Classic Boat - May 2014

Classic Boat T H E W O R L D S M O S T B E A U T I F U L B O A T S

ISLAND THAT TOURISM FORGOT

Gem of Greece

and her ocean voyages

Diamonds are foreverBonds SolitaireNon-stop to New York2,500 miles in a Carriacou sloop

PLUSAward-winning ways

Students craftsmanship

Fifes and her ocean voyages

Fifes Favourite

9 7 7 0 9 5 0 3 3 1 1 4 1

0 5 WAYS AND MEANS TO GET AFLOAT

Blow that pension!RESTORATION WORKSHOP

Re-rigging to sloop

i

4.75 US$13.75MAY 2014

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5434

FEATURES

3CLASSIC BOAT MAY 2014

CRAFTSMANSHIPContentsCRAFTSMANSHIP

MAY 2014 N311

LATIFA

37 years in the ownership of a loving owner

24

85

6

COVER

FRA

NCO

PAC

E. RIGHT: NIGEL PER

T

NIGEL SHARP

RICH

ARD

JOHNSTONE-BR

YDEN

COVER STORY 6 . GREAT SCOTMeet Latifa, William Fife IIIs favourite creation

17 . CHAMPAGNE TIMEFull report and winners from CBs second annual awards evening

COVER STORY 24 . TIP-TOP TROYRichard Bond reveals how he restored a rotten Fowey daysailer

30 . WOOD IS GOOD! Ted Spears on the construction techniques behind his Spit re 18

COVER STORY 34 . BROADS APPEAL Find out how the IBTC helped Snowgoose spread her wings

44 . SECRET SPETSES eres much more to this Greek island than a yacht regatta

51 . MONEY MATTERS Our guide to nancing your favourite yacht

COVER STORY 54 . TWO MEN AND A BOATAntigua to New York in a sloop. Follow their adventure here

62 . YACHTING LEGENDWe review a new book about the life and in uences of Johan Anker

85 . ENGINE ROOMWe head to Southwold to visit the masters of motorboat restoration

REGULARS18 . TELL TALES41 . SALEROOM 42 . OBJECTS OF DESIRE95 . LOOKING AHEAD96 . LETTERS 98 . STERNPOST

ONBOARD54 . CARRIACOU SLOOP TO NEW YORK 62 . JOHAN ANKER 64 . BOOKS65 . LAZARETTE67 . CLASSNOTES68 . NEW CLASSICS71 . GETTING AFLOAT

CRAFTSMANSHIP78 . YARD NEWS 80 . ELLAD RESTORATION PART 785 . HARBOUR MARINE SERVICES86 . BOATBUILDERS NOTES89 . ADRIAN MORGAN

CLAS-SIC BOAT SURVEY

CLAS-SIC BOAT SURVEYYOUR

GUIDE TO

ALEXIS ANDRE

WS

EMILY HARR

IS

CLASSIC BOAT

FINANCEp51

CB311 Contents2.indd 3 01/04/2014 12:05

Made in Switzerland / Sellita SW200-1 self-winding movement / 38 hour power reserve / 42mm marine-grade 316L stainless steel case and deployment bracelet / Water resistant to 300 metres / 4mm anti-reflective sapphire crystal / Deep-etched back-plate engraving

Swiss movement, English heart

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For traditional boat enthusiasts

For adventurous cruising sailors

For competitive sailors

Classic Boat T H E W O R L D S M O S T B E A U T I F U L B O A T S

ISLAND THAT TOURISM FORGOT

Gem of Greece

and her ocean voyages

Diamonds are foreverBonds SolitaireNon-stop to New York2,500 miles in a Carriacou sloop

PLUSAward-winning ways

Students craftsmanship

Fifes and her ocean voyages

Fifes Favourite

9 7 7 0 9 5 0 3 3 1 1 4 1

0 5 WAYS AND MEANS TO GET AFLOAT

Blow that pension!RESTORATION WORKSHOP

Re-rigging to sloop

i

4.75 US$13.75MAY 2014

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sailingtoday.co.uk May 2014 74

Bosuns bag

Dunsta nage, Scotland HARBOUR GUIDEGULLS EYE

GO FURTHER I SAIL BETTER I BE INSPIRED

SAILIN

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Secret South WestYour guide to its hidden harbours

SAILING STYLEOur pick of the hottest shoes and clothing

STANDING RIGGINGSimple checks to keep your rig safe

BLUEWATER BOATHow to fi t her out for ocean passages

THE GALAPAGOSFirst in a new series of Rod Heikells favourites

Offshore oiliesTested by us in the RNLI survival centre

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ISSUE #1673

WW

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TING

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for your best racing year yetGet ready

SUMMER RACE WEEKS

Bloody Mary winners reveal tricks to hunt down the pack

IN PURSUITSpecial report on the multi-stage Middle Eastern Tour

SAILING ARABIAHow to go racing and win in an affordable one-design

THE 10K YACHTWhy Antigua is every sailors paradise

DREAM TRIP

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Inside track from the hottest racing circuit on the planet

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Had a press release about upright soft-skin storage tanks a week or so ago. Upright storage tanks, I was informed, took up less space and allowed me to store more fuel on deck, so increasing the range of my vessel.

You can feel like going red in the face in this job But it wasnt because I would regard yachting across an ocean

under power as the ultimate waste in fuel oil; you should get some sails, sir, and enjoy the rolling bosom of the deep No, it was a sense of horror at the writers lack of knowledge of stability because storing that much fuel on deck, however good an idea to a credulous weekender, will dangerously raise the centre of gravity to turn your boat into a capsizeable rolling pendulum when the sea gets up. And if one things certain offshore, it is that the sea will get up.

Stability at sea seems like an obvious criterion to the classic boat sailor. Its why we like our long keels with vast lumps of lead slung below everything it takes a lot to push us over and if we do go, we come straight back upright.

There have been times when stability was disregarded, like the International Offshore Rule for racing yachts in 1973, which introduced GRP boats of light

displacement; broad beam, shallow hull and large sail area. The idea, I remember hearing, was to use the huge reserve buoyancy of the wider hull; as the wind pushed it over, so it would push back and stay upright; you only need a little keel, now. As it turned out, many of these designs were

inherently stable, once turned turtle with their rig in the sea. Things were out of hand and by 1978 the Offshore Racing Council ammended the rule to try to exclude potentially unstable boats from racing. Then the 1979 Fastnet storm happened and 18 people 15 yachtsmen and 3 rescuers lost their lives.

Stability came back on the agenda and one yacht the Contessa 32 (above) was cited as being seaworthy. Her designer David Sadler has just died (p18) and godspeed to him; his legacy should be that stability remains paramount.

By a twist of fate I think the 1979 Fastnet helped the cause of classic boats too, where old proven design has been shown to be seaworthy and so trustworthy. Plus they look good, of course

FROM DAN HOUSTON, EDITOR

A little matter of stability

inherently stable, once

turned turtle GA

RY BLA

KE

CB311 Editorial.indd 5 01/04/2014 14:25

Famously described as one of the most beautiful yachts ever built, Latifa is a sight to behold. Here, her owner

and circumnavigation skipper, Mario Pirri, describes the exhaustive restoration and shares his passion for this

wooden wonder PHOTOGRAPHS FRANCO PACE

Fifes fi nestFifes fi nestLatifa

CB311 Latifa new.indd 6 31/03/2014 14:51

8 CLASSIC BOAT MAY 2014

Ifirst came across Latifa in September 1976 through a letter from Alistair Easton, the debonair Lymington broker, who described her in such enthusiastic tones that the next day I was on the first flight to London. The moment I saw her my heart missed a few beats as I knew, beyond any

doubt, that our destinies were linked. As a trained architect, classical art lover and collector,

I was immediately captivated by her utter beauty; by the harmony of her lines and the right proportion of every detail. In Latifa there is that rare, almost magical Fife combination of power and grace.

Latifa was built in 1936 with a composite construction (much like the Cutty Sark and all the great boats built in the Clyde area) of 2in- (5cm) thick planks of Burma teak, fastened with bronze bolts on a strong steel structure, hot riveted and galvanised.

Originally built as an ocean racer, Latifa had no engine, electricity or winches. However, when I first saw her, she had a six-cylinder, 100hp Nissan engine squeezed between the cabins and under the deckhouse. Without a trace of

Above: the main

saloon sports a

pair of luxurious

sofas port and

starboard, a

gimballed table

and a heavy

bookcase stocked

with Marios

favourite tomes.

Left: Latifas

owner, Mario Pirri

JAMES

ROBINSO

N TAY

LOR



LATIFA

replaced with 316-grade stainless steel copies, sandblasted and painted; the steel structures were treated with epoxy and the whole of the interior from the deckhead to the bilges was painted in white enamel.

