Classic Boat-September 2021

SEPTEMBER 2021 £4.95 US$10.
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HAITI BOUND
BRITISH CLASSICS Aid mission
Cowes is back on by schooner
TROY STORY TWO JACK LONDON AT SEA
Cornish dayboat rebuilt The author and his muse
www.classicboat.co.uk
NICK SMITH BOATS PORQUEROLLES HEALTHY JOINTS
Trad motor launch Fun in the sun Dowelling jig
Come and see
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J119
A CL A SSIC E N V I RON M E N T FOR T R A DI T ION A L BOATS
Birdham Pool is the oldest marina in the UK and our haven for classic and To complete the experience, we have
traditional boats. Even its location, just four miles from the historic county town five-star customer facilities, café and
of Chichester, nestled in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, reflects the great transport links complementing
pace and elegance of a bygone age. the enviable one-hour access to the
Solent and sheltered inland location.
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 Boatyard
Birdham is owned by Castle Marinas, a services by
Looking after traditional boats is what and traditional skills offered by our group of 11 coastal and inland marinas
we’re exceptionally good at. Our 30 tenant artisans means we’re geared each with its own unique character. We
tonne hoist and transport, dry storage for storage, repair and maintenance are, and always will be large enough to
ashore and a boat yard of modern of all watercraft. cope, small enough to care.
STEFFAN MEYRIC HUGHES, EDITOR
IT’S NEVER PLAIN SAILING BRITISH

The plan was simple, as I went over it in my head on the Red Jet to Cowes at this year’s British Classics Week, CLASSIC WEEK
script in hand, plastic moustache in my back pocket. I was going to run onto Josh Major’s newly-restored Fairey PAGE 12
Huntsman Flower Power, zoom away from the quayside, then have him push me into the sea, with the words “It just isn’t
your day, is it?” This will sound insane if you’re not familiar with the chase scene in From Russia with Love where Sean Connery
drives a Fairey Huntress away from the baddies pursuing him in ‘Huntsmen’. We were planning to re-enact the start of that scene with
Josh, dressed in a suit with yachting cap, pushing me (dressed in a sense of hopelessness and a plastic moustache) off the boat and
roaring away, with a drone filming. Then one of the boat’s two diesels gave up. It’s never plain sailing, is it? Even when you’re not
sailing. The actual sailing, despite the light winds, was magnificent. The sun was out and Cowes felt like Cowes again, humming from
high street to waterfront. It’s the sort of place where land-based things, to paraphrase Arthur Ransome, seem barely to matter at all.
COVER PHOTO: NiIGEL SHARP
ISSUE No 399
classicboat.co.uk
Jubilee House, 2 Jubilee Place,
CONTENTS
COVER STORY
4 . NEW WAYS
London, SW3 3TQ
EDITORIAL
Editor Steffan Meyric Hughes
+44 (0)203 943 9256 New Nigel Irens-designed, strip-
[email protected]
Senior Art Editor Peter Smith
planked centreboard ketch from
+44 (0)203 943 9246
[email protected]
Elephant Boatyard
Group Editor Rob Peake
Publisher Simon Temlett COVER STORY
Publishing Consultant Martin Nott
12 . BRITISH CLASSICS WEEK
ADVERTISING
Andrew Mackenzie +44 (0)207 349 3779
Summer’s back on this year, at the
[email protected] annual BCYC bash in Cowes
Advertisement Production
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Published monthly ISSN: 0950 3315 24 . TROY STORY TWO
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USA US$12.50 Canada C$11.95
Australia A$11.95 Barbara was first built in 1947. Now NEW KETCH
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40 . REACHING FOR THE SKY
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How designer Andrew Winch went TROY O F T H E R E AL
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Online: www.subscription.co.uk/chelsea/help
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Back Issues: chelseamagazines.com/shop/
48 . SCHOONER TO HAITI
An aid mission aboard Nat Benjamin’s
self-built schooner Charlotte
48 58
The Chelsea Magazine Company Ltd
Jubilee House, 2 Jubilee Place, SCHOONER NICK SMITH
54 . PORQUEROLLES CLASSIC
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©Copyright The Chelsea Magazine Company The low-key French regatta that
2020 all rights reserved
ISSN 2059-9277
celebrated its 18th birthday this year
Follow the Classic Boat team on
Twitter and Facebook 58 . NICK SMITH LAUNCHES
A look at Flow, the latest in a line of
clinker-built wooden motor launches
58 . BOATYARD VISIT
Classic Boat is part of the Chelsea Marine
Magazines family, along with our other John McShea is a boatbuilder using
monthly titles clever techniques to save on labour
with
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TELL TALES
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32 . 64 . AFFORDABLE CLASSICS 74 . YARD VISIT C
OLYMPIC COUNTDOWN
GB stars going for Tokyo gold
ESSENTIAL SAFETY KIT
For you and your boat SALEROOM
34 . 78 . LETTERS WEEK
CRUISING ON THE EDGE ROUND THE ISLAND SCOTTISH CRUISING DREAM
76 . BOATBUILDER’S
Unintended adventure We sail in 90th bash Island-hopping holiday
OBJECTS OF DESIRE
For cruising and racing sailors 36 . ADRIAN MORGAN 82 . STERNPOST NOTES
To subscribe, chelseamagazines.com/marine PAGE 18
CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021 3

CENTREBOARD
KETCH
Saecwen of Lymington is a new strip-
planked centreboard ketch, built by the
Elephant Boatyard to a Nigel Irens design.
Hardly run of the mill then...
WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS NIGEL SHARP
SAECWEN OF LYMINGTON
T
he story of Saecwen of Lymington begins in Above from left: Charles’s initial thoughts were to have a bigger
1962, when the first Saecwen was built by Teak dorade vent version of Saecwen “but the more we talked,” said Tom,
with dovetail “the more he realised that in some ways things have
Priors of Burnham – one of about 25 Alan
joints; Compass
Buchanan-designed Saxon Class sloops, all moved on and there might be other ways to look at it. I
mounted
given Anglo Saxon names. Saecwen (pronounced saykwen) have known Nigel for a very long time and I thought he
between the
is Anglo Saxon for sea queen. In 1970, Saecwen was would have some different ideas while still understanding
wheel and
bought by Captain Colin McMullen, whose grandson the original Buchanan concept.”
mizzen mast;
Charles was born the same year the boat was built. Nigel recalls that when he first met Charles, they
Bronze winch
“My earliest memories were on that boat,” Charles from the Classic
“didn’t really move forward as I wasn’t Alan Buchanan!”
told me recently. The Watson family kept Saecwen for 28 Winch Company
But after they next spoke, Nigel produced a quick sketch
years and she was, at one stage, co-owned by three which Charles thought looked “interesting” and that
generations – Charles, his parents and his grandfather. Below: Hobbit formed the basis for refinements that suited both of
They regularly sailed her across Biscay to Spain and they stove them. Three fundamental aspects of the new boat, which
took her across the Atlantic and back six times. Nigel proposed and which Charles soon accepted, were
“Summers were spent afloat,” said Charles. In 1989/90, that she should be a heavy displacement, ketch-rigged
Charles took a ten-month sabbatical and sailed her to centreboarder. “Heavy displacement gives a much more
Venezuela’s Orinoco Delta, back up through the Caribbean, endurable motion,” said Nigel, “and if you are spending
then home to the UK again. By this time he was the ‘main several weeks at sea you need to be comfortable and you
owner’ of the boat but it wasn’t long before “small don’t want to be thinking ‘when is this going to stop, I
children and incredibly busy career periods took over” want to get off’. For short-handed ocean sailing a ketch
and that was clearly incompatible with the time-consuming rig is very handy as you have so many more choices in
nature of owning a wooden boat. “It was with great terms of balancing the sail plan. And with regard to a
sadness that we decided to sell her,” he said. centreboard, I like to think that the ability to get into
Over the next quarter of a century, Charles did some nice anchorages is a secondary advantage, but the main
sailing in friends’ boats including numerous Round the thing is that the board can be given a decent aerofoil
Island Races, but he mainly got his “adventure fixes” from section to provide more lift upwind than a long deep
mountaineering and off-piste skiing (while maintaining keel, and with much less wetted surface area.”
his subscription to CB, of course). All the time, he had at Choosing a yard to build the boat seems to have been
the back of his mind that one day he would build a new a relatively straightforward process. Throughout the
wooden boat along the same lines as Saecwen. A couple Watson family’s ownership of Saecwen, they had
of years ago the idea started to bear fruit after the sale of frequently had her refitted at the Elephant boatyard on
his PR company. “I woke up in the middle of the night the Hamble which, coincidently, had also been run by
and said ‘right, we’re going to do it’,” he said. “It was three generations of the same family. The boatbuilding
easy to say it but I had absolutely no idea what to do!” side of the company is run by Matt Richardson whose
Charles has been a member of the Royal Cruising father Tom is now retired, but is still very much around,
Club – of which his grandfather was once the and whose grandfather founded the yard in 1952. “I’ve
commodore – since he was a boy, and through that known the family for many years,” said Charles, “and I
‘extended family’ he has been good friends with Tom particularly wanted to build the boat by the water,
Cunliffe for many years. So he phoned Tom and surrounded by beautiful, amazing historic boats.”
explained what he had in mind, as a result of which he Charles originally had in mind that the boat would be
met up with Tom and his wife Ros, and the three of them built of traditional carvel construction, but then he was
discussed the matter for several hours. “We all felt that, “very, very gently introduced to the concept of glue,
if he was still with us, Ed Burnett would have been the which was a new thing for me,” and so it was agreed
logical designer to approach,” said Charles, “but then that epoxied strip plank construction would be a better
Tom said ‘you could ask Nigel Irens’.” option.
6 CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

Above left: Mizzen mast and cockpit table Right: Ros Cunliffe, Charles Watson, Tom Cunliffe, Nigel Irens
Trotter Box
Folding Worktop
2236 1512
2000 578 1635 1856 672 Black 478 2000

Tank
Flag Locker Over
Head Under
1399 550 1868
Bosun's Store
1160 1900 2008
Wet Locker
28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The hull was built upside down but, unusually, the

build process started with the plywood sub-deck. This
was laminated from two layers of 9mm plywood on top
of concave shaped formers to give the required camber.
Grooves were then routered into the upper face (which
would become the deckhead when the whole thing was
turned the right way up) which was then painted 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
wherever the deck structure wouldn’t be fitted to it.

Meanwhile the 35 hull frames and deck beams (some
of which were combined as ring frames) were laminated SAECWEN OF fitting, chainplates and stanchion bases – made by
from 10mm khaya veneers then assembled upsidedown LYMINGTON various local fabricators such as Duncan Barr, Solent
and fitted to the underside of the ply deck with the beam Welding, Colin Kelly and Bob Young – are in stainless
DESIGNER
shelf and carlins. After the khaya centreline components steel which was bead blasted and passivated as Charles
were fitted, the hull was planked in 22mm-thick tongue- Nigel Irens “didn’t want them shiny”. The spars were made by
and-groove Alaskan yellow cedar from Stones Marine BUILDER Selden, the rigging by Performance Rigging in Hamble
Timber. Two diagonal layers of 6mm khaya veneer was and the sails by Sanders Sails.
then laid over the top of the planking and then this, in
Elephant Stowed on the foredeck is a glued clinker tender,
turn, was sheathed with a heavy epoxy/glass laminate. Boatyard which was built by Solent Wooden Boats in two halves
The hull was then turned the right way up to allow 2021 (the stern section stows over the bow section) to an Iain
the ballast to be fitted (the 7,200kg lead keel and 800kg Oughtred design. To launch her, the stern section is tilted
LOA
bronze centreplate were both cast by Irons Brothers), the up so it rests on the transom, the bow section is then
deck to be completed and the interior to be fitted out. 50ft 9in lifted with a halyard attached to the stem, and the two
The deck structure was completed with an FRP (15.5m) halves are then bolted together. The halyard then
foam-cored moulded cockpit, coachroof coamings in BEAM continues to lift the whole boat over the guard wires.
khaya, and a swept 10mm-thick teak deck (with the “She rows beautifully too,” said Charles.
timber supplied by John Moody and laid by a team from
12ft 9in Below decks, Charles was particularly keen that the
Centreline Marine). Charles chose to minimise the (3.9m) hull’s internal structure should be as visible as possible
amount of brightwork to try to keep maintenance to a DRAUGHT and this is especially evident in the case of the 50mm x
minimum, so the whole of the coachroof and coamings 125mm bilge stringer (“you can’t escape it, it appears
are painted, for instance, and the teak handrails and
11ft 3in everywhere”). For additional reassurance, he was also
bulwark capping rails are scrubbed. Varnished areas (3.4m)/5ft keen to see evidence of mechanical fastenings, including
include the teak hatch surrounds (in which Solimar 3in (1.6m) some substantial bronze bolts, even in places where the
hatches are fitted) over the saloon and forecabin, both of DISP epoxy resin may be doing a perfectly adequate job
which Charles insisted on varnishing himself. without them. “I do understand Charles’s approach,”
The bronze winches were supplied by the Classic
19.1 tonnes said Nigel. “If he is at sea in difficult conditions, alone or
Winch Company while many of the other deck fittings with a small crew, he has to be confident that everything
– including the deck prisms and fittings for the boom will be OK. That way his enjoyment of sailing the boat
gallows – were supplied by Davey & Co. All the bespoke will be enhanced. Every decision on this boat has been
deck fittings, including the pulpit, pushpit, stemhead led by him saying ‘I just don’t want it to break’.”

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

The internal layout, from forward to aft, is as follows. Above left: decided to have a bow thruster – a Vetus Rimdrive –
The forward cabin has a conventional vee-berth with an Cleaning up the which he describes as “a necessary evil for a long-keel
infill to form a double; then to port there is a heads with inside of the hull boat of this size” and which he hopes will minimise the
a separate shower, while to starboard there is a pilot berth, before turning it “potential for embarrassment”. The boat also has a
and in the passageway between the two there is dedicated the right way up Schenker Zen 30 watermaker for “far greater
tool stowage and a work bench that folds down and rests independence” and a B&G navigation system that
on a support on the mainmast; in the forward starboard Above right: includes an electronic autopilot (in addition to the
corner of the saloon there is a Hobbit wood-burning stove Applying the first transom mounted Windpilot self-steering gear).
and aft of that there is a settee berth and another pilot layer of khaya Throughout the design and build, Charles thoroughly
berth outboard of it; to port there is a large seating area veneer researched every detail and sought the advice of many
around a table made from cedar of Lebanon from a people and “traipsed around all the boat shows in
400- year-old tree that blew over in a storm near Europe” looking at equipment and other boats, while
Salisbury; then there is a galley to port and a chart table Tom Cunliffe remained his ‘mentor’ throughout. “I
opposite; finally, there is a double cabin to port and would say that hundreds of years of collective experience
another heads compartment, with an oilskin locker to has gone into creating this boat,” he said. And even
starboard. while “running a large company and travelling all over
At the aft end of the saloon there is what Charles calls the world,” he tried to visit the yard weekly and is full of
“the focal point of the whole boat”: a substantial 6in praise for the “incredibly enthusiastic and wonderful
(150mm) square section oak post going from deck head team” who built his boat. Below the brass builder’s plate
to bilge. It is much more ornamental than structural but on the big oak post is an oak board with the signatures
it is clearly very important to Charles as it came from a of 24 of these craftsmen and women carved into it.
tree that he thinks was around 500-years-old and which Charles’s new boat was launched in May and
fell down in the New Forest about ten years ago. “I grew christened Saecwen of Lymington, after Charles had
up in the New Forest and have always felt very connected tracked down the original Saecwen to ask her current
to it,” he said, “and I also knew this tree as well. And the owner for permission to use the name. He found her in
warships of Nelson’s navy were built from New Forest Gweek at the top of the Helford River where her owner
oak including HMS Elephant, where the yard is now.” was restoring her. To help him do so, Charles has
The fit-out and the attention to detail is impressive. provided him with countless offcuts of timber from the
The two pilot berths, for instance, have integral stowage, new boat. “That’s a rather lovely circular story,” he said.
USB charging ports and curtains. “I think it’s important Nigel Irens and the Cunliffes joined Charles for Saecwen
for all crew members to have personal living space and to of Lymington’s maiden voyage, from Hamble to
keep the main part of the saloon as a communal area,” Lymington. Even in light winds, Tom was impressed.
said Charles. There is also dedicated stowage for tools, “Of course she is fast as she is a Nigel Irens’ boat,” he
spices, different vegetables, Charles’s favourite malt said, “but she delivers the goods in a proper, seamanlike
whiskies, and also the bowls, plates and cups made from way. The Solent produced its typical sort of ‘washing
various wood species – including cherry, oak and ash – machine sea’ but she drove through it most delightfully.”
by David Fairman. The upholstery was made by Charlie Soon after, Charles took Saecwen of Lymington to the
and Penny Arton. Charles gives much of the credit for Scillies and back to the Helford, during which he was
the well thought-out interior to Ros Cunliffe who “really “delighted with the boat’s sailing performance in all
should write a book on the dynamics of living on a boat”. conditions.” For the rest of the year he will stay in home
Charles wanted simple systems, particularly an engine waters, at some point being joined by his partner before
“without lots of microchips and electronics which would returning to Lymington with friends. He will avoid marinas
need an expert with a laptop to diagnose a fault, which as “the boat is designed to be anchored, not tied up, unless
is not a practical proposition in the middle of an ocean” it’s to a lovely old harbour wall.” In time, he hopes to
and this led him to a Beta Marine 75HP diesel. After take Saecwen far, including “a proper circumnavigation
being strongly advised to do so by Tom Cunliffe, he of the British Isles and all its remotest extremities”.

