, they hung on light boards in the shrouds, suspended by an open bracket in the lamp which slotted down over a flat vertical peg a couple of inches across. The weight was further supported by the bottom of the light board which was really more of an open box with no front face. There was no handy switch to turn them on and the crew who, for more reasons than I’d care to name, had long since abandoned any ideas of romance at sea, looked on them with a special kind of hatred.

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

The oil-burning lamp itself lived inside a theoretically draught-proof galvanised cover that housed the lens. It was accessed by sliding up the back plate of the outer body and secured at its base by a further slide. The whole device was not engineered with any precision and nobody thought of giving it the candle-wax treatment, so everything tended to stick, but with perseverance and care not to smash the glass chimney that was an integral part of the deal it was possible to extract it. It could then be filled and the wick trimmed. The chimney was washed and carefully dried as the ship stood on her ends in the February Biscay gales. Breakages were unpopular with the skipper. The glasses cost money and he was not a generous man. The lamps were now lit and the chimneys slotted on over the flames. All was put on hold while they warmed up. When they were too hot to touch, the wicks were turned down. If this precaution were ignored, the flames would go berserk. The glass chimneys would then either break in the heat or turn black just as they always seem to do in Netflix dramas, though why the incumbents either of log cabins or a milord’s mansion ever put up with such a thing is beyond me. Perhaps the directors should hire a maritime researcher. It’s probably superfluous to add that while all this was going on, even the strongest constitutions had to battle with general nausea. When the big moment arrived with the lamps burning cleanly and securely back in their cases, they had to be carried up on deck to hang. Climbing up to the sheer pole four feet high above the rigging screws to reach the lamp board on the weather side was not too bad. The shrouds were tight from holding the rig up against the gale. What went on to leeward was another matter. The rigging was slack and wracking around as you tried to scramble up what the heeling of the vessel had turned into an overhang. One hand hung onto the heavy lamp and the other desperately did its best to save you from a trip to Davy Jones. When you finally made it up onto the sheer pole, the lamp board was joggling around with a mind of its own. Somehow the lamp had to be located on its peg and somehow it was managed night

after night by seasick, exhausted sailors, but there was another catch. Every time the wind hit gale force, we could safely bet a week’s wages that one or both would blow out before the watch was over. Our reply when told to relight them was brief, to the point, and consisted of two carefully chosen words, the second of which was ‘off’. All things considered, I think I’d rather flick a switch and be done with it, wouldn’t you? ‘New lamps for old’ sounds like a good idea, but everything that seems like a modern improvement doesn’t always turn out for the better, unless you specify top quality kit. I was once fitting out a gaff cutter for a North Atlantic passage and was tempted by a small sack of hefty stainless shackles being offered to the gullible at a knockdown price. For years I had seen the vital galvanised offerings at the bottom end of bobstays rust from the repeated seawater baths they can’t avoid. We all know that they should be replaced every year whether they need it or not. They aren’t expensive either. Most of us put the investment off until next year even so, yet I’ve never seen one fail. Maybe, I thought, eyeing the glinting new stainless ones, one of these would fare better. They were certainly big enough and the man selling them in the boat jumble assured me he’d been round Cape Horn with similar. He looked a likely sailor with his big beard and battered hat, so I stumped up on the spot. Back at the boat, I unscrewed the perfectly good galvanised bobstay shackle, replaced it from the burlap sack, wired in the bright new pin, and looked forward to one less job in due course.

I thought no more about the shackle or the salty cove who’d sold it to me as I stood out into the deep with my crew. A week or so later we were hove to in the inevitable gale. Just as dark was falling, all hands were in the saloon having tea and cake, sorting out a modified watch system for the coming night since we wouldn’t be going anywhere, when an almighty ‘bang’ came from somewhere up forward. With fruitcake stuck in our throats, we tumbled up on deck to see what had hit us. Nothing was in sight, no half-submerged shipping containers or fins of marauding orcas, only the big grey seas. We were nonplussed, until someone called our attention to the bowsprit which was bending upwards at an alarming angle. The stainless shackle on the bobstay had burst. We dropped the rolled-up jib to ease the load on the spar, then lowered a brave hand over the bow on a spare halyard with the honest galvanised shackle in his pocket that I’d replaced and a spanner in his hand. Being a diver by trade, he’d mercifully packed a wet suit in his kit so the cold didn’t get to him. The motion of the boat did, and peering down in the dying light, we could see him being battered by the straight stem as it reared up and down in the seas, but he clung on like a hero and contrived against all odds to shackle the chain back onto the waterline fitting. We hoisted him aboard just on dark, soaked through and carrying the remains of the stainless culprit. As we gathered round the rum bottle back in the saloon, he showed it to us. By the light of the electric lamp, we saw that the casting was full of voids. I’d bought a bag of rubbish.

