Classic Boat June 2021

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JUNE 2021

T H E W O R L D’ S M O S T B E A U T I F U L B O A T S

CYNARA AWAKENS

PRINCE PHILIP

A life in sailing

Japan’s big

EVENTS 2021 Regatta guide

class rebuild

SCHOONER RACING On board Mariette

BUYERS’ GUIDE Top ten 25ft cabin yachts

PARISIAN SPEED Liuzzi runabouts 90 YEARS OF THE BIG RACE

Round the Island

TOM CUNLIFFE’S SEAMANSHIP

Restoring blocks

ALTERNATIVE HULL TIMBER

Beech boats

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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 yet small enough to care.

Boatyard services by

PRINCE PHILIP PAGE 12

STEFFAN MEYRIC HUGHES, EDITOR

GOODBYE, SAILING PRINCE

You’ll have seen, perhaps, the funeral. You’ll have heard the endless tributes. You’ll have heard, again, of his politically incorrect gaffes, his loyalty to the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh Awards, his relentless diary, his modernisation of the monarchy; the list continues. In terms of sailing patronage, Prince Philip is irreplaceable, as Barry Pickthall writes in his obituary this issue. He was seemingly patron of every yacht club in Britain and as one commodore of a small dinghy-sailing club put it, “he actually turns up sometimes.” He did at the Royal Thames YC, where I overheard him cracking an outrageously nihilistic joke to a group of mates, before meeting for the obligatory handshake (remember them?). Philip will be missed by many disparate groups, such was his diversity of his work. He will be missed by his family most keenly, but by many people simply as a part of the tapestry of a nation. Our ‘affordable classic’ this month is the Flying Fifteen keelboat, and the photo shows him and Uffa Fox, another legend, sailing one. For sailors, it’s probably the most iconic image of Philip. Rest in peace, sailing prince.

COVER PHOTO: © YOICHI YABE

ISSUE No 396

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 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 Publisher Simon Temlett Group Sales Director Catherine Chapman Head of Sales Operations Jodie Green Publishing Consultant Martin Nott

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CONTENTS COVER STORY

4 . CYNARA The 1927 Nicholson ketch after a massive restoration 12 . REMEMBERING PHILIP Tribute to the sailing prince 20 . ROUND WE GO AGAIN The world’s favourite yacht race, the Round the Island, at 90 COVER STORY

22 . TEN AT 25FT Our occasional series continues, with cruising yachts at around 25ft 36 . WINCH RESTORATION Get those winches running smoothly with Tom Cunliffe 38 . EVELYN ANSEL We meet the new curator at the Herreshoff Marine Museum 40 . BOOKS ROUND UP The latest in marine publishing

4 22

CYNARA RESTORED IN JAPAN

10 POCKET CRUISERS

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42 . GLOBAL EVENTS GUIDE The best of races, regattas and other events around the world COVER STORY

50 . RACING ON MARIETTE Racing aboard the 1915 Herreshoff schonner Mariette in the Med

38 42 56

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56 . PARISIAN RUNABOUT The post-war Liuzzi runabouts, built to fly in Paris

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REGULARS

CALEDONIAN CRUISE Loch Ness by yacht DIGITAL PILOT What the latest tech can do

OF THE DUKE EDINBURGH

CROATIAN ISLANDS Charter skipper shares all

A life in sailing

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MASTERING WAVES Olympic coach’s top tips

ITALIAN FLAIR OF A LIUZZI RUNABOUT

COVER STORY

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REGAL RAMSGATE Insider’s guide for sailors

MEET EVELYN ANSEL

WE GO CHARTERING! How boat hire works in 2021

20/04/2021 18:07

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12 .

30 .

32 .

34 .

TELL TALES SALEROOM OBJECTS OF DESIRE ADRIAN MORGAN

36 . BOSUN’S BAG 62 . AFFORDABLE CLASSIC 78 . LETTERS 82 . STERNPOST

CRAFTSMANSHIP

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

OUR LATEST BOOKS P AGE 40

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

3

MADE IN JAPAN She was talked about for years as “one of the last big ones still left to do”. Now, the giant Nicholson ketch is back WORDS NIGEL SHARP PHOTOGRAPHS YOICHI YABE

2021 Awards WINNER

CYNARA

T

he extensive restoration of a yacht not far short of a hundred years old and a hundred foot long can provide a mighty challenge for any established boatyard, however skilled and experienced its labour force might be. And while the difficulties are on another level altogether when undertaking and completing such a project in a distant country with absolutely no previous history of such work, the 1927 Camper and Nicholson ketch Cynara is clear proof that nothing is impossible.

Cynara’s original name was Gwendolen. She was commissioned by HG Nutman who, in 1922, had bought the 1902-built, 92ft (28m) yawl Lady Beatrice, designed by Charles E Nicholson and built at Camper & Nicholsons’ Gosport yard – so it was perhaps natural that he should go to the same designer and builder for his new boat. Gwendolen was built with teak planking on oak frames, and with an elm keel, an oak stem and oak sternpost. After she was christened by Nutman’s daughter and launched in March 1927, the Hampshire Telegraph described her as “a fine specimen of modern yacht architecture, being up-to-date in its general design, accommodation, and equipment.” That summer Nutman cruised Gwendolen extensively, mostly along the English south coast. But the following winter – following Nutman’s death, so it is thought – she was bought by Valdemar Graae, a Danish businessman based in London who owned the Morgan Giles 6-M Dana, also built in 1927.

Graae used Gwendolen in a similar fashion to his predecessor before selling her in 1930 to American Herbert H Warden who renamed her Easy Going, took her across the Atlantic and kept her in Philadelphia. Just two years later she was bought by Sir Howard Frank who brought her back to the UK and renamed her Cynara, but he died soon after. Her next owner was the Marquess of Northampton who would keep her for almost a quarter of a century. Not much is known of her history in that period, except that she came second in Class One in the Coronation Race from Southsea to Torbay via Cherbourg and the Eddystone lighthouse in 1937, and took part in Cowes Week the same year and again in 1939.

After a couple more owners, the racing car driver Duncan Hamilton had her for four years in the 1960s

Above: Lord Northampton with Lady Northampton on the helm of Cynara

during which time she was based in Monaco where other drivers such as Graham Hill and Jackie Stewart were occasionally entertained on board. She also made a brief appearance in the 1966 film Arrivederci Baby starring Tony Curtis and Zsa Zsa Gabor. Her next owner, Warren Eve, took her to Bermuda and she spent a few years sailing between the east coast of the USA and the Caribbean before returning to Europe in 1972.

It was then that she came into Japanese ownership and in January 1973 she set off with a crew of 13 to sail across the Atlantic, through the Panama Canal, then across the Pacific, arriving at Misaki (about 40 miles south of Tokyo) after 195 days. She then spent many years cruising between the most northern and southern of Japan’s islands, and was used as a venue for weddings and parties, and for television and magazine photoshoots.

In 2001, Japanese leisure company Riviera acquired three Japanese marinas, and with one of these – Seabornia Marina, about a mile from Misaki – came the ownership of Cynara. She remained in commission and continued to cruise locally, but it then became apparent that she would greatly benefit from a major restoration.

In 2015, it was decided to take steps in that direction.

Although Japan is one of the world’s leading shipbuilders, companies or individuals with the skills and experience necessary to restore a 90-year-old timber sailing boat were non-existent. The sensible plan, therefore, would have been to ship Cynara back to an established yard in Europe. This was initially considered – with some focus on yards in Palma and the UK – before Riviera chairman Mr Noboru Watanabe realised that there was an opportunity to do something very special: to restore Cynara in Japan.

As a result of Riviera’s research into European yards, contact was made with two highly experienced British shipwrights who had been based in Palma for about 20 years: Ben Hobbs and Paul Harvey. After a couple of visits to inspect the boat, the two of them submitted a cost proposal and a basic plan, as a result of which, in February 2017, they were asked to take on the project.

Above from left: Cabin light and skylight adjuster; Boom end and mainsheet block; Teapots and glasses

6

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

CYNARA

Main and inset: Early sea trials in Sagami Bay

CYNARA

During the course of the restoration, a number of other European-based experts would be recruited: project manager Feargus Bryan who visited Japan for a few days every couple of months but otherwise remained involved from his base in Nice; Paul Spooner who took care of various naval architectural issues and layout changes, and produced detailed designs for a multitude of deck fittings; Chuck Demangeat who was responsible for the rig; 14 other skilled boatbuilders from a variety of European countries (“all amazing guys that we found just through random contacts,” said Paul Harvey; a team from Centreline Marine to lay and caulk the deck; and another team from Stirling and Son mainly to caulk, spline and fair the hull. In total, almost 50 people from a dozen countries outside Japan contributed to the project.

Various Japanese craftsmen also played an esstential part (of whom more in next month’s issue).

The first significant issue to be tackled was the fact that the hull was significantly hogged, by about 6in (15cm) over the length of the boat. To address this, the boat first had to be partly dismantled. The deck (which was to be renewed anyway), the interior joinery, various planks, the ballast keel and the false keel aft of it were all removed. A large H section girder was then placed under the wood keel and, by an elaborate system of jacks under this and in other parts of the hull, the problem was resolved. “It was surprising how easily a boat could be manipulated when a few key parts are removed,” said Paul. “But it didn’t all happen overnight. It was a process of tweaking, pulling and pushing for a couple of weeks until we thought she was in the right spot.” The 25-tonne ballast keel was also hogged, of course, but about a year after supporting the ends and laying about 8

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

CYNARA TYPE

Gaff-rigged ketch BUILDER

Nicholson LAUNCHED

1927 LOA

95ft 10in (29.2m) BEAM

18ft 8in (5.7m) DRAUGHT

10ft 6in (3.2m) DISP

91 tonnes SAIL AREA

3,920 sqft (364m2)

five tons of lead ingots on the middle, it was within about ½in (12mm) of being straight and this was finally resolved with jacks and with “a few swipes of the plane”.

Although most of the oak frames needed to be replaced, about 90 per cent of the 2in-thick (5cm) teak planking was found to be reusable with some minor local repairs after all of it was removed to assess its condition.

After the 18 naval brass keel bolts, between 1 1/8in (29mm) and 1 3/4in (44mm) in diameter, were all tested with liquid penetrant, four were renewed; and all 31 wrought iron floors were replaced like for like along with their centreline fastenings.

The deck was completely replaced with the new beamshelf and laminated beams in English oak and carlins in teak, over which 3/8in (10mm) Canadian cedar planks were laid followed by 3/4in (19mm) plywood and 3/4in swept teak planking. “We used the Canadian cedar to replicate the look of planks with a nice, clean, paintable, rot-resistant timber,” said Paul. “We didn’t want to cheat and router the underside of plywood.

Routered plywood always looks like routered plywood.”

After great efforts were made to save as much of the deck furniture as possible, only the round hatch for the sail locker aft had to be replaced, with the remainder undergoing subtle repairs and modifications including the renewal of the glazing. Similarly, many of the original deck and hull fittings were refurbished and refitted including the fairleads, portholes, ensign staff holder, most of the mainmast Fife rail, the steering gear and a pair of tall mushroom vents. Wrought iron chainplates were replaced with new ones in bead-blasted stainless steel, and new gunmetal hawsepipes were fitted. It is thought that the windlass – made by the Ideal Windlass

Main picture: Seating and table in the saloon Above left: Starboard aft guest cabin Above right: Main deckhouse leading down to guest cabin corridor

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

9

CYNARA

Co, East Greenwich, USA – was fitted after Cynara arrived in Japan, and this was sent back to Deep Blue Engineering at Millbrook, Cornwall for refurbishment.

A new main boom gallows was produced with a bit of help from a scene in Arrivederci Baby which clearly shows its previous position. Nine new Lewmar bronze winches have now been fitted – four of them electric – replacing just two non-original winches.

From the companionway moving forward, the interior layout consists of four sleeping cabins, two each side; a full-beam saloon with a dining area to starboard and comfortable seating to port; the galley to port and skipper’s cabin to starboard; a heads and shower to starboard; then six pipe cots and large table for the crew.

Modifications to the layout include the addition of ensuite heads and shower for the owner’s cabin to starboard and a guest cabin to port, and a new day head.

A riveted-steel bulkhead between the accommodation and the engine room had to be replaced as the bottom third was rotted through, while two similar half bulkheads in the crew area were saved. All of the white painted bulkheads were renewed, a decision helped by the various small layout changes and the fact that many of them either had a fair degree of rot or were “riddled with old holes from years of fittings being moved around.” The new bulkheads are framed in poplar (as were the old ones) and panelled with Tricoya, the latest version of MDF but far more durable, all traditionally joined with wedged tenons. The use of Tricoya provides “a certain symmetry,” as it was discovered the original panels were Masonite, a state-of-the-art product when Cynara was built in 1927.

The vast majority of the original Honduras mahogany panelling and furniture was saved, repaired and refitted.

Among the areas to benefit from new joinery were the panels around the saloon portholes that had suffered from freshwater ingress, a heads vanity unit, corner seats for both forward guest cabins which were on the original drawings but had been removed at some point and, in the crew cabin, the hull linings (which also had freshwater damage) and crew table. The cabin soles were renewed in Japanese oak. The interior lights, locks and door knobs were sent back to the UK where Duncan Walker of DW Yachting had them refurbished or replicated.

The engineering systems on Cynara were “a bit of a time capsule” at the start of the restoration. Her riveted iron tanks and lead piping – presumed to be original – were 10

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

Above left: Mr Watanabe on the extreme right, Akira Yokokowa the captain next to him Above right: Mount Fuji in background

still in use; her lead-insulated wiring was still in place, albeit redundant, with newer wiring retrofitted over it; and the engine room was “like the entrance to hell,” said Paul, “dark, greasy and gloomy.” The 25-year-old, 115hp Yanmar was sent to Yanmar in Japan for a rebuild but almost everything else was renewed. She now has a Cummins 5kw generator, a Schenker watermaker, Dometic air-conditioning, a Virifigion fridge/freezer, a Force 10 electric oven and hob and Dometic electric heads, with the addition of Japanese-style washlet systems.

BACK TO FULL GAFF RIG Cynara always had a gaff mainsail and it was thought that she also originally had a gaff mizzen, subsequently changed to bermudan, so it was decided that the new rig should be all-gaff. Towards the end of the project, evidence was found to indicate that the mizzen may have originally been bermudan, but plans were too far advanced to change, besides which the consensus is that Cynara looks and performs better all gaff. The spars – which had varying degrees of rot – were replaced by new ones in Douglas fir by Noble Masts; and almost all spar fittings were replaced with new ones in steel and bronze by Kinza Nautic in Mallorca. Chuck Demangeat renewed all the rigging, and new sails were made by Ratsey and Lapthorn, who almost certainly made the originals.

Mr Watanabe spoke about two major roles that Cynara will be fulfilling in Japan in the near future. The first is as flagship for the sailing regatta in the forthcoming Tokyo Olympics. The second is in keeping with Riviera’s Sustainable Project philosophy. “We believe in finding and acquiring classic things of quality, and preserving them for the next generations,” he said. “We are also committed to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. So Cynara will have another important role in helping to educate people about history, culture, diversity, and the environment.”

In 2028, Cynara will sail to LA for the Olympics, where the golf will be held at Riviera Country Club, owned by Mr Watanabe’s company and where golf was first played in 1927, the year Cynara was built. From there it is hoped she will return to her birthplace in the Solent then to the Med, where Mr Watanabe is keen to race her at Régates Royale, Cannes. “I can’t wait to show the beautiful Cynara to the people of the world and to tell them her story.”

See more on Cynara’s restoration in next month’s CB

Tell Tales HRH The Duke of Edinburgh The sailing prince, 1921-2021

BY BARRY PICKTHALL.

attack by launching a decoy raft with smoke flares that successfully distracted

During his 99 years, HRH Prince Philip,

the bombers, allowing his ship to slip

the longest serving prince consort in

away unnoticed.

British history, made a significant

In 1939, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited the Royal Naval

commerce to the environment, sport,

College at Dartmouth and Philip was

industry, science and youth challenges.

called on to escort their two daughters

He also had two personal passions –

Elizabeth (then 13) and Margaret, his

carriage-driving, for which he was a

third cousins. It was the start of an

MIKE WALKER / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

contribution to many walks of life from

former world champion; and sailing.

The sea was in his blood. Philip was an active participant at events like Cowes Week where the Royal Yacht Britannia would take pride of place in the deep-water anchorage in Cowes Roads. He was just as committed to the administration of the sport as an active

enduring friendship, romance and, in 1947, marriage.

COWESLIP The people of Cowes marked the union by presenting the Queen and Prince Philip with the Uffa Foxdesigned Flying Fifteen keelboat Coweslip (see page 58). This led to a

patron of the International Association of Cape Horners, Admiral of the Royal

Above: Philip at

for their biggest defeat and forced to

life-long friendship with the designer,

Naval Sailing Association organiser of

cowes on Yeoman

abdicate, and Prince Andrew was

who looked after the boat and raced

the Whitbread Round the World Yacht

XXI in 1983

banished for life. Philip, then 18 months

with Philip during successive Cowes

Race, and the Royal Yacht Squadron,

old, was evacuated in an orange box on

Weeks during the 1950s and ‘60s. Uffa

which marked his death with a 21-gun

the British naval vessel HMS Calypso.

was a famous character, who reputedly

salute from its parapets over the Solent.

His parents later separated with Prince

gave Queen Elizabeth a playful slap on

Andrew setting up court in Monte Carlo

the bottom when following her up the

while his mother, who suffered from

gangway steps to board HMS Britannia

schizophrenia, finished up in an asylum.

at the end of a day sailing, saying “Hurry

Born in Corfu in June 1921, the only son of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of

Below: Philip

Battenberg, he was in line of

sailing at

succession to both thrones. At the

Gordounston

his grandmother Victoria Mountbatten,

time, that was not a good birth right.

School, where

but then banished to boarding school,

Uffa welcoming Prince Philip back to

Greece was at war with Turkey and

pupils learned

first to Schule Schloss Salem in Germany

the dock after a long day on the water,

neither his Uncle King Constantine I

boat

which had the advantage of saving

wearing his nightdress, a woolly hat

nor his father covered themselves in

maintenance as

school fees because it was owned by

and bearing a candle in one hand to

glory. Indeed, Constantine was blamed

well as sailing

the family of his brother-in-law Berthold

ask “What kept you so long?”

Philip was sent to Britain to live with

up Ma’am, or we'll be late for dinner!”

Shortly before his death, I witnessed

COPYRIGHT MAJOR B VARVILL, GORDONSTOUN

Margrave of Baden, then to Gordonstoun

12

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

in Scotland, founded by Salem’s Jewish

BLUEBOTTLE AND BLOODHOUND

founder Kurt Hahn, and best known for

Philip became life patron of the Flying

its harsh, cold-shower start to the day

Fifteen Class Association, and Coweslip

and character-building outdoor activities.

is now on display in Edinburgh with

In 1939, Philip left Gordonstoun to join the Royal Navy, which proved to be

the Royal Yacht Britannia.

Another wedding present was the

the making of him. He graduated from

Dragon-Class keelboat Bluebottle, given

the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth as

to the royal couple by the Island Sailing

top Cadet, and by 1942 he was serving

Club at Cowes, which spent 40 years as

on HMS Wallace, where he was

a sail-training vessel at the Britannia

promoted to First Lieutenant, at 21, one

Royal Naval College. She is the only

of the youngest in the service. A year

British Dragon to have won an Olympic

later, during the invasion of Sicily, he

medal, taking bronze under Graham

saved his ship from a night bomber

Mann at the 1956 Melbourne games.

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

Now aged 72, Bluebottle is undergoing a full restoration by David Heritage Racing Yachts on the Isle of Wight and it is hoped she will be ready to attend this year’s Edinburgh Cup national championship.

In 1962, Prince Philip began to take an interest in offshore and ocean racing with the purchase of the 63ft (19.2m) racing yacht Bloodhound. Designed by Charles E Nicholson in 1936 and built

by Camper & Nicholsons, the yawl was KEYSTONE PRESS / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

raced by Philip and Uffa during that year’s Cowes Week. She would also accompany Britannia during the royal family’s annual cruise in the Scottish Western Isles and was used to teach the royal children to sail. She was also used for sail-training with crew charged the nominal sum of £1 a day. Bloodhound has also been restored and is on display with Coweslip and Britannia.

THE CAPE HORNERS

Above: Prince

MEETING THE PRINCE

In a tribute, Ashley Manton, chairman

of greeting. You will be happy to know

Philip and Uffa

During my time as yachting

of the International Association of

that the Royal Naval Sailing Association

Fox on the Flying

correspondent for The Times, I had the

Cape Horners, recalls Prince Philip’s

of which I am Admiral is organising the

Fifteen Coweslip

privilege of meeting Prince Philip on

commitment to his organisation. “HRH

present Round the World Sailing Race.