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4
5
LOGBOOK SPECIAL
BRITISH CLASSIC WEEK
PHOTOGRAPHS CHRIS BROWN
This year’s British Classic Week, hosted by the British

Classic Yacht Club, attracted 50 sail and motor yachts to
Cowes for a week of sunshine, sailing and socialising.
Despite challenging light conditions at the start, the Royal
Yacht Squadron race committee led by Race Officer Dai
Prichard went ahead with all six races in the series, as well
as the annual Ladies’ Race. The two longer passage races
(sponsored by Classic Boat and Spirit Yachts respectively)
took place at the end of the week, with winds of up to 17
knots and champagne sailing. Social events included drinks
at the Royal Yacht Squadron and the Classic Boat pontoon
party. On the Thursday, finishers were passed Hattiers Rum
Dark and Stormies, and gin and tonics by Dartmouth Gin, as
they crossed the line. Th regatta was also supported by
BRIG UK, Adnams, Suffolk Yacht Harbour, Classic Marine and
OneSails GBR. 6

7
1 Spirit 46 Whisper
of Lymington
2 Njord during the
Ladies Race
3 Whooper’s crew
on the rail
4 Kelpie, a class winner
5 Crew from Cereste
enjoying drinks at the
Royal Yacht Squadron
6 Mikado was a cass
winner 7 Cheers from
Spirit 63DH Gwenhyfar
8 Infanta, Border Legend
and Illiria
8
LOGBOOK BRITISH CLASSIC WEEK
12
11
10
9 and 10 Gareth
13 14
Griffiths of the Spirit
Oui Fling, overall
winner of the event
11 Stiletto was
celebrating her 60th
anniversary at the
regatta
12 Tim Blackman at
the helm of Infanta
13 Jody Wincer
helming Cereste in the
Ladies’ Race
14 Stepping ashore
from Cetewayo

Moonbeam
Of Fife III
William Fife & Sons | 1903/2017
30m/98ft | 4 guests | €1.495
Tigris
A. Mylne | 1899/2014 | 18.60m/61ft
4 guests | €450.000 VAT exempt
The Edmiston
Classic Yacht Fleet
The No.1 specialists for classic yachts proudly presents a selection from its peerless fleet.
The finest yachts, beautifully maintained and presented, keenly for sale and available to
view.
Contact Mike Horsley today to introduce you to some very special vessels.
Tel: +33 6 09 53 16 56 - [email protected]

LOGBOOK BRITISH CLASSIC WEEK
15
18
16
19
15 Drinks on the
Squadron lawn 16
Flower Power, a
Huntsman 28, was one
of six motorboats at
the regatta
17 Suvretta (featured
in last month’s issue)
18 8M Erica crewman
19 Katie Craven (in
blue), a beneficiary of
the regatta charity, the
Tall Ships Youth Trust,
on Border Legend
17 20
20 Stormvogel

PIONEERING
MARINE
GRADE
EPOXIES
& ADHESIVES
“I think of my work as a bit of a blend of old and
new; it’s classically styled boats that inspire me
and they have to be made of wood!”
Dan Lee | Boatbuilder
READ OUR INSPIRING PROJECT MAGAZINE FOR ENTHUSIASTS AND PROFESSIONALS
For inspiration, technical information and +44 (0) 1794 521111

@epoxycraft_
expert advice visit www.epoxycraft.com
@Epoxycraft THE UK’s HOME OF EPOXY
For a full list of stockists visit www.wessexresins.co.uk www.wessexresins.co.uk

Photographs © Dan Lee | www.danleeboatbuilding.co.uk
Tell Tales
Classic Boat’s address:
Jubilee House, 2 Jubilee Place,
London, SW3 3TQ
[email protected]
Follow the Classic Boat team
on Twitter and Facebook
ALL PHOTOS BY TIM JEFFREYS
Cowes Classics Week a huge success

Cowes Classics Week, held from 5-9 July, continued the Clokwise from 1924 Bentley Speed Model outshone 37 other classic cars to
post-lockdown trend for big turnouts, with a record entry top left: Tight win the Concours d’Elegance Trophy.
of 214 yachts. racing in the 6-M Although the usually busy social programme was
Good, consistent breezes most of the week enabled the class; The Victory compromised to some extent by Covid-19 regulations,
race committees to run a full schedule of races for most of class from competitors were still able to enjoy many club-based
the 17 classes on the four race circuits, sponsored by Portsmouth; The activities including the MDL Marinas tea and cakes, evening
marine insurer GJW Direct and the shore line by Robert X One-Design drinks and dinners.
Oatley Wines. fleet; 10-M yacht Prizegiving on Thursday included tours of a new
Racing was cancelled on Tuesday due to too much wind Bojar; A good Shannon Class lifeboat, thanks to the RNLI, and drinks at
but that enabled competitors and visitors to Cowes to enjoy showing in the the Royal London Yacht Club.
the spectacle of Cowes Classics Day, in which classic cars gaffers' classes; There were thanks to all the sponsors, including Red
and classic power boats joined the classic yachts on and The Loch Long Funnel, which helped reduce the cost of getting to Cowes
around The Parade in Cowes. fleet; Sir Robin for crews and boats.
Sir Robin Knox-Johnston’s Suhaili and a WWII Motor Knox-Johnston
Gun Boat were the top attractions on the water, while a Next year’s event will run 27 June to 1 July 2022

132-page Souvenir edition
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Classic
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magazine is a visual feast. We reveal the incredible stories behind the finest yachts on the
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ESSEX
Barges race on the
ALL PHOTOGRAPHS BY SANDY MILLER

Blackwater
The 2021 Blackwater Match was a day of tight starts and tense finishes,
reports Sandy Miller. Four staysail barges lined up almost bow to bow in a
light northerly for the first start. Repertor was the fastest start, by a
smidgen, but Niagara was first to the outer mark and first home to take the
President's Cup. In the bowsprit class, Mirosa was both the fastest start and
the first to the outer mark but Blue Mermaid fought it out with Marjorie for
line honours. After 6 hours and 4 minutes of racing, just 36 seconds divided
these two, with Blue Mermaid helm Richard Titchener receiving the Keeble Clockwise from top left:
Cup and the Match Pennant. It was a similar story for the smacks. Although Blue Mermaid, winner in
the 1906, Aldous-built, Maldon-registered smack Lizzie Annie was first over the bowsprit barges'
the start line it was Peace and Alberta that battled the dying breeze across class; Peace, winning
the finish at Osea Island. After 5 hours 40 mins racing, the 1909 Stone-built smack; Lizzie Annie,
Peace beat Alberta by 3 seconds! The Tankard went to Angus Milgate while Special Award; Puritan,
Lizzie Annie helm Bob Fawkes received the Special Award. The two 1950 newcomer to the fleet
Rebels, Rothay and Rebel, finished 17th and 18th respectively.
NEW
Classic Yachts magazine
EDITION
ion with SOUVENIR 9
In associat £7.99 US$10.9
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Classic Yachts is a
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STUNNING
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SAILING
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Arthur Beale moves to Portsmouth
INS BUILT NE T
8-METRE TW ORIAN YACH
NG ON A VICT !
REGATTA RACI MUST HAVE
GORGEOUS
NAUTICAL
KIT YOU 30/06/2021
17:49
wooden and Arthur Beale, the 500-year-old London chandler that was forced to close its
modern classic scene worldwide. Shaftesbury Avenue premises last month, has opened a new shop in
We cover everything from the latest J-Class to one of Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. Arthur Beale famously kitted out Shackleton,
the oldest gaffers afloat, and even a GRP launch among other adventurers.
inspired by the lines of yesteryear. It’s a rich feast for The new site has been facilitated by the dockland’s landlord, Portsmouth
all classic boat lovers and is on sale at your nearest Naval Base Property Trust (PNBPT). The greater size of the new shop means
quality newsagent or via our parent company’s much of the space will be dedicated to Arthur Beale’s rich history, with
website chelseamagazines.com/shop. memorabilia and archive material on show. This is the first time that Arthur
Beale has displayed any of its archive material to the public.

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TELL TALES
Italian city gets its

own classic yacht
This stunning 1963 Sangermani-designed and built yawl, Beatrice, has
been donated to the city of Imperia.
The handover ceremony was held on 15 July in the Ligurian town’s
naval museum and was followed by a flag-raising ceremony, attended
by local authorities and Diana Bracco, president of the Bracco Group
and last owner of the 51ft (15.6m) boat.
Mrs Bracco said: “When I was asked one evening what should we
do with this boat, I enthusiastically embraced captain Gaudino’s idea
of donating Beatrice to the City of Imperia, to use her for the
student’s sail-training after her restoration. I liked the idea of
giving to a second life to Beatrice, and I hope that she will be
able to participate in some of the classic yacht events,
teaching and furthering the work-study programmes that are
so important to me and that I firmly believe in.”
Claudio Scajola, the Mayor of Imperia, thanked Mrs
Bracco for the donation, saying: “I am proud that our
harbour will greet this splendid vessel, restored by the
loving work of the young and talented students of
Imperia’s Nautical Institute.”
As part of the ceremony, a new book about the boat was
launched, written by Fabio Pozzo with photography by Carlo
Borlenghi.
CARLO BORLENGHI
SCOTLAND
Historic paddle steamer slipped HALLUF
The 430-tonne Loch Lomond paddle steamer Maid of Loch has been hauled out for 1907
restoration work, only the second time she has been out the water in over 40 years.
The major operation saw the 191ft (58.2m) vessel hauled out by the original steam-
powered winch, in its A-listed winch house, onto the 120-year old Balloch slipway.
Once on the slipway, urgent repairs to replace steel beneath the boiler room are
to be carried out, following a survey of the hull. Funding permitting, a refurbishment
of the starboard paddle box will also be carried out before the ship is repainted in
her original ‘white goddess’ colour scheme, with yellow funnel and green waterline.
The operation follows more than two years of planning after an unsuccessful
winching operation in January 2019 that saw the original carriage of the Category
A-listed slipway fail and the ship slip back into the water.
Iain Robertson, chairman of the Loch Lomond Steamship Company, said: “This is
a momentous occasion and we are confident that the new carriage will deliver a
successful operation and a huge step forward in the ship’s restoration. As a charity
run by volunteers, we are incredibly humbled that we are able to slip the ship with
Original Mermaid
this new and improved equipment, which wouldn’t be possible without the many Taking part in Cowes Classics Week was the 1907 Halluf,
generous donations and hard-working volunteers.” a Seaview Mermaid, designed, as all the Mermaids were
then, by GU Laws. Sail number U3 and prominent with
her green topsides, Halluf is one of only two 1907
designs at Seaview Yacht Club on the Isle of Wight. It is
believed that there were eight yachts built between
1907 and 1910 at the Woodnutts yard. Halluf has a
distinguished racing record, so much so that she was
banned from racing against the east coast gaff-rigged
fleet in the 1970s. Forced to race against the bermudan-
rigged classics, she trounced them too.
CHOCK-CHANNELS
WORD Those filled in with wood between the
OF THE chainplates, according to a plan
MONTH introduced by Captain Couch, RN
Sailor’s Word Book of 1867

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 syndicate partner. Between 1997 and 2000 Vanity received a completely
that are particularly striking for their beauty. Vanity V is definitely one rebuilt, sticking close to the original design. Since then she always has
of them. The beautiful lines came from the pen of William Fife in 1936 been kept to perfect conditions and even totally equipped for cruising
and since then she has always been proud of her lines and her appearance. with an elegant interior, she shows her strength successfully at interna-
Vanity V, is now offered for sale, or comes with the option to become a tional regattas. Please give us a call to receive additional information.
LOA: 21.58 m | Beam: 3.72 m | Draft: 2.65 m | Price: EUR 1.195.000
A NI T R A
1928 STARLING BURGESS 12MR
Abeking and Rasmussen built six 12mR yachts in 1928 commissioned by her a brand new and beautiful look, Anitra was brought to Flensburg
the New York Yacht Club. These boats were designed by Starling Burgess where she took part in several regattas around the fjord and the Danish
and two of them are still alive and one is Anitra. She has been built match- south sea, as well as in world and European championships. Her interior
ing the second rule of the 12mR regulations in 1928. In 2003 Anitra was design is high end and Anitra is not only a good boat to sail regattas but
brought to Germany in a much-desolated condition and was restored by also appropriate for cruising trips. She comes fully equipped, so that going
Martin Yachts in southern Germany. After her major refit, which gave on holiday or on long deliveries for races is not a problem at all.
LOA: 21.10 m | Beam: 3.75 m | Draft: 2.58 m | Price: EUR 1.350.000
+ 49 (0) 4 61 31 8 0 3 0 65 | B AU M+KO E N I G @ C L A S S IC-YAC H T S . D E | W W W.C L A S S IC-YAC H T S .C O M

TELL TALES
NEWS FOCUS
Classics at Southampton Boat Show

The Southampton International Boat Show, which runs from
10-19 September, is expanding in a big way this year and taking over more
of the city. There is plenty lined up for classic boaters and others
British Marine, the organiser of the between the pontoons and shore will
Southampton International Boat be used to create a safe and active
Show, has confirmed that the 52nd water park. There will be chances to
edition of the UK’s largest demonstrate, compete and entertain,
watersports festival will take place all with live commentary.
from 10-19 September 2021.
This year more than ever the show LIVE MUSIC AND GUEST SPEAKERS
really does celebrate, in British Marine’s Throughout the show there will be
words, “everything that is great about stages, live music, entertainment and
being out on the water,” with the full guest speakers, all aiming to
gamut of boating included from SUPs showcase the boating lifestyle and
to dinghies to raceboats and
wooden yachts to all manner of
Ticket create a buzzing show atmosphere.
offer for Cl
as
Boat reade sic
kit. There will be more than for Classic Boat readers. MORE SUSTAINABLE
450 marine brands on show This year’s new Classic To mark World Oceans Day on 8 June,
and more than 600 boats.
Rea
rs & Day Boat Zone will British Marine has pledged to make
ders of Cla
Lesley Robinson, CEO ssic Boat c boast a variety of the 2021 edition of the Southampton
reduced en an claim
of British Marine, says: “It try for the craft on show, Boat Show the “most sustainable and
Internation Southampto
al Boat Sho n
is a great pleasure to code YY21, w. Using th including day boats, environmentally friendly” in its history.
readers can e
announce that for £34 (tw b uy two tick vintage wooden and
o children c ets
Southampton an go free new classic boats, RECYCLABLE GIVE-AWAYS
one adult ti with
International Boat Show is cket). Book plus equipment and All exhibitors must pledge that any
southampto via
nboatshow
back in 2021; the show is The ticket .com. materials. British Marine promotional items at the show will be
offer ends
such a key event in the on 31 says that “this zone sustainable and recyclable. This means
August, 20
boating calendar and a real 21. celebrates the boats and no single-use plastic water bottles on
celebration to the end of season. craftsmanship that stand the stands, outlets, or hosted events,
British Marine is using our years of test of time… classic boat among other measures.
boat show experience to deliver the enthusiasts and seasoned boaters will
52nd edition at full size and to be able to find all the equipment they RELAX AT FESTIVAL GREEN
welcome visitors back in style. We need to keep their treasures gliding Also new this year is the Festival
cannot wait to see you all in person across the water”. Green, located next to the new main
again!” entrance up near Westquay shopping
Chelsea Magazines, the parent PRODUCT DEMONSTRATIONS centre. This is one of many spots to
company of Classic Boat, is official Above: New There will also be hands-on product relax in, a very important part of any
media partner for the show. classic and day demonstrations, an education special, boat show experience! In the evening,
boat zone talks on traditional and modern boat visitors will be able to sit here and
NEW CLASSIC AND DAY BOAT ZONE Below: Onwater building techniques, and accounts of enjoy live music “under a sea of lights".
The wooden boat sector in previous experiences for how boating supports mental and
shows has always been the key area kids physical wellbeing. GREAT FOOD FOR ALL
There will be a range of food outlets,
BIGGER LAYOUT THIS YEAR from fresh-out-of-the-water oysters
The show has a new, bigger layout this to international street food, and drinks
year, taking over more of the city with outlets, with bars offering everything
new zones for every kind of watersport. from champagne and cocktails, to
Working in partnership with mocktails and soft drinks.
Southampton City Council, British To widespread dismay, the 2020
Marine has agreed the use of more show was cancelled by Southampton
land stretching inland towards the City Council at the 11th hour amid Covid
Westquay shopping centre. concerns. The 2021 show will take place
well after restrictions have been lifted.
ON-THE-WATER EXPERIENCES Nonetheless, British Marine is ready to
There will be more on-the-water implement any Covid-related safety
experiences and the natural arena measures at short notice.

