Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2023 i Classic Boat

Princess Anne recommissions WWII junk The Princess Royal re-commissioned a unique historic yacht for charity work in a ceremony at Haslar Marina, Gosport. The 40ft (12.2m), 16 ton, junk-yacht Boleh, a registered national historic vessel, was designed and built in Singapore by Royal Navy Commander Robin Kilroy and Malay shipwrights after World War II and sailed to the UK with a Naval crew in 1950. Designed for ocean cruising with a fusion of Eastern and Western traditions, Boleh has many innovative features, including a unique quadruped mast, a long-keeled sea kindly hull, teak decks and diesel electric motors. Among her most unique features are deck lights framed from the windscreens of captured Japanese WWII fighter planes. Following fire damage in the late 1970s, Boleh was restored in Rye harbour by…

BONHAMS It’s snow joke Christmas came early for the vendor of this original artwork for an RNLI Christmas card by celebrated newspaper cartoonist Giles (1916-1995). The undated cartoon, estimated at £700-1000, made a cracking £7012. That’s snow joke. The one-time “War Correspondent Cartoonist,” who settled in Suffolk and kept a yacht on the River Deben, was awarded the OBE in 1959 and also made Life President of the RNLI for his staunch support. Not only did his annual RNLI Christmas cards bring a lot more festive cheer than Brussel sprouts and raise large sums, he also donated original artworks to the life-saving organisation. GOODING, USA Would You-You believe it! Just as a rare original Bugatti You-You mahogany-planked motor launch was due to come to auction for the first time ever,…

I have never met Caryl Terlezki, only spoken for hours on the phone, but we understand each other. Time, distance, age, and life experience are irrelevant: we have become friends, despite any of those things. Caryl has a great task to fulfil, a mighty responsibility for herself, and especially for Phil, her husband, who has left the task to her. I will back her to the hilt. Philip Thomas was high on the Close Quarters do-next list for several years, but was, always “too busy”. As the dynamic racing owner of Uffa Fox’s 22sqm skerry cruiser, choosing him to interview was a no-brainer: Vigilant has been making media waves since her 1930s launch from Uffa’s own workshops, right up to the present day. Why too busy? Phil lived life at…

When a musician who is also a tall ship’s captain meets a brigantine owner who likes to add creative content to chartering, the result is inspired. ‘Sessions and Sail’ combines sailing Scottish and Irish waters while playing traditional music, both afloat and ashore, learning more about the local traditions through a series of workshops and sessions. Music and boats go together well, especially when the music matches the surroundings. Meeting local musicians with their songs, stories and tunes adds to our knowledge and appreciation of these beautiful coastlines and islands. ‘Sessions and Sail’ charters began in 2018, were interrupted during the pandemic but resumed this year, beginning with the Orkney folk festival in May, then cruising the west coast of Scotland to Ireland. I joined Lady of Avenel at Rathmullan…

Email: steffan@classicboat.co.uk NEW ENGLAND, USA America’s Cutty Sark on the move The restoration of the 131ft (40m) schooner Coronet, which has been happening in fits and starts since 1995, has entered a new phase, with the plan to move it to the Henry du Pont Preservation Shipyard, part of the Mystic Seaport Museum in nearby Connecticut. The plan is to complete the 1885 yacht in three years. The restoration of Coronet has long been known about but completion has proved elusive for the last 27 years, despite a stream of great boatbuilders and suitably high-profile owners, like the late Bob McNeil, who, with boatbuilder Jeff Rutherford, was also behind the restoration of the magnificent steam yacht Cangarda. At that time, around a decade ago, the plan was to restore the great…

