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28 Articles

The anniversary trade

Funny things, anniversaries. If you accept that we appreciate milestones, arbitrary though they are, then we can agree that 100 is a big one. It’s how we mark the passing of history after all. The Rolex Fastnet is 100 years old this year. It’s probably the biggest, best known yacht race in the world, albeit that most of its fame stems from the tragic disasters of the 1979 race. The club that it founded – the Royal Ocean Racing Club – is also a century old this year. But how about the Royal Thames Yacht Club? An astounding 250 years old. That’s older than the America’s Cup. Come to think of it, it’s older than America. King’s Boatyard in Suffolk (who built Arthur Ransome’s yachts) is 175 years old this…

The anniversary trade

It was in 2007 in Argentario that Olin Stephens, then aged 98, last sailed on Stormy Weather, the yawl which he had designed almost three quarters of a century earlier and which was said to be one of his favourite designs. “It got quite windy towards the end of the race,” recalls Stormy Weather’s owner Christopher Spray, “and he was getting a bit wet from some breaking waves. I asked him if he was alright and he said ‘I have been on this boat in far worse conditions than this’!” Stormy Weather was built by Henry Nevins at City Island, New York, and launched on 14 May 1934. She was a direct development of another yawl, Dorade, which Olin had designed at the age of just 21 and which had…

1775 and all that…

The Royal Thames gathered at St Paul’s Church in Knightsbridge on 15 January for a service of blessing, including an inspiring sermon delivered by the Club chaplain, Canon Alan Gyle. ‘Eternal Father Strong to Save’ and ‘Jerusalem’ rang out to the roof beams: (Hubert Parry, composer of the latter’s tune, was a member.) Looking around, grey hair was everywhere, and I could not help wondering what marvellous stories all those seasoned sailors could tell, if they could be persuaded – what oceans they had crossed with the Blue Ensign fluttering, what adventures and near misses… Back at the Clubhouse the bubbly flowed, thanks to event sponsor Nyetimber, as did the speeches. With 250 years to look back on, and a bright future ahead, there was much to celebrate. An antique…

1775 and all that…

RORC and Fastnet celebrate centenary

Classics Day sail-past planned The Royal Ocean Racing Club, known to all as RORC, celebrates its centenary this year and will be marking the event in a number of ways, not least by holding a classics day in Cowes, Isle of Wight, on 19 July. The RORC is calling for yachts built in the first 50 years (1925-1975) and that have raced with RORC, to participate. The event will comprise a sail-past and salute for the RORC followed by a short race (subject to sufficient interest), followed by a welcome of participating crews to the evening centenary party. Any yachts interested in participating are requested to email racing@rorc.org to register their interest (including whether they would participate in a short race) by 30 April 2025. For more regattas, see our…

RORC and Fastnet celebrate centenary

SAIL ON, SAOIRSE

In 1933, T Harrison Butler – the professional eye surgeon and amateur yacht designer – entered a design competition organised by The Little Ship Club. His entry was a 25ft 6in (7.7m) Bermudan cutter, the first of which was built in Hull the following year and named Bogle (after Butler’s daughter-in-law, the actress Joan Bogle Hickson who subsequently found fame playing Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple). Two years later, another boat to this design, but this time a Bermudan sloop, was built in pitch pine on oak by RJ Prior in Burnham-on-Crouch and was named Myfanwy. She had a Stuart Turner 2-cylinder petrol engine and The Yachtsman reported that she “represents a compromise for a 6-tonner on a fifty-thirty basis, the thirty per cent belonging to the engine. She is a…

SAIL ON, SAOIRSE

CHARLES MILLER LTD Russia’s iron-clad coracle Shaped like a gigantic soup-bowl, the Russian Imperial Navy’s revolutionary war ship turned out to be even more revolutionary than intended – it kept going round in circles. But that was only one of the foibles of the 1874 round-hulled, 101ft-diameter (30.8m) iron-clad that was intended as a formidable gun platform. With its 18in (46cm) freeboard and minimal draft, designed to present a minimal target, the heavily armoured Novgorod was as wayward as a soap dish and swamped just as easily in any sort of seaway. In “pursuit” mode the Novgorod could manage all of 6.5 knots in flat water, despite being powered by six massive steam engines driving six propellers, which at full chat consumed 200 tons of coal per hour. With little…

