Classic Boat October 2021

OCTOBER 2021

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TRUE TO FORM

Clarionet back to original

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PALACE OF POWER Lake Como’s motorboat museum FROM MUD TO GLORY Houseboat to yacht

A CL A SSIC E N V I RON M E N T FOR T R A DI T ION A L BOATS Birdham Pool is the oldest marina in the UK and our haven for classic and traditional boats. Even its location, just four miles from the historic county town of Chichester, nestled in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, reflects the pace and elegance of a bygone age.

S T O R A G E , R E PA I R A N D M A I N T E N A N C E Looking after traditional boats is what we’re exceptionally good at. Our 30 tonne hoist and transport, dry storage ashore and a boat yard of modern

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

To complete the experience, we have five-star customer facilities, café and great transport links complementing the enviable one-hour access to the Solent and sheltered inland location.

Birdham is owned by Castle Marinas, a group of 11 coastal and inland marinas each with its own unique character. We are, and always will be large enough to cope, small enough to care.

Boatyard services by

STEFFAN MEYRIC HUGHES, EDITOR

400 ISSUES... AND GOING STRONG

THE WORLD’S MOST BEAUTIFUL BOATS PAGE 20

The world’s most beautiful boats. It might be our strapline, but it’s also one of the hardest questions there is.

Beauty is subjective, they say. I’m not sure it is all that subjective, and the results of our straw poll imply that there are rules to aesthetics, rules that yacht designers of the golden age understood very well and spent hours dissecting, with their allies, maths and geometry. I don’t think there’s anyone on earth who, in purely aesthetic terms, isn’t softened by the sight of a long sheerline or the sweep of a deck. It’s strange, though, how ideas of beauty move on. Georgian terraced houses, the new-builds of their day, make people swoon now, in the same way old yachts do. I doubt anyone felt it back then. The King’s yacht Britannia caused outrage with her spoon bow in 1893. Clarionet, our cover boat, has a retroussé counter stern, considered too modern by many at her launch 55 years ago. Today, newly restored, she’s indisputably gorgeous. It makes you wonder what we might be lauding at issue 800. Wally Yachts? Foiling Moths? Triple-outboard smuggler RIBs? It’s hard to imagine, but never say never.

COVER PHOTO: NIGEL SHARP

ISSUE No 400

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

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CONTENTS COVER STORY

4 . SHAPE SHIFTER The 1966 S&S racing yacht Clarionet has finally reverted to her original form in a big restoration 12 . RACING OFF BARCELONA The Vela Puig was back, for one of its best regattas ever COVER STORY

20 . WORLD’S LOVELIEST BOATS A panel of experts choose their favourites 36 . ELECTRIFYING VENICE Motorboat historian Kevin Desmond talks electric boats and more 38 . SECOND AGE OF SAIL The piratical Tres Hombres and the movement she inspired

COVER STORY

THE

COMPANY

LTD

Classic Boat is part of the Chelsea Marine Magazines family, along with our other monthly titles

FROM HOUSE BOAT BACK TO SAILING YACHT

COVER STORY

©Copyright The Chelsea Magazine Company 2020 all rights reserved ISSN 0950-3315

MAGAZINE

46

TRADING UNDER SAIL

46 . THE HOUSEBOATS Some of the world’s most beautiful boats were houseboats in the mud for decades 52 . SAIL IT LIKE A HIRE CAR The Broads Regatta where they let the hirers have a crack

CHELSEA

CLARIONET BACK RACING

COVER STORY

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B A R T O N H I R E R S’ REGATTA

58 . MOTORBOAT ON COMO A visit to the world’s biggest motorboat museum on the shore of Lake Como 62 . TOM CUNLIFFE It’s the taking part that counts - but winning is nice as well

ITALIAN MOTORBOAT MUSEUM

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KRAKEN 50 Tradition in a modern package HANDLING OVERFALLS How to sail in rough water PROPELLERS Sail faster + save fuel TOKYO 2020 BEHIND THE SCENES Our man in the boatpark

SAIL TO CANARIES Passage planning FAMILY TRANSAT

Big cat adventure

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38 . CLOSE QUARTERS 68 . GETTING AFLOAT 78 . LETTERS 82 . STERNPOST

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72 . YARD NEWS 74 . BOATBUILDER’S NOTES AND TRADITIONAL TOOL

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Tom Cunliffe

TAKING PART...

P AGE 62

CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2021

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THE PERFECT NOTE The famous S&S one-tonner has been maximised for every rule change in her life. Now, she’s been ‘miminised’ to original WORDS PHOTOGRAPHS NIGEL SHARP

CLARIONET

T

his is the story of a boat that has managed to achieve a truly impressive and consistent racing record over a period of 55 years, undeterred, it would seem, by nine ownership changes and having to comply with four different rating rules.

Clarionet was designed by Sparkman and Stephens and built (alongside her near sistership Roundabout) by Lallows in Cowes in 1966. She was produced for Derek Boyer who had previously owned Clarion of Wight (another S&S/Lallows collaboration) which, in 1963, had won the Fastnet and been the top-scoring boat in the victorious British team in the Admiral’s Cup. Both Clarionet and Roundabout – which came to be known as “the heavenly twins” – were designed as One Tonners, rating 22ft under the RORC rule. They were both developments of the S&S Diana III, which had won the One Ton Cup the previous year, with Yachting World reporting that “S&S have developed still further the idea (of) a separate rudder at the after end of the waterline and an even smaller fin keel than ever before.”

Both boats were selected, along with Yeoman XIV, for the British One Ton Cup team, having excelled in the British trials just a week after their launch – “a sensational first appearance,” according to Yachting World – but when they got to Copenhagen for the One Ton Cup itself, the British team “proved a sad disappointment”.

Twenty-four boats from nine nations took part and, although Clarionet was second in the double-scoring long offshore race, she was sixth overall after her performance in the two inshore races let her down.

Things didn’t go any better in the One Ton Cup in Le Havre the following year when Clarionet was 13th out of 21, but her many successes in those early years included overall victory in the Cowes to St Malo race in 1966, second overall in the Round the Island race and second in class in the Fastnet race in 1967, and class victories in the Lyme Bay and Cowes to Dinard races in 1968.

A year or so after Clarionet was built, Derek Boyer asked Lallows to carry out a fundamental modification to her deck to improve her rating. At that time the “I”

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CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2021

Above: Clarionet taking part in the BCYC regatta in July 2021 Facing page: Paul Spooner (right) and Mike Barnes (left) discuss the new sails with Daryl Morgan of Bainbridge International during sea trials

measurement was taken from the masthead down to a virtual point where the mast and side decks would intersect on the centreline in the absence of a coachroof.

To decrease the “I” measurement, the side decks were raised about 2in (50mm) in this area (and faired back to the cockpit and forward to the stem) as a result of which the forward ends of the coamings were halved in height and the foremost windows were blanked off. As it turned out, this was all for nothing as the rule was changed around the same time, so no rating advantage was gained.

In 1971 Boyer put Clarionet on the market and she was then successively owned by Martin Boyce, Midland Bank and JJ Rainworth, all of whom kept her in the Solent.

At some point, possibly when the Midland Bank owned her, her original tiller steering was replaced with a wheel.

In 1977 she was bought by George Playfair who took her to Queenborough on the River Medway for one season before bringing her back to the Solent. She was mostly sailed by George’s son Nick whose regular crew included Doug Neville-Jones, Colin Campbell and Duncan Munro-Kerr. During Cowes Week in 1979, the wheel steering was giving some concern and so Nick drove home to Kent to pick up the original tiller to keep on board as a precaution. This proved to be extraordinarily judicious because the steering seized up altogether during the subsequent Fastnet race. With the boat hove-to, the situation was resolved by cutting the steering wires, unbolting the steering pedestal, then deploying the tiller.

Luckily all this happened before the big storm arrived during which Doug recalled, “we had various excitements but Clarionet looked after us very well. She was the right boat to be in that night.” They lay ahull for twelve hours and got within 55 miles of the rock before retiring. “We thought we had nothing to prove,” said Doug, “and we wanted to get back to let people know we were OK.” That was Nick’s last race on Clarionet, which was then laid up in a mud berth at the Elephant Boatyard for a year or so before Doug, Colin and Duncan decided to buy her. They campaigned her for two seasons – “winning lots of silverware,” said Colin – before Doug sold his

CLARIONET

share to Mike Lindsay. A year later she was bought by John Breakell, who replaced the now-worn teak decks with plywood and kept her on the River Orwell. During his four years of ownership, Clarionet was twice EAORA overall champion and also won the 1987 RORC Channel Race outright, beating every Admiral’s Cup boat in the process.

It is thought that her next owners were Paul March and Kate Bottomore who had her for about 25 years and may have kept her in Shoreham or Brighton. Clarionet certainly continued her winning ways during that period: she was five-times class winner of the RORC points series, fourth overall in the 1992 Round Britain and Ireland race, fourth overall in the 1995 Fastnet and class winner in the 2001 Fastnet. Some time after that, it is thought, her original wooden mast was carried away – possibly in the 2004 Round Ireland Race – and was replaced with an aluminium one. In 2013 she came back to the Solent when she was bought by Sam Laidlaw and Rob Gray, who raced her successfully in several Panerai British Classic Weeks and won class in the 2015 Round the Island Race.

A SAVIOUR ARRIVES Andrew Harvey first took to the water as a boy in Weymouth where his grandfather had a house and where he spent summers “just sailing and fishing and being out on boats”. For the past 20 years or so, he has been racing Flying Fifteens, mainly in Majorca where – in Alcudia – he first noticed bigger classic boats and began to think about owning one. “I just thought ‘wow, they’re amazing, just look at these beautiful things’,” he told me.

“I’m a shopfitter and I love wood, trees and craftsmanship.”

Andrew is also on the board of Grown in Great Britain “all about establishing trees in the UK and using UK timber.”

After an extremely unfortunate first experience of owning a 45ft classic boat, he decided that he would be 8

CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2021

CLARIONET LOA

36ft 9in (11.2m) LWL

26ft 7in (8.1m) BEAM

9ft 10in (3m) DRAUGHT

6ft 3in (1.9m) DISP

6.4 tonnes SAIL AREA

553 sqft (51.4m2)

better off with a smaller yacht suitable for day racing and easily transportable to the Mediterranean for occasional racing there. After talking to broker Barney Sandeman he was drawn to Cowes where Clarionet was laid up at her original builders Lallows. Andrew was initially put off by the fact that she had an aluminium mast, but Barney assured him that she originally had a wooden one and that it would be reasonably straightforward to replicate that, and so he bought her.

Although at that time Andrew was thinking that a new mast would be the limit of the significant work that he would have done, he soon started to think that “it would be a shame just to do that” and he gradually came to the realisation that it would be so much better to “make her as close to original as we possibly could.”

To this end, he put Clarionet in the hands of four key people: Paul Spooner and Mike Barnes of Paul Spooner Design to carry out the research and architectural work, and Paul Kendall and Tim Frearson at Traditional Shipwright Services in Poole for the boatbuilding work.

Clarionet’s hull – 1in Honduras mahogany planking on 1 5/8in x 11/2in Canadian rock elm steamed timbers – was in remarkably good condition and needed very little work. Similarly her interior joinery, despite being built of plywood as thin as ¼in in places, has mostly survived intact. The most significant structural job to address was the restoration of her original deck height. To do this the side decks were rebuilt with sitka spruce beams and 5/8in plywood, lightly sheathed in epoxy glass. New Brazilian mahogany coachroof coamings were fitted and the forward windows were reinstated; while the coachroof top, along with its beams and beamshelf, was retained. The cockpit coamings were also replaced, but laminated from three layers of mahogany. The timber for all of the new coamings came from one board of mahogany supplied

Clockwise from top left: New stainless steel gooseneck; Snubbers and winches on the coachroof top; Modified Hutton Arco winch straddling the coaming; Ritchie compass each side of the companionway; Brookes and Gatehouse analogue instruments; Stern fairlead and anchor point for guardwire and spinnaker sheet

9

CLARIONET

by Sykes Timber then machined with minimal wastage

by Billinghay Sawmill to give bookmatched pieces that give a near-perfect match from side to side, inside and outside. The original internal handrails were carefully removed from the old coamings and fitted to the new ones.

RESEARCHING THE ORIGINAL Paul and Mike carried out exhaustive research, closely examining old photos and drawings and studying other S&S boats of the era to ensure deck fittings and rig were as near as possible to the original boat. Clarionet had at some point acquired Hutton Arco self-tailing primary and secondary winches mounted on timber blocks on the outsides of the cockpit coamings. The lower parts of the winches – which “didn’t look too bad” according to Paul – were retained. The self-tailing components were removed and new top parts were machined from solid bronze and chromed. They were then mounted on custom stainless steel plinths straddling the coamings.

Clarionet was built with four halyard winches on the coachroof – as was becoming fashionable at the time – along with four timber snubbers, and this arrangement was reinstated. New Lewmar winches were fitted but not before their plastic tops were removed and replaced with custom parts. Lallows still had the S&S drawing of the snubbers, allowing Mike to make the new ones in ash “with a tweak to the way they are constructed to make sure they don’t fall apart”. Other deck fittings were replaced with new ones from Schaeffer, HYE, IYE and Antal which were judged to best replicate the appearance of the originals. To complete the 1966 look, new instruments by Brookes and Gatehouse, with analogue gauges and depth readings in feet and fathoms have been installed; and a modern heads has been replaced by a refurbished Baby Blake. The original chainplates had to be extended when the deck was raised and, despite them now being slightly too long, they have been retained “as we didn’t want to disturb them,” said Paul. Clarionet originally had a Universal 30hp petrol engine and her latest engine – a “nearly new” Volvo 30hp diesel – was retained.

NEW SPRUCE MAST AND BOOM A new spruce mast was made by Collars who, more significantly, also made a new spruce boom which 10

CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2021

Above left: Note the handrails which had been carefully removed from the inside of the old coamings and fitted to the new ones Above right: The forepeak

replicates the original “plank section” boom which caused some controversy in 1966, and is doing so again now. The theory behind it was (and is) that as wind increases when sailing upwind, the sheet is tensioned to significantly bend the boom and so flatten the mainsail.

The rig fittings were fabricated by Spar-Tec Engineering.

It was decided that it would be more practical for the spinnaker boom to be in aluminium but to get it gold anodised to be in keeping with the period (along with the crane at the masthead) was far from straightforward.

First it was necessary to buy a silver anodised pole and then have it stripped and re-anodised in gold by Owen Coyle Anodising, one of the few companies able and willing to do so. The original standing rigging was an aerofoil section called Renticular. Although something similar exists today, it was impossible to find any data on its properties so it was decided to go for the safe option of stainless steel wire; this was made up by Allspars.

Banks Sails made new sails from a traditional looking Bainbridge SPX Classic Cream polyester woven sailcloth.

After sea trials, Clarionet’s first public reappearance was at the BCYC regatta in Cowes in July, where she attracted a lot of attention for the outstanding quality of workmanship in evidence, and from a number of people keen to tell Andrew of their experiences sailing on her.

Among these was Chris Hall who sailed her in her early seasons, and clearly remembers getting riding turns on the primary winches before bullseye fairleads were fitted.

It was heartening for Andrew when Chris confirmed that the winches are now fitted just as they were originally.

Throughout her life, Clarionet has been ‘maximised’ to compete under the rating system in force at the time (and, as Doug Neville-Jones put it, she “has always come up smelling of roses”), if anything she has now been ‘minimised’ regarding IRC, the rating system used by the BCYC. Andrew’s top priority has been to make Clarionet as original as practical while giving minimal thought to racing success, and then to just enjoy sailing her. “But if we do reasonably well then it will feel like a big victory and put big smiles on our faces,” he said. Those smiles were certainly in evidence in Cowes where she not only counted a 2nd and a 3rd among her racing results, but she also won the Class III ‘Je Ne Sais Quoi’ prize – voted for by fellow competitors – and was awarded the Jap trophy for Best Presented New Entrant.

The new Wheeler 38 was recently launched at Brooklin Boat Yard in Brooklin, Maine. She is a dimenionally accurate copy of Hemingway’s beloved Pilar, built by Wheeler Shipyard in 1933. She has been reverse engineered from historic documents retained by the family. Come see Legend at the Newport International Boat Show or at her home in Harbour Town, Hilton Head Island, SC.

Logbook PUIG VELA CLASSICA

Catalonian sunshine WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS CLASSIC BOAT After cancellation in 2020, the Puig Vela Clàssica Regatta held its 14th edition at the Real Club Náutico Barcelona from 15-17 July. Despite reduced attendance due to the pandemic, a cast of boats and crews competed in the ‘Classics’ and ‘Epoch’ classes, after passing an antigen control before the first regatta. It turned out to be “one of the best” iterations of the Puig, with the Garbi blowing above 12 knots, allowing a punctual start on all three days. As the thermal wind barely raised a swell, the fleet enjoyed unbeatable conditions along the coastal routes that passed in front of the beaches and coast of Barcelona, El Masnou, Montgat and Badalona.

From the start, it was clear that Andrés León’s Yanira (Bjarne Aas, 1954) and Damián Ribas’ Alba (Phillip Rodes, 1956) were going to be the protagonists in the Classics, with three wins at this regatta already

2

notched up by Yanira and five by Alba. Two partial first places took the leader Yanira to the decisive day, with Alba lurking. In the decisive regatta on the last day, Alba’s victory was not enough, and Yanira hung on to win on points and raise a new Puig trophy. In the same class, Sea Fever, Emeraude and Altamar were tied before the last race, with Altamar eventually prevailing to take third place.

