Indholdsfortegnelse for December 2015 i Classic Boat

Over the years Henk van der Naald has accumulated a fair bit of experience sailing yachts at sea with, among others, his friend the Dutch nautical author Ben Hoekendijk. He did a number of deliveries from Southern England to Spain and some coastal sailing around the Netherlands. For the rest his experience with larger yachts was quite limited and any experience with a classic wooden yacht nonexistent. The purchase of Naiande could therefore safely be regarded as a leap of faith. “My father had been in the Marine Corps and that was the closest we ever came to having anything to do with the sea, yachts or shipping. For the rest I was the only one in the family who had any interest in sailing!” But he always had an…

Many years ago I helped Peter Crowther deliver Galway Blazer, Bill King’s old Angus Primrose-designed, Souters-built junk-rigged schooner to the West Country, and until we reached Dartmouth, by which time it was blowing like stink, I can recall little apart from how simple it all was. There was a Plexiglas bubble and a hatch, from where, perched on a wooden swing, you could watch things happening up top. Not that much happened. The sails did their stuff, with an occasional tweak on the web that lead up to the batten ends, tacking and gybing being a matter of putting the helm over one way or the other, and despite the plethora of string, Peter had it down to a fine art; after all he had sailed and raced the boat…

“They’re just about the fastest small craft down the wind in a good breeze that have been developed in recent years,” wrote Sam Wetherill in Yachting in 1928 of the 30ft 7in (9.4m) one-design that had caught the imagination of hundreds of sailors on Long Island Sound that summer. Designed by William Starling Burgess, the one-design was produced two years before his first innovative J-Class design, Enterprise, defended the America’s Cup against Shamrock V, and was intended as a daysailer to be used for competitive racing among the local clubs. To promote his design, and generate sufficient interest to start a fleet, Starling Burgess built a prototype, which during the summer of 1928 he sailed to all of the Long Island Sound yacht clubs, demonstrating its performance and suitability for…

WEST COUNTRY VIEW BRIXHAM, DEVON From wreck to semi-restoration in ten weeks sounds a tall order, but this is what five stalwart sailing enthusiasts have achieved with Seafish. The boat was written off in an insurance claim after a nasty brush with the Brixham breakwater over two years ago, and allowed to languish at nearby Galmpton creek, full of rainwater. Seafish is special; she is on the National Historic Ships Register and is a 34ft (10.4m) cutter-rigged trawler with just 4ft (1.2m) draught. She was launched in 1927 in King’s Lynn on the Norfolk coast by the Worfolk Brothers to assist Bailiff John Bann’s protection of valuable shellfish beds in The Wash from sole, starfish and seals! David Faithful, Commodore of Brixham YC, along with Bosun Nigel Crang and friends…

When next you complain of your touch-screen device taking more than a millisecond to crunch a hatful of numbers, remind yourself that Man’s greatest voyages to date, including the moon landing in 1969, were aided by the humble slide-rule. The slide-rule was invented in the early 17th century, exploiting the recently developed concept of the logarithmic scale. From just two scales enabling multiplication and division the slide-rule grew in sophistication to serve every field from brewing to engineering until, by the 1970s, it could be engraved with over 30 different scales. Typical features are the stock, the slide and cursor etched with a hairline enabling accurate reading across scales. One departure from this arrangement was the navigator’s speed-distance-time slide-rule for which a cursor was not considered necessary. Shown here is…

Knowing when to break away from a last look is one of the more difficult decisions in everyday life. Lovers, homes, those people and places that have instilled fond memories in our souls force our eyes to linger over them one last time. The eyes are the windows, as they say. It’s that moment I found myself in not long ago, as I finally turned my head and trundled up the pontoon in Lymington, leaving behind me an old friend. Yet I have now no memory of that last glimpse of Mariquita. There was such a sea of good times behind, that they’ve taken up what space there was. The other day a friend took me to Pin Mill, on the Orwell, and we wandered along the river path. How…