In Davy Jones’ Locker

There’s this shackle that keeps me awake at night, or rather used to. A hefty shackle, and moused – but I’ll come to that later. I won’t be alone in having shackles on my mind: the singlehander whose forestay relies on one, scanning the masthead as a storm approaches, with a pair of binoculars, knowing they really should haul themselves aloft and check. In their mind’s eye they can see hands on a wrench, giving the pin a last twist, before threading the monel through the eye. Or had they made that up? The coil had been down to its last inch, that they can remember. No, they’d asked a guy at the yard to do it, and had been assured that it had been done. Yet still they can’t…

In Davy Jones’ Locker

It’s hardly the first subject people want to talk about. Underwriters, brokers, risk, death, destruction, disputes and confusion might be the first things that spring to mind. The marine world seems to have a great humanising influence on all things though, and it seems that insurance – at least the way Pantaenius does it – is no exception. “We don’t have any chat bots or automated phone systems” says Simon. “When you phone us, someone who actually knows boats will pick up after a few rings.” In today’s world, that’s reason enough to sign up; in fact a few Pantaenius customers have signed up just on the strength of that. This is doubly important for owners of old, wooden boats – that’s you perhaps, dear reader. You might not know…

WOLF IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING

Rustler Yachts has developed a global reputation for building a long line of comfortable sailing yachts which err towards the comfortable and traditional, rather than the new and trendy. Its current range includes six sailing yachts, ranging from a 24ft dayboat to a 57ft world cruiser – although to some they will still be best remembered for building the indomitable Rustler 36, which finished in first, second and third place in the 2018 Golden Globe round-the-world race. With that kind of record, the company might have been forgiven for resting on its laurels and sticking to building sailing yachts. But, with many of their loyal clients reaching an age when they would prefer to press a throttle rather than grind a winch, there was a steady clamour for a Rustler…

WOLF IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING

BACK ON THE CLYDE

The 8-Metre World Cup 2024 was held 17-24 August in Helensburgh, Scotland under the auspices of the historic Royal Northern and Clyde Yacht Club and Mudhook YC. Thirteen yachts from Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, UK and even a team from Canada had a windy and wild week of racing and perhaps an even wilder week of social events. The Class is noted for its dedication to sailing perhaps the world’s most beautiful and affordable boats, in outstanding locations offering opportunities to take families and friends along and still compete at the highest level. The Clyde event proved no exception and competitors found out why the history of Eight racing runs deep in this area. The waters of the Clyde near Glasgow are the home of the great William Fife dynasty…

BACK ON THE CLYDE

Britain and Ireland

SOUTH COAST 17-18 MAY Cowes Spring Classics Cowes, Isle of Wight (IOW), cowesspringclassics.com Broad-church regatta, sail and power 23-26 MAY Yarmouth Gaffers Festival oga.org.uk. Flagship OGA bash IOW 30 MAY – 2 JUNE Cowes Classics Week IOW, cowesclassicsweek.org 100+ boats in many classes 07 JUNE Round the Island Race IOW, roundtheisland.org.uk One of the world’s most popular yacht races 11-15 JUNE Royal Thames Yacht Club 250th Anniversary Regatta Cowes, IOW racing.royalthames.com A unique celebration of the first 250 years, from different locations around Cowes, and featuring classic yachts, Darings, Dragons, Redwings and Seaview Mermaids among the modern fleet 4-6 JULY Taittinger RSYC Regatta Yarmouth, IOW, royalsolent.org Popular for mixed classics 6–11 JULY British Classic Week Cowes, IOW, britishclassicweek.org Five days’ racing including round-the-island and GRP classics 19 JULY RORC Classics…

