Innehållsförteckning för May 2017 från Classic Boat

ROSEMARY III BUILDER William Fife and Son, 1924 LOA 38ft 6in (11.73m) LWL 25ft (7.7m) BEAM 8ft 6in (2.6m) DRAUGHT 6ft (1.8m) SAIL AREA 620sq ft (57.6m2) DISPLACEMENT 6.8 tonnes The history of the Fife yard on the River Clyde is well documented. Starting with William Fyfe I [sic], who built his first boat in around 1803, three generations of the Scottish dynasty produced a long line of fishing boats and yachts, culminating in the great beauties we know today. After the death of William Fife III in 1944, the yard staggered on under new ownership, until it was finally closed down and the workshops demolished in 1985, to be replaced by a modern housing estate. One of the very last pictures taken of the yard shows a big empty…

HRH The Princess Royal visited the newly revamped Boathouse 4 in Portsmouth on 20 March to speak to students working on the restoration of historic vessels, among them Sir Alec Rose’s Lively Lady. A plaque to commemorate her visit was unveiled in Midships, the newly opened restaurant at the boatbuilding school, which is also a public visitor attraction at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. LYMINGTON Laurent Giles at 90 One of the longest-running design offices celebrates its 90th anniversary this year. The firm of Laurent Giles was founded by Jack Laurent Giles in 1927, who established a reputation for cutting-edge design. His innovations, breadth of influence (cruising and racing yachts, motorboats and motor-sailers) make him one of the most important boat designers of the 20th century. His ‘firsts’ include doghouses on small…

A very pretty 35ft yawl sits on the picturesque and peaceful Beaulieu River, her varnish work and teak decks gleaming when the sun is out, fresh from a makeover at Stella Maris Yachting. The yacht could be said to be empowered with good luck. When she was built and launched in 1963 in Hong Kong she was blessed by Buddhist monks who scattered flower petals over her. She is Nin-dar-Anna, meaning ‘Morning Star’, a name given to her by her fourth and current owner, Peter Thomas, a retired management consultant. The elegant classic yacht was built at Cheoy Lee Shipyard, the century old yard based in Hong Kong and whose leisure boat arm was in full swing by the time of Nin-dar-Anna’s build. Like other well-kept classics, to step on…

It was mid-afternoon in late August when Chris and I set out in my classic, gunter-rigged pocket cruiser Aricie from Saint-Briac-sur-Mer. The medium-term forecast was dire. It was unnaturally warm, but it was August and a break of a couple of days had been forecast: long enough for us to get to Erquy from Saint-Cast, just across the bay. Once docked, we could pause and take stock. I had obtained Aricie from the young Pierre-Yves de la Rivière, whom I had met by chance on the quay at Saint-Malo in the summer of 2002. He was exhibiting the first of a new series of wood epoxy cruisers designed for coastal navigation by a family friend, François Vivier. ‘Un bateau pour aller aux îles’ – the sell was irresistible. The mooring…

JEWELL NO6 Vivier trailer yawl The sixth build of the recent François Vivier-designed Jewell Class embodies much of her architect’s philosophy: she’s light (650kg) for trailing, pretty, and probably sails very well. Vivier drew her as a yawl, partly for that rig’s great practical qualities and pleasing aesthetics, and partly to appeal to the American market, where the rig is popular. To find a professionally built example in Europe is rare. The Jewell is a 20ft (6.5m) clinker ply-built centreboarder, with a cockpit for four, two overnight berths, an outboard in a well and a tabernacle mast. We have written quite a bit about Vivier and his designs: he’s been the cornerstone of a French sail-and-oar revolution over the last 30 years. Visit our website, classicboat.co.uk, and enter his name…

The UK’s marine coatings industry has been keeping a wary eye on EU legislators, who are suggesting that antifouling paint should be removed and reapplied only by professional applicators. This proposal has been brought about by increasing concerns over poor practice within the leisure industry, where the dust and scrapings from old antifouling, and the waste from fresh applications, can potentially build up to unacceptable levels in the local environment. Some boatowners are also fairly lax about the level of personal protection, such as masks and gloves. However, the underlying concerns are about the actual make-up of the paint itself, and the types of poisons they contain. To date, all attempts at developing a totally environmentally friendly coating have failed, despite some remarkable innovations, so can the general public still…

ST BARTHS Hanuman wins biggest-ever J clash Hanuman has claimed the narrowest of victories in the recent St Barths Bucket, in a fleet of six J-Class yachts, the largest gathering of the racing ‘super sloops' the world has ever seen. This year marked the 30th holding of the Bucket, an invitational regatta for yachts 100ft (30.5m) or over, and from 16-19 March, the half dozen Js battled it out over a series of five races. The participating boats were, in reverse finishing order on corrected time: Shamrock V (built in 1930, Charles Nicholson designed, the only surviving wooden-hulled J); Topaz (built in 2015 in aluminium to a 1935 Frank C Paine design); Ranger (built in 2003 in aluminium to a 1934 Starling Burgess and Olin Stephens design); Lionheart (built in…

