Innehållsförteckning för June 2016 från Classic Boat

BRITISH ADMIRALTY BOATSWAIN’S PIPE The last day of May and the first day of June this year mark 100 years since the Battle of Jutland, the biggest sea battle of the First World War. To commemorate the occasion, the Royal British Legion has produced nautically themed products, including this replica boatswain’s pipe, which is made to the original Acme design of 1870 by the same company, J Hudson & Co. £19.99 poppyshop.org.uk 3-D CHART Latitude Kinsale is offering these smaller versions of its 3-D charts, for any sea area you want. The size is 380cm square. They’re designed as gifts, but customers are commisioning ‘collections’ of the waters that they have cruised or holidayed in, one area or many worldwide. If it’s a christening gift, you can have the child’s…

This year will be our fifth race, writes Barry Pickthall. With the exception of 2014 when the winds failed halfway round, we have completed every one in incrementally better positions. The race starts from Cowes on Saturday July 2 and we hope to improve on our 3rd placing in class within the classic boat fleet. It is great fun; there is great camaraderie among crews and great competition. If you have not done it before and have a classic yacht of any kind, I can only recommend it. Many classic yachts have won the race on corrected time, but for the vast majority, it is the taking part that counts. There will always be others around you, with similar boats or levels of experience, to provide some gentle competition. The…

A new British firm is offering Hoek-designed Spirit of Tradition yachts built in modern composite construction. Performance Classic Yachts was started by Mark Spiers after he commissioned the build of his own Pilot Classic 66, one of a number of yachts from the board of the Dutch master Andre Hoek. Mark was struck by the complexity and difficulty of managing a project of this sort and believes there could be a market for those who want such a yacht on a semi-bespoke basis. Performance Classic Yachts (PCY) is offering two models to kick start the range: the 55 and the 66. Both yachts are inspired by the famous British pilot cutters but are in almost every respect modern yachts, with fast underwater profiles, push-button winching, divided cockpits for passengers and…

The Amico shipyard has relaunched the 1939 ketch Cassiopeia after performing important hull restoration work. The one-time marble carrier is now a comfortable superyacht, having been rescued from what was almost an early and watery grave. Cassiopeia's Captain Martin Lightoller said: "The build stopped when war broke out in 1939. At this time the hull was built, but the boat was not fitted out and to avoid requisition for the war, she was taken out into the Bay of Naples and sunk. She was then re-floated at the end of the war and completed." Relaunched in 1946 at the Vincenzo Aurilia shipyard in Torre Del Greco, Italy, the 122ft (37m) ketch has a beam of 23ft 4in (7.1m) and her hull was originally built with pine frames and teak superstructure.…

Few hand tools have shaped the course of history like the side axe, also known as the broad axe. But there it is embroidered in the Bayeux tapestry, in the hands of William’s shipwrights building the longships that would surge on to the beach at Pevensey in 1066. Without the side axe to flatten the planks of those clinker troop carriers, the Normans might have been exhausted by baling out, given the Hastings battlefield a miss and turned back for France. This is a 4lb side axe made by the long-gone firm of William Hunt & Sons at the Brades Steel Works, Birmingham, in the 1930s. Forged in one piece so as to avoid the weakness of a weld and fitted with a nicely shouldered hickory handle it was, according…

Growing up and growing older do not make us any more immune to shiny objects. We’re just as entranced, though the price tags trend higher. Like technology or fashion, yachting moves through phases and fads, which don’t always arrive at the same time. Some believe that a month is a long time for a transatlantic crossing, yet it took the mullet 20 years to reach Spain! Since 1987, when Altair emerged from her restoration and reminded western Europe what sailing used to look like, the Big Boat fleet has swelled in numbers to the point of saturating Mediterranean harbours. Though the crescendo has been slow, the momentum has been consistent. Yet here in the States, where the name Herreshoff is still recognised by the greenest of hands, we are still…

This was one of the more bizarre sails of my life. I was on board the N Class sloop Serenade off St Tropez where, surely, the sun always shines; and yet the rain was falling as it had rarely fallen before and it was finding its way past a set of foul weather gear I had previously regarded as pretty good. Before we left the dock, the skipper and I had agreed that I should sail more as a “guest” than a crew member and keep out of the way in the cockpit, so as not to interfere with the well-practised routines of the regular crew. It was just as well because throughout the race the dialogue was entirely in French, leaving me bewildered and wishing I had worked harder…