There’s nothing like a spell on the windward rail of a racing yacht for developing an interest in upholstery. Staggering below deck on frozen drumstick legs, I entered a saloon with bare slatted benches as welcoming as a vandalised bus shelter. For sailors of a certain age – which I am well past – it’s deep-filled overstuffed comfort that our toe-rail-tenderised buttocks require. Indeed the upholsterer may be elevated to a sainthood while every trick in the book of go-faster naval architecture begins to look like malice aforethought. Among furniture makers sawing their dainty dovetail joints, the hammer-wielding upholsterers were known as ‘ragtackers’. But to appreciate just how skilfully, attractively and very comfortably those ‘rags’ could be tacked it’s worth examining a yacht from an age before plastic and power-tools.…

It is surely not uncommon for people to find themselves buying a very different boat to the one they had first envisaged: and while that might often prove to be a mistake, it certainly wasn’t for the long-term owners of the 1904 Fife Mikado. In the mid-1990s, Michael and Beverly Briggs owned a 1905 24ft (7.3m) cruising Falmouth Working Boat called Little Apple. With their four children growing up it was time for bigger boat, so they went to Peter Gregson of Wooden Ships and said “we want a Big Apple.” They looked at various bigger gaff cutters, none of which seemed to fit the bill. One day Peter casually mentioned that he had just seen a “drop-dead gorgeous” boat called Mikado, but that she wouldn’t do for the Briggs…

OVERALL WINNER MGB81 By Mark Sutherland, from Stourport on Severn, Worcestershire PEOPLE’S CHOICE WINNER Off to Sea By Nick Harborne from Barnstaple, Devon JOURNEYS, HIGHLY COMMENDED PS Waverley Last Journey of the Season By Graeme Phanco, from Clydebank, Dunbartonshire NEWCOMER WINNER Journey to the Big Refit By Neil Holmes from Hull, East Yorkshire CLASSIC BOAT HIGHLY COMMENDED Drifting with Friends By Shane Granger from Batam, Riau, Indonesia CLASSIC BOAT WINNER Schooner Girl By Lucy Tulloch from Falmouth, St Paul’s, Antigua…

Chris-Craft remained the world’s best-known boat brand until the 1960s. The first serial boat builder started in 1923 with a single model called Runabout. This skilfully coined name was to generate an entire range defined by model’s length. By the late 1940s, the 17ft Deluxe Runabout was still one of the most popular models, an archetype summing up all Chris-Craft’s success story. Founded a century ago, Chris-Craft dominated the motor boating market for a long time without any strong competition. The term Chris-Craft has long been used to refer to any wooden speedboat. It appeared for the first time in the nautical press in 1922 as an advertisement offering four different versions of their Runabout model, an unprecedented event in a field where each boat was generally the subject of…

A quick recap tells us that the yard was founded in 1963 by Francesco del Carlo who was still working at the yard right up until the day before he died, at the age of 87, seven years ago. The yard is now run by Francesco’s sons Guido (who runs the classic boat restorations) and Marco (who manages the slipway and the commercial work). Once again, on this visit I was accompanied by Enrico Zaccagni – yachting historian and experienced restoration project manager – who expertly translated for us. While restorations of the 1936 Fife ketch Eileen, the 1938 Mylne ketch Mariella and the 1937 Johan Anker Magda XIII took place before my first visit, several more have been completed since then. These include Barbara, a 1923 Charles E Nicholson-designed…

It is only natural, once the average sea plodder has mastered belaying the obliquity of the elliptic (explained last month) and discovered that pulling ropes and wot not has some effect, that he, or possibly she, will have acquired delusions of adequacy, and will aspire to pitting himself or possibly herself against his or possibly her peers, or possibly piers. This is known as racing, and can be done entirely without stress… unless you are the officer of the day. Here’s how. Like golf, yacht racing involves eccentric clothing and handicapping, and very little of it actually takes place in the water – in fact that’s not entirely true of golf. Handicapping (explained In CB23 by Stephen Hawking) consists of a simple series of calculations and measurements against something called…

