Yard News from Levington, Suffolk: Holman’s own Stella in restoration

The Stella Story at Suffolk Yacht Harbour (SYH) stretches all the way back to the yard’s beginnings in 1967, when one of the founders was yacht designer Kim Holman. Holman drew the 26ft (8m) clinker Stella sloop in 1958 and the first, La Vie en Rose, won all her seven races at Burnham Week conclusively. More than 100 followed. Today, SYH has become the natural hub for old Stellas, fully restoring five over the years and, more recently, rescuing another seven abandoned examples for future work. SYH chairman Jonathan Dyke said: “SYH has always had a strong association with wooden boats and the link to Kim Holman gives us a certain historical responsibility to keep Stellas alive.” 

Currently in the workshop at SYH are two Stellas; Star Shell (hull 65) and Stella Munter. 

Star Shell is particularly special as she is hull 2 and Kim Holman’s own yacht, built in 1959 by Tucker Brown. She arrived at the yard in 2023 in very tired condition, but now she – and Stella Munter – have been almost completely stripped prior to renovation, redecking, and sheathing. 

Yard MD Joshua Major said: “When Star Shell arrived at SYH, she had an outboard bracket on her transom but no engine and not much else.  After assessing her, we established she was structurally sound and with skill, care, and attention she could be brought back to life.” Upon closer inspection, the team at SYH discovered Star Shell’s steel centreline fastenings and keel bolts had badly corroded.  The copper hull fastenings were tired and no longer secure. Localised re-fastenings were removed and replaced, and copper nails and roves were extracted, and new ones fitted. Structural floors, bulkheads, the keel and the rudder were all removed.  The deck and coachroof ply were stripped, and the chainplates were removed. As Joshua Major commented, “This was a case of if you are doing it, do it properly.  We didn’t hold back.” A considerable number of planks had to be reinstated due to cracks or rot.  Ribs and deck beams had to be removed, and new ones scarfed or steamed before engine beds were made and fitted. Joshua added, “Next steps will be to fit the structural floors and lay the new ply on the deck and coachroof.  After that, we will turn her over to prepare the hull for sheathing.”

Sheathing, as previously reported here, is now central to the SYH approach to old Stellas. “It’s a no brainer for clinker-built boats,” said Josh. Too many are vulnerable to unsustainable water ingress. Sheathing is the safeguard that keeps these boats alive and secure for the future.” When faced with a leaking Stella, the alternative to sheating is refastening (and effectively tightening) the planks). Jonathan Dyke added “For a wooden clinker of this age, 60-70 years on from its original build date, refastening is fraught with risk. It is unlikely to provide sufficient hull integrity to prevent leaks and water ingress for the long term.”

Out of the seven Stellas SYH has rescued, with the support of Andrew Gilmour (owner of Stella Timoa), there are four on the hardstanding awaiting restoration.

Jonathan Dyke said, “A Stella is a lovely piece of classic boat history that is easy to sail and once sheathed is manageable to maintain.  Whether it’s sailing with grandchildren or racing at classic regattas, the Stella is a versatile, pretty little boat that will always have a home at SYH.”

Boyne Cit, Michigan, USA: Warp speed runabout

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

Southampton, Hampshire: One we missed at the boat show

We missed one at the Southampton Boat Show! It was this, the first Caprina 26 Classic, an Andrew Wolstenholme design built by Webb Boats. The 26-footer (8m) launch is built of Columbian pine and mahogany planking over an oak frame with solid mahogany decks. The boat also comes in ‘Contemporary’ guise, with an FRP hull and wood trim. This is a highly-spec’d, handsome day boat for up to eight, with plenty of locker space and fridge option. 

With seating for 8 people, there is plenty of locker space and an option for housing a fridge. Propulsion options are diesel, petrol or electric, up to 370hp.

Yard News from Ullapool, Scotland: New skiff in build

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

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The post Boatbuilding & Yard News: Craftsmanship Around the World appeared first on Classic Boat Magazine.

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

But what is the Brest Festival? And why go? Well, it’s huge, with seven kilometres of quays in the protected harbour where up to a million visitors have come to see a spectacle of seaborne living history which is the most impressive on the planet. Since 1992 it’s been the largest event in Europe. And, held every four years apart from 2020, it has been a magnet for sailors as much as the enthused. Every day Tall Ships leave the quays taking the public out for a jolly on the Rade de Brest – the impressive wider harbour of France’s Brittany coast. Every night there are firework and searchlight shows and the whole thing is backed by maritime themes of living history, music and food.

And everywhere there are interesting boats from coracles to three masted sailing ships, replicas of famous vessels, restorations, Viking craft in build, pilot cutters, fishing vessels, workboats, lifeboats, yachts, dinghies, rowing gigs and strange rigs, ancient replicas, tugs and other little steam boats.

These, of course, as we all know dear reader, are manned and maintained by some of the quirkiest and most interesting men and women it might be your pleasure to meet. 

The port of Brest is home of the French naval academy, founded here in 1752. And while the town had to be rebuilt after intense allied bombing during World War II when it was the Nazis’ major anchorage and U-Boat base, it’s still the navy’s major western port. The history of the place goes back to the stone age and the castle here is based on one the Romans built, on the river Penfeld. It’s now a major maritime museum.

Our Celtic Sea village was one of five so called “ports of call”, with regional themes based on the Atlantic, Pacific, Mediterranean and Polar sailing. All were very different in their makeup, so for instance at the Pacific you could be tattoed, either permanently or ephemerally. 

