Indholdsfortegnelse for September 2020 i Classic Boat

MACKRILL AT MESSUMS Classic Boat readers can claim a 10 per cent discount at the current Martyn Macrkill exhibition at Messums Gallery in London. The exhibition runs until 21 August and the gallery will have the unsold pictures thereafter. Mackrill illustrates the Bosun’s Bag column by Tom Cunliffe each month in Classic Boat and is one of the most sought-after marine artists in the world. The show contains a range of works, including some of the drawings done for Classic Boat. messums.com PANERAI EPIC We’re assured this is the rebirth of a legend, the new edition of the ‘epic’ Panerai Luminor Marina. Italian watch manufacturer Panerai, formerly the leading classic regatta sponsor and now a sponsor of the America’s Cup, says it is “rewriting the aesthetic vocabulary of this emblematic…

In 1914, initial rumours of political danger following the Archduke and his consort’s assassination were firmly quashed. On 30 June, the coffins were carried through Metkovich’s crowded silent streets, the Dalmatian town draped and shrouded in black crepe, before being transferred to the yacht Dalmart and thence to a warship. Flags drooped at half mast, a foreboding of mourning still to come. Respectful sympathy to Austrian royalty was voiced in the British press, with the Times offering every Englishman’s well wishes and prayers. Back home the yachting scene remained vibrant, looking forward to a successful completion of the season, with the added excitement of the America’s Cup. Shamrock IV was attracting all the headlines. Towards the end of July she was racing trials in Torbay against her Shamrock sister, with…

In the early part of the 20th century, it was fashionable for wealthy American businessmen to travel, on a daily or weekly basis, between their country homes and their city offices through inland waterways. The vessels on which they did so were typically fast, luxurious, narrow, sleek and stylish and, not surprisingly, they became known as commuter boats. It was not uncommon for a businessman to leave home every morning in his dressing gown and then use the voyage time to prepare for work by shaving, dressing and having breakfast on board. New York was a popular place for such commuter boats, which typically travelled between various parts of Long Island Sound and Wall Street, but this is the story of one that was almost certainly originally used on the…

NYHAMNSLAGE, SWEDEN 1894 clipper yacht restored The latest restoration from the boatbuilding Ravanis brothers – Mathias and Martin – was recently launched following a two-year, on-and-off restoration. We remember their extraordinary fishing boat restoration a few years ago, which justly won our ‘Restoration of the Year (under 40ft)’ award, and this time, it’s the turn of a yacht. Bel Rose is a Swedish sailing yacht, built in Gothenburg in 1894, to the design of reknowned Swedish naval architect Albert Andersson, with more than a hint of the famous Gloriana (1891) to her lines. The yard’s work on the boat has included, among other things: new sheer planks all around; a new deck and deck beams “in massive Oregon pine and heartwood pine”; new gunwales and toerails in natural-grown crooked oak…

A satisfying spin-off from the Covid-19 lockdown was making this scaled-down version of the shapely cabin shelves (above) I’d noticed in vintage photos of Sir Robin Knox-Johnston’s legendary ketch Suhaili, published in Classic Boat in May 2013 (p45). We had similar bookshelves in my childhood home, so the style may be typical of the 1960s. On the off chance that others may wish to follow suit, I used a minimum of simple hand tools and recycled some oak from old drawer fronts; I suspect Sir Robin’s shelves were of teak (like the hull) or mahogany, but it’s certain that hand tools were the order of the day when Suhaili was built on a Bombay slipway in 1963. The shelves, one each side of the saloon, are details in the old…

There is no more stirring sight of seamanship than witnessing a yacht deftly pick up a mooring under sail. These kind of yachts are made of wood and known as gaffers, on account of the amount of gaffer tape it takes to keep them afloat. For reasons of fashion, they also have at least one Seagull outboard lashed to the pushpit and a Stuart Turner inboard engine in the bilges. As a result of which, owners of yachts with Stuart Turners are usually very adept at picking up a mooring under sail. Those who struggle with that usually find it easier to perform a circumnavigation or two. For the benefit of south coast sailors and readers in Saint-Tropez and Martha’s Vineyard, I should explain that Stuart Turners were what they…

