Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2016 i Classic Boat

In 1967, Leslie Hills (“a seasoned East Coast and East Anglian campaigner” according to Yachts & Yachting) commissioned Kim Holman to design, and Tucker Brown to build, a new boat. Hills’ choice of designer and builder was well judged, as seven of the nine divisional winners in that season’s East Anglian Offshore Racing Association championships had come from Holman’s board, and his new boat would be a near sister ship to Meriva – a recent Holman/Brown collaboration – which was second overall. Meriva had been described in some detail in Yachting Monthly earlier that year as “a good example of the collaboration between an imaginative designer and a modern builder” and her construction included “prefabrication of unique interdependent parts working from drawings to limits that would not disgrace an engineer.…

CARBON At the top of the cost pile is usually carbon; most are based on standard sections, although fully custom spars laid up to specific designs are possible if the budget will run to it. Serious racing yachts are almost entirely using carbon now, but the benefits can apply to other types of boat too. ALUMINIUM Aluminium alloy is still a choice (and in some classes mandatory); but the number of manufacturers and the stock of sections held has diminished significantly as carbon has begun to infiltrate the market. Aluminium still often offers a cost-effective and tough option with few maintenance issues, but some older masts fitted in the 1960s and 1970s are now starting to show signs of age. Nearly all alloy spars are based on standard extrusions; spars…

Aeolus is a 42ft (12.8m) gaff topsail cutter: slim, deep with a long keel, all-internal lead ballast of six tonnes and a huge sailplan. She was built in California in 1904, designer unknown, but possibly influenced by Charles Kunhardt’s popular book of the time – Small Yachts; their Design & Construction. She was raced locally (with some success) and later chartered. She was rebuilt in 1982/3 as an exact replica with the keelson the only original timber. She is double-planked in cedar up to the waterline with fir planks above, light oak frames, mahogany beams and triple-layered cedar decking. The sailplan was replicated; in the prevailing style at the turn of the last century, it was overcanvassed with a 10ft (3.1m) boom overhang and light spars. This may have been…

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Salcombe Yawl Association. However, this class’s roots go back further than that – in fact, its origins can be traced to the early 1800s when fishermen worked the Salcombe Estuary and surrounding coastline in small, open, clinker-built yawls of between 14ft-18ft (4.3m-5.5m). By the 1850s, several of the yawls, known as the Licensed Watermen’s Boats, had begun to race at the Salcombe Regatta, and in 1906 the first yawl to be used wholly for pleasure sailing, the 15ft 6in (4.7m) Busy Bee, was launched. However, it was the launch of the 14ft (4.3m) three-quarters-decked yawl Blackbird around 1917 that marked a new era in yawl design and sowed the seed for what was to become the current class. Built for harbour sailing…

Edited by Steffan Meyric Hughes: +44 (0)207 349 3758 Email: steffan@classicboat.co.uk SOUTHWEST New lid for Halcyon Cockwells in Cornwall has continued with wooden boat restoration, despite its more recent activity in the luxury motor yacht and superyacht tender market. This is the 28ft (6m) ga. cutter Halcyon built in St Ives in 1905, one of three the same. She's seen here ready to receive a new deck. A new keel will follow. MAINE, USA Fish Class rebuild Observe the dishy shape of NG Herresho_ 's popular 20ft 9in (6.3m) Fish Class ga_ sloop. This one, Sculpin, is hull number 816, which gives a clue to the class's popularity. Sculpin was built in 1916 which makes her a century old this year; what better way to celebrate than a deep restoration?…

Bruno Troublé, of America’s Cup and Louis Vuitton fame, has a new project. He is promoting a renaissance of some of the smaller classes of the Universal Rule, discovering and restoring boats in north America and bringing them to race in the Mediterranean. The Universal Rule, devised in the USA in the late 1890s by Nathanael Herreshoff and adopted by the New York YC in 1903, is most famously known by the J-Class, the largest of these racing classes denoted by letters of the alphabet. Jour de Fête, ex-Falcon II, is a Q-Class design, more the size of an International Rule 8-M class, designed by Frank C Paine in 1930. Jour de Fête’s arrival five years ago on the classic scene in the Med has developed into many wins and…