The ports of call were joined around the site with other themed villages – of tourism, safety and rescue at sea, ocean conservation, heritage skills; a space for water fun, like trying paddle boards and small dinghies and a space for children.

 It’s the Tall Ships which really dominate Brest, and the original event did much to promote the re-emergence of Tall Ship sailing as square riggers were being restored or built anew. This year the 190ft (58m) barque Belem was one of 25 Tall Ships – ten of which were square rigged. Only one was British – a sad reflection of the fortunes of our larger sailing vessels, but the 120 year old 75ft (22.7m) Bessie Ellen, run for the last 24 years by Nikki Alford is a superbly kept example of one of our coastal trading ketches. 

Some of the French Tall Ships here were British – Le Francais barque, used to be the Kaskelot famous for many films like Shackleton and Cutthroat Island. The Etoile du Roy used to be Grand Turk.

But the Tall Ship making the news this year was the Shtandart – the replica of Peter the Great’s famous frigate, which was denied entry following a European ruling in June which added replica and heritage vessels to the list of banned boats of Russia. The training vessel, which has been taking young adults of Europe to sea since she was launched in 2000, has been a star of every festival since then and she had a fleet of supporting vessels to bring her into Brest before she was stopped by the navy. 

It seemed petty, if not cruel, to many – Shtandart had changed her registry to the Cook Islands in anticipation of the legislation (fruitlessly, as it turns out). And the irony of it is that she is banned in Russia because of her captain Vladimir Martous’s opposition to the Putin regime. He needs help. At the time of writing she has been drifting at sea, denied entry to ports around the Bay of Biscay.

Another reminder of the reach of Russian aggression was witnessed by members of the British village one night when a Ukrainian captain of one of Tall Ships announced that by this time tomorrow he would be in a trench, drafted back into the army again in the ongoing fight for his homeland.

How proud were we, to be returning to this theatre of maritime living history, sneaking back through that door marked EXIT, and supported by the French with accommodation and travel to represent our corner of the Celtic peoples.

We had the Galway Hookers on one side… and before you jump to conclusions of a sailor’s salacious night in Sligo, this was the Sailing Club for those famously beautiful beamy workboats of the west – a couple of smaller versions of which they had brought down on trailers.

Mike Smylie’s daily cold-smoked kippers are a taste sensation not lost on the French – I rather suspect we were invited back mainly due to the popularity of his fare when we staged the British Village in 2016. So no surprise that his Kipperhouse (in his exhibition called Kipperland) was often obscured by queues.

The International Boatbuilding Training College of Lowestoft is well known for teaching many of our current generation of boatbuilders and restorers. Mike Tupper and his crew of expert carpentry instructors displayed and demonstrated the wide range of skills and techniques needed for wooden boat building and repair. A couple of times a day Mike would nick all the chairs for one of his impromptu but highly popular and usually hilarious lectures. These were delivered in French and English. 

Luckily in the village we had the help of a local girl, Julie Guevel, a sometime Tall Ship sailor, who volunteered on the first day and spent the week with us, translating when our own French was, ah, failing.

Our rows of campaign tents included Andy Peters – the well-known figurehead sculptor, whose constant chiselling kept a consistent crowd cheerful.

Mandy Coates and artist Lisa Carter Grist were making willow baskets, hats and coasters plus a lot of friends and fans. And next to Kipperland Len and Mandy Walters of the River Teifi Coraclers with Lorraine Burchill and Alun Lewis with their river Cleddau salmon boat and compass net showed traditional fishing techniques of Wales which pre-date the middle ages. 

Last but not least Nigel Pert and I have produced a bi-lingual photographic history book of the Brest festivals which we were showing and selling. Nigel, who lives in Normandy, has worked at every festival, often as one of its official photographers. 

A major feature at each Brest event has been the Chantier Guip, which more or less presents itself doing ‘business as usual’ with open boat sheds showing how its various current restorations are coming along. The heritage skills village was based around the site with a range of displays from the amazing historical photos of traditional local maritime life by Jacques de Thézac to Mickael Eymann’s boat drawings on a coaster, made to request. The village was presided over by Chantier du Guip’s Yann Mauffret and Marie Tabarly, fresh from her line honours win in the third leg of the Ocean Globe Race – beating her late father Eric’s record in his 73ft ketch Pen Duick VI. 

Of course it was an even better sight to see Marie sailing the original Pen Duick, her father and grandfather’s Fife cutter built in 1898. 

There was a Nuff (if I can coin a collective noun) of pilot cutters, from the French built but very British Jolie Brise of 1913; the Pill-built Marguerite of 1893 and Letty of 1905, plus two Luke Powell boats – the 2008 Tallulah and Pellew, 2020 – at 68ft (21m) LOA his latest and largest build. Unfortunately, in a manoeuvre apparently known as the “twat lap”, Pellew caught Classic Sailing’s Tallulah’s shrouds and ripped out her topmast. “We’re giving her the one from Agnes,” a rather glum Luke explained the next morning.

After long days in the village the late late nights at Brest become a bit of a challenge; we tended to find a glass of red wine at Kipperland and then a simple supper with new found friends the better option. But some of the night shows were truly spectacular. The drone show on the opening night on July 12 was a dazzling feat of engineering against the night sky as hundreds of lit drones consecutively formed the figures of a swordfish, sperm whale, bathyscape, squid and jellyfish glimmering through different colours and undulating in time to music before the astonished crowd.