Pellew is the ninth pilot cutter to be built by Luke Powell in the past quarter of a century, but what sets her apart from the others is her size. With a hull length of 68ft (20.7m) she is significantly longer than the 46ft (14m) Agnes, the biggest of the previous eight. But it is in displacement terms that she really stands out: at 74 tonnes, she is triple the size. The previous boats were based on Isles of Scilly pilot cutters, whereas Pellew is a replica of the Vincent, a Falmouth pilot cutter. The Scilly boats were generally smaller than their Falmouth cousins, which often carried as many as eight pilots. One thing they have in common is that no original boats of either type survive today. The Vincent…

The rejuvenation of a rare Broadland One Design has been a real family affair, as Richard Johnstone-Bryden discovered when he encountered the 24ft (7.3m) Slipstream Spindrift during the annual Oulton Week regatta. Her origins date back to the mid-1960s, when former civil engineer Mick Richardson drafted the lines for a high-performance wooden sailing craft inspired and named in honour of Victorian Thames half rater Slipstream, which he had owned for several years. Mick’s 20th-century derivative proved to be even quicker than the veteran half rater and went on to forge a reputation as one of the region’s fastest sailing craft. The combination of the nomadic existence associated with his civil engineering career, and a young family, prompted Mick to seek a better work-life balance, so in 1955 he moved to…

You can date the start of the demise of the classic and the beginning of the modern yacht building era to 1953, or thereabouts, and if that is also the year of my birth, it’s coincidental. It was, in the UK at least, also the start of what we call the New Elizabethan era, which began with such hope after so much misery and destruction. It saw the opening up of the country after the years of war, despite the rationing that lasted into the late 1950s. For a golden decade or more, designers – Buchanan, Holman, Giles, S&S, Illingworth and Primrose, Griffiths and the like – would be thriving, and prolific builders such as Anderson, Rigden & Perkins, or Tucker Brown’s for instance, on the East Coast, would be…

VENDIA A new way of life? Anybody looking for a post-corona change of lifestyle should consider this one! Vendia is a 56ft (17.1m) Danish ex-fishing trawler built to grand scantlings – 2in (5cm) oak planks on huge oak frames – by Nippers yard in Skagan in 1942 during the German occupation. She was converted to a gaff-rigged ketch in the 1970s, with the fish holds turned into cabins, and now has sleeping quarters for up to 11. She featured in our December 2018 issue, cutting a dash in her bright red and cream livery, and turns eyes at the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta. Her owners maintain that in her favoured conditions of around 16-25 knots on a reach she regularly maintains a steady 7-8 knots in a very comfortable fashion.…

For a company best known in marine circles for high-end plywood, it is surprising that Robbins’ roots lie in a much older sort of woodworking. The company has always been based in or around Bristol since its formation in the mid-1880s as a public sawmill, a place where all-comers could bring timber to be cut into planks. “We specialised in wagon wheels and coffins,” says Robbins managing director Richard Bagnall, whose office overlooks the busy car park and loading bays on a newly built road just outside the city. The company, which usually operates night and day is, in mid-July, recovering from the Covid-19 slow-down, and it seems it’s time to bring back the night shift. It turns out that for Robbins, with a staff of 45, marine timber is…

The hacksaw is commonly associated with sawing metal, plastics and composite materials, but it’s also excellent for making fine cuts in joinery. The much-copied Eclipse 20T, originally made by James Neill & Co, is a classic design that’s still hard to beat. Today’s version is available from around £9 online, but an original Sheffield-made tool has the edge in terms of quality, and can be found for less. Features of the hacksaw benefiting the woodworker include the open frame, allowing a clear view either side of the kerf; a sturdy die-cast handle, lending its weight to the cutting stroke; and easily replaceable 12in (30cm) blades, at around £2.70 each. The teeth per inch (tpi) range from 14 to 32, which is finer than a luthier’s fret saw. Here I’m using…

