Innehållsförteckning för July 2022 från Classic Boat

The fifth edition of Cowes Spring Classics held over the weekend of 20-22 May was back to its traditional spring date after two years of calendar hopping in the pandemic. The regatta, based at Shepards Marina in Cowes, started with the Mermaid Gin Welcome Drinks and Crew BBQ on Friday evening followed by two days of racing. Perfect conditions defied a forecast of low winds and the crews in bermudan and gaff - rigged classes enjoyed four races over the two days in glorious Solent sunshine. The Saturday night dinner in the Sugar Store was enjoyed by nearly 100 owners and crew, many of whom dressed to suit the age of their yacht. The overall winner was Whooper, Giovanni Belgrano’s 1939 Laurent Giles sloop, a popular result with four class…

The Folkboat is often referred to as the nautical equivalent of a‘Volkswagen’–more specifically the Beetle of 1938 and its replacement in 1974, the Golf. Volkswagen means, of course, ‘people’s car’, a rallying cry for the democracy of mobilisation, which is why people liken the car to the boat, but it’s borne out in numbers too: the Beetle and Golf combined have outsold every other car in history, and similarly the Folkboat, whose story began in the fire of war just one year after the Beetle, has become the most popular cabin yacht of all time, and arguably the most influential too. The reason for the boat’s success is simple: versatility. The original brief for the Folkboat stems from the Royal Gothenburg Yacht Club who, in 1939, were looking for a…

Despite having over 40 years sailing under my keel, and been a long-term subscriber to Classic Boat, I have never previously sailed a gaffer. All my time has been spent in dinghies and modern cruising yachts. It was not until I was offered the chance of a day’s sailing on Golden Vanity that I realised just how much I didn’t know. This article recalls my experiences on the day and I hope it will encourage others to grab the ratlines and step aboard. WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE? Most sailors will be familiar with modern sailing boats and how they are operated. This article aims to highlight the main differences that I found between a modern sloop and Golden Vanity – a 100+ year-old, gaff-rigged Brixham trawler. The first obvious difference is…

Last autumn, marine artist Martyn Mackrill, who illustrates our regular ‘Bosun’s Bage’ pages in this magazine, bought the OM Watts-designed, Fife-built yacht Peregrine last autumn through Sandeman Yacht Company in Poole. The bermudan cutter of 39ft (12m) was built in 1936 of teak planking on oak and elm frames. Martyn and his wife Bryony sailed Peregrine from Gosport across to Bembridge to the yard of H Attrill & Sons in early November, where a big refit is taking place now. Martyn and Bryony are doing all the work themselves and hope to have Peregrine back in the water in the spring of 2023. “We have been looking for a suitable boat for extended offshore cruising in comfort for some time” the couple wrote, going on to quote Claud Worth’s chapter…

RESTORATION OF THE YEAR After her epic rebuild, subsequent win in our 2022 Awards (Restored Sailing Vessel over 40ft), and at the recent Voiles d’Antibes, we get to know the 1929 schooner-rigged 12-M yacht Viveka. MESSING ABOUT IN BOATS Irish yachtsman Hal Sisk had a double win in our Awards: man of the year, and new sailing vessel for the Dublin Bay 21 boats. We find out why he loves his little punt as much a as anything! THE WORLD OF POWER The world of traditional motorboats has been on the up for years. We take a look at the last few decades, and present an overview of what’s out there and what sort of motorboat might be best for you. PLUS… First of a two-parter on the life and…

There’s a sure sign the sailing season’s winding down. Marlin lets me know. All season, she has been so frolicsome and kittenish, but now she’s lumbering along, wallowing low on her marks. That’s because there’s more food on my boat than in my house. And that means it’s time to call it a day. It’s a time of quiet reflection – and dread, cos I’ll have to spend the next three months eating ‘boat food’. I never touch the stuff when I’m afloat, but I can’t help buying it. There’s something about sailing that changes your appetite. It’s like when you’re in bed with flu and craving comfort food. The boat equivalent is discomfort food. For some reason I buy stuff I’d never have in my cupboards at home, except…

From time to time on British roads – more so in summer – you see a recent classic, like an Austin Allegro or Ford Cortina doing precisely 70mph in the middle lane. Piloting it will usually be a youngish man for whom the car is a modest entry to the world of classics, but just occasionally, the driver will be older and you know without having to ask that he bought the car new in the 1970s or 80s owns every receipt ever spent on it. Even in the automotive world it’s rare. In the world of sailing yachts, it’s unheard of. A few months ago, we ran the story of the 47ft (14.3m) ketch Rinamara, the last yacht designed by James McGruer of the prolific Scottish family yard that…