Sitting in the immaculate saloon of Lady Hertha under the warm yellow glow of the lights and listening to Glen Miller on the RCA Victor seven valve wireless, it is not hard to imagine I am back in the 1930s waiting for Lt. Eric Gordon, the yacht’s first owner, to emerge from his quarters. A veteran of World War One, Gordon was born in 1886 and attended Oxford University where he won awards for boxing and rowing. With the outbreak of war in 1914 he enlisted in the 10th Battalion Highland Light Infantry, only to be so seriously wounded in action a year later that he was declared ‘not fit for anything but general service at home, no route marches’. So keen was he to re-enter the fray that he…

It’s time for someone else to take on the mantle of one of the true grand ladies of the international classic yachting scene as Moonbeam III comes up for auction at what could be a bargain price. The Fairlie-built 1903 31m (100ft) gaff cutter, designed by William Fife III, is guide-priced at £360,000-£1,100,000 (€500,000-€1,500,000). But in a daring move by her French owner, she is being sold at ‘no reserve’ at Artcurial’s showcase classic car auction on 5 February in Paris. The practice of no reserve always generates excitement as it means the highest bid, however low, is guaranteed to buy her. On the other hand, she could also soar beyond the top estimate. Whatever happens on the day, Moonbeam III is a genuine icon of our scene. She was…

Seventeen yachts aged 100 years or more crossed a distinguished start line in the annual Centenary Trophy pursuit race, part of Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez (Sept 26-Oct 4). Each centenarian is invited to take part by the Gstaad Yacht Club, which has run the race since 2011. First to start was the newest boat in the fleet, the 1914 Linton Hope schooner Morwenna, closely followed by the newly restored 1897 Belfast Lough One Design Tern. Beating out to the first mark, these relatively small boats struggled with the big seas left over from the gales of the previous two days and the bigger boats were soon overtaking them. The conditions forced a retirement from the oldest boat, Marigold, built in 1892 and one of just three built in the 19th…

CONCRETE GAFF CUTTER Ready to sail on her next adventure Bonify was built over 13 years and launched in 1993 in ferro-cement (although her deck is pitch pine on oak). She’s a 37ft (11.3m) gaff cutter built to the 1924 Carol Class design drawn by American John Hanna as a bigger sister to his better-known Tahiti ketch. This one, Bonify, might ring a bell to CB readers and OGA members alike – she’s the boat that Sue Lewis and husband Howard sailed around Britain in 2013 as part of the OGA’s 50th birthday celebrations, and the subject of a popular blog on our website at the time. Sue and Howard have lived aboard for five years, as well as taking her on many blue-water cruises. She sleeps six in some…

Giles Gilbert has recently moved to a boatyard in Porthleven and was building a boatshed when I met him, a selection of beautiful wooden oars (or paddles, as they’re known) lying on a workbench in the sunshine. His company, Scullywags, is advertised on his car and his Danish bicycle – he lived in Copenhagen before becoming apprentice to Chantier du Guip boatyard in Brest, where he learned his trade. Now back in Cornwall, where he was born, Giles is not only keen to revive the art of sculling, but makes the oars himself. “Sculling – propelling a boat with one oar – is particularly useful for laden boats without space for oarsmen, for manoeuvring in tight spaces and coming alongside, and for singlehanded steering and moving of larger boats without…

Port Townsend’s Wooden Boat Festival is the greatest show on earth if you like wood, varnish and salt-stained sailors. Held in the second weekend of September, it sees hundreds of vessels voyaging to Washington State’s northwest corner by land and sea, over oceans, across Puget Sound, many arriving via the freeways connecting the country from coast to coast. Having 38 festivals under their belt, the organisers know what works and the 39th was near-perfect. The Northwest Maritime Center put on an exhaustive schedule including big-name presentations, exhibits, seminars and live music with refreshment via the ever-popular Bar Harbor and Wee Nip beer parlours. Displays of woodworking tools, small craft stands, vendors selling wood, glue, fastenings and everything else needed to build a timber craft filled every foot of the shoreside…

