Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2023 i Classic Boat

The Osprey class is celebrating its 70th anniversary in 2023. The trapeze dinghy was designed by Ian Proctor in 1953 for the Olympic trials to select a new, double-handed class. The Flying Dutchman was selected but the Osprey has remained a popular class, with 40+ boats still competing at the UK nationals. To mark the anniversary, the Osprey Class Association is producing a publication for members and others who are interested, and there will be an anniversary national championship at Hayling Island, Hampshire, from 2-5 September. ospreysailing.org.uk…

The incredible stories behind the great classic yachts of our time, as told through their magnificent restoration 1 YEAR (12 ISSUES) SUBSCRIPTION TO CLASSIC BOAT £44.95 (USUALLY £70) Europe €79.95 | USA $99.95 Australia $149.95 | Rest of World £74.95 Order your subscription today Subscribe online www.chelseamagazines.com/CCB23 or call +44 (0) 1858 438 442 (quoting code CCB23) Prices and discounts based on the regular subscription price of £70. If for any reason you’re not happy with your subscription, you may cancel within 14 days of placing your order.…

My first long ocean voyage, a circumnavigation of the globe, had more in common with voyaging in the immediate post-war years than it did with contemporary ocean sailing. My husband Seth and I made that voyage in the first years of the 21st century; therefore, if we had been much wealthier, we could have sailed in a style not greatly different from what is common today. As it was, our experience would have felt familiar to such iconic voyagers as the Smeetons or the Pyes. Our sloop was built in 1968, to a 1954 design. Specifically, she was an imitation of the famous Sparkman & Stephens yawl Finisterre (winner of three consecutive Bermuda Races), although she was a sloop rather than a yawl. Despite being 38ft (11.6m) overall, and 27ft…

The Don Pye-designed glassfibre Hustler 35 sloop Jemima belonged to none other than British yacht designer Kim Holman (1925-2006). Pye was, of course, a partner in the Holman and Pye firm, and more than 40 Hurley 35s were built throughout the 1970s. Holman kept Jemima at Suffolk Yacht Harbour (SYH) – of which he was one of the original founders – in the 1980s, cruising her around the east coast with his partner. Quite fitting then, that it is to SYH she has returned, under her owners for 14 years, in 2020, after some time in Scotland. The old teak deck and cockpit have been stripped and replaced in iroko, with new bulwarks and steering wheel pedestal. She’s also been given “new superstructure windows, giving her a smart new look…

Cockwells Modern & Classic Boatbuilding, based in Falmouth, has sold its first Duchy motor launch in Australia. This particular Duchy 35 is being customised for the warmer Australian climate. “Our Duchy Motor Launches resonate with the Australian market because they are the ultimate in British handcrafted quality and can be customised specifically to cater for its climate and conditions,” explains MD Dave Cockwell (pictured right). “For example, instead of finishing with timber, which is challenging to preserve in intense sunshine, we can replace it with glassfibre, aluminium and glass, with Flexiteek decking and highlights, to minimise maintenance, maximise pleasure and maintain aesthetic.” Duchy has chosen Davis Marine as its broker in Australia. The modern classic Duchy range of customisable motor yachts runs from 21ft to 60ft (6.5m-18.3m).…

Authorities differ on how much of a copper boat nail to leave standing above a rove before peening with the ball-peen hammer, but for a 14-gauge nail and a 3/8in rove, as might be used to fasten dinghy planking, John Leather’s suggestion of 3/32in looks right. It’s enough to fashion a neat and secure dome without risking buckling the nail inside the wood, or work-hardening the metal by excessive hammering. That said, 3/32in is not a measurement with a ring of familiarity like, say, a half, quarter or even an eighth of an inch, so it’s worth spending a minute investigating with a ruler marked in thirty-seconds of an inch to see what three of the little blighters look like before getting busy with the nippers. And just to complicate…

DEBEN CHERUBS The well-loved Deben Cherubs are returning to the yard that built them on Suffolk’s River Deben, and the fleet is being restored back to life, one boat at a time EVENTS The main regattas, rallies and more from Britain and around the world in 2023, including the USA, northern Erope and the Med ROPE Was rope as important as the wheel? We take a look at the history of cordage, and provide some more practical advice as to the ropes of today PLUS… Catching up with Stirling and Son; a perfectly restored Stephens commuter yacht; the rebuilt 8-M Vision; and more APRIL 2023 ON SALE Friday 10 March, 2023 Or why not subscribe? SAILING TODAY WITH YACHTS & YACHTING IN THE MARCH ISSUE • Oyster 495: long-range boat…

Marishka was very much a product of the Clyde estuary. Based on a Loch Fyne-type cutter – essentially a beamy double ender with a straight stem, and steeply raked stern post with the rudder hanging off it – she was designed by David Fyfe of Great Cumbrae and built by Morris & Lorimer at Sandbank on the Holy Loch in 1895. Her first owner was Noel ‘Pa’ Guinness, a Dublin solicitor and a resident of Howth who was related to the brewing family of the same name, and with an interest in the small merchant bank of Guinness Mahon. For a few years he had owned a smaller cutter called Constance, and over the next couple of years he commissioned two new new boats: a Water Wag built by J…