Prince Philip joined the IACH in the

The boats will be facing the difficulties

Below left: Prince

during Cowes Week and at Buckingham

1960s as an honorary member and

of Cape Horn early next year with the

Philip at Cowes

Palace where he hosted a cocktail

became our royal patron after the first

same courage and determination as

Combined Clubs

party for members of the Yachting

Whitbread Round the World Race in

shown by British Cape Horners of

1973/74. Until then, the association had

earlier days. Philip, Honorary Member."

only been for those who'd rounded the

"Thank you all for your kind message

He could not have made his

two occasions: aboard the royal yacht

Journalists’ Association – an occasion that prompted a 100 per cent turnout!

Below right:

A common conversation ice-breaker

British America's

horn in commercial square-riggers.

feelings about the admission of those

Cup 12-M

of his was to ask what tie you were

After the first solo roundings in

who would round Cape Horn in yachts

challenger

wearing – woe betide you if it had been

yachts, the UK branch of the

any clearer. He subsequently

Sovereign

borrowed from your father’s wardrobe

association started to discuss

presented the prizes at the awards

passing the Royal

and you didn’t know, because he surely

admitting yachtsmen. It was rejected

ceremonies in London for the first and

yacht Britannia

did! At Cowes Week, I had luckily chosen

out of hand by the HQ of the

second Whitbread races. For those on

during the 1963

my Kieler Yacht Club tie, presented to

International Association in France, a

the first Whitbread, Prince Philip

Cowes Week

me during the 1987 One Ton Cup on the

response that received mixed feelings

instructed the Royal Mint to strike a

eve of an explosive expose in The Times

in Britain. Shortly before the start of

bronze medal for every crew member

of cheating by the crew of the German

the first Whitbread in 1973, the Duke

who was on a yacht on the third leg,

yacht i-Punkt. The story became a

sent a telegram to the committee of

the one that included the rounding of

strong conversation piece with the duke.

the UK branch.

Cape Horn.”

At Buckingham Palace, we presented Philip with a photo of HMS Britannia looking like a fully-rigged ship, taken as a sail-training vessel under full canvas passed to leeward, showing just her bowsprit and three masts. “I’ll be

EILEEN RAMSAY / PPL

INGRID ABERY

sending that as a Christmas present to Willie Hamilton to show how we are economising,” he joked. Hamilton, MP for Fife, was a fearsome republican who used every chance to highlight the cost of maintaining a royal family. I fear he would not have seen the joke!

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

13

TELL TALES

MALDON

Fliming of the Essex Serpent A film crew descended upon Maldon, Essex to shoot scenes for the forthcoming TV series The Essex Serpent, an adaptation of the eponymous best-selling 2016 novel by Sarah Perry. The photo here, taken by Sandy Miller, depicts three Thames sailing barges – Reminder, Centaur and Hydrogen – moored at Hythe Quay. Claire Danes and Tom Hiddleston are starring in leading roles, with Clio Barnard as series director. There is no broadcast date at present, but the series will first be shown on Apple TV+.

Uffa Fox regatta next year A major regatta in the Solent next year is set to celebrate the work of Uffa Fox, 50 years after his death. It has been organised by the Royal London YC and Cowes Classic Boat Museum, supported by the Atalanta Owners Association and the

Keelboats get their own Round the Island

Cowes Corinthian YC and forms part of a series of events in Cowes from 18-21 August 2022. Racing will be for dinghies, keelboats and yachts designed by Fox alone.

The Classic Boat Museum will hold various events including

the organisers have announced details of the Windeler Cup, a new

by the Flying Fifteen European championships, organised by the

event for keelboats.

Cowes Corinthian Yacht Club from 20-26 August, 2022.

Fox died on 26 October, 1972, as one of the leading naval

The Island SC will run the new race on the same day as the Round the Island Race, Saturday 3 July, for boats "too small to

architects and sailing figures of his time. He was a hugely successful

safely participate in the annual circumnavigation of the Isle of

and groundbreaking designer of yachts and dinghies, sailor and author.

Wight to join in the excitement of the Round the Island Race

In 1928, Fox gained line honours in every race he sailed in

weekend". Boats from the Daring, Dragon, Etchells, Flying Fifteen,

Avenger, an International Fourteen and the first true planing dinghy

Mermaid, Redwing, Sunbeam, Swallow, Sonar, Squib, RS Elite,

with a good windward performance. Famously, Fox sailed her across

Victory and XOD classes will compete in a ‘Round the Solent’ race.

the Channel to Le Havre, in 27 hours, before winning a race against

The race will start from the Royal Yacht Squadron line off

the French and setting off home, arriving back after a 37-hour sail.

Cowes, around 08.30 after the main Round the Island fleet is

During WW2, Fox invented the Airborne Lifeboat, carried

underway. It will follow a course towards Hurst Narrows, around

beneath a plane and dropped by parachute to survivors of ditched

Western Solent marks, before taking advantage of favourable tides

aircraft. Many aircrews owed their lives to Fox’s invention.

to return along Cowes beach and finish back on the RYS line in

The organisers of the regatta have expressions of intent from 60

Cowes. The new race is named after the founder of the Round the

boats so far. Uffa Fox 2022 will run two weeks before the annual

Island Race, Major Cyril Windeler (above inset). See our feature on

Classic Boat Revival weekend at Bosham Sailing Club, which has

the Round the Island Race on p20.

traditionally enjoyed a good turn-out of Uffa Fox designs.

14

With entry open for the 90th anniversary Round the Island Race,

seminars and an exhibition of Fox’s dinghies. Events will be followed

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

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TELL TALES

ITCHENOR

CLAYTON, NY, USA

New Solent Sunbeam

Quest for speed Curators and staff are preparing an exhibition room at the

The 98-year-old Solent Sunbeam class welcomed its latest

Antique Boat Museum for summer reopening. The museum’s

addition to the fleet with the launch of a new boat at Itchenor

Quest for Speed exhibition showcases the history of powerboat

on 30 March. It is the 11th GRP Solent Sunbeam to be

racing, including Harmsworth Trophy winner Dixie II, various

commissioned. The owners of V72, Adrian and Nikki

hydroplanes and some of the modified Packard and Liberty

Edwards, have named her Serendipity, in keeping with the

airplane engines that powered them. The museum, sited on

tradition of having names ending in ‘y’.

the Saint Lawrence River, holds a collection of more than 300

solentsunbeam.co.uk

classic boats and thousands of boating artefacts.

See abm.org

Lynher 1896

Sir Alec on show A sculptor determined to honour Sir Alec Rose is organising an exhibition celebrating the famous CB ARCHIVES

circumnavigator in Portsmouth Cathedral.

A model of a proposed sculpture of Rose will be

Saved from the mud

Nancy Blackett turns 90

The original idea for a

Celebrating her 90th birthday this year, Arthur

sculpture of Rose was

Ransome's yacht Nancy Blackett was launched into

The rediscovery, digging out of the mud and rebuilding

turned down, but artist

the River Deben at Robertson’s boatyard in

of this Devon barge is now well-known and rightly

Vincent Gray of Chichester

Woodbridge in April, with a small, socially

celebrated, but until now she’s never featured in our

hopes Portsmouth Council

distanced party of supporters toasting the boat's

monthly Centenarian section, which has run since August

will change its mind.

anniversary with wine and a cake displaying a

2004. This summer Lynher will be one of a small fleet

16

on show this summer.

Rose sailed around the

sugar model of Nancy with a miniature Arthur

of ‘heritage boats’ that will take hundreds of Devon

the world solo in 1967-

Ransome at the helm, sailing past the Beach End

schoolchildren sailing, planned originally as part of the

68 on Lively Lady.

Buoy in 1930s red. Nancy was decked out with

Plymouth Mayflower 400 celebrations. The programme

Gray said: “Sir Alec

signal flags aloft, in spanking good shape with

raised £50,000 via crowdfunding last year and was set

had the pioneering spirit,

gleaming varnish, white topsides and rich red

to take place from 4-7 May this year, with 240 children

but he was also a quiet

antifouling. The Nancy Blackett Trust is planning a

going out with The Island Trust, The Bounty Project,

man. We tend to boast of

season of sailing in local waters as pandemic

Sailing Tectona and The Lynher Barge CIC. The

our achievements these

restrictions allow. The cake was cut and Peter

organisations have seven traditional wooden sailing

days, but I like the fact

Willis, trust president and former Classic Boat

vessels between them. Lynher is now actively sailed in a

he was a quiet person

deputy editor, dowsed Nancy’s bow.

charter and educational role. See tamarbarge.org.uk.

who just got on with it."

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

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TELL TALES

Q&A Maria Cospito, Head of Navigators and General Happy 100th to Navigators & General! Can you celebrate properly given the circumstances?

Thank you! We’ve had to change some of our plans but we’ve still been

Venice goes electric

able to mark this milestone. It’s our customers – some of whom have been with us for decades – who have

The city of Venice has committed to electrifying all its

made our centenary possible, and it’s

this milestone in our history. It helps

working water vessels by 2030, thanks partly to the

them who we really want to thank.

that we speak the same language as

Venice Agenda 2028 initiative founded by English

our customers. Like them, we have a

motoboat historian Kevin Desmond. The project, which

It’s an interesting time to be an

real enthusiasm for the boats we

will cost an estimated €154 million, will apply to the city’s

insurer. Have you been fielding some

insure, whether small or large.

well known vaporettos and water taxis, as well as other

unusual requests over the last year?

workboats, launches and ferries. The project to either

With overseas holidays hampered by

N&G only has 36 employees. How

replace or modernise the fleet will begin this year.

travel restrictions, people are thinking

many policyholders do you look after?

of new ways to travel and explore.

We have about 100,000 policyholders

Boats appeal to what many people

covering a wide range of vessels up to

want at this time – a sense of

to the value of £10M. We also offer

freedom and to escape outdoors.

insurance for UK marine businesses

We’ve seen spikes in demand for

such as marinas, sailing schools, hire

cover at both ends of the market,

fleets, boatbuilders and boatyards.

from small speedboats to large yachts.

Are we talking to sailors if we call up?

Have boat insurance premiums risen

One of the strengths of our business

during the pandemic?

is the expertise of our employees, eight

We regularly review the value for

of whom have been with N&G for more

money provided by our products,

than 20 years. Our staff have a

and based on it, we adjust our

passion for sailing, and the expertise

pricing models to ensure a good

required in a such specialist market.

outcome for our customers. We have

It is a real differentiation point for us.

done this even more frequently

More than that, it helps us understand

Tickets are on sale for the Plymouth leg of SailGP on 17-18

during the pandemic. Consequently,

how important it is that we deal with

July on Plymouth Sound. Ben Ainslie will lead the GB boat

some customers, especially in the

a claim efficiently to put customers

against seven other national teams helmed by America’s

commercial space, have seen large

back in the water as quickly as we can.

Cup winner Peter Burling. Olympians Nathan Outteridge,

premium reductions, while others

Tom Slingsby and Jimmy Spithill are among other top

less so if the risk hasn’t

What proportion of policyholder

names. Racing will be on F50 cats capable of 50 knots.

fundamentally reduced during the

claims do you honour?

There is a range of ticket options. Ticketed free access to

pandemic. As an example, we have

We are committed to paying all valid

the spectator area includes live race commentary, big

seen fewer claims related to

claims. We pay out millions each year

screens, merchandise shop, entertainment, immersive

grounding, and more claims related

to support customers with claims,

experiences, refreshments, and podium. There is also a

to fire, which tend to be a total loss.

ranging from the theft of small

premium spectator experience closer to the action with

While the key risks have changed,

outboard engines to the loss of

refreshments. There are on-water spectator options on

they have not disappeared.

prestige yachts. Paying valid claims

PLYMOUTH

SailGP tickets

spectator boats and a Bring Your Own Boat programme.

WORD OF THE MONTH

More information at sailgp.com/greatbritain

DOG VANE

and we’re proud of the fact we are

Coombs was strongly motivated by

there for our customers when they

the desire to help a wronged

need us most.

colleague. Is the company still on the side of the ordinary sailor?

What is your best insurance

Absolutely. Although a significantly

anecdote?

different company to the one

We’ve had two totally separate

on the weather gunwale, so as to be seen readily seen, and

Captain Coombs formed in 1921, our

claims that cows had eaten a

show the direction of the wind. The term is also familiarly

focus on customers has remained

customer’s boat. In both cases, the

applied to a cockade. Sailor’s Word Book of 1867

constant, and it’s their trust and

cows were attracted to the saltiness

loyalty that has helped us to reach

of boats stored ashore.

A small vane made of thread, cork and feathers, or buntin, fastened on on the end of a half-pike and placed

18

goes to the very heart of what we do Nav & Gen’s founder Captain William

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ISLAND SAILING CLUB

90 years of Round the Island Race To celebrate the Round the Island Race’s 90th anniversary, former Yachts & Yachting writers Malcolm McKeag and Barry Pickthall look back at coverage of the race through the years The Round the Island Race celebrates

Above: The fleet at

boat in the fleet. The tradition was

McKeag. The new-born paper was just

its 90th anniversary this year. The

The Needles, 2013

continued in 2019, by Jo Richards and

that – a folded newssheet priced at 4d,

crew in an 18ft (5.5m) bilge-keeler.

rather than a magazine – and with

first race took place in 1931 with 25 entries. Nine decades later, it is one

Inset: In 1930 Major

of the biggest mass-participation

Cyril Windeler

decades and passed the 1,000 mark in

1947 race got just three paragraphs and

events in the world, giving weekend

proposed a handicap

the 1980s. The centenary of the Island

the results. The ‘Big Class’ was won by

family crews the chance to compete

race around the Isle

Sailing Club in 1989 saw the biggest

Owen Aisher’s Yeoman and ‘the Small

against the sport's biggest names.

of Wight for

fleet thus far, of 1,813. It was exceeded

Class’ by Chris Ratsey’s Evenlode. The

‘smaller’ boats

in 2008 with 1,875 entries. During the

next year, 1948, year of the Torbay

come and gone, but the heart of the

pandemic, the 2020 event was cancelled.

Olympics, saw "the most successful race

event – a spectacular, challenging day

Could a pent-up desire to get afloat and

ever" with 81 starters. The Big Class was

out for ordinary sailors – remains.

the added draw of the anniversary see

sent round the Nab as well as the island.

Records have tumbled and eras

Back in 1930, it was Major Cyril Windeler, a member of the Island Sailing Club, who first proposed a handicap race around the Isle of Wight for ‘smaller’ boats, which at the time meant between 5 and 25 tons. Still organised by the Island Sailing Club today, in this anniversary year, a new race for keelboats will be launched in Windeler’s name (see Tell Tales, p12).

Peter Brett’s 22ft (6.7m) Cornish fishing boat Merry Conceit won the inaugural event, the first of many victories over the years by the smallest

20

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

"Peter Brett’s 22ft Cornish fishing boat Merry Conceit won the innaugural event in 1930"

Numbers steadily increased over the

another record fleet in 2021?

Our sister title Yachts & Yachting

paper rationed, so were words. The

By 1950 the race was growing. “Another record fleet [124 starters] and the most

(Y&Y) was founded in 1947 and has

successful Round the Island race ever,”

reported on every Round the Island

read the report. “As good as an ocean

Race since then. Looking back through

race and doesn’t take so long.” This tine

their archives sheds light on the race

there were photos to prove it. Year on

and on wider events. It debunks a few

year, the race and coverage grew – double-

myths and it reminds us, today more

page spreads of photos in 1953, with full

than ever, of the sheer fun and

results, and in 1957 an evocative photo

excitement of sailing in a big fleet.

of a becalmed start, spinnakers a-droop.

When Y&Y was founded, World War Two had only just ended and Britain

FREQUENT FLYERS

was still in the throes of wartime

Despite the great number of yachts and

shortages and austerity, writes Malcolm

sailors who have been around the island

EILEEN RAMSAY ARCHIVE/PPL

IAN ROMAN

PAUL WYETH:PAUL@PWPICTURES.COM

TELL TALES

more times than they can remember,

took part, beating all the

the number who have had their names

monohulls and setting a new

the entry list this year, there is always

engraved on the principal trophy, the

course record of 6h 46m.

the monohull record to crack. Mike

Gold Roman Bowl, is diminishingly

If no other multihull of her ilk swells

Slade has done it five times, first with

small. The delightfully named Evenlode

LADY WINNERS

is the first to appear a second time, in

Two women have won the Gold

racer Longobarda in 1996, then in 2001,

1947, repeating her 1938 win, while in

Roman Bowl, in 1954 and 1982.

2008 and 2013, with his swing-keeled

1966 and '67, Sir Max Aitken's epoch-

Helen Tobin was a prominent

100-footer Leopard, which reduced the

changing fin-and-skeg One Tonner

member of Royal Lymington

time to 3h, 43m, 50s. After eight years,

Roundabout was the first to win back to

YC and her yacht Babar, a

back. Prime Minister Ted Heath’s

Lymington Slipway 5-tonner cruising

Top: Selection of

Morning Cloud topped that with a

yacht took the 1954 race by just two

pages from Y&Y

was Thomas White Ratsey, in 9h, 51m.

hattrick from 1971-3 and the name

seconds on corrected time. That year

including Max

These days, even those racing in the

appears again in 1980. That was, of

the first over the line, Foxhound, was

Atken's Drumbeat

smaller classics class regularly beat that.

course, three different guises of

also owned and skippered by a woman,

Morning Cloud. Nonetheless, Heath and

Rachel Pitt-Rivers. By 1982, the race

Above left: The

the record to new levels in 1985 with

Morning Cloud are usually credited with

was attracting more than 1,000 yachts.

catamaran Snow

their 60ft (18m) wing-masted trimaran

having won the race four times, although

That year was one of the wildest on

Goose of wight in

Apricot, slicing 1h 46m off the record.

Heath was not on board for the first two.

record with Force 7 gusts, dismastings

1965 and (right) the

and blow-outs. Julia Dane helmed Glass

smack Alberta

If there is a King of the Island, the title must surely go to boatbuilder

Onion to victory, the boat designed by

Jeremy Rogers, who has helmed the

her husband Julian Everitt.

winning yacht no fewer than thrice – in

Ocean Leopard in 1991, on the maxi

it’s high time for a new record.

Tony Bullimore and Nigel Irens took

28s on the trimaran Paragon, a record that remained for 15 years, before

Heath, unbeaten

Pattisson returned with Francis Joyon

four-time winner of

to set a record of 3h, 8m, 29s on the trimaran Dexia Eure et Loire.

RACE RECORDS

same yacht in each instance – Rosina of

There are two goals: to win the Gold

the Gold Roman

Beaulieu, his own Contessa 26.

Roman Bowl for best corrected time;

Bowl (below)

A NEW ERA

The current race record-holder is

A year later, Mike Whipp and Rodney Pattisson reduced the time to 3h, 55m,

Above: Edward

2002, 2003 and 2006. And it was the

and to finish first, writes Barry Pickthall.

The first benchmark time set in 1931

Sir Ben Ainslie streaked round in 2013 in 2h, 52m, 15s in the solid-wing AC45 catamaran JP Morgan BAR.

The 25th anniversary race of 1961 saw

Ned Collier Wakefield with MOD70

274 starters and the dawn of a new era

trimaran, Concise 10, which skated

faster in 2016 with his MOD70 Phaedo 3

with, for the first time, a planing

around the 50-mile course in 2h, 22m,

and few believed the time could be

keelboat, the GRP Bristol 1, taking the

23s in 2017. Having started in the

Gold Roman Challenge Cup. And for the

second van at 0640, the crew were

and Concise 10 did exactly that a

first time, a catamaran (Prout Snowgoose)

back ashore by 1000 for breakfast.

year later.

Lloyd Thornburg went 30 minutes

beaten, until Ned Collier Wakefield

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

21

10

POCKET CRUISERS

Go small, go simple, go now.

Larry Pardey’s commandement calls as strongly as ever to those of a wandering spirit WORDS AND PICTURES NIC COMPTON

22

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

BEST FOR SHOAL DRAUGHT CRUISING KOTIK 23 LOA 21ft 7in (6.7m) Draft 1ft 10in/4ft 5in (0.6m/1.4m) Rig Gaff sloop/yawl Displacement 2,600lb (1,180kg) Construction Wood Price £19,750 Designer Iain Oughtred Plans classicmarine.co.uk Kit jordanboats.co.uk Verdict The unique Oughtred aesthetics in a cruising boat size

BEST FOR THE ALL-ROUNDER CRABBER 24 LOA 24ft (7.3m) Draft 2ft 4in/4ft 7in (0.7m/1.4m) Rig Gaff cutter Displacement 4,950lb (2,250kg) Construction GRP Price £89,950 Designer Andrew Wolstenholme Builder Cornish Crabbers (cornishcrabbers.co.uk) Verdict A happy medium from the master of compromise

PHOTO ON THIS SPREAD: MIKHAIL MARKOV

T

o build a boat of your own, or have a boat built for you, is as beautiful a dream as anyone could have. What could be better than to create or buy a beautiful vessel and set off on adventures unknown? And it doesn’t have to be a big boat. There’s a sweet spot at around 24-27ft, which is the minimum size for one or two people to live on for an extended period – or, in different set of circumstances, for a family to go on weekend cruises. It’s no surprise that there are so many designs to chose from in this size range, because this is rich territory for dreamers and doers alike.

