Indholdsfortegnelse for November 2016 i Classic Boat

Classic Boat’s address: Jubilee House, 2 Jubilee Place, London, SW3 3TQ cb@classicboat.co.uk Follow the Classic Boat team on Twitter and Facebook PLYMOUTH Chichester and Gipsy Moth: 50 years on Half a century on from one of the greatest solo voyages in yachting history, a new plaque has been unveiled in Plymouth to honour Sir Francis Chichester, reports Barry Pickthall. It was on 27 August 1966 that the ‘bespectacled daredevil’ left Plymouth to sail around the world south of the three great capes to try to better the times set by the great clipper ships. He stopped only once, and took 274 days (226 sailing days), returning to Plymouth on 28 May, 1967. He sailed the 54ft (16.5m) Illingworth and Primrose ketch Gipsy Moth IV. His voyage, though not an absolute…

CHARLES MILLER LTD Russians win Sevastopol… Perhaps it was simply a case of restitution when Russian bidders bombarded a London marine sale for a tatty ensign seized at Sevastopol by the Royal Navy. The 1855 Russian ensign and swallow-tailed answering pennant were estimated at £400-600 when they went under the hammer at Charles Miller Ltd. Auctioneer Miller said: “It was the most viewed lot in the sale and I laid on Russian speakers for the phone lines when I realised the level of interest.” But the frenzy that followed took even Miller by surprise. “I started at £200, and in seconds it had shot up to £5,000 on the internet.” An astonished sale room saw the hammer come down at £12,000 to an anonymous Russian internet bidder. Not bad for…

Sally and I were bimbling down the loch on a warm summer’s day not too long ago, heading for Tanera Beag, the smaller of the two Taneras, the largest islands of what, on that day at least, are appropriately called the Summer Isles, when my ears began to pick up the strains of faint music. With the nearest house over a mile away, this was odd. And even though faint, it was evidently loud music, with a thumping bass line that reminded me of the years we lived in Brixton where reggae-dispensing BMWs with tinted windows would often cruise past our door in the evening, shaking the foundations of our early Victorian house to the bedrock, or rather London clay (which was rather more worrying). In the distance a blue…

The rain clouds had not long passed away into the distant North Sea before the July sunshine started to steam off the wet, steel decks of Blue Mermaid, the last Thames Sailing Barge ever built. She was bound to Ipswich from London, just passing the West Hook Middle buoy in the West Swin, and her skipper, Percy Bird, looking forward to getting home to his wife and family, turned the wheel to port and started his approach towards the Spitway, a shallow swatchway across the Thames estuary. It was the summer of 1941 and Percy and his 18-year-old mate George Lucas could not have known that Hermann Goering had been reduced to comfort eating after incurring Hitler’s wrath for not defeating the RAF the year before. The Luftwaffe chief’s compensatory…

FROM 11 OCTOBER Queen’s House, Greenwich, London – reopening Arguably the jewel in crown of the World Heritage Site Maritime Greenwich, the Queen’s House, designed by Inigo Jones in 1616, has been the subject of a year’s refurbishment for its quadricentennial year. rmg.co.uk TALKS Cruising Association House, Limehouse, London. See theca.org.uk for details 12 OCTOBER Lessons of a cruising life This talk is from Angie and David Jeffs, both formidably qualified to give it: she sailed a 9-Ton Hillyard solo across the Atlantic in 1977 and he learned to navigate with the Royal Navy. Together they have sailed 60,000 miles and in this talk they give the benefit of the lessons they have learned. 19 OCTOBER Whistlestop Europe Clifford Mickleburgh and dog Charlie on cruising in Belgium, Holland, northern Germany,…

She was quite aptly named, Ben My Chree, Darling of my Heart, for she was the darling of those few who knew her and those who found her. She was adored by her first owner and kept in the family for three generations on an island in Maine. She captured the heart of boat builder Bill Harding so completely that after just a glimpse in a dimly lit shed, he was inspired to build a replica. Later, again in the shadows of a shed, she enticed her current owner away from another boat and received the restoration that secured her survival for generations to come. It is appropriate that it is Ben My Chree rather than the more widely known Irish Gaelic, Bean Mo Chroi translated ‘Woman of my Heart’.…

She’s not as beautiful as the legendary Dorade or Ranger but the DUKW is arguably one of the most important ‘vessels’ that yacht design eminence Olin Stephens had a hand in. With a major contribution from Olin’s brother Roderick, under the aegis of Sparkman & Stephens in partnership with General Motors, the propeller-driven World War II six-wheeled amphibian transported troops and supplies on land and water all over the world, including the D-Day landings. From 1942 to 1945 the Americans built more than 21,000 ‘ducks’, as they are known. Around 2,000 were supplied to Britain under the costly lend-lease programme and today many still serve all over the world giving leisurely pleasure rides to tourists at a max of 5.5kts. For many years they have provided novelty nostalgia trips on…