There were of course fireworks on Bastille Day, and then the Nocturnal Parade on the last night – Wednesday 17th was also quite awesome as boats glid in and out of the inner harbour to music by Yann Tiersen with search lights criss-crossing the darkness of the fleet, creating theatrical pools of limelight highlighting crew or backlighting sails… All with a nod no doubt to what the sky might have looked like anticipating an air raid in World War II.

Brest ends with a parade of triumph out and down the roads hugging the famous Points of Toulinguet and Pen Hir with its famous rocky outcrops ending in the Taz de Pois (Pile of Peas). The occasion leads many of the fleet south on a day sail to Douarnenez, where another sea festival is just getting underway.

I joined the Bessie Ellen – a long held ambition, and then went into a self-muffled state of ecstasy as Captain Nikki gave me the helm and we drove out to sea in an armada of 1,000 plus boats and ships. Here was the Recouvrance; helm down a bit as she goes past in the tumbling turbulent water, and over there is the Biche, with her tunny-poles out looking like the whiskers on a lobster. But don’t gawk, you need to concentrate especially as here comes someone sailing against the fleet – like it’s just an expanded, tidal, salty version of Boulter’s Lock on a Sunday arvo. Good grief man, you must have a death wish… or maybe it’s just French insouciance. A little wave of greeting then, as he passes aft into the maelstrom of boats – the roar in the roads – for you can hardly hear yourself think against the 360° disharmony of huge gunning diesels.

So many well-known boats, often built and cared for by the coastal towns that sponsor them. It reflects a fairly new concept, known as patrimoine maritime – the caring and curation of the nation’s marine culture and artefacts. They do it so well here, in their Breton fashion. And the festival of Brest has basically led and inspired this new culture.

I hope they do it again; there has been talk they might not, with numbers down to 500,000 (330,000 of whom paid) for this eighth edition. But of course the next time we sail to France it will be under the cap of criminality, as they’ll be finger-printing us on arrival! Well there you go: carry on – this feature was brought to you with no mention of Brexit.

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The post Brest Festival 2024: Keeping the Tradition Alive appeared first on Classic Boat Magazine.

As we continue our yard visits around the UK, we’ve also been looking around some top boatyards in Europe, and now in the northeastern US. It’s safe to say there’s plenty going on in the Maine boatyards…

Maine Boatyards: Lyman Morse

Founded in 1978, Lyman Morse acquired Wayfarer Marine in 2015 and so now has premises at Camden as well as Thomaston. Since 2016, the company has been hosting the Camden Classics Cup, a two-day regatta held each July.

Currently in build is a Hood 42 LM flybridge motor yacht. This is the third in the Hood series following the Hood 57 LM and Hood 35 previously built by the company (and, respectively, the recipients of a Classic Boat nomination and award). The hull below the chine is cold moulded with one layer of Douglas fir and three layers of western red cedar, all at 45 degrees; and the topsides are made up of strip planked tongue and groove Douglas fir overlaid with two layers of western red cedar veneers at 45 degrees; and the whole hull is then epoxy glassed. Powered by twin Volvo Penta D6 480 HP DPI stern drives, this yacht will have a comfortable cruising speed in the mid 30kt range.

The 79ft (24.07m) schooner Hindu, which was designed by William H Hand Jnr and built by Hodgdon Bros in East Boothbay, Maine in 1925, arrived at the yard in June. It was in 2020 that Hindu’s crew began a major restoration, and they have now brought her to Lyman Morse for help with its completion. This is partly to allow the project to benefit from the yard’s infrastructure (overhead cranes, insulated shed, machinery and so on) and also from its skilled labour force. The yard’s craftsmen are now working closely with Hindu’s crew on the renewal of the floors, bulkheads, ceiling planking, deck and deckhouse. Hindu’s owners also own Bloodhound, a 1990s replica of the 1874 William Fife II 70ft (21.4m) gaff cutter of the same name, for which Lyman Morse has recently built a new 67ft (20.42m) long Douglas fir mast.

Maine Boatyards: Artisan Boatworks

Artisan Boatworks was founded by Alec Brainerd in 2002. The company regularly carries out routine maintenance on about 80 wooden boats, and also has an active brokerage which typically sells about 20 wooden boats each year. Two new boats were launched in August and another is currently under construction, all of them in strip planked Alaskan cedar.

The first of these into the water was the largest boat yet built at Artisan. Wisp is a 39ft 6in (12.03m) Stephens Waring-designed Spirit of Tradition day sailer/weekender. She has a large cockpit with wheel steering, while down below she has a head and galley, saloon seating for four, and a queen-size berth forward. She was completed in just 11 months.

By complete contrast, launched barely a fortnight later was Risvold, a Ha’penny 20 (20ft/6.1m)) micro cruiser designed by Tom MacNaughton for an owner who plans to sail her around the world. With no cockpit, she has a pilot house with 6ft 6in (2.97m) of headroom, and a junk rig with a carbonfibre mast.

Still under construction but nearing completion is Whirlwind II, a replica of a 26ft 2in (7.98m) catboat built in the 19th century by Gil Smith, with updated design work by Ezra Smith and Matthew Smith; while Sardine, one of 23 20ft 9in (6.24m) Fish Class boats built by the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company in 1916, is currently having a comprehensive restoration. The company is also in possession of the 1903 Herreshoff Bar Harbor 31 Joker for which an owner is sought with a view to carrying out a full restoration.

