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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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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The first, the Fife-designed schooner Altair, is among the world’s most famous and beautiful classic yachts; some would say Altair was the first authentic ‘big boat’ restoration back in the 1987 and the pivotal project that started the whole classic boat movement. The other is the 36ft (11m) GL Watson-designed gaff cutter Peggy Bawn from 1894. We would say that it triggered the second phase of the classic sailing yacht restoration movement, being among the first small yachts to be restored to the very highest standard, something we covered in a long series of articles in 2007. Both boats come from the boards of two of the world’s most celebrated designers: Wm Fife III and GL Watson, both Scottish. Both yachts were the best of their sort in their day, and both must be considered today as among the crème de la crème of the world classics fleet. There, though, the similarities end.

Classic Boats for Sale

Peggy Bawn

Design GL Watson
Build Hilditch of Carrickfergus, 1894
LOD 36ft (11m)
Beam 7ft 11in
Draught 6ft 2in
Disp 5.2 tonnes
Sail Area 715 sqft
Lying UK, Asking E300,000, sandemanyachtcompany.co.uk

“The number of surviving vessels from George Lennox Watson’s lifetime (1851-1904) can be counted on a careless carpenter’s fingers,” as broker Iain MacAllister, who was also project manager behind Peggy’s refit, puts it. “Long gone are his huge America’s Cup challengers and ‘Big Class’ racing yachts, and only two of the fleet of palatial steam yachts from his Glasgow drawing boards are known to survive. It is left to Peggy Bawn to carry the flame for Watson’s ground-breaking mid-1890s work in setting the standard for moderation in sailing yacht design, work that has never been challenged; only endorsed by those who followed his lead through the 20th century, especially Olin Stephens, who was a self-confessed Watson fan.”

“Peggy Bawn’s gilded fiddle bow was anachronistic even in 1894, partly a past fad, partly practical, undoubtedly beautiful – an interim stage in the development of extending immersed waterlines for faster sailing when heeled with a more buoyant hull. But it conceals the fact that when her award-winning restoration team began assessing what they’d found in a County Waterford hay barn in 2003, they quickly realised that the numbers were a scaled-down version of Watson’s famous royal racing cutter Britannia launched just the year before Peggy Bawn in 1893. Her name gave rise to the so-called “Britannia Ideal”, considered the epitome of sea kindliness. Peggy Bawn‘s present owner can vouch for that after 14 seasons of racing and cruising her in northern and Mediterranean Europe, and the east coast of the USA.”

After a lifetime of mostly light use, Peggy Bawn was bought by her current owner, the Irish sailor and yacht historian Hal Sisk, in the winter of 2002/3 for restoration and formed a dream team made up of project manager Iain McAllister, who had known Peggy since the early 80s, boatbuilder Michael Kennedy, the late naval architect Theo Rye and marine engineer Harry Hannon. The two-year rebuild started in April 2003 in a workshop in Ireland’s County Waterford. At the end, Peggy Bawn emerged as a completely new hull and deck atop the original lead keel. Internally, about 90 per cent of the yacht is still original, as are other visually important elements like the fore hatch, skylight, companionway hatch, cockpit seating, tiller, rudder head and most of the rig. Since restoration she has continued to be professionally maintained. This has included replacement of the batteries powering her motor in 2019, reducing battery weight by a third, with the result that the yacht sits on her true waterline again. Back in 2005, she featured on the cover of Classic Boat and in nine successive issues outlining the restoration process, and on the cover of WoodenBoat. Today she is competitive under CIM and Baltic Racing Rules.

The custom-built articulated king-pin trailer, incorporating a removeable cradle, was made in 2007 by leading German boat trailer specialist Harbeck. It’s very much part of the package and adds several dimensions to her security, in transit and in storage, and makes her suitable for attending events worldwide. The trailer allows roll-on roll-off transportation, avoiding the dreaded crane dangle, and includes a Brenderup Cargo box trailer under the stern overhang, giving as a secure, dry store in transit, especially for her cotton sails. Peggy Bawn winters on her own substantial cradle which is incorporated into the trailer but removable. 

