Innehållsförteckning för August 2016 från Classic Boat

Few issues are so divisive in the classic world as modern sails on wooden rigs. On page 76 of this issue we have David Murrin, Commodore of the British Classic Yacht Club, who relishes the performance enhancement he gets by fitting his 1955 Laurent Giles sloop Cetewayo with the very latest laminates. On page 44 we have Greg Powlesland, who has gone to some lengths to fit his 1920 Nicholson gaffer Patna out with cotton sails. (Interestingly, Greg’s new cotton is said to be rot-resistant.) People get pretty worked up about what is classic and what isn’t, but our Letter of the Month, on page 110, calls for a more inclusive attitude towards vintage yacht fit-out. David and Greg merely represent two ends of the same scene. The progressives and…

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 OSTAR Peyron and Pen Duick retire French sailing legend Loïck Peyron (above) has been forced to abandon his campaign in the Transat Bakerly, a Plymouth-New York solo race in the manner of the original OSTAR. He was sailing Pen Duick II, the 44ft (13.4m) wooden ketch that won the 1964 OSTAR, in tribute to her legendary skipper Tabarly, and Canadian ocean-racing pioneer Mike Birch. He was more than halfway across when bad weather and a broken headstay forced him to turn tail for Quiberon in France. Next year will see the return of the OSTAR and TWOSTAR. Sail on Gipsy Moth IV Another legendary '60s ketch, Chichester's 53ft (16m)…

It was a sad day when Duncan Walker and Paul Spooner finally shut up shop in Hamble and put Fairlie Yachts into liquidation at the end of February 2016. Many readers will know that running any boatbuilding company has been very hard work over the past few years in particular, but it will be no consolation to list the other casualties that Fairlie joined in the sector. Looking back over the quarter of a century of boatbuilding first as Fairlie Restorations and latterly as Fairlie Yachts, the team was responsible for some great projects; but there were always challenges. The story started almost exactly 30 years ago. In the late 1980s a Swiss businessman called Albert Obrist owned an incomparable collection of Ferraris. What marked his collection out as one…

In the glory days of yachting, spanning the end of the 19th century and the first few decades of the 20th, design criteria were far more focused on elegance and efficiency of movement through the water than is often the case today. Nowadays, priorities in yacht design have changed and the number of cabins and bathrooms often takes precedence. Previously, marinas were unheard of and the need to squeeze the maximum volume into a given size of berth was inconceivable. Designers well understood that slim hulls were the most easily driven through the water and long counters created extra speed by extending waterline length when the wind allowed. Almost by default the prevailing look was supremely graceful; hardly surprising when designers knew they had to work with the sea, rather…

ATHENA Built 1939 Type 8-M Design Tore Holm Built Tore Holm Length on deck 14.2m Length overall 14.2m Displacement 8.7 tonnes Beam 2.6m Draft 1.9m Sail No K36 Hull colour Varnished History Built to the 8-M rule for Swedish banker Marcus Wallenberg Jnr, who had a series of yachts to race in the class. She was brought to Britain in 2002 by Avia Willment and underwent a major renovation. When the present owners bought her in 2006, they reverted to the name of Athena and she has competed in 8-M Worlds on the Clyde in 2007, at Hyères in 2009, at Cowes in 2012, and at La Trinité sur Mer in 2014. BLUE EAGLE OF TONBRIDGE Built 1964 Type Bermudan sloop Design Kroes en Zonen Built AP Milnes Length on…

Matthew and Pip Gordon have always had a connection to the river. Living close to the Thames at Henley their interest had mainly been rowing, but they had always wanted a larger boat, that could be enjoyed by the whole family and their friends. When Pip’s father, John, died, he left them a small legacy and they decided to use it to create something he would have appreciated. But it had to be something special. Something with classic style and looks, that they fell in love with. They looked at traditional day boats and modern Chris Craft, but none of them seemed to fit the bill. Then chance took them to Dennett Boatbuilders on Laleham Reach. Mike and his son Steve have always looked out for potential restoration projects, and…