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

ALL PHOTOS NIC COMPTON, SALTY DOG MEDIA

Getting aﬂoat

British/Canadian designer Paul Gartside has established a solid reputation by

back to the UK (for personal consumption, of course). On one occasion, he

producing a steady line of English workboat-inspired gaff cutters. His designs

arrived back just in time to race in the Falmouth Classics. The first day was

combine traditional aesthetics with modern considerations like spacious

windy, so he kept the booze in the bilges and Alva could keep her topsail up,

accommodation and shallower draught. They seldom come up for sale, which

duly winning her class. The second day’s forecast was light, so Ben and crew

is why we were intrigued to hear one is on the market in Falmouth, Cornwall.

unloaded the cargo by dinghy under the light of a full moon and the next day

Alva was the first major build by West Country boatbuilder Ben Harris, who took great care to create a yacht that would take him and his young family cruising, and serve as a ‘calling card’ for his burgeoning boatbuilding business. With larch and oak planking, alternate laminated pitch pine and steamed oak frames, copper and bronze fastenings throughout, cedar decks, iroko cabin sides and a beautiful custom interior, Alva is certainly one of kind. Ben has had plenty of use out of her over the past 11 years, including trips to the Isles of Scilly, France and Ireland. While Britain was in the EU, he made several “cider trips” to the River Aven in Southern Brittany, picking up 400 litres of cider, a dozen bottles of calvados and some cider vinegar to bring

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

Alva won again. “Which,” he says, “just goes to show what good cider it was!” Alva has also served her second purpose well, promoting Ben’s business, and he has since received commissions for two more small yachts: the 24ft Ed Burnett-designed Panacea and the 34ft Falmouth punt-inspired Constance, designed by Jack Gifford and nearly finished. Alva comes fully equipped for cruising, with a 850sqft sail wardrobe, a 27hp Yanmar engine and all the usual sailing equipment. Nic Compton Asking £150,000 (exchange for larger boat possible), Lying Falmouth, Contact info@benharrisboats.co.uk

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BOATS FOR SALE

Boats for sale Looking to sell your boat? Reach over 50,000 readers each month

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PLUS For more boats to buy go to

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SIBYL OF CUMAE

For sale Sibyl of Cumae, a 51 ft. William Fife from 1902. She is a very beautiful and fast boat. She sleeps 5. Sibyl has always been maintained to a high standard. Recently all the electricity and navigation instruments have been renewed and updated. She is double planked mahogany and ceder under the waterline, oak frames and a lead balast keel. She will be ready to sail in the Fife Regatta in Scotland in the Spring of 2022. Laying in S.W. England. Asking price £235.000. For more information, please contact Cornelius van Rijckevorsel on 0044 (0)7816932312 or email at: corneliusvanrijckevorsel@ googlemail.com

43’ HANNA MARIA

CANDIDE

Unique & beautiful 27ft 100yr old beavertail launch, built by renowned Thames boatbuilders Taylor & Bates during the 1920’s. Powered by 1 x Meadows Sheerwater 1500cc petrol engine. Seats up to 10 in comfort on leather upholstered horseshoe style seating with canopy over and removeable side screens for all weather cruising. A practical, reliable, sociable, and much loved family launch. Price: £60,000 Email: office@peterfreebody.com Tel: 01628 824382

RAFAELLE, 43’ MASTHEAD SLOOP

WINDCHASER

A baby Jongert Yawl designed by S Van Der Meer built in Holland in 1967. Steel hull with teak on steel deck and GRP coach roof and Dog house. Teak deck needs some TLC. Alloy main mast with steps. Wheel steering. Easily sailed single handed with sea kindly motion. £16,000 Contact: peterwilson1938@hotmail.com, 01903 755765.

ALBACORE 6649 “RUINED DUDE”

Beautiful wooden Albacore built by Don Woof 1977. Famous championship winning boat, in full racing trim. Hull and deck fully restored and repainted 2020. Selden cumulus mast, McNamara sails, Milanes foils, overcover, undercover, combi trailer. Offers over £3500. Contact: Crispin Read Wilson, Swanage, crispin.rw@gmail.com, 07887 767564

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

FLYING FIFTEEN 55 “GREY GOOSE II”

Beautifully renovated in 1997. Full racing condition. Built by Uffa Fox in 1950. Mahogany, copper-nailed carvel construction. Original features include snubbing winches and spinnaker drawers. Aluminium spars and Goacher sails. Also original timber spars and Ratsey sails. Trailer. Dry sailed and kept under cover. £4,750. Contact: k.jsoulsby2@gmail.com

Looking to sell your boat?