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TROY
STORY
TWO
Barbara’s first owner ordered her in 1947 with
the money that should have been a deposit on
a family home. Now she’s been rebuilt as
new boat, with just her lead keel
to remind her of the past
WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS NIGEL SHARP
BARBARA TROY RETURNS
T
he 20 January 1947 was a big day for Arthur Above left: Arthur Land’s End, along the south coast and up the east coast,
and Olive Bate, residents of Polruan just across Bate and crew short hops every time he had leave from the army. At
the harbour from Fowey in Cornwall. Not collecting some point the sea voyage ended and she was trailed by
only was their daughter Barbara born but it trophies at road across country to the west coast of Scotland, and
was also the day that they had planned to put a deposit Polruan Regatta then sailed out to the island of Flodaigh in the Outer
down on a family house. So it must have come as in the 1950s; Hebrides.
something of a shock when Arthur visited the hospital Barbara in the
that evening and told Olive that he had used the money Hebrides at the PICKING UP THE PEICES
to order a boat instead. Whether or not it softened the first visit in 1990 Marcus and Richard were able to make contact with
blow that the new boat would also be called Barbara is Colin who still owned her, but who reported that she
not recorded. had sunk in a gale 15 years earlier and had then been
The boat in question was a Fowey Troy. Arthur had dragged up a beach. No repairs had been carried out and
ordered his from Fowey boatbuilder Archie Watty who she was now “falling apart” alongside a quay wall. A
had designed the Troy almost two decades earlier and coastguard originally from Polruan and now based in
had subsequently built 11 of them. Arthur owned Stornoway took some photos of her and sent them to
Barbara for seven seasons during which his racing record Marcus who could see that she was still “moderately
gradually improved, winning 26 out of 42 races in 1952, together”. Marcus then contacted Arthur Bate who said
for instance. After he and his family moved out of the that he would try to rescue Barbara but five years later
area, Barbara had consecutive lady owners – Mrs – by now getting on in years – he admitted that he was
Gilchrist and then Miss Bradbury – both of whom kept unable to do so. Marcus and his partner Sue Rodwell
her where she belonged in Fowey Harbour. then took a trip to the Hebrides to see the situation for
Around 1960, her fourth owner, Commander themselves. When they got there they found that Barbara
Campbell, took her to Padstow on Cornwall’s north had deteriorated badly since the last photos were taken.
coast and put a Stuart Turner petrol engine in her. He Nonetheless they decided to go back a few months later,
kept her on a drying mooring with legs to hold her this time with Richard, to mount a rescue operation.
upright when the tide went out until, that is, the day that BARBARA This initially involved borrowing five 45-gallon drums
she fell over and stove in some of her planking. She was LENGTH from the RAF base at Benbecula airport to strap to the
taken to a local boatyard to be repaired but, while she hull so that she could be floated and then towed to a
was there, Commander Campbell died.
18ft (5.5m) causeway. Marcus, Richard and Sue then made their way
Meanwhile in the early 1980s, Fowey boatbuilder BEAM back to Fowey, leaving things in the hands of the armed
Marcus Lewis and Troy sailor Richard Kitson were keen 6ft 2in forces. First an RAF lorry with a Hiab crane picked
to track down all four of the Troys that were no longer (1.9m) Barbara up and transported her 10 miles or so to a jetty.
in Fowey and whose whereabouts were unknown. After Then the army supply vessel Arakan – based in
finding Janet (T3) in Gateshead, they purchased her and DRAUGHT Marchwood which regularly shipped supplies to the
brought her home to Fowey. When she was relaunched, 3ft 10in Hebrides – was made ready to load Barbara on board.
a reporter from Radio Cornwall interviewed Richard, (1.2m) However, when Marcus, Richard and Sue arrived back
who took the opportunity to appeal for information in Fowey, there was an urgent message (sent by fax to
regarding the other three missing boats. This resulted in WEIGHT the Fowey harbour office) for them to contact Arakan’s
a boatbuilder from Padstow getting in touch to say that 1,200kg captain. He was concerned that Barbara was too fragile
Barbara was in the Outer Hebrides. (2,645lb) to load, so Marcus sent a message back absolving him of
After Commander Campbell died, Barbara had been any blame should there be any further damage. But there
passed on to his soldier nephew Colin who decided to UPWIND SAIL was a shock in store when Arakan arrived in Fowey.
take her to Scotland where he planned to start an AREA Looking down into the hold Marcus could clearly see
outward-bound training camp. After the repairs were 1,200kg that there were three separate pallets with various parts
completed, he began to sail her from Padstow, round (2,645lb) of Barbara on each of them. “Maybe it was naive to

Above: Marcus Lewis and Sue Rodwell sailing Barbara

past the Royal Fowey Yacht Club
think we could rebuild her, but that was what had been Above left: Bow has bought Richard Kitson’s half of her) and he has had
envisaged,” said Marcus. “But it was now obvious that and transom regular top-three results in the past dozen or so seasons.
there was no way that was going to happen.” sections brought But this year he and Sue have been sailing the new
Barbara’s remains were then stored until 2015. By back to Fowey Barbara and he has found that her performance is
that time Marcus had built five new Troys and restored superior to Janet’s partly, he thinks, because Janet is
several others, and he had a new workshop with some Above and more tender because her ballast keel is lighter and also
additional space. A quiet August then prompted him to below: Back because the shape of her bow means she doesn’t cut
think about what to do about Barbara and he briefly sailing in Fowey through waves as easily.
considered reusing the transom, garboards, and some of He also says that Janet is “in need of a bit of attention
the centreline structure. “But then I decided that there because, being a boatbuilder’s boat, she doesn’t get the
was no point putting very weathered 70-year-old bits of maintenance she deserves.” So he plans to get her up to
wood into an otherwise brand-new boat, because in 10 his workshop and give her some TLC when he is less
years’ time, they would have to be replaced,” he said. “It busy in the summer. “Then, I guess, she will be for sale,”
was now clear that it would be impractical to try to use he said. “There is not a lot of point having two of them.
any of Barbara’s remains other than her lead keel.” So I can only sail one at a time.”
after the keel was cleaned up, a new oak centreline was It isn’t strictly true to say that it was only the
assembled on top of it, and the moulds were set up and Barbara’s ballast keel that was used in the new boat as
braced, ready for planking. Marcus cut up one of the garboard planks to make her
However, due to the demands of paying work, nameplate and tiller handle. “I am a bit sad that we
nothing much happened for the next five years, but when weren’t able to use anything else,” he admits, “but I’m
the first Covid lockdown was introduced, Marcus found also pleased that we’ve ended up with effectively a brand
he had some time on his hands. new boat, because that is a good thing to have.”
All of the early Troys, among them Barbara, varied in
shape, especially in the bow section, but all the boats
produced over the last 20 years or so have been built to a
much stricter specification – including the use of an extra
mould forward of mould number one to standardise the
bow section – and they have to be inspected by an
official measurer at various stages of construction.
Barbara’s new hull was built with all the centreline
components in oak, the planking and transom in
Brazilian cedar, and steamed oak timbers. The class rules
specify a certain density for the planking timber species
and Brazilian cedar has been used for the last eight boats
as it “fits the rule requirements, looks good if it’s
varnished and doesn’t necessarily soak up so much water
perhaps as pine or larch.”
Until he built the new Barbara, Marcus had been
sailing Janet since he restored her in 1984 (since when he

SALE, CHARTER & MANAGEMENT
Yacht Brokerage Also specialises in Transoceanic Charter
2000. Refit in 2008/14/18/19/20. Steel hull with teak super-

162.5ft New Classic Schooner structure, ELEONORA is an exact replica of the schooner
ELEONORA Westward which was designed in 1910 by Nathanael

Greene Herreshoff, the ‘Wizard of Bristol’, the designer
of the America’s Cup defenders which turned back all
six challenges from 1893 to 1920. Westward was arguably
one of the most famous racing schooners in the world.
ELEONORA not only follows Westward’s heritage of big
schooners racing but she also offers with her comfort and
space unforgettable cruising and relaxation experience. She
was built at the Van der Graaf shipyard in Holland and was
launched in March 2000. Since then, she has successfully
participated in a number of classic sailing regattas and
hosted on board a number of high-profile guests during
her charter activities.
ELEONORA shows astonishing beauty under sail, her
slender hull cutting a pathway through the sea, an elegant
combination of beauty and power.
With no sacrifice to luxurious standards of comfort, her
staterooms and the entire interior display the ambience
and elegance of another age.
ELEONORA is registered as a commercial vessel under MCA
and classed under Veritas.
2011. As a replica of the schooner ‘Germania’ 196ft New Classic Schooner
GERMANIA
launched in 1908, she was built at Factoria
Naval de Marin in Spain.
NOVA
As opposed to Germania, which did not include
a motor or generators or air conditioning,
GERMANIA NOVA has been outfitted with these
important features for a charter yacht of her
kind. In fact, GERMANIA NOVA has full charter
class under LY2. External decks, and sail plan
are impressive.
Under deck she is composed of two main zones
(guests and crew). Guest area is composed of
5 cabins, including a master cabin and 4 guest
cabins. All cabins with unsuited bathroom. One
large saloon and a bridge house with all neces-
sary radio and navigation equipment, complete
the guest area. Crew area is all located forward,
and houses 10 crew in bunk areas, two cabins
for officers and captain, a crew mess, a laundry
and a galley.
71ft Laurent Gilles Ketch Aitor 65ft Sangermani Marconi Yawl Giannella II
1964. From a Laurent Gilles Design, AITOR is a very nice Gentleman’s classic yacht for blue 1966. Refit 2010. This Eugène Cornu design has been built by the legendary Cantieri Sangermani
water cruising and live aboard thanks to her cockpit and deck house. in Italy, one of the best wooden boat shipyards in the world.
She is very well built and has been regularly maintained. She has a special character thanks to She is a wonderful classic sailing yacht ideal for family cruising in absolute comfort. She has won
her classic style. She is easy to handle with 2 main engines. many regattas including The Voiles de St Tropez and Conde de Barcelona. She features lovely warm
interiors and is easy to sail!
FRANCE: Montpellier (Head Office) - Paris - La Ciotat - Antibes Bernard Gallay Yacht Brokerage
1 rue Barthez - 34000 Montpellier - France
Monaco • Palma, Majorca • Italy • Moscow +33 467 66 39 93 - [email protected]
Hong Kong • USA California • New Zealand www.bernard-gallay.com
Saleroom By Dave Selby
Right: In 1877 iron CHARLES MILLER LTD

clipper Coriolanus made
the run from the Scilly
Isles to Calcutta in 69
How clippers lost the
days, a record never
surpassed in the era of
race against time
sail. Display model sold The survival of the Cutty Sark is all the more remarkable when you
for £1,860. consider that most clippers had short, precarious careers often
ending in calamity. Such was the price to pay for prioritising speed
over cargo capacity, as with their massive spread of canvas, clippers
were driven hard and often over-pressed in efforts to secure best
market price for their precious freights.
The average life of the six clipper ships represented in Charles
Miller Ltd’s most recent marine sale was just 31 years. Three of the
six were lost at sea, but the overall average active working life is much
CHARLES MILLER LTD
reduced when you consider that those that survived into obsolescence
spent years, even decades, languishing as hulks before being broken up.
The composite-built tea clipper Maitland (1865) survived just nine
years before being wrecked on a coral reef off China. Sir Lancelot,
also built for the tea trade in 1865, survived for 30 years before she
Above: Builder’s half-block model was lost in a cyclone bound for Calcutta; by then she’d
of the Maitland, built 1865, reveals been reduced to carrying a low-value cargo of salt.
the composite build with traces By contrast, the 1876 Coriolanus, often considered
of internal criss-cross iron one of the most beautiful all-iron clippers, ended her
framework; model sold for £3,100 days as a migrant ship running from the Azores to the
USA in the 1920s, before being broken up in 1936.
Right: The composite Sir Lancelot The brief glory of the clipper era was ended by the
would be more celebrated today if opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 and the rise of
she’d set off earlier in 1869 Great steam. By then consigned to history by simple
Tea Race. She set a new record of economics, they finished their sailing lives scrabbling
89 days, but Thermopylae arrived for cargo as stately but tattered tramps of the seas.
first after 91-day passage;
watercolour sold for £496. Charles Miller Ltd’s next sale: 2 November, London
HISTORICS
HISTORICS
Italian style and English speed

There’s no doubt automotive styling and engineering enormously very extensively restored 1967 example was estimated at £55,000-
influenced the evolution of post-war speedboat design, but the 66,000 at the Historics’ 17 July classic car sale.
inspiration for the Italian firm Riva and the small British Albatross Meanwhile the ethos of aluminium-hulled Albatross (above
outfit came from vastly different well sources. right) came straight out of Lotus sports cars and founder Colin
When Carlo Riva went on a trip to the USA to negotiate engine Chapman’s mantra of “add lightness.” Moreover, at the heart of this
supplies, he also brought back the design motifs that would restored early 1960s Series A sports and race boat is the famed
become a Riva signature in glamorous wooden craft garnished Coventry Climax engine that propelled the original Lotus Elite to
with bedazzling chrome flourishes, glittering dials in a car-type giant-killing feats on the race track. Series A Albatrosses with
dash, curved windscreen and flamboyant two-tone upholstery. Coventry Climax FWE race engines could easily hit 45mph, and
Adopting the American terminology, the 5.7m Riva Junior (above this example with engine bored out to 1440cc and twin Weber
left), with white-painted wooden topsides, was classed as a carbs must surely exceed that. That’s a lot of performance in a
“utility,” but was much more than utilitarian. And of course, at its lightweight 3.9m two-seater, and with an estimated of £18,000-
heart was a General Motors automotive-derived 180hp V8. This 23,000, a fraction of what a road-going Lotus Elite would fetch.

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2 Southford Road, Dartmouth, South Devon TQ6 9QS
Tel/Fax: (01803) 833899 – [email protected] – www.woodenships.co.uk
52’ Philips of Dartmouth Motor Yacht GHVLJQHG DQG EXLOW E\ 3KLOLSV DQG 45’ Inchcape Motor Sailer EXLOW E\ WKH (\HPRXWK %RDW %XLOGLQJ &RPSDQ\
Son of Dartmouth in 1963. Excellent condition classic motor yacht built to LQ 9HU\ WKRURXJK SURIHVVLRQDO UHÀW RYHU WKH ODVW \HDUV HTXLSSHG DQG
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motor yacht in full sea going condition. Devon £220,000 anywhere’ cruising home. Wales £210,000
52’ RNLB Barnett Class motor yacht built for the Laurent Giles Vertue V45 built by Aero Marine Ltd 40’ Millers MFV built by James Miller and Sons
51/, LQ 6HUYHG IRU RYHU \HDUV ZLWK in 1952. The commissioning owner requested slightly of St Monance in 1953 for George Clark of Clarks
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EXWNHHSLQJKHUSHGLJUHHDQGKLVWRU\LQWDFWEHUWKV WKH8.WR1RYD6FRWLDRQKHUPDLGHQYR\DJH$ZHOO with new rigging and sails in 2011. Gardner 6LX
LQ FDELQV 7ZLQ *DUGQHU /: KS GLHVHOV SOXV GRFXPHQWHG KLVWRU\ RI H[WHQVLYH RIIVKRUH FUXLVLQJ KS GLHVHO LQ ORYHO\ FRQGLWLRQ EHUWKV ZLWK
HOHFWULFERZWKUXVWHUV$YHU\VRXQGDQGVPDUWYHVVHO 9ROYR0'$GLHVHOQHZULJJLQJ$KLVWRULFDOO\ double cabin forward and large wheelhouse. Tidy
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SUDFWLFDOLW\Devon £79,000 £17,500 Isle of Man £75,000
36’ Alfred MylneVORRSEXLOWE\WKH%XWH6OLS'RFN 21’ Herreshoff Islander Class built by Port Hamble 50’ Admiralty MFV EXLOW LQ DV 0)9
in 1961. Mahogany on oak hull, all bronze screw /WG LQ 'HVLJQHG DV D VPDOO EXW FDSDEOH GD\ 6KHKDVDZHOOGRFXPHQWHGVHUYLFHKLVWRU\PRVWRI
fastened. 2016 mast, 2011 rigging. Re-wired 2021. sailer with enough cabin to accommodate 2 berths. ZKLFKZDVLQWKH0HG&RQYHUWHGLQVKHLVD
5 berths with 6’6” headroom. Nicely cared for yacht Mahogany on oak hull with iron keel. Rigging and FRPIRUWDEOHDQGDWWUDFWLYHPRWRU\DFKWEHUWKVLQ
ZLWKJRRGSHGLJUHHDQGORYHO\OLQHVLQFRPPLVVLRQ sails new in 2015. At only 1.25 tons she can be FDELQVSOXVVDORRQDQGVSDFLRXVGHFNVDORRQLQWKH
this season. Scotland £29,950 WRZHGRQWKHURDGHDVLO\IRUFRVWHIIHFWLYHVDLOLQJ,Q ZKHHOKRXVH)RGHQF\OGLHVHOLQORYHO\FRQGLWLRQ
commission and ready to sail. Hants £5,750 0DULQDEHUWKDQGORIGLHVHOLQFOXGHGLQWKHVDOH
VXUYH\Bristol £85,000
Another fascinating selection of traditional and classic yachts only from Wooden Ships. Call for true descriptions, genuine honest values and a service from people who know their boats.
Adrian Morgan
tale cracks in the enamel that might
suggest a little water has been
creeping in behind the Toplac. And
then, as always, there is The
Question of the Waterline, which has
been a bane of my ownership since I
don’t know when. Will I ever
manage to get it quite right? But, as I
said, there comes a time...
That time came in May 2021
when Sally was slipped at the yard a
few miles south of Ullapool. For the
first time I was tempted to let the
yard do the hard work that has kept
Sally afloat in sound condition – not
pristine I hasten to add – throughout
my ownership.
Top of the list was to get that
*%$£$!! waterline sorted. I despair
to think of the times I have laid on
the masking tape, squinted both
CHARLOTTE WATTERS
sides, readjusted, measured down