When the 1881 St Ives lugger Barnabas comes into Newlyn, Cornwall, there is normally little fanfare. The fishing village is a frequent stopover when the tides prevent Barnabas reaching her home port of Mousehole, one mile south. But on 5 September last year, things were different. And rightly so. Crewed by the members of her parent trust, Barnabas had completed a voyage around Britain – her first for around 130 years. The trip was proposed by Peter Morgan, one of Barnabas’s regular skippers and a former trustee of the Cornish Maritime Trust (CMT), which owns her. Peter explains: “While visiting Shetland years ago I found a picture showing a 1,000-strong fleet of driftnet fishing boats from all over the UK, including from Cornwall, waiting for the herring shoals to come…

David Murrin tells a story about a Hamble Winter Series race he was sailing in, back in the mid-1990s. For Murrin and crew to clinch the series in the final race, they had to finish first, while their rivals had to finish fifth. So Murrin gets his crew down below before the start and exhorts them to silently intone the words ‘one’ and ‘five’. “A couple of them were sniggering but most of them did it,” he recalls. In the race, they suffered a dire start, but then something happened. They began to pass boats. “I pictured a cord between us and the boat ahead,” says Murrin. At every mark they’d clawed more distance back. Halfway through, his crew were flying, jubilant with every place gained and redoubling their efforts…

YARD VISIT ROBBE & BERKING SERVICES…

LETTER OF THE MONTH SUPPORTED BY OLD PULTENEY WHISKY Adherance to an aesthetic Your article on classic-look ropes shows all too clearly how ludicrous the widespread adherence to what is called ‘authenticity’ can be. We all want to look the part, but none of us wants to put up with sailing as it really was 100 years ago. The great number of ‘classic look’ ropes listed in your article showed how many of us want the ease of modern lines, but we have an idea in our minds about what is ‘right’ on a vintage yacht – that is, we don’t want them to look like modern lines! In the case of ropes, there is a strong safety argument, as the skipper of Morwenna, Robin Kenyon, makes of being pinned…

EGGEMOGGIN REACH REGATTA, MAINE A classic three-day weekend Maine is known to sailors for its many unpronounceable rivers, ports and islands; the Eggemoggin Reach Regatta carries on that tradition, writes Matty Oates. Organisers Steve White and Frank Hull came up with the idea back in 1985, originally to bring wooden boat owners together and strengthen the sailing community. It appears to have worked, as the regatta has now grown to 125 boats and is co-hosted by both Brooklin Boatyard and Rockport Marine; two yards that have extensive experience building and restoring wooden yachts. The 15-mile course has not deviated since the first race, and its popularity has now brought in the Camden Feeder Regatta and the Castine Classic Yacht Race on either side to make a spectacular three-day event of…

SHOE BOX Classic Yacht Shipwrights is based in Mallorca and has worked on boats from Velsheda to Fair Lady, with a few megayachts in between. This pontoon shoe box, or child’s cabin toy box, or whatever you fancy box, is made by the yard’s cabinet maker. It can come in bare teak, with the finish up to you, or you can have it in carbon. POA Tel +34 971 201 412, cys-sl.eu THE STORMGLASS The Stormglass was first used in the 1750s. The ES Sorensen Stormglass was designed by Stig Larsen in 1982, based on a design for the Darwin expedition of 1831-1836, consisting of a glass tube mounted on a wooden plate, with a brass housing to protect the tube. This version is available in brass or stainless steel.…

Who in their right mind would consider using cotton for sails on a contemporary yacht today? Yet look at any number of late 19th and 20th century photographs of vessels sailing and a vision of perfectly set cotton sails greets the eye in nearly every example. The subtle and substantial appearance of these early sails is more appealing than the harsher and brighter look of synthetics, yet few traditional boats use cotton, and the skills required for working with natural materials have almost disappeared. There are many synthetic cloths resembling natural canvas, but nothing beats the feel and creamy beauty of the real thing. A boat’s sails represent, say, 75 per cent of the visible vessel when sailing, so it’s a shame that there is little authenticity in the choice…