TIM LUDLOW of Beds on Board Where did the idea come from? Sir Peter Ogden and Jason Ludlow were racing at Palma Vela in 2014. Accommodation was scarce yet the marinas were full of empty yachts and the question of how we could solve this was asked, and the answer was ‘beds’ – bedsonboard.com was launched at London Boat Show 2015. What’s been the reaction so far? It’s been amazing. One year in and we have met hundreds of boat owners and organisations and have had positive feedback. Articles in the Telegraph, Sunday Times and Huffington Post helped our growth. Are most customers boaters already or looking for a new experience? It’s been about 50/50 since taking our first booking in May. The answer rarely affects the owner decision –…

I saw Raket (rocket) for the first time in the early 1990s. She stood on a solid, old, obviously homebuilt trailer with massive truck wheels. One of the tyres had a puncture and that was probably the reason that she had been left standing there. The rig had been parked at a crossroad on a small village road. The sight was both striking and sad. This beautiful, sleek hull that promised so much pleasure, stood there abandoned and open to the elements, with a tragic future most likely ahead. On that occasion, I didn’t follow the heart’s voice (the one that makes you get into so much fun and trouble) because reason told me I should first take care of my other boats. A while later, though, someone else did.…

“The only other tenant is a barn owl who works the night shift converting mice into pellets” The large, draughty cattleshed near the village of Barcombe in the Sussex Downs where Ryan Kearley has worked for five years must be among the most scenic of all places to build boats, particularly on the cat-ice clear January day CB visited. The shed, off a narrow lane, is near the Bevern Stream and overlooks the Ouse flood plain, living up to its name after the wettest December on record. The Sussex streams look brutally cold at this time of year. Locals say they are polluted and dangerous with their steep, fast gradients – but it does not stop Ryan exploring them by canoe in summer and swimming in them, even as late…

The micrometer screw gauge is an iconic hand tool of the machinist and marine engineer. For those of us wedded to our carpenter’s rule and the axiom ‘if it looks right it probably is right’ this precision instrument may also carry an air of mystery. When my father was preparing high performance boat engines in the 1960s I’d watch in awe as he slid the ‘mike’ around some freshly machined component, scrutinise its minute scales and pencil a note of mere thousandths of an inch. The screw thread was used for fine adjustment of optical instruments long before the machine tool inventor Henry Maudslay applied it to measurement in the workshop. Maudslay’s micrometer was a large benchtop device. The familiar pocket-sized micrometer, typically stored in a spectacle case, was developed…

“I had two famous uncles, George Martin and Jac Iversen” My earliest memories are of living in Son, Norway, on the Oslo fjord, where my father was Jac M Iversen’s boatbuilding partner before the first war, and married his sister Kate. There was a dinghy tethered to the mooring below our house and the children were allowed to row in it. I must have been about two or three and I was so excited. Mind you, there were no lifejackets in those days. Later we came back to England to spend our holidays at Berry Head House, Brixham, which is now a hotel. When the J-Class came sailing round the head we were allowed to get down from our very formal and silent dinner table to run and perch on…

Bruno Troublé had been sailing his own boat in Maine when he moored alongside Falcon II, then called Hayday. “I loved her,” Bruno says. The boat was raced successfully in the 2007 Eggemoggin Reach Race and then sold to Tom Hill, who raced her in Newport. Finally Bruno managed to convince his close friend Pascal Oddo, a French businessman, to buy her. Pascal had owned a motorboat until Bruno had introduced him to racing sailing boats. What does a former motorboater make of classic sailing? Pascal Oddo is no ordinary motorboater and his “Minister of Sea Affairs”, Bruno Troublé is no ordinary sailor, but Pascal’s comments still ring true. He had turned first to a modern 86ft (26.2m) Philip Brianddesigned superyacht and he enjoyed racing on various boats at St…

Historic yachting enthusiasts from around the world have ‘virtually’ toured each other’s collections for years, but rarely get to try out the antiquities in person, reports Chris Museler. A chance visit to Chesapeake Bay made such an impression on an Australian 18-foot (5.48m) ski. veteran that an Aussie-American challenge is being arranged for 2017 between the indigenous sandbaggers of the US East Coast and a pair of historic 18 foot ski. s from Sydney Harbour. “I was aware of the similarities between the 18 footers and sandbaggers,” says Ian Smith, who races the historic ski. s on Sydney Harbour. “In 2010 I was passing through Annapolis and sailed on Bull and Bear. It occurred to me I’d love to return with a good crew and really push the boats.” The…