UFFA FOX LIVELY Rare 16’ dinghy Lively looking for sympathetic new owner. Built in 1938 to the standards of prewar Intl14s as a North Norfolk 16’ class. With an impeccable provenance in superb condition and all original equipment, Lively warranted a chapter in Uffa’s 1938 Thoughts on Yachts and Yachting aimed at creating a national 16’ class. £8,000. Contact: robert.veale@btinternet.com 01305 760007

Robert Clark design, Berthon built in 1962. 10’1” beam. Beautiful lines and fast. Teak topsides, pitch pine below waterline, swept teak decks. Major, keel up re-fit in 2015 so in excellent condition. Rebuilt engine with modern injection system. Immaculate internally with new cooker and modern electrics/hot water. Runner up in 2015 Classic Boats ‘Restoration of the Year’ awards. Lying: Beaulieu river. Price £87,500 Contact: stephen_bisset@yahoo.co.uk Tel: 07725 983300

Photo: Sailing Scenes

Built in 1995. Strip planking covered with five layers of GRP. Laminated oak frames and floors. Selden white varnished aluminium mast and boom from 2008. New 45 hp Yanmar 4 cyl engine, electronic fuel injection installed 2021. Extensive equipment. Lying Gothenburg, see www.hannamaria.se for more information and photos. Contact: Price: £70,000. Contact email: peter@hannamaria.se

1947 37FT PARKER ONE DESIGN

Mahogany on oak. Built in Poole Boatyard in Dorset. Lead keel. Mast and boom hanging in shed. Galvanised standing rigging. Cooker, VHF, portlights, rudder has to be remade. Pushpit and pulpit. Opening portlights have to be rechromed. New cockpit floor. New unfinished teak decks. Built to Lloyds spec. €6,800 ono Contact: 0035 3862 549 416

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MEMORY 19

Cabin version 1978, little used, well maintained, newish Mariner outboard, stainless deck fittings, cover, cushions, log, new plate, cooker, porta potti, moored Bursledon. £7000 ono Contact: david.gorrod@btinternet.com, 07768 293943

There are two styles of Boats for Sales adverts to choose from and with our special offer, if you buy two months, your third month will be FREE. Pick the style which suits your requirements and email: andrew.mackenzie@chelseamagazines.com with your text and image or call +44 (0)207 349 3718

Brokerage listing

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

71ft William Fife III Bermudan Cutter

1926/2009

70ft Fred Shepherd Bermudan Yawl

1912/2018

52ft Spirit 52 Bermudan Sloop

2012

Mere mention of her name imparts a legendary tone to any yachting conversation: HALLOWE’EN was always guaranteed fame by pedigree - she is among the most beautifully proportioned of all Fife yachts - and subsequently earned it in four quite distinct lives. Starting with a record setting line-honours win only two months from launching in the second edition of what became the Fastnet Race, and more recently in winning overall the Panerai Mediterranean Championship. Moreover, while most Fifes of this size are gaff rigged, HALLOWE’EN’s beautifully conceived Bermudan rig, as original, allows relatively easy sail handing for short-handed racing and cruising with friends instead of a team of professionals.

CARIBA made a successful 2018 return to racing in the 8th Gstaad Yacht Club Centenary Trophy at Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez, and was a nominee in the following spring’s Classic Boat magazine Awards in the Restored Sailing Vessels over 40ft (12.2m) category. Both this return to the limelight and the award nomination were thoroughly deserved: CARIBA is a stunning example of Fred Shepherd’s work - quite possibly one of his favourites - and her owner has faithfully honoured this while tastefully adding modern comforts in his recent restoration and refit. Whether competing in the classic regattas with friends, or for stylish and comfortable family cruises, CARIBA is a classic all-rounder.

Whether for day or week coastal cruising on Long Island Sound, the South of France, or the Caribbean, AN-MEI (formerly CHLOË) combines comfort with elegance; the yacht comfortably sleeping four with good en-suite facilities, and an option for two more in the main saloon. AN-MEI has had two careful owners and been professionally maintained. The yacht has cruised extensively, most recently on the US eastern seaboard, proving a pleasure to sail and fully manageable by just two crew. Equally she has proven ideally suited to cope with the bigger swell and strong winds in the Caribbean. She is moreover a competitive racing boat evidenced by her achievements so far.

€975,000

€890,000

$600,000 VAT not paid

Lying France

41ft William Ferris Gaff Cutter

1889/2016

41ft Robert Clark Bermudan Yawl

Lying Spain 1963/2017

Lying USA

40ft Abeking & Rasmussen Bermudan Yawl

1919/2006

The handsome gaff cutter LITTLE WINDFLOWER has enjoyed long and caring ownerships over many years, cruising waters around Ireland, Brittany and Channel Islands, the English East and South coasts and the Baltic. Currently she is Mediterranean based with a mooring near St Tropez - the rental of which can be made available by separate negotiation. Remarkably, when her current owner decided she deserved a refit, her basic structure was found to be so sound that little of that needed replacement; albeit she received a comprehensive fit out with new deck, spars, rig, new systems and one of the most charming and cosy interiors you can ever imagine. LITTLE WINDFLOWER is a Victorian gem.