For me, like thousands of others, the realisation that I could possibly build a boat from scratch and go long-

distance cruising came when I stumbled across a book by Lin and Larry Pardey.

Their first boat, the 24ft 7in Seraffyn designed by American designer Lyle Hess, seemed like just the perfect combination of traditional British design (specifically the Itchen ferry) with American flair (the extra sheer and wider beam). And of course the Pardeys proved the boat’s credentials by sailing her 45,000 miles around the world without an engine in 1968-79, writing numerous books about their exploits along the way. Significantly, perhaps, they then built a bigger boat to essentially the same design – the 29ft Taleisin – but by then they had the budget to do so.

Another aspirational and influential boat of the same era was the Frances 26 designed by Chuck Paine. The CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

23

10 POCKET CRUISERS

BEST FOR POTTERING AROUND THE COAST FROLIC LOA 23ft 8in (7.2m) Draught 5ft 10in (1.2m) Rig Gaff sloop Displacement 7,300lb (3,310kg) Construction Wood Price £150,000 Designer Ed Burnett Builder Ben Harris benharrisboats.co.uk Verdict A straightforward honest little boat, hand-built in Cornwall

story goes that the young Chuck was touring Scotland when he came across the local fishing boats and was so smitten he decided to draw his very own ocean cruiser inspired by them. The resulting Frances 26 was flushdecked and certainly had that go-anywhere look about her. With a slender hull and low centre of gravity, she was initially tender but capable of decent speeds once she settled in her groove. The design grew a cabin and eventually became the Frances/Victoria 26, built by Victoria Yachts in the UK. My own Victoria 26 was a lovely boat to sail, though with two adults, two children and a dog, we soon outgrew her. The boats are no longer built professionally but plans are still available from Chuck Paine.

More recent pocket cruiser designs include several variations on a theme by small boat designer Iain Oughtred. Ian first drew the 22ft 2in Grey Seal pocket cruiser as a trailer-sailer back in 1986 and produced a little jewel of a boat, sometimes described as a ‘small, double-ended folkboat’. A deep-keel version soon followed, which was in turn followed by the Wee Seal (4ft shorter) and the Roan Mhor (2ft longer). Then, in 2008, Russian wooden boat enthusiast Mikhail Markov asked for a longer version of the Wee Seal – which (if you’re paying attention) takes us right back to the beginning, except that the 22ft 3in Kotik (Russian for seal) is half the displacement of the original Grey Seal.

She’s also arguably the prettiest of the series – though for real ocean-going adventures, you might be better off with the heavier version.

When it came to building a boat for himself, French designer François Vivier chose a fixed keel pocket cruiser – though admittedly more for coastal cruising than 24

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

long-distance adventures. The 24ft 7in Pen-Hir is a traditional-looking sloop (gaff or bermudan) with accommodation for four people (though two might be more realistic). Looks can be deceptive, however, for the Pen-Hir has a modern-looking appendage with 1,322lb (600kg) of lead hung on a thin (but semi-long) plywood keel, making her deceptively close-winded and fast for her size. Vivier built his own boat out of environmentallyfriendly birch ply and has fitted her with a 2KW Torqeedo electric outboard.

A more traditional take on the concept was adopted

by Ed Burnett when he designed the 24ft Frolic for his father. He wasn’t trying to create an ocean-girdler: just an honest little boat for pottering around the River Fal, or wherever. “After all,” he wrote, “the things you are likely to remember more are the other boats you saw sailing around, the fish you caught (or didn’t), and the various noises coming from the mud, the birds and the river banks as the tide went out in your favourite anchorage.

The boat sets the scene – the fun you make yourself.”

Couldn’t put it better myself. The first Frolic was built by Hegarty’s Boatyard in Ireland, and the second (photographed) hand-crafted by Ben Harris in Cornwall.

On the other side of the pond, Arey’s Pond Boatyard has taken a traditional New England design and given it a thoroughly 21st century makeover. The Cape Cod catboats were designed to sail the shallow waters of Massachusetts, where their easily handled rig – just a single sail set on an unstayed mast – and voluminous hulls made them ideal work boats. Those same characteristics have turned them into popular pleasure boats, and it’s hard to imagine a 24-footer with a bigger cockpit. The strip-plank construction and fine joinery of

BEST FOR HOME BUILDING PEN-HIR 25 LOA 25ft 11in (7.9m) Draught 3ft 9in (1.2m) Rig Gaff sloop Displacement 3,970lb (1,800kg) Construction Wood Price €1,404 (plans) €13,147 (part kit) Designer François Vivier Plans vivierboats.com Kit bateau-en-kit.com Verdict Traditional looks with modern boat performance

BEST FOR TRAILING

BEST FOR EASY RUGGEDNESS

BAYCRUISER 23

FRANCES/VICTORIA 26

LOA 22ft 11in (7m) Draught 1ft/4ft 11in (0.3m/1.5m) Rig Bermudan sloop Displacement 1,870lb (850kg) Construction Wood Price £43,500 Designer Matt Newland Builder Builder Swallow Boat (swallowyachts.com) Verdict A lightweight trailer-sailer boat that blends the best of old and new

LOA 25ft 10in (7.9m) Draught 3ft 10in (1.2m) Rig Bermudan sloop Displacement 6,800lb (3,080kg) Construction GRP/wood Price $3,000 (plans) Designer Chuck Paine Plans chuckpaine.com Verdict A small boat with a big heart that will look after you whatever the weather

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

25

10 POCKET CRUISERS

BEST FOR COASTAL CRUISING, EAST COAST STYLE AREY’S POND CATBOAT LOA 24ft (7.3m) Draught 2ft 3in/5ft 6in (0.7m/1.7m) Rig Gaff sloop Displacement 6,300lb (2,860kg) Construction Wood Price $420,000 Designer Tony Davis & Bill Nash Builder Arey’s Pond Boat Yard (areyspondboatyard.com) Verdict A nice blend of new and old aesthetics on a fast hull

BEST FOR SAILING AROUND THE WORLD SERRAFYN

(Photo shows Taleisin, effectively a bigger Serrafyn)

LOA 24ft 4in (7.4m) Draught 4ft 8in (1.4m) Rig Bermudan sloop Displacement 10,690lb (4,850kg) Construction Wood/GRP Price €POA Designer Lyle Hess Builder Cape Gorge Marine Works (capegeorgecutters.com) Verdict Probably the most famous pocket cruiser in the world

26

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

the Arey’s Pond Catboat has turned this most functional of craft into something of a show-stopper. You couldn’t pack any more love into 24ft of boat.

There are of course plenty of modern GRP pocket cruisers to chose from. My first command was a Crabber 24 Mk I, which I sailed some 500 miles across Greece – including two memorable passages through the Corinth Canal. Others have taken these boats much further afield, including at least one attempted round-the-world voyage (James Hatfield, whose British Heart II broke up in the Southern Ocean, 1,200 miles from New Zealand).

Nowadays the design has been upgraded and improved so the current Crabber 24 Mk V bears little resemblance to the simple design I sailed all those years ago. The benefits are a steadier feeling boat with a similar displacement and draft but with many more creature comforts, such as hot water and a shower (!). Or, to put it more simply, a boat that you might feel able to live on for a while rather than just camping on.

A boat that takes this ethos further is the salty-looking Norfolk Smuggler. Designed as a big sister to the successful Norfolk Gypsy, the Smuggler was originally built by Charlie Ward and since 2007 by Neil Thompson.

Despite its 2ft 9in draft (4ft 11in with the plate down), the Gypsy boasts almost full standing headroom – or, to be exact, full standing headroom if you’re 5ft 10in or under. It’s also considerably heavier than the Crabber, which doesn’t seem to detract from its speed while giving a steady motion at sea. World-girdler? Perhaps not, but you’ll certainly look suitably salty while sailing closer to home!

Classic Regatta Classic Regatta Suffolk Yacht Harbour presents the 19th annual

Friday 25th – Sunday 27th June 2021

25 series – Sunday 27Saturday Juneand 2021 The main regatta will Friday be a three-race held over Sunday in Dovercourt Bay, Harwich Harbour, and the Orwell and Stour estuaries. An optional early evening race will take The main regatta will a three-race heldwill over Saturday Sunday in Dovercourt Bay, place onbe Friday in whichseries entrants compete forand separate prizes.

Harwich Harbour, and the Orwell and Stour estuaries. An optional early evening race will take place on Friday in which entrants will compete for separate prizes.

Photos: Emily Photos: Harris Emily & Harris Chrissie & Chrissie Westgate Westgate

th

th

Invitation to classic motor boats to join the weekend Invitation to classic boats to join the weekend To enter online and formotor event details, visit www.syhclassicregatta.co.uk To enter online and for event details, visit Entrywww.syhclassicregatta.co.uk forms via email or post can be requested from jonathan@syharbour.co.uk Entry forms via email or post can be requested from jonathan@syharbour.co.uk

syhclassicregatta.co.uk

|

+44 (0)1473 659 465

|

Suffolk Yacht Harbour, Levington, IP10 0LN

10 POCKET CRUISERS

BEST FOR THE TRADITIONALIST NORFOLK SMUGGLER LOA 25ft (7.6m) Draft 2ft 9in/4ft 11in (0.9m/1.5m) Rig Gaff cutter Displacement 8,820lb (4,000kg) Construction GRP Price £129,500 Designer Andrew Wolstenholme Builder Neil Thompson Boats (neilthompsonboats.co.uk) Verdict A boat that will stand the test of time

At the opposite extreme, weight-wise, is the BayCruiser 23 from Swallow Yachts. At just 1,870lb,

she can easily be popped onto a trailer and stored on your drive for the winter and yet has considerably more accommodation space than the all-out trailer-sailers we looked at in my previous article (see CB391). The secret is in the water ballast that adds a further 1,100lb of weight, turning the boat from a lightweight speedster into a more docile cruiser. The fit-out below is simple but airy, and pretty much what you’d expect for such a reasonably-priced boat. On the water, the boat has a purposeful look which really does capture the best of old and new.

If speed is what you’re after, then the Solenn 27 from the Franck Roy boatyard in France combines ‘neoclassical’ good looks with modern sailboat features, including twin rudders and top-of-the-range hardware and rigging. Optional extras include a hydraulic lifting keel, carbon fibre mast (finished black or with ‘pine effect’), laminated sails and an electric engine. With its slender underwater body, the Solenn 27 is fast rather than roomy, but the Cabin version has a raised coachroof and slightly more accommodation, providing more than enough space for a family of four to go sailing for several days.

It’s a long way from the traditional values espoused by Serrafyn, but then the world has changed a great deal since 1968. Different boats suit different people and different times. Hopefully there will be something here that inspires you to, in the Pardey’s famous motto :“Go small, go simple, go now.”

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CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

BEST FOR SPEED AND SHOCK VALUE SOLENN 27 CABIN LOA 26ft 9in (8.2m) Draft 2ft 4in/5ft 2in (0.8m/1.6m) Rig Bermudan cutter Displacement 3,263lb (1,480kg) Construction GRP Price €140,00 Designer Mortain & Mavrikios Builder Franck Roy (cnfr.fr) Verdict A wolf in sheep’s clothing, with a certain je ne sais quoi

Saleroom

By Dave Selby

BONHAMS

Ye Gods, it’s an ECOD Simply titled “First Home,” the subject of this watercolour and gouache by pre-eminent marine artist Montague Dawson (1890-1973) defied experts until it was spotted by east coast Strong likeness to the ECOD Chittabob

sailor Iain Stubbs, who’s convinced it’s one of the fabled East Coast One Designs penned by 1908 Olympic gold medallist GU Laws.

As an ECOD owner and class racing captain Iain should know, and the Maldon sailor says simply: “Everything’s right about it, I’m convinced.” Its identification is also a reflection of Montague Dawson’s famed attention to detail and the accuracy of his renderings. Remarkably, of the ten ECOD keel boats built – nine in 1913 and one later – all survive to this today, and all but one still reside on the east coast around

BONHAMS

Maldon, Essex. This painting, bought for £18,800 in a London auction, now graces the wall of an east coast home an ocean away in Florida, USA.

MECUM

A boat that really motors

In the 1950s, as American automobiles took on the

Coronado was actually a sturdy and well-crafted

proportions of “land yachts” there was an equal

plank-on-frame construction in African mahogany.

and opposite reaction on the water as

However, the hallmark sliding landau hardtop with

manufacturers including Chris-Craft and Riva

portholes like the ’55 Thunderbird was fashioned in

adopted US automotive styling flourishes with

fibreglass. At launch in 1955 Century ads

car-style curved windscreens, dashboards arrayed

proclaimed: “Designed in the gayest and most

with glittering dials, chrome embellishment and

festive mood, the new Coronado is truly colourful

plush two-tone upholstery.

and refreshingly styled.” In line with automotive practice the Coronado received major styling

boatbuilder Century which pitched its flagship 21ft

updates every two years, and just as with Cadillac,

(6.4m) Coronado as “the Cadillac of boats.” Indeed,

the 1959 Coronado is considered the defining

the Coronado came from the drawing board of

statement, with its glassfibre side appliques.

maverick industrial designer Richard

ONSLOWS

None though went to the extremes of Michigan

Naturally, motive power came from a land

Arbib who’d made his

yacht-derived V8, enabling the Coronado to hit

name with designs both

50mph-plus on water, with enough torque to start

for General Motors,

12 waterskiers in deep water, so the company

owner of the Cadillac

claimed. This 1959 example with Crusader V8 is

brand, as well as

coming up at Mecum’s 14-22 May Indianapolis

Packard.

auction, where judging by similar transactions it

Poster time capsule

could command $20,000-30,000. You won’t

These days Abazzia is better

get a ’59 Cadillac convertible for that.

known as the Croatian resort of

Though appearing to be made of glassfibre, the

ONSLOWS

Opatija, but in 1912 as a playground for the rich and wealthy of the Austro-Hungarian empire, it hosted a powerboat regatta while war clouds gathered over Europe. The hedonism of this era is captured in this superb and rare graphic poster that survives as a memento of a world on the precipice of chaos. By noted artist Stefanie Glax, it commanded MECUM

£3,060. Onslows’ next specialist

30

poster auction is on 28 May.

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

Grote Kerkstraat 23 • 1135 BC Edam, The Netherlands • Telephone: +31 (0) 299 315 506 • info@hoekbrokerage.com www.hoekbrokerage.com

HEAVEN CAN WAIT Please take a moment to check the latest on the yacht HEAVEN CAN WAIT. This beautiful 72 ft yacht is reminiscent of the J-Class yachts of the 30’s. Her layout boasts a large seating area in the saloon, a master stateroom with a king-sized bed with en-suite bathroom, the guest cabins sleep 3 on starboard and 2 single bunks on port side.

The crew cabin with access to deck has a berth and one folding berth with toilet and shower.

HEAVEN CAN WAIT is located in northern Germany and has successfully sailed in the Mediterranean, the US East Coast and the Caribbean for many years and is also suitable for long ocean trips.

Objects of desire STEINER BINOCULARS Hard to say why a pair of binoculars is so acutely desirable a gift, but maybe these new Steiners give some hint. Every bit as rugged and scientific as we’ve come to expect from the German manufacturer, the new Navigator range boasts a greater field of view, a rubber grip with particular water-repellence and the product is said to be waterproof to five metres. You can choose to have an integrated analogue compass, which is liquid-damped to absorbs ‘large shocks’ on deck, and there is also an integrated bearing marker to “leave nothing to be desired by the demanding sailor”. From £399

intro2020.co.uk/steiner

AQUARAMA MODEL

“The plaything of the very rich back in the 1950s,” says manufacturer Ionian Interiors. “The Côte d’Azur, Cannes, Monaco, Lago di Como… A beautiful model to remind you of that elusive dream.”£545

ionianinteriors.com

SHACKLE PENDANT

SAILING T-SHIRT

Terribly chic or simply ludicrous –

equipment. Your home port can be

we’re not quite sure which. Either

marked with a colour ‘pin’. Made from

way this shackle pendant will help

‘super quality, 100 per cent cotton’ and

bolster your nautical credentials

printed with solvent-free ink. £25

In this personalised t-shirt, the British Isles are rendered in sailing tools and

while ashore, while on the boat it

sight-hound.co.uk

may come in handy when attaching the main halyard. A ‘wonderful mix of silver and steel’, says the manufacturer. Strung on a 28in silver-plated snake chain £30

factoryfloorjewels.com

ROBBE & BERKING CHAMPAGNE FLUTE You can get your hands on one of these elegant silverplated flutes by winning the Centenarian of the Year prize in our Classic Boat Awards. Robbe & Berking generously donates the prize each year to the winning boat. For everyone else, they’re from the fine German silversmiths’ Belvedere Bar Collection.

“The Belvedere drinking vessels resemble the cannelures of antique columns,” says Robbe and Berking. “Their simultaneously modern and fresh appearance gives them a very special character.”

Who would disagree? From €284.

shop.robbeberking.com 32

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

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CHARLOTTE WATTERS

Adrian Morgan

A tender bonfire

The old boss is on fire. The new boss is coming

T

he time had come to face facts: time the boat I have had for over 30 years was given a decent send off, a fiery end to many happy memories.

It had followed us through memorable trips around the Solent, West Country, Western Isles and twice, faithfully across the Channel, and up the estuaries of Brittany. It would seldom cause any fuss, in fact you could pretty much forget about it, safe in the knowledge that any water that came over the bow would drain away. There was never much danger of it flipping, unless swamped by a particularly steep following sea, which did happen once.

Like a faithful hound, it always kept close, never once breaking away, but then it had a good , strong lead that kept its nose up even that day in mid-Channel when we left Roscoff after a gale and met the remnants of a rolling swell, and a school of dolphins too, I remember.

We shared good times, and bad, like the day we almost

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CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

‘Like a faithful hound, it always kept close, never once breaking away’

lost it on another Brittany cruise. And funny ones: the West Coast with our pointer Bran, at anchor. In the morning we found him alone on board, having jumped off in the night. He was standing in the bows looking mournful and abandoned, but in truth it was his choice.

My father an I built the boat together at the family home. It was one of a number of boats we built over the years. As an architect, he had an eye for shape and purpose, and when I said Sally needed a 7ft dinghy, rather than cutting off the transom of an 8ft dinghy, he shaped and squeezed the bow sections to produce the sweetest little tender – and tender it was – that could also fit neatly on Sally’s foredeck, not that we often did, because Tippy was happiest planing along in Sally’s wake, dry as a bone, thanks to an innovation I took from dinghy transom flaps: water gets in, water drains out, fast, unless you take that time off Isle de Batz.

There were two of us on board and as I drew the waterlogged upturned hull closer I remember saying to James: “I’m going to snap the bumpkin” which is exactly what happened, the bumpkin being the little oaken spar that carries the backstay, or preventer as Laurent Giles called it, clear of the leech which stops the mast going over the bow. We had runners on at the time, and being close hauled, the mainsheet took over.

The task of finding a replacement lead us up a French river to a boatyard where I found a piece of iroko. While the others went ashore for moules and pastis, I spent a happy afternoon whittling it down to match the broken one. By the time they returned it was fitted and varnished, and 20 years later it’s still doing its job keeping Sally’s mast up.

The dinghy itself had an interesting history. The hull we cut down was drawn by one of the greatest dinghy designers of the last century, John Westell. Those who know the 505, arguably the prettiest racing dinghy, will be familiar with the name. The magazine I worked for had asked him to draw a plywood tender that could be made, buoyancy, seats and all, from two standard sheets of plywood, and he did.

The prototype was built by a pukka Cowes yard, and equipped with rudder, daggerboard and junior windsurfer rig on a carbon mast, looked so sweet on the beach where the photos were taken that would announce its availability to readers of the magazine.

The next photos showed a terrified features editor hurtling down the Medina aboard a barely controllable 8ft dinghy, enough evidence for the editor to put his foot down. “Too tippy. We’d drown our readers,” and thus a boring, stable alternative using three sheets of ply was born, which looked much like all the other boring, stable little tenders. And nothing like that first Tippy, and the little derivative that followed Sally so faithfully and which, repaired so often – once with a tea towel and epoxy in Portree – has now gone up in smoke, not before templates were taken. As I write, a replica is building in my shed.

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

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

Marina berth and 4000l of diesel included in the sale. 2018 survey. Bristol £85,000

35’ Sole Bay Motorsailer designed by J. Francis Jones and built in 1965. A substantial and purposeful cruising boat with comfortable accommodation and excellent sea keeping abilities. inside and outside helm positions. Ketch rig with gaff main and Bermudan mizzen. Iveco 90hp diesel gives 7.5 knots cruising speed. 4 berths in 2 cabins plus saloon and wheelhouse. Smart boat ready to go. Kent £35,000

25’ Itchen Ferry design built by Berthons as a yacht in 1926. Pitch pine hull with all bronze and copper fastenings. Major rebuild in 1990’s, very nicely maintained since. Vetus 16hp diesel installed 2009.