At this point, I took the liberty (I had no choice really) of changing around part of the accommodation in order to create a proper, insulated engine room in which to fit, with access for maintenance, two 40hp Mercedes diesels, a 4.5kW diesel generator, two watermakers and various pumps, fans and blowers. To achieve this, the companionway ladder was hinged at the top and heavily soundproofed. The port and starboard cabins had to be shortened, doing away with the chest of drawers at the narrow bunks heads. A new cabin was created aft in the large space where once the sails were kept. In this cabin where, admittedly, the access takes a little time to get used to, there are the B&G navigation instruments, radar, two autopilot controls, GPS, radios, electrical panel, a proper chart table and two comfortable sea berths. Without instruments the deckhouse is totally original. At the risk of being called a heretic criticising Master Fife, I must say

Clockwise from

top left: bronze

compass binnacle

and cushioned

helmsmans seat;

just one of many

delightfully

verdigrised

fittings; glowing

toerails, covering

boards and

bowsprit; close-up

of the pristine

new deck and the

skylight-mounted

Dorade vent

soundproofing, when running or even idling, the noise was unbearable. This engine and gearbox system weighed almost a ton; the weight balanced by a number of lead pigs stashed in the bilges under the mast step. Add to all this a petrol generator and I was in no doubt that it all had to be removed and changed.

radical restorationTo start the work I sailed her with a good crew to Gibraltar, then to the Beconcini yard in La Spezia, which, at that time, was the only one doing grand restorations and, under my supervision, they had done good work on my 52ft 5in (16m) A&R yawl Aleph.

After careful consideration, my approach was radical. All the machinery, electrics, tanks, bulkheads, partitions, cabin sole and furniture were stripped out. All the 4,000 or so fastenings were tightened; the keel bolts were removed and then polished after being found to be in perfect condition; the seams above and below the waterline were splined to make the hull tight; deck seams were recaulked and re-payed; steel deck fittings were removed and


IAN BADLE

Y


LATIFA

And it was these qualities that eventually, after years with crew and family, and in spite of the not-so-easy rig, encouraged me to resume my favourite solo sail: from Italy to Greece and Turkey, circling the Med, then finally past Gibraltar towards Antilles, landing in Barbados.

Like most things in life, my singlehanded sailing started by chance. Many years ago I had to move my boat Aleph. I left the mooring with a degree of trepidation, with the idea of covering the 20 or so miles under power. But there was a nice breeze, and for the first time I hoisted and trimmed her yawl rig unaided.

In those few hours I had a revelation. To be at sea, under sail, in silence, responsible only for myself and for the ships navigation, seemed the maximum expression of freedom. Even in strong winds, with everything on board in order, I enjoy being the total master of my time and losing the sense of it day by day. All that matters is the warm sun, the shapes and colours of the clouds, the sparkling dance of the reflections, clear moonlit nights, or moonless, under bright stars with a wake of luminous swirling plankton; the roaring of the sea past the hull.

Above, top to

bottom: original

deckhouse with

leather-backed

Chesterfields,

chart table and

brass-cased

instruments; doing

battle during last

years Fife Regatta

(Latifa is in the

foreground)

that, at the end of the long corridor, the short and beamy saloon did not have attractive proportions. I decided to lengthen it by repositioning the aft bulkhead, thus doing away with a cabin gaining one frame for the heads and two for the saloon, which now has good proportions allowing for two long sofas and a bookcase that would be frowned upon in the old days, but which is a must for me. In the galley the stove was athwartships, so the new one was moved to starboard on gimbals. The rig was restored to the original three headsails, all standing rigging replaced along with 20 new bottlescrews and 50 Merriman blocks; we added new sails from Ratsey, upholstery and gallons of paint and varnish. The result was a strong, classic 1930s yacht with modern equipment and accommodation for long-distance cruises in great comfort. I feel William Fife III would have approved.

solo sailorThe experience that delighted me from the start was her seakindliness: the feeling of gentle strength and her comfortable, predictable motion, even in rough weather.



Above: with her

complicated

rigging, you can

see why Latifa is

a challenge to

sail solo

relatively small. The main problem is the running backstays. No mistakes are allowed there because, as you can see from the plan, the staysail and the intermediate stays converge towards the upper spreaders that are only supported by the runners, each set by a two by four purchase. The mainsail, worthy of the name, has two-slab reefing along a 32ft 8in (10m)-long boom and measures 1,292sqft (120m). Taking in a reef is, for one person, a complex 20-minute operation that, in spite of my little tricks, leaves me exhausted. I installed an electric winch for the 164ft (50m)-long mainsheet.

I have to say that my sailing, especially in the last few years, has become very lazy indeed. I do not enjoy the boat on her beam ends, with torrents of water on deck, and when the going gets rough, after having done all that is needed on deck, I take refuge in the padded aft cabin where the motion in minimal, the sounds are muffled and the bunk very comfortable. Latifa sails herself, accurately steered by one of the autopilots. The radar keeps watch and warns me when ships are getting too close. I only need to lift one eye from the book I am

marios masterclassTo maintain this wonderful feeling of solitude, there are a few fundamentals to consider. The first is to avoid getting hurt. The second is a careful preparation of the boat. The rigging and sails must be in perfect order. The need of a reliable autopilot, possibly with a back-up, is essential. Also important is the smooth running of systems from battery charging to radar operation during off watches, to running lights and all that. Last, but not least, a consistent dose of good luck, however fleeting, is a precious commodity. People often ask me how I can manage alone such a big complex boat as Latifa. The easy answer is I dont know! But I guess I have gained a lot of experience over the years.

It must be said that Latifas Marconi yawl rig is an old complicated one with three headsails, all maintained in hanks, in spite of the pangs of envy I feel for the handling ease of roller-furling sails. I see that furling would not be in keeping with Latifas period (although there are some old rare photos showing rolled sails). The advantage of such a fractional rig is that the sails are


BEKE

N OF CO

WES


LATIFA

reading to check on the instruments for wind speed and direction, and if needs be I can alter course with a fi ngertip. Virtual navigation really

Having said that, when Im on deck I never wear a harness, not even when changing sails on the bowsprit. Only when reefi ng or fl aking the mizzen I wrap its halyard under my armpits because there is not much deck space on a canoe stern.

Going to sea for me has never been about racing; its about enjoying the mystical side to the ocean. Having to run to time in a competition would have erased all that.

STEEL PLATESIn 2000-2001, under my strict supervision, more work was carried out at the Beconcini yard. From the keel up, eight planks were carefully removed on both sides, starting from the sternpost to the butt-plates, to well forward of the mainmast. The reason for this was the need to access two reinforced steel plates in the mainmast area down at the bilges. Along the top of the keel, on either side, there was a steel plate measuring

point to the stern. This tenseness gives strength to the relaxed curve, a suggestion of latent energy, beautifully apt for the type of boat.

It is in some ways more remarkable because Fife chose a canoe stern, which is a form thats notoriously di cult to resolve.

Fife had spotted an advantage under the Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) rules; he wrote to Mason saying: Canoe stern lines 51ft 6in (15.7m) LWL work out about the same rating under RORC rule as the counter stern lines 50ft 2in (15.3m) LWL, and he returned to the type for Chris Ratseys lovely RORC racer-cruiser Evenlode the following year. The canoe stern was subsequently

in his appreciation. Ever a fan of Fifes work, Fox wrote in the 1937 edition of Racing, Cruising & Design: She is one of the loveliest of sailing craft yet seen.

Douglas Phillips-Birt, a naval architect and accomplished technical author, wrote a more analytical appreciation of her form in An Eye for a Yacht in 1955: The Fife sheerline, which we see in Latifa, shows a subtle variation on the relaxed curve in the way that a tenseness aft is developed where the sheerline rises more steeply than is now common from its lowest

BY THEO RYE

Latifa was commissioned by Michael Mason in late 1935 and launched in time for the 1936 season. She was designed as an ocean racer, but Mason wanted to be able to cruise her as well (he described an ambition to take her through the Strait of Magellan and round the Horn).

William Fife III, who would be 79 by the time Latifa was launched, responded with a masterpiece (yard number 818) described as a 51ft 6in (15.7m) LWL fast cruiser. U a Fox was typically ebullient

She is one of the loveliest of sailing craft yet seen

Above: Latifas

lines and genius

designer, William

Fife III



LATIFA

11ft 10in (3.6m) in length, 1ft 5in (43cm) in height and in (6mm) thick, bridging nine frames, through-bolted to the floors. The lower hull planks were then fastened onto the plates. This is a simple, clever piece of engineering because by connecting the floors to each other, it forms a grid preventing distortion from mast compression, thus sparing the planking from stress.

