Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2024 i Classic Boat

The Sea Salts & Sail festival in Mousehole attracts a certain type of sailor. The type who doesn’t mind getting up at 7am to leave harbour at high water, then be unable to return until the next high water 12 hours later (give or take an hour or two). The type of sailor who doesn’t mind drying out with five other boats rafted alongside and having their decks trampled by countless jolly sailors in the dead of night. The type who doesn’t mind sculling an engineless wooden boat through the 36ft (11m) wide harbour entrance while being watched by a large crowd. Yet the biennial festival has had no trouble attracting boats since its inception in 1996. And no wonder. Not only is the village itself ridiculously pretty (Dylan Thomas…

After severe storms in the area, including the bad weather that sank Bayesian, the 45-strong classic fleet at the 20th Copa del Rey (King’s Cup) got underway in Mahon under sunny skies, but with variable and week breezes, writes Chris Potter. The Big Class consisted of three schooners, Viveka, Mariette and Orianda together with four Fifes: the 15-M yachts The Lady Anne, Mariska and Tuiga; and Hallow’een. The beautiful and well-sailed The Lady Anne was victorious with three straight wins over Mariska, with Keith Mills’ Viveka taking third to prevent a Fife one two three four! The most exciting racing of the regatta (pictured) was in the vintage gaff class, where the New York 40 Rowdy, which recently replaced her bermudan rig with the original gaff, went head to head…

A car and motorboat racer, an accomplished sportsman and a boatbuilder, Gonzague Olivier’s personality speaks to us of a time when a Channel crossing record was still a joyous sporting feat. In the early 1960s, he travelled from France to England in one hour and six minutes… on water skis towed by a boat of his own. At a time when anything seemed possible, it was rare to see a former Le Mans 24 Hours class winner setting up a boatyard. Such was the case with this extraordinary character, who would leave his mark on his time by producing a steady stream of quality boats, of which only a few remain today. Gonzague Olivier was born in Roubaix, in the north of France in 1921. Without the interruption of the…

Built in 2010, Atlantic is a replica of the 1903 yacht of the same name. The original Atlantic was designed by William Gardner and built by Townsend & Downey shipyard, New York for New York Yacht Club member Wilson Marshall. Although she was fitted out luxuriously, it was also obvious from the start that she was fast. In 1905 she took part in the transatlantic race from Sandy Hook to the Lizard. Her captain was the legendary Scot Charlie Barr who had already successfully defended the America’s Cup three times at the helm of American yachts. He was well-known for racing hard and, sure enough, he and Atlantic won the race – and with it the Kaiser’s Cup – in a time of 12 days, 4 hours, 1 minute and…

Two of the yachts most pivotal to the classic boat movement are on sale at the same time, through Sandeman Yacht Company. The first, the Fife-designed schooner Altair, is among the world’s most famous and beautiful classic yachts; some would say Altair was the first authentic ‘big boat’ restoration back in the 1987 and the pivotal project that started the whole classic boat movement. The other is the 36ft (11m) GL Watson-designed gaff cutter Peggy Bawn from 1894. We would say that it triggered the second phase of the classic sailing yacht restoration movement, being among the first small yachts to be restored to the very highest standard, something we covered in a long series of articles in 2007. Both boats come from the boards of two of the world’s…

Pendennis Shipyard has taken a majority interest in Cornish boatbuilder Cockwells Modern & Classic Boatbuilding. Dave Cockwell, founder of Cockwells and now sales and technical director, has spent 28 years growing the company from its humble beginnings. With Cockwells now building Duchy and Hardy semi-production vessels as well as bespoke, luxurious superyacht tenders, global demand for Cockwells’ boats is increasing. Cockwells will continue to operate independently with the existing management team headed by Dean Short, with Dave Cockwell staying as sales and technical director. Dave said: “With the backing of an established global superyacht brand, Cockwells will grow further and meet the demands of our ever-increasing client base.” Cockwells will retain its current production facilities at Mylor and at the Southwest Shipyard in Ponsharden, Falmouth. Cockwells and Pendennis have worked…

It is now 20 years since Stones Boatyard became established on a new site at Yalton on the east side of the Salcombe Estuary. But the Stone family had had a boatyard in nearby East Portlemouth as long ago as 1938, initially run by James Stone who was later joined by his sons Alec and Jim. All three had served boatbuilding apprenticeships at Edgar Cove’s Boatyard in Salcombe (and Edgar himself had served his time with William Fife III) and soon became well known for building Salcombe yawls and Solo dinghies. After spending much of his childhood “messing around in boats”, Jim’s son Tristan went to Sparsholt College in Winchester to do a two-year course in Marine Aquaculture and Fishery Studies. But he was clearly destined for a career more…