The Vintage class was led by Scott Perry’s Fjord III (Germán Frers, 1947) and Ricardo Albiñana’s Islander (Dickie & Sons, 1937). Good crew work and a competitive boat allowed Perry to renew the victory achieved in 2019 and enter the select group that holds a double win at the regatta. The Enrique Puig Trophy, awarded to a team formed by a Classic and a Vintage, went to Islander and Yanira.

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4 5

3

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CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2021

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1 Final day racing in the Classics Class 2 12 knots+ every day made this year’s classic... a classic!

3 Ricardo Albiñana’s Islander (Dickie & Sons, 1937), co-winner of the Enrique Puig trophy

4 The crew of

Yanira (Bjarne Aas, 1954) celebrate after winning the Classics Class – the fourth Puig trophy for the yacht over 6

7

5 Racing, as always, was mostly in front of Barcelona’s skyline and beaches 6 Yanira, bound for eventual glory 7 All yacht crews had to pass an antigen test before competing in the regatta 8 The crew of Fjord III, winner of the Vintage Class - a second trophy for this yacht 9 Fjord III Kathleen 10 Islander 11 Yanira

the years

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CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2021

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Tell Tales

INGRID ABERY

ROLEX FASTNET RACE

Classics battle it out in high winds The 1939 yawl Amokura (above) gives a lesson in the benefits of heavy displacement to a modern compatriot, as the two boats batter through a punishing wind-against-tide start to the Rolex Fastnet Race in August. The oldest boat in the race, the 50ft Amokura, was built by Moodys for Lord Mountbatten’s Aide de INGRID ABERY

Camp, Ernest Harston. She was being raced double-handed in the Fastnet by owner Paul Moxon and Steve Jones. While the modern boats took a pasting at the heavy winds start, with almost 50 retirements, Amokura was not as heavily reefed as many of the retirees. She did suffer as winds abated later in the race. Amokura competed in the 1959 Fastnet Race and again in

owner of 40 years on board, the newly refitted boat had a superb

2019, but finished neither. She finished the 2021 Fastnet in 5d, 22h,

result, 50th in line honours, 7th in IRC overall and 6th in IRC1 against

44m, 26s. The other big-name classic in the race was Stormvogel, racing

some of the most advanced monohulls on the water. Stormvogel was

to mark the anniversary of her win 60 years ago. With an experienced

built in 1961 with groundbreaking design from Laurent Giles, Van de

Cowes-based crew under Kiwi skipper Graeme Henry, and with the

Stadt and John Illingworth. More of her in a future issue of CB.

SOUTHAMPTON

Morgenster at Southampton Boat show The 1919 tall ship Morgenster will be at the Southampton Boat Show, which runs from 10-19 September. The ship will be on the pontoons welcoming visitors, while inland the traditional wooden boat area is upgraded this year with new exhibits including practical talks. There will be displays from boatbuilders, including a Shrimper 21 fitted with an electric pod drive motor, a restored 1946 Osbourne Day Cruiser from Dennett Boat Builders and Star Yachts’ new Bristol 6m open launch. Willow Bay Boats will be building a clinker dinghy on their stand over the 10 days of the show, alongside a completed Farthing sailing dinghy. Swallow Yachts will be displaying a number of models in the day boat zone.

There will also be owners' associations including the Atalanta, Legend, Nicholson 32, Hunter, Westerly and Old Gaffers Association, who are displaying the Gaffling, a 13ft 13in gaff rig design from Andrew Wolstenholme.

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CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2021

TELL TALES

PAUL WYETH

COWES WEEK

Duke’s Dragon wows Cowes Week The Duke of Edinburgh’s Dragon, Bluebottle, was the toast of Cowes Week as the newly restored boat won her class with a day to spare.

Restored to immaculate condition by David Heritage Racing Yachts in Cowes, she finished the regatta on seven points, after three wins,

David said: “The Duke knew of the project. We were taking photos and sending them to the trust. He saw pictures of the work and was very pleased it was being done in Cowes. That’s nice to know.”

A plan had been made to take Bluebottle to Windsor Castle, en

two second places and a fourth – her first time racing in decades.

route to her new home in Edinburgh, to show the Duke, who raced her

The boat was acquired several years ago by the Royal Yacht

with great success with Uffa Fox. He also sailed her with the Queen.

Britannia Trust in Edinburgh, which was behind the restoration. She

David was able to keep the original backbone, some of the

will now become part of the Trust’s fleet of royal boats, comprising

planking and deck beams, the cuddy, coamings and transom. For

the last royal yacht Britannia, as well as Prince Philip’s former yacht,

competitive racing, the wooden spars, which the trust still has, were

Bloodhound and his Flying Fifteen Coweslip, designed by Uffa Fox

replaced with aluminium, deck fittings are by Harken and new

and presented to the Prince and Queen as a wedding present in 1949.

Dacron sails by North, in compliance with class rules.

Built in 1947, Bluebottle was a wedding present from the Island

“It has all been done sympathetically,” said David. “It was a

SC. The trust sought the Duke’s consent for the 18-month restoration

fantastic project to do as a boatbuilder. The trust backed us all the

and kept him appraised of progress before he died in April this year.

way. They understood what was involved and the costs. They were

Bluebottle was raced at Cowes Week by David Heritage himself, with experienced Dragon sailors Graham Bailey as skipper and wife

keen to have it back for racing.”

Britannia’s chief executive Bob Downie said: “It’s a real fairy tale

Julia Bailey. Both Graham and Julia have won the Dragon class’ main

ending to an incredible story – how an iconic 74-year-old royal yacht

event, the Edinburgh Cup, many times, together and individually.

was saved to successfully race once more at Cowes – and we are all

David said: “We won the first race of the regatta on the Saturday, which involved short-tacking up the green, the last thing we wanted to do in a newly restored boat because I had no idea how she would go. But at the time you didn’t think you were sailing this iconic

very appreciative that the Duke of Edinburgh agreed to entrust his beloved Bluebottle to our charity.”

Watch a video of Graham Bailey discussing the project at Cowes Week, on our website, classicboat.co.uk.

Dragon, just yacht racing. That Saturday night was brilliant; big smiles all round. We’d done the hard work and won the first race. We had some beer that night! A comment was made as we were sailing back in that Uffa and the JOE MCCARTHY

Duke would have opened the port by now! It was one of those moments you won’t forget.”

The original target for relaunch was the 2020 Edinburgh Cup, but when it was cancelled, David and team continued working on the boat. She was sailed briefly at the end of 2020.

Detail of Bluebottle's cockpit; Victory

CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2021

15

TELL TALES

SAILING ROUND BRITAIN

Solo round Britain in a classic, aged 14 Teenager Katie McCabe has sailed around Britain

but Dave said she would be fine and she has proved

solo in a 26ft (8m) Morgan Giles sloop, Falanda.

it so far. I do have faith in her, she’s done brilliantly.”

The 14-year-old, from Topsham, Devon, set off on

The family did a trial sail in company to the

30 June and was aiming to be back for the start of

Scillies last year, when Katie navigated her boat

the school term on 6 September. She arrived home

solo without electronics. The teenager has no paper

to a fleet of welcome boats on the River Exe and

qualifications, having learned everything she knows

quayside well-wishers on 22 August. The feat

from her parents. Daily passage planning and tidal

makes her the youngest person to complete the

calculations were checked by David.

trip, after Timothy Long did it last year aged 15.

Katie said: “The ‘youngest’ record isn’t

Katie’s father David followed a few miles behind in

important. I just wanted to sail around Britain. It’s

his own 33ft (10m) 1937 wooden yawl.

been fun. I’ve met lots of people who’ve given me

Also sailing solo round Britain this

Katie spent evenings and weekends over the

advice. My mum was quite relieved that dad had to

summer is 82-year-old Scotsman

winter of 2019/20 restoring the 1950 West Channel

come with me, because I’m only insured if I have an

Murdoch McGregor, who is doing the

One Design, which cost £800, with her father.

adult nearby. But they’ve been really supportive.

full trip, including rounding Orkney

David, 53, is a self-taught boatbuilder who has

“The other day coming into Conwy I got the

and Shetland, in a Hunter 232. He and

several serious restorations to his name, including a

tides a bit wrong. We had 3m wind against tide

Katie met as they crossed paths in

Herreshoff, a Riva and a Chris-Craft. The family have

conditions around the headland. That was a bit

Scotland. Murdoch is raising funds for

lived afloat since before Katie was born, on a

scary but it was only for a couple of hours. Coming

mental health charity Mental Health

converted 50ft fishing trawler called Ros Ailither.

into marinas can be the most difficult bit.”

UK and says: “I have not been a

Katie was inspired by Dutch sailor Laura Dekker, who sailed around the world aged 14.

Her longest leg was a 32-hour sail from Oban to

lifelong sailor, only getting my first

Conwy, 172 miles. “You had to be awake because of

sailing boat at 72. In that time,

all the crab pots – it’s coastal sailing,” said Katie. “It

though, I sailed extensively

said mother Hazel. “Around Britain was better! She’s

was tiring but after sleeping the next day I was

throughout our Scottish waters and

had a different upbringing: we’ve always lived on the

ready to go.” Katie is fundraising for two marine

I've been over the North Sea and the

boat and we’ve gone on two year-long cruises so

charities: Sea Shepherd UK and Lonely Whale.

Baltic as far east as Poland.”

Donate via justgiving.com/fundraising/falandaroundbritain

Donate via justgiving.com/

“She initially wanted to sail around the world,”

maybe that’s given her the bug; and she’s been talking about having her own boat for years. It’s small, but a big boat for a young person. I wasn't sure

fundraising/murdoch-mcgregor1

HAMBLE RIVER

Cheers for Sir Chay, 50 years on Sir Chay Blyth was cheered as he led a flotilla up the Hamble River in August to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his victorious return on British Steel after what was billed as ‘the impossible voyage’. His 292-day solo, non-stop westabout circumnavigation in 1971 was the first against the prevailing winds and currents. A large crowd gathered at the Royal Southern YC, including Sir Robin Knox-Johnston and Mike Golding, the first to break Sir Chay's record 23 years later. Only five sailors have completed the 'wrong way' voyage in the 50 years since. Famously, Blyth's windvane self-steering was smashed in a Cape Horn storm, forcing him to hand steer his 59ft yacht for the remaining 20,000 miles.

Mike Golding said: "Sir Chay's voyage excited me enough to get sailing and has shaped my career ever since. The success achieved by TeamGB sailors at the Tokyo Olympics may not have been nearly so good had pioneers like Sir Chay and Sir Robin not excited so many to buy boats and get afloat, for it is their children or grandchildren now leading the charge in international sailing. We have a great deal to thank them for.”

16

CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2021

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TELL TALES ANSTRUTHER, SCOTLAND

Reaper re-opens after £1 million project Following a £1M conservation,

most recently in the hit TV series

the Scottish Fisheries Museum in

Outlander and film Tommy’s

is set to welcome visitors back to

Honour.

the iconic ‘Fifie’ Reaper, the last

She was built in Sandhaven,

of the great First Class Scottish

near Fraserburgh, in 1903, at the

Herring Luggers.

height of the worldwide boom

Kept in seagoing condition, the two-masted, 70ft, 50-tonne

for Scottish salt-cured herring.

The tight turnaround of 24

Reaper opened to the public in

hours to catch, gut and salt the

August at her pontoon on

herring led to the development

Anstruther Harbour, once

of the powerful deep-sea sailing

Scotland’s busiest fishing port.

luggers or ‘drifters’.

The £1M restoration included

Inspired by Viking longship

hull strengthening and a new

design, ‘Fifies’ became the most

67ft foremast. The project has

popular fishing vessel on

been recognised by the National

Scotland’s North Sea coast in the

Historic Ships UK 2020 Excellence

19th and 20th centuries.

in Maritime Conservation Award.

It began in 2018, enabled by

Karen Seath, Chair of the Scottish Fisheries Museum Trust,

funding from the Scottish

said: “The Reaper is a stunning

Government, Museums Galleries

and extraordinary vessel and a

Scotland and Oor Bairns Charitable

significant part of Scotland’s rich

Trust. The main contractor,

national maritime and fishing

Babcock International Group,

heritage. She’s a rare survivor of

also made a charitable donation.

the golden age of sail and our

The 118-year-old Reaper, which has starred on screen,

booming herring industry of the past."

EXCELSIOR 1921

Bruce Kirby, 1929-2021 Bruce Kirby, who died aged 92 in July, was known across the sailing world as the designer of the Laser dinghy, but the selftaught naval architect drew many other successful designs, including the Sonar class, the Kirby 25 and Ideal 18, as well as America’s Cup 12-Metre yachts and the Admiral’s Cup 40-footer Runaway.

Famously he drew the initial sketch for what became the world’s most popular boat while ‘doodling’ on a legal notepad.

The idea was canned and lay in Kirby’s desk drawer for two years, before he reworked it and it was shown, as the Laser, at the New York Boat Show in 1971. More than 216,000 Lasers have been built

Lowestoft fishing smack The first Excelsior was badly damaged when she was struck by a

Kirby was a three-times Olympian in the Finn and Star in the 1950s and 1960s and twice a world champion for Canada.

Rob Cage, chair of the UK Laser

Dutch fishing vessel in thick fog. She limped back to port but could

Association (UKLA), said: “Our

not sail again. Her owners commissioned a new smack from Chambers

national championships this year is

& Co with the same name and registration number. The current

a 260-boat regatta, with 14 to

Excelsior was built at their Laundry Lane site in Lowestoft on

64-year-olds competing alongside

England’s east coat. She was one of the last sailing trawlers built

Olympic hopefuls. That's the

before the rise of steam. Excelsior was laid up on the beach in

impact the design still has on the

Hamilton Dock, before moving to Norway then being brought back

sailing world.”

to the UK to be restored and rebuilt by the Excelsior Trust in the

The UKLA is holding a gala

1980s. Today she is run by the trust as a sail-training platform. Her

dinner at its nationals in Portland,

centenary will be celebrated this year with a race for surviving sailing

Dorset, in August, to celebrate 50

fishing boats in Lowestoft in August. Earlier this summer she was the

years of the class “and to celebrate

centrepiece of London’s Mayflower 400 celebrations, which featured

the most successful sailboat

Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, Admiral Lord

design the world has ever seen”.

West and Sir Lindsay Hoyle MP, Speaker of the House of Commons.

18

since then.

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CELEBRATING OUR

THE

400 th ISSUE!

WORLD’S MOST BEAUTIFUL BOATS It’s our 400th issue, so we’re having a go at tackling the statement that’s been posed on our front cover for a decade

WORDS STEFFAN MEYRIC HUGHES

I

f John Ruskin was right, that boats are the most beautiful things created by man’s hand, then the question I casually posed to 100 contributors, photographers, yacht designers, boatbuilders and general friends of CB carried a weight of agony I hadn’t thought through. Beauty can’t be separate from purpose after all, so what I’d really asked was: what is the best thing ever made? “Don’t do this to me again!” wrote back one correspondent, overflowing with the pain of selection and agony for those he could not list (“six votes max, still alive, and not your own” were the only rules).

Another one prevaricated for a fortnight, then said “I’m sorry – it’s too hard. I can’t do this.” The art editor had anticipated the winner correctly. There actually is a winner, in the sense that there was one boat that was voted for over all others, by quite a margin (eight votes).

She’s unsurprisingly from the hand of Wm Fife III, the naval architect who has dominated this list. Her win is as

20

CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2021

much a result of her regular appearances in the Med, her string of recent, enthusiastic, high-profile owners, and the fact that this yacht attracts photographers like flies to wet varnish. But, of course, she’s amazing too. The sail number is C1. Her name means ladybird in Spanish. It’s the 19-M yacht Mariquita. The S&S yawls, as a class, garnered 10 votes, but in second place for individual vessels, it was a tie between the stupendous motor yacht Nahlin and Fife’s 23-M yacht Cambria. Riva runabouts also got five votes, but split between three models. Olin Stephen’s Stormy Weather came in with four, and the rest of the boats on this list received either two or three votes.

Personally, I was disappointed to see nothing from the hand of Albert Strange – his little canoe yawls are poetry.

And nothing from John Gale Alden, whose Malabar schooners had such a way of marrying the sobre good looks of a yacht to the schooner rig. What do you think we missed?

MARIQUITA As Classic Boat’s senior art editor I have seen many, many photographs of boats. The best aspects of boats sailing are my 20 years at Classic Boat, the one yacht that I always return to, to represent the best of classic boats, is the 95ft (29m) gaff cutter Mariquita, designed and built by William Fife III and launched in 1911. She became a houseboat (see our feature on p46) before being restored to her former glory in 1990s. Peter Smith, senior art editor, Classic Boat

NORDIC FOLKBOAT

The Nordic Folkboat, just 25ft 2in (7.7m) long and with a form designed purely for sailing, had to sacrifice a lot of accommodation to look this good, with its clinker planking runs and low cabin trunk. The many variants it spawned increased the accommodation, but they never looked as good as this again. This little bermudan sloop was first built in 1942 to a collaborative design under Tord Sunden. Four thousand more followed, making it the most popular cabin yacht of all time. “If design and beauty follow function, such a seaworthy, record-holding, inexpensive little creature could figure well as a ‘most beautiful boat’; plus she reminds me of a Viking longboat!” James Robinson Taylor, photographer CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2021

TIM WRIGHT

BEN WOOD

generally photographs showing the stern or bow quarter with the deck leaning towards the camera. But throughout

21

CAMBRIA

Cambria, Fife III’s 1928 Big Class yacht, represented the end of an era that was swept away in 1930 by the J-Class. The 114ft (34.6m) gaff cutter has been loved and sailed for decades now. “Cambria is the undisputed number one for me,” says Dutch yachting authority John Lammerts van Bueren. “We first met at the Bonaire Regatta in 1982 and from that moment on she has been the floating love of my life. That boat is just drop-dead gorgeous. It’s nothing short of a dream come true to sail the prettiest boat afloat with a crew to match. To me, the combination of the boat and her crew is what defines the beauty; it’s what makes Cambria my number one.”