BONHAMS Dawson’s Endeavour and the real thing Montague Dawson’s fine 1934 rendering of Endeavour captures a moment of promise, as the J-Class, considered by many to be the most beautiful of the breed, trounced British opposition and prepared to take on the Americans. The work also highlights the modern-day transformation of Endeavour after a perilous and precarious existence. In that year, if only Sir Tommy Sopwith’s professional crew hadn’t gone on strike and been replaced by amateur enthusiasts, she might have defeated America’s Cup defender Rainbow, which pundits considered an inferior vessel. In the event Endeavour came closer to wresting the cup from American hands than any challenger before and returned home to dominate the UK scene until 1938, when she was laid up. That was then. For decades the…

‘This was a rare opportunity. The owner’s team was supportive and we engaged a team of magicians JOE LOUGHBOROU’GH, LMI RESTORATION OF THE YEAR OVER 40FT SANTANA Votes came in thick and fast for the long-awaited restoration of the yacht once owned by Humphrey Bogart. The immaculate finished product is a triumph for Rhode Island talent, completed as it was by a combined team from East Passage Boatwrights and Loughborough Marine Interests. She wowed New England in her first season afloat, showing off the restorers’ painstaking handiwork and Olin’s fine lines. Design Olin Stephens, built Wilmington Boatworks, 1935, LOD 55ft 2in (16.9m), rig bermudan yawl RESTORATION OF THE YEAR UNDER 40FT MINK Mystic boatbuilders MP&G were responsible for this extraordinary project, which took the idea of authenticity to new levels.…

“It just goes to show what you can achieve in a small boat” Captain William Bligh has had many adjectives applied to his character over the years, but not often has he been called ‘insecure’. However, after spending 76 days recreating the open-boat voyage that Bligh made to safety following the mutiny on HMS Bounty in 1789, that is the opinion of Vendée Globe sailor Conrad Humphreys. Humphreys skippered the crew that followed in Bligh’s wake for 3,600 miles through the Pacific, existing on the same starvation rations and stopping at deserted islands to find coconuts and kill wild animals, as Bligh did, to survive. The story has become known as one of the greatest feats of seamanship and an endurance epic. But Humphreys, whose voyage was filmed for the…

Email: steffan@classicboat.co.uk WEYMOUTH, DORSET Ratsey boat to be saved Built in 1872 by White’s yard in East Cowes, and owned by sailmaker Tom Ratsey for almost half a century, Dolly Varden recently arrived at Kingfisher Marine in Weymouth where she will undergo an extensive restoration, writes Nigel Sharp. She was originally based on an Itchen Ferry but Ratsey modified the hull by cutting away the forefoot and increasing the draught, then used her as a testbed for Ratsey and Lapthorn to develop sails for racing boats, as well as for his own pleasure. It is known that King George V once went aboard. Dolly Varden has been out of the water for 25 years – owner Grahame Knott sees the rebuild as a long-term project – possibly as long as…

ADVICE SCORING PLYWOOD Even if you use the best quality plywood, the bottom veneer will have a tendency to tear and splinter when it is cut with a hand saw. A simple way to avoid this is to mark out the shape on both sides of the timber then, on the reverse face, go over the lines with a sharp knife using a straight edge as a guide. Now as you cut the wood, following the pencil lines on the top, any splintering on the bottom will be confined to the waste side and the cut line will protect the veneer on the part you want to use. GUIDANCE Thinness-ing Timber less than ¼in (6mm) thick can be difficult to hold for planing by hand, whether for fine finishing or…

“Even with the latest tranche of regulations it’s still an effective biocide, so remains poisonous to humans” If you like a bit of rough and tumble, you have two choices. You can go into a bikers’ pub and tell the hairiest and meanest-looking dude at the bar that he’s a big girl’s blouse, or you can buy a classic boat. I have lost count of the times my various wooden boats have drawn blood, but so far nothing too serious. For example, I now realise why professional carpenters tape the heads of their lump hammers to the wooden shaft. I was ‘persuading’ a bolt out of a frame one day when the shaft of the hammer split just below the head, and 1lb of cast iron spun up, and smacked…

