Innehållsförteckning för June 2024 från Classic Boat

It was all just a bit of history repeated for the crowds in Cowes, Isle of Wight, in mid-April, as they witnessed Tabarly come home at the helm of Pen Duick VI (pictured above left) to take line honours in the Ocean Globe Race, followed, a few days later, by an all-female crew on Maiden (above right), overall winners on handicap. Only this time, it was Eric’s daughter Marie Tabarly (pictured right) on Pen Duick VI and a new all-female crew on Maiden. Just before midnight on 11 April, after 37 days and a challenging 6,814 miles at sea, Pen Duick VI crossed the finish line at the Royal Yacht Squadron, first boat back, and first in Leg Four IRC handicap. Marie’s father, the French sailing legend Éric Tabarly, had…

Two centuries after HMS Beagle sailed around the world with Charles Darwin on board, the 1918 Dutch three-masted schooner Oosterschelde is retracing the wake of that voyage, reports Milly Karsten. Darwin 200, as the project is called, aims to continue Darwin’s work: the ship is now a floating, sailing, research lab, supporting a wide range of environmental projects, with the aim to combat some of the world’s most problematic ecological crises. Having departed in August 2023, Oosterschelde’s 40,000+ nautical mile voyage is fully underway. She successfully rounded Cape Horn and has sailed up the coast of South America, before heading west into the Pacific to reach the Galápagos archipelago. Oosterschelde’s arrival there, at the site of Darwin’s development of his Theory of Evolution through Natural Selection, is pivotal to the…

You have to admire Sean Langman’s pluck. Even before the 2023 Fastnet had begun, he had placed bets on his Maluka – the smallest and second oldest boat in the fleet – beating a Sigma 33 racing in the same class. Not on handicap, mind, but on the water. It seemed like a preposterous idea, a 1932 gaff-rigged 28-footer (8.5m) taking on a relatively modern cruiser-racer, never mind the Swan 36 and Sagitta 35 (both S&S designed fin-keelers) also racing in that class. But it wasn’t impossible. After all, this little Australian-born survivor had already competed in eight Sydney Hobart races since she was restored in 2006, winning her class in two of them. Could she pull off the same trick on the other side of the world? I had…

It was soon after the WW2 that synthetic ropes, like those spun from polyester and nylon, and later polypropylene, became available. They had massive advantages over their natural fibre predecessors, which were prone to rot (although that could be lessened with tarring or waxing) and not very strong, not least because they were constructed by necessity from countless short pieces twisted together, known as “spun yarn”. Not only were synthetic materials more durable and stronger, they could also be produced with continuous filaments to provide greater strength. In the 1960s, several rope makers began to produce a three-strand polypropylene – known to most as the floating blue rope – in a beige colour to suit classic boats. Since then an increasing range of synthetic ropes has come to the market…

HOBART, AUSTRALIA Restoring a family tradition Suspended in a cradle at the former Creese’s yard at Battery Point, the 40-year-old, 40ft (12.2m) wooden yacht Tradition is being brought back to life to compete in the 80th Rolex Sydney Hobart next year. Owner Rob Gough, with John Saul aboard Sidewinder, earned his place in race history by winning the first two-handed line honours in the 2021 edition. “Tradition was our family boat,” explains Rob. “It was the last boat to leave Creese’s in 1984. We sailed down the channel every weekend, around Bruny, swimming and setting off in little dinghies. Then my dad traded it and bought a new Buizen yacht. The Gourlay family in Launceston bought it and owned it for over 20 years.” Bringing fate full circle, Rob ended…

Just to be clear, we will not be discussing that beast of a machine which is the leading cause of serious workshop injuries, but an entirely amicable hand saw. With a blade of around 14in (35.5cm) length tapering from 2in (25mm) at the heel to ½ in (12mm) at the tip, the table saw is almost as manoeuvrable as a compass saw but more versatile and far less likely to bend under compression. Before the ‘general purpose saw’ had been proposed, this saw may well have fulfilled that role, being so easily accommodated in the tool bag and capable of turning its teeth to every small ripping or cross-cutting need. Here, for example, the table saw is proceeding steadily and straight through a fractious board of salvaged mahogany taking a…

As I snuffed out the lovely old brass gimballed oil lamp on the mast post and closed an old hardback copy of Maurice Griffiths’ Magic of the Swatchways, the twinkling stars shining through the hatchway gave me just enough light to savour my surroundings. The plush, deep burgundy bunk cushions, the mahogany slats on the cabin sides, the knees and frames and white-painted, tongue-and-groove cabin top filled me with wonder at the artisans who’d made Snipe of Maldon back in 1953. Snipe, my 23ft 6in (7.2m) 3½-ton Blackwater Sloop, was halfway home on a sentimental journey to the Maldon boatyard where she was built, to be reunited with a shipwright who, as an apprentice five decades before, had helped to rove her thousands of copper rivets, steam her oak frames…