After 64 years the two plates were extremely corroded on both sides, which meant that long sections of planking were scantly fastened. In spite of that, there was no leakage mainly due to the previous splining.

However, replacement was not easy, as these plates have a double curvature one on the frames and the other along the keel. After laboriously matching both curves by heating and hammering, the plates were held in position and the corresponding bolt holes on each frame were marked. Then they were taken down, drilled and temporarily bolted on to the frames. Next, the planks were clamped into position thus allowing, from the outside, the steel plates to be precisely marked through the fastening holes. Everything was taken down again

and the new set of holes were drilled, before the two plates were sent off to be hot-dip-galvanised. The reasons for such a long process are two-fold: to allow the plates to be galvanised all around and inside the drilled holes, and for the teak planks (perfect after a simple cleaning) to retain their original fastening holes and recesses. Inside, the substantial, if slightly corroded, bridge-like mast-step structure, spanning four floors and bolted on top of them, has been totally replaced and is now made of 316-grade stainless steel. Before reassembling all the pieces, the lower part of the frames and floors were found to have lost less than 1mm in thickness.

Other areas that needed attention were the chainplates of both mainmast and mizzen. Although there was not as much corrosion, all four chainplates were removed. The inner side of all planking was in excellent condition. I chose stainless steel for the large plates. These are fitted below deck between the frames and planking, and help spread the load from the hefty welded rigging tangs going through the covering board and emerging on deck. The stainless-steel plates were

Left and above:

Latifa pictured in

1951; at full sail,

her double-ended

hull, huge expanse

of sail and yawl

rig make a

majestic sight

She is one of the loveliest of sailing craft yet seen

LOA77ft (23.5m)LOD70ft (21.3m) beAm15ft 7in (4.8m)DrAught10ft 4in (3.2m)DispLAcement39,916lb (44 tons) tOtAL sAiL AreA2,200sqft (204m)

LATIFA

adopted for nyatonga (830), a 24ft (7.3m) LWL sloop that Fife designed but wasnt built until 1950, which in turn evolved into a series of double-enders, built by Archie mcmillan, such as nyachilwa (836), navara (839) and eventually nevada (858, now ellad see p80) built in 1957.

the designs for Latifa and evenlode were credited to William and his younger nephew robert balderston Fife, as was by then typical for nearly all the yards designs. it is difficult to evaluate roberts influence, but he studied yacht design and it is possible that the canoe stern was his suggestion. in 1911, balderston had independently designed a canoe stern auxiliary yawl, gwyneth, built by Dixon brothers and hutchinson Ltd of southampton. in any event, the result for both boats was graceful and effective.

Looking at her now it is difficult to imagine her as anything other than a yawl, a rig that seems to suit her perfectly, but she was also briefly a cutter. the dates on the sail plans in the archive at Fairlie Yachts tell the tale: Fife evidently conceived her as a yawl (the first plan is dated October 1935, and this is the one he first sent to mason), and she raced with this rig in 1936. there is then a cutter sail plan dated December 1936, at the end of her first season, which was executed for the start of 1937, but she was back to a yawl before the end of the season.

she was campaigned vigorously by mason (he owned her until 1954, and

also lent her to friends to race). she won the bnodet race in 1936 and was second over the line in the 1937 Fastnet, which she had led from start to practically within sight of the finish when the wind dropped. she also tried her luck in the 1938 bermuda race but carried away her bobstay. however, she returned in time to win the Queen marys cup at cowes Week, so Fife lived to see his creation fulfil her intended role in style, with the rig he had always intended her to have. post-war, she won line honours and her class in the 1947 Fastnet.

Fifes friend and fellow yacht designer george L Watson described yacht design as the poetry of naval architecture. Latifa is an exemplary example of Fifes poetry.


I have

completed 11

solo crossings

of the Atlantic

on Latifa


LATIFA

presented, marked, taken down, drilled and positioned. The original planks were positioned on them, the holes marked, the planks removed, the fastening holes drilled in the stainless plates, then the planking refastened.

At this point, I wanted the steel structure of the floors and the frames up to the beams to be sandblasted. Years before I had seen the disastrous effect of such an operation on a boat of similar composite construction. Given the softness of the wood compared with steel, it is all too easy to blast away sections of the wood planking close to the frames. So, in order to prevent this, I had all the wood inside, frame to frame, temporarily covered with precision-cut 1mm metal plates, lightly nailed to the planking. Afterwards, the inside looked like a steel hull!

Following the sandblasting, all the fastenings were tightened and the broken ones replaced. All the steel was epoxy-treated and it was painted again in white enamel.

The 40hp engines have been replaced by two 50hp Kubota motors. Each engine drives an alternator, which is capable of charging both groups of gel batteries for a total of 672ha/hr. I also fitted a new 6kW Northern Light generator (replaced again in 1998) and new standing rigging. All this was a lot of essential work giving Latifa another long lease of life.

designer deckThe original deck needed to be redone and I always had a clear idea about what to do, but every yard I talked to wanted to do something different. So I postponed until, in 2009, I met Richard Straman in Antigua, owner of the wonderful 1923 Fife schooner Astor. Richards approach had been exactly the one I had thought of and, after many years, it looked perfect! So Latifa went back into the yard and work began. First a careful deck relief was done, marking the exact position of every fitting. Then everything was removed, every single piece catalogued with its fastenings and two crates were filled with more than 200 pieces inclduing the cockpit coaming. Only the deckhouse and skylights were left. Of the decks original 113/16in (46mm)

Above, left to

right: one of two

huge reinforced

steel plates used

by Fife to reduce

stress on the

planks; laid up

in the boatyard,

the sheer scale

of Latifas elegant

form becomes

obvious.

Below: the Latifa

windvane that

stands proud on

top of the parish

church in Fifes

home town of

Fairlie, Ayrshire

thickness, only 1in (32mm) remained in the most worn out areas. It was then sanded and levelled to 13/16in (30mm) and the remaining caulking was pried out, the seams cut and splined with teak strips and glued with epoxy. On top of it an exact reproduction of the old deck was made with 5/8in (16mm) teak planking, glued, primed and rubbered. All fittings were replaced.

Meanwhile, the masts and spars were taken back to bare wood and given 12 coats of varnish. The topsides were sprayed with Awlgrip. In 2013 all the stainless steel standing rigging was replaced, the topsides sprayed again with Awlgrip and the covering boards varnished.

I have owned Latifa for 37 years and she has always been maintained and upgraded to the highest standards. Ive neither thought nor dared to calculate the cost, but I presume its a few million!

I look at the results. Latifa has taken me across the oceans without a glitch and has given me great pride. She is a twice Overall Winner in the Concours dElegance at the Antigua Classic Week; she won the 2013 Fife Regatta and, of course, she has just won the Classic Boat 2014 award for Best Hull Form.

Latifa is now back in La Spezia. Along with the usual maintenance, 24 new gel batteries have been installed. Both autopilots have been overhauled, any play in the steering system minimised, a new Webasto heater installed, the aft cabin coaming and hatch replaced, the 20 most important blocks redone, all running rigging renewed and paint and varnish applied.

I have always considered my singlehanded voyaging to be a private affair and never made much about it. But recently I have read some preposterous claims about some solo Atlantic crossings in the ketch Eilean. I know for a fact that to do this you need a boat prepared for it. So, to put the record straight, I have completed 15 solo ocean crossings: three across the Atlantic on Aleph, 11 across the Atlantic on Latifa and one in the Indian Ocean, from Cairns to Djibouti in the Horn of Africa. NIG

EL PERT

maRIo PIRRImaRIo PIRRI


STOCKBRIDGEY A C H T B R O K E R S

[email protected] O: +44 1725 510738 M: +44 7788 925337

CARL LINNELength: 32.3m / 106Builder: Holland JachtbouwDelivered: 2003 refit 2011Price: 3.95M

A modern classic built by Holland Jachtbouw, she was designed to replicate the Bristol Channel Pilot Cutters, but with modern systems and performance.Her current Owner has taken her to far flung destinations involving extensive maritime conservation work.She has been a successful charter yacht, recently upgraded and having now completed her 10 year Lloyds survey, she is offered for sale in pristine condition.

