Indholdsfortegnelse for October 2023 i Classic Boat

After strong winds forced the cancellation of the first race, the following five days produced good sailing breezes (albeit after a couple of postponements) for the 35 boats taking part in the British Classic Yacht Club Regatta at Cowes. The three IRC classes started and finished their races on the Royal Yacht Squadron Line while eleven 6-Metre yachts raced over mainly windward/leeward courses in the north Solent. The two Spirit 52s dominated Class I, with Christian Oldendorff’s Happy Forever winning overall followed by Sean McMillan’s Flight of Ufford; in Class II, Giovanni Belgrano’s 1939 Laurent Giles Whooper came within one race of a clean sweep of race wins with Michael Briggs’ 1904 Clyde 30 Mikado second overall; and not only did Andrew Gilmour’s Stella Timoa win Class III (with BCYC…

Comet, the first European commercial steamship, has been designated as a scheduled monument by Historic Environment Scotland. This follows the recent discovery of the wreck of Henry Bell’s Comet in the fast tidal waters of the Dorus Mor, west of Crinan, Argyll and Bute. Comet was a wooden paddle steamer, built in Port Glasgow by John Wood & Sons in 1811-12. Comet’s owner, Henry Bell, records that that she was 40ft (12.2m) long and 10ft (3.1m) wide with small projections on either side to cover the paddles. It was designed to carry passengers between Port Glasgow and Helensburgh and had a cargo capacity of 25 tonnes. The vessel was named after the Great Comet of 1811 which remained visible for 260 days. After being wrecked on 19 December 1820, unsuccessful…

The 12-Metre fleet will be returning to its glory days when many 12s gather in Barcelona between 1-10 September next year, during the America’s Cup Challenger Selection Series, for a series of high profile races. For 29 years, between 1958 and 1987, the 12s provided some of the most intriguing battles that the oldest competition in international sports has ever witnessed. Next year they will be mooring at the marina in the heart of the America’s Cup village. All divisions of 12 Metres are welcome, with up to 25 yachts expected.…

There were some puzzled faces on Vire Island in Totnes as Nigel Irens tested his latest design, powering gently up and down the River Dart. “What colour is that boat?” said one. “Is it red or is it black? It keeps changing colour!” And indeed the 26ft (8m) launch made a striking sight, with its plumb stem, beamy transom and topsides that looked decidedly red on the way upriver and pitch black on the way back down. Was it magic? Or a trick of the eye? Or was Totnes’s status as ‘twined with Narnia’ finally coming true? In fact, it was a piece of theatre, courtesy of the boat’s owner, that master of performance Richard Stilgoe (responsible among other things for the lyrics of Cats and The Phantom of the…

Ikra (ex Kurrewa V) must be one of the most usable classics we’ve ever featured at this size. She was built in 1964 by Robertson & Sons to a David Boyd design and is, according to her broker, “living proof of the 12-M as the most sustainable and versatile of America’s Cup classes.” She only very narrowly failed to take on Constellation in the 1964 AC in Newport RI (that accolade fell to the similar yacht Sovereign), then cruised and raced successfully for many years after. Ikra’s next claim to fame was as one of the two yachts that founded the Nioulargue, today the biggest classic yacht regatta in the world, Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez. Her famous September 1981 match against American Dick Jayson’s Swan 44 Pride on a course…

Boatbuilders have improvised cramps (aka clamps) since time out of mind but the type known as a sash cramp rose to prominence in the 18th century when it helped speed assembly of window frames, both for domestic buildings and the increasingly elaborate stern architecture of sailing ships. The early sash cramp was a carpenter-and-blacksmith co-production consisting of a wooden beam with a long wooden screw in a head fixed at one end and a tail movably attached by an iron strap locating in notches underneath the beam. Variations on this type of cramp were developed for all manner of joinery until, shaped by forces of commercial expediency, the most practical features of regional designs were blended into a more easily fabricated all-steel tool supplied in fixed lengths. Extendable steel cramps…

FRED PARKER RESTORED The magnificent steel and aluminium Fred Parker motor yacht Caramba, built in 1962, has had a 15-month refit and is now back at home in the Med DINGHY REBUILD It’s not just Fife yachts and the like that are rebuilt; the 15ft (4.6m) clinker dinghy Martlet was so loved by her family, that she got the same treatment, from Ashley Butler. MODERN LEGEND The 64ft (19.6m) cold-moulded yacht Crusade, built on the Isle of Wight in 1969, won the Sydney Hobart race that same year. Today, she’s back in fighting form on the Solent PLUS… Yard visits, boatbuilder’s tips, boatbuilding in Europe in focus, last of the summer action from the Med and Solent… and much more NOVEMBER ISSUE ON SALE 13 October 2023 Or why not…

