Innehållsförteckning för April 2019 från Classic Boat

Eros is 80! She's had a colourful past with her owners including Stavros Niarchos. How is she used today? She has been owned by me and a partner since 2016 and is mostly a charter boat, sailing in wonderful places, like the BVIs or around New England. She also carries novice to professional sailors in classic regattas. We use the boat between charters. What kind of people charter Eros? All kinds. Some love sailing and others love the pampering by our chef and crew. Often it’s a family with kids or 3-4 couples. From time to time we host three generations of sailors. Can guests help crew the boat? They are encouraged to. We can sail the boat with three or four but it’s great to have guests to help…

MECUM America’s Cup survivor If only Tommy Sopwith had entered this Gar Wood runabout instead of Endeavour II he’d certainly have won the America’s Cup in 1937. Sopwith’s 1937 cup contender Endeavour II is no more, but the failed challenge leaves two survivors. One is his magnificent mothership, MY Philante, which as Norge serves as Norway’s royal yacht. And recently his tender turned up at auction in Indianapolis, USA. The 1937 28ft (8.5m) triple cockpit runabout that sold in part-restored state for $126,500 is no ordinary runabout, but one of the exquisite waterborne speedsters built by American race boat king Gar Wood. Indeed, neither is it an “ordinary” Gar Wood. It’s the only twin straight-eight-engined 28ft one ever built, and the only one liveried in white to match MY Philante.…

The big decision as the boats left Marina Lanzarote on 8 January was which way to go out through the Canary Islands. The archipelago experiences ‘wind acceleration zones’ between the islands with winds increasing rapidly to gale force at times. Played well, these could provide a rocket boost out into the Atlantic, but on the other hand might take one in the wrong direction for the trades. On the day, the entire fleet headed directly south west in search of the steady trades bar one boat, Xarifa, which took a flyer north west, leaving her alone and leading the pack. But Xarifa’s gamble didn’t pay o. as well as she’d hoped, as the strong winds to the north failed to materialise. She headed south again to join the rest of…

Tomato, feta and pomegranate salad; green bean salad with dill, tarragon and capers; dressed crab; sea bream with a salsa verde baked with vine tomatoes; a mojo Canarian dip; goat’s cheese and asparagus tart; mussels in West Country cider sauce; char-grilled fruit with a basil yoghurt; a Cornish cheese board… Twelve of us are sat around a magnificent table on board Tethra anchored in the River Fal, where the trees grow down to the waterline. We are nearing the end of a superb meal cooked and served by Charlotte Whyte and Jess Harris, of the newly formed business – Blue River Table – for dinner cruises on the Fal Estuary. Charlotte and Jess, friends since the age of six, had intensive nautical upbringings. Jess spent her early years living on…

The Quiet, Convenient, Reliable, Easy-to-Use Alternative to Petrol During 2018 we sold farmore electric out board motors than petrol ones. In the popular 2-4hp equivalent range, electric has so many advantages that it’s now difficult to make an argument for petrol, other than cost. The se advantages include: - Ease of Use. Switch on, twist the tiller handle, go. Almost anybody can do it, age 8-108, no strength or mechanical knowledge required! - Ease of Handling. The batteries are removable, and the “pass up and down” weight (the shaft/motor assembly) is then 10kg or less. - Ease of Storage. These electric motors divide into components, don’t leak oil or petrol, and don’t mind which way up they’re stored. - Quietness & Smoothness. A delight to use! - Power. Forget what…

An Ed Burnett design built in Cornwall for an Australian owner who intends to use her for the wider good Ed Burnett drew a number of internal layouts for his 23ft 1in (7m) gaff cutter design. In building Panacea, Ben Harris didn’t follow any of them exactly, but produced a combination of these to best match the client’s needs. The previous boat built to the design, Frolic, had a full-height bulkhead forward, to create a small forepeak for storage, with the only access through a hatch in the lowered part of the foredeck. Aft of that bulkhead she had a worktop to starboard which comes inboard all the way to the centreline with a sink, cool box and cooker set into it. To port of that she had a wood-burning…

Some de-rusting treatments for steel (grinders, acids) are hazardous and so aggressive that they're likely to do as much damage as good. For the smaller, non-structural stu. ingrained with a unique patina, molasses is a sympathetic, safe solution. After a preliminary de-greasing with detergent, immerse the part in a 10 per cent solution of molasses. Here, I’ve used the rusted steel blade of a tenon saw, taking care to seal the brass spine under Sellotape to stop the molasses attacking the zinc in the alloy. The smell is overwhelming, so consider using a lidded container. In this instance, the blade was immersed for 10 days; rustier steel may need longer. After a rinse, the rust had gone, leaving the good steel unaffected. The chemistry of the process is almost as…