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

MELANIE is a beautiful, lightly altered throwback to the earliest days of the German yacht builders Abeking & Rasmussen. Designed by Henry Rasmussen seven years after he founded the Bremen yard with Georg Abeking, could she be the oldest surviving cruiser-racer by the famous Bremen yard? She exists today courtesy of sixty years consistent ownership and loving care by a club syndicate that has introduced countless future sailors to the joys of classic offshore sailing and racing. MELANIE offers simple, low-cost sailing in a truly elegant classic yacht with the best of provenance, or to be the subject of a major makeover reverting to the original perfectly proportioned gaff yawl rig.

£265,000

£155,000

£35,000

Lying France

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

Lying UK

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

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

– www.sandemanyachtcompany.co.uk –

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Craftsmanship Yard News

SECTION HEAD SUB SECTION

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

BRISTOL

Change in the air at Underfall Something of a shock awaited at Bristol’s Underfall yard on a recent

17ft 3in (5.3m) Whitehall skiff with lug rig for a customer who keeps the

officially shut up shop. John moved to this site in 2002, and built from

boat in Oxford. She’s getting three new planks and a repaint in soft

this modest shed in Bristol’s city centre, no fewer than four Bristol

green. Next to her is a 1937 saloon launch is in for re-powering with an

Channel pilot cutters, not to mention a rebuild of the original Breeze.

electric motor. Maid of Wyven, floating outside, is a c37ft yacht built in

We’re not talking boarded-up shops here though: John is now just as

Kent with a hint of the bawley about her lines, in for a refinish prior to

busy managing the maintenance of the city’s pleasure ferries, of which

sail. And finally, there is one of Star Yachts’ signature-style fast semi-

three are wooden (the other two are in steel). And it seems he’s nearly

displacement launches in strip plank, this one at 18ft (5.5m) and with the

as passionate about this as a project. In his shed on our visit was Emily,

hull complete and upside down.

a c40ft (12.2m) wooden ferry, in the distinctive blue-and-yellow livery,

Next door at Star Yachts, Win Cnoops and the team are working on a

chance visit: RB Boatbuilding, run by John Raymond Barker, has

The biggest job of late has been rebuilding the slipway. “Simple work

built in 1927 in the north east of England as a ferry, a role she’s

– but a lot of it!” says Win. It was last done in 1998 in ekki and the rot

conducted ever since. Thanks to her licence to carry 48 passengers (not

finally worked its way through the timber around two years ago. This

an easy thing to come by these days), John is leading a pretty

time, the work was done in greenheart, and might last longer – 30-40

comprehensive refit, which will largely address the superstructure and

years perhaps. The original 1890 winding gear and motor to haul boats

accommodations. John is clearly enthused by the prospect of improving

up that slip is still in use, and recently refurbished to run off electric

her style to make her an unofficial flagship of the fleet, after years of

power rather than the original hydraulic power. It can haul out vessels up

unsympathetic boxy additions. Relaunch is slated for 2023.

to 105ft (32m) long, 25ft (8m) wide and up to 200 tonnes in weight.

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

KENT

Gardner show boat rebuilt Michael Harrison, CEO of the revitalised Gardner Marine, is coming to

the vessel, visiting with my father throughout the Mediterranean, who

the end of a restoration project to the 1961, Silver-built motor yacht

looked after it for 30 years when he was at Gardner’s London office

Silver Lass. At 58ft (17.7m) in length, this is a huge project to

for the then long-term owner.” When Michael’s father grew too old to

undertake, and the work has taken eight years, the last four of them

care for the boat, it was sold to an owner who started, but did not

full-time. The work was carried out at the Ironwharf Boatyard in Kent,

complete, a restoration, and Michael ended up buying the boat back

all by local craftsmen, apart from the electrical system which was by a

into the family – along with the two previous Gardner diesels that he’d

German company. “The skills at Ironwharf are excellent,” says Michael,

rebuilt for that owner. The boat is now afloat and operational, and the

for whom the vessel has special significance: “I spent my childhood on

final details are being finished off in Ramsgate, Kent.

SUFFOLK

Lifeboat yacht There was time for a quick whip around the sheds at Suffolk Yacht Harbour in Levington, Suffolk this June, while there to see the 1937 motor yacht Ryegate and the newly-sheathed 1961 Stella Timoa (more on these in future issues). In the shed was Jemima, Kim Holman’s glassfibre retirement yacht, that’s just had a new iroko deck. There is also a Swan 43 having a comprehensive refit. In the spray booth, the second Stella was already receiving the lifesaving sheathing treatment. Clearly, the idea has caught on in this ageing fleet of lightly-built clinker yachts. The big job, though, is the lifeboat yacht Swyn Y More. She’s been around the world and more in her years afloat. A new owner is doing much of the work himself and hiring blocks of time off SYH boatbuilders for the rest.

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

MARINE DIRECTORY

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Marine Directory

BOATBUILDERS

Hayling Yacht Hayling Yacht

BOATBUILDERS

COMPANY COMPANY

Established as wooden boat builders in 1935, and trusted to refurbish and repair yachts such as Lively Lady and Robertsons Golly, we are a family run business that takes pride in refurbishing new and old boats - from simple re-caulking to full refurbishment and teak decking.