“It is apparent that Watson was already fully in control of all the aspects of hull design that later designers would come to regard as important,” said project naval architect Theo Rye. “Engineless for much of her life, this fairly generous sail plan allows her to make progress in just about any conditions; it is really only the most complex of marina berths that prompts use of her electric motor these days. Her prismatic coefficient, an indicator of her distribution of underwater body, is 0.53, pretty well exactly where most textbooks would place it; it is a sweet-spot for low-resistance at the usual speeds of a displacement hull. Olin Stephens came to regard the prismatic as probably the most important single factor in hull design; some 40 years before, it is pretty clear that Watson already understood that fact. In fact, the more you go into Peggy Bawn’s hydrostatics, the more she seems to sit in a sweet spot, often hitting ‘ideals’ set in textbooks many years if not decades after Watson’s untimely death. Mr Watson, we salute you.”

Classic Boats for Sale

Altair

Design and build Wm Fife III, 1931
LOD 107ft 7in (32.8m)
Beam 20ft 6in (6.23m)
Draught 13ft 9in (4.2m)
Disp 155 tonnes
Aux Gardner 6LXDT 275hp turbo diesel
Lying Spain, Asking E6.5 million, sandemanyachtcompany.co.uk

By 1930, Fife III had reached the age of 70 and the world was in its first great financial crisis. These are hardly the most conducive elements to receiving instruction for a 107ft schooner, but it didn’t stop a 45-year-old retired cavalry officer called Captain Guy Hardy MacCaw from placing the order, and Altair was launched the year after from the Fife yard. His desire, recorded for posterity in a letter to William Fife that is on board, was for a boat “capable of sailing to the South Sea Islands with no anxiety.” He held onto the boat for just two years and never reached those islands. Fast forward to 1985 and the Swiss inventor, businessman and car collector Albert Obrist, known for his purist Ferrari collection, was on a charter aboard the Fife ketch Belle Aventure in Sardinian in the mid-180s. Captain Paul Goss had Fife evangelists Donn Costanzo and Jeffrey Law in his crew, all three of whom knew that Altair was by that point, available for restoration. 

After an epic voyage from Barcelona to Southampton that revealed much of what Altair urgently needed, she hauled out at Shamrock Quay for a major 18-month restoration led by Captain Paul Goss that set a new bar in authenticity carefully married to keeping Altair practical and comfortable by modern standards.

After re-launch in the summer of 1987 Altair‘s life changed forever, with a sailing programme far removed from her gentle first half century, but nothing more than William Fife designed and built her for. Apart from, of course, looking like new, the most noticeable feature was her suit of “Altair Cream” Dacron sails by her original sailmakers, Ratsey & Lapthorn of Cowes – made to look like the original cotton suit. She became a regular at the growing number of Classic yacht regattas on both North Atlantic coasts.

In 1993 ALTAIR returned to Spanish ownership with highly successful businessman Alberto Cortina. Through the mid to late 1990s she gained a reputation as an incredibly efficient sailing machine, with Mediterranean duels against the Alfred Mylne ketch THENDARA and the Herreshoff gaff schooner MARIETTE becoming the stuff of legend.

Under later ownership, and a major refit at Fairlie Restorations in 2008, she carried on winning, and her bullets include the 2008 Fife Regatta, countless wins at the Mediterranean and Caribbean classic events, even the 2015 Panerai Transat Classique – on line honours and corrected time, covering the 3,000 miles from Lanzarote to Fort de France in Martinique in 13 days 3 hours and 13 minutes, at an average of 8.8 knots. During the past seven years she finally accomplished Guy MacCaw’s dream, sailing all the way down to New Zealand. New Zealand’s strict handling of the Covid pandemic put paid to further voyaging, and she was shipped back to Europe in 2022.

“The original French-polished walnut interior of Altair is considered one of the most beautiful and authentic in any yacht,” says the broker. Much of it has been recently refinished, and below this lustre is every comfort you might expect aboard a modern superyacht. Altair offers accommodation for eight guests in five cabins, and accommodation for eight crew. She’ll win races and concours, turn heads, or take you around the world. She’s long been the favourite yacht of broker Barney Sandeman who put it: “Altair is the ultimate vintage yacht – and surely one of the world’s most beautiful works of mind and hand.”

