Indholdsfortegnelse for October 2022 i Classic Boat

CORNWALL Tall Ships will return to Falmouth Falmouth in Cornwall will host the start of the Tall Ships Race from 15-18 August next year. It will be the first time in nine years that the race has visited the harbour and the sixth time Falmouth has hosted it since 1966. Richard Gates, Falmouth Town Manager, said: “It’s a welcome return for the Tall Ships Races, after it was postponed in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid restrictions. Our town’s history is intertwined with these magnificent vessels so you could say they are coming home. We’re really excited to be the venue for the start of the races. As always, we look forward to the truly awe-inspiring spectacle of the tall ships as they sail into the harbour.” Visitors to Falmouth…

BURSLEDON, HAMPSHIRE Gipsy Moth IV in restoration to circle the globe The most famous of Sir Francis Chichester’s Gipsy Moths is cocooned at Elephant Boatyard, undergoing a major restoration for a new owner. The 53ft (16m) ketch, designed by Illingworth and Primrose and built in cold-moulded mahogany by Camper and Nicholsons in 1966, was last rebuilt for her much-publicised world circumnavigation in 2005-6 through the Panama and Suez canals. The current work will see her returned to closer to her original state, and strong enough for a proposed third global circumnavigation in 2025 – only this time, the voyage will be south of the three great capes, following the route taken by the clipper ships and, of course, Sir Francis in his ground-breaking 1966-7 voyage. It’s anticipated that Gipsy Moth…

Leather-bound with brass fittings gleaming, the wind-up measuring tape is as tactile and inviting of investigation as a vintage writing case. Your fingertips seem willed to explore the hand stitching as they would a cricket ball before delivery, feeling the urge to take measurements, and big ones; back in the day a 200ft (61m) tape topped the standard range, sufficient to measure a J-Class and then a 12-Metre yacht with what’s left over. So perhaps it’s not surprising that such a tape routinely featured among the tools of the old-school yacht surveyor, along with the more rudimentary chipping hammer for investigating rust and pointy thing for probing rot. Sailmakers, too, have long favoured the wind-up tape for measuring the luff of a new mainsail while the vessel is afloat with…

The prizegiving of the Maldon Town Regatta is a bit like an episode of Midsomer Murders without the murders, the disappointing lack of which was raised in a recent very acrimonious parish council Zoom meeting, which had it been in person would have gone some way to redressing the woefully low body count that is a stain on Maldon’s reputation, not to say an embarrassment. For some in our mystic marshy realm on the east coast margins of land and sea and plough and sail, it’s a matter of civic pride, while others blame the local undertaker for not sponsoring a trophy for a category that would not only boost his business but would also surely be as hotly contested as the under-12s section of the crabbing competition. Over the…

Many readers of this magazine will be familiar with the 1974-built 72ft (22m) aluminium maxi Mistress Quickly, designed by Bob Miller, built in Sydney and originally named Ballyhoo. But this is the story of a previous Mistress Quickly – now called Nerissa. She was designed as a yawl by Arthur Robb and built at Vincenzo Beltrami’s yard near Genoa in 1965 for William Whitehouse-Vaux, a shipping lawyer whose work took him all over the world. It is said that Robb designed her to comply with, and be competitive under, three different rating rules: the RORC and CCA rules, which were in force at the time, and the International CR Rule (and as such she rated as a 10.5 Metre cruiser/racer). “Arthur Robb claims that nothing has been conceded to any…

It’s a common conundrum for professional sportsmen and women of all persuasions: what do you do for fun when your greatest pleasure is your work? You might assume that most professional yacht crews would run for the hills as soon as the season’s over, but that’s not necessarily the case. Take Mungo Watson and his partner Stella Marina, who have owned and run the 60ft (18m) Eda Frandsen since 2020 and before that worked on a string of classics, including Adix, Hallowe’en, Cambria and Partridge. They have back-to-back bookings taking guests on cruises around Cornwall and Scotland from April to October, yet when they get home from months at sea their favourite method of relaxation is a busman’s holiday: sailing and looking after Mungo’s family boat, the exquisite 28ft (8.5m)…