from the sheer only to see as I rowed
ashore a slight – and I am talking
1/2in (12mm), no more – pesky
bump just aft of the chainplates, and
I thought this time I had cracked it.
Floating on her waterline Naturally, no one else notices

these things, but that is not the point.
I do. And it was on the list of things I
Will he ever get that waterline painted on right? could pass over to the guys in the
yard, with their fancy lasers or, as
T
here comes a time in any wooden boat owner’s Humphrey Barton would have done before Sally was
life when – in my case after 26 years – you just launched in 1937, and what he did for every Giles yacht,
want to throw some money at a boatbuilder and a system of pipes and water levels. Incidentally, the
let them get on with it. waterline may have been spot on, but as Sally slipped
From what I have read in pre-war magazines, an into Christchurch harbour, dressed overall, she was
owner would simply entrust his yacht to the yard with woefully down by the stern, a ballasting error that cost
instructions, some detailed, some taken for granted, as to her designer compensation worth nearly a fifth of her
what should be done by the time he returned in the £400 or so building price.
spring. It might entail pumicing the topsides, and For old times’ sake, and seeing as I had a roll of that
applying a flawless coat of white Llewellyn Ryland fancy blue masking tape in the car, and as the sun was
enamel; or ripping out the Rippingal, grinding the valves shining, I decided to have a go. From the smudge of
in the Stuart Turner and renewing the Kobe antifouling discoloration, I could see where the waterline wanted to
(“red please this year”). be. And yes, the port side differed from its twin. How
Come early May, owner would arrive – I like to could I have missed that in all the years, unless Sally was
picture him in casual suit, check shirt and tie, at the simply not (wash your mouth out) symmetrical?
wheel of an Alvis, but it might as well have been a Once started it seemed a pity not to do a bit of
Morris Oxford or perhaps a Bentley. In whatever case, varnishing of toerail, and painting of coachroof, etc and
he would have been well heeled. soon the regular business of fitting out had begun and
The task of fitting out Sally every season I have “For the the thought of turning Sally over to virtual strangers
always undertaken myself, not just because I am not well 27th time, seemed impertinent. Thus, for the 27th time since I first
heeled or own a Bentley (let alone a suit). I have got to saw Sally on that Hamble mooring, her owner buckled
I buckled
know every inch of her, inside and out. If there’s water in down to the task of fitting her out, and on the first
the bilges after two weeks with no rain, I will know she’s down to beautiful spring day of 2021, it could not have felt a
taken in a little seawater, and have been known to dip a fitting her better time to get acquainted with the old girl again. Was
mug in her bilges to taste. I keep a keen eye on those tell out” it straight? I didn’t dare look...

Yacht Restorers
© Emily Harris Photography 2021
Telephone +44 (0)1502 724721

Email [email protected]
Harbour Marine
www.harbourmarine.co.uk
DAVEY & Co
LO N DO N L I M I T E D Ö E s t . 1 8 8 5
TRADITIONAL YACHT FITTINGS PROPERLY MADE

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Telephone +44 (0)1206 500945 Ö Email [email protected] Ö www.davey.co.uk
CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021

BOSUN’S BAG
PRACTICAL TIPS FOR THE TRADITIONAL BOATER
WORDS TOM CUNLIFFE ILLUSTRATION MARTYN MACKRILL
TRICING UP OR SCANDALISING? between clew and throat and an unfair strain comes on the luff
One of the hidden benefits of gaff rig is that shortening sail of the sail. This can manifest itself in terms of an unfair
drastically in a couple of seconds comes in two exciting flavours, stretching, or even damage in way of the throat cringle. Easing
neither of which is available to the bermudan hordes. Tricing up the halyard to settle the throat a few inches before ditching the
has been considered before in this column so I shan’t dwell on it peak protects against this.
at length. It is, in my opinion, the superior of the two, but in • Finally, let off the peak halyard. How low you let the gaff go is
order to execute it the sail must be loose-footed on its boom and a matter of taste. All the way does no harm, except that the
must be held in to the mast by hoops. Given these two premises, lower it goes, the worse the angle for the halyards when it’s time
all that’s required is a tricing line run from the tack of the sail up to heave it back up again.
to the gaff jaws, around a turning block secured up there, and A well-rigged gaffer with hoops, a loose foot and twin
back down to the deck. To ditch a third of the sail’s area in no topping lifts can make her mainsail virtually disappear by tricing
time at all, simply cast off the tack and heave up the tricing line. up then scandalising. This isn’t something you’d do every day,
Because the peak halyards remain undisturbed, the leech tension but the technique is priceless when picking up moorings or
doesn’t change so there’s no need to set up the topping lift. The anchoring with wind against tide. The modern yacht can drop
aft section of the sail and the lovely flat run-off to the leech still her main and cruise in under a half-rolled genoa. Most will even
pull with uncompromised aerodynamics and the boat simply sails tack without a main. Not so the gaffer. She needs her main up
more upright and a bit slower. There’s also an unexpected spin-off almost to the end to keep way on, but she still must be rid of it
that comes for free. The helmsman’s view is improved by 100 per as she heads into the tide for the final pickup, because at this
cent once the tack is up and out of the way. point it won’t spill wind and she can’t stop while it’s setting.
Many of the gaffers I sail on these days do not have hoops, so Scandalising alone is often not enough for this refinement, but
this glorious option disappears. The alternative of using a there’s nothing quite like it when caught out by a squall. And
well-tallowed lacing works well enough to stop the sail from when the wind has settled back to where it should be, you’ve
escaping when hoisting or lowering, but that’s about all it does. only to sway the peak back up, fine-tune the leech with the
It is a poor substitute in every respect, but it’s cheap, convenient halyard purchase and let off the topping lift, while your three-
to rig and many owners are stuck with it until the next time the cornered chums are shaking out reefs and struggling to discover
mast is out. That’s the moment to get shot of it for good and why the pennants have somehow got themselves stuck.
equip with a nice set of hoops. Fortunately, however, all is not
lost. Even a laced-on main can be de-powered in a hurry by AND ONE FOR GOOD LUCK
dropping the peak in a process often called ‘scandalising’. Speaking of mast hoops, classy yachts often have them leathered
Scandalising is a lot less elegant than tricing up and, for a all round to protect both them and the mast varnish. This gospel
similar reduction in sail area, the difference in performance of perfection lies beyond those of us with less well-found wallets,
between it and tricing is dramatic. The head of a gaff sail goes but it isn’t a serious matter. When the sail is fully hoisted, the
some way to increasing the luff length, so the sail loses power as hoops do very little if the halyard tension is sufficient to keep the
well as area once robbed of the straight edge of the gaff. Because luff straight. This is easily achieved in smaller craft. On boats
part of the sail may now be flogging, it’s not a state of affairs one with mainsails of 500sqft (46m2) and more, a purchase
would want to hold all night long in a hard breeze. permanently rigged on the standing end of the throat halyard
Nonetheless, scandalising can still be useful. Here’s the ensures all the grunt required with minimal effort.
procedure: Thus, as the vessel sways down the trade winds, her mast
• Set up the weather topping lift. Since the peak halyard is hoops are idling, awaiting their moment of glory when the sail is
effectively supporting the boom via the leech of the sail, the spar dropped, triced or during a reef. Greasing them with tallow averts
is going to drop like a brick when the halyards are eased away. If friction and looks after the varnish very well. It smells nice too,
you’ve only a single topping lift you’d better hope it’s on the once you’re used to it.
windward side of the sail and consider rigging a pair at the next When the great day dawns and you are clattering the new
refit. mast hoops onto the spar as it waits on its trestles, always slip on
• Ease the throat halyard a little way. When you let go the peak, an extra. Sooner or later you’ll break one and its time will
the geometry of the sail goes to pieces, a hard ‘girt’ often appears come…

FOR THE WORK OF MARTYN MACKRILL, VISIT MARTYNMACKRILL.CO.UK OR MESSUM’S GALLERY, MAYFAIR, LONDON MESSUMS.COM
MARTYN MACKRILL Son of a marine engineer and grandson of a trawlerman, Martyn is Honorary Painter of the Royal Thames Yacht Club and the Royal Yacht
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).

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

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

Left: Fred Mortimer,
the inspiration for Mr
Pike in Jack London’s
(right) novel The
Mutiny of the Elsinore
ON THE TRAIL OF
THE REAL MR PIKE
Fred Mortimer, one of the last sailors of the age of
sail, inspired Jack London to create the character
Mr Pike in The Mutiny of The Elsinore
WORDS LAURENT CHARPENTIER PHOTOGRAPHS JACK LONDON

AND THE HUNTINGTON LIBRARY, SAN MARINO CALIFORNIA

;
THE SEARCH FOR MR PIKE
mile trip to Seattle, via Cape Horn, to experience a way

of life that would soon be history.
“To me, any ship is a dream ship. One of the utter
wonders of the world,” wrote Charmian in her diary. The
148 days they spent on board were an invigorating
JPL 511, ALB 73, P33 HUNTINGTON LIBRARY, SAN MARINO, CA
retreat and served to provide material for a future novel.

Qualified sailors by then preferred the metronomic
comfort of steamships, so the crew of the Dirigo, around
30 men, was mostly made up of raw recruits; “landlubbers
and weaklings” as Charmian put it sarcastically. The Londons
quickly developed a relationship of mutual respect with
Mortimer: the novelist was already famous for his prolific
literary output which included White Fang and Call of the
Wild and he and Charmain were awed by Mortimer’s ability
to fashion a crew of 30 green men into a team capable of
guiding an enormous sailing ship across oceans. It was a
productive time for Jack, who added 1,000 words daily
to the book he was working on – The Valley of the Moon.
By May, the ship was rounding Cape Horn, gaining a sight
S
ailor Fred Mortimer never wrote his memoirs, so Above: A Jack of the snow-covered rock.
he could have remained an anonymous man of London snap of “Gee – you folk are lucky,” Mortimer told the couple. “I
sea, eternally taciturn, admired by his peers for his Fred Mortimer tell you, I’ve made this passage more times than I can
skills as a navigator and steely eye, but unknown aboard the Dirigo remember, and I haven’t laid eyes on that island since
to other earthlings. However, his wandering life left a paper 1882! The fog has never raised.” The four-masted ship,
trail, thanks to a handful of journalists and writers, including Below: Charmian carrying the burden of its own decline – a cargo of 2,600
novelist Jack London and his wife Charmian. with the couple’s tons of coal – cleared the area a few days later.
Our sailor’s name first appeared on 31 August, 1887 in dog Possum “Mortimer, who looks much younger than his age, 62, is
The Sun, a New York daily. A five-line article towards the a dark, scowling Popeye living without Olive Oyl, his
back tells that the 36-year-old “Second Mate F Mortimer fiancée. His die-hard smoker’s cough wakes his guests up
of the ship St Francis was up for examination yesterday, at night, when it isn’t the scraping of his footsteps pacing
before Commissioner Griffiths, charged with beating and the poop, right over their heads, when he’s on watch.
maltreating Joseph Miller, a sailor.” “The character’s whole shell of roughness cracks when
This took place during the voyage of this three-masted he unwraps his phonograph and lovingly takes out his
wooden clipper from San Francisco to New York, passing classical music records. This is the case on 28 June,
Cape Horn in the middle of the southern winter. Two sailing up the Pacific, when he gives the crew a full concert
decades later, on 13 April, 1908, in the Pacific Commercial performed under a huge moon... He became human and
Advertiser, a daily in Honolulu, Hawaii, an article states thoughtful, his mighty frame untensed from the stresses
that the Andrew Welch, a 184ft (56m) steel three-master, of his profession and his major disappointment in life.”
had just crossed from San Francisco in 10 days, 17 hours Jack shares the same impression as his wife. “We
and 45 minutes. Averaging 200 miles a day, the sailing could not be in better hands than Mortimer’s. The more I
ship carrying 1,270 tons of general cargo had see of that iron-fisted old fellow, the more I admire and
sensationally matched the speed of the steamers that pity him. A grand old mariner, who somehow missed the
normally plied that line. Mortimer was chief officer. high seat and must always do the bidding of a master
Tall and muscular of silhouette, Mortimer sailed for above him.” A year and a half later, Jack London released
more than four decades. With his tanned complexion and
eagle gaze, he had mastered the rigging of the greatest
hauliers of his era, and their crews; by force if necessary.
He was born around 1851, but we know nothing of his
childhood. In the Baltimore Sun on 21 March 1926, the
JPL511, ALB73, P34, HUNTINGTON LIBRARY, SAN MARINO, CA
only paper to have devoted a portrait to him, we read

that Fred Mortimer went to sea a teenager and, passing
from schooners to clippers, grew up gaining the respect
of his peers. “His home is on the ship he sails, yet he is at
home in nearly any harbor in the world,” adds the article.
SAILING WITH THE LONDONS

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

;
JPL511, ALB73, P10 HUNTINGTON LIBRARY, SAN MARINO, CA
Above: Crew
work aboard the
Dirigo. Mortimer
can be seen on
the right
Left: Mortimer
(right) with the
helmsman of the
Dirigo, taken by
Jack London
Below left: St
Francis
Below right:
Setting sail

IMPRESSED INTO STEAM

Mortimer was forced to embark on British steam cargo
ships. For the first time, this insatiable canvas torch had
to contend with the noise and smell of machines, as

second captain, until the US joined the war. Over 22
Atlantic crossings, Mortimer learned to loathe steamships.
“Too many bosses and too little sport aboard the steamer,”
he told the Baltimore Sun as an epitaph to the experience.
By the 1920s, sailing cargo had become so rare that
the sight of a sailing ship made the press, making it
possible to follow Mortimer’s nomadic trail. On April 12,
1925, the Tampa Sunday Tribute reported that the three-
masted barque Belmont had docked carrying 1,800 tons
of guano, two cats, a dog, a flock of pigeons and 17 men
including an old man from the age of sailing; Mortimer.
In 1926, the Baltimore Sun boarded the four-master
Cecil P Stewart in port to interview Fred Mortimer, then
The Mutiny of the Elsinore, a novel inspired by this voyage Above: All hands 75. Mortimer disappointingly taciturn, summed up his life
around the Horn, in which he gives protagonist Mr Pike to the windlass as “A couple of shipwrecks, a few little mutinies, a lot of
the traits and personality of Fred Mortimer. aboard the Dirigo voyages and a lot of work.”
FIGHTING LIKE DOGS Below: Jack MORTIMER’S TRAGIC LAST VOYAGE

On a later voyage to Japan aboard the Dirigo, Barney London wrote a Mortimer’s last voyage sparked articles from the New York
Burnett, a windy topman, quick and nimble in body and number of Times to the Boston Globe and many locals. The Wausau
mind, shipped aboard as mate of the port watch. “I was nautical classics Daily Record-Herald of Wisconsin published a photo of ‘Mr
not sorry a bit, for although hard, Mortimer was a good alongside his Pike’ as the papers then called him, on 4 August, 1926,
man,” he wrote. The nine-month journey involved a tales of the North smiling but emaciated, as dry as a buccaneer without
bloodless collision with a Japanese three-master, and a American booty, aboard the four-master Kingsway, his fourth ship in
typhoon during the return leg in ballast. Barney records frontiers 18 months, bound for the African coast in timber.
the preparation for the typhoon as follows : The ship’s captain Chase became ill and disembarked
“‘Mr. Mortimer!’ Captain Mallett shouted through his in Florida where he died. His replacement Frederick Lawry,
megaphone. ‘You can send down on deck the sks’l and 66, failed to win over his crew, not least Mortimer.
royal yards, then lower your t’gallant masts and lash “He nursed a grudge because he was not made
everything!’ What an order! Few men today could carry master after the death of the ship’s first captain,” Lawry
its equivalent, yet Mr Mortimer never blenched. He executed later affirmed in a New York court. “Sometimes the crew
that tremendous piece of seamanship with the ease born obeyed his orders in preference to mine.”
of complete knowledge of the problem at hand. Hardboiled, A new cook, 24-year-old Earl Battice, joined the ship in
yes. Hard, undoubtedly. But without question, Fred Puerto Rico, insisting that his wife accompany him. Out of
Mortimer deserves to be on the scroll of immortal seamen jealousy, Battice slaughtered her on 5 February 1927, south
for that day’s performance on a square rigged ship.” of the Cape Verdes. The crew bound the murderer in irons
The Dirigo’s next trip, in 1915, was to Karma, Sweden, and on they sailed, unable to offload their criminal.
in barley. Even for a ship under a neutral flag, venturing Meanwhile, Mortimer’s health began to deteriorate on 29
into European waters in the midst of global conflict was May. He, who loved to lie down on the poop in the
not without risks, and an imposing American flag was evening to gaze at the stars, retired to his cabin with a
painted on the hull of the four-master. Barney Burnett fever. The old man without a family stopped eating. His
decided to re-embark anyway for a salary of $25 a month. feet and legs swelled as he continued to smoke cigarette
During the first night at anchor, a fight broke out in after cigarette. According to the logbook, copied by The
the crew station at 5am. “I saw Mr Mortimer and Jack Evening Independent, Lawry gave him milk and whiskey
Malone, the second mate, fighting like very dogs,” three times a day and set sail for Barbados to see a
wrote Burnett. “They were liquored up to a point doctor. But Mortimer would never set foot on terra
where there was no stopping them. And, with the firma again, dying shortly afterwards at sea. The
skipper still ashore, the ship was theirs.” Other than a arrival of the Kingsway in New York caused a
few bruises, the incident left no mark. sensation: the cook was sentenced to 10 years’
By 2 March the next year, Dirigo had reached the imprisonment. The death of Mortimer, 76, initially
Shetland Islands in northern Scotland. Suddenly, considered suspicious, did not lead to prosecution.
around midnight, after five and a half months In California, Charmian London, Jack’s widow
without touching land, the ship was boarded by the since 1916, learned of the sailor’s disappearance in
Royal Navy. The admiralty was concerned that such a newspaper, without knowing the details. In her
a large amount of barley will be delivered to a port diary she wrote: “We became fond of him on the
so small and so close to Germany. The Dirigo was Dirigo for his sterling figure of a passing tribe of men
seized, the cargo confiscated and one of the who sailed the renowned American clipper ships. I like
sailors, a German citizen, sent to prison. Mortimer to see him now with face wiped clean of its furrows,
would suffer a different fate. mastering his own ships in Elysian waters!”