The 60m three-masted barque Europa skims on the crests with a record speed of 11 knots towards Antarctica. Icebergs loom as bluish ghost ships from the fog. A part of our crew hangs sick over the railing. Captain Robert Vos peeks out on the waves from poopdeck, as the back deck is called. It is the first crossing to Antarctica that he makes with the slender training ship this year. Our expedition has left a couple of days ago from Ushuaia. If all goes well, it takes three days to sail there and three days to get back. The rest of the time will be spent discovering the Antarctic coast. There is a stiff breeze, wind Force 8, north-northeast. Calm weather actually, for this stretch of water between South America…

The novelist F Scott Fitzgerald once noted that ‘the rich are different to us’ and he wasn’t simply talking about the fact they had more money; there is a certain intangible glamour attached to extreme wealth that fascinates almost all of us. Such a concept can be hard to convey; yet step aboard the classic commuter yacht Judith R and suddenly it all makes sense. She has just received a 12-year restoration at Wootten’s Thames-side workshop and is looking immaculate. Yet beneath the varnish and snow-white decks there’s something else; an intangible aura about this magnificent yacht; a sprinkling of stardust. For the ghosts of a golden age of glamour and wealth seem to haunt her very frames and whisper of a different world. There’s a good reason for this…

THE THAMES TROUGH TIME STEPHEN CROAD A collection of photos from the last 150 years showing the Thames from source to estuary, including rural scenes from the turn of the century, grimy working docks and a tiny beach that flourished at the Tower of London. pavilionbooks.com NOTABLE BOATS NIC COMPTON Classic Boat’s former editor chooses 40 boats, from canoes to fishing trawlers to celebrities’ boats to fictional craft, each with a handsome illustration by Peter Scott, specification and pithy description of the seafaring adventures for which it is known. Tales of bravery, adventure and catastrophe! quartoknows.com CRUISING YACHTS T HARRISON BUTLER His design manifesto written in 1945, the year he died, documenting in detail his approach to designing and equipping a yacht, including a chapter on the metacentric analysis. With…

Email: steffan@classicboat.co.uk FLUSHING, CORNWALL Busy year for Falmouth Boat Company It is proving a busy time for Jonathan Fielding and his team at Falmouth Boat Company based on the banks of the Penryn River, reports Barry Pickthall. The year began with refurbishment of the classic 8-M Pinuccia. She was recently found in a dilapidated state in a barn on the Belgian/Dutch border and brought to the yard for re-wiring, a complete refurbishment of engine and drive, and a repaint. She is now providing guests at the Hotel Tresanton in St Mawes with memorable daysails. Another labour of love has been Mitzi, an International One Design that Jonathan’s team has faithfully restored, with new decks and a rich gloss finish to her varnished topsides. Still in the yard are Equinox, a…

If the thinnest shavings from your block plane are nearer cardboard than bible paper, and the blade is sharp, it’s likely that the sole needs flattening. Over time a hollow typically develops between the heel and toe, meaning that the area around the mouth, where the blade protrudes, is not in contact with the timber. This makes fine shavings impossible and may also cause tear-out, since the blade wedging beneath surface fibres unrestrained from above tends to split instead of cutting them cleanly. Check for flatness using an engineer’s precisionground square. Any light showing between blade and sole means there is flattening to be done. It’s worth checking even a new plane because the quality control in factories producing budget brands is notoriously hit-and-miss. The fix is simple but also…

Holly Latham bought not one, but two boats, and ‘suddenly trips to the pub became longer, but infinitely more fun’ Last year I bought two boats. I was intending to only buy one. The first boat was a 32ft Cornish lugger. Contrary to most people’s first opinions, she is a practical home, a joy to sail and a perfect fit for a rather stubborn, quirky individual, namely me. My partner and I are currently personalizing her to be a smart, comfortable family home as our out-of-office project. The second boat has, at first glance, absolutely no practical purpose at all. She’s a sailing dinghy, a somewhat impulse buy, 14ft of lug-rigged and clinker-built loveliness. Somehow, though, she makes a lot of sense. Our initial justification for purchasing her was linked…