Very smart boat with varnished teak interior and 2 single berths plus heads and galley. Hants £24,500

18’6” Mevagissey Tosher built by Frazier of Mevagissey in the 1930’s. Pitch pine on oak hull with plywood decks. 2 mast standing lug rig with tan sails. Beta Marine 10hp twin cylinder diesel fitted 2006. Pretty boat with a deep safe cockpit and complete with road trailer for inexpensive time afloat. Cornwall £6,500

78’ Brig Rigged Sailing Ship well known for her film and television roles. Built in Denmark in 1929, converted to her current configuration in 1988.

Major refit work underwater in February 2021, recent survey for MCA Category 2 commercial licence. Rig and engine overhauled in 2019, recaulked and some new planks in 2021. Interesting ship with many potential roles. Cornwall £395,000

27’ Wooden motor yacht professionally built in 2014. Scandinavian style design, clinker planked in Larch on oak frames. Vetus 42hp diesel with low hours. Integrated Simrad electronics. Lovely accommodation with a double berth foreard and single in the saloon. Full standing headroom throughout. Very comfortable coastal or canal cruising boat in superb condition. Dorset £45,000

54’ Silvers Brown Owl motor yacht designed by John Bain and built by Silvers Marine in 1934. Teak hull planking and teak superstructure, the best money could buy at the time. Twin Cummins diesels. 4 sleeping cabins plus 2 heads. Well cared for in current 25 year ownership, cruised every summer around the Brittany coast and professionally maintained each winter. Brittany £145,000

40’ Sparkman and Stephens Finisterre yawl built at the Wing on Shing Shipyard, Hong Kong in 1960.

Full length teak planking makes her a very durable vessel. Extensively cruised in present 30 year ownership. Her shallow draft of only 4’ when the centreplate is up is very attractive. Lovely original interior with 5 berths and good headroom. A quality yacht for sensible money. Wales £39,500

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.

BOSUN’S BAG PRACTICAL TIPS FOR THE TRADITIONAL BOATER

WORDS TOM CUNLIFFE ILLUSTRATION MARTYN MACKRILL

RESTORING BLOCKS When was the last time you noticed a set of blocks ‘clacking’ as you hoisted the gaff or sweated in your sheets? In case you don’t know, that’s the sound of patent sheaves whose bearings have stuck in one place and whose pins have worn. As the rollers are forced unwillingly over the resulting ‘flat’ on the pin, they clatter as they go. The friction is awful and it all happens through lack of basic maintenance. Yet looking after wooden blocks is one of the least onerous jobs on a boat. I actually enjoy it so much that I made a video about it at the weekend and put it up on YouTube, just for fun. Like the jolly plumber in California whose little film showed me how to fix my domestic toilet flush, nobody paid me. I did it for what Julius Caesar once called ‘the general good’.

The block I used was a hefty one with three patent sheaves that was handed to me almost forty years ago by a fellow pilot-boat owner. It was too heavy for his boat. I had the same problem, so I carted it home and used it as a doorstop. By the time it made its first public appearance on the internet it was oiled to yacht standard, but in all those years I hadn’t stripped it down.

If you’ve never tried it, here’s how it works: • Get your tools together. For a big block you’ll need a heavy hammer, a drift, a container big enough to hold a sheave comfortably, some paraffin (kerosene) and a retired toothbrush.

If the pin has a cover over one or both ends, you’ll probably also need a suitable screwdriver. A few absorbent rags are a must.

• Inspect the block. If it has a traditional pin, one end will be square to stop it turning, and the other round. There may be a plate over the square end. If so, unscrew it and put it on one side.

The late Harry Spencer of Cowes used ‘ship ha’pennies’ for this, and very handsome they were. Other pricey units have various logos, but a simple brass disc is sufficient to make sure the pin can’t come out. Workaday blocks have no cover at all.

• The pin is now driven out by hitting the round end with the hammer and drift. You’ll have to set the block shell up on some sort of frame to allow the pin to drop down as you drive it. It’s easy for me because my bench has a removable section perfect for this job. A ‘Workmate’ mini-bench will do the same trick, but if all else fails, a strong plastic beer crate or a couple of heavy wooden chocks work fine.

• As you hit the pin, it will talk to you. If the sound is a thick, dull ‘thunk’, it’s starting to drive out and all is well. When the hammer bounces with a sort of ‘chink’ noise, it’s bad news. The

36

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

pin is not for moving and you’ll have to whack it a bit harder.

Unless the block is a hopeless case, it will succumb in the end to a dedicated effort.

• The pin will be caked in old grease. Submerge it in the paraffin bath and give it a good clean with the toothbrush, then wipe it on a rag and take a critical look. With luck it will show little sign of wear and be ready to go back. If the sheave bearings have been sticking you may find one side worn down.

Classic block pins are usually way over-size for strength, so if the wear is not too bad you can re-set the pin the other way up so that the side taking the load from the sheave is pristine.

Ideally, you’ll replace the pin, but unless your local marine junk store happens to have one with a square end that fits, you’re on a hiding to nothing. In extremis, I’ve been known to find myself a steel pin of the right size to drive in, fabricate a cover for what should have been the square end if it doesn’t already have one, and hope for the best. Blocks cobbled up like this have crossed the North Atlantic without mishap, so ‘nothing ventured, nothing gained.’

• Now, the sheaves. Some don’t have patent bearings, so just clean them and inspect for wear. Where the holes are really pear-shaped, take them to your local engineer to have them bushed, but this is rare.

• Patent sheaves are a delight. The centre carries a cage containing roller bearings. These cuddle up to the pin and run sweetly until the grease, which invariably has been overenthusiastically applied, solidifies and stops them turning.

Paraffin and the dear old toothbrush clean this assembly up easily. Dry it with the rags and you’re ready to go. If the bearing cage is breaking up from age and neglect, perhaps you’ll have to dig deep for a new block and consign the mortal remains to the snuggery wall in the ‘Bosun’s Rest (fine ales and spirits, licensee, Black Jake)’.

• Oiling block shells that take a hammering is better than varnishing them, and the ideal time for this is when the pins and sheaves are out. I used to hang all 55 from my last gaff cutter on lines strung round the back of my workshop. They were a brave sight swinging in the breeze and we could get coat after coat on them undisturbed - so long as we chose our weather.

• Reassembly is simple. A light smear of waterproof grease on the pin and ditto into the bearing cage. Slip the pin back in and drive the square end firmly but kindly home until flush with the shell. Replace any cover plate and that’s it. Do this every year or two and, no matter how young you may be, a set of traditional blocks will see you out.

MARTYN MACKRILL Son of a marine engineer and grandson of a trawlerman, Martyn is Honorary Painter of the Royal Thames Yacht Club and the Royal Yacht Squadron. His depictions of classic boats, from clinker rowing boats to Edwardian schooners, have made him one of the most sought-after marine artists, and his work forms part of major collections worldwide. He and his wife, Bryony, sail the restored 1910 gaff cutter Nightfall (CB328).

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

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

ENDS

37

EVELYN ANSEL

The new curator of the Herreshoff Museum was born by the water and has stayed there ever since WORDS STEFFAN MEYRIC HUGHES

38

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

C/O HERRESHOFF MUSEUM

The Wizard’s custodian

M

ystic, Connecticut, is almost as charming as its for a taste of the biggest job now faced by museums around the name, which is inseparable from its eponymous world: digitisation. “We had 18 months to digitise the entire museum that covers over 19 acres, with more collection – about 150,000 objects.” These objects ran from than 60 buildings and 500 vessels, from rowing chairs to pepper shakers to album covers and everything in boats to the last surviving whaleship, the Charles W Morgan, between. Today, every item can be found online. recently restored. For a town whose museum receives quarter of By 2016, Evelyn was living in Providence, Rhode Island and a million visitors a year, the population of just 4,000 is fractional. commuting to a new part-time job at MIT in Cambridge, Among them is Evelyn Ansel, the definition of a local, whose Massachusetts, the same commute that a young Nathaniel grandfather and father were both shipwrights at the museum, Herreshoff (as he spelled his name at that age) undertook when which also houses a considerable working boatyard. Evelyn was he was one of the university’s first students studying mechanical working there herself, by the age of “12 or 13”, volunteering at engineering, a degree he never completed. “I was hired for my the boat hire shop, where visitors can take out a rowing boat, or experience of fine art handling and preventative conservation” a small sailing dinghy to explore the Mystic River or go out on a said Evelyn, referring to the wealth of priceless original bigger, skippered boat. “The woman in charge of this, Sharon Herreshoff drawings held there. Soon after that, she started Brown, was great – and when things were slow, she’d tell us to working with the small team at the Herreshoff Museum, home to ‘go advertise’”. This meant, of course, advertise the boats by the Nat Herreshoff half-model room, haunted by the ghost of the taking them out on the Mystic River. The museum was also a great man, and sometimes by the real-life incarnation of grandson source of summer jobs for Evelyn, and by the time she went to Halsey. After three years of working at both museums, Evelyn college to study art, art history and chemistry, with painting started full-time at the Herreshoff Museum and she’s been busy. restoration in mind, she was as steeped in the sea as anyone her It’s easy to think of museums as static environments, but “things age could be. “I nearly forgot to say – I took one semester out to are coming out of the woodwork all the time”. These will typically build a 16ft pulling boat with my grandad in Maine!” be larger items: existing designs are held at the MIT museum and There was also the grant that Evelyn secured to do a boat the bigger artefacts – boat parts and more – are at the Herreshoff documentation project while working for Museum. her BA. This played to one of Evelyn’s Herreshoff has become a towering figure other interests: photography, or, in this in yacht design. Mostly, that is attributable “You realise that instance, photogrammetry, the use of to his pioneering work in yacht design, but when you get software to use an ordinary camera as a the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company 3-D scanner. It’s much cheaper than a was “so prolific for so long” says Evelyn. a boat off the laser set-up to do the same job, and from “More than 2,000 boats over six decades. moulds, it takes on the images produced, a boat’s lines can be They built the whole NY30 fleet in a an organic life” worked up in a CAD package. Using this single winter. It beggars belief. We think technology, Evelyn set off like a modernaround 28 per cent of that output still day Edgar J March, bag on her back, to survives. And 1945, when the company precisely record local vessels in danger of being lost to history. stopped, is still in living memory. It wasn’t that long ago. After Combined with her hands-on boatbuilding experience, this must Nat, A Sidney was very active in the transition to family cruising, have given Evelyn a keen appreciation of the way boats change which was becoming the main thing, as with the Newport 29, a shape, first at the build stage, then more gradually, throughout good racer but a good cruiser too. And there was such a huge their lifetimes. “You realise that when you get a boat off the range in the output.” From schooners to steam yachts to military moulds, it takes on an organic life. I also learned the traditional vessels to the 12.5, there really is a Herreshoff for most sailors. way to take a boat’s lines, with measuring sticks, from my dad.

The pandemic and working from home for a year allowed It’s similar to the modern way, a parallel I like.”

Evelyn to do the sort of research work that would normally be After college, Evelyn returned to Mystic and apprenticed impossible. This has included going through the Stebbens photo herself for 18 months to the end of the huge project to restore archive to find Herreshoff boats for captioning and crossthe Charles W Stanley, today the unofficial flagship of the Mystic referencing. And the museum’s regular lecture series is now fleet. “I never got past apprentice level by the way” she says with conducted online, allowing a greater range of speakers and a laugh. “I’m not classing myself as a shipwright!” audience, if less immediacy. As Evelyn points out, visiting a After the Charles W Morgan, Evelyn gained a Fullbright museum is a “privilege”, which it is from the physical ability to scholarship to work at the Vasa Museum in Stockholm, where do so or from a proximity perspective. To that end, she’s been she stayed 18 months. The Vasa, Sweden’s answer to the Mary emptying out all the boats in the collection and photographing Rose, was an early 17th-century Swedish warship raised from the the interiors so that those who can’t climb the ladders to peer deep and preserved over many years – in fact, work is still ongoing inside can still get a sense of the boats. But although digital and the museum attracts as many as 1.7 million visitors a year, resources can enhance the real thing, the future of the museum making it by far the most visited maritime museum in the world. itself and the objects in it is clearly the priority.

“It’s rare that national interest and funds combine to make The museum is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year and something like that possible,” says Evelyn, whose work here was the team has been re-organising the rigged models and the to catalogue and photograph the tools on board, from pocket awls America’s Cup Hall of Fame. “It’s a tiny museum. We all do a bit to joiner’s chests. After that, there was some part-time work at of everything.” Later this year there will be a big digitisation Mystic, followed by some archiving work for the Northwest School project to turn ‘Capt Nat’s model room’ into a 3-D virtual online of Wooden Boatbuilding in Port Townsend, Washington, then a tour. And what with the museum opening its doors once again move to New York to work at the Smithsonian Design Museum this summer, Evelyn is going to be busy.

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

39

A round-up 0f the latest

BOOKS Our regular round-up of (mostly) new publishing including, this month, a major work on Dick Carter, a cold-moulding bible and a knot or every day of the year REVIEWS BY STEFFAN MEYRIC HUGHES

A KNOT A DAY

BY NIC COMPTON Anyone attempting a book on knots will be instantly compared to the doyen in the red beret: Des Pawson. This new offering from ex-CB editor and current contributor Nic Compton is significantly different, being more of a fun compendium than Des’s erudite guides. Light presentation aside (it even comes with a rope keyring!), it’s actually

DICK CARTER YACHT DESIGNER

BY DICK CARTER In our April issue, we told the

an iron first in a velvet glove. There are, as the title says, 365 knots here, categorised into general, indoor, outdoor, magic, craft, fashion, decorative and splices & whippings. Shoelaces, ties, headscarves and hanging pots share the stage with all the nautical standards, and some from the climbing world. Fun, accessible and informative.

story of Rabbit, the small 1965 sloop that was the first design of American yachtsman Dick

Published by Adlard Coles, £16.99

innovative boat of his own

WOODEN BOATS FOR BLUE WATER SAILORS

BY ALFIE SANFORD

design, he won it again, his

Books like this don’t come

centreboarder finishing top

along often. Boatbuilder Alfie

in the Admiral’s Cup, which

Sanford started cold-

contributed greatly to

moulding the Alerion Class

overall victory for the US.

Herreshoff dayboat in 1977,

Carter, who entered her in that year’s Fastnet – and won!

Two years later, racing Red Rooster, an even more

Over the next decade, Carter and his

and has since also built larger

yachts dominated, winning successive World One Ton Cups with the likes

yachts using the technique.

of Tina, Optimist, Wai-Aniwa and Ydra, the Half Ton Cup with Crocodile

Cold-moulding is a method

and Two Ton Cup with Aggressive. During the 1972 season, Wai-Aniwa,

of hull construction using

skippered by Kiwi Chris Bouzaid, ended a great season by finishing top in

multiple, thin layers of wood,

the Southern Cross series, lifting New Zealand to win the team trophy.

Despite a lack of formal training in naval architecture, Dick Carter

best thought of as creating plywood in layers around a mould. Much of the book focuses on this

turned himself into a skilled yacht designer with radical ideas and a

build method and its fine attributes as a contender for assuming the

record of daring and continuing success. He was an early adopter of the

standard for modern timber boatbuidling. This is not, however, a

separate keel and rudder configuration in ocean racing and the first to

cold-moulded shop manual. Although this is a very technical book, it

introduce a trim tab to the trailing edge of a keel, an idea later adopted

begins with a celebration of wood’s inherent qualities and case studies

by Olin Stephens on his 1967 America’s Cup-winning 12-M Intrepid. Dick

of great bluewater cruising yachts throughout history. It’s all to easy to

was also the first to radically reduce weight and windage within the rig,

think, these days, that wood’s only quality is its appeal to the

pioneering the idea of internal halyards and shroud tangs. “They don’t

romanticist, whereas in truth, it is still arguably the best hull material in

even do that on America’s Cup yachts.” Ted Hood remarked at the time.

existence. As one table resulting from computer modelling shows, the

As John Rousmaniere writes in his introduction: “This story of the underdog

build method Herreshoff was using a century ago is still unsurpassed in

taking on the world and conquering it is often surprising, roundly

terms of given weight for stiffness and flex strength, with only carbon

entertaining, inspiring and instructive.

fibre sandwich snapping at its heels. For most, though, cold-moulded will be more practical modern solution – and it’s almost as strong.

Published by Fernhurst Books, with limited signed editions available from South Atlantic Publishing, £40 40

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

Published by Great Wave Books, £19.99

amusingly written account, which turned

NORTH BRITTANY & CHANNEL ISLANDS

BY PETER & JANE CUMBERLIDGE

out to be just the case. Author John

Here is the long-awaited update to a

Scotney, by all indications a wonderful

best-selling pilot guide covering the

English eccentric not to mention a lifelong

north Brittany coasts, the Channel

journalist, has written a very accessible,

Islands and the harbours on the west

lighthearted account of the build and

side of the Cherbourg peninsula. We’ve

life of the Mayflower II, a replica of the

not yet seen the book in the flesh, but

original built in Brixham in 1955. Just

it will be similar in detail and style to

An old friend put this in the post to me with the promise that it was an unusual,

see how the author describes the project’s two principal protagonists:

other Fernhurst pilots, so an invaluable

“One [the designer, William Baker], is a plumpish, shortish, balding,

guide to have about you if sailing those

bespectacled American in his middle 50s and a nondescript beret. The

seas, with info on everything from pilotage to where to eat and what

other, slightly younger, rangy Englishman is in one of those British caps

to do ashore. Authors, the late Peter Cumberlidge and his widow

that if worn by the working classes is called a ‘flat ‘at’ or by the upper

Jane, are experienced pilots with a love of this part of the world. This

classes, ‘a cheese-cutter’.” Humour aside, this is a complete, thorough

third edition is fully updated, and further updates are posted annually

account of a most unusual vessel.

on the publisher’s website.

Published by Brixham Heritage Museum

Published by Fernhurst Books £42.50

SOUTH SEA TALES

BY JACK LONDON London will forever be associated with

THROUGH THE FRENCH CANALS

BY DAVID JEFFERSON

The Call of the Wild, based on his time in

This pilot guide to the magical corridor

the Klondike gold rush. Yet London was

that whisks sailors from the English

foremost a sailor, first as an oyster pirate in

Channel to the Med along a delightful

San Francisco Bay, then offshore, in the

conveyor belt of plane trees, old towns

sealing schooner Sophia Sutherland. His

and gastronomic treats, was first

experience fed into his writing, notably in

published in 1970. This revised new

The Sea Wolf and The Cruise of the Snark,

edition is the essential comprehensive

about a South Seas voyage in his own yacht.

planning guide, listing over 50 routes to

Perhaps his finest nautical writing is here

the sun, with positions, dimensions and

in South Sea Tales, short stories garnered

operating times of locks, towns and

from his cruise through the area aboard the Snark. This is vintage London,

villages, bridge heights, canal depths, fuelling points, signals, a guide

so few characters emerge unscathed and the language is salty and

to the cost of living, shopping, sources of weather information, haltes

racially questionable today, but it’s a true, unflinching insight into a world

for overnight stops, ports de plaisance, new information on local

where human exploitation and savage cruelty were facts of life. SJ

facilities, VNF licence fees, holding tanks, diesel availability and more.

Various publishers, freely available from £7 upwards

Published by Adlard Coles, £25

10.25 Ð 10.25 SPINE: 0.315

FLAPS: 3.5

SAIL

BY DORIEN BROUWERS

REEDS VHF HANDBOOK

BY ANDY DU PORT

Sail is an illustrated poem that tells the

Operating a VHF radio is a legal

tale of a child who goes on a fantastical

requirement for anyone skippering a

$17.99 U.S. $22.99 CAN.

Dorien Brouwers

, in the darke st dep ths, ost beautiful disco veri es.

BRIXMAM’S MAYFLOWER

BY JOHN SCOTNEY

e t he a nc h o r Rais and away we go!

OPYRIGHT

en.

me crashing down,

d?

do is set sail.

here’s so much to explore as we grow:

trials, triumphs, and infinite

voyage through the wonders of the sea, future possibilities.

But when stormy seas arise,

taking all mishaps – a storm and falling through to calmer waters? ith gentle wisdom and

art that will sweep you

overboard – in his stride. It’s hard to know, away, Dorien Brouwers

beckons us to climb aboard and discover the courage, grit, and resilience that

rs

only legal requirement for someone planning to skipper a yacht, so the

in 2021, whether it’s intended for adults

ticket has always been a part of the

or children, and while the message of the

RYA Day Skipper course. Radio

book – one of hope and courage, sailing

technology is becoming more

resides within us all.

ri n Br

yacht with one installed. In fact, it’s the

how do we sail

4/13/20 3:11 PM

as a metaphor for life – is more suited to the latter, the illustrations,

complicated, but this guide will

which are glorious, will appeal to both. If the author’s intention was

demystify the equipment. The book

to encapsulate in one place all the appeal and fascination of the sea,

covers radio procedure, channel

then raise it to the level of a dream, she has succeeded. Here we have

allocation, VHF radio theory and more, along with a full explanation

swimming with seals in the darkness, lit by the loom of a lighthouse,

of GMDSS, including details on EPIRBs, SARTs and Navtex. The book

sailing over giant waves and blue whales, big ships and beaches, and

does not, however, give tips on style, so to assume the breezy air of

swimming with a shoal of benevolent manta rays. It is a complete

a frigate commander scanning the horizon for U boats, while speaking

delight and if you have kids or grandchildren, buy this immediately and

in the phoentic alphabet is something you’ll have to work on.

read it to them by torch or candle light.

