Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2024 i Classic Boat

The annual Oulton Week regatta provides the best opportunity of the season for anyone to enjoy the spectacle of classic Broads sailing craft racing. Spectators can simply head to the Nicholas Everitt Park, which overlooks the Broad, to enjoy all the action. The event is hosted by Waveney & Oulton Broad YC (W&OBYC), which was formed by the merger of the Waveney Sailing Club (WSC) and the Lowestoft & Oulton Broad Yacht Club in 1946. W&OBYC adopted the burgee of the Waveney Sailing Club and moved into a thatched clubhouse at the top of Nicholas Everitt Park in Oulton Broad. When this burned down in 1965, it was replaced by the present building in 1965 which offers some of the best views across the Broad. Oulton Week is the annual…

This year’s National Transport Trust Preservationist of the Year award has gone to Michael O’Brien, for his restoration of the 30ft (9.1m) motor cruiser Lockheed built in 1937 in Kingston upon Thames. He found the boat in an Essex field, and when it arrived in Shepperton in October 2021, it lacked decks, propulsion and wheelhouse. National Transport Trust Chairman Stuart Wilkinson comments: “During the 10 years Lockheed had been out of the water, she had sustained a lot of deterioration and a twist to her hull, all of which now needed to be dealt with, plus a new transom, wheelhouse and decks.” She’s now powered by electric motors driving two propellers. “The National Transport Trust is not keen on electrifying classic cars,” said Stuart. “But with a boat the sound…

WINNER Classic Boat AWARD PETER WOOD This year’s Royal Society of Marine Artists exhibition is the largest display of paintings and sculpture ever. From boat yards to studies of tidal fringes, historic naval battles, and classic boats sailing, each is a study in detail of marine activity along the shore and out at sea. The exhibition from society members and non-members showcases the best in marine art work, each picture a record of the artist’s style, with the event providing an opportunity to show their talents. There are large and small works, with prices starting from £325 up to £80,000. This year’s winner of the Classic Boat award is Peter Wood with his boat yard scene “Boatbuilder at Barton”, a yard based on the Humber. Peter is a prolific, well-travelled…

1 YEAR FOR JUST £44.99 BONUS GIFT M & S EST. 1884 £10 VOUCHER PLUS RECEIVE BONUS £10 M&S VOUCHER Enjoy our fantastic subscriber benefits: + Save 39% when you subscribe* + Celebrating classic boat’s provenance, heritage, design and craftsmanship. + Never miss an issue with free delivery direct to your door + Get instant digital access to the latest issue upon subscribing Order online at chelseamagazines.com/CBOXMAS Or phone 01858 438 789‡ and quote CDPXM24 TERMS AND CONDITIONS: THIS OFFER IS OPEN TO UK CUSTOMERS ONLY WHEN PAYING BY DIRECT DEBIT OR CONTINUOUS CREDIT CARD. OFFER ENDS ON 15TH JANUARY 2025. *ALL SAVINGS ARE CALCULATED AS A PERCENTAGE OF THE STANDARD SHOP PRICE. THE M&S £10 GIFT CARD IS SUBJECT TO AVAILABILITY AND WHILE STOCKS LAST. WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO…

This morning I visited my sailmaker before breakfast. Pete Sanders of Sanders Sails in Lymington starts work early, so when a rain squall rattled my window at 0530 I gave up on the shut-eye project, brewed a quick mug of tea and shovelled myself into the Volvo with my ‘code zero’ headsail. The torque-transferring luff rope for the top-down furler had settled in and needed six inches taking off so I could winch it up again for the tight luff we all seek. I’d thought about doing it myself, but opted for the safer option of handing it to the guy who built it. Pete was in his office when I arrived, working on a sail design while tucking in to a round of buttered toast. As usual we spent…

Yard News from Van Dam Custom Boats, the Q Branch of the wooden boatbuilding world, is always worth a read; if they’re not building something exotic and luxurious, which they usually do, they’re building something utterly wild and previously unheard of. Right now, they’re building a 26ft, all-wooden, 350hp utility-style launch with a straight-shooting traditional look. The one before that carried the Van Dam hallmark of cutting-edge madness meeting svelte good quality. That boat, Victoria Z, is a Michael Peters-designed, 35ft (10.7m) wood-hulled mahogany runabout powered by two 427 Ford Cobras running through Arneson surface drives, giving a top speed of… wait for it… north of 110mph.…