© JAMES ROBINSON TAYLOR

THE WORLD’S MOST BEAUTIFUL BOATS

LATIFA

Our late technical editor Theo Rye once said that the 70ft (21.3m) bermudan yawl Latifa could just be the best unusual from his hand, and a treat to any lover of that form. She was designed and built at the height of Fife’s powers, in 1936. At the quayside, she’s quite exquisite, always immaculately harbour-rigged with the deckware worn to the perfect verdigris. Today, a weather vane in her likeness, commissioned by the Fife family, flies above the church at Fairlie. “Lovely in every way!” Joe Loughborough, boatbuilder, pictured.

22

CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2021

FRANCO PACE

sailing yacht ever built. And so, the story goes, did her designer – William Fife III, of course. The canoe stern is

THE WORLD’S MOST BEAUTIFUL BOATS

MARIA

We’re glad at least one workboat made it on. The Thames barges almost did, but with two votes for a particular vessel, Essex and after a chequered life that included a spell as a houseboat, was restored over four years at Osyth Boatyard, emerging in 2007. She belongs to Paul Winter, who has won countless races and also takes her stowboating (traditional fishing method). “Maria sums up the way a thoroughbred working boat has a beauty that can equal the most sophisticated yacht designs, with her perfect sheer and a rig that defines the gaff cutter.” Tom Cunliffe, author, Hand, Reef and Steer

SANDY MILLER

it’s the 48ft (14.6m) English fishing smack Maria that takes it. She was built in 1866 at the Harris Yard in Rowhedge,

J-CLASS © CARLO BORLENGHI

Perhaps surprisingly, the Js almost didn’t make it in! They were hanging onto one vote until the 11th hour when a vote came in late from Sir Robin Knox-Johnston. “If the most beautiful boat ever was not a J-Class then it was the Arab Dhow,” he said. This photo shows Svea, designed by Tore Holm in 1937, but only built in 2017, as one of the new breed of aluminium-bodied Js from the Netherlands. We took a ride on Svea that year in 25 knots. She’s the longest J at 143ft (43.6m) with a mast higher than the Coliseum. The beauty comes from the slenderness of form an the simplicity of the bermudan sloop rig, which gives a clean look. The Js remain, to their many followers, the most evocative yachts of all.

CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2021

23

ATHENA

A slight consensus emerged that the 8-Ms are the prettiest of the Interntional Rule classes – more specifically the later 8s, or “virtually all the third rule 8-M fleet from the 1930s,” as yachting historian Euan Ross puts it. “The 8-Ms hit the sweet spot for proportions in the International Rule, so surviving examples are arguably more consistently beautiful than the many beautiful restorations in the 6-M class (too much displacement squeezed into the waterline length) or the 12s (as for the 6s, plus draft limitations that compromise their aesthetic). Like Momma Bear’s porridge, the 8s are just right.” Athena (ex-Ilderim) was built in 1939 to a Tore Holm design and measures 46ft 10in (14.3m). Rig is bermudan sloop.

You can spend years thinking that the prettiest classics come from the interwar period, but when Marigold or Partridge sail past you, it resets your perception. This 59ft (18m) gaff cutter was the first of the large yacht designs by Charles Nicholson and launched in 1892. She was restored by Englishman Greg Powlesland, who became almost revered as a result. Greg went on to restore another Nicholson yacht, Patna, to a similarly high standard, including cotton sails. The sight of Marigold’s deck plan or that low, black sheerline moving through the water is intoxicating and hard to put into words. Three readers voted for her, including the young yacht restorer Ash Faire-Ring, pictured, who was similarly nonplussed: “Words fail me when describing Marigold , she is just everything a classic yacht should be.”

24

CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2021

© JAMES ROBINSON TAYLOR

MARIGOLD

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THE WORLD’S MOST BEAUTIFUL BOATS

Just as in the 2015 Fastnet, it was a race between Stormy Weather (1934) and Dorade (1930) to be crowned the loveliest of the Sparkman and Stephens yawls, a ‘class’ that received 10 votes in all – a record. The larger (54ft/16m) Stormy Weather won, with four votes to Dorade’s three. As well as designing yachts that were race winners and world changers, Olin Stephens really had an eye for beauty. His signature sheerlines (perkier than the average) are clearly loved by many.

“Despite or perhaps because of her bumpkin and undoubtedly because of her low, sleek topside arrangements, Stormy

JAKE SUGDEN

Weather is the prettiest of the S&S yawls,” said comedian, presenter and owner of the S&S yawl Argyll, Griff Rhys-Jones.

SAN MARCO 800KG HYDROPLANE

26

PEGGY BAWN

One of only three powered vessels that made it onto the list, this

The late Theo Rye wrote the following of GL Watson’s 36ft (11m)

Power comes courtesy of the V12 that propelled Ferraris onto the

fiddle-bowed gaff cutter of 1894, Peggy Bawn: “As a (now very

world stage in 1953 and the hull is by the San Marco shipyard,

rare) late GL Watson sailing yacht, she is an object lesson in design.

designer and builder of some of the most successful racers of that

Again and again, Peggy proves that Watson was the doyen of yacht

era. The varnished wooden hull and red-painted body are redolent

designers; he was head and shoulders above his contemporaries,

of days when speed was king: this is a flying machine that would

and even many of his successors, in terms of understanding what

kill an unwary pilot in a heartbeat. Terrifying, dangerous and

makes a hull work. Mr Watson, we salute you.” Martin Black,

beautiful. She even caught the eye of naval architect Paul

pictured, author of GL Watson, The Art and Science of Yacht

Spooner, better known for his sailing yacht design work: “In

Design, says: “She is a remarkable survivor from the golden age of

contrast to the many beautiful sailing boats, this deserves a

yachting and still in original condition. Her restoration, for Irish

mention: designed and built purely for speed and power but with

sailing authority Hal Sisk, set the bar for small yacht restorations.”

uncompromised styling...”

CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2021

140mph three-point hydroplane is nothing short of awe-inspiring.

© JAMES ROBINSON TAYLOR

STORMY WEATHER

T HE MOST BE AU TIF UL

FOR SALE

ROBBE & BERKING CLASSIC CLASSICS@ROBBEBERKING.DE | +49 (0) 461 31 80 30 60

THE WORLD’S MOST BEAUTIFUL BOATS

I’m loath to vote for a Fife – it seems so obvious, but I had to put this and Latifa down. A few years ago, I was aboard this 71ft, 1926-built bermudan cutter for a day’s racing off the Barcelona coast, when a crewman, leaning gently on the cradle formed by the mainsheet purchase, fell in. A moment later, the wind hardened and the mainsheet picked him out of the sea and deposited him back on deck, cap and glasses still on. After the race, the skipper handed me the wheel to steer back to the Catalonian capital on a run: nerve-wracking but spine-tingling. As for her beauty, it’s of an orthodox sort. Everything is perfect. You’d happily tell a Martian on a fact-finding mission: this is a classic yacht. Steffan Meyric Hughes, editor, CB

© JAMES ROBINSON TAYLOR

HALLOWE’EN

TUMLARE

One of just a handful of double-enders on this list, the Knud Reimers-designed bermudan sloop Tumlare class is even more purist than the other small, Norwegian yacht on this list – the Nordic Folkboat. It’s amazing, given how spartan the accommodation in a Tumlare is, that an estimated 600 were built since the design’s inception in 1934, but they reportedly really do sail like a

Strictly speaking, the Solent Sunbeam and

TIM JEFFREYS

skerry cruiser square metre

the Falmouth Sunbeam received a vote each,

classes, and that has rubbed off in

so we’re uniting them on this occasion. Regular

this very slim 27-footer. “The lofty

CB correspondent Nigel Sharp (who lives in Falmouth!) says: “Alfred

rig, the delightful canoe stern and

Westmacott’s greatest design looks simply magnificent when sailing

the perfect sheerline combine to

upwind, while the Falmouth fleet has the added feature of the ‘kitty

give this Knud Reimers design its

gear’ to allow the jib to be set efficiently and alluringly downwind.”

exceptional beauty.” Nigel Sharp

Theo Rye, pictured, said: “Alfred Westmacott did more than his fair

28

dream. Reimers was primarily a designer in the absurdly elegant

share, with the Bembridge ODs, the Victory class, the Seaview Mermaid ODs; not to mention the most popular of all, the X-ODs. For many though, his 1922 design for the Sunbeam is his prettiest.”

With new boats in GRP, these 26ft 5in (8.1m) sloops are still thriving.

CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2021

CHRISSIE WESTGATE

SUNBEAM

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

50’ Mayflower gaff ketch designed and built by Ashley Butler in 2012. Iroko on oak hull all copper and bronze fastened with a solid laid deck. 7 berths in 3 cabins with a light and spacious interior. Easily handled gaff ketch rig, nothing is too big on this boat making her a suitable family cruising yacht. Very smart condition and in commission this season. Cornwall £299,000

36’ Norman Dallimore Bermudan sloop built by Kings of Burnham in 1934.

Major refit in 2000 with a new deck and interior. New Beta 20hp in 2010. 5 berths with good headroom under the skylight. A beautiful looking boat that will turn heads everywhere she goes, in need of some upgrading and minor repairs for next season. Cornwall £19,950

52’ Philips of Dartmouth Motor Yacht designed and built by Philips and Son of Dartmouth in 1963. Excellent condition classic motor yacht built to Lloyds 100A1 and maintained to an excellent standard in present ownership with major 2019/202 refit. Twin Perkins 6354 diesels.

8 berths in 3 sleeping cabins including large en-suite owners cabin aft. Very attractive and capable motor yacht in full sea going condition. Devon £220,000

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

52’ RNLB Barnett Class motor yacht built for the RNLI in 1957. Served for over 30 years with 400 active service launches. Very nicely converted to make her a practical up to date cruising motor yacht but keeping her pedigree and history intact. 4 berths in 2 cabins. Twin Gardner 6LW 72hp diesels plus electric bow thrusters.

A very sound and smart vessel with a clever blend between originality and modern practicality. Devon £79,000

32’ William Atkin ‘Eric’ Bermudan ketch, the same design as Suhali. Built in Malaysia in 1974 with Chengai planking and frames, a very durable tropical hardwood. In need of a thorough refit including a new deck. Professional refit in 2015 including new Beta 43hp, new masts and rigging. A go anywhere cruising yacht for sensible money. Wales £9,950

49’ Laurent Giles Dorus Mhor ketch, built in 1970, the last example to be built launched. Built to Lloyds 100A1, iroko on oak hull, cascover sheathed underwater.

All teak superstructure. professionally refitted and now in very smart condition. 2016 rigging, 2019 sails. 7 berths in 2 sleeping cabins. Recent survey. 2019 cruise to the Baltic proved her as absolutely ready for her next owners. Cardiff £125,000

49’ Danish gaff ketch built as a fishing vessel in 1918.

Worked until 1995 when she was converted to a yacht.

Oak on oak hull with very sweet lines. New sails 2019.

155hp Volvo diesel, 9 berths with separate aft cabin. A very nice example of her type, small enough to be sailed by two crew but with lots of deck space and comfortable interior. Germany €100,000

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.

THE WORLD’S MOST BEAUTIFUL BOATS

NAHLIN

Launched from the John Brown Shipyard on the Clyde in 1930, Nahlin was one of the last great steam yachts ever built, and at 296ft (90.2m), among the larger yachts of her era. Her design, by James Rennie Barnett of GL Watson and Co, was the stuff of dreams, with a clipper bow with figurehead, counter stern and two masts and funnel, all raked back.

After years of dereliction, she was rebuilt at Nobiskrug and Blohm + Voss shipyards in Germany and re-launched in 2010. Boatbuilder Will Stirling, whose own yacht Integrity was nominated, said: “Nahlin is a vessel that adorns any

BROADS ONE DESIGN

RIVA TRITONE

freeboard and lofty rigs, are often as graceful as dragonflies, and

photographer Henri Thibault, tied the mahogany runabouts, so we gave

the Broads One Design is no exception. Broads yachting

Henri, pictured, the choice. “The Riva Tritone is the first twin-engine

correspondent Richard Johnstone-Bryden: “The Broads One

runabout designed by Carlo Riva in 1954. It was designed to the same

Design is the most elegant of the Broadland One Designs. The

lines as the single-engine Ariston, with the fully varnished deck that

24ft (7.3m) gaff sloop BOD was designed for the Royal Norfolk &

gives it a particular finesse. Falling between the Ariston and the first Riva

Suffolk Yacht Club by Linton Hope in 1900. Thirty wooden BODs

of great production, the Aquarama, the Tritone is a beautiful parable of

were built from 1900 to 1939. Another 58 have been built in GRP

Carlo Riva’s career.” This one, the 27ft 3in (8.3m) Ribot III of 1960, is

since the 1980s, most of them from a mould developed by

arguably the best Riva of all, with twin Cadillac Crusader V8s giving a total

Kingsley Farington and Nick Truman in 1990.”

of 650hp, 50 knots, and a soundtrack from petrol heaven.

Yachts of the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads, with their low

30

HENRI THIBAULT

RICHARD JOHNSTONE-BRYDEN

location. There is so much to look at yet the view is not too busy and in sum or detail all is pleasing. Nahlin is supremely elegant.”

CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2021

Two votes for the Ariston and two for the Tritone (Tom Cunliffe and

www.blakesandtaylors.co.uk CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2021

31

Saleroom

By Dave Selby

ELDRED’S

Below: Arrow captured in 1903 during 45mph speed trial, with owner CR Flint inset

ELDRED’S

When speed was king In today’s super yacht arms race size is everything, but more than a century early it was speed that was king for America’s industrial and HYLAND GRANBY ANTIQUES

finance barons who raced along Long Island Sound to their Wall Street eyries in extreme “commuter yachts.”

In 1900 millionaire CR Flint, who founded the company that would later become IBM, commissioned the aptly named Arrow. With her extreme proportions – length 132ft, beam a mere 12ft 6in and 3ft 6in draft – the 10,000hp projectile set a new world waterspeed record of 45.06mph in 1903. It was the last steam-powered vessel to do so and held the record until 1911.

In the decades that followed, until the world of Gatsby-era excess

enough to allow him to shave at 50mph without nicking himself.

crumbled in the Wall Street of crash of 1929, millionaires competed to

Arrow no longer survives, but this important and rare model by HE

up the ante further with Cornelius Vanderbilt commissioning a

Boucher, which was likely made for CR Flint, emerged in August at

commuter yacht with the specification that it would be smooth

Eldred’s where it was expected to fetch $5,000-8,000.

BONHAMS/CHARLES MILLER LTD

Art of naval persuasion Once they’d signed on, British sailors did indeed find the Royal Navy lived up to this 18th-century recruitment poster promise that “they will meet with every Encouragement.”

One such motivator known as the “sailor’s friend” had a 250g lead head covered in knotted twine, though an improved model with 700g of lead proved even more encouraging. For those who struggled to rise from the comfort of their cockroach-infested hammock, a friendly tap with a “bosun’s starter,” with its handy whip shaft and lead ball, generally did the trick. Other means of persuasion included the good old

18th-century recruitment poster (sold at Bonhams, £3,187) opened up a world of pain

the more adventurous parlour games popular in many metropolitan areas.

Charles Miller Ltd’s next marine sale, 2 November Bonhams’ next marine sale, 6 October

courtesy of this vicious cat o’ nine tails sold at Charles Miller Ltd for £2,730

Left: Whalebone cosh (£310) and right sailor’s friend (£285)

ELDRED’S

How ‘faking it’ saved lives at sea It looks like a knitting machine or loom, but the “faking box” was an important bit of life-saving kit employed by the US coastguard in the late 19th and early 20th century. Up to 600m of line was wound in zig zags over the pins, then the box was turned out leaving the rope neatly flaked in readiness to be fired at vessels in distress. This example was expected to fetch $2,000-3,000.

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CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2021

CHARLES MILLER LTD

CHARLES MILLER LTD

Above: £5 signing-on bounty offered in this

In today’s gentler times, these quaint relics are much appreciated both by collectors and enthusiasts for certain of

ELDRED’S

BONHAMS

whalebone cosh, but the last resort was the cat o’ nine tails.