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Hayling Yacht Co

Quality boatbuilding in wood 8’-50’, clinker, carvel or strip-plank, spar-making, painting , welding, lay-up facilities

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Repairs - Restorations

31ft gaff cutter Polly

15ft Sea Otter

Photo: Keith Allso

Call 02392 463592 for a chat with friendly, experienced staff. www.haylingyacht.co.uk Photo: Peter Chesworth

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• Shipwright • Boat Building • Spar Maker • Repair & Restoration of wooden boats • Surveys of wooden ships

Tel: 01795 530668

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Yacht Restorations, Repairs &Refits

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07754 490672 • 01202 939844 www.woodfordyachtrestorations.co.uk Unit 12 Cobbs Quay Marina, Poole BH15 4EL

visit www.classicboat.co.uk 72

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

Visit our web site at

www.selway-fisher.com

to see our full range of 440 yacht and boat designs, plus boat building manuals and DVD’s.

Paul Fisher BSc. MRINA 24 Lancaster Drive, Lydney, GL15 5SL Tel. 07887 495847 enquires@selway-fisher.com

For the latest photos of SFDesign boats go to our Fb page and the Blog page on our web site

The Directory listings page for all your classic boat needs, this is a chance to be able to reach an audience that you can take control of really promoting who you are. You can update this as many times as you like throughout the year to stay up to date with what you’re doing and any promotions you have. For more information contact: Andrew Mackenzie +44 (0)207 349 3718 or email andrew.mackenzie@chelseamagazines.com

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EQUIPMENT

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CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

CRAFTSMANSHIP

BURNHAM MARINA YACHT HARBOUR

UNDER THE BIG SKIES In a corner of the Thames Estuary, this yard is busy... WORDS STEFFAN MEYRIC HUGHES PHOTOGRAPHY THE AUTHOR

et in a dug-out lake off the River Crouch, Burnham Marina is classic Thames Estuary, with the big skies and flat lands so associated with the place. It was farmland until 1988, when it

was dug out by a huge excavation project. “Locals would have played on the field before then” says general manager Tony Pitt, who has worked at the marina since its inception and has overseen substantial change over the last 40 years while remaining a traditional boatman at heart. Tony doesn’t class himself as a local, as he hails from Maldon, which is all of 10 miles away. It’s a great spot – the 350-odd berths here are all-tides access to the sea, which is about five miles downriver, and from there, it’s the great East Coast cruising grounds, northern Europe and the world beyond. It’s not surprising that there are few berth vacancies. The business, which employs around 14 in total, bills itself as something of a one-stop-shop, with most things done in-house. There’s a 35-tonne travel hoist and a 100-tonne marine railway for

Above: Burnham

winters-only affair, as the boat earns her keep doing luxury

hauling out into the large workshop, with hard-standing

Marina Yacht

charter in the summer out of Chelsea in London. Like

for the winter months and a separate café next door. It’s a

Harbour

almost all work to wooden boats, it’s been a steady

proper bolthole, with London just a train ride away. Assistant manager Jonathan Beale, who invited me to the yard, is on hand to give the tour. “We’ve always done

escalation since the first instance, when she came in for a Bottom left: The

refinish (a big job on these boats, where there is so much

build shed

superstructure, much of it bright) and a check of the

the odd classic” he tells me. Services here range from the

engines and calorifier. This winter, it’s been the turn of the

everyday – spare parts, engineering, broken rigging – to

Bottom right: The

fuel tanks, which were rusted and filled with the residue of

complete classic yacht rebuilds. Jobs in the past have

yard builds these

low-quality diesel from London’s working boat docks, and

included work to the famous Dunkirk Little Ship Bluebird of

lovely cradles for

the cockpit had to be dismantled to remove them. New

Chelsea and the beautiful Sigrid of Chelsea, which is in the

its boats

tanks have been fabricated and will soon be put in place.

shed on our visit. The yard has looked after her since 1994, and a rolling restoration began 12 years ago. The work is a

And once you’ve removed the whole cockpit, it would be Facing page,

silly not to do necessary work to the rudder post and

clockwise from

keelbolts while you have the access… We meet Lloyd and

top left: The

Andrew, the boatbuilders working to get Sigrid back on

machine shop,

the water, then pop into the machine shed where there is

where metal parts

a giant milling machine and lathe, and Matt, the engineer.

are fabricated on

Next to Sigrid is the sort of boat you might see once or

site; The slip;

twice in a lifetime. Undine of Cowes was built as a steam

Sigrid of Chelsea;

yacht by Camper and Nicholson in 1897, in timber (pitch

Funnels on

pine on oak frames) and she’s the epitome of

Undine of Cowes;

accommodation-be-damned elegance at 68ft (21m) long

Overall view of

and barely 10ft (3.1m) in the beam. The boat looks to be in

Undine of Cowes;

reasonably condition, but there is clearly a mountain to

Boatbuilder Lloyd

climb to get this one back to sea. Everything lies under a

at work on the

layer of dust, and the interior, which is steep and small and

hull of Sigrid of

difficult, is in darkness, a faded photo of the Queen Mother

Chelsea

stepping on board on one of the walls. Undine has seen service in two world wars, and happier days following the J-Class regattas in the 1930s as a spectator yacht. She’s apparently been bought by a boat collector, and when this one starts, it’s going to be a restoration for the ages.