Brooklin

Brooklin Boatyard was founded by Joel White in 1960. Early last year Brian Larkin, who has worked for the company since 1987, took over as president.

Recently launched was Syntax, a new Wheeler 55 luxury motor yacht. This is the second yacht produced by the company for Wheeler Yachts after Legend, a 38ft (11.6m)updated version of Hemingway’s famous Pilar. Syntax was built of cold moulded sapele veneers (six layers on the bottom, four on the topsides, all sheathed with epoxy glass) laid over laminated Douglas fir stringers and frames. Her twin Man 850hp diesels give her a cruising speed of 25kts.

Currently under construction is a Fitzgerald 56, a 56ft (18m) Bermudan cutter specifically designed for offshore cruising by Mark Fitzgerald who was previously Chuck Paine’s chief designer. Her hull is built of longitudinal Douglas fir strip planking, overlaid with three layers of cold moulded western red cedar veneers, and a final layer of Sipo mahogany strip planking which is sheathed with epoxy glass.

The company has also recently restored five Winter Harbor Knockabouts, three of them extensively. This is a class of nine 30ft (9.1m) gaff sloops – designed by Starling Burgess and first launched in 1907 – which are believed to be the oldest complete fleet of one-designs in the USA. Brooklin is due to start an extensive restoration of another one next year.

Rockport Marine

Rockport Marine was founded in 1962 by Luke Allen and has built a variety of timber boats, using both traditional and modern construction methods. In addition to regular service work on around 75 timber vessels, this winter the company is doing some major work to Mystic Seaport’s Brilliant, the 61ft (18.6m)schooner that was built by Henry B Nevins in New York in 1932. Brilliant had previously been to Rockport in 2006 when she had a new teak deck, and now several frame ends, floors, bottom planks and the deadwood are being replaced. To access these areas her Detroit diesel 353 and her cast bronze fuel tank are being removed, and the engine will then be replaced, probably with a 110hp Yanmar or a 100hp John Deere, aligning with the Museum’s Low Carbon Transformation initiative

Currently under construction is Ouzel, a new 95ft (29m) modern classic sloop designed by Langan Design Partners and due for completion in 2025. Ouzel’s hull construction consists of an internal layer of Douglas fir strip planking, overlayed with two diagonal veneers (western red cedar at the ends of the boat and Douglas fir amidships), followed by another longitudinal layer of Douglas fir strip planking. Within the layers are strategically placed carbonfibre laminates to help cope with the significant rig loads, and the outside is sheathed in epoxy glassfibre. Ouzel’s interior has been designed by Mark Whitely and she will have a Cummins 405hp diesel engine.

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The post Maine Boatyards: North American Classic Boat Projects appeared first on Classic Boat Magazine.

How to Nominate

• Email the Classic Boat editor at steffan@classicboat.co.uk
• Subject line: Awards 2025
• Include brief details of the boat and work done, including the boat’s name, designer, builder/restorer, year of build and restoration, length, rig (or power installation) and the yard where the bulk of the work was done.
• Don’t forget – one or two high-res photos of the boat under sail if possible.

We also potentially have two people categories: person of the year and lifetime achievement. There is no published shortlist for this, but all suggestions are welcome.

The winners will be announced in our May 2025 issue.

Have your say, submit a nomination for the Classic Boat Awards now!

The 2024 Classic Boat Awards

The 2024 awards and ceremony were a great success. We celebrated a remarkable list of wooden boats old and new with an audience packed full of designers, builders, owners and other central figures in the classic sailing community around the world, from the British Isles, to the shores of Europe and North America. Take a look at last years winners.

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The post Classic Boat Awards Nominations: Last Chance to Submit for 2025 appeared first on Classic Boat Magazine.

Yachts for Sale: Scillonian Pilot Cutter

Launched in 2009 by Luke Powell, the 44ft (13.4m) Scillonian pilot cutter yacht Amelie Rose is a familiar and much welcomed sight in harbours from the Solent to Brittany. She is, according to her owner, a fast passage maker, and in 2015 won the St Mawes Pilot Cutter Review, proving her mettle against kith and kin. In 2012 she starred in the ITV series The Hungry Sailors, carrying Dick Strawbridge and his son James from Fowey to Tower Bridge in the heart of London. Her construction is of larch planks on sawn-oak frames, with the top three planks each side in oak, and 2in thick for robustness. Below decks, Amelie Rose offers 10 berths, as befits her original charter lay out, and the charter business comes with the sale price. The Category Two MCA coding has recently lapsed but could easily be reinstated, and Amelie Rose has been kept in good condition by annual servicing.

She’s on offer at a price that seems competitive compared to what pilot cutter owners were asking a few years ago, and would make a strong cruising yacht, liveaboard or charter boat.

Lying Solent, Asking £220,000

Contact Nicola Beck – ahoy@topsail-adventures.co.uk

Tel: +44 (0)7831 710946

Yachts for Sale: Tumlare Tidy-up

Alert is a “first-class example” of the much-admired Tumlare class of yachts. Built in 1935 and fully restored with a new engine in the 1990s, she won the Classic Boat Concours d’Elegance for two years running. Since then, she has been carefully looked after, and a professional survey carried out in 2012 revealed no problems. She now needs tidying up having been stored outside for the last few years but with care and attention could be brought back to pristine condition. She is currently in Somerset and on a serviceable road trailer with brand-new tyres. Complete with her wooden mast, sails and various other items, she is ready to be towed away.