Published by Reeds Nautical, £17.99 Published by Little Brown Books, £11.40 CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

41

CLASSIC EVENTS 2021 The British isles

SOUTH COAST

RAF Yacht Club, Hamble rafyc.org.uk

EAST COAST JULY-SEPTEMBER Barge matches

thamesbarge.org.uk 3 JULY: Pin Mill (Suffolk) 17 JULY: Blackwater (Essex) 31 JULY: Swale (Kent) 14 AUGUST: Thames (Estuary) 28 AUGUST: Medway (Kent) 11 SEPTEMBER: Colne (Essex)

25-27 JUNE Suffolk Yacht Harbour Classic Regatta

Levington, R Orwell, syharbour.co.uk Bermudan, gaff and classic power

JULY (DATE TBC) Heybridge Basin Regatta

3-6 JUNE Yarmouth Gaffers Regatta

Nr Maldon, Essex, jenny@pa-angels.co.uk Small regatta, over 150 years old

3 JULY Round the Island Race

24-31 JULY Annual OGA East Coast Race and Rally

oga.org.uk. Flagship OGA bash

IoW, roundtheisland.org.uk The world’s most popular race

3-9 JULY Cowes Classics Week

IoWight, cowesclassicsweek.org 100+ boats in many classes

16-18 JULY Taittinger Regatta

Yarmouth, Isle of Wight royalsolent.org Popular for mixed classics

17–24 JULY British Classic Week

Cowes, britishclassicyachtclub.org One of the top British classic regattas

31 JULY – 6 AUGUST Lendy Cowes Week

IoW, lendycowesweek.co.uk

20-22 AUGUST Cowes Spring Classics

Cowes, cowesspringclassics.com Broad-church regatta for classics

26 SEPTEMBER Bosham Classic Boat Revival Chichester Harbour, boshamsailingclub.com Popular classic dinghy regatta

42

10-12 SEPTEMBER Hamble Classics Regatta

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

Blackwater, Stour, Orwell, Deben Essex an Suffolk oga.org.uk

28 AUGUST West Mersea Town Regatta Mersea Island, Essex mersearegatta.org.uk Family friendly regatta since 1838

25 SEPTEMBER Maldon Town Regatta

Essex, maldonregatta.co.uk

14 SEPTEMBER Great River Race

greatriverrace.co.uk Docklands to Ham, 21-mile race for rowed or paddled vessels

WEST COUNTRY 29-30 MAY Brixham Heritage Regatta brixhamheritageregatta.uk Sailing trawlers and more

11-13 JUNE Falmouth Classics

Cornwall, falmouthclassics.org.uk Huge traditional regatta, 170+ boats

14–15 JUNE Helford Rally

Cornwall, oga.org.uk OGA event for boats at Falmouth Classics to linger longer

DATE TBC Looe Lugger Regatta

Looe, Cornwall cornishluggers.co.uk Big biennial event postponed last year, planning to go ahead this year

10 JULY Clovelly Maritime Festival Devon, clovelly.co.uk Shoreside with some racing

27-30 JULY Fowey Classics

Cornwall, foweyclassics.com Friendly event in a scenic setting

25-28 AUGUST Dartmouth Royal Regatta

Devon, dartmouthregatta.co.uk Modern regatta with gaffers class

NORFOLK BROADS

SCOTLAND

5-6 JUNE Three Rivers Race

Tarbert, Loch Fyne, scottishseries.com Not classic, but big enough to boast a number of classics in IRC

The Ant, Bure and Thurne rivers, 3rr.uk Wild Broads day/night race

THAMES

27–30 AUGUST Thames Traditional Boat Festival

tradboatfestival.com Henley, Upper Thames Biggest gathering of traditional river craft event in Europe

28-30 MAY Scottish Series

29 MAY – 5 JUNE Sail Caledonia

Atlantic coast to North Sea coast, via Great Glen, sailcaledonia.org A 66-miles Raid across Scotland

26-27 JUNE Scottish Traditional Boat Festival Portsoy, stbfportsoy.org

Rowing, sailing, 100+ boats in an idyllic place

11-12 SEPTEMBER Clydebuilt Festival

Glasgow, galgael.org Launch of new-builds from the GalGael Trust, skiff racing, etc

NORTH OF ENGLAND 13-14 JUNE North East Race Weekend

Blyth, Northumberland, oga.org.uk Members and non-members welcome - details to follow oga.org.uk

SEPTEMBER (DATE TBC) Ullswater Rally

Lake District, oga.org.uk Classic trailer sailers gather to sail in the Lake District National Par

WALES 12-19 JUNE Sefair Haven

Pemprokeshire, seafairhaven.org.uk Raiding for yachts and open boats on the Milford Haven waterway

10-11 JULY Conwy River Festival

conwyriverfestival.org Includes Nobby and Gaffers races

26 JULY-7 AUGUST (DATE TBC) Menai Strait Regattas Nr Beaumaris, Anglesey menaistraitregattas.org.uk Many classes

6-8 AUGUST Clywedog Rally

Llanidloes, Wales, oga.org.uk Dinghy sailing 1,000ft up a Welsh mountain

IRELAND 25-27 MAY Baltimore Wooden Boat Festival

baltimorewoodenboatfestival.com Major event in Co Cork for traditional timber sailing boats of Ireland

28-30 AUGUST Cork 300

royalcork.com Racing and more to celebrate 300 years of the world’s oldest yacht club

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP:GUIDO CANTINI/PANERAI; EMILY HARRIS; SANDY MILLER; C/O ORGANISER; CB ARCHIVES

After the great wash out that was 2020, regattas around the world are raring to go this year, and none more so than in Britain, around a few distinct sailing areas: the Solent, home of yachting, the East Coast, capital of the workboat scene, the West Country, with its big workboats and yachts and various pockets around the rest of the country.

CLASSIC EVENTS

Clockwise from Top: British Classic Yacht club regatta; Suffolk Harbour Yacht Regatta; Smack racing on the river Colne; Cowes Spring Classics reception; Falmouth Classics

CLASSIC EVENTS

The Mediterranean Centre of the classic world After all these years, the Med is still the centre of the world, as its name implies, at least when it comes to classic yacht racing. Despite a few date changes this year (Voiles d’Antibes, for instance, traditionally the season opener, has joined the late season monoliths of Saint-Tropez and Cannes for another triple-header like last year), mostly the events are planning to go ahead in their usual places in the season’s calendar

GUIDO CANTINI / PANERAI

14–16 MAY Calanques Classiques Marseille, France lanautique.com

21–23 MAY Les Voiles de Cassis La Ciotat, France portdecassis.com

11-13 JUNE Vela Classica Costa Brava L’Estartit, Spain velaclassicacostabrava.com

16-20 JUNE Argentario Sailing Week Porto Santo Stefano, Italy, argentariosailingweek.it

23–26 JUNE Superyacht Cup

Palma, Mallorca, Spain thesuperyachtcup.com

18-20 JUNE Les Voiles du Vieux-Port

Marseille, France, lanautique.com

24-27 JUNE Spetses Classic Yacht Regatta Spetses, Greece spetsesclassicregatta.com

26 JUNE – 10 JULY Trophée Bailli de Suffren

Saint-Tropez – Alghero – Mahón, tropheebaillidesuffren.com Classic Med passage race Top: Tuiga at the Monanco Classic regatta Right: Dockside at the Voiles D’Antibes

2-5 JULY Vele d’Epoca a Napoli

Naples, Italy, ryccsavoia.it Classic sailing regatta nr Rome

JULY (DATE TBC) Grandi Vele a Gaeta

Gaeta, Italy, yachtclubgaeta.it

44

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

JULY (DATE TBC) Puig Vela Clàssica

Barcelona, Spain puigvelaclassicabarcelona.com

11–14 AUGUST Regatta Illes Balears Classic Mallorca, velaclasicamallorca.com

23-31 AUGUST Corsica Classic (France) corsica-classic.com

25-29 AUGUST Copa del Rey

Menorca, Spain, velaclasicamenorca.com

2-5 SEPTEMBER Vele d’Epoca di Imperia Italy, veledepoca.com

8-12 SEPTEMBER Monaco Classic Week yacht-club-monaco.mc

15-19 SEPTEMBER Les Voiles d’Antibes

France, voilesdantibes.com Traditionally the May seasonopener, postponed this year

19–25 SEPTEMBER Régates Royales Cannes, France yachtclubdecannes.org

3-9 OCTOBER Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez

France, lesvoilesdesaint-tropez.fr Probably the jewel in the crown...

OCTOBER (DATE TBC) Gstaad YC Centenary Race gstaadyachtclub.com

LATE OCTOBER (DATE TBC) PalmaVela Mallorca, Spain, palmavela.com Classics and moderns... postponed from May

SUMMERWIND

100’ 1929/2009 Alden Schooner Lying Annapolis, USA Asking $995,000

CONSTRUCTION | RESTORATION DESIGN | BROKERAGE 1 Main Street | Rockport, Maine | 207-236-9651 www.RockportMarine.com/brokerage Summerwind Final CB add.indd 1

4/29/2021 8:57:12 AM

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

45

CLASSIC EVENTS

Northern Europe Something for everyone The north of Europe is a mixed bag, more so than the Med, with everything from huge maritime festivals like Brest to the sleeker side of yachting, this year embodied by world championships in the evocative 12-M and 8-M classes, as well as a European championship in the 6s. The spectacular Golfe du Morbihan was sadly cancelled due to covid just as we went to press – but there’s still plenty on Top: The 12 Metre Flica II and Robbie and Berking motor launch at Flensburg Right: The hugely popular RoundGotland Race

CB ARCHIVES

SWEDEN AND FINLAND 1-7 JULY ÅF Offshore Classic Race (Around Gotland Offshore Race)

Stockholm-Visby-Sandhamn, Sweden; 220nm passage race race.ksss.se

29-31 JULY Airisto Classic Regatta Abo Batvarf, Turku, Finland airistosegelsallskap.fi

1-AUGUST Gullkrona Sailing

Abo Batvarf, Turku, Finland airistosegelsallskap.fi

3-7 AUGUST Sandhamn Regatta

Sandhamn, Sweden Offshore race for classic yachts and tune-up race for 12-M Worlds ksss.se

14-22 AUGUST 12-M Worlds

Helsinki, Finland 12mrworlds.com Thirteen yachts already registered...

MID-AUGUST (DATE TBC) Viaporin Tuoppi Helsinki, Finland Big wooden boat regatta english.viaporintuoppi.fi

NORWAY 5-7 AUGUST Risør Traditional Boat Festival Risør, trebatfestivalen.no

SPAIN 13-19 SEPTEMBER 6-M European Championship Sanxenxo, Galicia 6metre.com

GERMANY 10-13 JUNE Robbe & Berking Sterling Cup Flensburg, fsc.de

FRENCH ATLANTIC COAST

7–8 AUGUST Hamburg Summer Classics

Douarnenez, Brittany Small gathering of boats and crews who missed Douarnenez in 2020, tempsfete.com

20-22 AUGUST German Classics

23-25 JULY Les Retrouvailles

6-14 JULY Classic Channel Regatta Dartmouth-Channel IslandsPaimpol Series of races and parties classic-channel-regatta.eu

9 AUGUST Pornic Classic

Pornic, Brittany yachtclubclassique.com

fky.org Main event in the FKY calendar

Laboe, fky.org

3-5 SEPTEMBER Klassiker Rendezvous Kiel, fky.org

DENMARK 14-15 AUGUST Svendborg Classic Regatta Svendborg, Denmark classicregatta.dk

NERTHLANDS 8–12 SEPTEMBER Dorestad Raid Echtenerbrugge natuurlijkvaren.nl

28 AUGUST – 4 SEPTEMBER 8-M Worlds Enkhuizen 8mrworldcup.com

BELGIUM 19-22 MAY Oostende Voor Anker oostendevooranker.be

46

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

47

CLASSIC EVENTS Top: Eggemoggin Reach Regatta Rockport Maine.

Below: Thelma A10 overtakes Waitangi A6 at start of Duder Cup 2020

USA, Australia & NZ The sun never sets on classic events With classic yacht racing all around the world, it’s always the season, somewhere, from the schooners and classics of the USA to a vibrant racing and social scene in Australia and New Zeland.

BENJAMIN MENDLOWITZ

UNITED STATES 7 JUNE Washington 360

Puget Sound, Pacific Northwest r2ak.com 360-mile circular race in Puget Sound, off Washington State – alternative to the usual Race to Alaska (R2AK)

9-10 JULY Great Schooner Race

greatschoonerrace.com Islesboro – Rockland Harbor, Maine 20+ vessels in the most evocative rig of them all

9-15 JULY Salish 100

Port Townsend, Washington nwmaritime.org Puget Sound: “The largest organised small-boat cruise in the USA”

10-11 JULY Vineyard Cup

Mass, sailmv.org/vineyard-cup Foiling kiteboards, classic yachts, and everything between the two

JULY (DATE TBC) Great San Francisco Schooner and Classic Yacht Race

San Francisco Bay sfyc.org

4-5 SEPTEMBER IYRS Newport Classic Yacht Regatta

29–31 JULY Camden Classics Cup

10-12 SEPTEMBER Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival

Megansett Harbor, Mass stuartknockaboutllc.com Regatta for LF Herreshoff dayboats

Camden, Maine camdenclassicscup.com Fourth year in this lovely location

Port Townsend, Washington woodenboat.org 300+ boats, main west coast event

AUSTRALIA

14-15 AUGUST Corinthian Classic Regatta

Sydney, New South Wales australiadayregatta.co.au Claimed to be the world’s oldest continuously conducted sailing regatta, with moderns and classics mingling in the celebrations

14-22 AUGUST Nantucket Race Week

NEW ZEALAND

Rockport, Maine erregatta.com 125+ boats

Marblehead, Mass corinthianclassic.org

Nantucket, operahousecup.org The jewel of the east coast classic regatta scene WEXFORD FILMS LTD.2020

Newport, Rhode Island, iyrs.edu 42nd year for the race

7 AUGUST Eggemoggin Reach Regatta

22 AUGUST Opera House Cup

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

Salem, Mass, boatfestival.org This is the event’s 38th year

JULY (DATE TBC) Stuart Knockabout Regatta

nantucketraceweek.org Classics and moderns

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LATE AUGUST (DATE TBC) Antique and Classic Boat Festival

27-29 AUGUST Herreshoff Classic Yacht Regatta and Rendezvous Bristol, RI, herreshoff.org Herreshoffs and other classics organised by the Herreshoff Museum, celebrating its 50th anniversary this year

26-27 JANUARY 2022 Australia Day Regatta

2 MAY 2021 Winter series racing

Auckland, classicyacht.org.nz

31 JANUARY 2022 Ports of Auckland Anniversary Day Regatta

Auckland (New Zealand) classicyacht.org.nz Sailing and watersports clubs get together for this epic event

MARCH 2020 FEBRUARY 2022 CYNZ Classic Yacht Regatta Auckland, classicyacht.org.nz Famous celebration of NZ’s classic yachts

T D 117 7 9 09 0 E S ETSD

Congratulations to Cynara for winning Big Restoration of the Year © Yoichi Yabe Photography • yyyoyabe@gmail.com • yoyabe@solid.ocn.ne.jp

All enquiries welcome Email: hello@ratseyandlapthorn.com or Tel: 01983 294051

www.ratseyandlapthorn.com

With 30 years of experience specialising in traditional and electric boats we will do our best to find the ideal craft to suit your individual needs — for a day or for a lifetime.

With 30 years of experience specialising in traditional and Forwill more electric boats we doinformation our best to contact find the ideal craft to suit your individual needs — for a day or for a lifetime.

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RESTORATION Adv.Ventis_2020november.indd 1

NEW-BUILD

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

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

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SAILING MARIETTE With eight upwind sails an 13,500sqft of canvas downwind, there is plenty for the 24 crewmembers on this 1915 Herreshoff schooner to do throughout every race WORDS AND PICTURES NIGEL SHARP

SAILING MARIETTE queen stay, from the top of the main topmast to the top of the fore lower mast; and the lowest is the triatic, between the tops of the two lower masts. While the fore topsail is always clear of the freshwater stay, it needs to be tacked to ensure it’s always set to leeward of the queen stay and triatic (also, therefore, to leeward of the peak spans). To help that process, Dalibor – a crew member since 2014 – will spend the whole race about 80 foot above the deck. He is there now and he unstows the sail while his crew mates at deck level pull the halyard, then the port tack line and port sheet, ready to sail on starboard tack.

THREE HEAD SAILS

Now it is time for the three headsails: the staysail, jib and jib topsail all of which are hanked to their own forestays, so the process is relatively straightforward. The last sail to be set is the main top staysail, generally known as the MTS. This is set between the masts with its luff parallel to the queen stay and its sheets led back to the aft quarters. Whereas before this season it had to be dropped whenever it needed to be replaced by a between-masts downwind sail, it is now on a furler for the first time, although under CIM rules Mariette pays a rating penalty of four seconds per mile for it. Now the sail is simply unfurled from the base of the main mast and sheeted in. Just seven minutes after the process began, we are sailing with all eight upwind sails drawing – a total of about 8,070 square feet.

These sails are trimmed from forward working aft: jib top, jib, staysail, the fore with its topsail, MTS and finally the mainsail with the jackyard topsail. Crewman Pablo is on the PREPARATION end of the bowsprit almost all the time we are sailing and he First of all, the port side mainmast running backstays – of calls the trim for the headsails, in particular the jib top and which there are two sets, one supporting the lower mast and staysail which are sheeted right back by the main mast where the other the topmast – are eased, disconnected and taken the trimmers can’t see them. Once the sails are trimmed for forward as are the port topping lifts for both booms. This upwind sailing, he will constantly communicate wind shifts will allow the mainsail and main topsail to be hoisted with to the helmsman who is also unable to see the headsail luffs. less chance of snagging on anything. The mainsail and the Today, Charlie, Konrad (who is based at the foremast), Pablo fore (or fore main) are hoisted simultaneously: their peak and crew boss Gerry are using UHF radios to communicate. and throat halyards are led to electric winches on the deck Konrad tells me that over a certain wind strength they aren’t but in the case of the fore, the winches are slower, so the much good as the wind blows into the microphones, “but once electrics are not used. With two extra crew “bouncing” the we have done a few regattas with the same team we get more in vertical parts of those halyards, the two sails can be hoisted tune with each other and most things happen by hand signal.” at the same speed (taking less than a minute) which, says We are racing in a special schooner class against Elena first mate Konrad Kemper, “looks a lot smarter”. Once these (2009 replica of the 1910 Herreshoff schooner of the same sails are up, all four halyards are tensioned with jiggers. name), Naema (another replica, based on an Alfred Mylne The jackyard topsail is next. With its two timber spars – design), Orianda (1937 Andersen design) and Puritan (1930 the club spar along part of the foot and the luff or jackyard Alden design). We get a good start although we soon fall into spar on the luff – it weighs nearly half a ton and takes nine the dirty wind of the bermudan cutter Cambria starting her crew to lift it from its stowed position outboard ready to be second round, allowing Elena (to leeward of us but in clearer hoisted. The halyard is taken to an electric winch that does air) to draw ahead. The first leg is a very most of the work, while the sheet goes one-sided beat and it is some time before to a manual winch. As the sail is hoisted, “About half of the we tack for the first mark. Tacking two lines between sail and deck are kept Mariette needs a forward planning before tight – one from the lower end of the extra crew are the wheel can be turned, to allow time luff spar and the other from the sail’s professional sailors” to prepare the MTS and fore topsail. tack – to keep the luff spar parallel to The MTS’s port sheet is eased while the the mast and clear of the peak spans as clew line – which goes up to a block at it goes up. There is already a man up the the top of the main top mast and down to the deck – is mast ready to help as the sail arrives and, when it does, to tie pulled to lift the clew above the triatic. Simultaneously, the a lashing around the bottom of the luff pole and the topmast. fore top gets similar treatment but with two lines – one from Setting the fore topsail is much simpler because it is stowed the tack and the other from the clew, both to the top of the permanently in place with slides along the top part of its luff fore top mast (the latter via a cringle in the middle of the sail) on a track on the topmast, but tacking it will be a different game and down to the deck. When these are pulled by deck level altogether as there is a lot to get in its way, namely the wires crew (with Dalibor helping the process up the mast) the sail connecting the two masts. The highest of these is the freshwater bunches up and is clear above the queen stay and triatic. stay, between the tops of the two topmasts; next down is the

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CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

GUIDO CANTINI

“L

et’s get the rags up,” comes the call from Charlie Wroe. The sun is shining and there is a light southerly breeze off Cannes. I am on board the magnificent Mariette of 1915 which is just about to take part in her first race for over a year, following a major refit at Pendennis Shipyard and an extended cruise to Norway and Scotland, at Regates Royales.

Twenty-four crew are poised and ready for action.