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

CRAFTSMANSHIP

CLASSIC BOAT MAY 2022

CRAFTSMANSHIP

Boatbuilder’s Notes

By Robin Gates

Dovetail template The sloping lines for tails of dovetail joints can be marked against a sliding bevel (2) which is adjusted to your preferred angle for the job, but as with any adjustable tool there’s a risk of losing the setting if it suffers a knock or the mechanism loosens. A more convenient option is the dovetail template (1). Proprietary versions are typically metal, offer limited choice of angles and are relatively expensive for such a simple device. It’s a simple and rewarding exercise to make your own wooden template, in which case you can also experiment to find an appealing slope of tails. Angles generally range between 5 and 15 degrees depending on circumstances, but there are no hard and fast rules. Danger of breakage lurks in short grain if the angle is too steep, whereas the joint may be weakened if the

angle is too low; that said, modern adhesives make any joint virtually unbreakable. For these templates I used quarter-sawn oak but any stable, durable knot-free timber fits the purpose. Within limits of easy handling size is not critical but if you were an old-school joiner you’d make it to fit the waistcoat pocket; the narrower of these two is 2in x 1 3/8 x 1in and the template’s shoulder is deep enough to also mark the lines squared across the ends of tails. What is critical is that you begin with a squared-up block. Using a knife and try-suare score around the ends, mark sloping sides against a sliding bevel and score the depth of the cutaway (just over half the thickness of the piece) with a marking gauge (3), going over the marks with a pencil to improve visibility. Saw the shoulder and face of the cutaway before you saw the sloping edges or you’ll lose some of your marks too soon (4). Planing such small work is tricky even with a block plane if used conventionally, but if the plane is inverted in the vice you can draw the work across it while maintaining control and visibility (5). Likewise smooth the sawn face of the cutaway against sheet abrasive on a flat surface – in this case a glass plate (6). To prevent splintering lightly chamfer any edges not used for marking.

1 Marking 70 tails with the

dovetail template 2 Using a sliding bevel to mark dovetails 3 Block marked by try-square, sliding bevel and marking gauge 4 Saw the shoulder and face first, then the sloping edges 5 Fine-tune edges by drawing across an inverted block plane 6 Smooth the sawn face using abrasive on a glass plate

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

SECTION HEAD SUB SECTION

Traditional Tool By Robin Gates

UTILITY KNIFE Because it’s a current, frequently

1 Flat brass bar

blades. Besides the general purpose

gimmick-laden hand tool, we might

retractable blade (labelled the ‘in-out

sawn by the

straight-edged blade, there’s a

not regard the utility knife as

knife’ in UK) arrived in 1963 and Dad

metal-cutting

concave blade, a convex blade, a

‘traditional’ but the original Stanley

bought this example soon after. A

blade

round-tipped blade and a hooked

– widely treated as a synonym for

sliding three-position carriage for the

2 Trimming

blade, which is especially useful for

the species – is older than the

blade is operated by a button on top.

leather with the

cutting fabrics or sheet goods where

Folkboayt, in fact an exact

The button broke off only recently,

hooked blade

you don’t want to risk scoring the

contemporary of the Mylne ketch

but after half a century of use that

3 The wood-

surface underneath.

Thendara having been launched in

cannot be fairly labelled a weak

cutting blade

1936. Seeing the classic fixed-blade

point. At first I operated the slide

shapes a

clean-cutting wood saw ideal for

199 in the hands of our adult children

using a lolly stick (which will also

plywood curve

curves, apertures and work in tight

today, those of a certain age will

unscrew the handle, should you be

spaces, and a wave-set hacksaw

recognise essentially the same knife

stuck) but found a more solid

blade for metals and other

as used by our grandparents. Its

solution using a No 10 gauge

materials. Since these knives are

chunky hand-filling grip on a short

rosehead boat nail, filing the shank

inexpensive it’s well worth keeping a

blade provides such good leverage

to fit and then clenching over.

couple in the boat’s tool kit with

and control; no other knife comes close for simplicity and usefulness.

Stanley’s model 99 featuring a

For fixed blade knives there’s a

different blades pre-fitted for

A key strength of Stanley’s utility knives is their range of task-specific

frequent applications.