It is early May, autumn here in the southern hemisphere. The plane trees lining the main shopping street of Auckland are losing their leaves, scattering the pavements with red and gold. The old Ferry Building on the quayside is a baroque edifice of red brick and golden stone. Beyond it modern ferries bustle like white beetles, bringing commuters from the suburbs and islands across the harbour into the city. Then I head westwards along the quayside. And there is the yacht I have flown half-way round the world to see – a long, lithe gaff cutter with slender overhangs, bobbing gently against her pontoon in a little basin sandwiched between the Maritime Museum and the Hilton Hotel. Ariki, she is called, Maori for ‘chieftain’. Built in 1904, she is well…

TIDE CLOCK A tide clock will hang on your wall at home and tell you the tide, so you’ll know at a glance if you can go sailing – or picnicking on the beach. This one is battery powered with a quartz movement, steel case and, thanks to some intervention from CB, features the wording ‘high water’ and ‘low water’ instead of ‘high tide’ and ‘low tide’. They come in 4.5in and 9in variants and in a number of di  erent finishes on the case. From £18 climemet.com NAUTICAL WORKS Taschen is publishing a complete reprint of the 16th-centuryNautical Works by Devaulx, a fascinating insight into renaissance seafaring and billed as “the ultimate art book for nautical aficionados.” A magnificent 264-page edition, it includes the complete original 31 folios that…

This is a tale of mystery. It’s the story of a boat, for five years my home and my magic carpet, that sailed into my life almost from nowhere then disappeared like a dream in the night. Until recently her origins remained in some doubt; where she went after I sold her is a shut book. When my wife Ros and I bought her in 1973, the only certainty was that she had been built in Scandinavia either as a pilot boat or as a yacht on the lines of a Norwegian cutter. To understand anything of the historic working craft of Norway, the nature of the coast must be considered. An outsider will invariably imagine the glories of cruising the fjords, but the facts are different. While a leisure…

It was late one night in the farmer’s shed I’d rented for the duration of my absurdly quixotic attempt to build my still pre-school daughter a traditional wooden boat, when I heard the voices… It had been a long day but I was determined to end it with another plank fixed in place. I was, as usual, wedged into a small space between the moulds inside the upturned, half-finished hull. With barely enough room to hold the roving punch in one hand and the ball-pein hammer in the other, I hit my fingers as often as the copper nail as I struggled to seat the rove. If cursing could have helped, I’d have been finished hours ago. Then, despite the racket threatening to burst my eardrums, I heard the voices……

MARTA Modern 30Sqm Marta is, like Suna (below), is a 30Sqm ‘skerry cruiser.’ She’s one of only a handful of GRP Malar 30s, a 100-strong class designed by Lage Eklund with its origins in the 1930s. She was restored in 2007, partly to accommodate an inboard 15hp Yanmar diesel (very rare on this sort of boat), at a cost of €25,000. She’s 38ft (11.6m) long and sleeps four in two cabins. She can race one-design with the Malars, or in mixed fleets to the 30Sqm rule. Lying Sweden, Asking £21,750 HYPATIA Centenarian ketch There are not many yachts a century old that are this practical. Hypatia, although built in 1896 (by D Watkins and Co of London to their own design), has been used mainly for family cruising, to Belgium,…

“I’m half a cork head,” grins Nick Whittle as we’re introduced, referring to the fact that while he was born and bred on the Isle of Wight, his parents came from the mainland. “As a youngster there was always a family boat around and I’d sail up and down the River Yar.” With such a nautical background it’s not surprising that on leaving school the young Whittle joined the River Yar Boatyard working with wooden sailing boats. However, the yard then began manufacturing 23ft (7m) GRP cutters and Nick’s apprenticeship included taking a course on boat fit-outs at the Isle of Wight College. Next, he turned his hand to freelance jobs, repairing and restoring sailing yachts. “But, then I decided to join my father who’d invested in a site at…

If you’re building anything with straight edges (hatches, drawers, panels, doors) then a jointing plane is indispensable, and a delight. With its long sole riding on the edge’s high spots, the jointer’s intermittent cutting action evokes the soothing puffs of a steam engine until the continuous hiss of the first board-length shaving announces that the edge is true from end to end. The blade’s edge, being dead-straight from corner to corner, ensures the board’s edge is also flat from side to side. But if two boards are to be glued edge to edge and they are ‘jointed’ simultaneously, clamped face-to-face, the edges need not be perfectly perpendicular to the faces because the angles arising from a tilted plane will cancel out when the two are assembled. Down the years, the…