Europe’s and possibly the world’s biggest boat show, boot Düsseldorf, was back with its first post-pandemic edition in January, with a good area dedicated to wooden boats, a chance for some of northern Europe's traditional boatbuilders to show off their handiwork. There were timber boats for sale, including one or two projects, as well as practical demonstrations and talks. Here are some of the highlights.…

SPINNAKER FLEUSS We do like the new model from our friends at Spinnaker Watches, the Fleuss Automatic Marlborough Limited Edition, paying tribute to diving pioneer Henry Fleuss. Fleuss was the brains behind the David Submarine Escape Apparatus in 1878, which both compressed oxygen and absorbed carbon dioxide, thus freeing the diver from external support. Among other features on the watch, the indexes are coated in Swiss Super-LumiNova, making it easier to read in low light. Like its namesake, the watch is happy at depths of 150m. Two colours, limited to 250 pieces per colour. £380 spinnaker-watches.co.uk LATITUDE KINSALE CHARTS Attracting possibly the biggest crowd at boot Düsseldorf in January was the Latitude Kinsale stand, near the show’s main entrance, where artist Bobby Nash was showing off his stunning range of…

In time-lapse photography, there is the classic sequence of the ever-still tree that grows and surrenders leaves over and over as the years pass, while the stars and sun, day and night, infinitely chase their tails around it. This was how Ryegate looked in the shed at Suffolk Yacht Harbour (SYH) for five years, as other boats came and went. The flared shape of her bows were noticeable even as she sat petrified on terra firma under the knife of the various surgeons who resuscitated her. Five years is not all that long for a rebuild in the grand scheme of things, and in 2022 the yard called to say that Ryegate was afloat again. That summer, I stepped aboard with owners Nigel and Maureen Weir and boatyard services director…

What’s the point of racing a classic yacht? Is it to win races or simply to celebrate the beauty of these venerable old craft? It’s a question that goes to the heart of how these boats are restored and maintained and, depending on what the owner decides, produces very different outcomes. Put simply: a yacht that is sailed in local waters has very different demands put on it compared to a boat that’s expected to compete against a fleet of crack racers on one of the world’s most competitive classic yacht circuits. It’s a quandary that Pelham Olive has experienced quite profoundly during his 14-year custody of the 57ft (17.38m) cutter Kelpie. One of only eight boats built to the Solent 38 One Design class designed by Alfred Mylne, she…

The yawl Rendezvous II (ex Noelani) is coming back to life under the experienced hands at Tiffany’s Boatyard. The beamy 43ft (13.1m) centreboarder is the only glassfibre version of design 633 from American yacht designer Phillip Rhodes, although at least one wooden sistership – Alba in Spain – is known to exist. She was built by, and for, an aerodynamics engineer in Annapolis from 1960-7 who was waiting for his asylum status to be recognised after fleeing Hungary after the 1956 Revolution. Building a yacht of this size in glassfibre was a very novel idea at the time. She’s been in Chesapeake the last 50+ years under a single owner, but has now been bought by Björn Arp, who is having her restored. They are doing an “exceptional job” he…

The former Guernsey ambulance boat Flying Christine II is being converted into a yacht at Elephant Boatyard. Built in double diagonal construction, she served as an ambulance for three decades from 1964 until 1994. The boat fell on hard times after that, but has finally found an owner with the resources to have her restored. The plan is to finish the hull at Elephant Boatyard, with sea trials due in February, then take the boat to Montenegro (possibly via the French canals) for the fit-out. Nic Compton…

For those awkwardly placed screws where even a stubby screwdriver is too tall or wide to gain access, it’s worth having at least one offset screwdriver in your kit. For slotted screws only, there are offset drivers having one tip forged in line with the shank and the other forged at right angles to it, so that by switching ends you can turn the screw through smaller angles where space is particularly tight. Otherwise this type of offset driver with tips for both slotted and cross-head screws may be more useful. It’s often the case that you can’t get more than a fingertip above the bend in the driver to exert down force, so there’s increased risk of slippage which, in the case of a brass screw, risks deforming the…

The English classic summer is shaping up for 2023, comprising major events in the West Country, the Solent and on the east coast. On the south coast, things kick off with Cowes Spring Classics over the weekend of 12-14 May. cowesspringclassics.com The 60-mile Round the Island Race, which always attracts a good number of elderly boats, is on 1 July this year. roundtheisland.org.uk Cowes Classics Week will run from 8-14 July, with Cowes Classics Day on 9 July and racing from 10 July. The regatta welcomes everything from XODs to Metre boats. cowesclassicsweek.org On the back of that comes the Tattinger Royal Solent YC Regatta, Yarmouth, over the weekend of 14-16 July. royalsolent.org At the other end of the Solent, regatta life continues with British Classic Week, from 15-22 July,…