Mariette was designed as a gaff schooner by Nathaniel Herreshoff and built in steel by the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company. In 1949 her rig was converted to an easier bermudan staysail configuration but in 1994, when Tom Perkins bought her, the original rig was restored. She has been raced hard ever since, firstly by Perkins, then by her current owner who bought her in 2005 soon after Charlie became her captain. The “rags” Charlie refers to are numerous. I once overheard Perkins make a passing remark – which I am sure was not intended to be in any way disrespectful – about the J-Class sailing with just two sails while Mariette sets as many as eight simultaneously.

Mariette has eight permanent crew who can easily sail the boat when she is cruising, but 24 is a good number for racing.

“About half of the extra crew are professional sailors,” Charlie tells me, “while the rest can be a mixture of friends, family, maybe youngsters off the dock; people who don’t have the same level of experience as the regulars.” From the moment we start readying the boat, all of them are busy.

NIGEL SHARP

SAILING MARIETTE

Prevous page: Dropping the gollywobbler Main picture: Mariette setting her sails Above left: The jib top and staysail trimmers Above right: Pablo on end of bowsprit

SAILING MARIETTE Charlie now calls “helm’s over” and we tack. From every in wire and a four-to-one tackle) and it takes five crew to other point of view this is a relatively straightforward process. bring everything back as quickly as the mainsail sheeting in The port side running backstays are tensioned while the will allow. Once the parts are hooked on to their chainplates, starboard ones are eased; and the three headsail sheets on the the tackle tails are led to winches and tensioned. Now the port side are eased while the starboard ones are hauled in. stern can be taken through the eye of the wind, then the main Once we are on our new port tack course, the three lines and fore flip over and are eased as the new leeward runners holding the MTS and fore top clear of the stays are eased, are let go and taken forward. The fore topsail is set on the while the fore topsail’s starboard tack line is tensioned and new leeward side. Meanwhile the ballooner is gybed by letting both sails are sheeted in. it fly around the bows, the normal procedure with the wind By this time Elena has a good lead, blowing more than 10 knots and helping Naema is just to leeward but slightly it round, although it is gybed inside when “We are now flying ahead of us, and Orianda and Puritan lighter. By now six crew had repacked are some way behind. We soon bear away about 13,500 square the gollywobbler in its integral zipped round the mark onto a beam reach and sock and the halyard and sheet – each of foot of sail” it is time to replace the MTS with the which is double- ended so the leeward four-sided fisherman. “This really is the parts can always be used – are attached, secret weapon of the schooner,” says up it goes and it is soon filling again.

Konrad. “It is quite a big powerful sail and it is very easy to hoist and drop so we even use it quite a lot when cruising.”

TIMING IS EVERYTHING The MTS is furled, then the fisherman is hoisted with its We seem to have timed the gybe just right as we are now halyards at the top of each topmast, its tack line down to a heading straight for the leeward mark with everything setting point on the windward deck just forward of the fore mast, nicely and without being overpressed. Timing is now everything and its sheet at the end of the main boom, with a total of as we need to ensure that the downwind sails are dropped and eight crew controlling these four lines as the sail goes up. A the upwind sails re-hoisted before we round the mark, but boom vang is rigged up from the aft end of the fore boom, not too soon. The gollywobbler comes down first, with about out to a leeward bollard and back to a manual winch, while 10 people helping it down to the deck; then three crew grab the all hands concentrate on trim as we power down this reach. lazy ballooner sheet and take it to the windward side between the masts. Pablo spikes the snap shackle at the tack, the luff goes flying and the three crew pull on the sheet for all they are RAISING THE GOLLYWOBBER worth while six others grab whatever part of the sail they can We bear away again at the next mark. This leg is more or less and bring it under the fore boom onto the deck. Up goes the a dead run, but the best strategy for Mariette (and indeed the jib and jib top, the MTS is unfurled and everything is sheeted other schooners) is to sail broad reaches and keep all sails full. in as we round the mark.

It’s now time for the ballooner and the gollywobbler, both stowed The second round brings more of the same and Mariette in their integral zipped socks as they are hoisted. Once they remains in a mid-fleet position, a long way behind Elena, are up they will be sheeted in and the zips will break out. The tantalisingly close to Naema’s stern, and way ahead of ballooner is a 4,300sqft (400m2) asymmetric spinnaker hoisted Orianda and Puritan. And that is how we finish although on to the top of the fore top mast, tacked to the end of the handicap we are second, less than two minutes behind Elena bowsprit and sheeted at a point about level with the main mast. and beating Naema by 52 seconds. Once the sails are down Once it’s up, the jib top and jib come down. Meanwhile the and packed away and we are motoring back into the harbour, fisherman is dropped (with a line taken from its throat to a ring Dalibor at last returns to deck level and I am interested as to round a windward shroud to stop it falling to leeward as it how he feels about his isolated position aloft. “I’m comfortable comes down, and with eight crew gathering it), and up goes the up there,” he says, “and I think I have the best seat to watch gollywobbler, a 5,000sqft (465m2) triangular sail hoisted up the whole regatta. I can see better than anyone the course, the to the top of the main top mast and sheeted to the end of the other boats and what is happening. I definitely like it up there.” main boom. We are now flying 13,500sqft (1,250m2) of sail.

There is clearly a feeling of slight disappointment about It doesn’t seem long before we have to gybe to ensure the the result, which Charlie puts down to lack of practice. best sailing angle to the next mark. First the gollywobbler is “The crew work could have been better. If you came back dropped. Then, while Pablo ensures the ballooner lazy sheet after another five days’ racing it would be a different boat won’t fall below the bowsprit, someone calls for it to be put and a different result,” he says. “We’ve not raced in the on the “dick”. At first I thought I might have witnessed a bit Med for two seasons and the boat and crew are rusty. Also, of antipodean vowel pronunciation, but it turns out that this Mariette kicks into gear in about 12 knots true, and we is the nickname given to a rod protruding aft from the didn’t quite have the conditions today so upwind she was foremast shrouds about six feet above the deck onto which not 100 per cent in the groove. I’m not going to beat the lazy sheet must rest to ensure it won’t foul anything during myself up too much since we didn’t make many mistakes. the gybe. The main and fore are then sheeted to the centreline.

To win a race, there are 101 things to get right. Achieving In the case of the main, that involves hauling in about 360ft it is one of the enjoyable challenges of the job.”

(110m) of sheet, but it is double-ended with both parts taken As it turned out the “different boat and different result” to fast electric winches, so it only takes about 40 seconds while manifested themselves just one day later. After a good start the fore topsail is pulled above the queen stay and triatic, as and a clean first windward leg, crew work which was during a tack. Meanwhile the leeward runners, which had been “measurably better” gave Mariette overall victory, beating taken forward when we first bore away, are brought back aft.

Naema and Elena by five minutes and six minutes There is a five-to-one tackle for the topmast runner, while the respectively on corrected time. lower mast runner is in two parts (comprising the main part 54

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

Above: Standing tall... crewman since 2014, Dalibor up the foremast Inset: Elena (at the start) and Cambria (starting her second round) to leeward of Mariette at Cannes Right: The Crew with Charlie Wroe sitting down far right

SAILING MARIETTE

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

55

RHAPSODY IN BLUE A rare Liuzzi Star 6 from 1961, built on a quiet street of the the smart Paris suburb of Neuilly, looks and goes as well as she did when she was launched six decades ago WORDS GERALD GUETAT PHOTOGRAPHS HENRI THIBAULT

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CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

LIUZZI STAR

S

Main: In the 1950s and 60s, a Luizzi was a boat of exception, almost a “custommade in Paris” product Below, left to right: No 14; car-like

ince Woody Allen’s 1979 movie Manhattan, the famous George Gershwin’s symphony is mostly associated to the New York cityscape but, why not transfer it to Paris, in another glamorous movie set? When Frantz Liuzzi began in 1937 to build finely crafted light dinghies and canoes in his workshop of Neuilly, he couldn’t have imagined that two decades later he would be delivering fine and fast runabouts to movie stars like Erroll Flynn. After his canoes had won many trophies on challenging river rapids in France, including during World War Two, when muscle power was more at hand than petrol for nautical sporting activities, in the late 1940s Frantz Liuzzi started a small production of inboard runabouts mostly powered by Italian BPM marine engines made in Milan.

His first successful model, the France-Craft, made a clear reference to the world-famous Chris-Craft range.

But, unlike his Algonac, Michigan, mentor, Liuzzi’s wooden hulls had the distinctive feature of cold-moulded construction, an unusual technique at the time, with double or triple layer according to the original patent “Monocoque FL”, the initials standing for his own name, to which Liuzzi referred to promote no less than “the most luxurious, the fastest and the strongest speedboat hulls in the world”.

It’s difficult to contradict this boiling racing driver and builder, a true Parisian by adoption and even more chauvinistic than a native. The endless list of international race wins and world speed records which Liuzzi reported in his logbook from 1950 on, quickly established him as a reference when considering an order for a new runabout, nearly built to order and aimed at a very demanding clientele, who mainly lived in the best districts and dressed in tailor-made suits.

Frantz Liuzzi was quite famous not only in Paris but also on the French Riviera, at places like the MYCCA (Motor Yacht Club of Côte d’Azur) and at Monte Carlo, as evidenced by the name of one of his runabout models, the Prince de Monaco.

From the canoe stern to the rear wings that carry a whiff of the Cadillac, the design of the Liuzzis evolved to mirror the trends of their era: gentlemen drivers, movie stars and wealthy industrialists alike had to wait their

features; air vents; chrome nav lights

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

57

LIUZZI STAR

compliance with the laws of the government of Maréchal Pétain, voted in Vichy, in April 1942.

Above: Obsession today, after a full restoration

A MIX OF DIOR AND GORDINI

AUTHOR’S COLLECTION, J.M. ROLLAND, CMC, BPM

turn for the exclusive image and performances the boat would bring them. Frantz Liuzzi’s booth at Paris Boat Show was an annual rendezvous, like a boating fashion week – even the French President attended. In addition, the motoring press was then very keen to publish reports on speedboating activities, and the Parisian builder established only at a few minutes drive from the Champs-Elysées was not the last to benefit from these free advertisements. The chic Rue Soyer sheltered a kind of workshop not often to be found in such high-end residential districts. Neuilly at the time was an oasis of large avenues and calm streets. Along quiet pavements, a scattered population of popular cars was enhanced by a few luxury cars – the odd Delahaye, a shiny Jaguar or an impressive Oldsmobile between some 4 CV Renaults and modest Simcas. In the late 1950, less than 20 per cent of French households had a car, so motorboats were a real luxury. At the boat shop sited under a residential building, a handful of workers built one hull after the other under the watchful eye of Monsieur Liuzzi. In a small office nearby, his assistant would have been typing quickly to process the orders.

VAT, established in 1954, did not yet apply to one-of-a-kind products like this Liuzzi Star 6 runabout, worth 3.9 million old Francs, about four times the value of a new Citroën DS. At the time, a new boat navigation certificate issued by the merchant navy was filled in by hand by a careful state employee still working in

58

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

In 1958, the French automobile magazine Moteurs described Frantz Liuzzi as being, in his own trade, a mix of Amedeo Gordini of racing car fame and of Christian Dior. His boats were expensive and the production very limited. It is likely that his boatyard produced fewer than 100 units from 1948-1967, the year of Mr. Liuzzi’s death at the age of 62. This covered all models in a range from 4.8m (15ft 8in) to 6.2m (20ft 4in), the length of the Star 6. Today, only a few examples of his production are still in existence, lovingly preserved and restored by their owners. Basically a one-of-a-kind builder, Frantz Liuzzi could allow to make some variants on the basis of an initial drawing to please the client. Indeed, it may be almost considered that each boat built was unique even if the model was part of a so-called “serial” catalogue.

The king of the range was surely the Star 6, powered by a 255hp BPM Super Atlantic V6, also available upon special order in a version ‘Type Champion du Monde’.

In 1961, a certain Jacques Arnilhac, an architect from the Bordeaux region and a dedicated gentleman motorboat pilot, ordered a Star 6 which would become a champion in its Runabout International Class IV of up to six litres engine capacity. At the wheel of his imposing new craft, Arnilhac, a fine driver able to win outboard and inboard races, finished first at the Monaco trophy in 1962, one of the major events of the season. Very little is known about the life of the Liuzzi No 14 apart from racing. It is likely that this fast and luxurious but comfortable boat was also used by the family during weekends and holidays for most of the 1960s. Soon after that era, the golden age of amateur racing, many other wooden boats like the Star 6 became obsolete, more often disappearing completely from the radar until the vintage and classic boat revival put the spotlight on them again some three decades later.

In 1990, a Jean-Marie Rolland, automobile electrician of the Drôme region in the southwest of France, spotted a wrecked runabout with a nice shape in a lorry graveyard. The owner of the place tried to sell at quite a high price, insisting that this was a valuable “variant of a Riva”.

Main: Liuzzi added style elements inspired by the famous contemporary industrial designer Norman Bel Geddes, with bright paint and varnished wood Below: Jacques Arnilhac jumping waves at Monte Carlo in 1962. His Star 6 Obsession bore race

J.M. ROLLAND ARCHIVE – PHOTO GH LEVÊQUE

number 14

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

59

AUTHOR’S COLLECTION, J.M. ROLLAND, CMC, BPM

LIUZZI STAR

One year later, the junkyard went bankrupt and JM Rolland seized the opportunity to get the boat in a much more affordable deal, including the BPM V6 still in it.

Having little time to divert from his daily business and the family house to complete, the new owner stored the runabout in his garden and started researching its history.

At the time, historical sources were scarce as the interest for this kind of collectible was in its infancy.

The quest went on, step by step through a myriad of connections here and there over four or five years. Rolland came to know the name of the first owner and Monaco winner, Jacques Arnilhac. In 1995, he dismantled the planking, getting back to the bare bones of the structure, and visited BPM’s factory in Italy for.

As soon as his house was completed in the early 2000s, the real work started, the hull being restored in a friend’s warehouse and the engine rebuilt in his garage. The engine was running again by 2006 and the boat was back in the water a year later. Despite a long snag list, the performance was already impressive from the first test run. Another great performance was that of JM Rolland, who had performed most of the restoration on his own, and to a very high standard: passion can work miracles. Needless to say, with an automobile electrician as its owner, the Star 6 got state-of-the-art new electrical wiring. The only speciality job he subcontraced out was the boat’s beautiful upholstery, a birthday present from his wife.

After a few years of great enjoyment with family and friends on board the boat, attending major classic boat reunions as the Monaco Classic Week in a pilgrimage more than 50 years after the 1962 victory, JM Rolland sold his dear Liuzzi to a new and happy owner, M Philippe Tancrel in the west of France. There, the deep, strong and somewhat brutal sound of the BPM Super Atlantic V6 is becoming more and more familiar to his neighbourhood on the calm river Erdre, reminiscent of the 1950s and 1960s, when canoes and small craft of every description were plying their quiet ways without paying much attention to monsters such as the Liuzzi Star 6 often driven by the rich and famous.

The author would like to offer his sincere thanks to Jean-Marie Rolland, Philippe Tancrel, successive owners of the boat, and Henry-Jacques Pechdimaldjian (Cercle du Motonautisme Classique) for sharing their passion 60

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

Above: With his boat shop settled in an upper class residential district at the edge of Paris, Frantz Liuzzi was compared to fashion designer Christian Dior Above right Paris Boat Show in the 1950’s

BPM marine engines With its list of victories and world records over

LIUZZI STAR 6

decades, BPM has made history in motorboat racing.

The Italian firm was founded in 1931, when Messrs

BUILDER

Botta and Puricelli in Milan (the B, the P and the M of

Frantz Liuzzi 1961

the name) joined forces to design and make engines for sport boats and challenge the existing, mostly

OWNER

competition. The venture was an immediate success.

Jacques Arnilhac

Just one year later, BPM won the 430km (267 mile)

HULL

Cold-moulded mahogany LENGTH

American, brands dominating the field, particularly in

race from Pavia to Venice on the River Po. The strength of BPM engines came from their design. Unlike engines with automotive origins, BPMs could run for hours at high revs. From the 1930s-70s, BPM’s 4-cylinder blocks of 1,500-2,600cc made up most of the production.

In 1955, the Milan works delivered the all-new Super

20ft 4in (6.2m)

Atlantic V6 of 210-255hp. For decades, BPM engines,

BEAM

of victories and clocked more than 70 world speed

6ft 3in (1.9m) WEIGHT

2,095lb (950kg) ENGINE

BPM Super Atlantic V6, 255hp

light and strong, technologically simple but very well designed in some crucial details, have had hundreds records. In the late ‘60s, the factory moved from Milan to Verona, under the aegis of Ingegnere Pasti. From 1970 on, BPM relied on the new Vulcano V8 to carry on making powerboating history. The Vulcano is still appreciated today for its bestial torque and its easy, naturally aspirated 520hp. Two of them powered the 32ft (9.8m) Riva-Ferrari fast cruiser of the early 1990s.

BPM is still in business, owned and managed by the engineer Pasti. They still restore and service old models but mostly produce new V-drives and gearboxes for speedboats and fast patrol boats in Europe and the US.

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Christian Carleton used Epifanes varnish over CPES on Taurus (pictured right) in 1991. He writes: “You are welcome to use my name, my experience, and any photos of the boat in your testimonials. I am a true believer in your CPES product. I have been using it since 1991 on every piece of wood I put into a boat.”

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Support and advice on: +44 (0)1732 824 700

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

61

AFFORDABLE CLASSIC Flying Fifteen

By Peter Poland

Prince Philip and Uffa Fox sailing Coweslip at Cowes

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CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

KEYSTONE PRESS / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

LESS THAN £10K

T

Racing on Ullswater

COURTESY OF ULLSWATER YACHT CLUB

here aren’t many planing keelboats designed in 1947 that are still in production 74 years later and flourishing in active fleets around the world. Indeed the notion of a keelboat that could plane was outrageous in those distant days. But the Flying Fifteen’s designer Uffa Fox was a man of vision; way back in 1928 he had already designed the first planing International 14.

It is said that Uffa had the idea for this revolutionary keelboat while relaxing in his bath. He leapt out, rushed to his drawing board and drew the hull, keel, rudder and rig. Just like that – there and then. Well... it’s a nice story.

And in Uffa’s case it’s even believable.

Fleets now flourish in more than 20 UK clubs and in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Philippines, South Africa and Europe. As GRP versions proliferated, some moulds exploited hull tolerances, and various design tweaks emerged. Carbon fibre is now common in hull construction. To date, around 4,100 have been built.

In order to maintain sporting fun within the fleets and enable older models to compete against each other, the association wisely introduced Classic and Silver divisions. The Classic fleet comprised boats with sail numbers below 2,700 and boats built by Wyche & Coppock and Copland/McIntosh with higher sail numbers but the old hull shape. The Silver Fleet covered sail numbers 2701 to 3200, apart from those eligible for Classic racing. Now the UK Silver fleet includes boats up to sail number 3,400, which allows for the gradual ageing of GRP boats competing on the club and open circuit against newer, quicker boats.

Most open events have prizes for Silver and Classic boats racing in the main fleet while the National Championship also includes a separate series for the Classics. These brilliant systems keep older boats busy and encourage newcomers to sample the Fifteen’s great handling and performance. What’s more the advent of the low-slung trailer, with the keel sitting below the axle line, makes the Fifteen far easier to transport and launch.

Modern trailers are well balanced; also making handling ashore much easier, so many Fifteens are now dry sailed.

Graham Lamond told me he has been sailing Classic Fifteens for nearly 30 years and owns FF617 (1963) and FF1155 (1968). Both are beautiful Chippendale-built boats. He says “the pretty lines and classic rig combined with brisk performance are a major factor when sailing the boat. The varnished wood adds that extra dimension of enjoyment, even in the cut and thrust of racing... I attend regattas regularly and normally do five to seven a year. Racing is always good fun and Fifteen sailors are a

FLYING FIFTEEN

DESIGNER

Uffa Fox 1947 LOA

20ft (6.1m) LWL

15ft (4.6m) BEAM

5ft (1.5m) DRAUGHT

2ft 6in (0.8m) SAIL AREA

150 sqft 14 m2 WEIGHT

676lb 307kg The original design weight was 285lb for the hull with a 400lb keel. Driving this was a sail plan and mast height exactly as for the International 14 of that period

sociable bunch ... I have had first, second and thirds in various classic events over the years with FF617 and she has been part of my life for 25 years now.”

Graham adds that the Fifteen is as happy on inland waters as at sea. She was designed for the choppy waters of the Solent, where Uffa often raced with Prince Philip or Prince Charles in Coweslip. The design is also ideal for mixed crews that do well at all levels; and at either end of the boat. There have been at least two world champion husband-and-wife teams.

What’s more, a modified headsail has recently been developed. Slightly taller and narrower, it’s easier for smaller and lighter crews to handle without altering the boat’s overall performance. Fifteens also attend events organised by the Classic and Vintage Racing Dinghy Association, so owners who don’t seek serious racing can have some fun there.