Classic Boats for Sale

In the market for a wooden boat? Here’s some more classic boats for sale…

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This year’s annual event was organised by Jim Dines of the very busy Downs Road Boat Yard following the sad loss last year of Gerry Courtney who had helped to re-establish the Maldon Town Regatta in its current form since 2002.

Warm skies and light winds saw 29 Smacks, Gaffers and Bermudian boats competing in the annual equinox race from West Mersea to Osea island. The regatta introduced three separate starts for the smack race with the slowest first, allowing the smaller boats a chance to stay with the fleet.

A very high spring tide provided ample water for the second race, the traditional parade of sail up to Maldon’s town quay. Joining the parade were six of the fleet of East Coast One Designs (ECOD). I’m sure the stunning sight of a fleet of classic boats on the River Blackwater was enjoyed by the spectators.

The winners in the smack races were:  from fast to slow, Alberta (fastest class), Sunbeam, and Polly. The large Gaffers class was won by Nesta, with Droleen II leading home the wooden Bermudan yachts. Modern Classic Yachts was won by Lawrence Weldon’s Twister, Susanne. Delphine was the first ECOD across the parade of sail line. Plus for me, a complete surprise was being awarded the Queen’s Head Maldon Town Regatta Cup for seamanship. So, thanks to everyone involved in the organisation. See you next year.

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You Can Steer a Tall Ship – By Ben Lowings

For all its popularity, there is a gap in the market for a book that teaches you the basics of sailing a tall ship. There are ‘tall ship’ charters, then there are the thousands upon thousands of young people who, for decades, have found themselves at sea on a tall ship, often through a charity such as Sailing Training International. This reviewer, similarly, once found himself shipping aboard a tall ship for a cruise of the coast of North Ireland. Did I know what I was doing? Not a clue. And it’s doubtful that the many who sail aboard tall ships every year, have much of a clue either. This is where this books steps in. As author Ben Lowings, an occasional CB contributor, puts it: “What is it like to lead a watch today on a square-rigger? How will you handle her as the wind rises? Learn the ropes, send the ship on her way, turn her round, and safely arrive in port…” Ben, although he admits to being a keen amateur in tall ship terms, is a commercially-endorsed RYA Yachtmaster Ocean Cruising Instructor, so he’s not exactly starting from scratch; which is comforting.

 And it’s not just a cold list of sails and lines and where they are belayed. The author is emotionally involved: “You may not have lived if you have not heard the sound a fully-rigged ship makes when sailing at sea,” he says. “The roaring vibration of the wind in the rig is at once eeriness and pure power. Tall ships are the most powerful way to sail. They sound with the thunder of the Bull of Bashan and a jumbo jet on take-off. 

The music they make under full sail will chill you and fascinate you forever.” Ben takes a would-be first-time tall ship sailor on an imaginary voyage full of practical advice, from packing for the trip, to making sure you know how to pronounce ‘topgallant’ properly, to taking the first tour on deck to marvel at the complexity of the equipment, to actually sailing. We even discover when the sun is actually over the yard arm, ie beer o’clock. It’s noon! Isn’t that a turn up for the books? This is a short, very practical guide, but told in such a way, and with the richness of folklore hiding behind every phrase, that it’s not one you’ll dread reading at all.  

Buy Now – £9.99

James Lawrence Sailmakers – By Jim Lawrence

Although it sounds a bit self-aggrandising there really could be only one title for this book because Jimmy Lawrence, who died before it was published, was known universally as the traditional sailmaker. With his characteristic cravat, 1960s side-burns and Italian-made winkle-picker shoes, Jimmy put the muddy Essex port of Brightlingsea on the chart for those seeking hand-stitched wings. The last time I saw him he was sculling across the low tide harbour of his home town and I assumed he was about to step aboard some smack or other to measure up her luff, foot and leach. “Hello, mite,” he said, in his bucolic Essex accent, like something out of a Bensusan novel, “gotta keep me hand in, Dick. Can’t turn the clock back, mite.” Jimmy had, in fact, retired and was having a work-out the only way he knew how.