This 199 dates from around 1960 and was advertised in the UK as a ‘trimming’ knife, supplied with five trapezoidal double-ended blades stored inside the cast aluminium alloy handle, and cost 6S. Dad used this one for everything from marking out timber to trimming anti-slip deck material. Its tiny triangular blade guard ROBIN GATES

disappeared long ago, but luckily not the machine screw joining the two parts of the handle; it isn’t a captive screw, so may easily be mislaid.

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

Letters LETTER OF THE MONTH SUPPORTED BY OLD PULTENEY WHISKY

Folkboats Forever Much enjoyed ‘Folkboats Forever’ and a change to be reading about the joys of boats costing 10s rather than 100s of thousands of pounds. And while folkboats are obviously a real classic there is much to be said for others spawned by the search for a comfortable cruiser/racer that might be affordable too. I have owned a Chevron Crusader for over 10 years now and it has brought immense joy and amusement and not a little satisfaction as we bob about with craft much larger and more expensive than ourselves. Our family of four (now 3) still gather for an annual cruise and we feel very lucky. And while on the subject of wooden boats, why do they always come with the rider about maintenance. It has taken me a few years but I now aim to spend a week on redoing the coach house, cockpit and mast. Er that’s it. But then I don’t play golf, don’t watch TV, don’t go to the pub (often!), don’t watch rugby and can’t play football. This boat used to be called Spread Eagle and was located in Woolverston in Suffolk. Now it lies in Dublin and is called Ardskenish. It makes this family very happy. HugoArnold, Dublin

More on pilot cutter Herga First let me compliment you on your excellent magazine which I

development of Dyarchy built a year earlier with his characteristic

have received ever since issue number one. With reference to Ian

square stern, but much prettier than Breeze with more

Nash’s article in Letters (June issue), I enclose some snippets

tumblehome giving her a beautiful wineglass transom. Aubrey had

relevant or not, covering the original Herga. The 26-tonne pilot cutter Herga, ex Sunbeam, was designed by P Cooper and built by John

to Gowans. Herga is featured all the way through Aubrey’s

Cooper in his yard below the viaduct at the head

delightful book Sailing: A Guide for Everyman (1949)

of Pill Creek in 1902. She was owned by Lt Col E

with illustrations, including a sail and rigging plan

Elliot of Plymouth, who sold her to the author

drawn by his brother Guy. From this informative little

and classical scholar Aubrey de Selincourt, who

book, I first learned my coastal navigation. Herga’s

was seeking a replacement for the ageing Sybil.

notable features were an iron tiller and pin rail abaft

He was the son of Martin de Selincourt, the

the mast – also a solid fuel stove and two large

owner of Swan and Edgars store, and nephew of

scuttles in the cabin roof. She had a fidded topmast

Henry Fiennes Speed who wrote Cruises on Small

and Appledore roller reefing. The main differences to

Yachts (1883). Aubrey lived at Nutkins Niton and

your model pictured are the companionway, the

his sister was married to AA Milne.

shape of the stern and the bitts alongside of the

The lines of Herga were published in PJ Stuckey’s book The Sailing Pilots of the Bristol Channel published

her paraffin auxiliary removed and her sails changed

cockpit coamings. Traplet sell a lot of building plans, but not the lines. Also a

in 1977 and 1999, also in Bristol Channel Pilot Cutters by David

glassfibre hull of Breeze built by J Cooper 15 years earlier, which is

Phillips for South West Maritime, but unfortunately they give no

very similar to Herga and perfect for radio control.

information about her. She was a typical Cooper design, a

Bill Prat, Dartmouth

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

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SAILGP PLYMOUTH Guide to the fastest regatta on the planet UNDISCOVERED IONIAN

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14/06/2022 15:09

IN THE AUGUST ISSUE  Sail faster, safer and further... the magic of weather routing  Sail GP Plymouth: our guide to the fastest regatta on the planet

FIFES ON THE CLYDE

INSAM

This year’s Fife Regatta saw the

A post-war two-seater runabout with

biggest gathering of the Scottish

outrageously curvaveous lines and a

master’s creations ever seen

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The restored Nicholson 55 Quailo III; part one of a history of Morgan Giles; the art of Martyn Macrkill; future-proofing the

On sale Friday 12

Stella Class; action from regattas around the world; and more

August, 2022

30 YEARS AGO August 1992, CB50

It turns out that the editorial in this number was a paean to the joys of small boats. “As a youngster,” wrote then-editor Peter Milne, “I well remember that as far as sailing was concerned, dinghy racing was the only sport. Centreboarders were OK, but you just had to be over the hill if you thought there was any merit in sailing anything with a keel swinging beneath it. At that time I even raced with a crew who championed the theory that stated ‘the amount of fun to be derived from boats is inversely proportional to their size.’” The cover, fittingly to that sentiment, is of the clinker dinghy that won an award for excellence of build at that year’s Greenwich International Wooden Boat Show, then held annually at Maritime Greenwich in London, and which would go on to become the Beale Park Boat Show for many happy years thereafter. Continuing his editorial, Peter Milne quotes the great Uffa Fox (covered in this issue too), as saying that an owner is best suited by a boat whose overall length in feet equalled his or her age in years. That sounds brilliant, but you’d better be retiring pretty well to afford a 65-footer! 80