Britain and Ireland

The Mediterranean

The centre is holding Things are heating up in the Mediterranean, which has forever been the world’s epicentre of classic yacht racing. The reinvigorated CIM now allows some glassfibre yachts into the fleet. This year, a similarly revitalised AIVE (Associazone Italiana Vele d’Epoca) is staging its new series on Italy’s west coast. And the year will end with the popular, biennial spectacular that is the Monaco Classic Week. MAY TO OCTOBER AIVE series All the major Italian classic events can be found in one place, thanks to L’Associazione Italiana Vele d’Epoca (AIVE) aive-yachts.org 10-11 May: Trofeo Ammiraglio Francese (in Viareggio) 23-25 May: Vele d’Epoca Alto Tirreno (Le Grazie Porto Venere) 28-31 May: Grandi Regate Internazionali (San Remo) 31 May – 1 June: Trofeo Portopiccolo Classic (Sistiana) 12-15 June: Capraia Sailing…

The Mediterranean

Northern Europe

Festivals and races The north of Europe is a mixed bag with everything from huge maritime festivals to the sleeker side of yachting… Metre yachts and Skerry cruisers. This year, being an odd year, sees the Semaine du Golfe du Morbihan, essentially a raid carried out by everything from dinghies to yachts to tall ships. And a new event that sees classic yachts return to the lovely old Dutch port of Enkhuizen. SWEDEN AND FINLAND 29 JUNE – 4 JULY Gotland Runt (Around Gotland Race) Stockholm-Visby-Sandhamn, Sweden; 220nm passage race ksss.se LATE JUNE/EARLY JULY Sandhamn Regatta Sandhamn, Sweden Offshore race for classic yachts ksss.se 14-17 AUGUST TPS Airisto Classic Regatta Abo Batvarf, Turku, Finland airistosegelsallskap.fi AUGUST (TBC) Viaporin Tuoppi Helsinki, Finland Big wooden boat regatta english.viaporintuoppi.fi 22-24 AUGUST HSS Baltic…

Northern Europe

Rest of the world

Endless summer With classic yacht racing around the world, it’s always summer somewhere from the schooners of the USA to a vibrant scene in Australia and New Zealand. Like the Mediterranean, the USA has a classic racing series across 11 regattas, organised by the CYOA – see classicyachts.org CARIBBEAN 15-21 APRIL Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta West Indies, antiguaclassics.com UNITED STATES 4 JULY Great Schooner Race greatschoonerrace.com Penobscot Bay, Maine 20+ vessels in this evocative rig 11-13 JULY Vineyard Cup Mass, sailmv.org/vineyard-cup Mixed fleet of classic and modern 23 AUGUST Belvedere Classic Regatta San Francisco Bay, California sfyc.org. Includes Great San Francisco Schooner Race 24-31 JULY Salish 100 Port Townsend, Washington nwmaritime.org Popular small-boat cruise 27-29 JUNE WoodenBoat Show Mystic Seaport, CT thewoodenboatshow.com Big exhibition of boats and crafts 24–26 JULY…

Rest of the world

The Royal Yachting Association can confidently define itself as “the national governing body for all forms of sail racing” amongst other responsibilities for cruising and sail training. But in 1900, under its original name, the Yacht Racing Association, (YRA), had no such secure position. Its aspiration to control the regulation of yacht racing was challenged constantly by maverick groups of angry owners who could not afford to build new boats when the rules changed, and desired either the excitement of racing in classes which would survive more than a couple of years, or a universally accepted and efficient system of handicapping, operating within a carefully organised timetable for regattas where everyone felt their dates had been fairly allocated. In addition, a growing enthusiasm for dinghy racing around the coasts, particularly…