There are architectural masterpieces that require centuries to take on their definitive form. The mind goes to Antoni Gaudi’s Sagrada Família in Barcelona, begun at the end of the 19th century and not yet quite finished; it extends even to the Duomo di Milano, or to Florence’s cathedral, the famous dome of which was completed almost two centuries after the laying of the first stone. For some classic boats things aren’t much different. Some of them required decades of work before becoming what they are today. This is certainly the case of the staysail schooner La Volpe, which has come back to life after a long ‘staged’ restoration which, in addition to having brought her back to sailing, has also improved performance and usability by her owner. Built in Wilmington…

The 35th Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta came to a close on 23 April, with the single-handed race, cream teas, gig-racing and prize-giving ceremony in the historic 18th-century Nelson’s Dockyard. In the small classics class (under 45ft LOD), the 30ft (9.1m) Rita, built in 1963, came first, with the large classics class (over 45ft) going to the schooner Adventurer. Spirit of tradition was won by the 1970 Nicholson 55 Eager. The 86ft bermudan yawl Nordwind (1939) won the Concours D’Elegance. The 70ft gaff-rigged schooner Cassiopeia II won the Kenny Coombs Memorial Trophy (spirit of the regatta). More on this – and Adventurer – next month. See antiguaclassics.com.…

The Cornish pilchard driver Barnabas, 40ft (12.2m) LOS and built by Henry Trevorrow of St Ives, embarked on a six-week, 1,000-mile voyage on 19 April, to visit ports in Cornwall, Wales, Ireland and Scotland. The world’s last surviving St Ives double-ended, dipping lugger is taking on the voyage for educational, fundraising and preservation purposes. This includes a stopover at the yard of Johnson and Loftus in Ullapool, Scotland, for new masts to be fitted. She will also be present at the Ullapool Lugger Festival from 10-12 May. Vicki Norman, who is artist in residence at the Cornish Maritime Trust, which own Barnabas, is dedicating this year to capturing the trust’s vessels. Barnabas will be crewed by volunteers on each of her six voyage legs. Learn more at cornishmaritimetrust.org.…

There is a motor yacht in Istanbul that people of a certain age, especially those familiar with the shores of this strait that separates Europe from Asia, know rather well: she is Hiawatha, named after a great pre-colonial American native leader who was among the founders of the six-tribe Iroquois Confederacy. The yacht in question, a commuter, was bought by the US Department of State in 1932 specifically for use on the Bosphorus by the American diplomatic mission in Turkey. The mover and shaker behind realising the order was Joseph C Grew (1880-1965), who was Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Turkey between May 1927 and early 1932. The fact that Grew’s successor, Charles Hitchcock Sherrill (1867-1936), was on duty when the vessel was delivered, made many think that this former…

The Round the Island race is fast approaching [15 June]. It ranks as one of Britain’s great summer sailing spectaculars, alongside the likes of Cowes Week and the Fastnet. It also holds the distinction of being the highest-participation sailing event in, possibly, the world. Its principal prize, the Gold Roman Bowl, continues to act like a magnet for small classic yachts – particularly Folkboats, Nordic Folkboats and Contessa 26s. Since 1991, these classes have won it 12 times, with the Co26 Rosina of Beaulieu, under the late Jeremy Rogers, holding the record for the only yacht to win it three times (2002, 2003 and 2006). The original idea for the Island Sailing Club’s (ISC) Round the Island Race came from member Major Cyril Windeler. In 1930 he suggested a handicap…

All hail to those heroes who keep the old trades alive. Some of these, such as boatbuilders like Luke Powell, are on the front line. They are well publicised and rightly so. Others toil in the background, but their efforts are equally important. If you’re constructing a working vessel with sawn frames and meaty planking to any sort of budget, you won’t get far without spikes. And you’ll want proper ones, not shop-bought rubbish. You’ll be needing custom-forged chain plates, sheet horses, throat cranes, iron knees and all the rest of the blacksmith-produced hardware without which a traditional boat can never take to the sea. Help can be found in catalogues from the likes of Toplicht, Classic Marine and Daveys, but step off the main road and only the shipsmith…

The modest shed that sits on the hard at Suffolk Yacht Harbour (SHY) has played host to a broad array of restorations over the years, more than a few of which have featured in our annual awards. On our visit, for instance, we see the continuing work on the monumental job being carried out on the ‘yachtified’ ex-lifeboat Swyn y More, which went twice around the world in the 90s (as reported extensively in this magazine); a classic glassfibre Swan having its deck redone, and lastly, yet another Stella. This isn’t any Stella though; this is Holman’s own Stella, built in 1959 by Tucker Brown, as so many were, and like most Stellas (lightly built in clinker to race), Starshell is suffering nail sickness and the leaking that goes along…