LESSONS IN
SCHOONERING
For a top racing skipper with two transats
under his belt, sailing a schooner to Haiti
was going to be a piece of cake – right?
WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS CHRIS MUSELER
E
very new experience brings anxieties that the schooner Alabama, and a student of the legendary
lighten the stomach and clutter the brain. My Captain Bob Douglas, sailing master of the Shenandoah,
first adventure aboard the schooner Charlotte in another grand training and tour schooner on Martha’s
2015 provoked more than a fair share of these. Vineyard. Ridgeway is one of the best in the business
A course of anti-malaria pills and a pre-dawn despite his youth and has spent his adult life teaching all
departure from JFK that ended in the trash-choked, walks of life the ways of the schooner. He even brought
shoulder-to-shoulder bustling streets of Port au Prince his childhood friend, Bo Petersen, who was a mate
was just the start. By the time my travel companion and I aboard Alabama, to share the adventure.
left our security escort and shook off the salt spray from Our efforts brought clothes to orphans, art supplies to
a six-mile skiff ride to Isle a Vache, I could have kissed the community centre and tools to the subsistence
Charlotte’s wide, hourglass transom in relief. fishermen to maintain their beach-built sloops. The
Nat Benjamin, the co-proprietor of Gannon and following provisioning stop in Jamaica and our
Benjamin Marine Railway on Martha’s Vineyard and momentous entry into Cuba on the day President
Charlotte’s designer and builder, invited me on his Obama further opened diplomatic relations with the
humanitarian mission to this little-known, impoverished socialistas had me well outside my comfort zone.
but stunning gem of the West Indies. He had buttered me As for the two ocean passages that linked these
up, excited to sail with me for the first time. I am a outrageous destinations? No problem. “I got this,” I
champion racing sailor and have sailed more than 15,000 thought to myself. Well, I didn’t, as it turned out. From
miles offshore with two Transatlantic races to my credit. the morning we left that little island with no electricity or
He had been asking me to sail with him for years and roads, until I was rowed away from Charlotte for the last
this was the golden opportunity. time in Cienfuegos on the south coast of Cuba, there
Hired to be the backup captain of Charlotte was Ian wasn’t one instinct I had aboard this cozy, unintimidating
Ridgeway. The then-30 year-old is a former captain of schooner that was sound. And after more than 10 days

CLASSIC BOATSEPTEMBER 2021 49
VOYAGE TO HAITI
living, transiting and exploring with two professional hatch to the lit binnacle to keep his night vision and
schooner captains and their first mate, I realised I followed a star through the rigging. His confidence
had been given a master class in schoonering. produced pure enjoyment. I wasn’t as relaxed.
The following day, refuelling in Port Antonio,
SKINNING THE CAT Jamaica, I was too eager. Before I had a chance to
From the pokiest of cruising boats to the latest bring a fuel jug aboard, Ridgeway stopped me while
carbon fibre canting-keelers, modern sailing boats Petersen hurried over with the boat’s saltwater hose to
have a common thread in terms of sailing systems. wet down the silver Bali cockpit sole. Any spills would
Most are sloop-rigged, and the owner of a Hunter 336 cruise along the wet surface and down the scupper.
can take a day sail aboard the Sydney to Hobart Race- Above: Coconut
winning Wild Oats XI and know how to use one of the refreshment DEBATABLE OR ABSOLUTE?
winches or halyard clutches. Equipment on modern Ridgeway and Benjamin’s approach to managing Charlotte
boats is “off-the-shelf” and the efficiency of these was a collaborative effort. Though the type has been
products has lead to standard sail-handling practices. around for more than a century, skippers and crews pick
Even reefing systems, whether electric or manual, are up tricks and add to their quiver of sailing ideas.
well understood by the average sailor. This is my world. “He watched pretty closely,” says Benjamin of
Traditional, or older, wooden boats, particularly Ridgeway. “If he disagreed, he’d ask. He bought into the
schooners, are a mixed bag. Every boat demands a programme with few exceptions.” He added that they
different treatment and has its signature way of being were always transferring ideas.
managed. Owners add their preferences after years of Working boats like the Alabama operate differently to
intimate sailing and manoeuvering. a yacht. The Alabama is sailed quite conservatively, with
Charlotte is a well-known 50-footer (15m) that has little attention paid to sail trim. “We sail Charlotte to the
been plying her trade as a charter boat between her best of her ability,” says Benjamin. “The boat is more
birthplace in Martha’s Vineyard and the Caribbean since responsive. I’d come up on deck and could tell instantly
she came off the G&B railway in Vineyard Haven if something was over sheeted. This wouldn’t make much
Harbor in 2007. Like just about every schooner, she is of a difference on Alabama.”
custom, a one-off. And though Benjamin has allowed a Differences of opinion on sail trim aboard Charlotte
few comforts, conceding a few self-tailing winches in key and other schooners are often welcome aboard schooners.
locations, the gaff main and foresail have the traditional Where things are left and how the sheets and halyards
manual controls of sway hooks and pin rails. are ‘finished,’ however, is generally not up for debate.
“Charlotte is a working-class boat,” says Benjamin of “One of the most important things you can do is to
his personal schooner. “But she is also a yacht and has have a consistency of practices,” says Nicholas Alley,
winches. She has a gaff main but that’s not a major captain of the 1930s bermudan schooner schooner
difference. There’s a general way these boats are sailed, a Brilliant, out of Mystic, Connecticut. “Lines go to the
universal order in the way things are done, but there are same place and are done in the same way. On the
more options. Every captain has different techniques.”
My indoctrination into schoonering aboard Charlotte
came in the most benign situation. I jumped in to take sail
ties off as we were preparing to sail off the anchor in
Ian ridgeway’s notes on ropes
Haiti. I gathered them up and looped them through Tugboat hitch
themselves once, like a luggage tag, one by one on the The tugboat hitch, as the name implies, is used commonly on tugboats for
port side handrail. By the second tie, Ridgeway stepped their hawsers or tow lines. It is able to endure any amount of load without
around the mast and gently grabbed one. compromising the strength of the line, but it can also be slipped quickly or
“Thanks, Chris,” Ridgeway said with a gentle smile. eased under any amount of load. The knot is tied by taking four turns
“Is this okay?” I asked. “That’s fine, but we like to double around a bit or piling then bringing bights of line up and over the line,
them up before we put them on the handrail. It keeps making half turns in alternate directions around the line and the bit. Four of
them from flapping around too much against the these turns in alternating directions is more than adequate.
varnish.” I must have had a momentary look of confusion
when he said, “There’s more than one way to skin a cat.” Buntline hitch (used on Charlotte’s topsail)
I determined to do better, but my next move saw me The purpose of the buntline hitch to secure a line to a sail, flag, etc, is that it
hoisting the main throat halyard too quickly. Then I put allows the object being hitched to get as close as possible to a block or sheave.
it the wrong way around the sway hook. I tried to redeem It’s tied by bringing the line through a grommet or around an object then tying
myself by coiling the nearly 80ft (26m) long halyard but two half hitches around the line, working toward the object being hitched to.
hung the finished product with a clove hitch. Wrong again.
“You want to use a hanging coil,” said Ridgeway. “When Hanging Coil
we need to get this down fast, we don’t want to be This coil, also called a ‘halyard coil’ is used for lines to be hung from a cleat
messing with knota.” or belaying pin. Start with the end next to the cleat or pin and work clockwise
The Windward Passage between Jamaica and Cuba unless the line is left-hand laid (very rare) or braided. Make as many equal
did not produce its famed heavy trade winds and we slid length turns as it takes to use up all the line with the bitter end hanging
along sailing and motor sailing. I was all eyes and ears, down past the coil so it can’t foul. Once done, reach through the coil and
and had plenty of lessons two write down. grab a 10-18in bight of line next to the pin or cleat and pull it through the
Ridgeway casually rested his hand on one of Charlotte’s coil. Give it a clockwise twist or two and loop the end on the cleat or pin.
wheel spokes under the starry night. He had closed the

Clockwise from top left: Jamaican landfall; Captain Ian Ridgeway dips
underway from the bobstay; Provisioning in Port Antonio alongside the
Herreshoff schooner Mariette; Nat Benjamin off watch
VOYAGE TO HAITI
proverbial dark and stormy night, you want to know Above left: spar to potentially add a half-knot to our reaching speed.
that this line is made off on this pin in this way even First mate Bo Ridgeway reached in to tie the halyard to the spar and
though you can’t see it.” . Petersen sorts produced a buntline hitch, a rolled knot specifically
Benjamin’s approach to passage-making is laid back fresh provisions designed to save space where a sail or spar meets its
until it is time to go. Then his ‘up and going’ approach after a six-hour halyard block. My overhand knot suggestion added two
starts a methodical deconstructing of a pier-based ship round trip to a inches and was harder to undo.
and starts construction of an ocean-going home. He gives grocery store My only value came when I finally mentioned a hard
the crew the leeway to manage the boat and themselves spot below the throat of the foresail. It was bugging me.
on their own, within reason. Order is important and Above right: And as Ridgeway shrugged his shoulders, Benjamin
efficiency of movement, physical movement, is a hallmark Nat Benjamin’s looked up, focused on the spot. We played with the peak
as Nat will pick up a bucket on his way from stern to detailed log and throat until it almost went smooth.
foremast. Next the scrub brush, then a slight reach to includes running “It’s refreshing to have you on board,” said Benjamin
turn on the spigot before he reaches his destination, a times of the bilge before he went off watch that day. “I love getting the most
neatly coiled hose tucked behind the foremast pin rail. A pump out of the sails. That’s part of the challenge and reward.”
quick wash down then removes the grime of Port Antonio. I may not speak the language of schoonering yet, but
Aboard Charlotte, the philosophy of leaving when the the vernacular I gained on Charlotte will be understood
sailing conditions are good avoids the pitfalls of scheduled by my children aboard our little schooner at home as I
departure, or worse, arrival dates. Deadlines often put transfer some of the lessons and learned each year in
mariners in compromising weather situations. He is a New England. Maybe the next time I ship aboard a big
purist in many ways, wanting to sail no matter what, but schooner, I can say, “I got this,” and mean it.
Benjamin is a master at motor-sailing. He balances the
sails and the boat to reduce pressure on the helm, lessen Since this was written, Chris has sailed his own schooner
the oceanic roll and puts the engine in a diesel-sipping Magic the breadth of the eastern seaboard between
condition that can be felt in pleasant harmonic vibrations Maine and the Exumas. Nat Benjamin continues to sail
through the teak cockpit sole on your feet. Charlotte and has built a community garden and boat
Before coming onto watch, Benjamin methodically building operation for the locals of Isle a Vasche. Ridgeway
walks through his log checklist. Torch in hand, he quietly is championing a new-build 100ft (30m) training schooner
peaks under a floorboard, looks at the chart plotter and for experiential learning with a program called FUEL
paper chart, and pokes his head out of the companionway and Bo Peterson finally became a medical professional
hatch for a 360-degree look. Then, in the antithesis of his practicing emergency medicine in California.
departure routine, he sits almost motionless, carefully
filling in his watch log. In meticulous print he documents:
course, speed, wind direction/force, bilge, barometer, engine
hours and sails. Every four hours, Benjamin and his
Nat Benjamin’s next challenge
opposite watch captain diligently capture the same data. Nat and friends continue to sail Charlotte, making passages to the low
As the sun sets, the hose comes out again and the latitudes whenever possible. He and his better half, Pam, have been working
decks are hosed down with salt water to maintain the with the Centre Communite in Kay Koq, Ile a Vache, Haiti. They have started
integral strength they provide by swelling to meet each a music and art programme for local kids and raised money for two
other. The salt also doubles as a preservative. The community gardens. They have also contributed to a solar-powered water
carvel-planked, cedar dinghy, one of Benjamin’s first pump to bring potable water to the village. The next challenge is to build a
designs and creations, gets a shower, too. This is like slipway and boatbuilding shop where traditional boats can be built and
watching your neighbor smartly watering plants at night. repaired and visiting yachts hauled and maintained.
You know they are astute and you smile as they make
their way around their garden, knowing that this is why Tax deductible donations may be made to their non-profit
the grass is greener on the other side. organization, Sense of Wonder Creations, PO Box 1558,
The day before we arrived in Cuba, Benjamin broke Vineyard Haven, Ma 02568
out a diminutive topsail sleeved over a carbon windsurfing

PORQUEROLLES CLASSIQUE
THE ISLE
OF LIGHT
Off the French Mediterranean coast, famed for the big
regattas at Cannes, Saint-Tropez and Antibes, a smaller
regatta has been hiding in plain sight – for 18 years
WORDS JACK KELLEHER PHOTOS STUDIO PORQUEROLLES/YCP
C
louds of creamy topsail, steeped in the scent of major protection point for the approach to Toulon
needle pines, wild herbs and sea salt; piercing harbour, which was and remains a key base for the
bows crossing like swords on sparkling blue French Navy. Lookouts and gunneries of all ages dot the
swell. Spirited trials in the day, spirits and lush hills, many still bearing the scars of the Second World
smiles in the evening, while cicadas sing and the crews War, in which the isles represented the first foothold for
reminisce: there is a comforting timelessness to the Allied special forces retaking southern Europe in 1944.
Mediterranean classic circuit, especially after a year of Porquerolles has its share of romantic history, too. The
loss and frustration. But among the parade of well- island was bought in 1912 by François Joseph Fournier, an
known names from Marseille to Saint-Tropez lies a accomplished Belgian explorer and founder of silver mines
unique gem of an event, timed perfectly this year to take in Mexico, as a wedding present for his wife. His grand
advantage of easing restrictions: Porquerolle’s Classique, a estate survives as the Mas du Langoustier hotel, run to
three-day entry on the official calendar of the Association this day by his descendants, including YCP founder
Francaise des Yachts de Tradition(AFYT), run by the Sebastien Le Ber. Fournier planted 200 hectares of vines
Porquerolles Yacht Club (YCP). In a normal year, 40-50 that formed the backbone of the Domaine de L’Île vineyard,
yachts spend a long weekend competing in the bay and one of two now on the island, which produce red, white,
around the island. Even in 2021, in an event staged just and notably exceptional rosé wines. (Domaine de L’Île
days after the 9 June loosening of health rules, 36 pedigree now belongs to Chanel, which released their first
yachts nestled into the tiny harbour. They ranged from interpretation of the wine in 2019.) The island was a
the local ‘enfant terrible’ Alcyon 1871 (CB308), to the favourite of the post-war jet set and Jean-Luc Godard used
towering Fife 15-Metre Tuiga, and all three of the it as a location for his 1965 film Pierrot le Fou. Today, an
P-Class yachts in commission – and tested their mettle on intoxicating spirit of the ‘old’ Riviera, recalling the spirits
a challenging set of light-wind courses. of Fitzgerald and Hemingway, pervades the island.
The French government bought a large portion of
THE GOLDEN ISLES Porquerolles in 1971, and much of it now forms part of
Porquerolles’ history is as eventful as those of the craft the larger Parc National de Port Cros, a protected nature
taking part. The westernmost of three isles known reserve that provides immunity to overdevelopment and
collectively as the Îles d’Or – the Golden Isles, which modernisation, while ensuring Porquerolles remains of
together represent the southernmost point of mainland conservation and marine management. An annual jazz
France – Porquerolles bears the marks of many passing festival in the hilltop fort, the prestigious art museum at
civilisations, including the Celts, Etruscans, Ligurians, the Fondation Carmignac, and a variety of native artists
Ancient Greek and Romans. The isles long represented a and artisans maintain a thriving cultural scene.