Alert belonged to the late Rees Martin, friend of this magazine, and because of his connection to the Boat Building Academy (BBA) in Lyme Regis, the whole sale price will go towards bursaries for disadvantaged pupils at the academy.

Lying Dorset, Asking £6,000

Contact Phil Bevan – philbevan@boutbuildingacademy.com

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The post Two Top Yachts for Sale: Buy a Beautiful Classic Boat appeared first on Classic Boat Magazine.

The yacht designer and builder George Wanhill will be relatively unknown to readers of this magazine. His grandfather, father and uncle had run a thriving company in Poole that designed and built ships and yachts, owned and operated ships, and traded in clay. But when George was a young adult in the late 1860s, huge losses on the ship-owning side drove the company into bankruptcy, and George focused on clay. But in 1889 – when Lloyd’s Register listed 38 yachts built by the family company, from the 18ft (5.5m) cutter Urchin to the 108ft (33m) schooner Shark – Thalia, probably one of just two yachts ever designed and built by George, was launched. George built Thalia for himself but sold her just two years later in 1891. She was then based in Cork and Waterford in Ireland for 21 years under six different owners. She was regularly raced during this period and had her share of success, starting with line honours at Monkstown Regatta within days of arriving in Ireland when, according to The Yachtsman, “a treacherous wind from the northwest with squalls prevailed during the day.” But in another race at Royal Munster YC about a month later, Thalia “came to grief by standing in too far on the bank, and grounded on the mud.”

In 1912 Thalia returned to England and stayed on the east coast for about 50 years, initially with several short-term owners. In 1933 she was bought by Fred Clay, a founder member of Benfleet YC and was raced keenly in the Thames Estuary until the war, winning “a lot of cups” according to Fred’s grandson Peter. Four of those, all from 1936, are now on display in Benfleet YC, while Thalia’s current owner has another, the BYC Commodore’s Cup from 1938.

Thalia spent the war deteriorating in a mud berth opposite Benfleet railway station. Although the Clay family kept her until 1963, they never sailed her after the war. “The upkeep was a struggle and she never went anywhere,” said Peter, “but we spent summer holidays and weekends on her.” Thalia was built engineless, but Peter remembers her “having an old Ford Prefect car engine,” but he never saw it running.

In 1963 Thalia was sold to AR Hale on England’s south coast then, in 1970, to Belsize Boatyard in Southampton, infamous for breaking up unwanted vessels, but Thalia was saved when she was bought by Mrs MT Tann in 1971. Her next owner, HKB Roberts, cruised Thalia in the Med and eastern Atlantic, before selling her in 1978 to Edward Willard, who brought her back to the UK. A big restoration began at Coombes Boatyard in the mid-80s but when the owners ran out of money she was abandoned without a deck.

The First Restoration

By 1993, with mounting unpaid bills, Thalia was on the verge of demolition. In the nick of time, Ivan and Fe Jefferis came to the rescue. Ivan was a boatbuilder who had served his time at Bowman Yachts and was without doubt the right man at the right time.
Over the next few years, Ivan rebuilt Thalia, replacing the stem, counter, about 80 per cent of the planking, many of the frames, and the deck. A striking aspect of Thalia’s original build that became apparent at an early stage, said Ivan, was that “great efforts had been made to build her light and strong.” While the frames were tapered towards their tops (a not uncommon practice), the planks too were tapered: the garboards, 2in-thick amidships, taper down to 1in at the stem and counter, and the higher planks are also thinner. “I’ve never seen or heard of it, on any other boat,” said Ivan, who took the trouble to replicate original scantlings throughout.

While he refitted all the original internal panels removed from the boat, he moved the galley from its original position forward of the mast (where the paid hand would have resided) to the “more practical” site by the companionway. Fe, an upholsterer, made the great contribution of all new cushions and mattresses. Ivan replaced the tiller – thought to be about 10ft (3.1m) long – with wheel steering, but later reinstated a tiller.

During this work, Ivan found evidence in the forward hull structure that Thalia may have originally had a clipper bow, and around the same time Fe found a photo that might back this up. One theory is that an early owner had a collision that necessitated rebuilding the bow, and she was given a straight stem, as clipper bows had fallen out of fashion.

After about four years’ work, Thalia was relaunched, although it was to be a while longer before she was finished. But in 2001 she was ready to sail in the spectacular America’s Cup Jubilee Regatta in the Solent – entirely apt, given that three yachts designed and built by Wanhill had competed in the 1851 £100 Cup race around the Isle of Wight from which the America’s Cup evolved. After a few years sailing along the English south coast, Ivan and Fe took Thalia to the Caribbean, taking part in the ARC along the way. They then spent a few more years sailing the Caribbean between the British Virgin Islands and Grenada. They took part in a couple of Antigua Classics regattas, at the first of which Thalia won the overall concourse d’Elegance prize. “That was quite a surprise,” said Ivan. “She wasn’t immaculate but she was as she should be, very authentic.” In 2010, they settled in Carriacou and put Thalia on the market. “We’d sailed Thalia a long way and we fancied doing something else,” said Ivan.