Traditional Shipwright Services Boat Building • Yacht Restoration • Painting & Varnishing info@tradship.co.uk Poole, Dorset

CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2021

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Objects of desire

WOMEN’S WATERPROOF

WELLS PRINT

A stylish waterproof raincoat that

A limited edition linocut print called Wells Morning, a moment that anyone who has had the pleasure of taking the sand in the north Norfolk harbour will remember fondly. An edition of 100, size 51cm(h) x 67cm(w) £300

murus.art

wouldn’t look amiss on any foredeck, with a white and blue striped lining. Available in seven other colours. £69.99

thenauticalcompany.com

VINTAGE KNOT-TYING KIT

LE SIÈCLE DU BELEM PUZZLE

Aimed at hikers, campers, climbers and

A magnificent photograph by

sailors. A total of 16 ‘vintage’ knots to

Philip Plisson becomes a no-doubt

learn and practise and two different

fiendish 250-piece puzzle. Belem,

coloured ropes with a tethering ring.

pictured, began life as a cargo

“Become Bear Grylls in no time,” says

vessel transporting sugar from

Yellow Octopus. AU$15.99 (approx £8.50)

the West Indies. She is now more than 120 years old and in that

YellowOctopus.com.au

time was private yacht for Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster (who renamed her Fantome II) and later Baron Sir Arthur Ernest Guinness. £29.95

wentworthpuzzles.com

STAINLESS TALL SHIP

Made entirely out of salvaged stainless steel sheet with stainless welding rods for sail supports. It has been hand crafted in the Peak District by Revolution Artworks. £367.5

thebritishcrafthouse.co.u 34

CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2021

CLASSIC BOAT SPECIALISTS

FULL REFITS TO RUNNING REPAIRS TRADITIONAL BOAT RESTORATIONS STRUCTURAL MODIFICATIONS INTERIOR JOINERY PAINT & VARNISH DECKGEAR & RIG WORK

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N 01326 372 121 w www.mylor.com

CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2021

35

CHARLOTTE WATTERS

Adrian Morgan

Vertue signalling

As for our Giles 5 tonners – careful not to use the V word on these rare pre-war boats – in a gale: unanimously, the stronger the wind, the happier. Well, until the toe rail dipped, when it was time to reef. At which there was some debate about whether we furled the mainsail down to the first set of spreaders, before changing the yankee for a working jib, or vice versa. Whatever combination, again, we agreed that our respective boats were entirely vice free, and would balance with the merest touch on the tiller, in all conditions.

With Vertue signalling now over (to the relief of those readers who have endured so much of it over the years) I suspect it’s the same when a colloquy of Contessa owners gather or Hillyard, Harrison Butler, Gauntlet owners, and Robert Clark or for that matter Triumph, MGB, Riley, Audi or, dare I say, jetski owners, albeit comparing horsepower, decibel and disturbance factors.

I broached another topic, tiptoeing round it like a nervous suitor at a party, before plucking up the courage to ask: how much do you reckon yours is worth, with an added “not that I have any intention of selling Sally, of course”.

We both agreed that old wooden boats, even those as faultless as ours, are for sailing, not laying down like vintage champagne. “But then if I did decide to sell her it would have to be to the ‘right’ person,” I added, “prepared to look after her,” picturing a clone of my younger self, when first I saw her on the Hamble, 25 years or so ago, but much, much wealthier.

My friend exchanged looks with his companion. “I reckon you just have to let go. You can’t choose who buys her.” You can, of course, steer someone who is clearly unsuitable away from an unwise decision, perhaps by pointing out some unknown problems, he said. Such as, I ventured, the cost of replacing keelbolts to a buyer who had no idea old boats had such things? “Exactly.”

What worries me is the fate of the crammed folders of documents, letters from previous owners, photos, the Blue Book, the original invoices from Elkins in 1937. How much irreplaceable provenance has been cast aside over the years as boats change hands, leaving CB’s Nigel Sharp the frustrating task of piecing it back together, hard facts interspersed with vagaries such as “Her immediate post-war ownership is a blank, but we know she was laid up at Moody’s...” etc. There should be a national archive, not only of the great and good, but also modest little 5 tonners.

Two keen owners signal the virtues of their Vertues

I

had the pleasure of another Vertue owner visit Sally recently; drove up from Skye to compare his pre-war boat with mine, although we both were well aware that the pre-war Laurent Giles boats were simply 5 tonners, all different, from gaff-rigged Andrillot through Monie, Epeneta, Mary, Caupona and so on. Even the post-war wooden boats were essentially one-offs.

The visit gave us a chance to compare notes. Ah, says he, your coachroof is just a low box, showing me a photo of his. And the runners are set on Highfield levers.

I see you have boom furling. Does it work as well as slab? And so on for an hour or more on the pontoon at Ullapool Pier.

His companion, by this time – I kid you not – had fallen asleep as we discussed the various merits of wood-burning stoves, berth widths and Danforth vs CQR anchors, in cramped Sally’s saloon. Or, as I recalled when I first went below in his boat years ago, Spartan, which, given a hurt look, I hastily corrected to “beautifully simple” accommodation.

And thus the morning whiled away; two old Vertue buffs, oblivious to all but the minutiae of our boats.

Much was left unsaid, common ground, but there was the inevitable story of how at some point our boats had chanced upon an unsuspecting glassfibre production yacht – words spat out like pips – several feet longer and, much to the owner’s dismay, slowly overhauled it. Yup, we agreed, those slim wineglass sections are slippery.

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CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2021

“I broached the topic of the boat’s worth like a shy suitor at a party”

VENTIS T h e C l a s s i c Ya c h t S h i p y a r d info@ventis.nl +31 228 312 542 Vlakwater 7, 1601 EV Enkhuizen, The Netherlands

RESTORATION Adv.Ventis_2020november.indd 1

NEW-BUILD

WOODEN SPARS 28/09/2020 13:55:16

CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2021

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KEVIN DESMOND

A la recherche du temps trouvé…

We speak to the ‘researchaholic’ who has founded museums, rediscovered France’s forgotten electrical inventor Gustave Trouvé and played a part in electrifying Venice.

WORDS STEFFAN MEYRIC HUGHES

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B

orn in south London in 1950, Kevin initially wanted to Back in 1992, Kevin got his first sight of what would be a painter, but his father, a surgeon, was keen for him become the Conservatoire International de la Plaisance de to learn to drive. Of course, most artists can also drive a Bordeaux by torchlight with founder Daniel Charles, after car, but Kevin’s instruction was rather more involved the two climbed over a grill to gain access. “It had been one than the usual routine. One day, a casual comment about the of those huge NAZI submarine bases on France’s west historic Brooklands Race Track from his teacher, a former police coast,” remembers Kevin. “It was a grey, concrete, lugubrious pursuit instructor, set in motion Kevin’s life and career. place and entombed in the walls were the skeletons of three “As we lived not far away, I went to see it. It was eerie – a of the workers who’d died building it. We removed enough old disused banked track with weeds growing through the concrete. I steelwork to build a new Eiffel Tower and in less than two started researching and found there were no books on it in print, years filled it with over 170 boats and 60 classic outboards.” but I found a secondhand copy of a biography of Parry Thomas, After the museum’s closure, Kevin co-founded the French a Brooklands champion killed trying for the world land speed Electric Boat Association and sowed the seeds for Electric record. This led to my fascination for those killed trying for the Boat Associations in America and Norway, while writing books world water speed record: Henry Segrave, John Cobb and, most on boats, aviation and inventions. “I was also doing French famously, Donald Campbell.” to English book translations to get by” he remembers.

This was the mid-1970s and Campbell’s engineer Leo Villa It was only on a trip to Venice with his long-suffering wife was still alive and living in Reigate. So the young Kevin paid him Alex in 2018 to celebrate three decades of marriage, that the the first of many visits, resulting in The World Water Speed idea to electrify Venice struck Kevin. “We got on a [diesel] Record, co-authored by Kevin and Leo and published in 1976. It vaporetto. The noise and vibrations were horrendous! was Kevin’s first published book. There followed a history of Amsterdam at the time was talking about electrifying its canal waterskiing, and The Guinness Book of Motor Boating Facts boats and I thought: why not Venice?” Kevin set up Venice and Feats and Origins and Development of Motor Craft.

Agenda 2028 and contacted David Edwards-May of Inland “Nobody had ever written a book on motorboat history Waterways International who in turn put him in touch with before, so among the possible sources I visited was the library at IWI member and architect Francesco Calzolaio of Venti di London’s Science Museum where the librarian approached me Cultura. With Ventian electric boat enthusiast Commendatore with a dusty folder marked “Electric Boats”. I discovered how in Pierro Tosi, the three musketeers launched a campaign to rid the late 19th century, there had fleets of Venice of petrol and diesel engines by electric boats and floating charging 2028. stations on the upper Thames and as “At one point, a prominent “I am a seed sower. far afield as Austria and Chicago, an Venetian councillor told me, eyeball amazing fact today, but one that had to eyeball: ‘Signor Desmond. Venice Others are better been covered by the dusts of passing. has a long history. We go back than me at cultivating Also in that folder I learned of a 1,600 years. If you pull this off, 19th-century French electrical inventor you’ll become part of that history.’ and looking after the – a Gallic Tesla or Edison – called A shiver went down my spine!” crop” Gustave Trouvé, whose 75 inventions, Earlier this year, the city of Venice including the world’s first electric announced an investment of £1.54 vehicle and electric boat, have billion over a decade to electrify enthralled me ever since. every boat in Venice, and Italy’s In 1982, the Electric Boat Association was formed in England, central Government quickly followed up with a further £132 and a couple of years later, Kevin became its chairman and set to, million, with more still from the EU’s Green Recovery Fund. organising speed attempts, rallies and more – he even instigated ACTV’s fleet of 100+ vaporetto water buses will be either the founding of England’s first motorboat museum at Basildon in retrofitted or replaced with hybrid-electric propulsion Essex, now sadly defunct. (electric in the city, diesel, and later hydrogen, on the lagoon) In 1992, Kevin took a call from a Belgian yachting historian while the city’s 80-strong Veritas working fleet is following called Daniel Charles. Would Kevin, now with wife and children, suit; over 800 private motorboats will be lured to conversion like to go to France’s west coast to form the motorboat section of by an incentive scheme. Kevin notes that once the seed was a large new maritime museum? “I thought I was going over for planted, Venice Agenda 2028 took on a life of its own. “I am six months!” said Kevin, who is conducting this interview from a seed sower. Others are better than me at harvesting the crop.” his home in Bordeaux – he never came home. It was only Now 71, Kevin describes himself as a retired transport recently, as a result of Brexit, that he had to undertake an historian. It’s nonsense of course. People like him never retire. examination for French settled status. Kevin laughs at the He’s now researching his 37th book, this one on 300 years of memory. “The inspector asked me to talk about French history! human-powered electricity generation. Over the past year he Oh, I replied, you want all that stuff about Charlemagne, Joan of has co-authored a website, 366 solutions.com, that publishes Arc and Napoleon. No, no! I told her all about Trouvé of course. daily one practical solution to clean up the mess we have made Our nationality papers followed soon after.” Not only have of this planet. “It’s now at 732 solutions and 264,000 words Kevin’s two biographies on Trouvé, published in 2012 and 2015, long; you’ll see that I’m a researchaholic” he laughs. helped to re-establish the inventor as a central part of France’s When he’s not singing tenor in a choir, Kevin indulges his technological history, but he also successfully campaigned for the first love, art, drawing, and kilning small clay sculptures in his unveiling of a ‘blue plaque’ in the heart of Paris, commemorating garage – almost 400 of which now sit in front of his house. the place where Trouvé had his workshop for 40 years.

“Drivers stop to take photos. I’m sure I’ll cause a crash one day!”

CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2021

39

TRES HOMBRES AND THE SAIL CARGO MOVEMENT Since three Dutch friends started sailing the world with commercial cargoes under sail, many more have followed in their wake. We catch up with this new movement.

WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS RON VALENT

TRES HOMBRES

TRES HOMBRES

A

n engineless sailing ship is proving that there are alternatives to the heavily polluting mega-freighters that are slowly but steadily causing irreparable damage to the oceans’ eco systems. Tres Hombres is a 105ft (32m) brigantine that has sparked a movement that has inspired a large number of similar projects around the world.

In mid-March 2021 the helmsman of an extremely large container vessel was distracted for a moment and buried the ships’ bow deep into the side of the Suez Canal while its stern swung round and jammed itself against the other shore. For nearly a week the vessel blocked the passage of hundreds of similar sized vessels laden with tens of thousands of containers packed with goods made in China or Middle Eastern oil, bound for Europe.

In a blink of an eye the world could see Europe’s dependence on this 193km (120-mile) long canal and the unending stream of ships passing through it. It begs the question: do we really need those consumer goods and all the oil to power the thousands of lorries that deliver them?

A much simpler question is whether we really need all that cargo, most of which is non-perishable and therefore not in a hurry whatsoever, to be transported in such haste from the other side of the world by huge, raw diesel slurping, and heavily polluting monster cargo vessels?

Can we scale down to what we really only need and can we transport that in an environmentally more sustainable manner? And lastly but certainly not the least important ….. do we really have to import so many goods from so far away while most of them can be grown or produced locally. Simply because they are cheaper that way?

Tres Hombres is aptly proving that indeed many goods can be transported without any haste by a sailing vessel causing zero emission and that there is also an economic base for this. She is the flagship of Fairtransport, an initiative of the three Dutch friends Arjen van der Veen, Jorne Langelaan and Andreas Lackner. In 2007 they found a wooden, 32m former German Kriegsfischkutter, a wartime-fishing-cutter that was launched in 1943. Over 600 of these ships were built for the German Navy between 1942 and 1945 as armed fishing trawlers that doubled as coastal patrol craft and minesweepers. At least 135 of them were sunk in wartime actions. Over a period of two years, the three friends rebuilt her into a brigantine to transport cargo under sail. And what is more notable, under sail only.

Tres Hombres does not have an engine!

Tres Hombres carries a maximum of 40 tonnes of organic and traditionally crafted goods such as rum, cocao, coffee, honey and canned fish. The products are loaded by means of block and tackle in often exotic ports or anchorages. An extra bit of income is made by taking along paying passengers/crew who can experience unforgettable moments as a trainee on board during these adventurous freight trips under sail: a working holiday in the truest sense. In 2015, Fairtransport’s second sailing cargo ship, the Nordlys, went into service.

We spoke to Wiebe Radstake who was captain on Tres Hombres between and 2019 and 2020.

“I didn’t want to become a pain in the arse type of activist who angrily shouts on Facebook how the world should be. I wanted to make a tangible difference. That

Opposite main photo: Sailing off the coast of Barbados Top left and right: Loading rum casks and cocao beans in Boca Chica, Dominican Republic. The cocao is destined for a chocolate factory in Amsterdam

is why I joined this project. It was quite surprising to see how enthusiastic people became about what is really such a small and rather silly old boat. Increasingly people want to know where the products they eat and use come from and how they were produced. It was a logical step to transport those goods in an environmentally friendly manner.”

Like so many of his colleagues on Tres Hombres, Wiebe started off in the Dutch charter business. The Netherlands has the largest fleet of traditional vessels in the world, for three reasons. Firstly, in the 19th and early 20th century, the extensive inland waterway network was ideal for transportation of freight over water and hence thousands of sailing freight ships between 20 and 40 metres in length (65-130ft) were built. Secondly, because they were built in iron and later steel, they simply refused to rot away. Lastly, because of their size and shape they were ideal to be transformed into houseboats.

In this way hundreds of them were in continued use until the renaissance of the classic boats arrived in the 1980s and 90s when many were once more rebuilt back into sailing ships but now for use as passenger charter vessels.

JOINING THE SAIL CARGO MOVEMENT

TRES HOMBRES LOS

105ft (32m) LOD

82ft (25m) DRAUGHT

10ft (3m) DISP

51 tonnes

Wiebe: “When I was 12 I started off as deckhand on the sailing charter vessel Scaldis. I later did the Zeevaart School in Enkhuizen where I got my master’s ticket.

After that I roamed about on the oceans for six years on various sailing ships. Quite soon I realised I wanted to do more than sail the same trips every time with paying passengers. One day I saw the Tres Hombres in Vlissingen. I asked if I could come along on a trip? There was music coming out of a CD player and the captain, Arjen van der Veen, said I looked like the guy on the cover. When I admitted they were playing my band he said they were sailing to Den Helder the next day and I was welcome to come along. It took us four days of tacking on the North Sea to get there, despite the fact that it was only about 240km (150 miles). When I arrived, I saw a whole community of dedicated and inspired people preparing the ship for her next voyage to the Caribbean. The concept really appealed to me and it was the right ship and the right moment. I started off as volunteer deckhand working the foredeck. That first round trip took seven months. By the time we headed back I was second mate. In 2015 and 2016 I did the summer circuit to the Caribbean again with Captain Andreas Lackner as well as Sail Amsterdam in 2015 and the Douarnenez Festival in 2016. After that I was first mate for a while and in 2019-2020 I was captain of Tres Hombres.”

The challenges of sailing an engineless sailing ship are many but they hone the skills of captain and crew. The choice of rig for Tres Hombres was not a coincidence. To be precise, she also isn’t really a brigantine but has a hermaphrodite rig. With her mix of square sails for fast downwind sailing and fore-and-aft sails on both her masts for upwind work and for manoeuvrability in harbours, she is the best of both worlds. But she still faces many challenges that have to be solved by good seamanship and planning.

“Approaching a harbour in a gale there isn’t a tugboat in the world that will come out to get you. On CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2021

43

TRES HOMBRES

my last trip we flew from Spain to La Palma in a Force 7 following breeze but then had to hang around at sea until the wind abated and we dared enter port. In Europe, the authorities have a fit if we try to sail in but we do it all the time in the Caribbean. We of course have information and technology that the old guys didn’t have 100 years ago.