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

 Boat test: we sail the Spirit 30, James Bond’s favourite  Boat test: speed and style in the Elan E6

SEPTEMBER 2022

PLUS…

 Ionian paradise: discover the lesser known islands

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Sternpost Getting out of your depth You don’t need a masterclass to go aground. A good grounding will do fine, says Dave Selby

ike everything else to do with d) to save face. In the last case sailing, going aground is a lot we’d advise bringing along easier than the experts make sporting equipment such as out. Of course, the experts are the cricket bats, stumps and balls, or true experts at it, and do it frequently croquet hoops, polo mallets and and on purpose, purely to ponies to lend credence and demonstrate the myriad techniques plausibility. for getting off again for magazine And so you see, it’s not as articles that illustrate both their depth complex as the experts make out. of knowledge and our lack of it in And in fact I’m something of an what is a relatively shallow field of expert myself, as boats with lifting endeavour. keels, like mine, are even better at Most of these ‘expert’ and going aground than bilge keelers. ‘masterclass’ type techniques involve I’ve been so far aground I once throwing everything that’s in the nearly made it to Ikea; on another boat into the water – or what’s left occasion I got a parking ticket. C/O IAN LINDSAY COLLECTION of the water – including anchors, life In fact it’s reassuring to know rafts, cushions, outboards, ceramic loos and loo doors, flatthat any novice can acquire a secure grounding in this field of screen TVs, mobile phones, people and wot not. As a rule of sailing completely free of charge and without buying costly charts thumb, if you manage to create a scene reminiscent of the or going to the expense of night classes. Indeed, there’s nothing aftermath of a particularly muddy Glastonbury Festival, you’re like learning from experience as demonstrated by those Learning on the right track. From Experience articles, the enduring popularity of which ably In truth, jettisoning the mobile phones doesn’t help much, but demonstrates that we do indeed never learn from experience. And I’ve never once come across an expert masterclass that actually I can prove it. tells you to take them out of your pocket before jumping. On the My chums Mark and Dave, who keep a 24ft bilge-keeler at other hand most sea-survival experts strongly caution against Orwell Yacht Club, invited me sailing – just once, as it happens jettisoning hair dryers, particularly if the hair dryer’s owner is on – and within an hour we noticed that we’d stopped going board. This is for the safety of any married man on board who forward. That’s not unusual in a bilge keeler, but some time after hopes to remain married and single ones who hope to reach that we noticed we weren’t even going sideways, which is quite retirement, and perhaps even form a meaningful relationship unusual in a bilge keeler. I was at the helm, but that’s not strictly along the way. However, under no circumstances should you relevant because I assumed they’d let me know where to point. kedge a hair dryer overboard while it’s still plugged in. The They assumed, unfairly I thought, that I’d been looking at the consequences would be truly shocking. echo sounder, but I’d assumed, fairly, they’d tell me where to After outlining any given scenario, experts cheerily conclude point, then Mark said they’d assumed, just as fairly, that I’d been “if you’re lucky that’ll do the trick,” then proceed to describe 23 looking at the echo sounder, and I said I’d assumed even more other techniques that might also do the trick. fairly they would have told me where to point. Then, once all hope is lost, experts advise crew to pass the Then abruptly, our learned discourse was stopped in its tracks time by swinging off the end of the boom or other bits of rigging by a dazzling display of nature. All around us an impressive to provide amusement for passing boats and put plateau was emerging, the receding waters maximum distance between yourself and the uncovering oysters the size of base-ball mitts which, “I’ve been so skipper. And here there’s an important distinction as they snapped shut, squirted jets of water skyward. often overlooked by experts. Whose boat is it? If the It was like the fountains of Versailles or the Taj far aground, I boat isn’t yours, and if the ground is firm, simply Mahal. Then more nature, like sunset and stuff, once walk ashore and leave them to it. Prior to that, if happened and we returned to bickering and Mark nearly made your mobile phone still works, it’s good practice to said: “Anyway, I thought you’re supposed to be an it to Ikea; first ask the skipper the lat and long, and then call a expert cos you write for yotting mags.” cab before walking ashore. If, however, the boat is “I am,” I countered. “I’m doing research for an on another yours, you’ll have different priorities, mainly to expert masterclass article.” occasion I explain to the authorities that you are not aground, “You should leave that sort of thing to Tom got a parking but have “careened” the vessel for: a) a mid-season Cunliffe,” Mark replied, adding “I think you’re out ticket ” scrub and anti-foul; b) to replace the impeller; c) of your depth, mate.” inspect the anode, prop, stern-drive, lower rudder “No I’m not,” I retorted. pintle, gaping hole in the bottom of the boat etc; or “Too right,” said Mark. “That’s the problem.”

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2022

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