Innehållsförteckning för October 2020 från Classic Boat

Davey & Company London Ltd, the heritage boat-fittings manufacturer, has been acquired by John Buckley (above), owner of Harbour Marine Services Ltd. Buckley said: “I have great respect for Davey & Co’s ‘British made’ ethos and high-quality product. My intention is to protect that, and create many more opportunities for Davey to be known as the must-have quality fitting for traditional boat owners internationally.” Davey and Co Ltd was established in 1885 and is one of the leading manufacturers of traditional boat fittings worldwide, still using many of the patterns and designs that were used in Victorian times. Davey’s managing director of 25 years, Peter Tracey, will be stepping down, and the business will continue to operate from its Colchester base while continuing to employ all existing staff, under the…

Having written of his distaste for the smaller Metre boat classes in the October 1910 issue of Yachting Monthly, the following month the correspondent known as MINA was clearly delighted to be able to write about “another case of the realisation of ideals”. MINA was reporting on a new design by Alfred Mylne, several of which were about to be built by John Hilditch of Carrickfergus. “The founding of this class is a notable event,” he wrote, “and its working will be watched with great interest. The owners will be able to race or cruise at will, and the little yachts fittingly materialise the suggestion recently offered in these columns.” This new class – officially called Island One Designs but often referred to as the Yawl Class – was adopted…

Where have all the messy boatyards gone, the ones you used to discover skulking in the marshes or down a narrow rutted lane, dotted with derelicts with wonky ‘For Sale’ notices, fading to magenta on their peeling topsides? Where are the tarred clapboard sheds with aching rafters, bearing the wooden masts of long-deceased yachts, deep in dust and cobweb draped; the yards with a little office somewhere in the depths, behind a glass door, in which a rusty filing cabinet holds the details of unpaid bills dating back to the 1950s, when Col Meriman-Scott used to keep his Buchanan on a swinging mooring, hauling her every year, and never a penny, even after death, when it transpired he was a retired tax inspector from Hull and the nearest he had…

Spirit Yachts has released designs for its new Spirit 72DH (Deckhouse) currently in build at its waterside yard in Suffolk. Due to launch in 2021, the Spirit 72DH has been tailored to meet an owner’s specific requirements for cruising, racing and chartering in the Mediterranean. The 72DH is the first Spirit yacht with carbon integrated into her build, delivering the strength of a stainless steel reinforcement cage, but with less weight. Spirit Yachts MD Nigel Stuart said: “By using carbon in the reinforcing structures, we have saved over 800kg… which optimises the overall performance of the yacht once she is on the water.” On deck, the 72DH has a bermudan sloop rig and is well equipped for performance cruising or occasional racing. Carbon mast and boom from Hall Spars, and…

A part may require hollowing to fit around another or simply to improve its appearance, for example in accommodating some retrofitted accessory, or to make a plain edge more shapely. The right tool for the job is often dictated by the scale of the work and where it lies. The chisel, a sharp edge with a handle, is among the simplest of tools and perhaps also the most versatile, reaching where others are denied access. For hollowing small stuff use the chisel with flat face uppermost and a slight scooping action, so that it rides on the bevel and avoids digging in. For wider wood, longer curves and especially those dipping in and out, with associated change in grain direction, a round-bottomed spokeshave like this Stanley 151R is handy, working…

THE PRIME MINISTER’S YACHT No, not Boris Johnson! Ted Heath, in addition to leading Britain through the first half of the 1970s, was an accomplished and medalled off shore racing yachtsmen, with wins in the Sydney Hobart and Admiral’s Cup to his name. Heath and his era might be gone, but one of his yachts – Opposition – lives UFFA’S STRANGEST EVER DESIGN? The Atalanta, one of history’s most unusual yachts from one of its most maverick geniuses, proved to be a popular recipe in her day. Now, an owner has restored the prototype of the marque. FLAT BOTTOMS AND LEEBOARDS The Strontrace Regatta in the Netherlands every autumn translates as “manure race”, after the cargo, which was dried cow manure for tulip farms one way, and tuplips themselves on…

The ketch Sahib, built on the Ligurian coast by the boatbuilding Sangermani brothers Cesare and Piero, comes from a boatyard very close to the heart of Italian sailors, Sangermani, but before you can even understand the yard, you need to consider the era that her build was set in. This was Italy in the 1950s, undergoing an economic and cultural transformation so profound that it has since been referred to as a miracle. Today, we often refer to that period as the ‘dolce vita’ (sweet life) years, forgetting just what a change Italy underwent in the 50s and 60s. Really, this is the era that invented modern Italy, establishing the styles, objects and ideas that are so well known to the world today: state TV was launched, and Italian cinema,…