As with any classic, there are areas to check. Stresses on a Fifteen are greatest around the keel attachment and mast foot. Shroud and forestay/jib attachments are also stress points. Replacement rudder bearings are occasionally needed; and check the rudder tube. An upgraded keel casting and/or rudder blade are definite pluses. You’ll find advice and information galore on flying15.org.uk, which concludes “Having bought your older boat, enjoy it; look after it and it will reward you with many happy hours of great sailing and racing.”

Graham Lamond sums up the appeal: “The Classic Fifteen is the forerunner of the modern sportsboat, being fast, rewarding to sail in strong winds, yet easily trailed and managed by a crew of two. The boat has always carried weight well, but modern rigs now allow lighter crews to compete on equal terms with heavyweights...

Its forgiving nature, thanks to the keel, means you can enjoy winds you might think twice about in a dinghy, yet still enjoy dinghy-type performance and exhilaration as the boat planes easily in F3 and above.”

Two on the market

shows off the keel 1999 Ovington 9 Road trailer.

FF2506 at Grafham Water

and rudder shapes

£5,500.

contact Tim O’Brien tim.

and her gleaming

Tel: 07711788671

obrien@metasphere.co.uk.

varnished Chippendale hull

GRAHAM LAMOND

Right: GBR 617

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

63

Getting afloat

FREJA

Luke Powell pilot cutter Freja is one of eight Scillonian style pilot cutters built by Luke Powell.

equipped with a 35hp Beta Marine diesel. The interior is very simple

She was launched in 2012. The current owners, a husband-and-wife

and traditional, with the intention of making the boat simple to

crew, increasing in age, are now looking to sell. They have sailed Freja

maintain for bluewater voyaging: below decks hand pumps take the

25,000 miles in their ownership, mostly double-handed, in the west

place of hot and cold pressurised water, heating is by traditional stove

country, around Ireland, Scotland several seasons, Brittany, Spain and

and lighting is by oil lamp. A traditionalist’s delight in a new hull.

Portugal, and along the Swedish coast. The yacht is 42ft (12.8m) long, gaff rigged with mainsail, staysail, jib, outer jib and topsail, and is

Lying Skillinge, Sweden, £POA, contact andejohn@actrix.co.nz

LORD NELSON

Tall ship for sale It’s not often a three-masted steel barque designed for mixed-ability use comes up for sale. In fact, Lord Nelson, designed by Colin Mudie and built in 1986 is one of only two such craft in the world to our knowledge. Commissioned by Jubilee Sailing Trust, the ship is built around the needs of wheelchair users and those har of hearing or sight, with wider passageways, use of braille and tactile alarms, disabled heads, wheelchair lifts and more. For decades, the Lord Nelson, under the aspices of the Jubilee Sailing Trust, took about 4,000 adults, able-bodied or otherwise, to sea every year. Her full complement for voyage crew is 40, up to half of whom may be physically disabled. From October 2012 to September 2014, Lord Nelson sailed around the world, visiting 30 countries on all seven continents.

She was decommissioned in October 2019 so the Jubilee Sailing Trust could concentrate its efforts on Tenacious (a newer, similar vessel) and now needs a new owner. “This must be a unique chance to acquire a substantial, impressive tall ship to either continue as a sail-training vessel or adapt to charter work, commercial ventures or conversion to an impressive private yacht,” says broker Paul Leinthall-Cowman.

Asking £1.2 million, Lying Bristol, UK Contact classicyachtbrokerage.co.uk

To see more boats for sale go to classicboat.co.uk 64

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

HAVE YOU

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

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

www.uml.co.uk

Anne T. Converse PHOTOGRAPHY

PS Elite Check Your Cartridge Iss3 - 2020.indd 1

04/02/2020 13:00:31

MARINE • TRAVEL • EQUINE PEOPLE

Wooden boat building in Cornwall Newbuild, Restoration, Repair

P.O. Box 209 Marion, MA 02738 | USA 508 728 6210 anne@annetconverse.com www.annetconverse.com ANNE T CONVERSE IBC CB Aug19.indd 1 Untitled-147 1

BEN HARRIS & CO

www.benharrisboats.co.uk info@benharrisboats.co.uk tel: 07570 780 864 26/06/2019 01/03/2019 17:34 14:53

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

65

BROKERAGE

Boats for sale Looking to sell your boat?

Reach over 50,000 readers each month

PLUS For more boats to buy go to

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

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

£29,000

1937 40 FOOT MOTOR SAILOR

Powered by 4 cylinder 4.236 Perkins Diesel Engine.

Lying in Angelsey.

Nicely fitted out with large single bunk in Focs’l with full headroom.

A ‘midships double bunk, wood burning stove, Galley with separate heads. Double bunk in wheel house plus solar panels & GPS. Aft cabin. Double bunk, separate heads and shower.

Telephone 01565 654416

S/V FLYING FISH

Laurent Giles Vertue design is a proven blue water boat.

Cold-molded hull and built of the best materials to the highest standards. Fully found and off-shore ready. Launched 2010, Flying Fish is a veteran of two Atlantic crossings. Inventory includes new Yanmar 2YM 15 diesel engine, six sails, chartplotter/depthsounder, AIS transponder, radar, Fleming self-steering, nesting dinghy, + more. More details/photos: flyingfishadventure.wordpress.com Available at $100,000 USD in Maine, USA. Contact builder/owner: flyingfishjack@gmail.com

NEW GLORIOUS 50FT TRADITIONAL WOODEN GAFF YAWL

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

FREYA

COTSWOOL GO GO

Built 1970 by Deer reinforced plastics, designed by J K Iddon as a cruiser class racing craft. Mercruiser 325 8 cylinder petrol engine with outdrive. Presently on a trailer.

Lying Chepstow (can be heard running ). £8,500.

Contact: Robert Watkins. Tel: 07922457980 or Email: robertwatkins45@icloud.com

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

TZIGANE Tzigane built by Jack Powles of Wroxham in 1958. Fully restored over the last 15 years. Five berth in two cabins with separate shower & heads compartments.

Webasto warm air heating. Single 5 cylinder nanni diesel engine. Quick silver tender available by separate negotiation.

Kept fully covered when not in use.

Moored Norfolk Broads.

Price £65,000.

Email: robertmoore001@hotmail.co.uk Mobile: 0780 325 2154

CONCORDIA SLOOP, PETE CULLER DESIGN

17.5 ft Gaff rig. Strip planked, beautifully fitted out, bronze fittings, North Sea Sails. DeGraff braked trailer. Mariner outboard.

Well maintained. Ashore Twickenham £4950 For details email: jglinos@live.com

LE TEMPS PERDU

French gaff cutter, LOA 12,60m, length on deck 9,60m, Beam 3,30m, Draft 1,80m, engine Volvo Penta. Built in Granville, Normandy 1964. Hull iroko on oak frames, coachroof mahagony, teak deck. Successes in several Classic Boat regattas.

Well maintained with boatsmancare and in first class condition.

Owner selling now for reasons of age. Location Andratx, Majorca.

GBP £49.900.

Contact: canvey@hagengrote.de Phone: 0034 606379226

66

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

S/Y GUN

55 m2 1911 skerry cruiser by Eric Salander. Measures 11.50 x 2.15.

Mahogany on oak. This fast boat is in a great condition.

Electric engine. Price 24000 eur.

For details visit https://winware.fi/Gun or email: hannu.pohjanpalo@winware.fi

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.

70ft Fred Shepherd Bermudan Yawl 1912/2018

45ft Saunders Roe Medina Class TS Motor Yacht 1938/2018

55ft James Taylor & Bates Motor Yacht 1933/2018

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

Saunders Roe is a name mostly associated with aviation innovation, but with roots in boatbuilding on the Thames, then Cowes. Their 1930s Medina Class of fine, teak-hulled motor yachts gained an enviable reputation for seagoing properties and comfort; so well-built from the finest materials that they have survived mid to late 20th Century deprivations to become highly desirable restoration subjects. None finer than the last built, MAGYAR; meticulously restored by Harbour Marine Services of Southwold for an owner used to the strict disciplines of classic car restoration, and an experienced sailor under sail and power.

This is quite simply one of the most versatile and usable vintage motor yachts we’ve come across; the result of the commitment and love of her two most recent owners in the rescue, stabilisation and comprehensive restoration of this absolute classic. She began life as MARGO III, dream boat of a committed Royal Motor Yacht Club member. Taylor & Bates had a fine reputation for quality of design and build. KARABOUDJAN benefits from the most modern of engines, systems and comforts - so much so that her present owners confidently enjoy extended cruises – often covering many 100’s of miles!

£495,000

€450,000

€890,000

Lying Spain

Lying UK

Lying France

46ft Charles Sibbick Bermudan Cutter 1901

49ft McGruer Bermudan Ketch 1973

46ft Jac M Iversen International 9 Metre 1939

While Charles Sibbick’s reputation was built through the 1890s on designing and building successful extreme fin and bulb keel race-winners, like his 1899 BONA FIDE, 1900 Olympic Gold Medal winner and recent scourge of Mediterranean classic regattas, NEDDA is a magnificent representative of the other side of the Cowes all-rounder’s work: a line of elegant fast cruisers, including NEDDA’s also alive-and-well cousins SAUNTERER and THALASSA - all stoutly built from the finest of materials.

Restored and maintained (most recently at La Rochelle by Bruno Barbara) over the past 30 years by two loving owners, NEDDA is a truly authentic, easy to sail Victorian family cruiser-racer with spacious decks, authentic and comfortable accommodation, nicely simple systems - and superb provenance.

BORDER LEGEND is a resurrected masterpiece from the sunset days of traditional yachtbuilding in Britain. George McGruer’s design is a natural evolution of his father James’s renowned work, and the build by the last generations of their highly skilled workforce. Among the last wooden yachts designed built there were three wholesome, elegant and fast 49-55 ft ketches.

While the passagemaking exploits of CUILAUN and TALISKER MHOR (ex CERESIO) became legendary, their smaller sister, BORDER LEGEND (launched as GLORY B IV), remained under the radar: a bona fide family cruiser. Circumstances saw her fall on hard times before recent rescue and a major refit under current, experienced ownership.

NANNA’s clean, flush-decked understated elegance is obviously Scandinavian, while her provenance and jaunty sheer bring a hard to define, charming and entrancing difference; we’ll call it the Jac M. Iversen effect. This is a yacht that for 80 years has broken hearts, and with her very subtle modernity in sail handling - a highly efficient single-hander - and beautifully preserved 1930s simplicity down below, NANNA should succeed in doing so for many years to come. It’s hard to imagine going ashore in the tender after a sparkling day’s sail without a longing glance back to this very special yacht.

£225,000

€220,000 VAT not paid

€310,000

Lying France

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

Lying UK

Lying Norway

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 JUNE 2021

67

Brokerage

• Management • Storage

Trasnagh Are you looking to buy or sell a classic yacht?

The Mere Yard has a wonderful collection of classic yachts for sale to suit everyone’s tastes, from fully restored to projects.

We are always looking for new listings and are more than happy to discuss this with you .

Whether you are looking to purchase or sell a classic, please visit our website or contact us.

Offers over £80,000.

Email: mr.it@live.co.uk or 07740 092773

PHOTO: BENJAMIN MENDLOWITZ

info@themetreyard.co.uk themetreyard.co.uk +44 (0)7771606747

ARTISAN BOATWORKS CUSTOM YACHT BUILDERS

68

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

Trasnagh is a race & regatta winner, designed by the great Alfred Mylne & one of only 6 – she is rare and beautiful. Full bare hull restoration & was runner-up in CB restoration of the year 2014 and featured in CB October 2020. Launched in 1913 she has had an amazing life, winning the King George Cup & receiving a telegraph from him and winning ever since.

Priced for a quick sale. .

+1. +1.

Craftsmanship Yard News

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

SUFFOLK

Woodbridge boatyard launches IOD Falcon

It’s good to be reminded that a wooden yacht, well cared for, can

Boatyard for a thorough refit. Once in the shed, she was treated to a new

outlast her owners and sail on through several generations writes

transom, replacement of many ribs and frames and replacement of all of

Claudia Myatt. That sense of continuity is all the more marked when a

her deck beams. She has a new Lignia on ply deck, new Lignia sheer

boat stays in the same family. Sir Michael Harrison bought International

planks, and her previously painted topsides are now varnished. Her

One Design Falcon in 1984 and kept her on the river Orwell in Suffolk

aluminium spars have been replaced with new wooden spars and custom

where he raced her and also used her as the family cruising yacht.

stainless steel fittings.

Built in 1956, Falcon had no engine “but we never missed picking up a mooring under sail,” former crewmember Bertie remembers.

Sir Michael died in 2019, aged 83, and his son Edwin became Falcon’s new owner. She was showing her age and brought to the Woodbridge

In spite of a few covid-related delays, Falcon was brought out of the shed and launched on 10 April. Rigged and ready to go, she hoisted sail on the same tide in a brisk northeasterly and showed her pedigree in style on the River Deben.

CLAUDIA MYATT

SUFFOLK

Spirit Yachts announces new management team Spirit Yachts has announced changes to its senior management team.

Previously Spirit Yachts’ operations director, Karen Underwood becomes joint managing director alongside Mike Taylor, former head of Group Commercial at Oyster Yachts.

After nearly seven years as managing director, Nigel Stuart (CB November 2020) is moving into a non-executive director role and will remain a shareholder in the company.

Spirit Yachts’ CEO and Head of Design, Sean McMillan, commented “This announcement marks the start of an exciting new chapter for Spirit Yachts.

Karen and Mike’s combined experience makes for a strong duo at the helm of the company, which has continued to grow despite the pandemic. With Nigel in a non-exec role, Spirit will continue to benefit from his expertise and insight Hampshire-based Nigel is taking a step back from his current position at the Suffolk-based yard to work closer to home in a role outside of the marine industry. Nigel Stuart commented, “As many people know, I am passionate about Spirit Yachts and I am delighted to be retaining an active interest in the company.”

C/O SPIRIT YACHTS

as we move forward.”

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

69

CRAFTSMANSHIP

BURTON, PEMBROKESHIRE

New life for 1960s motor sailer The 1968 Seabourne 36 Pleiades has been brought back to life for a new owner, by the hands of boatbuilder Andrew McCloud. She is a 36ft (11m) teak and mahogany motor sailer built at the Seabourne yard near Worcester and previously belonged to a friend of Andrew’s, who lived aboard her 20 years, during which time Andrew did various jobs, including re-engining with a pair of Beta diesels 12 years ago. The work was getting on top of the owner, advancing in years, and decided to sell while there was still “something to sell”.

She sold quickly to an owner on the understanding she would need a rebuild, which is just what Andrew did. A year after the initial burning off and inspection, the

Pleiades as she is now

boat had a large amount of new planking, a new transom, frame repairs, deck beams, side decks, beamshelves, some of the foredeck, repairs to her cabin sides and roofs along with a full rewire, new systems and accessories, new fuel tanks and all her hull and deck seams raked out and re caulked plus a lot more. She is now back in good seaworthy condition ANDREW MCCLOUD

and is going to be kept at Milford marina where she will be used and enjoyed on the Cleddau and Pembrokeshire cost for the next few years. Andrew is now busy rebuilding the 1898 Polperro gaffer Vilona May, which he found slowly rotting away in Lydney harbour at the top of the River Severn.

FALMOUTH, CORNWALL

Allergic to epoxy?

Fell trees instead Rees Jacobs was a boatbuilder but discovered he was allergic to epoxy – more traditional boatbuilders might see this as a plus! He became a woodland manager and in 2020 bought a tired GRP hull of a Clovelly Picarooner off the builder Heard Boats in Cornwall. He’s spent a lot of time patching up the hull and fitting her out in wood from the woodland he manages, all in a potato shed, with just hand tools. The main timber used has been sweet chestnut. He’s been at it for about

REES JACOBS

six months and the boat is nearly ready to launch.

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CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

CRAFTSMANSHIP

MALDON, ESSEX

Steel yacht taking shape Steel sailing boats at the 52ft (15.9m) size are rare beasts in Britain, but that’s exactly what’s been a building the last few months at the Downs Road Boatyard. She’s for Englishman Chris Torrance, who asked for a yacht for world cruising, then sat down with yard owner Jim Dines and designer Paul Spooner to thrash out the ideas. They started by looking at designs from past masters of canoe-sterned sailing vessels, including Colin Archer, Wm Fife III (Latifa), Peter Dickie (Morna) and Albert Strange and George Holmes (canoe yawls).

The initial idea for a Colin Archer evolved into something more ‘yachty’ as the design shows, but there’s nothing delicate about her build, or capability: she’s being built heavily in steel by Dutch boatbuilder Ernst de Groot with three apprentices. Steel is the toughest of all hull materials, and easily repairable anywhere in the world. Every system on board, from propulsion down to the cooker, can be run on diesel or electricity, offering great redundancy.

The twin diesel engines, solar panels on the doghouse roof and regenerative, feathering props charge a 48-volt battery bank. There is luxury too, though, including air-conditioning and a bow-thruster.

The boat is to a “pretty high spec” said Jim Dines of Downs Road. The deckhouse and decks are in steel and timber clad. The yacht is gaff ketch rigged with a squaresail on a steel yard on the steel mainmast for downwind sailing.

The other spars are in timber. Unusually, the design for the yacht now belongs to Heritage Marine Foundation, an organisation that is part of the boatyard, and trains apprentices and any profit from future builds will go to the foundation. The boat is now available as a kit, a hull for fitting out, or a complete boat.

See our visit to Downs Road Boatyard on pages 74-75 in this issue.

MERVYN MAGGS

introduces young people to the sea. This means

Ernst de Groot with his team of apprentices

Paul Spooner Design Ltd t. +44 (0)1794 328174 m. +44 (0)7884 433690 e. enquiries@psdesign.uk.com www.paulspoonerdesign.com COPYRIGHT

PAUL SPOONER DESIGN Ltd., ©2017. THIS DRAWING IS THE PROPERTY OF PAUL SPOONER DESIGN Ltd. AND MAY NOT BE COPIED OR USED FOR ANY PURPOSE OTHER THAN THAT FOR WHICH IT IS SUPPLIED WITHOUT EXPRESS WRITTEN AUTHORITY OF PAUL SPOONER DESIGN Ltd.

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

71

MARINE DIRECTORY

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

Marine Directory

BOATBUILDERS

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

Yacht Restorers

Repairs - Restorations

31ft gaff cutter Polly

15ft Sea Otter

Photo: Keith Allso

Photo: Peter Chesworth

Skippool Creek, Wyre Road, Thornton-Cleveleys, Lancs FY5 5LF Telephone: 01253 893830 Email: davidmossboatbuilders@gmail.com

www.harbourmarine.co.uk

www.davidmossboatbuilders.co.uk

Harbour Marine

ALAN S.R. STALEY

S_Davey_Eigth_Page_V01.indd 1

Hayling Yacht Hayling Yacht

23/02/2021 17:08

COMPANY COMPANY

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

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

Hayling Yacht Co

Hayling Yacht Co

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

The Directory listings page for all your classic boat needs, this is a chance to be able to reach an audience that you can take control of really promoting who you are. You can update this as many times as you like throughout the year to stay up to date with what you’re doing and any promotions you have.

For more information contact:

Andrew Mackenzie +44 (0)207 349 3718 or email andrew.mackenzie@chelseamagazines.com 72

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

Tel: 01795 530668

www.alanstaleyboatbuilders.co.uk The Marine Directory is the place to advertise

BOATBUILDERS

Woodford’s

DESIGN SELWAY FISHER DESIGN

Yacht Restorations, Repairs &Refits

Craftsmen in timber and Grp Traditional shipwright service Teak deck specialist Visit our web site at www.selway-fisher.com

to see our full range of over 400 yacht and boat designs, plus boat building manuals and DVD’s.

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

SELWAY FISHER DESIGN 15 King St, Melksham, SN12 6HB Tel. 01225 705074 enquires@selway-fisher.com

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

8

8: 5

MARINE DIRECTORY

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COURSES

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CRAFTSMANSHIP

YARD VISIT: DOWNS ROAD BOATYARD

TAKE TWO AND... ACTION Catching up with Jim and Catherine Dines in Maldon WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS STEFFAN MERYRIC HUGHES

D

owns Road Boatyard sitting, as it does, on a suburban road

new-build yachts (see Yard News, 971) to re-rigging the Cutty Sark, to

in the pretty town of Maldon, seems anomalous these days

working on film sets around the world (Atonement, Game of Thrones,

of irate neighbours and glass-fronted new-builds. Given its

The Mercy and Wonder Woman to name a few). It seems, though, that

location, it’s a surprisingly big site, sloping gently down to

the boats Jim likes best are a bit like him: big, rugged, no-nonsense

the River Blackwater. There has been boatbuilding here since about

workboats, as a tour of the yard shows. There is an immense amount of

1885, and in the 1970s, a number of locals, including the cartoonist Mike

work on here, even for a yard with a staff of 20, some of whom are

Peyton an Arthur Keeble, bought the plot to keep their boats on. One

working internationally, and much of it is to steel- and iron-hulled

of the original syndicate was the father of the Jim Dines, who with wife

boats, as well as wooden ones. The thing that Jim seems happiest

Catherine, owns and runs the yard today. In terms of local continuity,

about is not the glitz of Hollywood, but the apprenticeship scheme he’s

the story is amazing. Directly across the road, just 50ft away, is the

been running since the 2012 Cutty Sark re-rig. “I realised that there was

house where Jim was brought up and where his dad, who pops over at

a huge shortage of young people who can do this work but are unable

one point, still lives. Son Jim learned his trade in the Merchant Navy

to afford the cost of going to a boatbuilding school. It’s not about

and his breadth of experience these days includes consultation to the

disadvantaged kids, but about those who are desperate to get into this

MoD and on big-ship projects (oil tankers) and these days, Downs Road

and can’t.” The apprenticeship scheme has been running strong ever

Boatyard, which encompasses TS Rigging (rigging and repairs),

since, and there were three at work during our visit. The apprentices

Heritage Marine (film work and chandlery), MJ Lewis (brokerage, run

are currently learning Marine Engineering and Boatbuilding, but in the

by Catherine) and the Heritage Marine Foundation, set up as a charity a

future, Jim hopes to develop a Heritage Engineering Apprenticeship

few years ago to train apprentices. Work has ranged from luxury

too, such is the lack of skill in this area today.