With his Ted Heath-like grin and friendly manner, Jimmy re-invented himself as a sailmaker after firstly the demise of barges carrying cargo (the last freight carried under sail alone was in 1970) and latterly his opportunity of sailing them for charter. It was a shrewd move as there were few craftsmen left who could make ‘real’ sails and nobody was apprentice to the trade. It was not long before Jimmy had a bulging order book from the skippers and owners of the growing fleet of restored sailing barges, smacks and bawlies. This expanded into orders from square-rigged ships, such as the Endeavour, the replica of James Cook’s ship, in preparation for her circumnavigation through to classic yachts, such as the 59ft Camper & Nicholson, Marigold.

It’s partly technical: “A barge’s foresail is perhaps one of the most wondrous sails in the world. It is the only sail with a predetermined clew position and a fixed sheet, yet you marvel at its perfection in going to windward. It may lift little in the luff when very close-hauled, and yet wind abeam it still looks right and with the wind on the quarter it’s still very acceptable. Only when the wind comes right aft does the sail become useless.” The 176-page hardback also covers Jimmy’s life of sailmaking in anecdotes. This includes the heartbreaking job of seeing one of his square-sails blown to smithereens with cannon-balls. This was a replacement for the rotted canvas which had hung from the yard-arm of HMS Victory since Nelson died on her deck! Sadly, the sail loft in Brightlingsea has gone, merged into the bigger sailmakers of the Gosport-based office of Ratsey & Lapthorn. However, Jimmy did those of us, who still want a real sailmaker who can measure, cut and stitch by hand rather than computer, a favour: his apprentice, Steve Hall, has a flourishing loft, North Sea Sails at Tollesbury. I know because he visited my gaff cutter, Betty II, recently to measure up for a new staysail and jib, to match the mainsail he made when I bought the boat a few years back.

Buy Now – £19.50

There is No Second – B Magnus Wheatley

“‘The definitive account of the first race in 1851 for what would became ‘America’s Cup’” is a bold subtitle for a book that will share countless bookshelves with countless books about the Auld Mug, one at least of which, by Daily Telegraph journalist Tony Fairchild, shares the same title. Magnus is to the America’s Cup what Swifties are to their heroine Taylor.He has lived the Cup since a boy, saved the cuttings, read the books, and written and blogged extensively about this most enthralling, controversial contest between “friendly nations.”. Rather than rehash in his educated prose yet again the accepted view of that first race: that America wiped the floor with the opposition – leading to the phrase which Wheatley, in a fine piece of sleuthing, has tracked down to a signalman aboard the Royal Yacht – he delves much (much deeper) with forensic timings of sightings, tidal currents, hearsay, eye witness and newspaper reports (quoted at length), to arrive at some unpalatable conclusions, for America’s legacy at least. Was she the “rocketship”, the “sparrowhawk among pigeons”, or simply a fine, fast, seaworthy Yankee pilot boat, commissioned by a bunch of gamblers who scarpered with a small profit, and just one notable victory to their challenger’s name, albeit a name that has gone down in yachting, and sporting history?

To spill the beans would be to spoil the story; a story based on first hand accounts, newspaper reports and fascinating new research at Kew, where the royal yacht’s log books are kept. Crucially, unlike many of the books about the Cup, the author sets the socio-economic background at some length; in particular the ridicule heaped upon America’s exhibits at the Great Exhibition. Their eye-sweet “low black” schooner changed all that. The press, keener now to kick the establishment, went all out in florid praise of this dashing interloper, which had walloped a home fleet, and discomfited a yachting elite grown complacent in its assumption of superiority. There is much truth in that; America’s visit did shake things up, both on the water and globally. Wheatley even argues her courteous entourage, lead by John Cox Stevens, may even  have planted the seeds of the Special Relationship, one that in yachting terms became not so much special as acrimonious, right up until Australia II won the Cup in 1983, and beyond. Was there no second? To find out, read There is No Second.

Buy Now – £35

Prevailing Wind – By Thomas Dolby

You’ve seen Thomas Dolby before, sharing a stage with David Bowie at Live Aid in 1985. You’ve heard him too, through his countless solo hits in the 80s, and collaborations with big groups of the time, like Foreigner (Dolby did the catchy keyboard intro for I’ve been Waiting for a Girl Like You, for instance). You didn’t know, until now, that he’s a keen sailor and he’s just released a very timely novel about the America’s Cup. Of course now it’s 50-knot foiling machines, but in 1913, our fictional heroes are Davey and Jacob Haskell, two young fishermen from Deere Island, Maine, who are swept up in the extraordinary wealth of early 20th-century America, a wealth immortalised by such names as Rockerfeller, Aston and Vanderbilt. They ultimate victory is, of course, the America’s Cup, and the journey there is fraught with struggle on and off the water (as they say!). The sailing details are properly observed, as befits a sailor author, but the real story is one of an era and a time when the chasm between rich and poor was deeper than it had ever been before and has ever been since. An excellent read, and it could hardly ever be timed. May the force be with you Sir Ben!