A New Lease of Life

At that time David Aisher – part of the Aisher family who have owned numerous boats named Yeoman over the years – was rear commodore yachting of the Royal Yacht Squadron and had a Rogers 46 and a J/109 that he raced keenly. But he was eager for something better suited to family cruising. One of his regular race crew started sending him details of boats for sale, one of which was Thalia. David told me that he had “always fancied old boats” and it’s hard to imagine he could have found one any older. After discovering she was in Carriacou, he arranged for a local surveyor to inspect her. “I just asked him if it was worth me going to look at her,” he said. “I wanted to know if the hull was good – anything else could be dealt with but I didn’t want to rebuild the hull.” The surveyor responded positively, so David went to Carriacou. After Ivan took him for a sail, David was sold, but then marooned in Carriacou for a fortnight after the Icelandic volcano eruption disrupted air travel. “I spent a lot of time drinking rum with the locals,” he said. “After a fortnight we all knew each other very well!”

David shipped Thalia across the Atlantic to the Elephant Boatyard on the Hamble River. All of the internal ballast was removed and the equivalent weight – just over a tonne – was added to the forward and aft ends of the external ballast keel. All plumbing was renewed, with new stainless-steel water and fuel tanks, calorifier and all seacocks. The wiring was replaced and the electrical systems upgraded. The Yanmar 30hp installed by Ivan was removed, serviced and refitted, and now drives an offset Kiwi feathering propeller. The rig was renewed with new Douglas fir spars by Bob Snow’s Maritime Enterprises in Yarmouth, rigging by Martin’s Rigging and sails by Ratsey & Lapthorn. More recently, the Elephant recaulked the deck, replaced some planks, and refastened all underwater planking with bronze screws.

During his ownership, David has frequently cruised and raced Thalia with family and friends, “but never enough”. From her berth at the Elephant Boatyard he has taken her on “lots of weekend trips in the Solent”, to the West Country, Isles of Scilly, Channel Islands and northern France including the Brest Festival (“it was amazing but I wouldn’t do it twice”). He has relished the chances Thalia has given him for “meeting interesting people” and he has enjoyed occasional races against other classic boats.

Racing Thalia

In June 2024, Thalia was the only 19th- century boat taking part in the second Richard Mille Cup (September issue). I was delighted to join the crew for the second inshore race in Falmouth. She had finished last in class the day before but spirits were nonetheless high among her crew, made up of David’s friends and relatives, including his cousin Caroline, whose husband Julian helmed. “I rarely drive when racing,” said David. “I know what all the bits of string do, so I can run around and keep my eye on things while someone else points the boat in the right direction.”

Whenever I race on a boat I’m writing about, I may be asked to keep out of the way or I may be given an active role. On Thalia I was pleased to be asked to help with the mainsheet and running backstays, making it a really enjoyable race. We were only able to improve on the previous result by one place, beating the 1904 pilot cutter Alpha, but again, the crew kept their good spirits.

Thalia had moments of glory later on in the regatta. She won the Falmouth to Dartmouth passage race by over 11 minutes on corrected; she may well have won the next passage race, from Dartmouth to Cowes, “if we hadn’t missed the outer distance mark at the finish,” said David. She also won the last inshore race in Cowes, a poignant victory as George Wanhill’s great, great grandson Michael Parker was crewing that day. For the bigger boats in the Black Group, the regatta continued with a race to Le Havre, but with bad weather coming, Thalia and the other smaller boats bowed out, meaning Thalia ended on a win.

Another cherished prize in 2021 was winning Centenarian of the Year in the CB Awards. In this, and other aspects of Thalia’s life, David thanks Ivan’s vital role. “He saved her,” he said. “I’ve just polished her and kept her going.”

Thalia 

design/build George Swanhill, 1889

LOD 45ft 8in (13.7m)

lwl 39ft (11.9m)

draught 6ft (1.8m)

disp 14.75 tonnes

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The post Unique Victorian Yacht Racing Again: Thalia’s Revival appeared first on Classic Boat Magazine.

This year’s Royal Society of Marine Artists exhibition is the largest display of paintings and sculpture ever. From boat yards to studies of tidal fringes, historic naval battles and classic boats sailing, each is a study in detail of marine activity along the shore and out at sea. The exhibition from society members and non-members showcases the best in marine art work, each picture a record of the artist’s style with the event providing an opportunity to show their talents. There are large and small works, with prices starting from £325 up to £80,000. 

This year’s winner of the Classic Boat award is Peter Wood with his boat yard scene “Boatbuilder at Barton”, a yard based on the Humber. Peter is a prolific, well-travelled impressionist artist based in Lincolnshire and nearly every painting he does is filmed as a way of sharing the process. He has also made a short video of the wider Barton yard activity, showing different boats in the process of restoration. Peter has sailed since the age of 13 when he first went on a school trip to the Norfolk Boards, and has owned a Yorkshire Cobble and renovated an original Merlin Rocket. He clearly loves boats and sailing. To check more of his work visit Peter Wood’s Website. 

Shown here are a just a few of what was on show from some remarkable marine artists, and while the RSMA exhibition has now closed there are still 457 paintings to you can view online, many still for sale. Visit the Mall Galleries wesbite or RSMA website. 

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

The other problem with the weather is that there’s just too much of it, but thankfully now that the BBC has ditched its longwave transmission of the shipping forecast, there’s a little bit less. The resulting reduction of anxiety is worth the licence fee alone, and if only they’d also can the shipping forecast, particularly the one at 05:20, the whole nation would sleep more peacefully and be more on-side with the recent licence fee hike.