Ba mBi1946 Third rule 6-mr by Knud h. reimers

a nal a75 fT Alfred mylne yAwl from 1925

Di a nabill dixon sPiriT-of-TrAdiTion CuTTer builT by wAlsTed

loa: 11.32 m |Beam: 1.90 m |Draft: 1.65 m | Price: EUR 63,000 |

loa: 22.88 m |Beam: 4.39 m |Draft: 2.60 m |Price: EUR 900,000 |

loa: 19.20 m |Beam: 4.87 m |Draft: 2.30 m |Price: EUR 475,000 |

|loa: 14.81 m |Beam: 2.96 m |Draft: 2.04 m |Price: EUR 178,000


Member of the Robbe & Berk ing fami lyYA C H T S

+49 (0)461 31 80 30 65 [email protected] w w w.classic-yachts.de

C aPr iCe of Huon45-fT roberT ClArK AdmirAls CuP winner of 1967

Gir lA. Anderson sK95 squAre meTre from 1911

fr eY JainTernATionAl 8-meTre Cruiser by erling KrisTofersen


RB_ClassicBoat_300x230_RZ_Mai14.indd 1 02.04.14 09:53


Our second annual awards evening was spent again at the sparkling Bremont boutique in Mayfair where winners and runners-up gathered for an evening of champagne and well-deserved bonhomie.

Professor Mark Horton, who co-hosts BBCs Coast and who also sails a Maurice Griffiths 28ft (8.5m)

CLASSIC BOAT AWARDS 2014

Star-studded eveningLone Gull, spent the evening with us and helped give out some 21 awards!

We felt honoured that people came from as near and as far away as America to make the night such a success, and we can relay that thanks were given to all our loyal and dedicated readers who voted in their thousands. Good one!

1 Charles-Henri Le Moing won our Lifetime Achievement Award for instigating

raiding by sail and oar. 2 The Ed with Didier Griffiths, whose Ellad (p80) is our Restoration Under 40ft (12m) of the year. 3 Chris Hood came from America to

pick up his award for best Spirit of Tradition Under 40ft (12m) for the CW Hood 32.

4 Design genius Andre Hoek picked up the SoT Over 40ft (12m) award for Alexa. 5 Emmet Hart picked up the Powerboat award for Snowgoose (p34) 6 Stratis Andreadis from sponsors Salty Bag with Epi Unzueta, captain of So Fong: Best Below Decks winner. 7 The Hon Alexandra Shackleton picking up Tim Jarviss

Person of the Year award. 8 Mario Pirri collected Latifas Best Hull Form award (p6). 9 Martin Black won our John Leather award for his GL Watson book.

10 Tommi Nielsen and Sarah White: Boatyard of the Year 11 Tony Allen picked up

the Editors Choice award (given posthumously) for Kenny Coombs. 12 Peter

Moor: Best New Build. 13 Pilgrims Mike Chater: Restoration Over 40ft (12m).

SPONSORED BY

1

2 3

4

5 6 7

9 1110 12

8

13

FRANK NOON

Since 1790

Photo

Pi

rick

Jean

nouto

t

42 Medina Road, Cowes, Isle of Wight PO31 7BYT. (01983) 294051 E. [email protected]

CB311 Awards.indd 17 31/03/2014 12:58


Tell Tales Classic Boats address: Jubilee House, 2 Jubilee Place, London, SW3 3TQ For phone numbers, please see page 5

By RiCHaRd JoHnSTone-BRyden

The principle attraction of Gosports Royal navy Submarine Museum, HMS alliance, reopened to the public in april at the end of a two-and-a-half-year, 7m restoration. designed to fight in the Pacific during World War ii, Britains first preserved submarine served across the globe during the Cold War, and briefly held a world record for the longest submerged voyage. The 281ft (85.6m) a Class submarine set the record off the West Coast of africa shortly after her completion in 1947, when she took 30 days to cover 3,193 miles underwater. Since opening to the public in 1981, she has acted as a memorial to the 4,334 British submariners lost in both world wars, as well as the 739 men who died in peacetime disasters. With the notable exception of the beginning of 2014, she has remained open for the bulk of her restoration, which included the reconstruction of her bow and stern, blasting back the exterior to bare metal, the creation of a dry platform to enable access to the hull, internal restoration work, installing a new sound system to recreate the sounds of an active submarine, and dressing the interior to create the impression that the crew have just stepped ashore.

OBITUARY

A modern designer with a classic touchBY THEO RYE

David Sadler, the designer of some of the most capable small yachts of the 1970s and 80s, has passed away at his home in New Zealand, aged 93.

With a sailing background in Merlin Rockets, he went on to race a Folkboat very successfully before drawing a modified version for GRP production by Jeremy Rogers, and in April 1966 the Contessa 26 was born.

These sound little cruisers carried on in production until, by 1990, they numbered over 750. The Contessa 32 joined in 1971, with an eye on IOR racing and cruising, and quickly reinforced the 26s reputation for speed and seaworthiness. A class win for the C32 at the 1971 Cowes Week was followed by Boat of the Year at the London Boat Show in 1972, a much sought-after accolade at the time. With his son Martin, Sadler

Ainslie to support NMMC olympic supremo Sir Ben ainslie has been named as the new patron of the national Maritime Museum Cornwall. The nMMC, 10 last year (CB307), keeps two of Bens winning boats in its collection a Laser and the Finn Rita.

Hobie Alter1933-2014 news reached us while going to press of the death of Californian Hobie alter, aged 80. as a surfboard manufacturer, his catamaran, the Hobie Cat 16, is possibly the most successful boat type ever designed, with over 250,000 built.

Restored HMS Alliance reopens to the public

Yachts was set up in 1974 with the launch of the Sadler 25, another successful fast cruiser with good offshore manners. As the company grew, David gave up his post at the Ministry of Defence in 1977.

In the disastrous 1979 Fastnet Race, a C32 was the only Class V yacht to finish. The official inquiry into the fateful race favourably compared the stability of a C32 to a

typical half-tonner of the period, further enhancing the reputation for seaworthiness of Sadlers designs.

Later that year the Sadler 32 was launched, to be followed in 1981 by the unsinkable Sadler 26 and 29. With foam buoyancy bonded in, this unusual feature proved a hit with nearly 600 built. Sadler retired in 1981, before finally settling in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand.

GaRy

BLa

Ke

RiCH

aRd

JoHnSTone-BR

yden

JoHn LiGHT

Above, left to right: David Sadler; a Contessa

32 in action

CB311 TT 18-19.indd 18 01/04/2014 12:16


More than 100 people made the journey to Gweek Quay in Cornwall at the end of March to celebrate the relaunch of the 79ft (24m) LOA schooner Kelpie, as she emerged from her shed following a 15-month rebuild. The crew, workers, friends and other supporters braved a brisk breeze and were rewarded with champagne and short speeches. A bottle of champagne was emphatically smashed on the bow and, as if on cue, she floated free on the tide.

A mixture of Gallic hospitality and Cornish informality combined in the hog roast and drinks afterwards, expertly hosted by Mariettes crew (who

evidently know a thing or two about dock parties) and the celebrations went on late into the night.

Charlie Wroe, skipper of the Fife yacht Mariquita, the only 19-M sailing today, found Kelpie for sale in the USA in 2012. She was designed by Ford, Payne & Sweisguth in 1928 as Hopeful, and built by Harvey Gamages yard in South Bristol, Maine. During the Second World War she served as a USCG coastal patrol boat, and afterwards cruised to Mexico, Hawaii and the Pacific, before settling in California. By the 1990s she acquired the nickname The Fastest Schooner in the West after success in offshore races, including

the Newport to Ensenada. Having fallen on hard times, Charlie spotted her potential and a crew was despatched to make an epic 9,000-mile journey with her back to Cornwall, where she arrived in late 2012.

Working from original drawings and photographs, she has been restored to her original gaff rig with an all-new interior, engine, systems, deck and rebuilt transom. She is now in Falmouth for the final fit-out before her debut at the Pendennis Cup in late May. Report by Theo Rye

A special event in Lorient will be held this summer to mark 50 years since her most famous son, and arguably the most celebrated yachtsman of the 20th century, Eric Tabarly, won the OSTAR in 27d 3h aboard his ketch Pen Duick II.

Pen Duick II will be in attendance at the Breton port. During his life, Eric Tabarly won pretty much every ocean race you can think of, including the Sydney-Hobart, Middle Sea, Transpac and, in 1997 at the age of 66, the Fastnet. In 1980, aboard the trimaran Pen Duick II, he broke the transatlantic sailing record set 75 years before by the schooner Atlantic, by sailing from New York to the Lizard in 10d 5h. More than that, though, he is credited with igniting French sailing, ocean racing and boatbuilding to the status it enjoys today.

Rawhiti1906

Rawhiti, the biggest and last and fastest of all the lovely creations from the pen (and boatyard) of Arch

Logan New Zealands Fife was built in 1906. Shes 54ft (16.5m) long and was restored recently

full story in CB284 and online at classicboat.co.uk.