I was going to write about the vital role played by stepladders this month, and one classic, wooden beauty in particular – ‘borrowed’ from the GPO depot in Taine, if you must know – but it can wait. Rather more important in the scheme of things is the role played by those who restore classic boats, and not the ones who get all the glory. Let’s begin with 85-year-old Sally, which I’ve owned for more years than I can recall. People assume that I alone am responsible for the way she has survived, and it is true that I have looked after her as best I could. The true hero, however, is a man called Brian Cooper, who some readers might remember. I doubt, but hope he is still knocking around…

There seems nowhere more apropos to test a new, traditionally built wooden boat than steps from the International Yacht Restoration School (IYRS) in Newport, Rhode Island. The coastal enclave’s maritime legacy is unparalleled in this part of the US, and its decades spent hosting the America’s Cup empowers Newport to bill itself the ‘Sailing Capital of the World,’ though other ports, both foreign and domestic, might dispute such a declaration [Cowes?! – ed] Regardless of self-appointed accolades, Restoration Hall, the heartbeat of IYRS’s three-acre harbour front campus, is buzzing literally and figuratively, as students sand rough wooden planks, one of the countless steps toward completing a vessel by the school’s annual launch day. In its shadow, Beetle Cats, dinghies, skiffs and sloops bob alongside the school docks, as well as…

Back in 1970 I was serving as a very young skipper aboard a tidy wooden ketch with a home port on the French Riviera. On one occasion, my wife and I sailed the boat to Porto Santo Stefano on the Italian mainland to meet guests. After arriving early, we took a stroll in the evening, looking for some dinner. We passed the Cantiere Navale dell’ Argentario and, being more interested in love and gastronomy than the restoration of old boats, we paid little attention. Fifty-two years later, I discovered that this was a mistake. While on a general fact-finding journey to Italy in the spring of 2022, I called the yard and asked if I might stop by to see what they were doing at the moment. A charming lady…

After covid forced the event to be cancelled in 2020, and to take place with severely restricted social interaction in 2021, the Puig Vela Clàssica Barcelona regatta was back in full swing for its 15th edition in July. In the first of three scheduled races, light winds resulted in late finishes for some boats while the following day, after a long postponement when there was no wind at all, a solid Force 3 gave delightful sailing conditions for everyone. Unfortunately, there was so little wind on the last day that the third race had to be cancelled. A total of 30 boats took part and there were class wins for the 1977 Admiral’s Cupper Emeraude, Gryff Rhys-Jones’ 1948 S&S yawl Argyll, the 1926 Fife Bermudan cutter Hallowe’en, and the 1900…

DOMINIC WINTER AUCTIONEERS Flop of the first world cruise The first ever round-the-world leisure cruise, which set off from Southampton in 1881, was too far ahead of its time, and too much to bear for one disgruntled passenger who committed suicide. A recently discovered journal (below and top right) penned by Reverend WA Essery is believed to be the only full account by a passenger who signed on for the entire pioneering 299-day, 37,500-mile voyage aboard the ex-P&O auxiliary steamer SS Ceylon. Among the wonders Essery witnessed was one he hadn’t accounted for, recording in his journal: “The unhappy man had flung himself wildly from the fore part of the ship and must in a few moments have been beyond all human help.” The cruise also rang the death knell…

Every day Belinda Joslin was sanding, painting and varnishing boats – her time off working as a finisher at Spirit Yachts was dedicated to stripping down her father’s 23ft (7.1m) Ajax after the racing season and fixing her children’s boats for family sailing. She’d owned and looked after boats all her life, but she didn’t know any other women who were as obsessed as she was in fixing them. “You live in your own little bubble and you don’t know who’s out there, doing their thing,” Belinda says. “So I set up an Instagram account. My driving force was making contact with other women and finding out about their stories, then I really enjoyed sharing them. I’ve also discovered some incredible, inspiring women.” Calling the account Women in Boatbuilding, Belinda…

Wood lost to sawdust Would a new boat built entirely from wood ordered in the round have sufficient volume to accommodate the waste? It could well be a close-run thing, because losses can be staggering. A good proportion goes simply in converting a log to workable boards, throwing aside the live-edged sapwood, unfavourable grain, pockets of resin, rot and useless oddments. Then, having laid in stick for seasoning, what looked good a year ago is further whittled down to reject boards now showing splits and shakes, meanwhile rough-planing others to get rid of twist, cupping and bowing. What remains seems a mere shadow of the tree it once was, albeit of the clear timber dreamily specified in the plans. But there’s more heartbreak to come when spiling those oh-so-curvy planks…