Julian Reid extends a welcoming hand as I come off the Red Jet in Cowes. He’s taller and older than I’d expected, Knox-Johnston vintage I’d say, and I dare say just as hardy. When a man can shimmy to the spreader and paddle against the draining Medina tide without breaking sweat, age is immaterial. “We could doss down on the boat or stay at the squadron,” he’d said in his note. My kind of sailor, not least since he tells me he has booked us in to the Royal Yacht Squadron after all. I hadn’t brought a tie but it didn’t matter to Christopher Sharples, the commodore over breakfast, dressed, as he must, in double-breasted black blazer and black tie, worn in mourning for Admiral Nelson. The commodore was clutching…

It has always been pretty laid back up here on the wild waters above the back of beyond, 40 miles south of Cape Wrath. No one bothered you much. Things got done, in their own sweet West Coast manner. Local sailors (of which I don’t count myself, born within the sound of Bow bells) are intrepid and adaptable, in an old-fashioned, self-sufficient kind of way. It must be the same in some out-of-the-way muddy reaches of the Essex marshes, where venerable wooden boats cling to crumbling piles alongside clapboard boatyards that appear as they did in faded copies of yachting magazines from the 1950s. Probably, too, among the wooded creeks of Maine. But these outposts of self reliance are disappearing, along with many of the old (often alarmingly precarious) ways…

22ND JANUARY PAPEETE, TAHITI After our twenty-day crossing from the Galapagos, spending the last three days in Papeete harbour has felt a little strange. During such a long time at sea, you forget so many of the sights and sounds of land, and it can be a bit overwhelming when you first step back ashore. But once you get used to it again it’s all very nice. There was plenty of entertainment during the gangway watch — all night long, young people were out on the streets having fun, trying to impress each other by doing wheelies on their scooters! Tomorrow we set sail on our four-thousand mile trip to Sydney and another twenty-one days at sea. 23RD JANUARY LEAVING PAPEETE Before setting sail we topped up on water and…

It is said that the two best days for a boat owner are when he buys and when he sells. This might be cynical, but there is no doubting the joy of ‘day one’ and the relief when an honest buyer stumps up the funds, freeing you to move on after a long wait. Deciding on an asking price for a one-off wooden boat makes a marked contrast with the lot of non-Classic Boat readers who own production yachts. These fortunate sailors have no problems at all. Stick her on the market at a few quid less than the others, and whether she sells or not becomes largely a matter of where she is, how clean her lockers are and the owner’s willingness to talk turkey about offers. Even then,…

HALLOWE’EN Grace and pace It wasn’t long ago that the Getting Afloat editor had the privilege of helming the Fife yacht Hallowe’en after winning the day’s racing at the Puig Vela in Barcelona last year. She is frequently referred to as the world’s most beautiful yacht and on this occasion we offer no argument. Even our technical editor Theo Rye is a fan, and he’s hard to please. She was Fife’s first large bermudan yacht when she was launched in 1926 and often referred to as the world’s first cruiser racer, “as much of a benchmark vessel as Dorade” in the words of yachting historian Ian McAllister. She could do with some work to the decks and perhaps a new suit of sails, but this is reflected in the price,…

Henry Harston and Harry Grapes have been on an incredible rollercoaster ride for the past two years since graduating from Suffolk’s International Boatbuilding Training College (IBTC). Good luck and hard work have enabled this intrepid duo to set up their own boatyard beside the River Waveney at St Olaves, where they have tackled a diverse set of projects from the renovation of a Cambridge punt to the reconstruction of a Broads yacht and the building of an enlarged wheelhouse for an 88ft 6in (27m) Dutch steel barge. Although Henry seemed destined to be a boatbuilder from an early age, Harry was initially attracted by the bright lights of London and television production. However, the novelty of working on well-known TV programmes eventually gave way to a desire to start a…

The typical trades didn’t make it to Antigua for the 29th Classic Regatta, but 40 vessels did, along with boatloads of exuberant crew. The fleet was as varied as the weather. Small boats like the 26ft Harrison Butler, Cora A, mixed it up with six big gals, each well over 100ft. Topping that list in length and quite possibly in beauty too were the 212ft (64.6m) three-masted schooner Adix and 141ft (42.9m) Gloucester schooner replica, Columbia, launched in 2014. Six days of racing took place in lake-like conditions, eliminating the usual drama of flying water and broken parts. Dry decks served as lounges and no one felt the need to call in too exhausted for the regatta’s legendary schedule of parties and musical events. Columbia may have taken top honors…