The yacht’s restoration was based around the same concept as when she was conceived. When Erik Åkerlund decided to have Princess Svanevit built to participate in the Royal Swedish Yacht Club’s (KSSS) upcoming 100th anniversary in 1930 he said: “I wanted to give Swedish designers and boatbuilders an opportunity to demonstrate their high level of craftsmanship and to help the KSSS attract foreign Twelves to their event. So Sweden must also be able to provide one.” When her current owners acquired her, the intention was not necessarily to restore her back to grand prix racing condition but to ensure the continued existence of what was seen as an important piece of Swedish yachting history. Back in 1930 Åkerlund approached no fewer than three of the elite names in the world…

The Southampton International Boat Show will be the centre of our universe for 10 days in September and we’re inviting all Classic Boat readers to come say hello in our dedicated wooden boat area. Classic Boat readers can claim a special ticket offer, of £19.99 per ticket, by using the code CLASSIC2023 when booking on the show’s ticket website, listed below. We’ll also have a stand in Ocean Hall, stand J178, where Tom Cunliffe will be promoting his new navigation app AngelNav. Along with Tom will be Classic Boat editor Steffan Meyric-Hughes, group editor Rob Peake, publisher Simon Temlett, as well as our advertising staff and other members of the team. As we announced last month, CB is sponsoring the show’s Classic & Day Boat Zone this year, but there…

In 1968, nine men set off to become the first to sail around the world solo and non-stop, south of the three great capes. The Sunday Times quickly got in on the act and offered a trophy, the Golden Globe, for anyone who succeeded. Realising that competitors were leaving on their own accord at different times, the paper set a time window between 1 June and 31 October and offered a secondary prize of £5,000 for the fastest voyage. In the event, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston (RKJ), on the 32ft (9.8m) ketch Suhaili, was the only one to make it back to his departure port, Falmouth in Cornwall, 312 days after leaving on 10 June 1968. French sailor Bernard Moitessier, sailing the 40ft (12.2m) Joshua, left Plymouth on 23 August and…

RNLI POCKET KNIFE We do like this Victorinox Huntsman wooden-handled (walnut) penknife, for sale through the RNLI shop. The ‘slimline’ device has 13 accessories including bottle opener. £62 Shop.rnli.org V RACER JACKET Backers of INEOS Britannia – along with all patriotic British sailors – for next summer’s America’s Cup in Barcelona, Belstaff have produced this lambskin leather jacket, of which they say: “After riding its way to fame in the 1960s, the café racer is here to stay.” Sir Ben and crew will at least fly the flag in style. Don’t let the lambskin put you off - Belstaff assure us they “support responsible manufacturing via the Leather Working Group”. £725 belstaff.com SEBAGO SHOES Never a company to offer just the traditional, Sebago now do these multicoloured deck shoes, which…

Ben Harris & Co The workshops at Gweek Classic Boatyard are situated at the head of the scenic Helford River estuary in Southwest Cornwall, where the yard continues a long tradition of wooden boatbuilding. The yard is best known for building sailing yachts, many of whose lines are inspired by the working sailboats of Britain. Among recent new-build projects was the 34ft (10.4m) gaff cutter yacht Constance that won our award in 2023 in the Traditional New Build category. Her design is based on the famous Falmouth quay punt, Curlew and she is proving to be a fast, well-balanced boat with excellent accommodation. Currently in build at the yard is a 23ft (7m) gaff cutter to Ed Burnett’s Itchen Ferry design 110. “She has stunning looks with flush teak decks,…

Files reforged as scrapers Just as a variety of shapes and sizes of brush help with applying paint to a boat’s manifold surfaces, having a variety of tools to hand eases the pain of scraping it off. The hook-edged Skarsten (CB329) and triangular ship scrapers (CB382) are among old commercially-made favourites but down the years resourceful boaters have devised many of their own scrapers using upcycled materials which often prove equally effective. These hooked scrapers were reforged from worn-out flat and half-round files by first annealing then hammering the softened tip to shape before re-hardening. Bevelling on the grinding wheel produced a chisel edge which is readily resharpened once dull. When drawn carefully backwards across a surface, with the second hand applying pressure from above, old paint lifts before it…

Land, as explained by RYA courses – and by the RNLI to those who failed them – is without doubt the number one hazard to navigation and can with a little practice be identified by looking at it. Beachy Head, Brighton Pier and the infamous Needles on the Isle of Wight – not to mention the Isle of Wight itself – are but four examples. These are marked on charts of the south coast which, to be fair, do have some limited use on the south coast, but aren’t much help on the east coast. Come to think of it, charts of the east coast aren’t much use on the east coast either, even if you look at them. The faculty of smell does, however, help a great deal. Even…

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution’s (RNLI) new 200 Voices podcast launched on 18 August 2023, in the run-up to the charity’s bicentenary on 4 March 2024. One episode will be released every day for 200 days, exploring stories from the charity’s history. The RNLI was founded in 1824 and in that time its lifeboat crews and lifeguards have saved more than 144,000 lives. The RNLI is funded by voluntary donations. The podcast will feature survivors, supporters, volunteers, lifeguards, celebrity ambassadors, historians and many more from around the world. Listen to the RNLI’s 200 Voices daily, wherever you get your podcasts, or at RNLI.org/200Voices…