SOLENT Royal Lymington to host Folkboats The Nordic Folkboat nationals will be held in September at the Royal Lymington Yacht Club, which is celebrating its centenary this year, as the Folkboat design itself turns 80. Entry is open and registrations have been flooding in for the event, which comprises both the nationals and the 2022 Sessan Cup. Five days of racing are planned in Christchurch Bay from 17-22 September, amid a week of celebrations and social events ashore. Commodore of Royal Lymington YC, Phil Lawrence, said: “Our dedicated team are putting together a fantastic week of social events and activities to accompany the racing and a number of our Nordic fleet and club members have offered to host visiting international Folkboat sailors during the regatta.” The event is sponsored by…

If you want to win the historic Round the Island Race, you need the right boat. History relates that the overall winner will generally come from IRC Division 3D or IRC Division 0. If you have a spare £200,000, you might buy a used TP52 and race in Division 0, but less than a tenth of that will get you a Folkboat to race in Division 3D with at least as good a chance of success. After 80 years in existence, the Nordic Folkboat stands as the most successful design in the history of the Round the Island Race (RTI). As Nordic Folkboats across the Solent and around the world gear up for the 2022 Sessan Cup and UK Nationals, both at the Royal Lymington YC in September, all eyes…

ANTIQUE TELESCOPE No self-respecting yacht or dinghy should be without one. An antique ship’s telescope from the mid-19th century made by JP Cutts, measuring 8 inches closed, extending to 23 inches, with a 40mm objective lens giving 15x magnification. £240 scientificcollectables.com DECK STEP This foldable teak dock step is made by East Passage Boatwrights in Bristol, RI, recent winners in the Classic Boat Awards. When collapsed it can be stowed in the tightest quarters on board. Watch a video of it in action on the East Passage Boatwrights website. epbws.com DAVEY MASTLIGHT Davey and Co was founded in 1885, before anyone considered wiring a boat up for mains electricity, but this new version of the company’s classic mastlight now has a shore power 110/220v option. (12v and 24v versions are…

NEW SAILS On any yacht, sails represent around 90 per cent of the visible surface, so it’s an important thing to get right. Thankfully, these days, classic boat owners have a number of options when it comes to sails, from the ultra-traditional – cotton – to high-tech membrane sails made of exotic materials for racing (although not in the Med, where the CIM rating system in use penalises anything less than authentic – and that includes sails). For the great majority, sails made from woven polyester prove to be the most sensible compromise. Their fortes include cost, longevity, and the ability to closely mimic the boat’s original appearance. WOVEN POLYESTER: DACRON AND TERYLENE Woven polyester sail cloth first became available in the 1950s. Is was then generally known as Terylene,…

Folkboat fanatic Simon Osgood took a different tack during the pandemic, taking early retirement from a life in finance to open a new boatyard at the old Green Marine site. His motivation was partly to prevent the lifelong experience and skill of Scottish boatbuilding brothers Dan and Rob McAdam from slipping away. The other half was the desire to boost the Folkboat fleet by bringing them back to perfect condition and making the class more attractive again to people today. On a quick tour of the yard, there are six Folkboats in various states of metamorphosis, a tiny Yarmouth Scow, Simon’s own Fairey Huntsman 31 and, outside, the British Folkboat belonging to apprentice and IBTC Portsmouth graduate Jack Orpin, chosen by Simon to learn the skills from the McAdams and keep…

In common with other magazines, we have not always focused enough on the minutiae of boatbuilding. This oak instrument console with carbon fibre elements for the latest Dale Classic 37 motor yacht is coming together only after weeks of discussion and designs between yar and owner. The challenge was to come up with an ergonomic, attractive console in solid wood that could accommodate a large set of screens, combined with old-fashioned analogue dials, a magnetic compass – and even a timber cup-holder. The console has to work in all weathers, and when standing at the wheel or sitting in the helm seat. Even the height of the owner’s fingertips above wheelhouse sole is taken into consideration so that we ensure he can comfortably reach and operate the instruments and engine…

While not laying claim to the generations of use typical of many hand tools used in traditional boat building, the Shinto saw rasp is a firm favourite among workers concerned with removing waste wood quickly – and there’s a lot of that in shaping a boat. It may seem unlikely that hybridisation of a saw and a rasp could produce viable hand-tool offspring, yet both parents are essentially cutting tools albeit with differently shaped teeth; teeth cut into the edge of a saw’s steel plate have sloping edges and flat sides, while the teeth of a conventional rasp ‘stitched’ by hammering a punch into the face of solid bar resemble tiny trekking tents. The hybrid tool has the saw’s tooth and the rasp’s bar-like outward form, with two linear blades…