Fifty-eight boats took part in the 17th Vele Storiche Viareggio (Viareggio Historic Sails Meeting) on Italy’s Tuscan coast in October. Those with CIM ratings were divided into two classes – Epoca (boat built before 1951) and Classica (1951 to 1975) – while all of the boats were split into 10 smaller groups within each of which there was no handicapping. Three races were scheduled but, after all the competitors spent a few hours drifting around waiting for a wind that never came, the first of these was cancelled. The next day brought just enough wind to allow a race to take place (but with it a little rain), and then everything came good on the last day with a gentle but steady breeze and glorious sunshine. Overall winner of the…

In October 1896 a meeting was held at Bembridge Sailing Club to discuss a proposal to form a new class of keelboat. The club had been founded just 10 years previously and the members had been sailing a variety of boats, many of them Half Raters, which typically became uncompetitive by the end of their first season. After agreeing to approach Charles E Nicholson to commission a new design, things then moved very quickly. As soon as Nicholson presented his proposals just 10 days later, his company Camper & Nicholsons, was immediately instructed to build nine boats. It was agreed that the class should be known as the Redwings and that all boats should have red sails. Perhaps the most significant decision – and one that is a highly significant…

“Who stole my ladder?” is a familiar cry amidst the laid-up boats in the average yard at fitting-out time, for ladders – good ones that is – are like hens’ teeth. You’d be wise to lock yours to your trailer if it is precious, like the one I found lurking in the undergrowth behind a blue glassfibre derelict boat at Johnson & Loftus’s in Ullapool last year. As ladders go this was neither good, nor adequate but exceptional. This ladder was the ladder of all boatyard ladders; this ladder can truthfully be called a classic ladder (wooden, of course). Of all the boat stuff we value, a ladder does not, on the face of it, rank highly; as highly as a good, solid tender, or working wind instruments (are there…

MASSACHUSETTS Arey’s Pond Arey’s Pond Boat Yard is best known for designing, building, restoring, and maintaining classic catboats. The yard, in Orleans on Cape Cod, offers a wide range of custom-built catboats in glassfibre and wood. The most popular designs include the quick and light 14ft Racing Catboat and the 16ft Open Cockpit Lynx Catboat with seating for between six and eight people. In 2020, the Arey’s 24ft Custom Catboat Libellule won our Classic Boat Award in the Spirit of Tradition Under 40ft category. The yard also has an entry in this year’s Classic Boat awards – more details in next month’s issue. As well as designing and building award-winning catboats, Arey’s Pond is a full-service boatyard with boatbuilding and restoration, marine finish, canvas fabrication, and rigging capabilities. Their waterfront…

Cranked scraping chisel We have described the efficacy of the scraping chisel in removing glue or upstanding fibres before (CB371, May 2019) and for anyone confounded by sharpening, it’s worth reiterating that preparing this tool could not be simpler. Any old firmer chisel will suit, replacing the existing bevel with an edge ground bluff as the white cliffs of Dover. An additional use is cutting a chamfer (1) or shaping where access with a plane is impossible or you don’t want to create dust with a rasp or abrasive paper. One of its few limitations, however, is that working far from the edge of a board, or where there are fiddles or mouldings preventing the blade lying flat, is restricted by the handle. This cranked scraping chisel – akin to…

AWARDS 2023 We announce our Awards shortlist for the best vessels of the year, power and sail, new and old. Photo shows Viveka, last year’s winner in the Restored Sailing Vessel over 40ft category. SHENANDOAH OF SARK The 1902 three-masted schooner and the captain’s account of her win at the windy Voiles de Saint-Tropez in autumn 2022 ALKA B A traditional Paul Gartside-designed gaffer built by – and for – a structural engineer behind some of the fastest racing yachts in recent history PLUS… Italian car collector Corrado Lopresto, sailing in Erskine Childers’ wake a century after his execution, the life of Alfred Mylne and more FEBRUARY 2023 On sale 14 Jan 2023 Or why not subscribe? SAILING TODAY WITH YACHTS & YACHTING IN THE JANUARY ISSUE • Boat tests:…