When I first started sailing there were only two weather sources I relied on. One was the three-hourly Channel 16 VHF announcements, which told you to go to another channel that was either silent, buzzing with interference or occupied by motor boaters asking each other where France is and what time the duty-free wine warehouse in Calais closed. 

Of course, these days there are myriad phone weather apps that allow you to choose weather suited to your liking and temperament. Though they’re all unerringly accurate, there is a spectrum of opinion among Maldon’s waterfront sages in the Queen’s Head as to which is the best; this is not dissimilar from the range of views on which greyhound-cross is the ideal lurcher for hunting, legal or otherwise. Those with a sunnier disposition tend to favour Wind Optimist, while those who spend more time in the pub swear by Wind Pessimist.  

It is, however, wooden boat sailors who are most keenly attuned to the weather. This is because before you go sailing you have to varnish your boat every spring, on a day without rain or sun in a temperature range between 11.7 and 12.3 degrees Centigrade and relative humidity of 40.3 to 41.2 per cent. This year that occurred between 2 and 3.15pm on the third Tuesday in April amid a frenzy of activity, as that’s a relatively narrow window to varnish and sand seven coats. Unfortunately, as some people were sanding while others were varnishing, a fight broke out. 

I avoided the fracas by varnishing the mahogany surround of the barometer attached to the bulkhead of my own wooden boat. Barometers, it should be explained, are operated first by tapping, followed by tutting, because whatever the needle does it’s bad news. If the needle falls that means rain and/or wind; a quick rise after low is a sure sign of stronger blow; and if the needle doesn’t move, it’s broken. Thus, a barometer not only measures pressure but creates it. Indeed, one of my heroes, Blondie Hasler, who came second in the 1960 solo trans-Atlantic race, eventually threw his barometer overboard because he realised there was nothing he could do to outrun the oncoming weather. 

When it comes to weather forecasts, and whether or not to go sailing, I rely on local oracle Adi, our boatyard manager, who not only tolerates berth holders, but is less keen on the ones who actually try to move their boats. Adi is in effect a one-man nautical care-in-the-community programme, whose range of advice services encompass everything from anti-fouling and anodes to unusual rashes of an intimate nature, or, as he terms it: “saving you lot from yourselves.” 

In my case he’s done it countless times, which I think may be something he regrets. Typically I’d ask him something like: “I’m thinking of going to Brightlingsea, what do you think?” He’d study the sky for a minute – possibly to avoid eye contact – and then say: “Go for it, Dave, you’ll be fine.” And to be fair, he’s never yet been wrong, as I haven’t died once, even though I’ve never encountered anything less than a Force 7 north-easterly. When I asked him if this was always the case, he replied: “No, Dave, it’s normally a 9 or 10 – I told you I was saving you from yourself.” That just made me appreciate all the more how lucky we are to have Adi’s kindly forecast guidance, knowledge and infinite wisdom. I did go out in a Force 3 once, but Adi was on holiday that week. 

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They’re in danger of becoming devalued, and if you suspect I am referring to the old, small, wooden boat I am trying to pass on to new ‘custodian’ and that I’m using this column shamelessly to push the Vertues [sic] of classic boat ownership, as my old friend Roger Robinson claims, you’d be right.

Seems like the bottom is falling out of little wooden boats, so to speak, for reasons I can imagine, but cannot fully understand. Why would one not aspire to be the guardian of a fine collection of firmly fastened lengths of timber, of the quality boatbuilders can only dream of these days? Why would one not want to spend hours with a scraper, sandpaper and finally – after many hours – a varnish brush of finest badger bristle every spring? Why, lastly, would anyone prefer to be polishing a white wall of fading glassfibre, a slave to the latest miracle gel, guaranteed to restore the shine to even the most jaded of hulls?

I have seen at first hand the effort, cost and skill needed to have your glassfibre hull cut and polished by a professional, compared to the simple, quick pleasure of applying a top coat of Hempel’s Polar White to a wooden topside. It also takes a lot longer than you think; sprucing up glassfibre, that is.

I’ve long banished any thought of perfection when it comes to looking after an 87-year-old five-tonner. Life is too short. Leave that to the crew of those mighty Fifes poncing about the Mediterranean regattas, pampered under umpteen coats of Epiphanes, and every surface swathed in the winter with bespoke canvas. What satisfaction you get from working on your own boat comes from knowing every inch of her. At the risk of repeating myself, it is only when you have cast your hand all over her bottom that you can truly feel bonded with this extraordinary, precious maritime artefact that might, if you are intrepid enough, still take you safely around the world, to the admiration of all. Or if less intrepid, down channel to Falmouth where, I can guarantee you will find those who will ask you the age-old question: “What is she?” followed by: “She’s very pretty.” Followed by: “I bet she’s a lot of work”, to which you reply: “Well actually, no.”

But they won’t believe you. Wooden boat owners are at risk of losing the battle to convince the sceptical. The future belongs to a material that promised to be indestructible and unlike most promises, turns out to be true. That picturesque fishing boat on the shore, paint flaking, whose ribs and a section of deck are providing endless photo opportunities, will in a few years have all but disappeared into the mud leaving just a few Instagram-worthy bones reaching poignantly into the sky.

