Indholdsfortegnelse for March 2020 i Classic Boat

It was a cold winter’s morning when Alec Jordan delivered the Western Skiff kit to Jeremy Butler’s house overlooking the River Dart in January 2018. It was, in its way, an historic moment, for this was the first Western Skiff to be built from a kit for 20 years. For two decades, the boat had been unavailable in any form – apart from a few bootleg copies scaled up from a paper model from the 1990s – and repeated requests for “drawings, plans, anything!” were to no avail. Now, not only is the boat available in kit form, but building plans are available to download free of charge for the more intrepid builder. It’s been a long time coming, but the Western Skiff is back. When Nigel Irens designed the…

It will have been well over a year since I downed tools, forsook the Old Milking Parlour down by the shores of Loch Broom, and vowed never to take up a ball-peen hammer in anger ever again, at least for money. Those who believe I should be pining for the smell of oak dust and the whine of the bandsaw can think again. These days, and it is in the midst of a bitter winter I write, the idea of heading down to the yard, turning the key in the old double doors and, in a cloud of steaming breath, set about fitting another plank to another clinker boat, fills me with dread as I stoke the embers in the wood burner and catch the news on the BBC. This…

Many were shocked at the recent news that the Fastnet will finish in Cherbourg rather than Plymouth in 2021 and 2023. There was a cyber roar of outrage, along with a smattering of “Why not?” Some felt you couldn’t shift the Grand National from Aintree or relocate the Centre Court from Wimbledon to Kingston upon Thames, and claim they were the same sporting events. Should we stick with tradition for the sake of it, or innovate to keep up with necessary change? There is no doubt that Cherbourg will offer a superb welcome, and that the French love offshore racing, but organiser the Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) seemed to be stressing the practical advantages at the expense of conserving history. Commodore Steven Anderson described “significant additional” facilities that would…

Email: steffan@classicboat.co.uk There was the sense of a “lull before the storm” when we visited Mark in November last year, as the yard stood empty, awaiting three arrivals. On 15 December, they came: Huff of Arklow, Uffa Fox’s groundreaking ocean-racing yacht; and two 22-Sqm Skerry Cruiser yachts – Chadrak and Caritana. They all belong to a new owner, who bought them from the old Eyemouth International Sailing Craft Association when it auctioned off its huge boat collection in 2017. Huff of Arklow, the 44ft 6in (13.6m) sloop from 1951, is often credited as the first fin-and-skeg yacht designed for ocean racing (the ‘separated hull’ arrived much earlier on smaller racing yachts). She lived up to the concept, planing across oceans, and remains to this day one of the most distinctive…

In a small boathuouse on Sweden’s west coast, the 120-year-old Norwegian pilot cutter Emilie, 33ft (10m) in length, is nearing the big day when she will be re-launched, after four years of renovation. The 21-year-old architecture student Hugo Bauer bought the boat in 2014 and bolted the sternpost together to sail her home. First on the ‘to-do’ list was to replace the sternpost, but it soon became clear that hull and deck were also in bad condition, leading to a rebuild of the deck, all deck beams and deckhouse. The port side planking had to be replaced and during this job, a few rotten frames was detected and replaced. The next jobs are to fit the new oak keelson and cast and fit a new 1,300kg lead keel. Before that,…

The double-hooped registered firmer chisel, also known as a shipwright’s chisel, is an excellent tool for heavy work. The tapered blade is substantially thicker than is usual in a firmer chisel, to stand up to chopping and levering waste from a large mortise, for example. The long handle is shock-absorbing ash, nicely turned for a secure grip, and fitted with an ash hoop around the top to prevent ‘mushrooming’ under blows from a mallet or lump hammer. Other features include a broad bolster (the flanged section of the blade where it meets the handle), a leather washer behind the bolster, and a heavy-gauge steel ferrule, which prevents splitting when the tang of the blade is driven into the handle. This chisel (seen cleaning up old oak, where the amount to…

According to Bride magazine, the top 10 items to put on a wedding list are: cutlery, saucepans, china, champagne, a toaster, bedding, a barbecue, an overseas holiday, a map in the shape of a heart, and a speaker in the shape of a dog. Aaron and Abbie Ashton were having none of this. Their wedding list read: “Let’s buy a boat! We don’t need or wish for lots of ‘stuff’ but as you all know we love the water and feel it is only natural that we should eventually have a boat. So, rather than gifts let’s see what we can achieve to set sail on the seas – will it be a bathtub toy, a dinghy or a yacht? Whatever it is, you will always be welcome aboard! Donate…