Boat show in Southampton? British Marine is busy investigating options with the local Southampton council with regards to a smaller, outdoor event, after the Southampton Boat Show became the latest in a long line of cancellations, as Government advice continued to warn against large-scale gatherings. Organiser British Marine said the 52nd edition of the show would be held in September 2021. British Marine CEO Lesley Robinson said: “Annually Southampton International Boat Show attracts an attendance of over 100,000, with more than 430 exhibitors. An event of this size and format is simply not possible this year and as such, we have made the decision to postpone it until September 2021.” She added: “We’re naturally very disappointed that we cannot run the event this year in its usual magnitude and format,…

BONHAMS/CHARLES MILLER LTD Hair’s cruellest cut Two simple locks of hair, one sandy-coloured the other lustrous brown, reveal the twists of fortune that befell Nelson and his mistress Lady Emma Hamilton in life and death. From modest beginnings, the son of a Norfolk clergyman and the blacksmith’s daughter became the most celebrated couple of their age. Yet, when the hero of the Nile and Trafalgar died in 1805, Lady Emma Hamilton was cruelly cut adrift by family and harshly treated by the British Government, which ignored Nelson’s instructions to provide for Emma and daughter Horatia from his pension. Amid an outpouring of national grief, Nelson was buried in the crypt of St Paul’s Cathedral in a ceremony fit for kings. Almost nine years later to the day, and after a…

It was late September before I could get away from work, and the weather in Britain had already broken. Happily I sail a cruising dinghy, so I could tow her south to the sun. After putting my car and trailer on the Roscoff ferry, I drove down to southwest Brittany. There was an end-of-season air to the marina at Loctudy. The bar was closed, its canopies slatting mournfully in the autumnal wind. But a friendly woman in the capitainerie took just €5 off me to use the slipway and park my car and trailer for two weeks. The afternoon was already over when I sculled Avel Dro away from the rows of white yachts, hoisted sail and slipped into the estuary. She lost her wind beside the high concrete breakwater…

Not surprisingly, the priorities and preferences of classic boat owners vary enormously, not least when it comes to sails and, in particular, the material from which they are made. At the extremes are those who choose cotton for the sake of authenticity, and others who splash out on high-tech membrane sails made of exotic materials in search of racing success (although not in the Mediterranean, where the CIM rating system heavily penalises their use). But for the majority, sails made from woven polyester continue to be overwhelmingly popular, hardly surprising considering their several advantages over membrane sails: cost, longevity (at least in terms of not falling to pieces in the relatively short term, although they do lose their shape over time) and the conservation of a boat’s classic appearance. Woven…

There's much to like about the Footprint 160A hand drill, but the feature lifting it above competition from the likes of Stanley, Marples and Record is the key-operated Jacobs chuck. A standard three-jaw chuck is tightened on the drill bit by a knurled collar, and under certain conditions it can be difficult to tighten sufficiently to overcome resistance created by friction, with the result that the bit slips, stops cutting and may even get stuck in the wood like a pole that’s lost its punt. When tightening a Jacobs chuck you have considerably more oomph at your fingertips thanks to leverage provided by the key. As I proved to myself recently, and somewhat clumsily, if the wood raises sufficient objection to being drilled it’s quite possible to snap the bit…

THE ITALIAN JOB 1950s Italy, the so-called Dolce Vita era, was a time of exuberance and optimism, embodied by 1957 bermudan ketch Sahib, recently saved from dereliction by a new owner and a crack restoration team. Even the Formica galley is true to the era… PRE-WAR CRUISER-RACER In 1910, the sailing world was ablaze with passion for Metre yachts, so this small cruiser racer from Alfred Mylne was a breath of fresh air. Meet one survivor of the class, Trasnagh. RARE RUNABOUTS Much motorboating history is lost, but our experts have unearthed the treasure that is Portier, motorboat builders to the Cartier family PLUS… Lipton’s 23-M Shamrock and her skipper Sycamore; crossing the world’s greatest ocean (twice); Stefano Faggione, leading naval architect; and much more OCTOBER 2020 On sale 11…