Meanwhile, that abandoned 1970s cruising yacht, brown-stained and growing mould, head lining peeling, will be the subject of endless town council meetings as to how to contact the owner or find someone to buy or dispose of it, without harming the environment. This is a tough ask. Your little old wooden boat is quite content to retire into the mud, her lead keel and every scrap of bronze long since looted by the ever-present gang of mudlarks or vultures, aka wooden boat owners, on the lookout for that rare Simpson Lawrence windlass or galvanised bottle screw. And there she will lie, possibly to catch the eye of a penniless dreamer, whose hopeless ambition will be to restore her or, more likely, the lens of a wandering photographer, Canonius peregrinus, whose brooding composition will win second prize in Practical Photographer, or even, dare I say Classic Boat, because romantic shots of deteriorating wrecks are always popular, as are whitewashed croft houses (or Highland cows) in the windows of Highland art galleries.

The only hope then, for those looking to pass on their irreplaceable boat – well, not for less than £100,000 or more, if you can find the timber – is to let them go for a song, to one of a dwindling band of kindred spirits, someone who will appreciate what they have and, one hopes, be as adept as you have been to lay on another coat of varnish next spring.

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It was in 1920 that Felix Tanguy – who had previously worked at the Keraudren Shipyard in Camaret – formed his own boatbuilding company on the Ile de Sein, separated from the French mainland by the notorious Raz de Sein. With many fishermen returning from war service and resuming their previous work, there was great demand for fishing boats to be built and repaired at that time. Following Felix into the business in 1954 were two of his five sons (Louis who took over the yard and Jean-Marie who set up another elsewhere on the island) and a decade later, both brothers moved their businesses to the mainland (Louis to Audierne and Jean-Marie to Douarnenez). Jean-Marie’s son Yves was born in 1960 and took his very first steps in his father’s Isle de Sein yard. “I was always very fascinated by boats,” Yves told me (through our interpreter, his nephew Noah who was born in the USA and had recently spent a few weeks working at the yard by way of taking a break from his “game development” studies in the south of France). Yves began an apprenticeship at the yard in 1976 and then, inevitably, took over the running of it in 1990. The company trades under the name Y&Y by using the first letter of Yves’ first name and the last letter of his last name, “and also to attract the British because it stands for Yachts & Yachting!” 

The yard has specialised in building new fishing boats to their own designs, almost 200 in total, the biggest 18.5 metres long and all of them of traditional construction with oak planking on oak frames (“the best wood for building boats”). But they haven’t built a new boat for about ten years and so more recently have been specialising in refits and restorations. At the time of my visit there were half a dozen fishing boats being stored and/or worked on at the yard, but the main project was elsewhere in Douarnenez. Many readers of this magazine will have cruised to Douarnenez and be familiar with the Port Rhu Basin which can be entered over a sill a couple of hours each side of high water. If you were to continue through the basin to the south, past all the berthing facilities and under a low bridge, you would find a slipway which is just across a road from the Y&Y yard. Normally boats are launched and recovered on this slipway but it wasn’t possible to slip the 16-metre fishing boat Clément Thomas Éléna there due to a combination of deep draft and the absence of a big tide at the right time. So instead she was brought ashore on Le Flimiou peninsular where there is a 300-tonne side lift operated by the Chambre de Commerce et d’Industrie de Quimper. The work being carried out is typical of that done to several other fishing boats in recent years. She was built by Chantier Naval de Saint Guénolé in 1989 and like so many of her type, there are no drawings of her “and if there were, they would probably be wrong,” said naval architect Alain Hemon who works closely with Yves on such projects. About a year previously, Alain had scanned Clément Thomas Éléna’s lines (“with an accuracy better than 1mm”) in St Malo where she is based, and this allowed Y&Y to do a great deal of preparatory work while she was still fishing and so minimise the time she was out of commission. This preparatory work included making several new sawn oak frames to replace some which were in poor condition and also to give about half a metre more beam at the stern, and fabricating a new stainless-steel gantry, thus providing more deck space and allowing wider nets to be used. This is the sixth fishing boat whose stern has been widened in this way by Y&Y in recent years, and she is also the eighth boat to have a bulbous bow fitted. This latter modification is not to reduce drag in the way that below-waterline bulbous bows do on much larger vessels, but simply to increase waterline length and therefore also increase maximum speed or reduce fuel consumption.  

Y&Y has also worked on various sailing boats over the years. These include Khayyam (formerly Zwerver, designed by Sparkman & Stephens and built by de Vries Lentsch in Amsterdam in 1939) which has been to  the yard on several occasions. Yves’ passion for such boats is reflected in the fact that he himself owns three sailing boats which are currently in the yard. One of these is a gaff cutter called Ar Skleder which is lying outside alongside substantial stocks of oak boards. Built by Ernest Sibiril in Carantec in 1937, she was the first of a class of boat which played a significant role in helping Allied airmen escape to the UK in the Second World War. Yves is hoping to find a buyer who will agree to restore her at the yard. Yves’ other two sailing boats were both designed and built by Camper & Nicholsons. Rocquette was virtually unbeatable with Peter Nicholson at the helm in UK inshore and offshore races in her first season in 1964. Yves found her virtually abandoned in Greece in 2010 and brought her to Douarnenez to restore her, not least by giving her a new deck, coachroof and cockpit. He has since cruised her to the UK (where he invited Peter Nicholson aboard) and to Spain. But he would now like to sell her so that he can focus his attention on his second C&N boat, the 1968 Brambers which had been lying neglected in Perros Guiric before he bought her at the beginning of 2024. This one he plans to keep for himself once he has finished restoring her.

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