Buy Now – £16.39

Interested in Sailing Books?

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The discovery of Ernest Shackleton’s ship the Endurance in 2022 revealed once again the irrepressible and determined story of one of the most charismatic leaders who in a moment of tragedy, when all seemed lost, showed how strong resolve, optimism and humanity can reign supreme in overcoming even the darkest times.

The ship was lost 109 years ago and was discovered below the surface in the Weddell Sea, at a depth of 3,000 metres, four miles south of the position originally recorded by its Captain Frank Worsley. The 144 foot ship was crushed by sea ice and sank 21 November 1915, but was found wonderfully preserved sitting in an upright position on the seabed.

Endurance22 mission’s leader, the veteran polar geographer Dr John Shears said “The discovery of the wreck is an incredible achievement,” and then added “We have successfully completed the world’s most difficult shipwreck search, battling constantly shifting sea-ice, blizzards, and temperatures down to -18C. We have achieved what many people would say was impossible.”

One could argue that all four Shackleton’s Antarctic expeditions ended in a series of failures but this diminishes the man himself and says little of his immeasurable courage, determination and incomparable endurance he displayed throughout his life.

Ernest Shackleton was born in County Kildare in Ireland to an English father and an Irish mother. When he was 10 years old, the family moved back to London and was schooled at Dulwich College in south-east London. Although his father hoped his son would become a doctor, Ernest had other ideas and joined the merchant navy aged 16 in 1890 to satisfy his passion for the sea and adventure.

On the first expedition in 1901 to 1904, Captain Scott chose him as third officer for an attempt on the South Pole but Shackleton was sent home on grounds of ill health. He failed to finish the expedition much to Scott’s annoyance who made some harsh remarks about his performance. According to Scott’s unedited diary found on his body months after he perished in Antarctica’s Ross Ice Shelf, Shackleton wasn’t alone in being singled out, many others around Scott’s also incurred his fickle displeasure.

Five years later Shackleton led his own expedition to the South Pole but turned his party back when he was only 97 geographical miles from the South Pole, knowing that while they had sufficient food supplies to reach the pole, they did not have enough to make it back. He and his three companions set new record 88°23’S in being the most advance to the pole in exploration history at that time. They had come the closest to the South Pole in 1907, but as Shackleton later wrote; “I chose life over death for myself and my friends. For these achievements, Shackleton was knighted by King Edward VII on his return home. Roald Amundsen reached the pole in December 1911 five weeks before Scott in January 1912.

Now Shackleton looked around for a new challenge and resolved to make the first crossing of the Antarctic via the pole.The plan was to cross the vast Antarctic ice sheet to the south pole, and then keep going to the Ross Sea on the other side of the continent.

The Trans-Antarctica Expedition as it was called is perhaps one of the greatest story of exploration, peril, leadership and survival ever told. Shackleton famously lost his ship but saved his crew of 26 men. When recruiting for this expedition, Shackleton received over 5000 applicants. Among his many requirements (mostly to do with personal abilities and skills) was the ability of the candidate bizarrely to hold a tune in his head. Shackleton also recruited 69 dogs for the expedition. Macklin was one of two surgeons on Endurance and helped train the dogs. Macklin also kept a detailed record of what happened after the ship became trapped in the ice.

The Endurance set sail from South Georgia in December 1914, heading for Vahsel Bay on the eastern side of the Weddell Sea but soon encountered polar pack ice. By early January the ship had become stuck off the Caird coast and drifted for 10 months before being crushed in the pack ice. Macklin wrote in his dairy:

“Shackleton, at this time, showed one of his sparks of real greatness. He did not rage at all, or show outwardly the slightest sign of disappointment.”