WIVENHOE Jim recently bought this 1898 Thames sailing barge for himself (“for fun and racing”), after selling his smack My Alice. She’s one of the earlier riveted iron barges. It’s a big refurb, but 75 per cent of the bottom is redone, along with new sides, new fo’c’s’le, decks and more

CRAFTSMANSHIP

BLUE TROUT

ADVENT

Dallimore ketch, biggest yacht built at Kings of Burnham nearby, 1937, 60ft LOD. They repaired all spars, new running rigging,

this is half Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter, half Brixham Trawler, 57ft gaff cutter, built by Jim’s dad in 1978. It’s

strip back and re-varnish in eight coast. On sale w Barney.

TORBAY LASS

the only beautiful concrete boat I’ve ever seen.

AUDREY GOOLE

Also known as Kenya Jacaranda (right).

Humber Billy Boy converted from a

Huge rebuild needed, but with funding,

Humber Light Float, gutted and given a

could train eight apprentices. Left: Bertha

new interior, systems and deck.

UNDINE She’s too beautiful for the bonfire, so Undine has been taking up space for years. New owner needed!

ALBATROS Massive (131ft/40m), riveted-iron North Sea ‘clipper’ (Dutch answer to a Thames sailing barge), built in 1899.

These days she is a floating B&B, bar, restaurant and music venue in Wellsnext-the-Sea in Norfolk. She remains very original with a huge, working Hundested twin-cylinder diesel from the 30s that makes a noise like music.

The yard has replaced a quarter of the bottom and done much else, including removing, cleaning and replacing 30 tonnes of iron ballast bricks.

Above: Galvanised steel fittings in the fabrication shop; new deadeyes CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

75

CRAFTSMANSHIP

Boatbuilder’s Notes

By Robin Gates

2

3

Beech boats?

BY ROBIN GATES The UK’s home-grown hardwoods have undergone serious decline in the last half century. English elm was devastated by fungal disease in the 1970s, and now ash dieback is predicted to wipe out 80 per cent of this eminently tough and flexible species. Even the native oaks, both pedunculate and sessile, the very planks of the “wooden walls” of history, are under threat from acute oak decline, a lethal cocktail of bacterial, fungal and insect afflictions.

4

Our native beech (fagus sylvatica) isn’t the first timber which springs to mind for building boats, being widely written off as non-durable, but durability depends on how it’s used. Although prone to insect attack, and likely to rot under intermittent wetting, beech stands up well to constant immersion, which is why it was used to make waterwheels, and why John Fincham’s An Introductory Outline of the Practice of Ship-Building (1825) gave beech as an alternative to elm for bottom planking. Beech is harder and stronger than either of the native oaks, and was used in shipbuilding on a massive scale when other timbers ran short. Beech made up the numbers in planking HMS Victory in 1759-65, for example, when 700 oaks

5

proved insufficient.

Demand for the tropical hardwoods like mahogany and teak favoured for building yachts has led to catastrophic deforestation, harming ecosystems, cultures and our climate, so it seems imperative that more planet-friendly options be explored – beginning with tree species growing close to home.

You can almost judge the workability of beech by the smoothness of its bark. The pale pink-brown wood is diffuse porous, showing little difference between spring and summer growth in the subtle annual rings. Yes, it lacks the striking grain figure of ring porous oak, ash or elm, but its fine texture permits working without tear-out in any direction – a huge benefit when using hand tools.

Beech also machines and glues well, and can be steam-bent with

6

ease. Furniture makers have used beech for chairs and framing cabinets for generations, dressing it up with eye-catching veneers or stains where required. It’s also the standard stock for a wooden plane or mallet head – testament to its stability and strength. With such an impressive record, and in the light of 21st century concerns, perhaps beech should be re-evaluated as a timber for building boats.

76

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

1 2 3

Native beech Fagus sylvatica Annual rings in a cross-cut section Diffuse-porous beech planes well

4 5 6

ALL PHOTOGRAPHS ROBIN GATES

1

Chiselling a mortise leaves crisp edges Drilling clearance holes Beech flanked by ring-porous elm (left) and ash (right)

Boatbuilder’s TraditionalNotes Tool

By Robin Gates

SANDVIK SAWS The holy trio of hand tools for a

and sulphur content, and heated in

Clockwise from

through the interlocked grain of elm

builder of wooden boats comprises

small, controllable amounts using

above: Apple-

as straight as a laser beam. Likewise

the saw, plane and chisel, but of

charcoal produced from coniferous

handled Sandvik

the 10in ‘Tradition’ tenon saw cuts an

these the saw is by far the most

wood.

270 ripping elm;

ash tenon precisely and fast, putting

Tradition’ tenon

the weight of its solid brass back into the work so you don’t have to.

useful. With a saw you can fell trees,

For the woodworker steeped in the

shape any part you care to mention,

sweat and sentiment of working by

saw and ash

and cut joints that are watertight.

hand, the quality of the handle is

tenon; Model 288

Although, to be fair, that’d be the

almost as important as the blade. No

with steel side

sounded the death knell for the

work of a whole suite of saws as

handle made in Sandviken has

plates

wooden handle, but Sandvik did

different in bite as a grey wolf from a

surpassed the beauty of one hand-

better than most by using curvy

chihuahua.

crafted in the edge-tool factories of

chrome steel side plates on its new

Sheffield, with shapely lamb’s tongue,

model 288 – an excellent saw, if you

Sandvikens Jernverks – better known

extravagant horns and wheat grain

can find one. The blade is taper-

by the brand name Sandvik – in

carvings, but the apple wood handle

ground, skew-backed and also

Sandviken, Sweden some 150 years

of this early 26in ripsaw embellished

breasted – meaning slightly convex

ago, and the firm quickly rose to

with Sandvik’s trademark dragon motif

along the toothline. It cuts like a

prominence on the back of

is a credit to the stolid Swedish saw

dream.

Göransson’s pioneering success with

maker’s art, nonetheless. Besides, the

Henry Bessemer’s patent method for

saw is a superb working tool – ripping

Göran Fredrik Göransson founded

In the 1960s moulded plastic

NEXT MONTH: Card scrapers

oxidising impurities in steel. Today the Sandvik saw business is owned by the American Snap-on tool company, making saws under the Bahco name, and they’re much like any other brand in the DIY store – with lurid plastic handles, induction-hardened teeth you can’t sharpen with a file, essentially ROBIN GATES

throw-away items. But any mid-20th century Sandvik saw is a different beast entirely, made with Swedish iron ore of exceptionally low phosphorus CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

77

Letters LETTER OF THE MONTH SUPPORTED BY OLD PULTENEY WHISKY

Raising the bar again Regarding your generous acknowledgement of the level of effort expended in restoring Mink to her original 1914, as-built condition, we thought you may smile in confirmation of your statement “the bar could go no higher… but there’s still some headroom”.

Yes, the boathook casting on Mink was laser scanned, a 3-D model developed, pattern printed, and the investment casting produced.

While the result was gorgeous, it was too perfect. Because of the investment approach, the bore of the casting was smoothly finished, not rough like a sand casting would produce. And the exterior lacked indications of handwork to the finish. So, we engaged Bill Mills of Stonington Boat Works to build a wood pattern, Sher Hertzler of Mystic River Foundry to fabricate the sand mould and core box, cast the fitting, and Bill to finish the casting. Now we have a 1914 representative boat hook.

In keeping with this approach, we needed a bilge pump to comply with the 1914 Beverly Yacht Club equipment requirements for their new “Herreshoff Special Class”, the Buzzards Bay 25s. We had scanned the parts of an original HMCo pump and were preparing the same path for 3-D modeling, prints and castings when the “too perfect” conundrum arose. We again engaged Bill Mills, but this time had additional insight into the HMCo approach. The Mystic Seaport Museum has a collection of HMCo casting patterns, obtained from Cape Cod Shipbuilding in 1975. The Seaport generously allowed us to inspect five casting patterns applicable to the 2in (5cm) portable pump, allowing Bill to confirm his pattern technique relative to HMCo products. Again, Bill fabricated the patterns, Sher poured castings, and Bill manufactured CB ARCHIVES

a pump to the HMCo design. A period-correct rubber check-ball and hose completed the assembly, and boy, does it pump! Yes, there’s still some headroom.

COURTESY OF DUNBAR SLOANE

FROM BASIL LUBBOCK “THE BLACKWALL FRIGATES” 1922

Bryan Burdick, for MP&G, restorers of Mink

Marine art double take

78

A small aside to the Eudora/Windflower piece (last month): in 2002,

Clayton found it went down well and turned out a number of

Dunbar Sloane of Wellington NZ auctioned this picture (above left),

versions. Whatever, the one sold in 2002 had lost its identity

which is closely similar, but not identical, to the engraving of Kent

somewhere along the way. What do you bet a reader realises they

from Lubbock’s Blackwall Frigates (right) which you ran. After he

own it, and thanks you for the name? Reminds me of this paddle

retired as a Blackwall skipper, Matthew Clayton became a marine

steamer on an iffy lee shore which turned up at out local auction in

surveyor in Auckland and a keen painter – there are many of his

October, still kicking myself for not buying it. I think it’s a Thomas

works around in Australasia. Either the engraver took liberties and

Rose Miles, and I doubt it’s a random scene – probably a real event.

the painting of Kent in the icebergs that he copied is unique, or

Mike Wells

CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

C/O THE AUTHOR

LETTERS

Searching for Brenda After a war, in which my father spent 4½ years in German prison camps, he was not going to be caught out again. In 1948, back in Holland, he feared the intentions of the Soviets, so with a friend, bought a yacht and kept it close to his house in Scheveningen.

After hiring an experienced skipper, they sailed with friend and family to Belgium, France and the UK. C/O THE ATUHOR

After some time it was decided to sell the yacht and the two van Tol brothers from Rotterdam bought her and emigrated with it to the USA, where they sold the yacht for cash and brought their families over. One of these brothers worked hard and became rich and hired a private eye to find the yacht, bought it there are four Brenda sister yachts, but I wonder where Brenda

Putting your foot in it

herself is? She was built in 1912 built by de Vries Lentsch in

Do you, or any of your readers, have any idea what it is that the

Amsterdam, with a gaff rig, and measures 37ft (11.3m).

helmsman of the yacht Flame has his right foot in? Flame has long

Jaap Kaagman

since been broken up and none of her plans is available.

and had it transported back to Holland for restoration. In Holland

Colin Brown, Saltash, Cornwall

The end of a Colin Archer

After writing to us, Jan-Erik discovered that

On the night of 15 April 1912, a 19-year-old

Buster May who decided, while flying an

Norwegian drowned when RMS Titanic hit an

Albacore biplane on submarine patrol in the

iceberg and sank. His parents never recovered

Indian Ocean, that when peace returned, he

from the loss of their only child, and established

would sail from the UK home to South Africa in

a memorial foundation, which donated a new

command of his own vessel. After being

rescue vessel to NSSR (Norwegian Rescue

granted leave in 1946,

Foundation) named after their son. Arne

Buster went to Scandinavia

Fahlstrøm was a Colin Archer design of the Solli/

Sarie was bought by the wartime naval aviator

to find a suitable yacht and

Vardø-type, built in Risør by Olsen & Jebsen in

bought the Arne Fahlstrom

1913 and she was operated by NSSR until 1946,

and renamed her Sarie. He

during which time she saved 32 people, 5 vessels,

refitted her and set sail for

and assisted 1761 other vessels:

South Africa, arriving in

She was a sturdy, traditional Colin Archer

Durban in April 1947 a

design of 46ft 9in (14.3m) with a displacement of

year after buying the

30 tonnes. In 1935 she received a small

boat. A year later, under

wheelhouse and a Wichmann semidiesel engine

new ownership, she sank

of 40/70hp. In 1946, NSSR sold her to unknown buyers in Scotland,

in Durban Bay. Buster wrote a book about the

who renamed her Sarie.

voyage in 1964, and after his death in 1998,

Can you help us to find the fate of the legendary rescue vessel?

Jan-Erik Sverre, Bergen, Norway

son Dave had it published. Contact Dave to buy a copy: davegmay@icloud.com. Ed CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

79

Next month MARY ROSE

The last schooner Nat Herreshoff ever designed, Mary Rose of 1926, flourishing in Caribbean waters these days

SAILING TODAY WITH YACHTS & YACHTING

with JUNE 2021 £4.95

UK CRUISING

PLOT YOUR DREAM SUMMER CALEDONIAN CRUISE Loch Ness by yacht DIGITAL PILOT What the latest tech can do

OF THE DUKEGH EDINBUR A life in saili

CROATIAN ISLANDS Charter skipper shares all

ng

REGAL RAMSGATE Insider’s guide for sailors

MASTERING WAVES Olympic coach’s top tips

WE GO CHARTERING! How boat hire works in 2021

ST+Y&Y June Cover A.indd 1

20/04/2021 18:07

IN THE JUNE ISSUE l Scottish shortcut: through the Caledonian Canal and Loch Ness l Digital pilots: tech round-up

SPARS

Masts, booms, gaffs, yards, bumkins and bowsprits… how they’re made, and what to look for

PLUS...

LUELY

The name means ‘softly’ and that’s just how this Oughtred-designed, flatbottomed 30ft skiff sails.

Cruising French Polynesia by classic yacht; remembering the 1920 Olympics; a decade of young boatbuilders at Shipshape Heritage; and much more

JULY 2021 ON SALE Friday 11 June, 2021 Available online. Or why not subscribe? See page 19

30 YEARS AGO June 1991, CB36 I remember the news tutor who taught at my post-grad in journalism at the London College of Printing. He was a hard-bitten hack, ex-Standard, and amid endless “what is news?’ debates, he once told us that the best headline ever written was in response to a surprise football upset, when underdogs Caledonian Thistle beat favourites Celtic in football. The headline was so spectacular that they devoted the entire page to it. It was: Super Cali are fantastic, Celtic are atrocious. Our June issue from 30 years ago doesn’t quite reach those heights – nothing does, really – but there are some nice headlines going on, not least Dust in the bilges, for the story of Memphis Belle, an 80-year-old Dutch yacht. It would be a terrible way to describe pristine condition in any other walk of life, but it’s what every wooden boat owner dreams of. The editorial title is rather nice too: Of mice and marketing men, in which editor Pete Greenfield bemoans the tiresome vacuity of nostalgia marketing for things like beer against the far more authentic and hard-won heritage of owning and maintaining a wooden yacht.

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CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

l Mastering waves... top tips from an Olympic coach l Chartering in 2021 l Guide to Ramsgate l Prince Philip - our tribute to the sailing prince

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 hand tools that were developed side by side with the use of wood as a raw material still exist, and it is surprising to realise that the basic form of many of these tools has changed little. Many of the tools still used today would still be easily recognised by our forefathers.

In this way, Martha Primrose is not an ‘original’ but a collection of experiences and part of a history. She successfully crosses genres and styles. She is influenced by the simplicity and raw beauty of working sail vessels of the Thames Estuary. The ways of the smack- and bargemen and their ability to handle sailing vessels shorthanded and often engineless in a part of the world where the “magic of the swatchways” is powerful; the iconic image of brown sails drifting silently over the marshes, the oyster catcher calling, the wistful gentleness of creeks and the GEORGIE HARE expanse of big skies.

There are references to Gannon and Benjamin, the well-known American shipwrights from Martha’s Vineyard as well as the honouring of classic yachts and designers artha and Primrose are the middle names of my two such as Claude Worth from the golden age of yachting. Built from daughters who are a continuous source of inspiration the heartwood of English oak and Douglas fir she has qualities of for me. The vessel, Martha Primrose, is a spectacular strength and beauty which stand proud like a goddess.

50ft (15.1m) gaff yawl designed by Ashley Butler and me as a It almost seems astonishing, that in our times of consumerism, cruising yacht and built in 2012 by the many skilled hands of plastic gadgets and upgrades, that a new vessel like Martha Primrose Butler and Co at their former premises at Old Mill Boatyard, can sail alongside wooden boats a hundred years old; that like the Dartmouth, a quaint yard nestled into the banks of a creek between the overhanging oaks. I recently became reacquainted with trees from which she is built she can endure the weather and seasons, and with care, last with a longevity that transcends time. A her after some time apart and with it has brought some reflections wooden boat is like a tonic in our modern era. The tactile, soulful on the nature of wooden boats.

Anyone who has had the slightest involvement of building a new material of wood sings with the sea and the wind in harmony.

Standing on a foredeck, gazing out across the horizon, full sails wooden boat, or indeed restoring an old classic, can appreciate set, feeling the motion of a sailing boat through your body with how all-encompassing the process is. It is a task that eclipses the spray and salt in your hair is unforgettable. It is these pure mindful ability to concentrate on anything else, a dedication, a sacrifice of moments of meditative freedom of convention and material treadmill time and finances to the point of obsession. The organic emergence of the shape and lines of the vessel at her early stages do not appear that can be the thrill and enjoyment of sailing; the spirit of adventure and challenging of the senses. There is also the ability to feel at home through craftsmanship alone, from a manual or computer while travelling and feeling the proximity to nature and the elements, programme. They are a tapestry of experience and the result of and a pride at being responsible for a thing of beauty, admired by years of amassing knowledge and absorbing the fraternity of others who appreciate craftsmanship and the sheer wonder and wooden boats. Having “salt in ya bones” does not just refer to mystery of wooden boat construction. In the sailing sailing the seas, but also an inherent, ancestral fraternity, there is a sense of belonging. For children understanding of what makes an attractive, and families the warmth and nest-like wooden frames well-proportioned and practically excellent sailing are protective and nurturing and create a very vessel. different environment to the four walls of a house.

At times I wish I could have recorded some of There is an intimacy and closeness, teaching lessons the hours of conversations about boats, of tolerance, understanding, resilience and creativity. boatbuilding and sailing that I have listened to or A wooden boat by a pier can stand for the possibility overheard throughout my lifetime in sitting rooms, of solitude and freedom from life on land. pubs and ports, harboursides, cockpits, workshops, Martha Primrose is now alongside a quay on the saloons and kitchen tables – the language, lexicon “Wooden boats upper reaches of the Helford River in Cornwall, a and details, the lilts and dialects, the humour and are a tapestry last bastion of tranquillity. On a quiet spring morning passion. These are the oral artefacts of skills as old it possible to silently slip the lines and sail down river as the hills, a heritage of boatbuilding lore passed borne of years unnoticed, witnessed only by the magical shrill cry of on. Every age has its woodworkers, each generation of experience the curlews, unchanged for centuries. After a year of inheriting the store of knowledge of the previous and knowledge” lockdowns and restrictions, sailing symbolises the one. Although there are the essential power tools of promise of liberty and adventure more than ever. the modern wooden boatbuilder, the archetypal Warmth and creativity aboard

Martha Primrose

A tonic for the modern age Georgie Hare considers the magic of a wooden boat

M

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CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2021

MEMBER OF THE ROBBE & BERKING FAMILY

YA C H T S

VA NI T Y 1936 W ILLIAM FIFE 12MR

In principle, all 12s are beauties, but there are some in the fleet of boats that are particularly striking for their beauty. Vanity V is definitely one of them. The beautiful lines came from the pen of William Fife in 1936 and since then she has always been proud of her lines and her appearance.

Vanity V, is now offered for sale, or comes with the option to become a LOA: 21.58 m

|

Beam: 3.72 m

|

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

Draft: 2.65 m

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Price: EUR 1.195.000

A NI T R A 1928 STARLING BURGESS 12MR

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

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

|

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Beam: 3.75 m

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

Draft: 2.58 m

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Price: EUR 1.350.000

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

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

The Classic

Collection

DALE CLASSIC 35 • DALE CLASSIC 37 • DALE CLASSIC 45

The new DALE Classic 37. Built for 2022.

The difference that is Dale.

Unrivalled Sea-keeping. Exquisite Craftmanship. Lifetime Commitment.

W www.dalenelson.co.uk

T +44 (0)1646 603112

E info@dalenelson.co.uk

A DALE Motor Yachts, Brunel Quay, Neyland, Pembrokeshire, SA73 1PY