Visiting Stones Boatyard in East Portlemouth, South Devon, I find myself in a great warehouse of a place, at least half full of Salcombe Yawls. Tristan, fourth generation of the Stone boatbuilding family, is showing me round and it’s clear, behind an unfailingly laid-back demeanour, that there’s a strong sense of pride. The custom-built shed has an insulated roof to protect against the woodcracking heat of a Devon summer, while wooden-clad sides allow ventilation to counteract humidity in the damp winters. Underfloor heating in the workshop means temperatures can be set to an exact 18 degrees for varnishing, 21 for gloss. The boats are acclimatised for a couple of days to ensure perfect conditions before products are applied, and ‘daylight’ lighting minimises shadows. It is not your average boatyard shed.…

“What is she?” It is a frequent question from other boats as they pass by but there’s seldom time to explain before they are out of earshot. The story starts in Guernsey, which is where my late father, John Sherwill, wrote an article about Cockleshell for Classic Boat, published in the August 1990 issue. “Above the harbour of St Peter Port,” he wrote, “stands Beauregard.” Now a hotel, this was once the home of local dentist Arthur ‘AJ’ Barber, also a skilled amateur boat designer and builder. Folklore has it that his daughter Pat was born on the very day that AJ completed Cockleshell in April 1926. In 1949 Pat would marry my father John Sherwill, and this happy union ensured that Cockleshell has remained within the same family for…

EDITH GRAY (2011) Pilot cutter builder John Raymond Barker built this one for himself, and we loved the concept of a ‘mini’ pilot cutter – a bit more manageable and affordable, but still beautiful and still solid and husky. We didn’t necessarily expect her to win every race in sight first thing out of the box, but that’s just what she did. LOD 38ft 6in (11.7m), Asking £220,000, Lying UK ✷ RACE WINNER Not so long ago, we were writing about the glut of S&S inboard yawls on the used market. In the same ‘mid-sized to large’ bracket, we are now noticing a similar preponderance of pilot cutters – original ones and those built as yachts in a prolific boom over the last two decades. That boom continues unabated –…

In 1914, Linton Hope drew Morwenna with twin 8-cyl paraffin motors that used all the space between mainmast and aft companion. By the 1927 Fastnet race she had a single-engine lay-out. Owner Stéphane Monnier decided to return to a twin-engine configuration, but with small, modern diesels packed beneath chart table and counter top. The area is now a nav station and galley with two quarter berths, an alteration that gives lots of extra volume and obviates the need to cook in the bows. The main mast and boom (Douglas fir) and foremast and boom (Sitka spruce) were in good condition and were reused. An early experiment with hemp rigging proved near lethal but Morwenna still has her worm-drive, roller-reefing mechanism liked by skipper Robin Kenyon. In 2013, after the end…

Sailing New Zealand celebrates heritage 4 MARCH CYNZ Classic Yacht Regatta Auckland, New Zealand, classicyacht.org.nz Famous celebration of NZ’s classic yachts 12-14 MARCH Geelong Wooden Boat Festival woodenboatfestival. yachting.org.au, stuart.dickson47@gmail.com.au This growing biennial regatta is expecting no fewer than 150 entries this year, including the Couta boats, for round-the cans racing, passage racing, a concours d’elegance, grand parade, and more including children’s activities shoreside and lessons in boatbuilding. Talks 10 FEBRUARY Dunkirk Little Ships and Sailing Through the War Gerrards Cross Sailing Association, Buckinghamshire Tel: +44 (0)1753 883 759, gxsa.org.uk Regular CB contributor, ex-boatbuilder and maritime historian Nigel Sharp will talk about Operation Dynamo and yachting in WW2 Britain. 16 FEBRUARY Around London in a Dinghy Papercourt SC, Surrey, guildfordsailing.org 8.30-10pm Talk by CB’s Ste¡ an Meyric Hughes on sailing…