BOXING DAY HAMPER This Boxing Day Hamper is available through the RNLI’s online shop, with all profits from the sale used to fund the charity’s lifesaving service. It contains Cornish cream, whisky cake, mincemeat tarts, blackcurrant truffles, tea, shortbread, strawberry jam, honey and English fudge. If you want more or less, there’s plenty of choice, from theBest of Scotland Hamper for £49.95 to the Sumptuous Feast Hamper for £225. rnlishop.org.uk rnlishop.org.uk CUTLERY FOR TWO There is nothing more private or enjoyable, says Robbe & Berking, than a meal together. Make that a meal on board together and we’d be hard-pushed to disagree. R&B, which also has its own classic boatyard, has produced a series of beautifully packaged silver starter sets for two. Sterling silver sets from €1290, silver-plated sets from…

PHOTOGRAPHS OF A VESSEL ON THE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC VESSELS WINNER Warrior by Johnny Black from Fratton FACES OF THE SEA WINNER Gerry the boat gypsy, by Chrissie Westgate from West Mersea TRADITIONAL MARITIME SKILLS IN ACTION WINNER Jibing on Happy Return by Philippe Saudreau from Plérin, France YOUNG PHOTOGRAPHER WINNER HMS President (close up), by Victor Ghose, (8 years) representing Eaton Square School, Pimlico CLASSIC BOAT FAVOURITE: THE MARITIME ENTHUSIAST WINNER Reaper passing The Blocks at St Monans, by Alaistair Ramsay from Anstruther National Historic Ships Photographer 2015 Overall Winner HIGHLY COMMENDED Oriole, Herreshoff NY 30, during Les Régates Royales 2014 East wind in front of us by Jean Francois Canavaggia from Marseille, France…

When we were children our father would always tell us how well-built the Drascombe Lugger was. “They’re unsinkable,” he said as 11 people plus a dog once packed onboard before making the treacherous crossing from Baltimore to Sherkin Island, one nautical mile away. We were more used to weighing Lughnasa down until her gunwales met the waterline than experiencing seas any higher than her freeboard. Surprise, then, perhaps is the word for what Fergus and I felt when the sea off Slyne Head began to reach 30ft (9.1m) in height. A long and extremely bumpy ride but the Lugger coped magnificently; her centreplate anchoring the hull to the waves that passed under us while 30 knots of wind buffeted the reefed mainsail. We had planned to make a 44-mile journey…

CAPRI 25 Thirties history repeated The latest Chris Craft offering, the Capri 25, unveiled at the Cannes Boat Show, is the second in its “vertical bow” family that harks back to the US builder’s classic designs of the 1930s. Besides the bow and tumblehome, retro fittings abound and modern nav and coms systems have been elegantly incorporated to create an understated “inspired by history” feel. Beneath that expanse of sun lounging space aft lies a single 350hp, V-8 sterndrive engine, which should give very punchy performance up to around the 40-knot mark. The fit-out is top-notch, with fold-out teak tables on both sides of the cockpit, where she seats six. Below you’ll find a cabin with facilities for overnighting. Price: $128,500 (c£84,400), chriscraft.com; UK dealer bateswharf.com BAYCRUISER 26 Is it…

PORTSMOUTH, HAMPSHIRE New lease of life for Lively Lady The fortunes of the famous yawl Lively Lady took a distinct turn for the better as she made her way on her own keel to the new Boat House 4 facility in the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard for a major refurbishment. She is, of course, the yacht that Southsea greengrocer Alec Rose sailed solo around the world, south of the three great capes, with two stops for repair, from 1967-68, following Chichester’s similar and groundbreaking voyage a year earlier on Gipsy Moth IV. She’s a stout 36-footer (11m) and was designed by Fred Shepherd and built in Calcutta of padauk on teak in 1947. When we went aboard her in 2006, prior to her second round-the-world voyage (again in the wake of…

Mark Lewis’s company Custom Yacht Works set up shop in a ‘cow shed’ on a farm in Swanmore, 10 miles inland from the Solent, in 2005. Mark had served his time as a boatbuilder, worked for Fairlie Restorations for four years and also had spells in composite tooling and electronics – a combination of experiences that stood him in good stead for running his own yard. In its early days Custom Yacht Works built two motor boats of 38ft and 45ft, as well as a Stephen Jones-designed 49ft sloop. It wasn’t long, however, before the company began to carve its own niche by restoring Fairey motor boats. Fairey Marine was founded after the Second World War when parent company Fairey Aviation, which had built huge numbers of military planes, needed…