After two covid years of being deferred until late summer (much like Cowes Spring Classics, overleaf), Les Voiles d’Antibes, first held in 1996, was back in its proper place as the starting gun of the Mediterranean classic yacht racing season. From 2-5 June, a fleet of 54 that included some of the world’s most famous classics gathered and, in mostly light winds, raced under thin, rustling billowing headsails, blue skies and sun. Establishment grandees like Cambria and Stormy Weather rubbed shoulders with newcomers like the 1929 12-M schooner Viveka, newly restored and winner of our award for best restored large sailing yacht this year – not to mention her class at Antibes. On the quayside and in the winding streets of old Antibes, there was a feeling of cautious cheer…

The 2022 UK Folkboat Association International Regatta at the Royal Lymington YC will include the UK Nordic Nationals and Walcon Cup from 17-18 September and the Sessan Cup from 20-22 September. Five days of racing are planned in Christchurch Bay during the regatta week, along with a week of social events to celebrate 80 years of the Nordic Folkboat and the centenary of Royal Lymington YC. This is the first time the UK has hosted an international Folkboat event. Meanwhile, the Gold Cup – unofficially the world championship – will take place at Germany’s famous Kiel Week. Enter online: rlymyc.org.uk/folkboat-nationals-sessan.…

Oh, the humble, classic wooden bung, that tapered bit of timber, rough-shaped cork or fancy bronze screw that stops water getting into a boat, and once removed, lets it out when it does get in: unless the logic gets muddled as my father discovered off Old Harry Rocks in Dorset, of which more later. We all have bung stories, as daft as his, or not. Mine was of a race at a regional dinghy championships, in Swanage Bay where I cut my sailing teeth, that I was miraculously leading at the first mark. Until Fesquie that is, when my yellow Laser began to slow – imperceptibly at first – before becoming more and more sluggish as water entered the bungless hole in the transom. I never again got so close…

It was six years ago that I discovered the suitcase of my father George Jones’s papers which set me to researching his membership of the RNVSR (Royal Naval Volunteer Supplementary Reserve), also known as the Yachtsmen’s Reserve. I read about his prewar reconnaissance cruise to the Baltic aboard the Higley Halliday-designed motor yacht Naromis and I learned as much as I could about his wartime service. I published a small book, The Cruise of Naromis; August in the Baltic 1939 but I couldn’t stop. I seem to have been researching the RNVSR almost ever since. When Dad was finally demobbed in 1946 he returned to Waldringfield on the River Deben to join his older brother Jack. Dad set up the East Coast Yacht Agency (the Easy Cosy) which later became…

RECYCLABLE SAILS The issue that has faced the recycling of sails has been one of performance. Polyester, nylon and carbon sailcloth are vastly compromised by recycling,” according to Alastair Shires of sailcloth manufacturer Contender UK. There has been progress though. For instance, One Sails has developed a product range called 4T Forte which can be recycled. A top-spec 4T Forte sail is a one-piece three-dimensional sail made entirely of polyethylene, and is “essentially melted into one piece and then vacuumed to squeeze it as it’s heated, and it then melts into one homogeneous entity,” explains One Sail’s Peter Kay. The sails use a high-modulus polyethylene fibre called STR, and its membrane is completely recyclable in a standard waste separation process. In the less expensive version that uses an aramid instead…

A 110-year-old yacht has arrived home in Scotland after more than 50 years abroad. The 50ft (15.1m) Gannet was built in 1910 by the shipyard of William Fife and Sons to a design by the Norwegian naval architect Christian Dekee. She arrived in Aultbea on Scotland’s west coast, after an 886-mile journey from her previous home in Brest on France’s Atlantic coast, via Portsmouth, from where the boat was taken by road. Although the yacht retains almost all its original features, an 18-month restoration programme by boatbuilder Alasdair Grant on the Isle of Ewe will return her former glory. Once the restoration is complete, she will be chartered to holiday makers from around the world who want to enjoy the stunning Scottish coastline. An outreach project will also provide local…

It was a chance encounter with Carl Whitewood at the Classic Boat awards party that led me to Hampshire, at the western end of the South Downs National Park, in late April. Carl, all of 30 years old, and brought up in Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight, has started a boatyard restoring classics, seemingly out of nowhere, although as we talk, it becomes apparent that Carl has had a lot of experience in his three decades on earth, starting out in an Optimist, then doing work to various of neighbour and local sailor John Caulcutt’s boats as a teen, then launching a brokerage for classics in 2020. The boatyard side of things didn’t begin until 2021, during the latter stages of lockdown. With admirable pluck, he and lead shipwright…