This coming winter, Wiebe will do another trip to the Caribbean but in the meantime he is busy launching a new project. “I wanted to be able to spend more time with my wife and baby son and to set up a follow-on project on the lines of the Tres Hombres concept. We bought a Dutch sailing barge from 1902 that had been used as a charter vessel for the past 40 years.” Wiebe plans to remove the old diesel motor and replace it with an electric one for which the batteries will be recharged using solar energy and the propeller as dynamo while under sail. The cabins will also be removed and the freight hold reinstated, to give capacity for 30 to 40 tonnes.

With this ship, the Vrijbuiter, he plans to deliver freight throughout the Netherlands, freight might, for instance, have arrived there from South America in Tres Hombres.

“With the traffic jam in the Suez Canal you can see the panic that grips our western world when something unexpected happens. Immediately shelves in the supermarkets are empty as people stock up for... well, for what? It shows our presumed dependability on massproduced and quickly delivered consumer goods. This accident is actually a godsend for us and has done more to raise awareness than we have achieved in 10 years.

“In 2022 I will start transporting freight. Until then I will concentrate on PR and raising awareness, going to festivals and loading and unloading freight there by hand and selling it on the spot. One of the many things that made me think about what we are doing in Europe is an experience I had when I lived on Sicily. The orchards were bursting with ripe oranges but none of them was being harvested. Instead, oranges were imported from Chile because they were cheaper that way! There are so many products that can be grown or made locally in Europe and all it needs is to convince the consumer to pay just a little bit more for it to ensure that their grandchildren can eat fish from the sea and not a mass-produced tasteless thing from a fish farm in Vietnam. People don’t realise how badly those enormous ships are polluting the oceans and killing its inhabitants!”

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CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2021

Above left: Wiebe and Suzanne Above right: Vrijbuiter

“I want to make every facet of the business with the Vrijbuiter as environmentally friendly as possible. Goods produced by a farmer in Groningen can easily be taken to Amsterdam by water. The Ijsselmeer is the logical place to start with so much agriculture on its Eastern shores and large population centres to the west and south. Of course, it means compromises We still do charters with the boat to generate income. When we do catering on board we only use biologically made products. This is more expensive, so we make less profit. Principles cost money. It is as simple as that.

“Our efforts with the Tres Hombres project have not gone unnoticed and worldwide there is a growing number of companies following our example. The Avontuur is a 1920 Dutch gaff schooner that sailed cargoes until 2005.

She chartered passengers until 2014 when she was converted back to carrying cargo. In 2016 she started sailing again and is now run by the Timbercoast Pty Ltd. She will transport freight along the Australian East Coast.”

“Then there is the Blue Schooner Company in France.

Since 2017 they have been plying the Atlantic on the schooner Galant, built in the Netherlands in 1916. In Italy there is the Brigantes group restoring the German 1911 steel schooner Onice which, once completed, will be renamed Brigantes after the coffee brand that she will transport from Central America to Europe.”

“In Costa Rica, Sail Cargo Inc is building Ceiba, a large three-masted schooner being built on the beach by locals from the village, which feeds itself on self-sufficient permaculture. Reactions have been so positive that a second vessel is now planned. Ceiba will sail between Costa Rica, Canada, Hawaii and California from 2022.”

“Developments like this give me hope for the future, which is what drove me to take on the Vrijbuiter.

Change will not come from governments, so you have to sometimes do crazy things to move forward. Maybe I am naive but I truly do believe that mankind can learn from the past and that we can save this planet for our grandchildren. The key is getting young people involved.

That is what we are trying to do with our sailing cargo vessels. It is an adventure that raises awareness in a way they can relate to and with more and more of them this is becoming a realistic prospect.”

For further reading: fairtransport.eu

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CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2021

45

FROM MUD TO GLORY

Some of the world’s greatest classic yachts were found in the mud around England’s coastline, with beach hut houses on top, and geraniums on the decks. Then restoration fever began...

WORDS BARRY PICKTHALL

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CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2021

DETLEF JENS/PPL

CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2021

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ALL PHOTOGRAPHS BY PPL PHOTO AGENCY

WACKY HOUSE BOATS

Clockwise from top: Mariquita, once a houseboat at Pin Mill; Hispania, the 15-M Fife-designed sistership to Tuiga, commissioned for the King of Spain, then rescued from the mud at West Mersea by William Collier; Endeavour – Thomas Sopwith’s former J-Class America’s Cup challenger restored by Elisabeth Meyer; Avel, rescued from the mud at West Mersea by fashion

guru Maurizio Gucci, who paid £15,000 for the houseboat; Artemis, the 95ft (29m) Summers & Payne gaff yawl, was a rotting houseboat moored at West Mersea

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CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2021

WACKY HOUSE BOATS

T

here is something quintessentially English about living on a houseboat. They can be World War II motor torpedo boats, steam tugs, barges, canal boats or old racing yachts, all rescued from the scrapyard long after they have been stripped of their lead and bronze, and converted to alternative living for the arty and nomadic.

These vessels are scattered around the mud of England’s yachting meccas: the Hamble River, Bembridge Harbour on the Isle of Wight, at Chelsea in the heart of fashionable London, Shoreham-by-Sea, and perhaps the most famous of all, at West Mersea in Essex and Pin Mill, up the coast a little in Suffolk. Every now and then, a multimillionaire comes along, sees through the rotting timbers an outline masked by a beach hut perched on deck, visualises the past, and spends a fortune recreating it.

And they need to be millionaires, for there is no way of budgeting how much it costs to restore one of these old racing yachts. It you have to ask… you can’t afford it!

These classic boat searchers have a different perspective on life, and in the words of the late Maurizio Gucci who had a particular penchant for old yachts: “The quality remains long after the price has been forgotten.”

It was this fashion guru who already owned the 214ft (65.2m), three-masted classic Nicholson schooner Creole, who saw what Swiss industrialist Albert Obrist had done to restore the Fife-designed schooner Altair, and became determined to find a similar project to mark the coming of age of his daughter Allegra, re-quoting the famous quality/price phrase first coined by Henry Royce, to explain his motivation to rescue the 1896 Charles Nicholson-designed Avel from a muddy grave at West Mersea. It cost £15,000 to persuade the owner to move out of his houseboat, and a further king’s ransom to have her restored, but he ended up with an enduring classic and set a trend for these lordly restorations.

West Mersea provided rich pickings for such projects.

Other racing yachts to have been found languishing in the mud there include Hispania, a 15-M Fife-designed sistership to Tuiga built for the King of Spain; Artemis, the 95ft (29m) Summers & Payne gaff yawl, which has been sitting on the quay in Hamburg awaiting a new owner prepared to take on further restoration work, and Kismet, another Fife design brought back to life by local boating fanatic Richard Matthews.

The 19-M yacht Mariquita, moored in the mud at Pin Mill on the Orwell, is another Fife design dating back to 1911. Matthews has an abiding memory of being invited aboard her in his younger days when she was very much a houseboat. “She was enormous. They only used the middle part of the boat to live in, and I remember looking in awe at the 40ft of open frames that disappeared up to her bows. It looked like a cavernous Zeppelin.”

Still in the mud at West Mersea awaiting better times perhaps, are other classic yachts, including the 1864, 50ft (15m), straight-stemmed gaff cutter Hotspur; the clipper bowed Othona; the 1897-built Mulroy (formerly Zephyr); Columbine, soon to be cut up; and Alfred Payne’s design L’Esperance, built for the Earl of Dunraven in 1982.

West Mersea has such a cluster of celebrated yachts because of a scrap merchant who bought these old vessels in the early 20th century to salvage their lead and gunmetal fittings to make bullets to fire back at the

Still in the mud at West Mersea are the 1864 50ft straight stemmed gaff cutter Hotspur, the clipper bowed Othona, the 1897 built Mulroy (formerly Zephyr), Columbine, about to be cut up, and the Alfred Payne designed L’Esperance

Below: L’Esperance is now owned by author Veronique Echstein, a local campaigner who fought a rear-guard action to maintain the rich heritage of houseboats

Kaiser’s army during World War One. Ordinarily, their wooden hulls would have been broken up and used for firewood, but the shoreline around West Mersea is unique in Britain for not being secured by the Crown. Privately owned, it was far easier to get permission to put these boats in mud berths, which reprieved them from the axe and gave them a second life as houseboats.

Of these, L’Esperence has the best parentage, not for her racing pedigree, but former owners. Dunraven, who went on to challenge for the America’s Cup twice, had her designed and built more for cruising than racing. As a result, she has greater volume than the stripped out skimming dishes of her day, and with a fully fitted interior, she made a great dwelling.

There are few mentions of her in racing despatches of the day. We could find only one, written when she was a bystander to a collision between Isolde and the Kaiser’s venerable 39m Meteor II, during a race off Southsea in August 1895 which led to the death of German Baron von Zedtwitz, owner of Isolde.

L’Esperance, it is believed, was given to Prince Henry of Prussia as a gift from his Aunt, Queen Victoria. By all accounts, he was soon bored with the yacht and the story of her decline began. We have no record of her first inhabitant at West Mersea, but do know that Alberto Semprini, the celebrated pianist, composer and conductor, lived aboard her for many years. He died in 1990 L’Esperance is now owned by author Veronique Echstein, a local campaigner who fought a rear-guard action to maintain the rich heritage of houseboats around her. Fearing that another multi-millionaire might have eyes for the yacht as a restoration project, she jealously guards L’Esperance from interested parties, shooing away our photographer and refusing to be interviewed.

We learned much more from Steve Johnson and his wife Debbie, who have lived aboard the neighbouring houseboat Mulroy (ex Zephyr) for the past 40 years. She was built in 1899 by Chambers & Colby in Lowestoft for a solicitor based in Nottingham. At 58ft (17.7m) long with 2in teak planking on oak frames, she was massively overbuilt with 1/2in bronze fastenings, which goes some way to explain why she has lasted so long in the mud. He remembers Semprini and a baby grand piano he had installed aboard L’Esperance, which sank into the mud when the yacht fell on her side. “She was moved further up the beach and is now supported by posts, which explains why she stands so far out of the water these days.”

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RICHARD MATTHEWS ARCHIVE/PPL

WACKY HOUSE BOATS

Hispania, he tells us, had a deckhouse that once belonged to the concrete barge Mollyette that had already spent a second life as home to the West Mersea Yacht Club, so some recycling there!

He also remembers Avel, and the fact that she was unique in having her original Victorian interior still intact.

Maurizio Gucci insisted that she be restored faithfully to the original, without electronics or even an engine.

The Moles family owned Hispania for many years, and when the grandmother died, the family contacted William Collier, who had overseen the restoration of Avel, to see if he would be interested in another yacht project. He pulled together a syndicate, who had the boat restored by Fairlie Restorations on the Hamble. Collier was also responsible for the recovery of Mariquita from her Pin Mill mud berth, a story told in CB October 2014.

Richard Matthews, who rescued Kismet when “she was close to becoming a dive site”, remembers walking by her 100 times without a second glance. It was her hideous beach hut deckhouse that put him off. He explains: “Adrian Wombwell, a local builder from Tollesbury, invited me for a beer. I should have known better, because by the time I had drunk three, I found myself agreeing to become the half owner of the 27ft (8.2m) Fife-designed half-decked Pierette! We worked together to restore her, and it was only when she was finished that I spotted a notice board in his yard titled ‘Future Projects’. There in the list was Kismet with a question mark against her name. Well, I had never realised she was a Fife design. She was abandoned and in a bad state of repair. We guessed that it would take two men two years to restore her. In the end, it took four men four years before she was ready, and only after I swore to shoot the team if she was not!”

“Part of the problem was that there were no plans. All we had was an old Beken photo to work from. Another was that she had her stern blown off by a German mine in World War Two. The bomb went right though her counter without exploding, and it was never repaired. We had David Cooper of Holman & Pye to recreate her design and templates. He did a good job and we now sail her in many of the classic yacht regattas in the Med.” It was some years ago at the Cannes regatta that Matthews and Allegra Gucci came up with the idea of holding a Wacky Houseboat Race. It caused much amusement then, but now that so many classics have a houseboat history, it could yet lead to a regatta all of its own.

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Above: Kismet as a houseboat, and after restoration Below: Tollesbury

Classic yachts that were once houseboats

based

Artemis The 1900 Summers & Payne built Artemis was

boatbuilder

rescued from her mud berth in West Mersea in 1994 by a

Adrian Wombwell

German classic boat trust, but after reconstruction, she suffered badly from fungus, and is now laid up in Hamburg, awaiting a new owner.

Avel Was rescued from the mud at West Mersea by fashion guru Maurizio Gucci, who paid £15,000 for the houseboat, and many millions more to have her restored to mark the 21st birthday of his daughter Allegra.

Endeavour The J-Class yacht Endeavour, Sir Thomas Sopwith’s 1934 America’s Cup challenger. Like Velsheda, she spent many years laid up in a mud berth on the Hamble. She was bought by the American heiress Elizabeth Meyer who had the yacht fully restored.

Hispania The 15-M Fife-designed sistership to Tuiga was commissioned for the King of Spain, then rescued from the mud at West Mersea by William Collier and restored to her former glory in Spain.

Kismet This classic Fife design spent five decades disguised as a houseboat at West Mersea before being restored by Richard Matthews.

Lulworth The 151ft (46m) LOS gaff cutter Lulworth, launched in 1920, was soon outclassed by the newer J-Class yachts. Her racing days over, she was converted into a houseboat in 1947 and remained in her mud berth on the Hamble until work began to restore her 1990.

Mariquita Another Fife design dating from 1911, which might have ended her days as a houseboat in the mud at Pin Mill had a multimilionaire not seen through her rotting planks and visualised beauty under sail.

Velsheda The Charles Nicholson-designed J-class of 1933 was laid up on the Hamble in 1937, where she provided accomodation to visiting crews until her 1984 rescue. She was laid up again in 1995, but has since been fully restored.

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LETTING THE HIRERS RACE A week’s boating on the Broads can involve much more than exploring beautiful waterways, as our correspondent discovered when he joined an intrepid group of hirers on Barton Broad in early October WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS RICHARD JOHNSTONE-BRYDEN

The annual Barton Charter Yacht Regatta offers hirers their only opportunity to enjoy the thrill of participating in a Broadland regatta

THE BARTON CHARTER YACHT REGATTA

B

roadland regattas are one of the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads’ finest spectacles, yet for most hirers they are strictly spectator events observed from the sidelines. However, the tables are turned once a year when hirers are invited to enjoy a week’s convivial racing on Barton Broad. The four-day event was instigated by Gordon Bowers of Bowers Craft, under the auspices of the Blakes letting agency in October 1977, to satisfy hirers’ demand for racing and to help extend the season by filling up an otherwise quiet period in the run up to the autumn half-term week. Describing the early Blakes Barton Regattas, Dave Homan, who has competed every year since 1979, recalled: “Blakes originally promoted the regatta week simply as a chance for some cheap sailing and didn’t make anything of the racing on Barton Broad. Thus, I hired one of the Lady yachts from Herbert Woods with some friends and ‘discovered’ the regatta when we reached Barton Broad. The races were still being organised by Gordon Bowers who used to tow one of his company’s houseboats, Wayford Lass, from Wayford Bridge to act as the ‘clubhouse.’ In those days, we competed for prize money and paid a fee to enter the races. Gordon would start each race with a shotgun and I remember more than once the lead shot raining down on us as we approached the start line, which added to the excitement!”

Fellow long-term hirer, Tracey McMahon, who has competed in the regatta since 1980, continues, “we were all young men when we started! I had previously hired boats with three other friends for sailing holidays on the Broads at Easter, but the weather was so poor one year that we decided to give the regatta a go and hired the classic wooden Broads yacht Scarlet Lady from Herbert Woods. It was to be my first taste of racing and needless to say I loved it, although I had to miss the next year’s event due to my son’s birth. About halfway through the week, a bundle of 28 postcards arrived and everyone said ‘sailing, weather, beer and food, great!’. As we gained more experience, the four of us went on to hire separate yachts which allowed us to introduce more friends to the thrill of Broads racing.”

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Sailing for the pride of their boatyard! The regatta programme includes an owners’ race in which each crew is joined by a member of staff from one of the participating boatyards

In due course, Gordon Bower’s company left Blakes and the agency’s remaining yacht owners, together with a group of volunteers, took on responsibility for running the regatta. They managed to secure the use of the Norfolk Punt Club’s (NPC) facilities in the middle of Barton Broad, which enabled the organisers to cater for up to 35 yachts.

The withdrawal of Eastwood Whelpton and the Norfolk Broads Yachting Co (NBYCo) from Blakes brought the agency’s long association with Broadland yachting, including the Barton Regatta, to a close in 2007. As a result, the volunteers agreed to continue organising the regatta as an independent event which became known as the Barton Charter Yacht Regatta. With the exception of last year’s Covid 19-enforced hiatus, the regatta, which is due to take place from 11 to 14 October this year, has continued to thrive and gain new participants. The gap left by the disbandment of NBYCo’s hire fleet in 2011 has been filled by hire yachts from Martham Boats and Oliver’s Sailing Holidays of Martham Ferry, while the Ludham-based Hunter’s Fleet is joining the fray this year.

Before attending the regatta, all competitors must indulge in the enjoyable task of choosing the right boat.