Having just won the first singlehanded transatlantic race in 1960, Francis Chichester wrote: “I think my yacht is too big for singlehanded sailing… A 9-tonner is the ideal size, in my opinion.” His yacht for that (and the 1964 race) was the Robert Clark design Gipsy Moth III which was 13 tons (Thames), so Chichester was advocating a considerably smaller boat. When he had the opportunity to build a custom yacht in 1965 specifically to sail around the world singlehanded, he commissioned the design from the partnership of John Illingworth (who had redesigned Gipsy Moth III’s mast) & Angus Primrose. The design and build process was difficult. The final design was stretched to 10.4 tonnes displacement (and 18.5 tons Thames, more than twice what Chichester had originally asked for); when…

WELCOME Welcome to the programme for the 15th Panerai British Classic Week, which this year has been kindly compiled by our friends at Classic Boat in association with Spirit Yachts. This year’s regatta, the British Classic Yacht Club’s flagship event, will take place in Cowes from 16 to 23 July. As Regatta Chairman, and as a keen competitor myself, it is a great pleasure to introduce you to what has become the highlight of the British classic sailing calendar. The following pages detail an eclectic selection of this year’s entrants, reflecting the extraordinary variety of magnificent craft attending. The raison d’être of the British Classic Yacht Club is its fleet of beautiful yachts and this year’s entries certainly make for a compelling read. For those of you in far-off climes,…

The Commodore of the British Classic Yacht Club, David Murrin, positively beams when he recalls last year’s Panerai British Classic Week. “It was a seminal moment for our organisation,” says Murrin, who co-founded the British Classic Yacht Club 15 years ago with Tim Blackman. The club’s flagship event in 2015 attracted a record 79 boats, including some of the most famous classic yachts in the world. It ran back to back over a fortnight with the Royal Yacht Squadron’s Bicentenary Regatta, with yachts coming from the US and the Med to take part. “You could compare world class boats with the UK fleet and see what amazing classic boats we have here,” says Murrin. “It also showed Med boats another way that classics could be raced.” The regatta takes place…

Email: steffan@classicboat.co.uk HARWICH PORT, MASSACHUSETTS New Shepherd yawl This is one of the most ambitious, unusual and attractive amateur builds we have seen. American subscriber Lee Scarbro, who has long loved the English style of classic yachts, sent us photos of his recently finished project of eight-and-a-half years. She’s a Fred Shepherd yawl designed in 1929 and built in carvel white cedar planks on all-steamed Angelique timbers. Lee, now 71, set himself the retirement project as a means of ending up with his ideal boat, rather than the most historically authentic, so he has reduced the cabin size for a better aesthetic. “Part of the idea was to have a boat that makes you look again,” he said. “I like long counters and spoon bows, two things that are trademarks…

WALKS BY THE LONDON RIVER The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich is hosting a number of guided foreshore walks as part of the Festival of British Archaeology this July. Walks cost £15 and include a talk afterwards at the museum. Burrell’s Wharf and the SS Great Eastern 9 JULY (11AM – 2PM) Strenuous walk over rocky terrain to the launch site of Brunel’s great ship. Slipways, eel traps and ship remains. Talk on why it took two months to launch. 8-10 JULY Sea, Salts and Sail Mousehole, Cornwall seasalts.co.uk 11-15 JULY Cowes Classics Week Cowesclassicsweek.org 13-16 JULY Puig Vela Classica Barcelona, Spain puigvelaclassicabarcelona.com 15-17 JULY Thames Traditional Boat Rally Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire tradboatrally.com 16-23 JULY Panerai British Classic Week Cowes, IoW, britishclassicyachtclub.org Other sailing magazines from the publishers of Classic Boat…