The summer fog had lifted, and from the cockpit of the bermudan cutter Runa VII, Maldwin Drummond took his first glimpse of war-torn Boulogne, writes Dick Durham. “Wrecked buildings were all around. It was like standing on the tongue of an aged giant, looking outward at a skyline of ill-used and decaying teeth,” the impressionable 21-year-old wrote on his first Channel crossing in 1953. As a floating steam crane lifted chunks of sunken ships from the harbour, Maldwin lay in his bunk reading a book with a cover depicting a gaff cutter sailing across the iron cross of the Imperial German eagle: The Riddle of the Sands. The novel sparked a lifelong passion in Maldwin, who, a decade or so later, sailed the same route that its author, Erskine Childers,…

ASTON MARTIN AM37 The same brains that came up with the Aston Martin One-77, the Vulcan and the new DB11 were tasked to design the firm’s entry into the nautical world. This sleek 50-knotter is the result. POA astonmartin.com OFF THE WALL Inspired by 1930s railway posters, these seaside and nautical scenes are by Devon artist Becky Bettesworth. She depicts coastal scenes from around the British Isles. From £12.50 beckybettesworth.co.uk FIGURE THIS OUT This wooden mid-19th-century figurehead of a young Queen Victoria was found in 1932, floating downriver in Bahía Blanca, Argentina, an area well known for shipbreaking. 51cm (21in) high. Price £13,800 trinitymarine.co.uk RUM DO! Westerhall Rums has joined Cowes Week as the event’s Official Rum. Westerhall’s Nick Kingsman says: “We’ll be looking to channel some of the Grenadian…

An insolent lump of ice scrapes against the bright-green oxidised copper fixed to the bow of the schooner Opal. The sea is dead quiet. The black water appears stiff , but not frozen. As we sail deeper into the mouth of the Scoresbysund (Scoresby Sound, Kangertittivaq in Inuit), the number of ice chunks that break the black colour of the water as white speckles grows. Captain Heimir Harðarson gives the command to pull in the already reefed sails and pursues his course on noiseless electricity. The ice propagates quickly: like curious, white, sea creatures coming to inquire from all around. Chunks become ice blocks, ice plates, and then a majestic blue iceberg looms at the horizon. The ice is everywhere now. Slush scrapes playfully but slowly against the copper and…

Imagine for a moment you are an experienced traditional boatbuilder and you’ve just been asked to quote for a replica of the ship’s boat that was set adrift from HMS Bounty in 1789, for a “documentary film on Bligh”. Why not? It’s not beyond the wit of a decent boatbuilder to build a 23ft (7m) open, wooden rowing and sailing boat, is it? Then you discover that this open boat is actually destined to repeat Bligh’s desperate 3,600nm voyage of survival in the remote wilds of the Pacific Ocean, so it has to be Marine and Coastguard Agency (MCA) coded for nine occupants for open ocean use – remember, it’s an open boat; you are building for clients who are not marine minded; and you have some misgivings about the…

BRITTANY New wooden Shark OD The Breton boatbuilding school of Skol Ar Mor, established in 2011, has built a real rarity, in the form of a new, all-wooden, Shark Class sloop. The Shark Class, based on a 19 Square Metre design, was drawn by Finnish naval architect Gunnar L Stenbäck in 1931 with the idea that crews would sail from one race to another, so they are more commodious and seaworthy than, say, a Dragon, although racing is less competitive. In Finland, where they remain popular, they are known as the Haj class (the Finnish word for ‘shark’). They are also popular in France, where they are known by the French word – requin. Every year, the boatbuilding school seeks a commission for a larger boat, but lacking one in…

Liza Duke, bustle stern 1904 saloon launch This was built by Bugoyne in 1904 to a design Linton Hope, with a light-displacement cold-moulded build of a diagonal inner planking layer and a fore-andaft outer layer. The original mahogany layers are being replaced with teak. The boat has been in commission for many years and a new owner has commissioned the work. Interior fit-out will come next, and this will depend on her power – she might go electric. The saloon sides and deck will remain original. New slipper launch One of two 30ft (9.1m) slippers currently in build, this one features a ladder set into the aft deck leading down to the small swim platform River boats are all about elegance, Richard Freebody says, as we admire the many shapes…

The boatbuilder’s core set of hand tools has changed little in generations. The shipwright of a century ago might raise an eyebrow at plastic handles which have replaced wood, and inductionhardened blades which are discarded when blunt, but by and large today’s saws, planes and chisels would not be unfamiliar. One notable exception is the hand drill which has been rendered virtually obsolete by the cordless power drill. Given the repetitive nature of some boat building operations, such as drilling the hundreds of pilot holes required in riveting up a clinker hull, it’s not difficult to see why the cordless drill is so popular – it’s fast, accurate and easy to use. But who hasn’t reached for the cordless tool only to be greeted by the whimpering of a motor…