This decision will be influenced by the hirer’s previous sailing experience, number of crew and the required level of creature comforts. All of the participating hire fleets offer a selection of classic Broads yachts while Eastwood Whelpton also has a small selection of GRP production estuary yachts that have been specifically adapted for Broadland sailing. Hire yachts normally have smaller rigs than their private counterparts so that they can be handled safely by relatively inexperienced sailors. That said, don’t be fooled into thinking that hire yachts are slow, lumbering vessels. Regardless of initial impressions, the majority of such craft are actually quite responsive and they are all ideally suited to the unique environment of the Broads.

Having chosen the right boat, the real fun begins on the Saturday afternoon when the competitors can finally join their yachts and head off towards Sutton Staithe in time for the Sunday night carvery at the Sutton Staithe Hotel. This event marks the opening of the regatta and

Top left: Windjammer (left) and Seven Seas Top right: Some of America’s crew take in the view during a brief lull in the action as they head towards the next mark Above: Tracey McMahon helms Lutra through the thick of the action Main picture: Windjammer passes the Norfolk Punt Club’s pontoons

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THE BARTON CHARTER YACHT REGATTA the start of an enjoyable social programme of events at the hotel which is followed by music on Tuesday night and prizegiving dinner on Thursday. Monday and Wednesday evenings are kept clear to enable competitors to visit nearby pubs like the White Horse at Neatishead or enjoy a quiet evening at anchor on the Broad.

LEARNING TO RACE The action begins on the Monday morning following the skipper’s briefing on the NPC Pontoons. Many of those lining up on the start line have attended the regatta for several years including Chay McMahon, who initially raced with his father on Lydia from the age of 13 before going on to hire his first boat with a couple of friends when he was 17. “I learned a lot from Dad about sailing, although he didn’t teach me everything I needed to know about racing, especially as I was going to be competing against him,” explains Chay. “Therefore, I picked up a lot about racing from John Beedham and Peter Staples who used to sail Windsong. The regatta is like one big, happy family which has almost become a yacht club in its own right. The hirers come from all walks of life. The more experienced sailors are happy to give newcomers help and advice which makes it a great way of getting into competitive sailing, even if you haven’t done any sort of racing before, and is exactly how I learned to race. My advice for first-timers would be to come along and a have a great week and if you are unsure about anything just ask. Don’t be afraid to do something different if you haven’t raced before; this is definitely the event to cut your teeth on and if you have, it is also a great event.

However, you do need to watch out for the posts marking the main channel, because you could bring the mast crashing down if you catch either the topping lift or mainsheet around one of them! Therefore, make sure you are talking about the right post when your crew shouts out, ‘have you have seen that post!’ If someone makes a mistake to gain a place you can expect to encounter the rules, but if you have only made a genuine mistake then it is just normally spoken about after the race in the pub with plenty of salt and pepper shakers to illustrate the situation! After all, we are all there to have a good time and not indulge in lengthy protests.” Chay’s father Tracey continues: “My advice to newcomers is not to take it too seriously. It is competitive, but you will be best friends at the end of the day. You can have a great sail in quite close quarters and no one does anything silly.

Above: The crew of Seven Seas closes in on the mark with Windjammer trying to catch up in the background Below: Like all Broadland regattas there is plenty of close quarters action during the Barton Charter Yacht Regatta. Left to right America, Wind Song, Seven Seas and Palace.

The social side is fantastic, whether evenings in the pub or joining others on their boats for a beer at the moorings.”

With three races a day, competitors have a good chance to improve their racing skills. To minimise the likelihood of accidents, especially in the build up to the start, the fleet is split into smaller groups. However, should the worst happen, members of staff from each boatyard are on hand to carry out running repairs. Like all regattas, there are plenty of trophies, including one for the friendliest crew and one for being the worst at getting to the start. In between the action, competitors drop their mud weight and catch a lift on one of the launches to the NPC pontoons for a warm drink and a bite to eat.

Unsurprisingly, the weather can be changeable, as Dave Homan recalls: “Considering the time of year, we generally have good weather and I can remember some years I have sailed in shorts. The weather hasn’t always been so kind, such as the time we competed in fog, which was quite interesting. Another time, the organisers made up for a lack of wind by staging a quant race – it was about 200 yards, which was quite enough! We have had storms blow up and I was there for the 1987 hurricane.

That night, we were all moored up in Sutton Staithe and I can still remember the sight of the gents’ loos from the NPC clubhouse heading upstream the next morning after it had broken free from its moorings.”

All too quickly, the four days of good-natured racing are followed by the Thursday night prize-giving dinner at the Sutton Staithe Hotel. On Friday, competitors begin the voyage back towards the starting point of their adventure. Many of them enjoy a final hurrah in Ranworth on Friday night before reluctantly handing back their yachts back on Saturday morning. However, those with more time could extend their break by spending a few days exploring the Broads at a more leisurely pace.

Autumn is one of the best times to sail on the Broads not least because there are fewer other boats on the water.

Thus, on many stretches the only sounds to disturb the peace will be the local wildlife or the wind in the reeds.

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CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2021

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POWERBOAT HEAVEN How the world’s largest collection of antique motorboats came to be set on Lake Como’s shores TEXT: GERALD GUETAT PHOTOGRAPHS: HENRI THIBAULT

MUSEO DELLA BARCA LARIANA

T

here are places in the world that seem to have been blessed by the gods. Lake Como is one of them. As early as the late 1970s, a pioneer saved hundreds of power boats as witness to a long, eventful history. This was the end of an era, a time when the many small boatyards on Como had to evolve to survive being swept away by the tide of GRP. Nobody but a certain Gian Alberto Zanoletti had any interest in preserving what was, at the time, recent history.

The Romans knew Como well. Very deep, with steep banks set against steep rock, this long north-south axis with two branches connects the rich Lombard plains to the rest of Europe. The Roman Empire, which kept five fleets to rule the waves of the known world, based one in the Bay of Como, demonstrating the strategic importance of this waterway for trade and possible invasions from the northeast.

Nature knows how to make gifts, but geography always imposes itself on man. No or few roads, just tortuous paths, meant navigation on this majestic lake developed fast. It is not surprising that, over the centuries, dozens of boatyards have settled along its banks in the service of industrious, harsh and proud populations. The rise of boating and the establishment of villas for rich Milanese and Europeans in the 19th century, have further strengthened the expansion of all nautical activities here; fishing and transport under oar, sail, steam and finally the internal combustion engine.

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Above left: The museum today Above right: Ferdinando Zanoletti, museum director and son of the founder Below: Founder Gian Alberto Zanoletti Bottom: Inside the museum and its archive

Even the Riva story began here in 1771, and Daniele Riva, heir of Ernesto and masters of art of this long line, still builds boats on the heights of Como. Names such as Abbate, Cranchi, Timossi, Taroni and many more were later celebrated in the 20th century, but some could not or would not survive the glassfibre age. At the turn of the 1970s, from disinterest, lack of space or willingness to turn the page on modernity, many boatyards and boat owners abandoned their wooden boats to the weather or reducing them to bundles for the fireplace.

THE FOUNDER

Gian Alberto Zanoletti di Rozzano (1943-2019) was part of a generation for which everything was possible in a limitless earth. At that time, the specialisation and labelling of an individual by his activity was not as mandatory as it is today. As a man of culture, explorer, sportsman, diver and underwater photographer, he travelled the world before dedicating himself to the preservation of nautical heritage in his homeland.

Living in Milan and on Lake Como, fascinated by man’s relationship with nature, he even took the wheel of race boats, beating in 1970 a world record in the SF outboard category of 1,000cc on a Abbate hull with Carniti engine. Nothing about the cause of the boats and those who designed and built them was foreign to him.

His decision to preserve the legacy left on the lake’s shores was taken alone, but friends soon joined the effort. In

1929 Vidoli, recently Volunteer Flavio, mechanic and carpenter, runs a conservation workshop

shown at the Alfa Romeo museum

MUSEO DELLA BARCA LARIANA

1976 he founded with a handful of the faithful the association that gave birth in 1982 to the Museo della Barca Lariana. This unique refuge for endangered species was set up in an old silk spinning mill and year after year, priceless treasure in the form of hulls, motors, artefacts, memorabilia, archives and drawings made their way in. Today, with more than 400 boats, it is the largest small-boat museum in the world.

In 2014, Gian Alberto wrote the following paean: “As in nature, the richness of the human species comes from the variety of everything around it. This applies to boats. If a type of boat disappears with its history, humanity looses a part of itself.”

Soon after, he contracted a degenerative disease while his museum was closed for failign to meet modern safety standards. His son Ferdinando Zanoletti took over decisively, creating a foundation and launching a major renovation that led to the reopening of the museum in 2018. His father Gian Alberto was able to witness this remarkable rebirth before dying a year later. This incredible museum is forever dedicated to him.

A LIVING HERITAGE Founder Gian Alberto could not be satisfied merely with sheltering a static, fragile nautical heritage, and in 1987, he co-founded ASDEC (Vintage and Classic Boat Association of Italy), with the plan to have at least some of the collection as live, working exhibits on the lake.

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Above left and poster: Many boats at the museum have had illustrious racing careers Above right: Craft for work and pleasure Below: The museum and its reserves

ASEC’s broader purpose was to bring together lovers of old boats: motorboats, sailing boats, pleasure boats or working vessels. The founding members established strict texts in order to offer as many guarantees as possible to the preservation of boats for future generations. For this reason, the club lists a panel of specialists, and train experts able to advise and guide the owners of boats in the perilous adventure that is a classic boat restoration. With methods and standards comparable to those of major cultural institutions in the fields of art and architecture, ASDEC has created a solid corpus of rules to follow, questions to ask and guidelines to follow when undertaking work on a historic, inherently fragile or unique vessel. Its Registro Storico Nautico certifies the boats that meet criteria that validate their value as witnesses of the patrimony, static or active, the latter participating each year in various gatherings in Italy and Europe.

THE CONCORZO AT THE VILLA D’ESTE The boat remains an excellent way to make discoveries along Como’s shores. For boat owners, the rallies are one of the greatest rewards promised after years of efforts to achieve the best possible restoration. But not all ancient boats can and should be restored. For ASDEC, the desire to drive a rare boat still in its original condition is an outcome that nearly always leads to a

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23/04/2018 09:55

MUSEO DELLA BARCA LARIANA

restoration, however minimal and respectful, meaning the loss of its role as witness to an era.

It is no coincidence that today ASDEC is a member of the Automobile Club Storico Italiano, an authority in its field of automotive preservation, which suffers many of the same dilemmas as the world of nautical heritage.

Unless classified as a “historical monument”, as in Italy or in France, there is of course nothing to stop any sort of restoration or replication, but provided these are done in accordance with the guidelines laid down by ASDEC, those vessels are eligible for invitation to to ASEC’s regattas and rallies.

Since 1988, more than 80 such meetings have been held by ASDEC, on the lake and at sea, from Imperia to Venice via La Spezia and Monaco, and even in Paris, in 2006, on the theme of the Seine and the impressionist painters, in co-operation with the Cercle du Motonautisme Classique, the French partner of the transalpine association. However, motorboating is not exclusive to the club and some specific events host sailing boats, which was the case of the very first meeting held by ASDEC on the coast of Liguria in 1988. It was not until three years later, in July 1991, that the first rally of motorboats was organised by

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This page: The first gathering of the Villa d’Este was organised by ASDEC in July 1991 and 30 years later, the tradition continues

the club at the Villa d’Este, in a setting of exceptional beauty and elegance.

From year to year, the number of participants, the variety of boats and the range of nationalities represented has evolved, the trend going undoubtedly towards a tightening around 30 registered entrants, year after year. The joy of gathering is always the same and, from the Villa d’Este, it is ritual to run towards the north of the lake, to the cape of Bellagio, an ideal opportunity to admire the splendours of the landscape and the Villa del Balbianello on the port side while giving the opportunity to the boats to give their full power before returning wisely in the cove of Cernobbio, near Como.

But, after passing Bellagio to starboard, it may also be tempting to head north and follow the western shore of the lake to Pianello del Lario, the birthplace of the famous museum where it all began.

Warm thanks to Ferdinando Zanoletti and all the team of the Museo della Barca Lariana for their kind hospitality and assistance. Many thanks also to Alessandra Morandini and to the members of ASDEC for their precious help www.museobarcalariana.it

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+44 (0) 1491 578870 | sales@hscboats.co.uk www.hscboats.co.uk Henley S aleS and CHarter ltd CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2021

65

TOM CUNLIFFE

IT’S THE TAKING PART But winning does make the day a little more memorable – particularly for young children...

ILLUSTRATION CLAUDIA MYATT

Y

ou’d think that with the year’s favourite virus stamping on any attempts to have fun, this summer would have been a thin one for regattas and festivals. Certainly, some events have been struck off, but the efforts of a number of committees to deliver business as near usual as possible have been heart-warming. One such was the Solent Old Gaffers Association bonanza at Yarmouth Isle of Wight in June. Although to some degree affected by ‘social distancing’, the evening programmes went ahead anyway, and not even the Covid Police could do much to compromise the main race. Having parted company with my last wooden yacht a while ago, I look back on gaffers’ races with nostalgia, but at Yarmouth I was in the thick of things once again.

The next generation of our family own Lady Belle, a 1909 Falmouth quay punt designed and built by Harley Mead. For 50 years the boat has kept cropping up on the periphery of my life and she’s been mentioned before in these columns. Roz and I had long admired her before she finally made it into the fold, so to speak. I’ve sailed on her a few times now and have always had the impression that she goes well, but that’s easy to say of any boat until you put her to the test of racing against her peers. We were six-up on 28 feet of deck length, which sounds like a crowd, but quay punts swallow bodies as

readily as they once gobbled up cargoes of butchers’ wares, tailors’ outfits and victuals to feed the shipping off Falmouth. Dan and Hannah worked the deck, I was generously invited to steer, while Roz mostly kept the lid on the activities of two exceedingly active small boys aged three and seven.

The start line was on the island shore west of the town. We hit the transit late by standards I once set myself, but most of the others did too, so little was lost. As soon as we hardened up in the stiff breeze it was obvious that my early impressions of the boat were not wrong. She positively flew upwind with that magic two or three degrees of light weather helm that squeezes a boat up to weather and banishes leeway without creating any appreciable drag. As the wind hardened some more she heeled over, just so far and no further, then she got her shoulder in and went faster.

A while later we were back off the beach near the start, faced with a beat up-tide. Both lads were on deck with Alex the elder calling news on the distant opposition through binoculars. Young Leo was doing what little lads like doing best. He was diligently engaged in pushing every button he could find, ideally when nobody was looking. As I stood in out of the tide watching the sounder critically, he discovered a particularly juicy-looking switch and threw it to

see what might happen. He hit the jackpot. The sounder went into some sort of recovery mode and our depth reading disappeared. I kept on going, heart in mouth, while Dan wrestled with the knobs and Leo was dispatched, protesting, to the fo’c’s’le. The tiny screen came back to life just in time to announce that there was now no water at all under our very deep keel. I shoved the tiller hard down without ceremony and Lady Belle, sniffing the crabs and the seaweed tickling her lead, spun on her heel. Assisted by a solidly backed pair of headsails, she somehow swam on to power away into deep water, take the gun and win her class. The boys, having been raised by a father who appreciates the value of victory in the catalogue of sporting achievement, were ecstatic, and so passed a memorable family day out.

Sitting under the stars in the deep, safe cockpit after all hands had turned in, my thoughts strayed to another regatta 35 years earlier in Brittany. The French, under the influence of Bernard and Michèle Cadoret of Le Chasse Marée journal, had suddenly come alive to their maritime heritage and had been constructing traditional boats to replace the survivors from yesteryear scrapped by the march of progress. In this respect our neighbours across the Channel had been more effective than us Brits. We have a tendency to hang onto anything that still floats, cobble it up and keep it sailing. They, fancying such dreams to be a lost cause, had called in the bulldozers. Bernard saw how terrible this error was and issued a call to arms. The Bretons and the Normans answered it in the best French style with energy and panache, constructing boats ranging from a tiny inshore potter to the mighty Cancalaise three-masted bisquine. The first festival celebrating these wonderful creations took place at Douarnenez in 1986, with a preliminary do in Concarneau. We showed up in Concarneau in our 1911 Bristol Channel pilot cutter by pure chance and were met with a hero’s welcome. Sailing away towards Spain at the end of the celebrations we were told in no uncertain terms that our presence would be required later in the summer at Douarnenez for the main event.

They needn’t have worried. We weren’t about to miss it.

After all this time I can’t recall the synopsis of the action or even what happened in which port, but the riot of memories dating from those sunny days will never leave me. My crew and I fell in with a couple of langoustier ketches from somewhere down in Biscay. One was skippered by a handsome young fellow who the ladies on board our vessel decided was a bold pirate in

direct line of descent from the gentleman who led the Brits a merry dance in Daphne du Maurier’s Frenchman’s Creek.

Defections might have been inevitable except that the belles dames on the pirate’s vessel, who sailed in sketchy black dresses, presented formidable opposition. As for me, I loved the guy for his accordion playing. I have seen little in my life as romantic as his sweet-sailing vessel following us in, swinging home to Concarneau, her brown headsails poled out with the sun setting behind him into the Atlantic. The music floating down to us on the breeze was a wistful song about how the bars and bistros are empty now that the sailing ships are gone forever. It was the tune of the year and it seemed to go on and on, yet nobody ever tired of it.