It was in 1920 that Felix Tanguy – who had previously worked at the Keraudren Shipyard in Camaret – formed his own boatbuilding company on the Ile de Sein, separated from the French mainland by the notorious Raz de Sein. With many fishermen returning from war service and resuming their previous work, there was great demand for fishing boats to be built and repaired at that time. Following Felix into the business in 1954 were two of his five sons (Louis who took over the yard and Jean-Marie who set up another elsewhere on the island) and a decade later, both brothers moved their businesses to the mainland (Louis to Audierne and Jean-Marie to Douarnenez). Jean-Marie’s son Yves was born in 1960 and took his very first steps in his…

Mystery of the Pacific In 2020, our local auction house sold this little oil-on-board of a paddle-wheeler, an iceberg, and a lot of anxious milling around on deck. I’ve just realised it must depict the SS Pacific (1849) which vanished in 1856 with no trace, until five years later a message in a bottle washed up in the Hebrides. Forty-five passengers (only – normal for a winter Atlantic crossing) and the crew of 141 were lost. Wikipedia has the story, see also New York Times on 7 August 1861 (page five). The mizzen had been removed in 1853, which makes this a good match; the artist knew his or her ships. Does anyone know where the painting ended up? There were no clues on the back, so the artist, date,…

Whisper was built in 1946 to an existing design by Henry Rasmussen. Rasmussen made his name before the war with among others, a large number of 10-M and 12-M class yachts that were ordered by the New York Yacht Club in the 1920s, as well as many offshore racing and cruising yachts. His yard also produced a series of Seefahrtkreuzers. These yachts were designated by their upwind sail area and ranged from 40, 50, 80, 100, 150 all the way up to 250Sqm yachts. Most of these were ordered by the German Navy and were used to train their officers in seamanship and navigation. After the war, many of these yachts became so-called Windfalls and were shipped off to England where they were divided between the many service yacht clubs.…

A warm, calm Friday afternoon welcomed the Hamble Classics Regatta fleet (total age 2,600 years!), but Saturday would kick things off with a stiff northeasterly breeze. At the welcome reception, shanty singers from Titchfield set the tone for a jolly weekend, and regatta organisers Jonty and Vicki Sherwill greeted yacht owners, rews and event volunteers, and thanked the co-hosting clubs, the RAFYC and HRSC, and the event sponsors Spinlock, Classic Marine, OneSails, Elephant Boatyard, Salcombe Distilling Company, Z-Spars UK and Walcon Marine. The wind on Saturday peaked around 20 knots and after two long, enjoyable races in the IRC and two Regatta classes, three races for the XOD class and one for the Gaffers, crews arrived back at the RAFYC more than ready for a glass of Dark'n'Stormy at the…

The NG Herreshoff-designed Oriole (1905) has won the 13th Gstaad Yacht Club Centenary Trophy, held annually at the Voiles de Saint-Tropez. Twenty yachts of a century or more in age took part in the nine-mile race, which took place this early October in 10 knots of wind under the late-summer sun. In second and third places were the 10-M gaff-rigged Marga (1910) and the P Class Olympian (1913). Also present, once again, was the doughty Solent Sunbeam Dainty (1922). The Centenary Trophy was held, as always, as a pursuit race, allowing a true finish, with the first boat to cross the line declared the winner. “The regatta was fantastic. We sailed in light wind, but it remained consistent throughout. We are very happy; we sailed very well without mistakes. We…

The yacht designer and builder George Wanhill will be relatively unknown to readers of this magazine. His grandfather, father and uncle had run a thriving company in Poole that designed and built ships and yachts, owned and operated ships, and traded in clay. But when George was a young adult in the late 1860s, huge losses on the ship-owning side drove the company into bankruptcy, and George focused on clay. But in 1889 – when Lloyd’s Register listed 38 yachts built by the family company, from the 18ft (5.5m) cutter Urchin to the 108ft (33m) schooner Shark – Thalia, probably one of just two yachts ever designed and built by George, was launched. George built Thalia for himself but sold her just two years later in 1891. She was then…

Eet’s the end of summer,” said the taxi driver, en route from the airport to Barcelona, partly because he’d just learned to say it on Duolingo, but mostly because of the heavy rain and great bolts of fork lightning in the sky above the Catalonian capital. Racing on the first day of the Vela Puig Regatta was called off, crews huddling under umbrellas and pottering around the Royal Barcelona Yacht Club in sliders and anoraks. People hid, waiting for the sun to come out and dry sails and, on the smaller yachts, laundry. The big news at this year’s Vela was the arrival of 13 of the world’s 12-M yachts, which were lined up a few steps away in the old port near the city centre, and sparkling in the…