Entries are open for a competition to find the best sailing video shot this century. Supported by Group Mirabaud, the Mirabaud Sailing Video Award is the only event of its kind in the world. It is an annual competition for professional filmmakers and sailors only, open to cameramen, directors, editors and TV production companies, as well as professional sailors who film their achievements during regattas. The award is normally given at the end of every sailing season, but this year, due to the lack of regattas and sailing, it is being opened to the ‘best of the 2000s’, rewarding the top videos produced between 2000 and 2020. Classic Boat group editor Rob Peake is joined on the judging panel by Ludovica Anti, photographer Martina Orsini, Gary Jobson, Nicolas Mirabaud and…

The last-minute cancellation of the Cannes Yachting Festival put a question mark over the flurry of regattas planned for the south of France in September and October. Three major classic regattas were due to run back to back: the postponed Les Voiles d’Antibes (16-20 Sept), Les Régates Royales de Cannes (21-26 Sept) and Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez (26 Sep to 10 Oct), which had more than 250 boats registered as we went to press. Organisers were keeping as flexible as possible to allow for last-minute changes to government guidelines. The organisers of the Cannes Yachting Festival were caught off guard when a local authority decision forced them to cancel with just two weeks to go. The event was due for mid-September. Pierre Roinson, president of the Société Nautique de Saint-Tropez…

RM SOTHEBY’S The 32-litre Riva eater If you wanted to stand out in the Mediterranean jet-set hot spots of the 1960s, where mahogany-hulled Riva Aquaramas were as commonplace as deflated Avon Redcrests in a sailing club dinghy park, this extreme toy would certainly do the trick. With four mighty 8-litre BPM Volcano V8s driving four props, maverick naval architect Renato Sonny Levi’s one-off off shore projectile certainly made a splash when it was delivered to its new owner, Italian industrialist Gianni Agnelli, in 1968. Agnelli was a demanding client, for not only was he dubbed “the most elegant man on earth”, but as president of Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Lancia and Ferrari, he employed 3.1 per cent of Italy’s industrial workforce and owned what can only be described as a fleet…

Crossing the Pacific Ocean to the Polynesian islands is generally considered the ‘coconut milk run’, an easy downwind passage in the warm weather of the tropics and the consistent breezes of the trade winds. For many people this is true, or it would not have gained that reputation. It is also easy to assume that the crossing is always something similar to one’s own personal experience with it. I first crossed the Pacific when I was 21 years old. Seth (my 24-year-old boyfriend) and I had a lovely coconut milk run. This experience fully reinforced everything I’d read and heard. Fellow sailors we met in the Polynesian islands – most of whom had come on the same route from the Galapagos as we had, though a few had come from…

Think of Suffolk’s River Deben, and the beautiful Cherubs probably spring to mind first, but other riches lie below the surface, writes Sandy Miller. The Longshore, a 14ft (4.3m) GRP barge boat replica, which shot past me on a briskish tack, with a lovely display of casual ease and evident workmanship, is perhaps one such treasure. Given the rarity of original wooden barge boats and lifetime of acquired skills that went into crafting them, Jonathan Simper and Paul Winter (smack Maria CK21) wanted to immortalise Atlas, the 1949 Faversham-built barge boat belonging to Jonathan’s father. East Coast author Robert Simper is still sailing his lug-rigged dinghy at 83, and describes her as built for a hard-working life, buoyant, tough and seaworthy. Carefully restored by the Pioneer Sailing Trust with new…

A and R Way Boatbuilding have been involved in the resurrection of one of the most extraordinary vessels in the British workboat fleet, the ‘Fifie’ Reaper. Although still sailing, a gradual deterioration in condition was brought to a head by accidental damage. Work to save her structure began in January 2018 and lasted 18 months, with A&R doing much of the work with various specialist contractors to get the make the great Reaper structurally sound again. The funding for this, around £1 million, came from Scottish central government, via the defence and engineering company Babcock. The boat motored from the Babcock facility, where the work took place, back home to the Anstruther Fisheries Museum, the boat’s owner, in 2019. Confidentiality agreements meant that this is the first we’ve heard of…

Dutch builder Joop Doomernik is behind a relaunch of the much-loved Trintella marque, with two Spirit of Tradition designs by German Frers. Doomernik is best known for building modern racing Dragons and high-tech boats including the Wally Nano MkII. He started sailing as a child in a yacht club next door to the Trintella yard and later worked there as an apprentice. When the chance came to buy the brand name, he decided to revive Trintella yachts, which were first built in the 1960s and developed into a respected range of seamanlike cruising yachts. The marque was still popular in the 1990s but closed in 2003. “For the good old Trintella, this means a new era has dawned,” said Doomernik of new boats the Trintella 45 and Trintella 50. “Exclusive…