The Herreshoff Marine Museum in Rhode Island, USA has received a grant of $413,709 (approx £333,700) to help rennovate the historic Burnside Building on its site. The building was built in 1860 by Ambrose Burnside as a firearms manufacturing plant. It was sold to John Herreshoff in 1870 and became the Machine Shop at the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company (HMCo), where many of the company’s innovative steam engines, as well as other parts for the 2,000+ boats built by HMCo, were made. The project will begin in the spring of 2023. The ‘Save America’s Treasures’ grant comes from the US National Park Service, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute for Museum and Library Services.…

The 1945 tall ship the Earl of Pembroke has been scrapped after a life afloat that included being featured in the films Treasure Island, Count of Monte-Cristo and Alice in Wonderland. The Earl of Pembroke was built in Sweden 1945, as Orion, and was used to haul timber in the Baltic Sea until being laid up in Denmark in 1974. The 144ft (44.2m) ship was moved to the UK in 1980 and refitted for film work, with the rig changed from schooner. The boat appeared at the Southampton Boat Show and Liverpool Maritime Festival. A Facebook post by Dutch shipbreakers Hoeben RDM Schepen confirmed the vessel was scrapped in nearby Kampen on 2 December 2022. hoebenrdm.nl…

It can often be a relief not to sail your own boat for a while, if only to sample and compare with others: take one year in particular, with Sally under cover at the yard, in the knowledge that for 12 months there would be no worries about moorings or maintenance. Last year was another of those, not because she was laid up – in fact she lay to her mooring for much of the time, appearing but only once in August to compete in the annual cruiser race around Isle Martin, about five miles north of Ullapool. Somehow the weeks just slipped past. Hauled in early season, she left the yard looking as smart she has ever been: topsides enamelled, bottom antifouled, decks painted, cockpit varnished with a new…

ALFRED MYLNE – THE LIFE, YACHTS AND LEGACY OF SCOTLAND’S GREATEST YACHT DESIGNER DAVID GRAY AND NEIL LYDON A few days ago, there was a mighty thud emanating from our porch. The above book, weighing in at almost three kilos, was making its presence known. The 500-page contents can only be described as sumptuous, with 600 images (many of drawn from the Mylne archive) and 100 coloured photos taken from the original plans. As well as a biography of the great man, there is a ‘coffee table’ section profiling many of his surviving designs. In producing this book, David Gray, owner of Mylne Ltd, seeks to remind the reader why Alfred is worthy of his place in that great triumvirate of Clyde yacht designers along with Watson and Fife. (Whether…

PAINT EPOXIES AND WATER-BASED PAINTS The purpose of paint, apart from its smart appearance and broad choice of colours, is to protect wood from rotting, steel or aluminium from corroding, glassfibre from osmosis, and to minimise fouling of underwater surfaces. Epoxies are still the stalwart of protective coatings. One essential component of most epoxies is bisphenol. There are many different forms of bisphenol, a few of which have already been banned for health reasons, and regulatory authorities are currently taking a close look at all bisphenols. The consensus in the paint industry is that epoxies without bisphenols would be of inferior quality, which is where the “best available technology” argument comes in, an argument that was successfully used in the case of isocyanates. Nearly all two-pack polyurethane topcoats contain isocyanates…

The major project of recent weeks to the 180ft (55m) riveted steel paddle steamer has been rebuilding the starboard paddle box fascia on the shady side of the boat where she is moored (pictured right), which suffered rot from damp conditions. Volunteers produced a lofted, full-sized drawing of the fascia in the workshop, created the necessary parts to produce the fan around the central crest, as well as the crest itself. A revised assembly method has been devised to allow replacement of components in the future instead of always having to rebuild the complete assembly. The next big project for the great paddle-wheeler that served the Dunkirk evacuation, is the provision of loos on board the ship. Guided tours of the Medway Queen will be offered on Saturdays, between 11…

Neat little plugs or diamond-shaped graving pieces around an old boat’s cockpit tell a story of steering compasses, depth sounders or jib sheet winches that have come and gone. Or there may be screw holes gaping like bad teeth and – notwithstanding no previous experience of such dentistry-level woodwork – you’re tempted to plug them yourself. As I’ve learned to my cost, attempting such small and perhaps inessential repairs can generate larger problems. All had gone smoothly while fitting the plugs but in the last step of cutting off the wood standing proud, and impatient to reflect on a job well done, I reached somewhat rashly for my trusty cross-cutting Spear & Jackson. The plugs fell away right enough but damage done in the process necessitated the whole area be…

What with it blowing a hooley with the fiercest winds on record and my boat lying in an exposed pontoon berth 200 yards from my Essex home, I set off post haste, chaise longue and with alacrity in the opposite direction; thus demonstrating a law of physics as immutable as gravity, but quite similar to inertia. It’s known as a displacement activity. Engineers will tell you that displacement can be calculated by first multiplying or dividing mass (M) and volume (V) and, in the case of a Westerly Centaur, squaring it then doubling it again to allow for osmosis (0² X 2) to arrive at a number (GOSH or BLIMEY X2). That’s all well in theory but doesn’t help much with displacement activity (let’s call it DA), the formula for…