AMELIE ROSE Scillonian pilot cutter Launched in 2009 by Luke Powell, the 44ft (13.4m) Scillonian pilot cutter yacht Amelie Rose is a familiar and much welcomed sight in harbours from the Solent to Brittany. She is, according to her owner, a fast passage maker, and in 2015 won the St Mawes Pilot Cutter Review, proving her mettle against kith and kin. In 2012 she starred in the ITV series The Hungry Sailors, carrying Dick Strawbridge and his son James from Fowey to Tower Bridge in the heart of London. Her construction is of larch planks on sawn-oak frames, with the top decks, Amelie Rose offers 10 berths, as befits her original charter lay out, and the charter business comes with the sale price. The Category Two MCA coding has recently…

We missed one at the Southampton Boat Show when we visited! It was this, the first Caprina 26 Classic, an Andrew Wolstenholme design built by Webb Boats. The 26-footer (8m) launch is built of Columbian pine and mahogany planking over an oak frame with solid mahogany decks. Alternatively, you can have the boat in the ‘Contemporary’ guise, with an FRP hull and lots of wood trim. This is a highly-spec’d, handsome day boat for up to eight, with plenty of locker space and fridge option. The cockpit has seating for eight people, with what looks like plenty of locker space. Propulsion options are diesel, petrol or electric, up to 370hp.…

Setting up a honing guide Tough boatbuilding timbers are notorious for blunting chisels and planes. Experienced hands can restore an edge fast with a few strokes up and down the whetstone and a quick strop on leather or the work-hardened palm. Over time, shoulders, arms and hands develop the muscle memory for holding a blade at the correct angle, but less experienced hands or those with forgetful muscles may benefit from a honing guide. The Eclipse 36 – much copied down the years – remains the benchmark tool, with originals stamped ‘Made in England’ easily found and inexpensive. The blade is gripped between jaws which are adjusted by a screw with opposing threads on either side of the central wheel, so that turning the screw adjusts both jaws equally. Jaw…

RANSOME FOR A KING She was the biggest and best of Arthur Ransome’s yachts. After years in silence, Selina King is back, restored by the yard that built her. STILL STRONG AT 120 The Windermere 17s might have been designed to sail on a “pond” as some at the time put it – but they’re still sailing that northern lake 120 years on TO THE BALTIC WITH TOM Tom Cunliffe and his wife Roz report on their big annual cruise, this year to the Baltic, in search of all things classic and traditional PLUS… Dunkirk fever continues with the launch of Llanthony; boatbuilding in Cowes; 200 years of RNLI rescues; a look at the world of spirit-of-tradition yacht designers JANUARY 2025 ISSUE ON SALE 13 December Or why not subscribe?…

Although racing on two days of Régates Royales in Cannes had to be cancelled (one because of too much wind, the other because of no wind at all) the other three days provided glorious, sunny sailing conditions for the 119 participating vessels. The only boats to win a clean sweep of race victories were William Borel’s 1948 6-Metre One Wave in the Epoque Marconi (EMB) Class and Martin Cross’s Beta Crucis in the 5.5-Metre Class. In the Big Boat Class the race wins were shared between the 1929 Bermudan staysail schooner Viveka and the 15-Metres Tuiga and Mariska, with overall victory going to the last. The biggest class, with 34 boats, were the Dragons, the winner of which was Anatoly Loginov with Christoph Toepfer’s Aurora and Yevgen Braslavets’ Transbunker close…

Over the past few months, the AC75s of the 37th America’s Cup, and the AC40s of the inaugural Women’s and Youth America’s Cups, have racing along the coastline of Barcelona, Spain. These complex boats, committed to speed and precision, are the culmination of a long and prestigious history in the world of racing. It was therefore fitting that after the 12-M regatta, the AC75s of this America’s Cup be joined on the water by three of the J-Class fleet – Velsheda, Svea, and Rainbow – sailing in the 2024 J-Class Worlds. Velsheda, Svea, and Rainbow are equipped with cutting-edge technology, yet serve as a reminder of America’s Cup history. From 7-11 October, days before the Italians beat the British team in the Women’s America’s Cup Final, and INEOS Britannia fell…

A new partnership between the Swan Trust SCIO and Serco NorthLink Ferries will enable the 1900-built herring Fifie Swan LK243 to have a new main mast fitted in the coming weeks. The current mast was fitted during the restoration of the vessel between 1990 and 1996 and is now 30 years old, so needs to be replaced. "Fitting a new mast to a traditional boat of this size is a major operation and the charity would not be able to do this without the financial support of Serco, who operate the NorthLink Ferries services between Shetland, Orkney and Aberdeen," said the Swan Trust. The production and fitting of a mast to a boat of this age and character is a very specialist piece of work and the trust has been…