By using dead sails from famous old boats, the well-known yachting photographer Kos Evans has been hard at work creating everlasting pieces of art or “photographic sculptures”. These artworks capture the history of sailing in a series of one-off collectables, from the Cutty Sark and Britannia, to Shamrock V in the J-Class era, to the America’s Cup-winning Stars & Stripes, right up to the current era with Alinghi and INEOS, and Vendée Globe and Olympic classes. Each sail is signed and identified by the donor and includes a quote about the life of the sail. Many great historic sails like this are now thrown away into landfill but Kos feels their stories need to be preserved. “The story becomes full circle with this project, as the sails become vehicles of…

A LIFE ON THE ROPES

Nigel Sharp’s article “Learn the Ropes” [CB432 – and reproduced in the following pages in concise form] made me recall some of my history and choices as a traditional ship rigger working with various types of three-strand line on sailing vessels. When I began working on wooden ships in 1991, I sailed the replica Bounty up the east coast of the USA. She was rigged with both natural manila and polyester line. I quickly learned the difference: polyester has soft synthetic yarns, while manila left little splinters of banana plant in my hands which soon festered. The infected splinters would shoot out after a couple of days like little rockets when I squeezed my hand around a line. Manila ratlines also had a tendency to break under foot when climbing…

A LIFE ON THE ROPES

Polypropylene A number of beige-coloured polypropylene ropes are still produced today including Marlow’s Hardy Hemp, Liros’s Historic, Master Ropemakers’ Synthetic Hemp (no longer available in ‘traditional tarred’ dark brown colour), Cousin’s Hemp Like, Hempex which is produced by both Kingfisher and Gleistein, English Braids’ Hemtex 3, and FSE Robline’s Spunflex and Classic-Tex, and Langman Ropes’ Polytex and others. Polyester It was in the 1980s that rope specialists Jimmy Green Marine commissioned Bridport Gundry to produce a hemp-coloured three-strand polyester – stronger and less stretchy than polypropylene and with better UV properties – and when Bridport Gundry ceased trading, Liros began to make a similar product, Classic 3-Strand. Although three-strand ropes are generally less popular these days, not least because they are tough on the hands and harder to coil than…

One of the surprising things about traditional boat building is the variation in levels of sophistication. I have deep admiration for those who create a curved deck beam out of a single piece of oak, cut dovetails into the ends, then lower it into the cutouts in the beam shelf. It fits to the millimetre first time. How do they do that? And what about shaping the close-seamed planks for a Tumlare yacht or a Mevagissey Tosher? Water-tight without caulking, built in short order, often by men with little in the way of formal schooling, the skill level baffles educated understanding. Equally effective at the other end of the scale was an operation I shared in the Caribbean not many years ago. The boat was Genesis, built on the beach…

ADMIRAL’S CUP LEGEND OUTLAW On 6 April, 1963, two new boats were launched in Cowes, both with the same purpose in mind: to win the Admiral’s Cup. Outlaw was launched at Souter’s, and 25 minutes later, less than half a mile downstream, Clarion of Wight was launched at Lallow’s. The two were joined by Noryema, and all three passed into the history books by winning the cup that year, having lost it to the USA in 1961. Outlaw also won the RORC Class One cup that same year. She was designed by the forward-thinking designer John Illingworth, famous for his light, modern, offshore racing yachts in the 40s, 50s and 60s, and built in eight layers of mahogany veneer for Sir Max Aitken. Outlaw was described by Yachting Monthly as “the…

PIN MILL, SUFFOLK Harry King and Sons turns 175 Ipswich-born George Garrard set up a boatyard in Pin Mill on the River Orwell in 1850, and soon became known for ‘foot boats’ – clinker dinghies of 12ft or so, predominantly used by Thames barges and fishing boats. They were also used in annual rowing competitions, with Garrard-built boats often winning. One local paper at the time described George Garrard’s yard as the best place to obtain a foot boat. In 1898 one of Garrard’s apprentices, Pin Mill-born Harry King, took over the running of the yard after George’s sudden death. For several years the wooden sign above the small workshop displayed George’s name as well as Harry’s, while Harry built up a reputation of his own. Until his own death…