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

PORQUEROLLES CLASSIQUES
One-Ton Cup racer, was the youngest. The influence of

Bruno Troublé, longtime friend of the club, was ably
represented by the P-Class yachts Chips, Olympian and
Corinthian and the Q-Class Jour de Fête.
Three days of racing offered exciting, if light, conditions.
The first day, over a triangular 8.7-mile course, Jour de
Fête led the Marconi-era boats, while the 1971 S&S sloop
Sagittarius took honours in the Classic Marconi category,
and the beautiful Fife cutter Eva coasted home to win the
Golden Age class, building on a class win in 2019.
Day two began with a moving tribute to Bruno Bich,
the late BIC tycoon and sponsor to the first America’s
Cup challenge outside the English-speaking world, who
died on 1 of June. The 12M yacht France, a returning
competitor, led the fleet to the start line, her crew on the
PORQUEROLLE’S REGATTAS Top: Jour de Fête rail for a minute of silence, during which they scattered
In the midst of this charm, the YCP, founded by Mr Le leads the fleet rose petals on the water. It was only fitting that France
Ber in 1986, runs a variety of regattas. The wide Rade past the Plage de should then cross the finish line first over the 15.7-mile
d’Hyeres (well known in international competition for its Notre Dame course. Chips and Olympian took first and second in
fine winds and moderate fetch) allows windward-leeward class respectively, pushing Eva to third, while Jour de Fête
courses in the bay, while the isle offers entertaining round- Above: and Sagittarius maintained their class leads.
the-island races, including an overnight full-moon jaunt Corinthian’s crew The final day of racing saw the much-anticipated
in September. The most unusual of these is the Porquerolle’s sweat the lines round-the-island course. With a settled 10-knot breeze
Cup, a whimsical May/June event for all-comers. for a little more gusting to 15, all canvas was flying. On the boat of this
First raced in the 1950s and revived by the YCP, the race power year’s chief sponsor, data management company Generis
is staged around the island in a direction decided by Enterprise Technology, spectators were treated to a
skippers the evening before the start. All contestants begin procession of spinnaker hauls as each boat came off a
sitting on the beach. At the clap of a cannon, the crews beam reach and ran the length of the southern coast. A
sprint seawards and swim to their anchored boats in a while later, Chips and Olympian crept for the finish line in
scramble which recalls classic Le Mans starts. The results a thrilling battle of wits in the dying breeze. The red and
are announced at a grand party in the village square. green P-Classes crossed in appropriate port and starboard
Only then may one register protests, as described in configuration. When all was counted, were upsets across
Article XVI of the NOR: “Orally at low volume… during the fleet. Jour de Fête, slipping in at 8th, finished 3rd
the course of a meal that [the protester] must offer to overall in class, behind the 1951 Nicholas Potter
Committee members in the three days following the race. California 32 Andale and Med circuit veteran Windhover
The quality of the meal… will permit the race committee (1904). Sagittarius lost her place to S&S sloop Espar II,
to make a fully impartial decision.” Decisions are without and Eva ghosted into second between Chips and Olympian.
appeal, and are returned within three years of the dinner’s YCP secretary Aurélie l’Huilier says that while increasing
conclusion. its reach, the club “wants to maintain as professional an
Porquerolle’s Classic was raced in 2003 to celebrate organisation as ever, without losing the warm welcome
the centenary of Moonbeam of Fife. This year’s edition – that makes our events memorable.” The famous regatta
the first classic regatta in the Mediterranean for 2021 – dinner, normally held for up to 200 among the vines, will
saw 36 boats compete in 3 classes, designated as ‘Marconi return from hiatus next year. The club is keen to bring
Era’ (17 entrants), ‘Classic Marconi’ (10), and ‘Golden more regular participants to come and experience a
Age’ (9). Lulu (1897), 124 years old and a perennial glimpse of these yachts in their natural habitat, almost
entrant, was the oldest. Ganbare, a 1973 Doug Peterson Above: Bruno Bich their own era. And some of the best rosé in the region.

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GOING WITH
THE FLOW
We’ve admired Nick Smith’s fiercely traditional
gent’s harbour launches for years – finally, it was
time to hear their story and have a go in one
WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS NIC COMPTON
Above: Nick Smith
(standing) and owner Pete
Gough take Flow for a spin
off Brixham
HARBOUR LAUNCH
N
ick Smith has more reason to believe in Above: Flow has one, but all are loosely based on the shape of the boat he
destiny than most. His life was transformed plenty of space came across in Newtown, tweaked and adjusted with
by a chance encounter on a beach on the Isle inside. Her every new commission.
of Wight one fateful day 30 years ago, and transom is made “Each boat is different, because every sheer line is
he has been reaping the benefits ever since. of oak, though different, depending on how I eyeball it in the
It was 1991 and Nick had moved from Devon to the Nick often uses workshop,” he explains. “Different workshops produce
Isle of Wight to work with Harry Spencer on the mahogany or a different shape. One workshop was so small I had to
restoration of the 1896 Camper & Nicholson cutter poplar instead cut a hole in the wall just so I could see the boat from the
Avel. One bitter cold winter’s day while he was taking a side. But in each case you never really know what it’s
walk around Newtown Creek he spotted an old clinker going to turn out like until it’s on the water. I build them
boat dragged up on a slipway. He had already seen the all for myself really, even if they have been
boat before on a mooring and been struck by her shape. commissioned. The internal layout is up to the customer,
“I guess she was originally a ship’s boat, but there was but if they want a console and a bathing platform then
something about her that was just right,” he remembers. forget it. I won’t do it.”
“The hull had sagged and twisted, but you could see that Nick started his boatbuilding career aged 16 with a
she had been built right.” FLOW four-year apprenticeship at the now famous Edgar Cove
Despite the cold, he rushed home and got some LENGTH Boatyard in Salcombe – starting the very same year that
plywood, some string, a tape measure and a pencil and Concorde started flying commercially, to give you a sense
lofted the body sections from the boat then and there.
17ft 11in of the timescale. As part of that apprenticeship he built a
The following year he built a 16ft 4in (5m) boat to the (3.6m) pretty 8ft (2.6m) clinker pram dinghy called Clover,
design for himself, straightening the lines to get rid of the BEAM which is still in use in nearby Noss Mayo. Apart from
wracking and to rediscover the boat’s original hull shape. 6ft 4in that, for the next 12 years he only built one other boat
It turned out it wasn’t that different from the workboats from scratch: Bumble, a copy of the classic 12ft (3.6m)
he grew up with in his home town of Salcombe. And so,
(1.9m) Edgar Cove hire boats, with their unusually pointy bows.
by combining her lines with the styling and scantlings he DRAUGHT The rest of the time he worked as a jobbing shipwright,
knew so well, he was able to create a traditional-looking 16in (0.4m) repairing and restoring boats in the UK and overseas,
launch with his own distinctive stamp on it. including stints in Australia and West Africa, until his
He’s been building boats based on that idea ever since. WEIGHT fateful encounter with the ship’s boat at Newtown.
Some have been longer, some shorter, and he had to 1,433lb Since then, he has produced a remarkable variety of
make space to fit an engine, as the original didn’t have (650kg) boats based on the same basic premise. From a 17ft

Main picture: Nick built the 20ft
Bamboo Viper on the Isle of Wight in
2004. She’s now based in Salcombe
Above from top left: Halloween dinghy rebuild 2015; Oracle 18ft Thames launch 2019; Moiety, first own launch 1992-6;
Mona Louise 2010 & Isla (halfdecker) 2015, both 16ft

HARBOUR LAUNCH
spray out. There’s no flare to speak of, but the hull is full
enough forward to just shoulder the waves out of the
way. And the clinker planking does ‘flow’ beautifully – as
you’d expect from a builder with Nick’s experience.
Like most of Nick’s boats, Flow has khaya mahogany
planking on steamed frames made from locally-sourced
oak. The keel is made of iroko for durability, while the
transom is oak – though Nick is just as likely to use
poplar or mahogany, depending what he has in stock.
Inside, the boat is fitted out entirely in oak and
mahogany, apart from the Douglas fir gunwale.
As this boat was built on spec, Nick fitted a simple set
of three thwarts, with the forward thwart extending
forward to make it easier to get on and off and provide
dry storage space under. The engine box is located
immediately aft of the middle thwart. Other versions of
the boat have proper fore and aft decks with closed
locker storage underneath, but the open version gives a
greater feeling of space.
Flow is fitted with a 14hp Beta – which Nick believes
creates less vibration than the Yanmars which he’s used
up until now – to give an estimated 6 knots cruising
speed.
ENGLISH RIVIERA
It was an idyllic early summer’s day when I joined Flow
at her mooring in Brixham – the kind of day when the
south Devon coast actually seems to deserve its title as
the ‘English riviera’. My first impression stepping on
board was how stable the boat was – and also how
(5.2m) tender for a super yacht, to an 18ft (5.4m) day Above: In build in spacious. The boat’s full bilges and 6ft 4in (1.9m) beam
boat for the Thames and several 20-footers now resident 2021, Lady Bird, produce a huge amount of space for an 18-footer – more
in Salcombe. He’s even built a 20ft (6.1m) version fitted 20ft than enough for a gaggle of children and grandchildren
with a steam engine. Another interesting variation is the and all their associated pets and other clutter.
16ft half-decker Isla, which looks exactly the same as the As we powered up, the boat took off with ample
other boats except that the top strake has been raised by acceleration, belying her 650kg displacement and the
6-10in (15-25cm) forward of amidships and decked over weight of three adults on board. No doubt that would
to create a small cabin/cuddy,with sliding hatch and a slow down if the boat were more laden and her wetted
simple double berth below decks. The result is a sweet surface area increased, but it was certainly fast enough
half-decked cruising yacht in miniature. with just the three of us on board. The boat turned well
I joined Nick in Brixham to try out the latest in the in open water, turning through 180° in slightly more
range: the 18ft Flow. We were joined by the boat’s owner than a boat’s length. She does have a noticeable ‘kick’ to
Pete Gough, who was looking decidedly chipper about port in reverse, but at least this is consistent which
his recent purchase. A retired programme manager, Pete means you can use it to your advantage when
has enjoyed more than 30 years on sailing yachts all over manoeuvring.
the world, including three Moodys, a Hallberg Rassy Although it was calm on the day we went out, it
and a Jeanneau, before eventually switching to ‘the dark wasn’t hard to imagine that the boat would feel
side’ and buying a motorboat. Following a health extremely safe in a chop – and indeed Pete has already
problem he decided to sell the motorboat too, but taken her out in rough weather just to see what she was
quickly realised the error of his ways. like in those conditions and reported back that she
“After a few weeks I decided I couldn’t live without a performed extremely well – though his cocker spaniel did
boat,” he says. “I had a look at the Wooden Ships get a bit wet peering over the bow.
website, which I often look at for the boat porn, and It’s certainly easy to envisage all kinds of uses for this
spotted this brand new wooden launch. My partner said, sort of boat – from family days out on the river or
‘If you see it, you’ll buy it!’ I went to see it anyway and, around the coast, to yacht’s tender, fishing boat and
sure enough, on the spot said I wanted it. It’s such a even harbourmaster’s launch. And all because Nick was
gorgeous boat, as well as being functional and just the walking on a certain beach on a certain day and
right size to take lots of people out on. Sometimes I enjoy happened to spot a certain boat which struck a certain
coming down and just sitting on her.” chord within him. If you believed in fate, you might just
And there’s no doubt there is something ‘just right’ think it was meant to be.
about Flow. She has a jaunty sheer, with a high, proud
bow that gives her a strong presence as well keeping the For more information see nicksmithboatbuilder.co.uk

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

www.petterbotenbouw.nl
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AFFORDABLE
CLASSIC
Honey Bee
LESS
THAN By Peter Poland
£10K
INGRID ABERY

A
K ‘Sandy’ Balfour is not a name that often hits
the headlines as a designer of classic yachts.
But he was responsible for several beauties.
Born in Glasgow, he served a boatbuilding
apprenticeship with Harland & Wolff’s Scottish branch
then joined designer David Boyd at Robertson’s yard.
Here he was involved in the design of several leading
6-Metre yachts. But when the Scottish yacht design and
building industry declined after the war, Balfour headed
south in 1947 to become yard manager and in-house
yacht designer at Berthon in Lymington.
GUIDO CANTINI RAGDOLL PANERAI 2016

Among many Berthon-built beauties of that era, the
most famous was the 50ft (15.1m) Norlethe, launched in
1949. Even though her design was attributed to the
builders, Balfour was the in-house designer of this
famous yacht. Commissioned by successful racing owner
Ronald Burton, she now resides in Ireland under
Anthony O’Leary’s ownership.
Balfour later moved to the J Loynes yard at Wroxham
and while working here, he achieved a design
breakthrough. In 1958 the Clyde Cruising Club and
Glasgow Herald ran a competition for a 28ft (8.5m)
cruiser-racer design costing under £1,000 and suitable
for cruising off Scotland’s west coast. Two designs
headed the field; one from Sandy Balfour and another
from Alan Buchanan. The judges reckoned that Balfour’s
Honeybee design might cost more to build so she came
second to Buchanan’s boat.
However, the Honeybee 28 took off and around 60
were built by various companies, including a German
yard. William Boag built the first in 1958. Her Opposite and top: doubles up as a chart table or cockpit table and
predecessor and near sister – the Queen Bee 28 – was The Honey Bee 28 dismantles when sailing. Liz adds: “One of our best
built from 1955 in smaller numbers by yards such as Ragdoll bits of kit is a Magma BBQ which attaches to the
Dixon Kerly. Above: pushpit and doubles as an oven.” Nick Gates has also
Liz and Mark Rushall (rushallsailing.com – sailing Accommodation fitted in a fridge and battery charger.
coaching, tactics and racing rules expertise) own a and lines Liz sums up Ragdoll’s charm saying “By modern
Honeybee 28 for cruising, relaxing and – not surprisingly standards, she’s small but beautifully formed and
– occasional classic regattas. perfect for the two of us on a cruising holiday.
Liz told me they often sailed on her brother’s co- “We love the beautiful woodwork inside her and
owned Honeybee Ragdoll. When his co-owner wanted the detail in the laminated beams and joinery in the
to sell up they bought in, having just sold their Laser cabin. It’s a lovely cabin to snuggle up in with just the
5000. Liz added: “she’s a very pretty boat and full of two of us on a rainy night with the oil lamp on.”
character. At that stage in our dinghy and sports boat On the racing front, Ragdoll’s best performance at
racing careers, we weren’t looking for a classic boat. She HONEY BEE the Panerai British Classics was a second in the
was just too good an opportunity to miss and everyone Panerai Round the Island Race and third overall in
LOA
loved her.” Class Four in 2016.
On the cruising front Liz said: “One of our best trips
27ft 6in As with any classic, there are jobs to do. Liz
was an ambitious tour around the St Malo Bay. It was an (8.4m) commented “Nick Gates, classic boat specialist in
epic – sailing to Alderney via Cherbourg, then Jersey, LWL Emsworth Marina, has been advising us and looking
calling in on sailing friends. Then down to Granville, Les after Ragdoll for about 15 years. Around 12 years
21ft 0in
Iles Chausey, St Malo, and Dahouët. Back up to the Iles ago he stripped the hull right down to the bare wood
de Bréhat, Tréguier and Lézardrieux. Then home via
(6.4m) and started over.
Beaucette Marina in Guernsey and Alderney, somehow BEAM “As well as building up 14+ layers of varnish, Nick
all packed into just over two weeks. We’ve since learned 8ft 0in renewed the floors and secured them to the keelbolts.
to slow down a bit…” The end result has been amazing and made her a lot
(2.4m)
And is she comfortable? Liz replied “ My brother is more robust.”
6ft 4in (1.9m) and can stand up below decks. Cruising DRAFT The only trouble since was caused by the first
with four is fine for a couple of days, although it can be 5ft (1.5m) lockdown. Ten weeks spent standing in the sun led to
a bit crowded for longer if everyone has brought full new leaks and even after the planking had taken up,
WEIGHT
sailing bags.” they fitted an automatic bilge pump; just in case. As
Ragdoll has four good-sized berths, a heads, a galley, 9,520lb Liz philosophically concluded: “I guess 2020 has
and a clever folding table built by Nick Gates & Co that 4,320kg affected everyone!”