WILLIAM CULvER

Final Arch Logan restored

GWEEK QUAY

Anglo-French alliance for Kelpie launch

LORiEnt, FRAncE

Tabarly rememberedPP

L MED

IA

EMILY HARR

IS

CB311 TT 18-19.indd 19 01/04/2014 12:16


TELL TALES

This March the press was full of stories of how a Dunkirk Little Ship had been destroyed near Dartmouth, reports Clare McComb.

However, these were hastily corrected because the African Queen, a 51ft (15.5m) General Service Launch (Dickens Series II), was built in 1946 and although designed for naval use was too late to participate in the war effort.

Nevertheless, for the Dart community her loss is no less devastating: as the best-known charter boat on the river, her comings and goings were watched by everyone, including Andy Kyle, who

DEVON

Two boat fires in a week

FALMOUTH

Hollands sail-trader visits Falmouth The engineless sail-trading ship, the brigantine Tres Hombres thought to be the only one of her kind in the world is due to arrive in Falmouth on or around 16 April, bearing a

mouth-watering cargo of rum and chocolate. Her friendly Dutch crew are inviting interested

parties on board to learn more. Go to newdawntraders.com for more information.

Above: African Queen ablaze on the River Dart

HAJO

OLIJ, c/O

New

DAw

N TrA

Der

s

Deadline for grantsThe Transport Trust

gives small grants to

worthy restoration

projects (afloat, on

land and in the air),

without the usual

public service

caveats. Deadline

for applications this

year is 30 June. Visit

transporttrust.com to learn more.

Transat Classique Its been confirmed that Panerais Transat

Classique will leave Lanzarote on 7 January

2015 bound for Martinique, 3,000 miles away.

Correction and apology Gremlins got aboard us in our Awards issue

in April where we said Ben My Chree had won when it was Trasnagh! We are sorry!

Our monochrome portrait of Luke Powell

in the March issue (p33, CB309) should

have been credited to AnnMarie Colbert.

records the day-to-day happenings on the river on his website, and who sent in this amazing image of the boat ablaze. The following day, her blackened wreck was sickening to see.

More than 60 people rushed to assist in vain. The Lower Ferry carried fire appliances over from Dartmouth, and two lifeboats, the Coastguard, harbour staff and fishermen fought all night, removing the 700 litres of diesel on board; however, the blaze kept re-igniting below decks. Fortunately, no one was hurt.

Days later Blue Storm, a 25ft (7.6m) Bayliner, burned down, also in Dartmouth. Everyone hopes

African Queen can be salvaged as she is still just about afloat. Blue Storm was irretrievably destroyed as her glassfibre hull burned more fiercely than wood.

Afterwards, Dartmouth fire chief Andy Callan stressed the importance of taking proper fire precautions, such as regularly tested gas, carbon monoxide and smoke alarms, and professionally installed appliances and electrics. He said people need to remember that gas cylinders explode like bombs, carbon monoxide is as inflammable as acetylene and that you risk your life if you cut corners with safety.

WORD OF THE MONTHRUMBOrope stolen from a dockyard. rumbowline is therefore condemned canvas, rope, etc. Also the coarse rope that secures new coils of rope. A Ansted, Dictionary of sea Terms

c/O THevIewFrOmTHeDArTmOuTOFFIce.cOm

CB311 TT 20-21.indd 20 01/04/2014 11:45


TELL TALES

ANTIGUA CLASSIC WEEK

Separate class for Spirit YachtsFor the fi rst time, Spirit Yachts will have their own class at the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta (17-22 April), such is the popularity in

the Caribbean and USA. Only last month, we reported that Spirit Yachts will be opening a new o ce in Hong Kong this autumn.

As we went to press, 10 Spirits were expected to line up on the start line. For more information, go to antiguaclassics.com.

NORWAY CENTENNIAL REGATTA

Norwegian kings Anker 8-M yacht racesThe King of Norways boat, the 8-M yacht Sira, has confi rmed entry to this years big centennial regatta in and around Oslo. It is as yet unconfi rmed whether King Harald V will helm. Sira, built in 1938, is sometimes cited as one of the great triumphs of her designer Johan Anker, who has

recently been canonised in a major new biography (see Books, p62). Dont miss it 15-22 July

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BPC766 bmf orange ad boat CB 50x268 May14.indd 125/03/2014 10:11

CB ARC

HIVES

C/O SPIRIT YA

CHTS

HLF money for junk yacht sail trainingThe Heritage

Lottery Fund has

awarded 63,000

to enable sail

training on

the restored 40ft

(12.2m) junk yacht

Boleh. She was built after the war

in Malaysia,

with glass from

Japanese fi ghter

aircraft

windscreens for

portholes, and

recently restored

by the Portsmouth

charity Boleh Trust.

bolehproject.com

C/O THEVIEWFROMTHEDARTMOUTOFFICE.COM

CB311 TT 20-21.indd 21 01/04/2014 11:45

Pure Craft. Total Performance.

90 125 150

Created by HUMPHREYS YACHT DESIGN, built by ARKIN PRUVA

1829 Tempus DPS Classic Boat 460x300.indd All PagesUntitled-101 2 02/04/2014 11:31

The new Tempus 90 Tempus Fugit competes in the Voiles de Saint-Tropez at full pace, posting an incredible 5th equal in the IRC Class A.

Classically beautiful. Totally contemporary.

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Combining stunningly classic good looks reminiscent of an earlier era with an outstanding turn of speed, these beautiful yachts are sure to turn heads wherever they are seen.

The new Tempus Class, created by Humphreys Yacht Design and built by Arkin Pruva, combines the latest design techniques and the very best of modern yacht-building.

Constructed of cold-moulded wood epoxy, a Tempus Class yacht is not only breathtakingly beautiful but also exceptionally strong and easily maintained.

Designed for luxurious bluewater cruising, these yachts can also make a big impression on the race track. Whether simply cruising or competing, Tempus Class will do it in style.

Tempus Fugit FIRST IN ClASS CDay One: loro Piana Superyacht Regatta, Virgin Gorda, BVI.

01/04/2014 16:53Untitled-101 3 02/04/2014 11:31

Bonds

With just four months to salvage, redesign and restore a rotten old Troy One-Design called Solitaire before the Fowey Royal

Regatta, Richard Bond and his team had their work cut out. Find out if they made it

story AND photogrAphs NIGEL SHARP

Richard Bond is an habitual owner and restorer of classic boats he has previously had five 6-Metres, including Caprice and Erica, and the S&S yawl Tomahawk and having had a house in Fowey for

30-odd years, it was perhaps inevitable that one day he would own a Fowey Troy One-Design.

About five years ago, he asked the Troy Owners Association for permission to build a new one and this was duly granted. However, it wasnt until early 2013 that he decided to go ahead with it and, in the meantime, the building of a number of other new boats had given the Fowey harbourmaster concerns about mooring availability, crowded start lines and the number of neglected older boats. So the class association changed the rules: before anyone would be allowed to commission a new Troy, they would first have to sail on an existing

baby

CB311 Solitaire Troy.indd 24 31/03/2014 12:05


misled people for so many years a short horn timber and a rudder stock that was tight to the transom. So after removing much of the bottom planking, he moved the existing forefoot forward and fitted a new wooden keel and sternpost in the correct position. The class rules specify that the centreline components have to be grown oak and, while it was easy enough to obtain these straight pieces, it proved much more difficult to get a curved piece for the stem.

This presented an additional problem as the stem provides the datum from which almost everything else is measured, so Peter was understandably keen to fit it as early as possible. After the class association turned down his request to fit a laminated stem, he eventually made a special trip to Dartmoor to get a suitable piece of timber from local supplier Anton Coaker English Timber Ltd.

The other shape issue was the beam of the boat, which Peter knew was about 4in (115mm) too narrow. After removing the deck and the beamshelves, he decided to offer up the moulds he uses to build the new boats one of only two sets in existence and officially approved by the class association inside the hull. He had done this previously when restoring T4 and he felt that it was the only way to be fair about it and that no one can then say anything has been tweaked or messed about. He made some cuts in some ribs and planking and then tried to force the moulds down to splay the planking outwards. However, he was still not able to get them down far enough in fact, they were about 8in (20cm) above the keel because, as he had

Above: given

her rotten state,

Richard and his

team of expert

restorers have

done a splendid

job returning

Solitaire to

a seaworthy

condition

boat for three years. Richard then heard that T13 originally built as Little Gem in 1947 and later renamed Amber was for sale. She had been lying ashore neglected in Polruan for about four years, during which time her deck had been crushed and she had broken three planks. Richard bought her and took her to boatbuilder Peter Williams yard just up the Fowey River at Bodinnick, initially with the intention of just tidying her up and getting her afloat. The reality, however, was to prove very different.