CB: What was Baruna’s rig like originally? What materials were used? TM: Reviewing photos and plans of Baruna’s yawl rig during my initial visit, it was clear every fitting remained true to the original design, though some were rebuilt over the years. Her spars were Sitka Spruce with bronze hardware. Removing them was quite a job! Her mast step was so filled with rust the main mast was stuck, requiring us to cut through it. The spars were too far gone to be saved. We removed the hardware and cut them up. There were no sails on board, she would originally have had cotton canvas sails, I can’t find any records of who originally made them. CB: How did you design her new rig? TM: This was one of the…

Boatbuilder’s Notes

A plain white plane sight While sighting down the sole of a hand plane, it can be hard to tell if our subtle tweaks to the blade’s depth of cut and lateral position, via wheel and lever respectively (photo 1), have been effective. Attempting to judge the desired smidgeon of blade projection by eye alone, the situation is not improved by the background clutter of tools and offcuts lying about the bench. Stack the odds of success in your favour by arranging a plain white background, perhaps propping up a piece of card in your line of sight (photo 2). Then make a practical check on the evenness of cut by planing the corners of a wooden block clamped in the vice, paying attention to the quality of shavings taken…

Boatbuilder’s Notes

YANKEE 1445 DRILL

Cordless power drills have transformed construction work, not least the task of boring the multitude of pilot holes required when fastening a clinker hull. But how dispiriting it is when the battery, whose ampere hours may have dwindled unnoticed to mere ampere minutes, finally reports in sick on the charger. Cordless, keyless and brushless the drill may be but with a dud battery it is useless. And should we discover that, in this fast changing world of power tools, our once dependable workhorse has been discontinued, the anticipated hour of easy progress at 2000rpm falls victim to wandering the DIY stores in bafflement at so many makes and models in vibrant colours competing for attention. But let’s not overlook the tool we may already have somewhere below the bench and…

YANKEE 1445 DRILL

LETTER OF THE MONTH SUPPORTED BY MYLNE YACHT DESIGN Too much horsepower! I slipped the mooring where my Scottish Island class Gigha lies at Port Bannatyne, Isle of Bute and sailed round to the idyllic East Kyle of Bute on one of the few afternoons last season that was warm and pleasant. We anchored off Colintraive Church, the meeting of the tides, and in the gloaming saw wonderful wildlife close at hand. The short passage was marred by several ‘infernal buzz boxes’, to quote the late George Millar of SOE and Amokura fame, whanging through the narrow Kyles causing me to put the helm down each time to mitigate their steep wash, planing hulls or not. While I admire many classic motor yachts I believe the time has passed to…

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AWARDS 2025 The best boats of the last year REDECKING CAMBRIA The world’s only surviving 23-M yacht, Fife III’s great Cambria, was a project bigger than building a lesser boat from new UNIVERSAL APPEAL The recent surge in restorations of the exciting, dangerous American P Class yachts PLUS… Small, Greek and unique – the junk-rigged Nootka; Tall Ship sailing in the Baltic; the 90-year-old disabled explorer; Liuzzi/Dior runabout glamour MAY 2025 ISSUE ON SALE 09 April, 2025 Or why not subscribe? SAILING TODAY WITH YACHTS & YACHTING with IN THE APRIL ISSUE • High-latitudes sailing in Greenland • A practical guide to launching your season • Scotland in Spring? Solo to the Outer Hebrides • New yacht test: Beneteau Oceanis 37.1 from France • Triumph and tears: the tale of…

To have your boat and eat it too

Boats and food, no, this is not a treatise on provisioning your vessel for a voyage, although some cross-over might be attempted. No, it is an attempt to reframe the most common impressions surrounding boat ownership. I’m drawing parallels between two activities: sailing your boat and sitting down to eat a meal. When we go out to a restaurant, we expect a bill at the end of the meal. We judge the meal as worth the cost or not. One thing we don’t expect is that we are in some way going to make a financial profit from our meal. We accept the fact that we have paid for the satisfaction the meal has provided us with. It seems obvious when framed in such a way that owning a boat…

To have your boat and eat it too

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