/M\\QVOIÆWI\
NAIANDE
Mystery Class
The 39ft (11.9m) bermudan cutter Mystery Class made yacht designer Robert Clark’s name in the 1930s. The first boat was
launched in 1936 from AH Moody and a further 10 were built from then until 1946 at Sussex Yacht Works, with pitch pine
and mahogany planking on a frame of oak, with teak coachroof sides, cockpit and coamings. Niande was launched in
1938 and restored in Holland in 2014, with a further rigging renewal in 2017. The engine is a 2003 Volva Penta three-
cylinder of 30hp, first used in 2014. The interior remains original. “Something about Robert Clark’s Mystery Class yachts
really catches the eye both at rest and at play,” says the broker. “It’s about an enticing mix of elegance and simplicity. This
is what classic yachting should be all about.”
Lying Netherlands, Asking £75,000, sandemanyachtcompany.co.uk, Tel: +44 (0)1202 330077
C/O SANDEMAN
MATAMBU
Mystery
development
Matambu, a Robert Clark design built by AH
Moody & Sons of Swanwick in 1961, was
commissioned by David Norton, who raced her
under RORC, including in three Fastnets,
throughout the 1960s. She is, says her broker, “a
fine example both of Robert Clark’s cruiser-racer
development through the mid-20th Century, and
the high-quality boatbuilding and carpentry skills
of AH Moody & Son.” The 37ft 5in (11.4m) sloop is
an ideal size for a family to take part in regattas,
staying on board between races and cruising from event to event. She’s teak planked below the water, mahogany planked above, all on rock
elm frames, copper fastened. “Matambu has been lucky to receive a lifetime of just deserts and sympathetic upgrading from a handful of
loving owners” continues the broker. Matambu comes fully equipped with 2016 sails, covers, Yanmar 3GM (1995, with recent top-end rebuild)
and a three-bladed feathering propeller.
Lying UK, Asking £58,000, sandemanyachtcompany.co.uk, Tel: +44 (0)1202 330077
To see more boats for sale go to classicboat.co.uk

BROKERAGE
Boats for sale

Looking to sell your boat? ‘AMALI’ 47’
Beautiful elegant wooden classic with unique charm, sweeping lines
Reach over 50,000 readers each month and topside flare. Privately commissioned and constructed using
modern techniques in 1991 by Sean McMillan (now Spirit Yachts).
Cedar Mahogany Teak & Ash. Fully equipped and offered in excellent
To advertise call Andrew Mackenzie +44 (0)207 349 3718 or condition. Two helm stations, ample entertaining areas on deck and
an interior with spacious and well thought out accommodation.
email [email protected] Sleeps 8. Semi displacement. Cruising 8 KNOT (max 12). Twin very
fuel efficient Volvo Penta diesel engines. Range 500NM. £185,000
PLUS Contact: jvg@amalioflondon.co.uk • Tel: 07785 954 900
For more boats to buy go to
classicboat.co.uk/buy-a-classic-boat
GAFF RIGGED WOODEN CUTTER

FREJA 42’ FOR SALE
BUILT BY LUKE POWELL, UK 2012
LOD 42’, Beam 12’2”, Draught 7’,
Displacement 18 ton
Mainsail, staysail, jib x 2, outer jib, topsail, trysail
35 HP BetaMarine
Fully equipped for long distance sailing
Sleeps 4 in comfort 36FT SPARKMAN & STEPHENS BERMUDAN SLOOP
Registered in Falmouth UK 2012-2019 Built to exceptionally high standards in 1966, Rumbuster is fast
Since then registered in Sweden, and sea-kindly – ideal for racing or comfortable cruising. Long
homeport Skillinge. keel, mahogany on oak, teak deck, all bronze floors & fastenings,
alloy keel stepped mast, Furlex roller, new genoa and main 2019,
asymmetric and full spinnakers, Volvo diesel, 6 berths. Lovingly
For further information contact Anders Johnson maintained and upgraded, Rumbuster is looking for a new owner
[email protected] who will take care of her and use her more than the current
owner has time too. £68000 ono. [email protected]
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.
NEW GLORIOUS Moored Norfolk Broads.
50FT TRADITIONAL WOODEN GAFF YAWL
Built by Butler & Co 2012. Strong, fast, comfortable, ocean going Price £65,000.
yacht. All new sails, Beta 50 engine, rig and fit out. Commissioned Email: [email protected]
and ready for season 2021. £350,000 Mobile: 0780 325 2154
Further details visit: www.mathaprimrose.co.uk
Email: [email protected] Tel: 07776 145859
£29,500
1937 40 FOOT MOTOR
SAILOR
Powered by 4 cylinder 4.236
Perkins Diesel Engine.
Lying in Angelsey.
Nicely fitted out with large
single bunk in Focs’l with
full headroom.
A ‘midships double bunk,
FREYA wood burning stove, Galley
A double ended 21 foot 6 inches centreboard, Gaff rigged sailing with separate heads. Double
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 bunk in wheel house.
has been carried out, repair to the mast head, new oak frames, Aft cabin. Double bunk,
replacement of some planking with larch boards, and much more separate heads and shower.
(all documented). she is in sound condition, with an un braked WE CAN DELIVER OVER LAND
trailer, made to fit. Lying the Isle of Mull. £11,500.00 ONO Telephone 01565 654416
Ian Mazur Email: [email protected] Tel: 07887 950126
LE TEMPS PERDU
French gaff cutter, LOA 12,60m,
length on deck 9,60m, Beam
3,30m, Draft 1,80m, engine
Volvo Penta. Built in Granville,
Normandy 1964. Hull iroko on
oak frames, coachroof
mahagony, teak deck. Successes
in several Classic Boat regattas.
Well maintained with boatsman-
care and in first class condition.
Owner selling now for reasons
of age. Location Andratx,
Majorca. FISHER 25
GBP £49.900. Many extras including higher mast with furler bowsprit,
Contact: [email protected] ketch r. 2 foresales. 30 hp engine just been rebuilt.
Phone: 0034 606379226 Offers in region of £25,000. Lying Hayling Island
Phone: 07764 581 601
68 CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2021

Brokerage listing
C L A S S I C A N D V I N TAG E YAC H T S
We hope that you enjoy our selection of vintage and classic sailing yachts. Please do not hesitate
to contact us if you require any further information on any of the yachts featured here.
73ft Summers & Payne Ketch 1897/2006 57ft Alfred Mylne Gaff Cutter 1903/2012 45ft Philip Rhodes Bermudan Sloop 1954/1999
Noted naval architect/ historian John Leather considered KELPIE is a race and regatta winner: one of the most beautiful A Philip L. Rhodes design from 1954; her sheer is elegant and
Arthur Payne second to none in the design of fast cruising and fastest classic yachts of her size. Late in the intense coach house wonderfully proportioned. The large cockpit typical
and racing yachts - the equal of William Fife and GL Watson 2018 Mediterranean classic regatta season she notched up of many American fifties yachts is a very comfortable and
– and JAVELIN rightly fits into this category. Leather also 1st overall in the Vintage Gaff Class at both Cannes Régates spacious asset. Her rig and sail plan is well proportioned and
recorded how pleased their owners and crews were to be Royales and Les Voiles de St-Tropez - only typical of the simple for both single handed cruising as well as efficient. In
sailing such seaworthy yachts. Assiduously restored in 2006, way this superb Golden Age survivor has been cared for and comparison with English yachts of this era, JOSEPHINE has a
she is hard to tell apart from the Beken pictures taken a campaigned under present ownership, including restorations broader beam making for a hull of considerable initial stability
hundred years ago. Notwithstanding, modern systems have 2009-2012 at Fairlie Restorations - the rebuilders of TUIGA, and offsetting the effect of the comparatively shallow draft.
been discreetly fitted to make her luxurious to live on and a THE LADY ANNE, KENTRA and MARIQUITA. KELPIE is ready Spectacular indeed this is a typical example of the 1950s
wonderful family boat. to continue sailing, racing and thrilling. Her recent success American style yacht of moderate size and designed “to be
has been achieved crewed mainly by family and friends – are worked by her amateur crew, yet having a performance which
you ready?! should enable her to hold her own in any company” - YWA 1956.
€1,500,000 Lying Italy €295,000 Lying UK £180,000 Lying UK
41ft Robert Clark Bermudan Yawl 1963/2017 40ft Alfred Mylne Island Class Gaff yawl 1913/2013 32ft Berthon 8 Ton Gauntlet 1939/2014
PAS SEUL is a fine example of Robert Clark’s relationship Six very evenly matched one-design cruiser-racer 40-footers The Gauntlet Class’s elegant and instantly recognisable lines,
through the 1950 and 60s with the renowned skills of Dutch coming to the start line in any century stirs the hairs on the sturdy seagoing reputation, and jaunty air have endeared
yacht builders in steel, resulting in sleek and strong race back of the neck. When they were as beautiful and efficient generations of yacht sailors who know a good thing. Most
winners that could be pushed hard. In original ownership a as Alfred Mylne’s Belfast Lough Island Class Yawls, it are still going strong, many have enjoyed restorations,
regular on the 1960s RORC offshore circuit, she completed must have been quite a thing. Five were built in the space but few with the finesse relatively recently applied to the
the 1963 and 1965 Fastnet Races, then cruised extensively of just a few months winter 1910-1911, then TRASNAGH’s 8-Tonner NAUSIKAA, once owned by author Graham Greene.
from her River Hamble mooring. Rescued by her present commissioning owner, the advisor to Sir Thomas Lipton’s The aim: to compliment the essential qualities above with
owner from a less happy period, an extensive restoration SHAMROCK America’s Cup challenges, decided the party accommodation in which a family could enjoy time aboard
gives PAS SEUL a new lease of life: a delightfully practical was too good to miss. Two of the six survive, one a project, in comparative luxury: rare even on even a modern boat
and easily handled classic yacht with modern comforts, and and TRASNAGH, the subject of a meticulous restoration this size. The result is a success in our view, and moreover
a relatively low-maintenance possibility for reliving her racing awarded a runner up prize in the Classic Boat Awards 2014. NAUSIKAA is no slouch, beating the entire fleet of the British
days on the Mediterranean and other classic regatta circuits. TRASNAGH is ready to go for regattas and cruising – true to Classic Yacht Club on corrected time in their 2014 Round the
the original raison d’etre. Isle of Wight race in often boisterous conditions.
£155,000 Lying UK £130,000 Lying UK £80,000 Lying UK
For further information please contact: Our classic and vintage yachts & motor 22 Market Street, Poole,
yachts are available to view at: Dorset BH15 1NF, UK
+44 (0)1202 330077
[email protected] – www.sandemanyachtcompany.co.uk – MEMBER OF ABYA
CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2021 69

Craftsmanship
SECTION HEAD
SUB SECTION
Yard News Edited by Steffan Meyric Hughes: +44 (0)207 349 3758
Email: [email protected]
GERMANY
Starling
Burgess 8-M
from history
A new 8-M yacht designed by W
Starling Burgess but never built at the
time, has just been launched on the
shores of Lake Constance, at the Josef
Martin boatyard. The design, from 1937,
was discovered and published by
Burgess biographer Llewllyn Howland
back in 2014, and was just waiting for
the right person to come along and
have it built, plugging another gap in
the unbuilt history of yacht design.
Starling Burgess was an extraordinary
polymath, as Llewellyn Howland points
out in his 2015 biography No Ordinary
Being. He was a pivotal figure in early
aviation, a published poet and designer
or co-designer of every J-Class ever to
win an America’s Cup. It seems the
owner of the new yacht is aware of the size of her designer’s legend, as he level of detailing, which started when Juliane Hempel lofted the boat,
has named the new yacht after him: Starling Burgess. John Lammerts van marking the position of every fastening hole and plank bevel. The result,
Bueren, who has been intimately involved with the project, thinks this says John is a yacht that is symmetrical to a 1.5mm tolerance. “The planks
build represents a new high-water mark in terms of precision in traditional fit as if grown together. She went in the water and was so tight that the
build. The yacht was built as she would have been in 1937, but with a new dust in the bilge stayed dry.”
ST OSYTH’S, ESSEX
Oldest wooden barge to be restored

On 22 July, sailing barge May, the oldest Barge Association and who with husband
wooden barge afloat, swept past Gas Andy runs the St Osyth boatyard and
House Creek in Harwich, home of the multiple barge champion SB Edme) and
famous Cann’s boatyard where she was Helen Swift (who formerly ran her own
built, 130 years to the day after she was catering company and now runs Essex
launched. A quick stop on the posts at Heritage Workboats with traditional
Brightlingsea for a scrub and a fresh boatbuilder husband Gerard), plan to work
coat of tar and she was on her way up with groups and institutions aiming to
the narrow creek to her new berth at St improve the lives of women who have
Osyth’s Boatyard, where she will spend suffered trauma. May will visit communities
the next year while funds are secured along the Essex coast as a safe haven for
for her restoration. regaining confidence and trust, selling
May was built to carry grain to the bread and running sourdough bread
mills at Cranfield’s in Ipswich and flour to London, so her new life as a workshops and sailing trips. Why roses? The trio explain that there have
floating bakery will be particularly appropriate. The female trio of always been capable women in the shadows of a male-dominated
SANDY MILLER
Connie Gadd (aspiring artist and potter, and whose late husband Gerald barging world. This is a chance to blossom and come to the fore.
was May’s last owner), Jane Harman (first female chair of the Sailing You can donate to the project at thebreadandrosesbarge.com

E S ETSD
T D 117 7
9 09 0
Delivery Worldwide
www.angliastainless.co.uk
© Yoichi Yabe Photography • [email protected] • [email protected] Tel: 01359 251414

All enquiries welcome [email protected]
Email: [email protected] or Tel: 01983 294051 Units 3 – 4, Parkway, Elm Farm Park, Great Green,
www.ratseyandlapthorn.com Thurston, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk IP31 3TB
SMITHS CPES AND FILL-IT

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Marine Directory BOATBUILDERS
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CRAFTSMANSHIP
YARD VISIT: JOHN MCSHEA
MIND OVER MATTER

Boatbuilder John McShea is finding cleverer ways to do things,
from laser-guiding fastening positions to multi-purpose knees
WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS NIC COMPTON
I
t’s not often you walk into a boatbuilding workshop in rural with ease while it was being worked on – both now and, in the future,
England and find yourself confronted by an art installation. Yet for maintenance. As John wrote on social media: “There was a time
that was how it seemed when I visited boatbuilder John McShea when this [turning a boat] would have taken around four people, a
at his workshop near Kingsbridge in Devon. At first sight, I whole bunch of matresses and a lot of grunt. Now I’m weak and old, I’m
assumed that the fairy lights attached over the moulds of the new having to use my brain a little more.” (Not that he’s either weak or old.)
wooden launch he was building were a leftover from a birthday In a similar vein, the keel was fitted with a 1/2in (12mm) stainless
celebration (after all, he does have two young daughters). But then steel shoe, with two eyebolts running through the keel and tapped
John turned off the main overhead lights so all that was left was a into the shoe to act as lifting hooks, so the boat can be hung from
series of parallel red lines shining over the keel and ribbands from davits at the owner’s home overlooking the Kingsbridge estuary.
what turned out to be laser lights carefully spaced out on a copper Even before the first plank had been fitted, then, the new boat had
bar. all the makings of a sophisticated, carefully thought-through piece
“We use those for lining up the fastenings, to make sure they are of work.
evenly spaced,” he explained. “We had to make special fittings to fit Whisper, as the new boat is called, is only the third boat John has
the lights on the track, but we’ll save time on measuring as well as built from scratch. His first was the 18ft 6in (5.6m) Tempest, a motor
increasing accuracy.” launch designed by Ian Howlett for Tristan Stone of Stones Timber
And the innovations don’t stop there. When I visited Frogmore and Stones Boatyard fame. She was followed by the 19ft 6in (5.9m)
Boatyard, the launch’s centerline had been assembled and the first Tenacity, which John designed himself and started building on spec,
plank was just being fitted. Where most boatbuilders would fit a before a buyer turned up and paid for the boat to be completed. The
socking great oak knee between the keel and the transom, John had finished boat had a more traditional shape than the Howlett design,
fashioned a ‘three-in-one’ stainless steel knee with a tube running with wineglass stern sections rather than Tempest’s flatter run.
down through it for the rudder stock and a rounded lifting nut For the new boat, John took his lines for Tenacity and pumped
welded onto the aft face. True to his wooden boat roots, he then them into a CAD program. It so happened that he had just cut the
sandwiched the metal knee between two pieces of oak to give it a end of his thumb off on a bandsaw and, in the resulting month off
more traditional appearance. work, decided to “do something I’d never done before” and learn to
With the knee in place, the lifting nut emerged through a use CAD. The result is a slightly leaner boat – John reduced the
specially-cut hole in the transom and was matched by another nut on beam from 8ft 2in (2.5m) to 7ft 6in (2.3m) – with a finer bow, which
a stainless steel plate at the bow, allowing the whole boat to be spun John hopes will build on his previous design.
Elsewhere in the yard, John and his team (boatbuilder Jim Day
and apprentice Jake Raine) were restoring a 112-year old launch
called Diane, built by Brooke & Co in Lowestoft. Their main task was
replacing the keel, which involved drilling a 6ft (1.8m) hole for the
propeller shaft, drilling 3ft from one side, then 3ft from the other
– much to John’s delight, the holes met perfectly.
John has also been helping with the restoration of the 1896 gaff
cutter Moonraker of Fowey, rebuilding the hatches and making new
spars. Moonraker (ex-Lily) was sailed extensively in the Caribbean by
the former GP Peter Pye who wrote a celebrated series of books
about his adventures.
But it’s not all about boats. John is married to artist Naomi
Vincent (you might remember her floating sculpture at the Beale
Park boat show a good few years ago) and produces his own line of
organically-shaped (mostly wooden) sculptures. When I visited, a
pair of wooden forks which I took to be the wishbones for a small
Above: Jim Day prepares the first plank windsurfer on closer inspection turned out to be a sculpture in
for the new boat; the three-in-one knee progress. Renaissance man indeed.