GOLDEN GLOBE RACE Van den Heede sails into history Jean-Luc van den Heede wrote his name into the record books by winning the 2018 Golden Globe Race at the end of January and becoming the oldest ever to race solo around the world. The 73-year old French veteran took both titles from Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, sole finisher of the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race 50 years ago. Until now, Sir Robin had held the title as the oldest sailor to race around the world solo, for his Velux 5 Oceans Race in 2007, aged 68. He was followed four days later by the Dutchman Mark Slats. Van den Heede had led this retro race since rounding the Cape of Good Hope. At one point he and his Rustler 36 Matmut…

The so-called gateway to the Canaries, the family-owned Marina Lanzarote in Arrecife, is an atmospheric place. Just 80 miles off Africa, it’s not uncommon for decks to receive a light dusting of Saharan sand. The lunar landscape behind, with more than 100 volcanoes on the island and little greenery, is eerily fascinating. Four million tourists fly into Lanzarote every year, but few of those visit Arrecife, which is local and Spanish in flavour. The climate is sunny but mild, meaning almost any outdoor activity you care to mention flourishes on the island – and sailing is one of them, with top-flight regattas run here and Volvo Ocean Race crews training here. The marina itself plays host to hundreds of yachts. Some are full-time Lanzarote-ites, enjoying the great cruising to be…

RUSTLER 36 The boat that owned the 2018 Golden Globe The long-keeled GRP classic Rustler 36 has always been, to those in the know at least, a yacht held in some reverence. It’s a serious blue-water cruiser whose roots lie in a more spartan era, when its size would have been seen as generous for family cruising. The yacht also has a reputation for simplicity, seaworthiness and unquestionable build. In the current 2018 Golden Globe Race (see Tell Tales), the design proved itself beyond any doubt. Of the 18 sailors who entered, six were sailing Rustler 36s, making it twice as popular as the next most-sailed class (the Biscay 36). But here’s something even more telling – of the five yachts still in the race, or safely ashore in Les…

Email: steffan@classicboat.co.uk NORFOLK Phoenix Classic 20 The Potter Heigham based Phoenix Fleet has just launched the first of its new Phoenix Classic 20 motor launches Moonshine. The Norfolk yard’s new range of bespoke launches is inspired by one of JW Brooke’s 20ft (6m) designs from the early 20th century. They consist of a GRP hull that can be fitted out to an owner’s precise requirements. Moonshine’s owner opted for mahogany and spruce candystripe decks, a fully restored Ford WaterMota four-Cylinder 30hp petrol engine, a mahogany transom, mahogany sheer strake, aft bench seat and Lloyd Loom seats. During her initial trials, Moonshine showed o. a good turn of speed with swift acceleration and a top speed of 10mph. Future launches could be powered either by petrol, diesel or electric propulsion. Those…

COWES 17-19 MAY COWES SPRING CLASSICS Cowes, Isle of Wight Cowes Spring Classics will return for the second time this year. This is a regatta for classic wooden yachts designed before 1970, including: cruisers and cruiser/racers, gaff-rigged yachts and pilot cutters, day boats and raters, classic Metre yachts, and modern spirit-of-tradition yachts. Non-racing yachts and motorboats are most welcome. Racing is to be conducted in the gentlemanly spirit of the era these yachts were built in. cowesspringclassics.com SCOTLAND 25 MAY – 1 JUNE SAIL CALEDONIA Atlantic coast to North Sea coast via Great Glen Crossing Scotland on a 66-mile route from the Altantic to North Sea coasts in a dinghy or dayboat ‘raid’ is, for many participants, a real bucket list cruise. sailcaledonia.org CARIBBEAN 17-23 APRIL ANTIGUA CLASSICS Antigua, West…

TILLY XV The brave little Sonderklasse open yacht that always causes such a stir when she sails at the grand regattas CLASSIC BOAT AWARDS 2019 We reveal the best of 2018’s traditional boats in seven categories, as voted for by you, the public. BROADS FOR HIRE An in-depth look at Britain’s favourite charter destination and its classic fleet PLUS… Sir Alec Rose’s Lively Lady rescued; a rig for Panacea, the Tassie boat fest, Andrew Wolstenholme on the early days of GRP, and much more besides MAY 2019 ON SALE Friday 5 April, 2018 (or why not subscribe!) OTHER SAILING MAGAZINES FROM THE PUBLISHERS OF CLASSIC BOAT IN THE LATEST ISSUE ⚫ Robin Knox-Johnston in Greenland⚫ Paul Heiney sails to Ireland’s west coast⚫ Island hopping on a grand scale from Palma…