Sailors have had a troubled relationship with water ever since biblical times when Noah failed his Day Skipper practical on tidal heights and got extremely neaped on top of Mount Ararat, only to be abandoned there by the rest of the crew. Frankly, they behaved like animals, which is not that unusual on a flotilla holiday. And as for Moses, the so-called miracle of parting the Red Sea did earn him a pass as it demonstrated a better understanding of tidal calculations, but suspicions remains to this day about whether the work was really his own. Remember, he’d just come down off Mount Sinai where a very tall and imposing figure with a booming voice and luxuriant white hair gave him some kind of tip-off. I don’t know exactly what…

Martyn Mackrill will be well known to the readers of this magazine as an accomplished marine artist who is the Honorary Painter to the Royal Yacht Squadron and the Royal Thames Yacht Club. Just before he and his wife Bryony, who is a teacher, got married in 1985, they bought a 31ft (9.45m) LOD gaff cutter called Nightfall, which had been designed by HH Lidstone and built as Nautilus by F Miller & Co at Oulton Broad in 1910, and had been owned by Maurice Griffiths for four years in the 1930s. In 2017, the Mackrills took Nightfall from her Yarmouth mooring to the West Country, intending to go on to the Scilly Isles. They got as far as St Mawes but were then faced with some bad weather. “We…

Away from Maldon Regatta (page 18), photographer Sandy Miller was covering three events on the Essex coast. First off, on 7 September, was a new event, the Oyster Challenge on Mersea Island (pictured bottom left), created by Eloisa Rule, the owner of smack ADC, and Mark Farthing, owner of Mersea Fishermans Open Boat (MFOB) Lilian. This was a pursuit race held the day before the well-established Mersea Dredging Match, the idea being to make a fun weekend of it with the dredging (held in the past on the Sunday following the Colne Match). As for the dredging itself (pictured bottom right) the next day, the rain held off and a southerly wind made ideal conditions for the dredging. Winner of the John Frost Trophy and Foreman’s Flag (“for the smack…

Phil Cotton first dipped his toe into the world of classic boats in 2019 when he bought an 8-ton Gauntlet called Nausikaa which had been built by Berthon Boat Co in 1939. Having started sailing as a child, he soon developed a taste for racing fast dinghies such as 505s, and then multihulls including Dart 18s when he married his wife Miranda. He also raced Formula 18s, a Sea Cart 30 carbonfibre trimaran, and a Diam 24 trimaran (a French boat which he helped to establish as a one-design class on the Hamble River). He had always “enjoyed the look of a classic boat” but, even though he realised that Nausikaa would be “totally the other end of the spectrum” to his previous boats, he soon found that she was…

When will it stop? The wind, the wind! It’s August, mid summer in the Highlands, a time of gentle breezes, moist warm days and, OK, midges, absent largely this year as only a midge capable of flying upwind in a Force 7 westerly would stand a chance here (and also the reason perhaps why the east of Scotland is no longer midge free.) The club’s summer cruise was more like what is traditionally the end-of-season storm cruise. Sally and I wisely ducked out of the thrash up to the Summer Isles, despite the welcome promised by their owner. Instead she lay on a pontoon in the new harbour until the berth’s owner required it for his own use. Actually the conditions weren’t too bad, until, that is, Sally was moved…

Despite being in the middle of the sailing season, there was plenty going on at the Butler & Co yard in Penpol when I visited in August, writes Nic Compton. For a start, there was Ashley Butler’s personal project: the restoration of the 66ft (20.11m) Brixham trawler yacht Charmian. It’s a massive task which Ashley has been nibbling away at for the past four years or so, in between his regular paid work. So far, he’s rebuilt 25% of the hull on the starboard side and 10% on the port side, and also built a completely new counter. This year, he’s fitted new iroko bulwarks and a new deck made up of three layers of 18mm (0.71in) ply topped off with a 9mm (0.36in) layer of teak. The cover was…

Reamer usage Reamers are hardened cutting tools used for widening holes, especially by engineers and machinists but which used to be common among the bits for a shipwright’s swing brace. Where a hole is too narrow for, say, a bolt to be driven through without risk of splitting the wood yet the next size in auger bits would make the hole too wide, a reamer will enlarge the hole for a comfortable fit. Woodworking reamers (also called rimers) are tapered and have either a square or semi-circular section. Here we see a series of holes made by a 1/8in (3mm) brad-point bit having been progressively reamed up to 3/8in (9.5mm). When reaming close to the edge in thin timber, the reamer is turned steadily and slowly with minimal downforce –…