Around 140 guests came to light up the night at our annual awards party at the Royal Thames Yacht Club in London on 3 April. Guests came from all corners of Britain, as well as Turkey, Sweden, Switzerland, France and Italy, for a ceremony presented by Paul Heiney, which included a keynote speech by William Collier of GL Watson and the Scottish Yachting Archive IN ASSOCIATION WITH SUPPORTED BY…

A fresh insight to the life and times of the great Uffa Fox was played out at the recent performance of Uffa – Malcolm Turner’s new play about yachting’s eccentric genius, writes Sue Pelling. Moving on from the Trinity Theatre (Cowes) to the Hen & Chickens Theatre (London) in early April, I was slightly concerned that the setting of Highbury Corner would be out of context but in fact, this quaint theatre above the Victorian pub had a friendly atmosphere and was probably the sort of watering hole that Uffa would have approved of. The faint background cry of seagulls in the cosy, dark auditorium immediately set the scene for the small but passionate audience. With no real clues other than the authentically clad stage depicting Uffa’s messy-looking office at…

Oh the silence in the cockpit when the bleeping ceased, as the battery died, and the instrument that once showed where I was, and how far I had to go and in what direction, cut to black. I still had a compass, analogue speed, depth, or rather height, and a 150,000 chart. All now was quiet save for the rushing of the wind and a gentle creaking sound. The distracting dials and warning tone gone, a peace came over me. I realised that much of what we call essential was in fact dispensable. Could I not still find where I was, feel the strength of the wind and judge my drift or leeway with reference to land marks? Bring her safely home? Crucially, I was still in touch with the…

It was no ordinary Monday morning. Eleven of us were on board the three-masted lugger Grayhound, anchored off the small town of Saint-Louis on the Caribbean Island of Marie-Galante and preparing to set sail towards Guadeloupe. With the calm patience and attention to detail to which we had become accustomed over the previous few days, skipper Filémon Darbois explained the step-by-step process by which we would sail off the anchor while avoiding the mass of other anchored boats that surrounded us. We were anchored in about 5m of water with about 35m of chain out; and, as was usually the case, the mainsail and mizzen were already hoisted as we had left them up overnight to keep us riding head to wind. Then, the mizzen was scandalised, a line was…

Captained by Sir Francis Drake, The Golden Hind was the first English ship to circumnavigate the globe on a voyage that set sail in 1577, lasted three years and covered 36,000 miles. It was to be one of the most significant voyages in English history. Fast forward 445 years to St Mary Overie’s Dock, along the river Thames in London, and we have Golden Hind, a full-size reconstruction of the original. Launched in 1973, Golden Hind has also circumnavigated the globe and sailed over 100,000 miles before being docked in London, where she has been on public display since 1996. Like any vessel, it requires maintenance. In the case of Golden Hind, the refit was driven by rotten timber and comes in the form of a project that started in…

TEXEL Fit for a King (or duke) Marinas in the Med are full of smart-looking yachts which are used as holiday homes by their wealthy owners and which, if they ever leave harbour, never stretch an ounce of canvas. No6 Texel is not one of these, says Nic Compton. Although until recently owned by an Italian count, this former Dutch pilot schooner has been restored as a fully-functioning long-distance cruising yacht, capable of crossing oceans (she’s been across the Atlantic at least four times) as well as being fitted with all the amenities of a comfortable family holiday home. Built at the Piet Smit shipyard in Rotterdam in 1921, No6 Texel was one of 37 loodsschoeners (ie pilot schooners) which served on the north coast of the Netherlands. At 92ft…

Landing and nailing gauges John Leather’s book Clinker Boatbuilding (Adlard Coles Nautical) includes a sketch of a rebated stick used for marking the overlap or landing of one plank on another. The idea is for the rebate to locate on the top edge of the plank and the tool be moved along leaving a pencil mark at ¾in (19mm). Subsequently nails are driven at half this distance, ⅜ in (9.5mm). In skilled hands the gauge would surely glide effortlessly from bow to stern, but I encountered two problems. One, it proved difficult to maintain the slippery pencil perpendicular to the plank, and two, the line exceeded the intended depth of the land by an amount equal to the radius of the pencil. Trifling issues, perhaps, but for landing and nailing…

OCEAN LEGEND Pen Duick VI, famous under Tabarly, and for her spent uranium keel, has been winning races again… SOFT POWER This little clinker dinghy is brand new, and entirely traditional – apart from the addition of electric power THE BENTLEY OF RUNABOUTS The Arcangeli Commander was a noble pretender to the Riva throne; Carlo Riva himself described them as the ‘Bentley’ to his own ‘Rolls Royce’ of runabouts PLUS… Schooner Adventuress; Marie Tabarly; Antigua Classics; Models in Mauritius; RNLI history part 2; Inside the Fife and Watson archives; the Rhoda Mary yard; and more JULY 2024 ISSUE ON SALE 14 June, 2024 Or why not subscribe? 30 YEARS AGO JUNE 1994, CB72 It seems to be the best kept secret from the marine trade that small cruising yachts are…