Viking’s origins date back to the 1930s, when she was built by the Horning boatyard of Chumley & Hawke for its hire fleet as a 26ft (7.9m) gunter-rigged daysailer. At the time, many of the Broadland hire fleets operated half-deckers. They primarily appealed to people who wanted an exciting yet comfortable sailing boat for days out on the Broads. At 26ft, Viking boasted more space than the average half-decker, while her cuddy would have offered hirers a degree of protection from the elements and somewhere to stow their picnic. The dates of Viking’s construction are currently unclear. Tim Whelpton, who managed Chumley & Hawke’s hire fleet from 1948 to 1958, told former Viking owner Bill Clark that she had been built in 1933. However, she did not appear within the…

The classic catboat from America’s eastern seaboard, is among the most instantly recognisable of all traditional types, with their single-sail rig mounted on a stout, freestanding mast in the bows and the extreme beam, which approaches half the boat’s length. The 12ft wooden Beetle Cat is the best known of all, with more than 4,000 built, but for those looking for something a little larger, Arey’s Pond Boatyard, set in rural Massachusetts, does a great range. In fact, their latest launch, the 24ft wood/GRP cabin cat Libellule, has been shortlisted in this year’s awards. The 14ft Catboat is based on a design by Edson I Shock and redrawn by Arey’s Pond owner Tony Davis in 1998. Being a catboat, she’ll sail in just 12in (30cm) of water, and has a…

Almost four decades have passed since, in 1981, a group of shipwrights joined forces to create a shipyard capable of handling a wide range of projects. They started by sharing a portable sawmill, which is still in use and depicted on the company’s logo. Over time, the cooperative – now known as Port Townsend Shipwrights Co-Op – expanded to include four buildings that today employ 32 people. The last of the original founders retired in 2018, but the current 12 owners perpetuate the familiar spirit with great dedication and contagious passion. The most notable restoration in progress is that of Western Flyer, a 77ft (23.5m) fishing boat built in Tacoma in 1937 by the Western Boat Building Company. Shortly after, the boat was chartered by marine biologist Ed Ricketts (1897-1948)…

The fillister plane, sometimes called a filletster, cuts a rabbet, sometimes called a rebate – a right-angled step between the edge and face of the wood. Sticking with ‘fillister’ and ‘rabbet’, the next hurdle of nomenclature to be jumped concerns the 'fence' – a longitudinal guide on the sole of the plane that registers against the edge of the wood, maintaining the plane on a steady course and the rabbet at constant width. A plane with a fixed fence is a ‘standing fillister’, always cutting the same width of rabbet, while a ‘moving fillister’ has an adjustable fence, clamped by two cheese-head screws in this example. So far, so familiar to the boatbuilder in Britain, but this plane hails from Germany, where it’s known as the Stellfalzhobel and has a…

BERMUDA RACE WINNER Kirawan, the Phillip Rhodes yacht that vanquished Stormy Weather to win the 1936 Bermuda, is back after restoration MARGARET DYE One of the most daring dinghy voyagers of all time on the sea, her late husband Frank and the joy of cruising in tiny boats LADY ASTOR’S CANOE The restored Liddesdale, an upper Thames electric canoe built for Lady Astor, now at the Cliveden Hotel PLUS… Stunning Victorian dayboat that has been owned by three generations of RNLI men; Whooper and why she always wins; 8-M focus; buying a classic; and much more APRIL 2020 ON SALE Friday 28 February, 2020 (or why not subscribe!) 30 YEARS AGO MARCH 1990, CB21 “What I hope you will discover, Gentle Brand-New Reader, is a magazine with a modicum of…