One sometimes wonders, and is disturbed by the fact, that any break in the sailing calendar leads to a long-term fall-off in participation. The truth, or otherwise, of that will soon be realised. The easing of the lockdown is slow and bumpy, and that will not help matters; yachtsmen prefer the restoration to the norm to be complete. Very few I’ve encountered are happy with the situation that social distancing has caused, or that the one way of bypassing it is to restrict sailing to close family and members of a sole ‘support bubble’. It is possible, to an extent, to sympathise with them, and they can rest assured that this situation will pass. One hopes a vaccine for the Covid-19 virus, or some form of lessening its impact, must…

HMS Victory reopened in August with her underside visible to the public for the first time. This followed groundbreaking work by engineers, scientists and historians to replace the original cradles, which the ship had rested on for nearly 100 years. In their place, 134 stainless steel props now support the 260-year-old warship and will provide feedback on her condition. The 3,500-tonne HMS Victory has been preserved in No. 2 dry dock (itself 218 years old) since the 1920s. Andrew Baines, project director for the National Museum of the Royal Navy, said: “Victory was slowly collapsing on herself. We had to fix the foundations, and now we have we can carry out the rest of the ‘keyhole surgery’ which she needs to keep her going for the next 250 years.” A…

ECO WINE Eco-conscious wine brand Sea Change has launched its first ‘premium’ wine, a crisp and light Provence Rosé from awardwinning Chateau Pigoudet in southern France. “With each sip of this delightful rosé, you will be transported to warm summer nights in the beautiful Provence region,” they assure us. With each bottle of Sea Change Provence Rosé sold, a donation will be made to marine conservation charities fighting plastic pollution. As with all Sea Change wines, packaging has been minimised and it even carries an environmentally friendly label material called ‘Natureflex clear’, which is made solely from plant cellulose. Provence Rosé is £15.99, £13.99 for a mix of six, or you can buy the Provence Pack of three bottles for £42.97. www.seachangewine.com NAUTICAL BAGS Here is one of a range…

Endeavor is a thoroughly well-proven cruising yacht – a fine testament to her designer, Henk Tingen, and to her owners’ dogged determination in bringing her back to life, rewarded by a most amazing period of voyaging. Endeavor is fully equipped and ready to sail again very comfortably to points near and far. Following pre-Second World War work as chief designer for Royal Huisman at Ronduite, the Netherlands, Henk Tingen quietly carved a niche mostly to his own account as the designer of sensible, seaworthy and very goodlooking steel yachts (and yacht kits), many of which were built at the KoK Shipyard, Vinkeveen. In 1987 Endeavor passed to the ownership of David and Candy Masters, who, after an epic period of major restoration, relaunched her in 2002. After fitting out and…

After 20 years subscribing to CB, classic car restorer Paul Gilmour took the plunge, with the purchase of two 22Sqm skerry cruisers. Paul’s business is the restoration of classic Jaguars (as well as his 1650 cottage), giving him the confidence to take on a classic restoration or two. One of the new acquisitions, Solve, a 1935, 41ft Harry Becker design and build, was hull only, and in dry storage for 40 years. He also bought Patriot, a 37ft, 1961 Udell Skerry Yacht built at the Kungsor boatyard in Sweden. Paul returned Patriot to her original name of Valkyrie, had her surveyed and the list of small jobs addressed by a shipwright, then took delivery just before lockdown. She’s pictured here in the workshop alongside some series one E Types and…

After launching the season’s last boat from his yard this year, Carter Richardson “went out and bought a boat, as people are known to do during world-wide pandemics!” Mary Curtis is a wooden 1965 Penbo Trawler, “perfect to get the family out on the water. There is a nice galley and bench seating that doubles as pipe berths for the kids up forward and a master stateroom back aft with a head just aft of the pilot house! We are really excited about her,” said Carter.…

The Sylva Foundation, just eight miles south of the centre of Oxford, might best be described to one who doesn’t know it as a ‘craft co-operative’. Here gather the (mostly) young, cashed-strapped artisans to launch their careers making furniture, musical instruments, wooden skis and more. It is also now home to Thames boatbuilder Colin Henwood, who has been enthusing about his new workplace for the three years he has been there. So, Covid or no, it was high time for a visit. The first question is, of course, why he sold the famous Henwood and Dean business. It turns out the landlord wanted to redevelop the site, and that was enough of a prod for Colin, clearly tired of the business of running a business, to sell Henwood and Dean…

There’s very little outside a boatbuilder’s shed they’d call ‘rubbish’. A lot of old stuff certainly, in seemingly random arrangement, but venture to lay a finger upon it and the resident artisan will magically appear like a genie from a lamp. Every corroded keelbolt, frayed line and weird polygon of timber in this tapestry of materials has been mentally catalogued like rare tomes in the Bodleian library. And that’s something I love about the building of wooden boats: it’s so very frugal, far-sighted and Earth-friendly. While owners may change boats as often as they change their socks, for builders it’s customary to use each useful thing to the last atom of its usefulness. The day when that oddly shaped offcut (a future dutchman or packing piece) or broken saw blade…