This 19 October marks the 25th anniversary of the opening of the Royal Yacht Britannia to the public in Leith, Edinburgh. After Britannia’s emotional decommissioning in 1997, the yacht opened its doors to the public in 1998 offering up five decks of nautical glory to be explored, from a floral state drawing room to the Queen’s favourite space, the relaxed sun lounge. This regal ship is managed and maintained by the Royal Yacht Britannia Trust but many people don’t realise the trust also looks after a glorious fleet of classic boats. A key example is the 29ft (8.8m) International Dragon Class yacht Bluebottle, given as a wedding present to the Queen and Prince Philip by the Island Sailing Club of Cowes. Bluebottle arrived in Leith in May 2021 after undergoing…

Is it just me, or when you see a classic boat, it feels as though you glimpse her multiple lives, like looking at the weathered, gnarled face of an old fisherman? Not that I’m saying that this boat is gnarly (although she is a little bit) but her gunwales, her lashed, exposed rudder, her handmade boom and her rough capping rail, all hint at her rich history and her colourful stories. Although at 44, some would consider her quite a youngster still. Much younger still, were Sandy and her sister, barely in their 20s, when they arrived for a holiday on the Caribbean island of Bequia in the late 70s. They had both worked on the schooner America and had made friends there, so they decided to take the mail…

Tintin aficionados will swear that Captain Haddock had the best lines. If I could understand Hindustani, he would be closely followed by the second most famous seafarer: Sir Robin Knox-Johnston. Nineteen-year-old Eric Newby, who sailed on the last grain race aboard the Finnish barque Moshulu, recorded in his eponymous book the word most frequently heard when things went awry aloft, 50ft out on a plunging yard arm in the depths of the Southern Ocean. These are legendary sailors: Haddock for accompanying his little Belgian detective friend on many fictional adventures; Sir Robin for, well, what has he not done, since becoming the first person to sail around the world non-stop? And Newby for writing the very best account of the last days of sail, before the war. We make do…

Gordon Currey is the son of Charles Currey, an Olympic medallist and one of Fairey Marine’s founding directors. Gordon has inherited his parents’ collection of pictures and press cuttings that chart his father’s illustrious sailing career from winning a Finn class silver medal at the 1952 Olympics, to racing International 14s, developing the first trapeze, and his continued success during the early offshore powerboat racing scene that began with the 1961 Cowes Torquay Race. Entwined within this archive lie the records of Fairey Marine, the company born from Fairey Aviation’s redundant wooden Mosquito airframe factory at Hamble immediately after World War II that transformed the then secret hot moulding autoclave technology to mass produce a wide range of sailing and motorboats at affordable prices. This reprise of the Fairey Marine…

“Right” said the cook decisively. “You lot. Out of here until tonight.” This morning was different. The usual ritual was to see breakfast cleared away for the owner’s party so the skipper could sally forth from forward of the mast bearing a coffee pot. He’d place this reverently on the table before enquiring of the boss what plans he might wish to consider for the yacht that day. The recent cruise had ended a week earlier and the quality had departed for New York, leaving the crew to attend to routine maintenance. One of the jobs on the list was usually to freshen up the brightwork in the main accommodation. If undamaged, this could be accomplished by a thorough wipe down with a mixture of water and vinegar. The boat…

The Derwent-Class yacht Undine has been saved from abandonment and is undergoing a thorough restoration that started on 1 June, at the Wooden Boat Centre (WBC), under the boatbuilding school’s staff of four, two students, and various volunteers. For what is a pretty serious rebuild, the timeline is ambitious: the school hopes to have her in the water by November, and sailing by December, in readiness for the Kettering Wooden Boat Rally in 2024. “Only the hull and mast remain,” says Cordy Horgan, lead shipwright. “We have to recreate everything else and fully re-rig her. There’s a painting and an old set of plans which are hard to follow, but we’re trying. The first step is the restoration of the hull, checking to make sure it’s intact. Then the second…

Among measuring tools the four-fold two-foot rule became the standard for woodworkers, such that a narrow ‘rule pocket’ would be sewn into overalls. Rules originally made in Birmingham by John Rabone and Sons were usually of stable boxwood with brass hinges and tips. Similar rules made today seem to be of unspecified origin and less resilient materials; one I bought has hinges crudely fitted, and when open lies less flat than its centenarian Brummie ancestor. As a sturdy tool box addition consider the steel two-fold rule. Although costing around £ 25-45 new an excellent oldie may be had for far less. There have been many different models of steel rule down the years and a confusing variety of scales. Rabone’s No 42 presents the discriminating engineer with sixteenths, twentieths, twentyfourths,…