DIANE BROOKE ENGINE
John and his team replaced The refurbished engine from Diane. Brooke
the keel on this 1909 Brooke started off building engines and cars and
launch. Behind is a new spar subcontracted its boatbuilding until 1911
being made for Moonraker
of Fowey
WHISPER
This 19ft 6in launch is only the second boat John has built
to his own design. Look closely and you can see the laser
light lines for lining up the fastenings.
CRAFTSMANSHIP
Boatbuilder’s Notes By Robin Gates
2 3
Making dowels
BY ROBIN GATES
A sure way of ensuring dowels are a

1 good fit is to make them using a
dowel plate, if you can find one of
the right size. Lie-Nielsen make both
metric and imperial plates (costing
around £70) but lacking a hole for
4
the 7/16in (11.1m) dowels favoured by
some joiners. An alternative is to
bore a plate to the size you need, or
better still find one already bored for
another purpose. For 7/16in dowels
the mounting holes in a sturdy field
gate hook (costing £7) were spot-on.
For strong dowels use dry
straight-grained wood which can be
rived into square-sectioned blanks (1). The blanks are approximately
rounded using a plane inverted in the vice (2), aiming for slightly
greater than final diameter. Next position the plate over a dog hole in
the bench and hammer the over-sized blanks through the hole (3).
You might need to experiment; some find the plate works better if the 5
hole is tapered on the exit side, but I achieve better results with a
taper filed at the top of the hole (4). The blanks are easier to start if
pointed slightly with a knife.
So that surplus glue can escape as the dowel is knocked home, the
sides are grooved from top to bottom. There are several ways of
doing this but I find a tenon saw effective, using a shop-made slotted
ALL PHOTOGRAPHS ROBIN GATES
jig to guide the blade (5). Next cut the dowels to length, for which a
bench hook is useful, and lastly bevel the ends to ease fitting, for
which I use an
inverted Surform
block plane – a tool
with a blade like a 6
cheese grater (6).
Where boards are
glued edge-to-edge, 1 Riving blanks from straight-grained timber
well-fitting dowels 2 Using an inverted plane to round corners
reinforce the 3 Hammering a blank through the dowel plate
chemical bond 4 A fistful of dowels ready for grooving
with considerable 5 The grooving jig guides the saw
physical strength 6 Bevelling ends to ease fitting
7
(7). 7 Preparing the joint for assembly

Traditional Tool By Robin Gates
DOWELLING JIG
In our world increasingly dominated tenons of round mortise-and-tenon Clockwise from 7/16in bit – it is clamped into the jig
by impersonal machines, the minor joints, akin to the technique used by above: Boring the and centred on the spot marked for
irregularities in work done with hand ancient Egyptians to join the planks of hole for a 7/16in boring. Here you can see that 7 on
tools are often prized as evidence of their large wooden hulls. dowel; Setting the scale of the guide clamp aligns
the human touch. Aboard boats this is A dowelling jig can be as simple as the No 7 guide at with 7/8in on the jig frame, setting
especially true of interior surfaces and one or more holes in a block or metal 7/8in from the the distance from the face side of the
decoration, the texture of surroundings plate, but for use across a range of edge; A mark on wood. The jig is next clamped in
we like to examine and touch. Tiny widths, spacings and dowel sizes, the the jig aligns with position and the hole bored, the
imperfections imparted to the wood Stanley 59 (and others) offers great the mark on the depth being limited by a gauge
by a moulding plane or fret saw advantages. Not least is the range of wood screwed to the flutes of the bit.
steered by the feeling hand give life to six bevelled guides matching bit Repeating this procedure on the
the wood. But in those hidden parts diameters from 3/16 – 1/2in (4.8- adjoining component ensures the
making up the skeleton of the 12.7mm), ensuring dowel holes are bored joint will assemble squarely and close
structure – the carcase of a drawer vertically and to consistent depth. fully.
unit, desk or lockers – it’s more Having paired the guide with the
important that the fit is accurate if bit – in this instance guide No7 for a NEXT MONTH: Stair saw
doors and drawers are to open and
close smoothly. Only once that’s
achieved can we afford to indulge in
the looser tolerances of tools guided
by observation, skill and muscle. Even
so we needn’t abandon basic joinery
to the robots. Happily, there are jigs.
The Stanley 59 dowelling jig is a
delightfully engineered device
providing precision in placing dowels.
ROBIN GATES
Dowels join components in a variety

of ways but chiefly at corners and
edges. In essence they are the loose

Letters
LETTER OF THE MONTH SUPPORTED I remeber the ’57 Fastnet
BY OLD PULTENEY WHISKY The 1957 Fastnet is not forgotten here in Cowes. My family and I
watched the fleet that evening from above the Needles as my father,
Raising funds to restore Bill Thirlby, helmed the elderly 12-M Vanity out through seas so rough
that one watcher recalls seeing 12ft of her keel visible abaft the mast.
my father’s boat As my father later recounted, with almost every sail blown out
straight away, he decided to turn her and run before the gale round
I’m trying to restore my late dad’s sea king wooden sailing boat, the back of the Wight. Under almost bare poles, her long keel gave
Alcyone. My dad passed away in 2017 after a brave battle with her some steerage way until they got to Bembridge and the shelter to
vascular dementia. rig a scrap of canvas, just enough to claw her way up Spithead.
After my dad passed away, I started to think about Alcyone. Having learned to sail in Portsmouth Harbour before the war, my
Alcyone was found behind a shed in Southwold. My parents father knew a mud bank that would stop her onward rush, but as they
restored her and brought her back to the Norfolk. I had many shot through the harbour entrance about midnight, the last Royal
happy and memorable holidays with my parents on the Norfolk Navy liberty boat was crossing from Gosport and the crew managed
broads. to get a line to Vanity and stop her before any more damage was
When my dad was no longer able to sail Alcyone, He had to done. So, not forgotten, and much remembered here in ‘79.
make a heartbreaking decision to sell her. Alcyone was sold and Rosemary Joy, Cowes, IoW
went to Woodbridge where she was for four years. A few times my
parents went to Woodbridge to see Alcyone. My parents loved
Alcyone and I knew my dad missed sailing. For three years I looked
for Alcyone but didn’t have much luck. After loads of searching I
came across a blog by Nick Ardley. I could not believe my eyes, but
there she was, looking rather sorry for herself at a boat graveyard
in Titchmarsh Marina. Thanks to Craig Trickett and his wife, I could
store Alcyone at theirs. Now I have got Alcyone back, I have made
it my mission to restore her to her former glory. I have spent the
last six months saving money and raising money. By selling items
of clothing etc, I’ve saved up nearly half of the money needed for
the restoration. I am now in need of help to raise the other half.
I have a boatbuilder who his willing to restore Alcyone. The
£6,000 what I am asking for will be put together with what I have
BEKEN OF COWES
saved. I will then have enough to restore her. In October if funds
have been raised the boatbuilder can start.
Sarah Spinks, alcyone213k.com
Designer credited for West Solents

It is some time since I have thought in 1924, of a 35 foot (10.6
submitted a contribution to Classic M) craft as a larger edition of the
Boat. Having read with interest the Sunbeam Class of 1922 (there is a
article on the West Solent Class great similarity of profile). The late
(Suvretta, August issue), it Theo Rye was of the opinion that
triggered memories of my Louis Jacobs could have been the
employment at the Berthon Boat designer, not Westmacott. Berthon
Co Ltd, 1947 -1961. On a number of constructed a large shed especially
occasions it was necessary to for the winter lay-up of the West
retrieve the beautifully prepared Solents. Walking by the stored
drawings to answer clients’ craft in the bow down attitude put
enquiries, keel bolts being coloured one in mind of a group of elegant
yellow to signify bronze and ladies gazing at something of
centreline structure in sepia to interest, with their counters high in
indicate English Oak. The main purpose of this note is to draw the air! W8 Dinah, now named Ripple, is in the ownership of Brian May,
attention to the fact that the designer of the West Solent Class was the company’s MD, and restoration is being undertaken by the
Louis Jacobs as signed on his drawings, not Harry Jacob as published. shipwright apprentices as an introduction to traditional construction
It is quite common practice for the person who commissioned the methods.
project to be credited as co-designer. I can well imagine HG May’s Jim Hazel, Locksheath, Hampshire

Anne T. Converse
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Are you looking to buy or sell a classic yacht?

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We are always looking for new listings and are more than
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Whether you are looking to purchase or sell a classic, please
visit our website or contact us.
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themetreyard.co.uk
+44 (0)7771606747

Next month
CELEBRATING CLASSIC BOAT’S 400 ISSUES SAILING TODAY WITH
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CRUISING ON THE EDGE ROUND THE ISLAND SCOTTISH CRUISING DREAM
Unintended adventure We sail in 90th bash Island-hopping holiday
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MOTHERLODE IN THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE
A visit to Museo Della
z The cutting edge: 41 boats
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Or why not
subscribe?
30 YEARS AGO
SEPTEMBER 1991, CB38
Editor Pete Greenfield starts the issue with a spirited defence of the high
prices charged by chandlers’ wares. Why does a galvanised shackle cost
so much, he asks? Because the marine industry is seasonal; because it
employs skilled people; because manufacture is generally in small runs;
because the industry is not big enough for effective bulk-buying
discounts of the expensive raw materials; because high-quality
chandlery is made to survive the horrendously ruinous marine
environment. Inside the magazine is a feature on the National Swallows,
a fast, planing keelboat class designed by Tom Thornycroft in 1946 and
that raced in the 1948 Olympics. Robin meets the Swallows in Chichester
Harbour, where they still race to this day. In contrast, we featured an
article on the ‘zeesboote’, fishing boats of the eastern German Baltic – or
the ‘former DDR’ as we used to call it in 1991. And for sheer elegance, speed
and glamour, we had the story of the world’s only surviving M-Class yacht,
the Starling Burgess-designed Formidable, 82ft (25m) of the sleekest sort of
racing yacht, spreading an incredible 3,000sqft (279m2) of sail.

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 i Ease of Use Switch on, twist the i Power Forget slow speed “trolling
tiller handles, go. Almost anybody motors”, these 1kW electrics have
Epropulsion Spirit PLUS can do it; no experience, strength or huge torque (more like a 3hp petrol).
i 1276Wh battery mechanical knowledge is needed.
i Range There are many variables,
i Faster to charge
i Ease of Handling The batteries but most users achieve at least 9 to
i Battery floats if dropped
are removable, and the “pass up 10 nautical miles per charge, at 4
i Foldable tiller means only
and down” weight (the shaft/motor WRNQRWVPLQȵDWDEOHGLQJK\
one cable to connect
assembly) is then 10kg or less. Much more if you slow down a little.
i Three shaft length options
i Direct drive (no gearbox) i Ease of Storage These electric i Reliability Many outboard motors
motors divide into components, don’t get used very often, and small
don’t leak oil or petrol, and don’t petrol motors hate this. Electric
mind which way up they’re stored. outboards have fewer parts in
i Quietness & Smoothness general, and in particular there’s
Electric motors are a delight to use. 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
From £1750 lithium batteries are expensive. But that extra upfront cost is largely offset by
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Sternpost
Bringing clarity to varnish
Dave Selby reveals the trade secrets behind a perfect varnish finish
masts up to 59ft, but that’s not how SAVD works.
The most common symptom is that even mild sufferers
have a poor grasp of economics and think they’re better off
varnishing outside my empty boatshed, which is insensitive
and foolhardy because, as everyone knows, yacht varnish
was originally developed as a fly paper coating and has
over the years been constantly improved by top marine
chemists to attract flying insects as big as hedgehogs.
If you varnish over live insects that would be cruel. On
the other hand, if you varnish over dead ones you’ll end up
with a mast that looks like a health food bar. The third
option, favoured by marine varnish suppliers and all good
chandleries is to rub the varnish off with 12 types of
marine-grade sand paper, buy more varnish and sand
paper and repeatedly repeat the process. Once you’ve
applied the recommended minimum 27 coats you will have
D
on’t get me wrong, I love wooden boats, as do my brethren achieved tennis elbow.
of the waterfront trades, because, as the owner of a 60ft by Next, without wincing if possible, you should take a moment to
20ft boat shed, I find that wooden boat owners are among stand back and admire your handiwork and notice how smooth
my most regular and least troublesome customers. In fact they’re the mast is, but a lot thinner. The benefit of this is that the mast’s
my only customers, as fibre-glass boat owners are always off reduced girth requires less varnish, but that’s a false economy, and
sailing, which is downright disrespectful and of no use to anyone. if you persist you may end up with a flimsy runner-bean pole at
Apart from not going sailing wooden boat owners are exactly best, or no mast at all.
the same in their lack of respect for our honest endeavours, and It’s normally round about the bean-pole stage that these wood
affront us further by actually attempting to do work on their boats worriers sidle up to enquire about shed space, baulk at the
themselves, which, as we’ve explained countless times, is beyond extremely reasonable rent and head off to buy more extremely
their capabilities and will cost them more in the long run. Worse, expensive varnish and brush restorer. Then, as is the way of the
Classic Boat actually encourages this delinquent behaviour. punter, they have the affront to ask for varnishing tips, to which I
A while ago alarming news got out on the waterfront that effect an Essex burr and say: “I’s heard of some folk what swear by
Classic Boat was publishing a “varnishing master class” (CB385). mixing yacht varnish with insect spray. Others reckon on Marmite.”
Naturally, in the spirit of co-operation that exemplifies the Maldon Neither works, but it’s fun watching. Another thing that
waterfront trades, we did our best to buy up every copy, which exercises wood worriers is UV damage, which doesn’t happen in
impoverished us even further, and left our children without shoes boatsheds. Basically, if by some miracle they eventually get their
because we had to eat them…the shoes, that is. But that’s of little masts varnished and leave them outside, and perhaps even fitted
consequence because, as ever, our main concern was philanthropic, to a boat, it will only be a question of time before it will peal and
or as we put it, to save boat owners from themselves, so you can flake to resemble acne. When pressed I reluctantly reveal my
imagine our horror when we opened the mag and saw pages of solution: “Round here there’s some what mix varnish with
in-depth libellous factually correct slander on how to do it! It was factor 50 sun-block, though others reckon on Marmite,”
more than reckless because it omitted the only bit of advice the adding in conspiratorial tones: “But keep it to yerself, it
yotter needs on varnishing, namely: “For the perfect ain’t strictly legal.”
finish pay your trusted artisan to do it, to save On one such occasion a posse of varnishers
yourself money, time and humiliation. End of.” accosted me outside my empty shed and accused me
Now, as you know, wooden boat owners are of all manner of things. As they all had tennis elbow
generally reluctant to get their boats wet, on account in both elbows I wasn’t particularly frightened, so I
of them being prone to sinking, which obscures the countered: “You did use Ambre Solaire, didn’t you?
gloss finish they’ve laboured so hard to achieve. In The Super Drug stuff ain’t up to it. There’s others as
spite of this, they just can’t help themselves swear by Marmite.”
varnishing. And in recent months there’s been a At that one of them stepped forward with his
major outbreak of the very debilitating affliction “As everyone varnish brush clamped in his teeth, on account of his
known as Seasonally Affected Varnishing Disorder knows, yacht arms not working, and growled: “You’re having a
(SAVD) outside my boatshed which has space laugh, aren’t you?”
varnish was
available at rates so criminally low I don’t how I do Next, they stormed off to buy 60ft marquees to
it. Like Harry Markle, our sole aim is “to build a developed from erect over their prone masts. As I write some have
better world, one act of compassion at a time.” You flypaper.” nearly finished the footings. You’ve got to admire the
would think a 60ft boat shed is ideal for varnishing lengths some people will go to to avoid sailing.

Rustler 33 and Rustler 24
Modern Classics by Rustler
Beautiful yachts, beautifully built
Tel: 01326 310120 | www.rustleryachts.com

Rustler Yachts | Maritime Buildings | Falmouth | Cornwall | TR10 8AD
The new Wheeler 38 was recently launched at Brooklin Boat Yard in
Brooklin, Maine. She is a dimenionally accurate copy of Hemingway’s
beloved Pilar, built by Wheeler Shipyard in 1933. She has been reverse
engineered from historic documents retained by the family. Come see
Legend at the Newport International Boat Show or at her home in
Harbour Town, Hilton Head Island, SC.

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