Peter served his apprenticeship some 20 years ago with John Fuge who, by a neat quirk of fate, had helped build T13 when he was serving his own apprenticeship with Archie Watty, the man who had designed the Troy in 1928, specifically to sail in Fowey Harbour, and then produced the first 15 boats. In total, 28 have been built three by Peter and all but two survive.

Very soon after T13 arrived at Peters yard it became apparent that she was in a bad condition. At the same time, Richard decided that not only should the work be done really thoroughly, but that it must be finished in time for him to race the boat at the Fowey Royal Regatta in August. It was now April and the pressure was definitely on.

design dramasPeter had two concerns regarding the shape of the boat, the first being that, according to local folklore, she was too short. However, as soon as he took a tape to her he found that her overall length was pretty much bang on but that her wooden keel was too far aft and her sternpost was too raked, resulting in the two pieces of false evidence that had


Clockwise from top

left: old rotten

stem; new wooden

keel; garboard, two

conventional planks

and glued strips

viewed from inside

and showing one of

the templates; new

hull timbers and

foredeck; Solitaire

has a unique-in-

class swept teak

deck and cedar king

plank and covering

boards; bronze

winches came all

the way from Italy;

new stem and hull

planking; new

garboard and

planks topped with

glued strip planks


LOs 22ft (6.7m)

LOA 18ft (5.5m)

LWL17ft 6in (5.4m)

BEAM 5ft 9in (1.8m)

DrAught 3ft 9in (1.2m)

sAIL ArEA 297sqft (27.6m)

SOLITAIRE


SOLITAIRE

suspected, the boats bilges were too slack. After making some more cuts, he eventually got the moulds down to the keel and fixed them there. He then fitted new garboards and two conventional planks above them, then a 12in (31cm) width the maximum permissable of narrow strip planks, glued and edge-nailed, in the area of the tuck.

The early boats always used to have trouble there because thats where all the stresses of the keel are working against the boat, Peter explained. The remaining planks were left in place at this stage to use them as ribbands, while new oak timbers were steamed in place throughout the boat. The association was very keen, and I think quite rightly so, that things were replaced bit by bit rather than by going through the process of building a new boat, Peter told me. He also found it useful to use the old planking as a guide to widths and runs when fitting the new Brazilian cedar planks. There is no class rule regarding timber species for hull planking but there is a minimum weight of 30lb (13.6kg) per cubic foot, and most of the newer boats are planked in cedar, which is light and stable, and preferable to the heavier larch or cheap softwood that the equivalent of Jewsons would sell in the 1930s, which was generally used in the original boats.

Throughout the project, Peter tried to save weight wherever possible, while keeping within class rules. Nevertheless, Richard was particularly keen that, while three other Troys have straight-laid teak decks, T13 would be the first with a swept teak deck. More than 10 years ago, he had acquired seven tons of teak skirting boards from a disused hospital. Having sold much of it, he then brought some more to Peters yard for T13. To try to minimise the extra weight, Peter fitted a thinner-than-usual 3/8in (9.5mm) ply sub-deck, and kept the teak at just 5/32in (4mm) thick. However, he found that he was unable to edge-bend the teak planks enough, even by steaming them, so he ended up fitting a semi-swept deck with snapes in the cedar covering boards, as well as in the king plank.

Many aspects of the restoration were much more time consuming than had been

Above, left to

right: race start

with Solitaire

positioned 6th

from right; owner

Richard Bond at

the helm of his

very own Bond girl

expected, and this theme carried on right through to the later stages when Richard asked Peter to paint the inside of the planking and varnish the timbers. The result, however, beautifully accentuates the Troys fine lines inside the hull.

While all the work for the new rig was carried out within Fowey Harbour Peter made the new spars, and the sails and rigging were provided by Alan Harris at Sail Shape the winches came from much further afield: Harken in Italy and, uniquely among the Troy fleet, they are made of bronze. After burning the candle at both ends, Peter managed to finish T13 in time for Richard to have his first sail at the Fowey Royal Regatta.

the names bondFor obvious reasons, Richard named a number of his previous boats after characters in the Bond films he has owned a Wayfarer called Odd Job and RIBs called Pussy Galore and Moneypenny and he continued this theme (while also respecting the Troy classs tradition to name boats after gemstones) by naming T13 Solitaire, after the tarot card-reading temptress in Live and Let Die.

I met up with Richard halfway through Fowey Royal Regatta just after he had come ashore from a race in which he finished 8th in a fleet of 20 (he ended up 7th overall at the end of the regatta), and he said: Im very

pleased, absolutely delighted that I have rescued an old Troy rather than build a new one. At the time I thought it was a bit of a nuisance but it was the best thing to do the association were absolutely right in their approach to it. He was also full of praise for Peter Williams: Hes done a fantastic job and he did it with consummate style. Full marks, Im so pleased with what hes done. Its been a treat.

Another of Richards rituals is to keep pieces of timber that have been replaced during previous restorations, and to use them in some way in subsequent boats. In this case, a piece of Tomahawks old wooden keel has been fitted to the forward end of Solitaires stainless-steel tiller. Isnt that nice that I can hold that tiller and I know that its a piece of Tomahawk? he said.


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WINNERSailboat of the Year

2014

YAGT FP MAY14.indd 1 31/03/2014 16:36

What we did

not want to do was fit out

GRP shells from

Colvic


Close quarters with

Man of steel, then man of strip plank The founder of North Quay Marine has never conformed to type

Story steffan MeyriC hughes portrait phil starling

Conyer Creek, a tendril of the Swale Channel that separates the Isle of Sheppey from mainland Kent, is just a few miles east of Queenborough, that favourite bolthole for sailors on passage in the Thames Estuary. Its classic north

Kent endless vistas over marshy plains to the sea, big skies, muddy creeks and centuries-old, white-painted clapperboard houses. This was smugglers country in the 18th and 19th centuries and, later, a centre of brick-making and barge-building.

There is building going on at North Quay Marine, too, with a new shed going up on a hillock behind the the Spearss household. Spears Snr, 91, Poplar-born ex-Thames tugman and boxer a proper Cockney... is out at lunch, the beagles are at the vets being neutered and son Ewan drifts in and out. But in Teds sitting room with its view over the creek and the odd watercolour by his own hand, all is calm. In January, we sailed the latest boat from the yard of North Quay Marine (aka Ted and son Ewan), the brilliant Spitfire 18 (CB310), and we got to thinking about how, over the last 20 years, North Quay Marine has been building its little yachts and dayboats in Western red cedar strip plank in a sector dominated by GRP and ply. Spirit Yachts is a notable exception in Britain and, elsewhere in the world, particularly Turkey and the USA, large Spirit-of-Tradition yachts are built in strip. But in the 15ft to 30ft (4.6m-9.1m) range, North Quay Marine is alone.

Ted was born in nearby Rochester in 1948 when the family was living aboard a First World War steam pinnace converted to a yacht. Dad was mad about boats even more than me, he says. Ted built his first boat aged seven with his fathers help a 7ft 8in (2.3m) Foil dinghy, built from tortured ply, round-bilged and fastened with bifurcated copper rivets, glass and tape.

Soon after, the family moved onto terra firma and bought a 29ft (8.8m) Polperro Gaffer called Wendy. Ted remembers sleeping on sail bags in the focsle on family holidays, although his love is not for distant shores and blue water, but for estuary and river sailing in small boats.

By 1967, the family arrived where they have lived ever since Conyer Creek. Spears Snr, who had left

tugboating and found success in the Sixties boom years in slum clearance, demolition and specialist machinery moving, bought the local yard on sight, together with three shipwrights and three apprentices.

Soon after, Ted found the 2.5-ton Hillyard Mynx in a field and restored her with wife-to-be Mary. He sold her two years later (to buy an MG sportscar!) but by 1975, married and with son Ewan on the way, bought the boat he had been lusting after for years Welcome Too, a clinker, 32ft (9.8m) ex-Admiralty rowing cutter built in the 1930s and converted to a yacht in 1948. She would influence the look of the North Quay boats years later.