CHARLES MILLER LTD Windermere steamer wins the Auld Mug Tea making, as any Englishman knows, is an extreme sport that is far more competitive than the America’s Cup, and it was in the British Lake District in the 1890s that an arms race developed to produce the fastest kettle afloat. And few could match the turn of speed of the 1896 steam launch Branksome which could boil a gallon of water in 10 seconds with its so-called “Windermere steam kettle” that heated its urn through coiled pipes. The trophy for the “Auld Tea Mug” – or more likely bone china cup – is one that has never been wrested from England’s grasp by either by the USA, the Kiwis or Australians. Another distinction of the 50ft (15m) Branksome, which today…

In 2013, Mike James, Commodore of the Classic Offshore Powerboat Club, was tipped off that an old Bertram 31 hull was for sale, spotted languishing in an East London marina. Closer inspection revealed it was indeed the celebrated Thunderstreak, in a sorry state after being used as a houseboat, topped by a B&Q shed. This proved to be the same boat commissioned by the debonair and dynamic 1960s racer Tommy Sopwith, son of the great America’s Cup sailor Sir Thomas Sopwith who nearly won back the America’s Cup in his J-class yacht Endeavour in 1934. EARLY RACING DAYS Tommy Sopwith’s aim was to win the 1963 Daily Express Cowes-Torquay powerboat race. As Thunderstreak was the state-of-the-art Class 1 offshore race-boat of her time, her pair of 7-litre American Ford truck…

This summer’s Brest festival was a little on-the-bus – off-the-bus. Were they going to have a British Village… or no? At first the organisers of the world’s largest maritime gathering, on the North West coast of France, were keen… But then it was all off… Then there were a few maybes and then, in February, it was a defo yes! That felt a little late, given that a lot of people had already planned their summer, but Mike Smylie (the Kipperman) and I were able to get a great band of salty folk together and create a village experience representing the UK called the Celtic Sea and Channel. But what is the Brest Festival? And why go? Well, it’s huge, with seven kilometres of quays in the protected harbour where…

LEVINGTON, SUFFOLK Holman’s own Stella in restoration The Stella story at Suffolk Yacht Harbour (SYH) stretches all the way back to the yard’s beginnings in 1967, when it was co-founded by the yacht designer Kim Holman. Holman drew the 26ft (8m) clinker Stella sloop in 1958 and the first, La Vie en Rose, won all her seven races at Burnham Week conclusively. More than 100 followed. Today, SYH has become the hub for old Stellas, fully restoring five over the years and, more recently, rescuing at least seven more abandoned ones for future work. SYH chairman Jonathan Dyke said: “SYH has always had a strong association with wooden boats; the link to Kim Holman gives us a historical responsibility to keep Stellas alive.” Currently in the workshop at SYH are…

Demand for traditional boatbuilding is on the rise in Scotland at least. Adam Way has found a ready market for his beautiful wooden 18ft Oban skiffs at his yard in Lochgilphead, Argyll. And Tim Loftus, based in Ullapool, has just completed a wooden 18ft (5.5m) Shetland skiff commissioned by another Scottish owner from the Ullapool yard he shares with Dan Johnson. This double-ender designed to row or sail, was on display, still in its building jig at this year’s successful Ullapool Lugger Festival. The Loftus and Johnson yard specialises in building and restoring wooden fishing vessels using sustainable Scottish Douglas fir, larch and oak.…

DOUBLE-STEMMED GAUGE Single-spur marking gauges and double-spur mortice gauges are usually different tools but this double-stemmed gauge made by Joseph Tyzack & Sons of Sheffield combines both functions in one handy device. The bulky stock of the tool’s all-wood or wood-and-metal ancestors is reduced to a cast metal plate with tubular housings for the sliding stems which are individually locked by knurled screws. An advantage of this tool over the standard mortice gauge is that its oppositely pointing spurs can mark two different distances, serving other purposes besides mortice and tenon joinery; a mortice or tenon can still be marked, however, simply by turning the gauge through 180 degrees and marking one line at a time. Notice that the end of one stem may be withdrawn flush with the nickel-plated…

What with advances in technology, modern weather forecasts are at least 100 per cent accurate, if not more. And although dog walkers, keen gardeners, leisure sailors and anyone who goes outside may contest this, it is backed up irrefutably by the science, as I can prove. For example, when they say it’s going to rain it does, and to the very minute, as if commanded by some higher being; and when they say the wind will be northeast force three it will most certainly be, beyond any possible doubt. It is not the fault of meteorologists if dog walkers, gardeners and sailors happen to be in a different place from where the weather’s actually happening, or on a different day. In other words, it’s the weather that’s right and us…