The Robbe & Berking Sterling Cup saw a gathering of Metre and Square Metre yachts as well as Rivas and classic cars in Glucksburg, a few miles north of Flensburg, Germany. Robbe & Berking owner Oliver Berking has been organising classic regattas since 1995 but in recent years he has concentrated on his true love, yachts built to the International Rule. Ten 12-Ms came, including all the top boats from Copenhagen, as well as Flica II and the modern 12 Kiwi Magic. Flica II had been stored ashore for 10 years and this was to be her first real regatta. Before that period she had been the boat to beat at most events and owner Alexander Falck had brought many of his old crew back out of retirement for this…

Glorious sunshine lights up a perfectlyset line of sails, as the boat heels to the breeze and tacks off a distinctly English-looking coastline. The sea is a bright greeny-blue with a few white caps interrupting the surface, and overhead some scattered clouds drift effortlessly across a pale blue sky. If there was a soundtrack playing, it would be the steady hiss of the bow cutting through water: powerful, timeless and sublime. This is the typical setting of a Steven Dews painting, usually depicting a handful of yachts vying for dominance, portrayed with historic accuracy. Certainly it was the scene I was hoping for when I came to sail the British artist’s new boat on the Solent this summer. Instead, I was greeted by grey skies and a smattering of rain,…

MODEL RUM-RUNNER This magnificent hand-made model is the result of an 11-year restoration finishing last year. It was built in the late 1920s in England and at 5ft 2in (1.57m) is the largest, most complex model the Nicholas Brawer Gallery on Madison Avenue has ever offered. One of a kind, Havana Lady was a gas-powered prohibition-era rum runner. $26,000, c£19,500 Tel: +1 (212) 772 2664. nicholasbrawer.com GAASTRA DECKSHOES We spotted these rather chic deckies recently in Newport, Rhode Island. For when brown leather just won’t do. Naturally, they boast all the necessary non-slip treatment on the sole, as well as colourful topsides. Available for men and women. Price $69.99, c£52 gaastraproshop.com NAUTICAL CALENDARS Two 2017 classic boat calendars have been published and they’re two of the most sought-after: The 2017…

The first dedicated Spirit of Tradition class race took place in 1996 at Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta. Since then the idea has spread worldwide and almost all classic regattas and events have at least one Spirit of Tradition class. A yacht with a modern underbody and sails can point far higher and often sail faster than the vintage design that might have inspired it, so splitting the two fleets made sense. But incorporating modern designs into the classic regatta scene did not meet with universal approval. Jonathan Dyke, who organises the annual Suff olk Yacht Haven Classic Regatta on the UK’s East Coast, says: “Any initial reaction was probably more confusion rather than suspicion. The appreciation of modern quality and traditional craftsmanship is something shared with classic yacht owners.” Interestingly,…

The A-Cats have been a familiar sight on Barnegat Bay on the New Jersey coast for the last 94 years. However, the class’s expansion to its current number has happened in the last 30 years. The first boat in the class, Mary Ann, was launched in 1922 after Philadelphia-based sailor Charles McKeehan commissioned Charles D Mower to design him a boat to compete in the Toms River Challenge Cup. The annual race had been a major fixture on Barnegat Bay since 1871, and with stiff competition, McKeehan was keen to introduce something new. Mower responded with an innovative design, one that had its roots in the wide-beamed, low freeboard local working boats, and which was suited to the shallow waters of the bay. It also took advantage of the Marconi…

Since winning our Yard of the Year award two years ago, Underfall Boatyard in Bristol has been through some changes. Most noticeably, the yard has now become a fully fledged visitor attraction, showcasing the history of Bristol’s 19th-century Floating Harbour, where the Underfall yard is sited. The new museum and café are humming with visitors in the late summer sun. As previously reported in Yard News, Tim Loftus has left to set up shop in Ullapool. He is missed by those remaining, but it has at least allowed John Raymond-Barker some space to expand into. And he needs it, judging by what he’s been up to of late, performing a serious rebuild on the 1887 pilot cutter Breeze, while building a new one alongside. Breeze has now been re-launched and…

A canvas bag is good to carry a few tools to and from the work place but as their number increases this traditional pattern of fall-front wooden tool box is more practical. Rummaging in search of the lost pencil inside a floppy bag crammed with sharp-edged saws and chisels can be frustrating, not to mention injurious, whereas the rigid organisation of the box makes tools easier to find and prevents them damaging each other. This tool box with its subdued black-painted finish and pleasant whiff of preserving linseed oil wafting from within has been hard at work for 70 years. The back and front panels are plywood, braced by internal stiffeners, but the rest is ½ inch pine with rock-solid dovetail joints throughout. The fall front is attached by sturdy…