Man of steel Around this time, Spears Snr and his wife moved to Scotland to run a small charter-fishing and chandlery operation, leaving Ted and younger brother Bill to take over the Conyer yard. What we did not want to do was

fit out GRP shells from Colvic, which was what everyone else was doing at the time, Ted recalls. So they busied themselves with repairs and maintenance, until a customer came asking for a 38ft (11.6m) steel yacht hull, swiftly followed by another. That was popular then no comebacks, no hassle but I wanted to build a complete yacht. That order soon came, for a Canadian sailor who wanted a 42ft (12.8m) ketch to a

Maurice Griffiths Good Hope design. We built it all in steel right down to the cockpit. At her launch, she went down the slip and just kept going. I knew so little then I was just winging it. She was 8in (20cm) below her waterline, so I phoned Maurice Griffiths, who said dont worry just paint a new waterline shell be as stiff as a church. The boat turned out to be fast and seaworthy if a little wet! Steel boatbuilding continued for 17 years, and included about 25 yachts and scores of other craft, including tugs and barges for lands as far-off as Nigeria and Mozambique. As Maurice Griffiths retired, Ted took over designing, after a course of home study (favourite book being Norman L Skenes Elements of Yacht Design).

Man of strip planK Two jobs in the early 90s are worthy of particular mention: one was for a 110ft (33.5m) superyacht in

Ted SpeArS

CB311 CQ Spears .indd 30 31/03/2014 14:20

Ted SpearS

CB311 CQ Spears .indd 31 31/03/2014 14:20

It looked as

though someone

had attacked

it with a chip

hammer


TED SPEARS

steel to a Tony Castro design the biggest boat ever built in Conyer Creek and an order for a 28ft (8.5m) Edwardian-style steam launch. She had to go on a trailer, making steel too heavy. Enter strip-planking, which had been gaining in popularity since the early 1980s. It was similar to building in steel, so Ted felt at home with it. The owner Mr von Finck, a very nice gentleman owned a bank that backed Hitlers war effort and helped build Messerschmitts. Dont mention the war [Fawlty Towers], suddenly became a significant commandment at the yard. When he collected the boat, I noticed that the name of the bank on the cheque he signed was the same as his name. And when he told us what his name for the boat was, we were astonished: Spitfire! In England, he said, you call a lady with fire in her belly a Spitfire, and his steamboat had a fire in her belly!

NORTH QUAY mARiNeBy the 1992 recession the yard was failing. Ted went to the Southampton Institute to train as a marine surveyor, but in 1996 a friend employed him to design a dayboat. Remembering the lines of the clinker naval cutter Welcome Too, Ted drew a handsome shape: plumb bow, tucked-up transom and a nice sheer, although the boat was quite progressive in terms of her strip-plank build and use of space, including two berths under the foredeck and a cruising canopy that extended aft into a custom-built tent.

That summer, he took the boat to the Greenwich Wooden Boat Show. James Wharram and a couple of other boatbuilders showed some interest and the next morning we were presented with a trophy [CBs Professional Boatbuilder of the Year]. We didnt even know there was a trophy to be won, let alone that wed been judged for it!

Ted and, in later years, son Ewan, have built 18 more of the North Quay boats in 15ft (4.6m), 17ft (5.2m), 19ft (5.8m) and 22ft (6.7m) variants, with and without cabins and even a 30-footer (9.1m). In that time, Ted has become wedded to strip planking, partly because, as he freely admits, hes not a boatbuilder and its

straightforward for amateurs, which is essentially what we were. There were also economies of scale: for a boatbuilder, every new order can feel like the last, so Ted was not keen to invest in a mould for GRP building an expense that would have taken 20 boat sales to recover. Steel, too dense for the volume of small boats, was out. A nice boat is rounded, says Ted. So ply though possible to round was out too. Western red cedar has a durability (rot resistance) equal to teak. Its denser than a pure former, like balsa, but less dense than something like fir, which only needs the glass and epoxy for protection. On a Western red cedar boat, wood, glass and epoxy pull together to form a strong monocoque; so strong, in fact, that in in (12mm) strip planking, a 17-footer (5.2m) doesnt need frames. I wasnt worried about weight. The 17-footer came out at around 992lb

(450kg), which is what I think a 17-footer should weigh.

So far, history has proved Teds hunch about strip plank to be right. Just last year he was aboard the steam launch Spitfire, now under a different owner and in the Netherlands. All his boats have remained maintenance-free since then. Teds only concern about strip plank that as an encapsulated monocoque it would be hard to repair, was allayed in 2000 when

a storm-damaged boat arrived for repairs. It looked as though someone had attacked it with a chip hammer holed in two places below the waterline and chipped all over. They turned the boat upside down, removed the glass/epoxy skin, dried it out, then cut neat round holes around the jagged holes caused by the boats banging against a sea wall in Chichester Harbour, then plugged and resheathed. Another advantage of strip over GRP was energy absorption, meaning that the chips did not craze outwards, as they would on a glass hull.

In 2012, Teds knowledge of modern wood construction led to him being appointed by Lloyds as a specialist surveyor to the Queens barge Gloriana. While the future might be in faster boats, like the Spitfire 18, one thing that looks set to remain constant is Ted and Ewans commitment to building in strip plank.

Above, left to right:

a North Quay 19 with

its high-peaked gaff,

obviating the need

for a topsail and with

built-in camping

potential; Conyer

Creek, Spearss HQ

PHIL STARLINGC/O NORTH QUAY mARINe

CB311 CQ Spears .indd 32 31/03/2014 14:20

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Untitled-77 1 28/03/2014 08:54


It takes something very special to win a Classic Boat award and here it is! Thanks to one mans passion and the redoubtable restoration skills of the IBTC, Snowgoose is one of the fi nest Broads cruisers on the water

STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHS RICHARD JOHNSTONE-BRYDEN

fl avourfl avourFifties

CB311 Snowgoose.indd 34 31/03/2014 11:51


fl avour

The winner of this years CB Powerboat of the Year award represents the ultimate incarnation of an interwar design that was created by one of the pioneers of motorboating on the Broads, Ted Landamore, and refi ned by his

son Leslie to refl ect the tastes of the early 1960s. Following a year-long restoration by the Suffolk-based

International Boatbuilding Training College (IBTC) commercial division, the 37ft (11.3m) Snowgoose has been returned to her former glory and sympathetically optimised for extended cruising on inland waterways.

The origins of Snowgooses chequered career date back to 1935 when the Wroxham-based boatbuilder and

designer Ted Landamore drafted the lines of the 32ft (9.8m) four-berth Vesta class motor-cruiser for his expanding hire fl eet.

Twelve years earlier, Landamore had returned to the Broads to set up a boatbuilding business following his wartime service. During his time away, the local hire fl eet industry had been shaken to its core by the impact of the First World War. The carnage caused severe labour shortages and triggered a 300 per cent rise in the cost of hiring the sailing craft that formed the bulk of the local hire fl eets. These craft were usually chartered with at least one professional member of crew, thereby making their owners extremely vulnerable to any rise in manpower costs, especially in a period of austerity. However, the

Above: few Broads

cruisers, new or

old, cast a more

arresting shadow

on the water

than Snowgoose

CB311 Snowgoose3.indd 35 01/04/2014 13:02


Clockwise from

top: modern

furnishings

contrast with

bygone features,

such as the

old-school radio,

hinting at how

Emmet has

retained much

of Snowgooses

vintage charm

Fortunately, not all of Landamores customers took such a direct or illegal approach when they wanted to acquire one of the yards motor-cruisers. Edward Suckling, who had been one of the companys long-term hirers and a close friend of Ted Landamore, purchased Vesta 5 when she was withdrawn from the fleet in 1954.

Clearly, he admired his friends design and six years later commissioned an improved version of the Vestella class. Originally named Eclan in honour of her builders E C Landamore & Co Ltd, she was subsequently renamed Snowgoose by a later owner. Ted entrusted the task of drafting the revised design to his son Leslie, who had qualified as a naval architect. The notable differences included the lengthening of the hull by 2ft (61cm), adding two Morris Vedette petrol engines to improve manoeuvrability, and increasing the size of the windows in the cabinsides, as well as the forward half of the hull. Leslie managed to disguise her fulsome proportions through the clever use of two thin rubbing strips along each side of the hull, and a coat of white (not grey) paint to the upper section of the forward half of the hull finished off Snowgooses contemporary appearance.

By the time Andrew Holmes purchased her in 1999 (sadly, the whereabouts of this boat in the preceeding 39-year period is something of a mystery), Snowgoose

increasing availability of lightweight petrol engines, suitable for marine use, created the opportunity to develop motor-cruisers that could be handled by those new to boating. This enabled the yards to dispense with the services of their professional crews, which, though unfortunate for some, was the industrys salvation.

Astute boatbuilders like Ted Landamore and Broom boats increasingly focused their efforts on the development of motor-cruisers that went on to form the backbone of hire fleets across the Broads. Like several other family-owned boatyards in the area, Landamores built up its own hire fleet, which led to the construction of the first Vesta class motor-cruisers in 1935.