ANTIQUE THREE-DRAW MARINE TELESCOPE It would take a skipper with more insouciant swagger than we could muster to whip out an antique telescope when sweeping the horizon for that elusive pick-up buoy. But we’d love to have one to fiddle with on the desk, or perhaps to aim at the bustling thoroughfare beyond our office window for picking out any passing points of interest. This example is a mid-19th century three-draw marine telescope made by JP Cutts and offered by Scientific Collectables. It measures 8in (20cm) closed, extending to 23in (58cm), and has a 40mm objective lens with 15x magnification. Described as in excellent condition with original baleen cover, sharp optics and a smooth but firm draw, it could be on your desk for £240. scientificcollectables.com SO, YOU’VE ALWAYS WANTED…

As my own memory gets less dependable, I am increasingly impressed by those among my seniors who don’t seem to have the same problem. So a couple of years ago, when I interviewed the then-97-year-old Arthur Frazier – the sole survivor of the Mevagissey boatbuilding family – I was full of admiration when he was able to instantly recall the difficulty of steaming planks around the stern of a boat he helped to build when he was an apprentice. “She was a beautiful design but a devil to build,” he said, while also recalling the names of many of the other men who helped to build her. It was in 1936 that W Frazier & Son built Merita, of pitch pine on oak, for retired naval officer BS Prewett. She…

Scrambling over loose red rock, threading my way between spiny cactus branches, I’ve started to wonder if this hike up the arroyo is really worth it. There’s no trail up the dry river bed, which only flows – in torrential surges – during the hurricane season, in occasional floods of sudden rain. In the sailing season, from late fall to spring, the desert surrounding Mexico’s Sea of Cortez is bone dry. At the end of the season, in the first weeks of May, the land is also very hot, an omen of the summer hurricanes to come. Between the steep walls of this arroyo, the air is baking and windless. Hiking uphill in the heat among cacti and boulders seems, with each step, like a worse and worse idea. It’s…

LADY GENEVIEVE Rare beaver-stern launch with royal connections Lady Genevieve is a rare, early, 40ft (12.2m) beaver-stern launch built around 1926 by Taylor Bates of Chertsey for an aristocrat whose family is reputed to have taken Princess Margaret on many trips. In 1947, Lady Genevieve carried both Princess Margaret and Princess Elizabeth to the Henley Royal Regatta. She was maintained for many years by Peter Freebody. The present owner bought her in 2009 and used her occasionally for luxury charter. The cabin, at 3.2m (10ft 6in) by 2m (6ft 7in), has room for sleeping and a private heads if needed. The forward canopy is removable. “She created a stir at the Festival de Loire in 2019, when the British ambassador came aboard and the press interviewed the owners,” says broker…

On the sister isles of Carricaou and Petite Martinique that between them cover a mere 14.5 square miles, traditions that began centuries ago are alive and well today. Tools handed down through generations – the adze, the caulking iron – are still in use alongside power tools and modern adhesives, and boats are still built on the beach. Some wood is sourced locally for grown knees and frames but the bulk arrives via inter-island freighters run on a “no-problem mon” schedule. Most builds take place in the hamlet of Windward. The nameless boatyard, situated near the disco, is marked by a hand-painted sign. A path through mangroves leads to the spot where today, a 67ft motor vessel is nearly ready to launch. Builder Anthony (Nero) McLawrence began the project, his…

Not all planes designed for cutting rabbets are fitted with the small blade called a ‘nicker’, which severs wood fibres in advance of the iron, preventing tear-out and leaving a tidy shoulder. The lack of a nicker is especially significant if rabbeting across the grain, with the Paramo Planemaster No 10 being a case in point. Cutting to a mere pencil line, the 1960s Planemaster (something of a Swiss Army knife among planes) leaves cross-grain rabbets in softwoods with ragged shoulders. But if the line is first scribed using a cutting gauge – a tool with a chisel-edged blade, otherwise used for slicing veneer – results are much improved.…

The outboard shed at Stone Sailing Club on the River Blackwater is a grotto of mystic wonder. Long, long ago, three and a half weeks before the beginning of time, locals began to refer to it, with hushed reverence, as the ‘Temple of Gloom’. That’s because ever since man discovered fire, the shed lights have been on the blink. Yet for all I know it may be a Masonic lodge, for as you peer into the murky depths, the dim outlines of mysterious ceremonial objects gradually take form. And though I be unschooled in the ways of the brotherhood, the symbolism is plain. Here are 13 odd galoshes seemingly scattered randomly to avoid making a pentangle; there, the sacred left cup of a bikini, wellies, waders, innertubes, rubber gloves, a…