DAN HIZA of Wight Vodka Wight Vodka has big exposure on the UK South Coast. What's your turnover? We do love the British South Coast and have some great markets where Wight Vodka is 'pouring well'. We are also a spirit of choice for higher-end private parties where people want to try something a bit different. In this way, Wight Vodka is 'boutique' in all senses of the definition, and it’s fair to say we’re ticking over nicely in the circles who appreciate a high-quality, relatively hard-to-come-by spirit. What was the inspiration? I was coming back into Cowes after a day on the water when I saw a Mount Gay flag and thought: “Why doesn’t anyone come up with a vodka targeting the yachting crowd?” By the time I’d tied…

BONHAMS US America’s Cup antics DAVE SELBY The pages of marine catalogues open up a window of nostalgia to the development of yachting, a world of intrigue and proud vessels long broken up. The progressive Edward Burgessdesigned centre-board sloop Volunteer, laid down in 1887, was the first America’s Cup yacht built with a steel frame and hull. In the 1887 defender trials she easily beat the 1886 winner, Mayflower, also by Edward Burgess, then retained the trophy against British challenger Thistle. But this painting, in which she’s depicted leading Thistle, is all that’s left of her, as she was broken up in 1910. The fine oil on canvas, by James Edward Buttersworth, made £42,000 ($60,000) at Bonhams’ most recent New York marine sale. The same auction featured an exhibition-standard model…

She was under a tarpaulin shrouding her decks, high and dry at the top of the slipway at David Hillyard’s old yard at Littlehampton in Sussex. With varnish badly peeled, she was a sorry sight, but what beautiful lines! That’s the trick classic yachts, whatever their state, play on us. The yard owner caught me peeking wistfully under the cover. “She’s been abandoned,” he said. “You can have her for £500 if you want.” I didn’t quite bite his hand off. Having trained as a boatbuilder, I could see rot had set in on the decks, coachroof and cockpit, but the hull itself was sound. She had an engine, a full rig stored in the shed and everything from a Walker log to compass stowed in boxes under a bench.…

Maldwin Drummond is an author, yachtsman, soldier and trustee of the Manor of Cadland in the New Forest. He is also a director of Southampton Harbour Board and was heavily involved in the creation of the Sail Training Association. He has also been a leading light in the Maritime Trust, the Warrior Preservation Trust and is a younger brother of Trinity House. He lives with his wife Gilly on the Cadland Estate and is a member of the Royal Yacht Squadron and the Royal Cruising Club. In the 1960s Maldwin went to look at Erskine Childers’ yacht Asgard, which was up for sale at a boatyard in Anglesey. ‘As it turned out she was a little too large for us, but while we were there we were told she had…

Edited by Steffan Meyric Hughes: +44 (0)207 349 3758 Email: steffan@classicboat.co.uk EXTER, DEVON Burnett’s last design to go around the world with a laughing cavalier The last design from the late Ed Burnett is nearing completion at Boatcraft near Exeter. The 56ft (17m) bermudan cutter has been built by Boatcraft’s Mike Ludgrove as his own yacht. She’s carvel built of coast-grown fir on laminated mahogany frames, with three layers of GRP on the hull’s exterior. Below she sleeps up to seven. “She’s an amalgam of lots of boats I admired from Fife, Mylne and some early American designers. Ed Burnett and [design collaborator] Howard Swift called it ‘the Laughing Cavalier’ after the painting [Frans Hals, 1624]. They thought I looked like him and were taking the Mickey!” The meticulous build…

Beale Park Boat and Outdoor Show 3-5 JUNE Pangbourne, Upper Thames It’s no secret that we’ve always had a soft spot for this ‘grass, tents and dinghies’ show and this year will be no exception with lots of exciting new plans afoot Tel: +44 (0)1296 631273, bealeparkboatandoutdoorshow.co.uk 28 MAY – 4 JUNE Sail Caledonia Atlantic coast to North Sea coast, via the Great Glen Biennial raid on many dinghy sailors’ bucket lists sailcaledonia.org 17-19 JUNE Portaferry Sails and Sounds Co Down, NI From the dust of the Portaferry Hooker Regatta, absent for some years now, comes what sounds like a major new regatta from the OGA. Action on the water includes yachts, work boats and skiff racing. Gary Lyons, oldwoodenboatman@btinternet.com 1-5 JUNE Voiles d’Antibes The traditional season opener in the…