After the Second World War, Ted Landamore enlarged the Vestas design to create the 35ft (10.7m) five-berth Vestella, and a total of seven were built between 1949 and 1955. They introduced countless families to the magic of boating on the Broads, although one such family had very different ideas when they hired Vestella 6 in May 1957. Instead of pottering around for a week, they renamed her Loup de Mer (sea wolf) and tried to head to France. However, they abandoned her in Ramsgate harbour and escaped to the continent. Vestella 6 returned to Norfolk on the back of a truck and the culprit was caught several years later when he returned to England.


In the end they

did what they

said they would,

on time and

within budget


SNOWGOOSE

had been fitted with a pair of Ford Watermota Sea Tiger petrol engines. They were replaced by two 29hp Nanni diesel engines during an extensive refit by the now defunct Brundall-based Native Yacht Company in 2003. The other work included fitting new upholstery, a generator and an inverter. In-between cruises, Andrew kept Snowgoose in a wetshed within the village of Horning. Sadly, Snowgoose lost this protection when she changed hands in 2007 and was moved to Brundall, from where she rarely moved. Her new owner lived on board until ill health forced her to move ashore in October 2011 and put Snowgoose up for sale.

Although no one could find a key to unlock the interior, Irish businessman and boat enthusiast Emmet Hart was captivated by Snowgooses lines when he saw her in 2012: I had looked at a number of boats, motor and sail, and initially was not set on a wooden boat. But it needed to be comfortable, spacious and with character. I was not adverse to buying a restoration project provided she had the ability to meet the above. After looking at lots of options, Snowgoose caught my eye. From what he could see, her recent inactivity had clearly taken its

Clockwise from

top right: the

well-appointed

galley; clever

curves, cutaways

and brightwork

hide Snowgooses

considerable bulk;

the cockpit,

complete with

super-comfy

captains chair

toll, which was confirmed by the subsequent survey. Undeterred, Emmet struck a deal and decided to use her to explore the Broads for the summer with his wife Clair, while searching for a yard to carry out the restoration.

Apart from introducing the couple to the Broads, these cruises provided them with an opportunity to consider what, if any, changes they wanted to make.

Choosing the right boatyard can be a daunting process, as Emmet explained: I sought lots of advice and recommendations, then drew up a shortlist in Norfolk, Suffolk and on the Thames. However, the yard visits and subsequent communication, or lack of it, was very disappointing. Most of them didnt want the work: more than 50 per cent never sent me a schedule of charges, so I quickly whittled down the list to three. IBTC Heritage stood out and my research confirmed the quality of their workmanship. Nat Wilson, the owner of IBTC, was very thorough in his assessment of what needed to be done, how long it would take, and the budget required. More importantly, he cared about the boat and the quality of the work. During the restoration, the team always took time to explain the processes,



SNOWGOOSE

difficulties, solutions and suggestions it was clear they knew what they were doing. In the end they did what they said they would, on time and within budget.

The commercial division of IBTC Heritage was originally set up by John Elliot to provide students with up to six months work experience after their graduation. However, it was always a bit of a halfway house so, after Nat and Gill Wilson purchased the college in 2005 they decided to turn it into a commercial boatyard with a permanent workforce that specialises in wooden boats. Unlike the college, IBTC Heritage is not constrained by a syllabus, so it can tackle a broader range of projects.

The combination of the colleges reputation and his dealings with the staff convinced Emmet to bring Snowgoose to Lake Lothing in Lowestoft to be slipped by IBTC Heritage on 24 October 2012. The subsequent stripping out of her interior revealed the full extent of her deterioration and inevitably extended the scope of the structural work, which included replacing 50 per cent of the hulls planking, renewing 30 per cent of her timbers, fitting new floors throughout, recaulking the entire hull, adding a 3mm mahogany laminate to the transom, repairing the cabinsides and the cold-moulded coachroof.

As Emmet contemplated the prospect of being without a boat for the 2013 season, he purchased the immaculate 44ft (13.4m) Broom Admiral class motor-cruiser Katinka (CB310) in February 2013. Meanwhile, IBTC Heritage had made enough progress by April for Emmet and Clair to firm up the rest of their plans for Snowgoose.

They wanted to optimise the interior for extended cruising for two people, while retaining the ability to accommodate guests overnight. The aft cabin originally had two large single berths laid out in an L-shape. These were exchanged for one double berth in the aft port quarter, while the shower was replaced by a new en-suite heads/shower compartment. The removal of the half-length wardrobe along with the repositioning of the generator allowed more natural light to pour in. Although the galley, situated between the wheelhouse and the saloon, retains its original layout, the Harts decided to replace the 1960s Formica worktops with oak. The remaining internal alterations were confined to the forward cabin where the heads were removed to create a spacious cabin, which will become a study in due course.

Shortly after her launch, Emmet moved Snowgoose to Wroxham where she joined Katinka in a wetshed. The sight of these beautiful boats together presented Emmet with a real dilemma which one should he keep? While he could afford to run the pair, he felt they should be regularly used rather than laid up gathering dust. Having enjoyed a memorable summer of cruising in Katinka, which included several months on the Thames where she caused quite a stir during the Henley Royal Regatta, he reluctantly decided to put her up for sale. They are both very different boats, but more of my soul is in Snowgoose so when I received an offer for Katinka, I agreed to sell her, said Emmet. At the time of writing, the formalities of the sale are being completed. Thus, Emmet and Clair

will spend this season exploring the Broads in Snowgoose before possibly taking her across the Channel in 2015 to begin making their way down the French canals towards the Mediterranean. The idea for this trip was triggered by one of Emmets previous adventures, as he explains: I once flew a private plane to Cannes and cruising through France to the Med is probably a similar, but slower experience, so we plan to tackle the trip over two seasons. Beyond that, our plans remain open-ended and may involve the movement of Snowgoose to other European inland waterways before eventually bringing her back to the Broads.

Above, left to

right: Snowgoose

edges out of the

shed at the IBTC

Heritage yard; the

team responsible

for her immaculate

restoration

BUILDERTed Landamore LOA37ft (11.3m) BEAm11ft 9in (3.6m)DRAUght 2ft 3in (0.7m) mAx spEED8 knots

SNOWGOOSE



O1502 569 663 IBTC Heritage www.ibtc.co.uk

The commercial arm of the International Boatbuilding Training College.

Providing full boatyard services, specialising in heritage craft.

IBTC hands on practical training in traditional wooden boatbuilding, building boatbuilders fit for industry.

(+1) 207-236-9651 rockportmarine.com

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39_CB_0514_.indd 39 02/04/2014 10:08


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Classic_Boat_Advert_Arthur_Beale_140401_Layout 1 01/04/2014 11:47 Page 1

40_CB_0514_.indd 40 01/04/2014 14:21

CHARL

ES M

ILLE

R LTD

BONHAMS

DAV

E SE

LBY

CHARLES MILLER LTD, LONDON


Saleroom

BY DAVE SELBY

An incredibly rare 16th-century mariners astrolabe found in a junk shop could fetch 50,000, or possibly a great deal more, when it comes up for sale at Charles Miller Ltds next London maritime sale on 30 April.

The early Portuguese instrument, used for determining latitude at noon, and predating the sextant by centuries, was discovered by a British collector who hung it in his kitchen for decades. In 20 years as a marine specialist, its the fi rst time auctioneer Charles Miller has actually touched one. He said: Ive never encountered an intact one before, only fragments recovered from wrecks. Its really exciting. It was also an astonishing

Astronomical astrolabe

chance fi nd, as Charles Miller recalls: The vendors late father spotted it in the window of a junk shop while on holiday in Madeira in 1958. Every time he went past, the shop was closed, until the very last day of his holiday. He had a whip-round among

Above: this 16th-century

astrolabe could

fetch fi ve fi gures

ARTCURIAL, PARIS

F1 power for Ferrari hydroplaneAntares II is no ordinary hydroplane. Not only is it just one of three known survivors with a Ferrari engine, its the only one in the world fi tted from new with a Ferrari F1 engine.

Built in 1953 on a wooden frame with metal superstructure by Guido Abbates famed boatyard on Lake Como, Antares II competed in the 1954 and 1955 Italian championships with a 4cyl 2.8-litre F1 engine producing 223bhp at 6,000rpm. In the 1970s the original engine was removed to be fi tted to a Ferrari car. However, in the 1990s, the languishing hull was restored and fi tted with a Ferrari racing engine that was the best match to the original. At Artcurials February auction, it failed to sell for the estimated 400,000-600,000 (335,000-500,000), but may still be available through separate negotiation. artcurial.com

BONHAMS

Churchills Victory rally cryA morale-boosting visit by Winston Churchill to Portsmouth, after the city and dockyard had been devastated by air raids in January 1941, is captured in this signed photograph of the warti

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Classic Boat - May 2014