New co-sponsor We are delighted to introduce co-sponsor of our letters page, in the form of Mylne Yacht Design. MD David Gray will offer a copy of Alfred Mylne, Yacht Designer, to a reader every month. This is an encyclopaedic study of the great man, laid out over 500 illustrated pages in a handsome hardback, and it’s among the best designer-biographies ever produced. Welcome on board, David, who introduces himself with a letter, below. When the going gets tough… Alfred Mylne was a man who understood the sea in a way that few do. He didn’t just design yachts – he crafted vessels that could take a beating from the elements and still come out on top. His designs weren’t just for show; they were built to take you through…

The hottest day of the year so far, peaking at 32 degrees, dispelled any fears organisers might have had about mud. All that remained of the recent rains was a large, shallow puddle in a depression in the car park, bringing back memories of Trads past, a few of which had to be rained off entirely. Everything that makes the Thames Trad the Thames Trad is better in the sun, like the sun glinting off the brightwork of an Edwardian saloon launch and sitting down on grass. The world’s financial systems might have been melting down; American Airlines might have stood on the tarmac; but nothing will stop steam, diesel, sail or oar. The classic car display, Crooked Billet pop-up pub, and other food stands and military fly-bys all added…

This year’s annual event was organised by Jim Dines of the very busy Downs Road Boat Yard following the sad loss last year of Gerry Courtney who had helped to re-establish the Maldon Town Regatta in its current form since 2002, writes Peter Smith. Warm skies and light winds saw 29 Smacks, Gaffers and Bermudian boats competing in the annual equinox race from West Mersea to Osea Island. The regatta introduced three separate starts for the smack race with the slowest first, allowing the smaller boats a chance to stay with the fleet. A very high spring tide provided ample water for the second race, the traditional parade of sail up to Maldon’s town quay. Joining the parade were six of the fleet of East Coast One Designs (ECOD). I’m…

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If Charles Lawrence were ever to enter Mastermind, his specialist subject would undoubtedly be the history of Fairey Marine. His office and garage are piled high with more than 2,000 drawings and 100,000 photos and documents which he has scanned into a database covering every powerboat built at the Company’s former aircraft factory at Hamble Point on the edge of Southampton Water. He has also written four books tracing Fairey’s illustrious history, and nine others associated with the story of these iconic boats and their derivatives. Offshore powerboats have held a fascination for Charles since his school days; a passion finally consummated when he bought an original Ray Hunt deep-vee 23ft (7m) Huntress in 2002. And not just any Huntress. His was hull No 48, completed at Clare Lallow’s yard…

To mouse or not to mouse, that is the question. Put the issue to a bunch of dockside mariners round a pub table and as like as not Captain Blimp will insist that all hooks are to be moused on pain of the ship coming to a sticky end. He has a point of course, but what I’ve discovered at sea is rather different. Received wisdom’s all right when hands-on experience is in short supply, but when you’ve had the chance to try a few alternatives, you find that things sometimes refuse to obey the rules I’ve owned four gaff cutters and three of them have had halyard blocks fitted with hooks. The first was a 32-footer back in the 1970s. I moused all the hooks as I’d been told,…

For convenience, moulding planes may be divided into two groups. In the first group are planes dedicated to shaping specific mouldings, each one profiled exactly opposite to the concavities, convexities, fillets and grooves of a complex surface. The second group is made up of the simple yet infinitely more versatile rounds and hollows, each iron profiled to the 60 degree arc of a circle and projecting by a sliver through its matching round or hollow sole. Rounds and hollows used in combination with straight-edged rebate planes can shape an enormous range of shapes and sizes of mouldings, from the subtle ovolo softening corners of deck beams to the massive crown mouldings looming from on high in a steam yacht’s saloon. A modicum of mouldings applied to a yacht interior adds…

THALIA The Victorian yacht by a little-known designer, restored by a keen yachtsman and raced at this year’s Richard Mille Cup LAST OF THE SUMMER WIND Summer’s last gasps, with events played out in Cannes, the Broads, the Hamble, Barcelona and Brest THUNDERSTRUCK The classic off shore racing powerboat Thunderstreak, a Bertram 31, rescued and restored, and today racing as hard as she ever did PLUS… The fabulous 1950s cruising yacht Whisper restored; boatbuilding in Brittany; building a dinghy; 12-M renaissance; action in Brest; and more DECEMBER 2024 ISSUE ON SALE 08 November Or why not subscribe? SAILING TODAY WITH YACHTS & YACHTING IN THE NOVEMBER ISSUE • Boat test: Dufour’s new and voluminous 44• The British Yachting Awards 2024• Tackling the mythical Messina Strait• America’s Cup: the F1 tech…