The skipper of the other boat was a born athlete with a superhuman sense of balance. Superb of physique, he rarely wore much more than a pair of bathers. This was not through personal vanity. It was just that clothes got in his way. His name was Alain, known locally as Alain le Fou on account of his antics, but to us he was always Crazy Alan. One time we were racing in light airs and Alan, setting an impossible monster of a spinnaker, came creeping past us to weather. As he whispered up abeam he leapt onto his mast hoops, scrambled up to the hounds, shinned up past the peak halyards to the truck and stood on it – on his hands. I’ve sailed with some lively lads, but I never saw the like of Alan, before or after.

Alan was sharp on the evening entertainment front as well. At the big crew dinner in Douarnenez fish market, my wine bottle was showing signs of low water approaching, so I asked him where I could find a top-up. “No problem,” he replied, and disappeared. Two minutes later he was back with a twelve-bottle case which he crashed down onto the table.

“How much?” I asked, fearing the worst.

“Nothing,” he responded with a proper Gallic shrug of the shoulders. “Tonight, all is free.”

And it was. Money was raised from sponsors and from the thousands of local shore-based enthusiasts who flocked to see the wonderful boats in action. Engines were discouraged and ‘belles manoeuvres’ under sail were the order of the day.

The town was barricaded off and visitors paid to get in. The quays were crowded but there were no scuffles, the sight was unforgettable, the music went on until dawn and, somehow, the Bretons contrived to create a totally noncommercial atmosphere.

You might say, ‘those were the days…’

Getting afloat

INCHCAPE MOTOR SAILER Here’s one to inspire wanderlust. Built in 1990, this is the last of a short run of Inchcape 45 motor sailer designed by James Evans with Jack Francis Jones, after the tough Scottish fishing boats that brave the north Atlantic year round. At 45ft in length with 16ft 9in of beam, drawing 5ft 9in and weighing in at 29 tons, she has the heft, borne of 1.5in (38mm) iroko planking on oak sawn frames, to match her look. The hull is Cascover sheathed from new. The interior, particularly the wheelhouse, is cavernous, and she sleeps six in two doubles. The galley swallows a full-sized standing fridge and a normal washing machine with ease. The boat’s last owner put her through what the broker calls “a no-expenses-spared period of work” to bring her up to MCA Code of Practice Category One. There is too much gear to list, but she has a 135hp six-cylinder Ford Mermaid diesel, bow thruster and a rig (gaff ketch on deck-stepped tabernacles) that has all been renewed, from mast to rigging to sails. Sail the world in comfort.

Lying Cornwall, Asking £210,000, Tel: +44 (0)1803 833899, woodenships.co.uk

VERTUE V45

Ice Bird

Ice Bird is the 45th of Laurent Giles’s legendary 26ft (8m) Vertue sloops, built in 1952 for Dr Joe Cunningham to serve as his mobile base in remote areas of Newfoundland, providing medical services to the local community. This he did in the boat after sailing across the Atlantic via the Caribbean and the eastern USA. Her design differs slightly from the standard Vertue with an altered coachroof, slightly higher topsides and a two-spreader cutter rig. She was recently updated with some new sails and all-new rigging in 2021 and offers two berths with 6ft 3in of standing headroom. The auxiliary is a Volvo MD7A 13hp diesel. “A yacht rich in pedigree in history kept in smart and sound condition.”

Lying Scotland, Asking £17,500, Tel: +44 (0)1803 833899

DALLIMORE SLOOP Here’s a simple, very elegant Norman Dallimore fractional

woodenships.co.uk

bermudan sloop, built by Kings of Burnham in 1934. She’s 36ft (11m) on deck and with a slim beam of 8ft 2in, she rates at 8TM. She’s belonged to the current owner since 1997, who put her through a professional refit which included new keelbolts, minor repairs to the hull, a complete new deck, new coachroof, rebuilt cockpit and new interior. Since then she has had a new Beta 20hp diesel engine, new sails and new rigging as required. “The rig has been altered from original with a slightly shorter mast to make her more manageable, but this has not detracted from her superb sailing characteristics,” says the broker. She’s solidly built in 1in teak planking on Canadian rock elm timbers, copper riveted with a lead keel. Floors are grown oak and bronze straps. Deck and cockpit are also in teak. The next owner will need to carry out some upgrading, and the asking price reflects this.

Lying Cornwall, Asking £19,950, woodenships.co.uk

To see more boats for sale go to classicboat.co.uk 68

CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2021

Working Sail

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Introducing at Southampton Boatshow our new 6 m. fast launch 16

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CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2021

69

BROKERAGE

Boats for sale Looking to sell your boat?

Reach over 50,000 readers each month

To advertise call Andrew Mackenzie +44 (0)207 349 3718 or email andrew.mackenzie@chelseamagazines.com

PLUS For more boats to buy go to

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

‘AMALI’ 47’

Beautiful elegant wooden classic with unique charm, sweeping lines and topside flare. Privately commissioned and constructed using modern techniques in 1991 by Sean McMillan (now Spirit Yachts).

Cedar Mahogany Teak & Ash. Fully equipped and offered in excellent condition. Two helm stations, ample entertaining areas on deck and an interior with spacious and well thought out accommodation.

Sleeps 8. Semi displacement. Cruising 8 KNOT (max 12). Twin very fuel efficient Volvo Penta diesel engines. Range 500NM. £185,000 Contact: jvg@amalioflondon.co.uk • Tel: 07785 954 900

16ft MCNULTY BUILT CLINKER VARNISHED ESTUARY LAUNCH.

Mahogany on oak, varnished topsides, 10hp beta diesel, new battery, new wiring loom, Lug rig, dagger board, solar panel, road trailer, winter cover. Clinker tender needs TLC. Same owner for 22 years.

Lying Bosham, £10,500.

Tel: 01243 572611 • Mob: 07932 687363

FISHER 25

Many extras including higher mast with furler bowsprit, ketch r. 2 foresales. 30 hp engine just been rebuilt.

Offers in region of £25,000. Lying Hayling Island Phone: 07764 581 601

MADRIGAL

46’ Sparkman & Stephens Yawl. Built in 1958 by Paul Luke.

Construction is double planked mahogany over cedar with bronze fastenings. Competitive, well balanced design. Meticulously cared for by original owner. Upgraded by Brooklin Boat Yard, Maine. $220,000. Serious inquires only.

E-mail: yachtmadrigal@gmail.com | www.yachtmadrigal.com

‘IAIN OUGHTRED DESIGNED’ GANNET DINGY

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

1931 DEBEN CHERUB ‘LINDY LOU’

Freshly restored by original builders Woodbridge Boatyard/Eversons.

No.6/17 gaff-rigged 21ft weekender.

New decks, cabin top, stem, coaming, rubbing strakes etc. New Dolphin 12hp engine/gear. Fresh paint, signwriting, boom tent. Excellent tan sails & rigging.

See www.woodbridgeboatyard.com/ boats-for-sale.

Afloat Suffolk.

Selling at fraction of restoration cost. £27,500 ono.

E: charles@attilaconsultants.com.

M: 07710 910563

‘Judy’, was made in 2012 by an ex professional builder to the highest standards. She has built in buoyancy in both the bow and stern and extra ‘Goodwood’ buoyancy under the side thwarts. She comes complete with road trailer, and Torqeedo electric outboard motor that has only run a couple of times, oars and brass rowlocks and paddle. All the rigging and fittings are in first class order and she has a fitted cover.

Price: £6,000 Email: tim.honnor@mac.com

WEST SOLENT ONE DESIGN, ‘MELODY’, W28, BUILT 1930.

NAUTICAT 331

Built 2000, in good condition. 75 hp Yanmar 4JH4-TE engine.

Owner retiring. Offers in excess of £70,000 Lying in Hayling Island Phone: 020 8332 1028 Mob: 07764 581 601

70

CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2021

DRASCOMBE DIPPER, BUILT1993.

outboard, trailer, cover, oars. Loads of extras. Illness forcing sail.

A ready to sail classic.

Lying Bedford. £3,500.

Tel: 07772436550 Email: tuxill@btinternet.com

Legendary cruiser racer about which much has been said and written in the various maritime magazines. Robust and strong boat, beautiful design and spectacular sailing characteristics. A boat for people with a passion for real sailing and elegant classics. The Melody is currently lying ready for sailing in Zeeland, the Netherlands.

The Melody is offered for sale for £39,500 (ONO) A visit and trial run are possible by appointment via email harry.vanderkallen01@gmail.com

BOATS FOR SALE

Brokerage listing

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

55ft McGruer Bermudan Ketch 1970

52ft William Fife Bermudan Cutter 1940/2013

49ft McGruer Bermudan Ketch 1973/2020

For a yacht to look so stunning after so much sailing does not just happen by accident. It takes special owners. CUILAUN deserves it; she is quite simply one of the most special yachts ever conceived at this size. Since she first kissed the waters of the Gareloch in 1970, her original owners have cared for her every need, and in return she has carried them and their friends speedily, comfortably, safely and elegantly over deep and blue water so often that they might be excused forgetting how many times they’ve crossed the Atlantic. Along the way she has been a regatta and cruising awards winner. After 50 years first ownership, it’s time for a lucky second custodian to guide CUILAUN into her second half century.

The last yacht launched by the famous Fairlie yard in Fife’s lifetime, SOLWAY MAID only had two owners, and it shows in her remarkable authenticity. Conceived and built speculatively, thereby incorporating everything Fife thought best in such a yacht, she was advertised just before the Second World War as a “Fast cruiser suitable for ocean racing”; it’s hard to think of a better description. A Mediterranean-based regatta winner since the mid-1990s, she offers the unique opportunity to become only the 3rd owner of The Last Fife; of an absolute gem; of a yacht that will always look after you; that’s fast enough to win prizes, and extremely cool enough for strong envy.

BORDER LEGEND is a resurrected masterpiece from when finely built wooden yachts were still just about the norm, and designers and builders could call on a century or more of handed down skills. Her design by George McGruer is a natural evolution from the renowned work of his father, James, and her build was by the last generations of a highly skilled workforce managed by the wider McGruer family since the 1890s. Circumstances saw her fall on hard times before recent rescue and a major refit under current, experienced ownership - so that one of the finest, last generation wooden yachts is now available for the pure enjoyment - and it can only be that - of her next owner.

£480,000

£395,000

£225,000

Lying UK

Lying Malta

Lying UK

45ft Ed Burnett Gaff Rigged Pilot Cutter 2009

32ft Berthon 8 Ton Gauntlet 1939/2014

32ft Berthon 8 Ton Gauntlet 1937/2011

Her pilot cutter pedigree - hull lines evolved by Ed Burnett and John Raymond-Barker from one of the most famous of them, Bill Tillman’s ocean and high latitudes voyaging MISCHIEF - deep keel, low freeboard, substantial gaff cutter rig, and past and present provenance, make MORWENNA a fast, comfortable and capable boat. From her 2009 Underfall Yard launching, MORWENNA has been a busy charter boat in UK and Mediterranean waters, and a veteran of two Fastnets.

After a recent period of inactivity, her present, experienced marine professional owner refitted MORWENNA, returning ‘honest finish’ shine to her undoubted charms. She’s ready for either more of the same, or family cruising in the most authentic of style, both.

The Gauntlet Class’s elegant and instantly recognisable lines, sturdy seagoing reputation, and jaunty air have endeared generations of yacht sailors who know a good thing. Most are still going strong, many have enjoyed restorations, but few with the finesse relatively recently applied to the 8-Tonner NAUSIKAA, once owned by author Graham Greene.

The aim: to compliment the essential qualities above with accommodation in which a family could enjoy time aboard in comparative luxury: rare even on even a modern boat this size. The result is a success in our view, and moreover NAUSIKAA is no slouch, beating the entire fleet of the British Classic Yacht Club on corrected time in their 2014 Round the Isle of Wight race in often boisterous conditions. .

Typically of the characterful, thoroughly English style, canoesterned Gauntlets built by Berthon of Lymington, MITTEN has had many suitors; it’s hard not to fall in love with their aesthetic and practical charms, and abilities. MITTEN’s list of early owners reads like a who’s who of British industry; then, over the past half century and more, blessed with custodians prepared to invest in her future without compromising authenticity; doing the right thing by her structure and, equally importantly, using her. In present ownership, after a major refit by her original builder, MITTEN has been wafted and seasoned by the salty Western Mediterranean air: like an English country cottage time machine teleported to Tuscany.

Sounds wonderful – don’t you think?

£220,000

Lying UK

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

£80,000

Lying UK

£75,000

Lying Italy

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

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

– www.sandemanyachtcompany.co.uk –

MEMBER OF ABYA CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2021

Sandeman Brokerage FP CB OCTOBER 21.indd 2

71

31/08/2021 15:43

Craftsmanship Yard News

SECTION HEAD SUB SECTION

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

PORT TOWNSEND, WASHINGTON

Tally Ho on the move again The story of Leo Goolden’s deep restoration of Albert Strange’s 1910-built 48ft (14.6m) Fastnetwinning gaff cutter Tally Ho continues, as the boat is moved by road from her home of the last four years, Sequim, to the traditional boating hub of Port Townsend. The lorry driver who bought her to Sequim for Leo to begin work, came out of retirement for this one last job with Associated Boat Transport, and arrived with a hydraulic trailer to load Tally Ho. Leo had taken his own precautions, ensuring the hull was caulked (effectively gluing the planks into a single structure) before moving her, and adding internal braces against the inside of the hull where it would meet the pads on the trailer. Mark, the driver, commented that when he first laid eyes on Tally Ho, he considered it typical of the sort of project that would never see water again, and after moving “thousands of boats over 35 years” it was a fair hunch. Once he met Leo, he changed his mind. “This is by far the coolest project I’ve ever seen” he said.

Tally Ho is now in a covered shed, where work will continue apace. Leo’s YouTube videos documenting the restoration process have been viewed by millions. he’s been doing through Patreon. Help him if you can at patreon.com/sampsonboatco.

And be sure to watch the excellent videos, about half an hour in length each, by visiting youtube.com and typing in ‘Sampson Boat Co’.

WOODBRIDGE, SUFFOLK

Best Cherub relaunched Woodbridge Boatyard (ex-Eversons) has been doing an extraordinary job of reuniting and restoring the original fleet of Deben Cherubs, 17 of which were built at that yard during the 1930s. The sixth Cherub, Lindy Lou, built in 1931, was finally completed after a pretty serious restoration in the spring of this year. Yard manager Matt Liss calls her “the finest example of a Deben Cherub anywhere.” Sadly, due to change of circumstance, she is now for sale. See woodbridgeboatyard.com/boats-for-sale to learn more. Woodbridge Boatyard is now home to an amazing seven Deben Cherubs, including Ariel, which won

C/O THE OWNER

our 2020 Restoration of the Year award for a restored vessel under 40ft (12.2m).

72

CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2021

C/O SAMPSON BOAT CO

Meanwhile, he still needs funding, which

CRAFTSMANSHIP

ST MONANS, SCOTLAND

Wet Class yacht restored

NIC COMPTON

C/O SAMPSON BOAT CO

The yacht designer HS Rouse (‘Uncle Rouse’) of the Hong Kong Yacht Club is best known, if at all, for the lovely 54ft (16.5m), 1933-built teak ketch that featured in the film Mamma Mia. He also designed, at the request of the club, who wanted a four-tonner class, something called the “W Class,” a 26ft (8m) gaff-rigged day sailer. Mairi Bhan, built (as Typhoon) at the Hung Hom Hop-Kee Shipyard in Hong Kong around 1930, was the first of seven of the type – the “W” apparently stood for wet! These Ws – not to be confused with the West Solent ‘Ws’ featured in our August issue – were 26ft (8m) gaff-rigged day-sailers (albeit with cabins). By 1961, Mairi Bhan had arrived in Britain, where she remained, under various owners, until around 2008, when she was blown over on her cradle in a storm, suffering a hole in the side of her teak planking.

Her new owner Gordon Bell has spent the last eight years performing a substantial renovation to bring her back to original condition. The hull – bar the hole – was sound, but just about everything else needed to be renewed after her years of neglect. The mast, although heavily repaired, is still original.

STRATFORD-UPON-AVON

Passenger launch Avon-Boating has commissioned the Bristol Classic Boat Company to completely rebuild the hull of the 35ft (10.7m) passenger launch Merry Widow, built in 1922 by Borwicks on Windermere. The hull will be sent to their boathouse in the autumn where they will build a new cabin, fit-out the interior, and the install an electric drive. She will be relaunched next spring to join their fleet of four other Windermere launches all built between 1912 and C/IO AVON BOATING

1933 by the same yard: Mayflower (1912), Spray (1922), Lotus (1927) and Lily (1933), the largest collection of Borwick’s classic launches in one place. Avon-Boating’s Nick Birch said: “She was a complete wreck when we found her but the was worth saving.”

CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2021

73

MARINE DIRECTORY

To advertise call Andrew Mackenzie +44 (0)207 349 3718 or email andrew.mackenzie@chelseamagazines.com

Marine Directory

BOATBUILDERS

Yacht Restorers

BOATBUILDERS

Quality traditional wooden boat repairs and restoration, painting, varnishing, polishing, antifouling, engine servicing, electric conversions, cranage to 35 ton.

www.harbourmarine.co.uk

Harbour Marine

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Wooden Boatbuilder

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Repairs - Restorations

15ft Sea Otter

31ft gaff cutter Polly Photo: Keith Allso

Rowing Boats, Sailing Dinghies, Motor Launches Mayflower Dinghies, New Builds, Repairs, Restorations Fowey, Cornwall Tel: 07973 420568 • www.woodenboatbuilder.co.uk Photo: Peter Chesworth

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www.davidmossboatbuilders.co.uk

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CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2021

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MARINE DIRECTORY

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BOATBUILDERS

EQUIPMENT

Combwich Marine Enterprises A Division of Anglia Stainless Ltd

Specialist Suppliers of Silicon Bronze Fastenings Builders of the Original Devon Scaffie, Dabber, Lugger, Coaster, Longboat & Gig Grp Boats from £9,500 ex vat. Agents, please contact tim@honnormarine.co.uk

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ALAN S.R. STALEY

SELWAY FISHER DESIGN

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DESIGN

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For the latest photos of SFDesign boats go to our Facebook page

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EQUIPMENT TRA D E

M A RK

DAVEY & Co

MASTER CRAFTSMAN TRA DE

M A RK

LO NDO N L I M I T E D ˚ E s t . 1 8 8 5

Traditionally carved decorative work for all craft Interior decoration - Sculptures - Gilding - Restoration Trailboards - Sternboards - Billetheads Tafferels to Figureheads tel. +44 (0)7836 32 34 31

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INSURANCE

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Tel: +44(0)117 963 3136 ■ Email: timber@robbins.co.uk ■ www.robbins.co.uk

CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2021

75

CRAFTSMANSHIP

Boatbuilder’s Notes

By Robin Gates

Reference paring with a chisel

1 Using the work to support the chisel 2 Paring with a reference block

When paring across tough end grain with a chisel, it’s important to keep the tool flat against the wood if you want the pared surface to remain perpendicular to edges and faces. Sometimes you can use the work itself to support the chisel, for example where this thin oak board meets another at right angles (1). But where there’s no surrounding surface for the chisel to bear against, as with this rebated end of spruce (2) you can easily clamp a supporting reference block to it, helping to make a clean start to each cut while also preventing the chisel from tipping. It helps to both skew and slide the chisel sideways while cutting, effectively lowering the bevel of the chisel’s edge – which

2

1

should be ultra sharp.

Transverse sections of fast- (left) and slowgrown oak (right)

Fast-grown oak is stronger For temperate ring-porous hardwoods like ash and oak, showing

small brass screws in oak

in spring transitioning to the darker, denser small-pored wood of summer,

Hand countersink

the timber from a fast-grown tree is stronger than one which has grown

A swing brace or even smaller hand drill can feel like

more slowly. This is because the broad growth rings of a fast-grown tree

overkill when countersinking for small screws, and it’s

contain a higher proportion of the dense summer wood.

all too easy to bore the countersink too large. A power

characteristic growth rings composed of pale large-pored wood laid down

In this comparison of samples from oak which grew quickly (left) and

76

Hand countersink for

drill is prone to make the same mistake, but faster. At

slowly (right) the prominent medullary ray is running vertically, away from

such times a small hand countersink comes to the

the heart of the tree, while alternating pale and darker bands of

rescue, providing better control and more direct

spring and summer wood, respectively, run horizontally. The

feedback to the user. Although there are many hand

bands of spring wood marked with a Biro indicate that the fast-grown oak

countersinks on the market with prices ranging from

took four years to increase by 1in (25mm) in radius, whereas the slow-grown

£3 – 40, you can make one very simply by fitting the

oak took nine years. As a consequence, the fast-grown sample has more of

square-shanked rose head bit from the brace into a

the desirably dense wood laid down later in the yearly cycle and will be

length of wooden rod. I used a piece of sweet

better able to withstand the stresses and strains experienced by a wooden

chestnut cut from a walking stick and carved the

boat at sea. It also steam-bends quicker than slow-grown wood.

tapering square socket for the bit with a narrow chisel.

CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2021

Boatbuilder’s TraditionalNotes Tool

By Robin Gates

STAIR SAW Of all the hand tools developed for

them by chisel or router and – Hey

Clockwise from

said, you can turn the saw around and

special purposes in working wood,

presto! – you have a dado.

above: One hand

comfortably pull it, or even fit the

pushes, the other

blade in reverse. It helps with making a

surely none delights the eye so much

Commercially the saw was available

as the little stair saw – it’s as shapely

with a fixed blade cutting to a single

steers; The stair

clean start if you scribe the marks with

as a carousel pony. Although rarely

depth or an adjustable blade, as in this

saw in the kerf of

a knife or corner of a chisel and then,

used today, having been made

example, which cuts from 1/2–3/4in.

oak; Dismantled

on the waste side of the line, pare a

obsolete by machinery and simpler

The adjustable blade is secured by

to show the

sloping groove for the saw’s relatively

techniques of construction, this saw’s

two screws tightening on the slotted

adjustable blade

coarse teeth to follow. Rubbing the

particular job was cutting the dados

blade. Alternatively you could buy just

blade with a stick of beeswax eases

housing treads and risers in the

the blade and make your own handle,

progress. But beware of pushing down

stringers of a staircase. Back in the

or make the entire tool by also filing

with the steering hand or the saw will

heyday of the big class and stately

teeth in a suitable piece of steel plate.

dig in like a figure skater tripping over

motor yacht, a staircase leading to the

The saw is held rather like a plane,

deckhouse could be a grand affair

with one hand pushing from the rear

embellished with exotic timbers and

while the other placed forward is

swirling hand rails, and no one wanted

largely responsible for steering. That

their toe pick and come to an undignified halt.

NEXT MONTH: Spill plane

their entry marred by creaky ill-fitting stairs.

The job could also be done with the common tenon saw but in accustomed hands the stair saw was faster and reliably precise, cutting to the same depth every time without the need for measuring. You can see that when the saw’s wooden body bottoms out on the surface of the work the saw ceases cutting, at which point you begin the second kerf, thence to remove the waste between CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2021

77

Letters LETTER OF THE MONTH SUPPORTED BY OLD PULTENEY WHISKY

Setting the Sunbeam record straight Jim Hazel does well in his letter

very much in the air, since the type of

published in your September issue

boat which was to be built was not

to clarify the issue of how it was

yet decided upon. Ideas were sifted,

Louis Jacobs not Harry Jacob that in

and in the autumn Mr Westmacott

1924 designed the West Solent

was approached to design an

Restricted Class yacht [like Suvretta,

improved Mermaid. As an ex-part-

featured in our August issue].

owner in a Mermaid, the writer rather objects to the expression `improved’

However, he goes on to get us somewhat confused by describing

since the two designs are the

the West Solent as a “larger edition

outcome of different requirements:

of the Sunbeam class of 1922. The

happily, however, each class is

late Theo Rye was of the opinion

entirely satisfied with its own boat.

that Louis Jacobs could have been

Mr Westmacott produced a design now known as the Solent Sunbeams.”

the designer, not Westmacott” There is no signed drawing of the Solent Sunbeam, as all Alfred

Theo Rye did indeed when writing of “the loveliest of all Alfred

Westmacott’s papers were destroyed with Woodnutt’s in a fire in

Westmacott’s creations, the Solent Sunbeam” quote the suggestion

1961. There is no doubt though that it was Westmacott that Basil

that the design “may show the influence of a talented draughtsman

Lubbock, the original owner of V 1 Dainty, and his two colleagues

employed by Westmacott’s yard at the time, Louis Jacobs, who later

from the Hamble River Sailing Club, approached to design the

went to Camper & Nicholsons. However, all the Sunbeams in Lloyd’s

Sunbeam. For provenance just read BR Waite’s article in the April

Register of Yachts were listed as designed by “A Westmacott” and if

1925 edition of Yachting Monthly:

Jacobs played a part, like many others before and since, the extent is

“During Cowes Week in 1922 the Mermaids attracted considerable interest. Small classes were beginning to revive after the war, and new

now forgotten.”

Every designer develops earlier designs. Every designer works

classes were being thought of. The Hamble River OD Class, after

with colleagues. Every designer has competitors to copy. Perhaps

several successful seasons, was dying a natural death, and it was to

someone has more evidence of Louis Jacobs’ influence on the design

the owners of this class that the Mermaids especially appealed.

of the Sunbeam?

Captain Basil Lubbock, who was captain of the Hamble RODs, struck while the iron was hot.

Whilst the enthusiasts were still afloat at the end of the summer,

Meanwhile the beautifully designed Sunbeam fleet goes from strength to strength; this year with 27 racing in the Solent and about 15 more racing in Falmouth.

he promised to build a new class himself and managed to get two

Peter Nicholson, owner of Dainty V1, author of The Brilliance of

others to do the same. This bold stroke was made when matters were

Sunbeams

V is for…

Sunbeam Bit of a typo this month with the Victory

West Solents in Spain Thank you for great pictures of WS in latest magazine.

I am a friend of Brian May, I met 15 years ago. And the owner

class aiming for a buoy. They are

of a WS, Natica 1928 W 23. Here in Menorca we have a fleet of

Sunbeams, otherwise Mag is excellent as

three with Winnie Marie and Black Adder W18. If you need more

usual.

information or pictures I could send you via Whatsapp.

Ian Campbell

Not sure I will be able to race Copa del Rey next week??

Thank you Ian. We know this very well, but

Winnie Marie will.

make the same mistake every time. Nice

Patrick de La Chesnais, Menorca, Spain

to know someone’s keeping us in line! Ed

We Clean your Sails and Covers to find out more visit www.tiptopsails.co.uk 78

CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2021

BEN HARRIS & CO Wooden boat building in Cornwall Newbuild, Restoration, Repair

OLIVER’S SAILING HOLIDAYS on the Norfolk Broads

Traditional sailing yachts for hire.

Luxury bedding, shower and blown air heating.

To find out more or to book your perfect sailing holiday visit www.oliverssailingholidays.co.uk

www.benharrisboats.co.uk info@benharrisboats.co.uk tel: 07570 780 864 CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2021

79

Next month CELEBRATING CLASSIC BOAT’S 400 ISSUES I MAY BE SOME TIME…

SAILING TODAY WITH YACHTS & YACHTING OLYMPICS: BUMPER SOUVENIR SPECIAL

But Captain Oates’s Sibbick yawl Saunterer,

with

which we last visited a

OCTOBER 2021 £4.95

SAILING BOOM!

decade ago, is now fully restored and looking

  

just as she did a

BOAT TEST

KRAKEN 50 Tradition in a modern package

Boat sales rocket Regattas sold out Cruising staycations are in!

HANDLING OVERFALLS How to sail in rough water PROPELLERS Sail faster + save fuel

century ago.

TOKYO 2020 BEHIND THE SCENES Our man in the boatpark

SAIL TO CANARIES Passage planning

STANDING ROOM FOR A BOTTLE OF GIN

 Sailing boom: boat sales rocketing, regattas sold out and cruising staycations all the rage

purposes only: to accommodate a bottle of gin and to win races.

restored Fairey Huntsman 28, the type used in the boat

 Family transatlantic passage on a catamaran

A round-up of the summer’s

 On test: Kraken 50

sailing, from Washington to the

 Propellers: sail faster, save fuel

East Coast; a century of the British American Cup – like the AC but for 6-Metre yachts; the best new books; and much more

with Love. This one’s called Flower Power.

Friday 15 October, 2021

30 YEARS AGO OCTOBER 1991, CB39 One of the interesting thing about our issues from three decades ago is the broader variety of covers. Here’s an example of a drawn front cover, in this case a watercolour painting by none less a figure than Charles Napier Hemy, the great 19th-century marine painter. Two other things that are different about that cover to our MO today: it’s framed, as all early cover images were, and it doesn’t relate to anything inside the magazine. These days, it’s always a photo, it’s always colour, it’s always ‘full bleed’ (IE the photo takes up all the cover, bar the masthead at the top and the strip at the bottom) and it always relates to something inside the magazine. Now, if you’re reading this magazine, you’ll be the first to agree that not all evolution represents progress – and there are certainly many things about the magazine that were brilliant and, for one reason or another, now departed. But I do think our current thinking on covers is right: full-bleed so you get a fuller image; relating to a feature inside, so it does, as Ronseal say, what it says on the tin; and always in full colour, because classic boats are contemporary things, not forgotten artefacts from the photo albums of the deceased. One other – unofficial – rule: cover boats are always sailing boats! But you know what they say about rules…

CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2021

 Plan your passage to the Canaries

 Tokyo: behind the scenes

Or why not subscribe?

80

18/08/2021 11:07

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ST+Y&Y October Cover 227.indd 1

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With the imminent release of Daniel Craig’s las

FASTNET PASTING!

Races within the race

IN THE OCTOBER ISSUE

well for RORC, but this 1960,

THE NAME’S POWER… FLOWER POWER

FAMILY TRANSAT

Big cat adventure

Available online or order now post-free from chelseamagazines.com/shop

Considering an Electric Outboard?

“Using a well-engineered electric outboard has been a revelation.’’

TOM CUNLIFFE Classic Boat

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

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

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

› Power Forget slow speed “trolling motors”, these 1kW electrics have huge torque (more like a 3hp petrol). › Range There are many variables, but most users achieve at least 9 to 10 nautical miles per charge, at 4 to 5 knots (2.5m inflatable dinghy).

Much more if you slow down a little. › Reliability Many outboard motors don’t get used very often, and small petrol motors hate this. Electric outboards have fewer parts in general, and in particular there’s no carburettor to “gum up”.

Of course, it’s not all perfect. The range may still not be enough for some users.

And they’re undeniably More Expensive than petrol outboards, mostly because lithium batteries are expensive. But that extra upfront cost is largely offset by their Lower Lifetime Running Costs, including (almost) No Servicing.

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

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

Sternpost Deja vu all over again

Sailors’ anecdotes can be enough to drive you from drink, thinks Dave Selby

T

he reason sailors drink so much is because they have to close to the meat slicer. What’s more, he had to contend with a listen to one another’s anecdotes - again, and again, and sticky wheel which made the helm all but unhandlable. Looming again. ahead was the chill cabinet – where temperatures are so perilously In fact, it’s enough to drive you from drink. The picturesque low they can keep things cool. At the last moment he shifted a Butt & Oyster pub in Pin Mill on the Orwell is anecdote central. large swede and Shiraz wine box up to starboard and rounded up On the south coast you have the Jolly Sailor in Hamble. At the just inches from the potatoes – a foot further and then he’d have centre of every little cell of steaming sea-school Mustos (down had his chips! south it’s Henri Lloyds and Louis Vuitton) there’s a ruddy-faced Danger is a vital part of nautical twaddle. With non-sailing raconteur saying: “Did I ever tell you about....?” Whatever’s deaf mutes, in many ways the ideal audience, there’s no need to lay coming the answer is yes, but no one says “well actually, you did,” it on too thick. But with your boaty peers, exaggeration is vital. because through lengthy counselling and When I go sailing I tend to medication in the form of go somewhere, then come strong beer they’ve back again. Along the managed to suppress way I sometimes have the memory. The a bit of a kerfuffle, trouble is it comes or may be even a flooding back the to-do. Afterwards moment the story I like to pop in starts, and in no time my ear plugs everyone’s lost the will and pop into to live. the bar which is And it gets worse, thronging with ‘cos most wellthe crew of the seasoned caskother boats that matured have shared the anecdotalists have water. been whacked on You the bonce by their wouldn’t believe booms one too the day they’ve many times. As a had. First off, the result they live their benign Force 3 that lives in a never-ending loop of wafted me lazily along turned repetition that makes your average parrot sound like an out to be Force 42, gusting 103, on their bit of water. What’s more accomplished after-dinner speaker. Confronted by one of these they’d barely escaped the snake-haired Medusas of West Mersea, bards locked in their 20-minute spin cycle you’ll lose even the will when they were boarded by pirate skeleton swordsmen (from to die. It’s that bad.

Tollesbury, by the look of them), before being attacked by a The worst of it all is that it’s total twaddle. Yet it seems to me two-headed sea serpent. Fortunately that was killed by a giant that for a lot of people the real point of sailing is all about octopus, which then tried to crush the boat and drag it under into gathering anecdotes to inflict on others. Little does it matter that the inky murk. The whirlpool tore its tentacles free, but then they mostly nothing much happens. I gave up scribbling were sucked down into an Antlantean underworld in narrative logs of my little potterings a while back ‘cos a different time-space dimension ruled by scaly mostly they contained profundities like “nice cheese fish-people with gills. Somehow, and no one quite sandwich” or insights such as “the water seems quite knows how, they popped back up just outside watery today.”

Bradwell creek in time for opening at The Green These really aren’t thoughts worth sharing – Man. Now that’s what I call a kerfuffle. they’re not even worth having. But that doesn’t Trouble is we’ve all heard that old story endless matter. The truly accomplished oak-aged nautical times before and, by the end of the evening, countless natterer could spin a trip round Tesco’s into a volume times more. It’s like deja-vu meets Ground Hog Day “These aren’t the size of the old A-D London telephone directory, all over again. but with none of the intrigue and drama (actually And do you know, it’s no bad thing. The sea thoughts worth E-K’s even better, with a surprise twist at the end, but makes dreamers of us all, sometimes makes us poets sharing – they’re I won’t ruin it for you). too and heroes to ourselves, Prince Caspians in a not even worth fairy-tale Narnia realm of romance and adventure.

You’d hear about a near counter encounter as the having” idiot at the helm of the give-way trolley forced the And why not? After all, it’s back to work on Monday. hero-story-teller in the stand-on trolley perilously Now did I tell you about....” “SHUT UP, DAVE!”

82

CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2021

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