“He told us, simply and calmly, that we must winter in the Pack; explained its dangers and possibilities; never lost his optimism and prepared for winter.”

The crew had to decamp on the ice after they had removed the ship’s stores and provisions and more importantly three open life boats before Endurance finally sank on 21 November 1915.

The party continued to camp on the ice floes for a further five months. Even in moments of despair, Shackleton maintained spirits and nurtured a strong team ethic. He encouraged singing, seal-scouting trips, exploratory hikes and lantern slide lectures and games and for his men to look out for one another. He inspired loyalty and over came any dissent with a calm demeanour while he maintained a quiet discipline throughout the crew. Most importantly he instilled in them the belief they would survive despite being stranded on the ice for months. On Mayday, the sun disappeared entirely and was not seen again for the next four months

The following April the crew finally took to the lifeboats, rowing to the desolate and uninhabited Elephant Island. The men were exhausted, some afflicted by seasickness and others with dysentery.

After nine days of convalescence Shackleton, Worsley and four others, set forth again, sailing in one of the open life boats across 800 miles of rough seas and freezing winds to South Georgia. It took sixteen horrendous days in an open boat where they combatted huge turbulent waves and grey threatening skies.

Despite this extraordinary effort to reach South Georgia, their journey wasn’t over and Shackleton and two other of the men then crossed peaks and glaciers to reach the whaling station on the other side of the island. In recounting this experience Shackleton said:

“When I look back at those days I have no doubt that Providence guided us, not only across those snowfields, but across the storm-white sea that separated Elephant Island from our landing-place on South Georgia. I know that during that long and racking march of thirty-six hours over the unnamed mountains and glaciers of South Georgia it seemed to me often that we were four, not three. I said nothing to my companions on the point, but afterwards Worsley said to me, ‘Boss, I had a curious feeling on the march that there was another person with us.’ Crean confessed to the same idea. One feels ‘the dearth of human words, the roughness of mortal speech’ in trying to describe things intangible, but a record of our journeys would be incomplete without a reference to a subject very near to our hearts.”

In August the remaining crewmen were rescued from Elephant Island with no loss of life.

In 1922, Shackleton launched a new expedition to the Antarctic, called the Shackleton-Rowett Antarctic Expedition. The goal was to circumnavigate the continent,  but while his ship was docked at the harbour in South Georgia he died of a heart attack, 5 January aged 47 and is buried at Grytviken on the island.

One hundred years later on the anniversary of Shackleton’s death, the SA Agulhas II – a South African ice-breaking ship departed from Cape Town on 5 February, with a crew of 46 and a team of scientists, engineers, surveyors and a media unit including Dan Snow who was on board to document the Endurance II Expedition set off to find Shackleton’s Endurance. A previous attempt to find Endurance three years ago had failed. The project to find the lost ship was mounted by the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust (FMHT) and was financed to the sum of £8 million by an anonymous donor. Donald Lamont, Chairman of the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust, said

“Our objectives for Endurance 22 were to locate, survey and film the wreck but also to conduct important scientific research and to run an exceptional outreach programme.”

Scientific research centred on climate change and related studies, with research into ice drifts, weather conditions of the Weddell Sea and sea ice thickness. Even the mapping sea ice from space was undertaken. Meanwhile the FMHT partnered with Reach the World, the US based educational organisation, and the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) successfully connected with tens of thousand of children throughout the expedition via live streams and materials produced for classroom use through their Educational outreach programme.

The search team used advanced underwater technology to locate the wreckage. A specially built hybrid Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUVs) called Sabertooths were fitted with High-Definition cameras and side -scan imaging capability. Which can search and map huge patches of the ocean floor up to 4,000m.

Endurance was discovered by the Sabertooth-hybrid underwater search vehicles after an extensive two week search at a depth of 3,008 m. Dr John Sears mission leader described the discovery of the wreck as an “incredible achievement.” “We have successfully completed the world’s most difficult shipwreck search, battling constantly sea-ice, blizzards, and temperatures dropping down to -18. We have achieved what many said was impossible.”

The ship looks much as it did when it was photographed for the last time by Shackleton’s film-maker Frank Hurley in 1915. For the onlooker there’s damage to the bow, the rigging is tangled but the hull remains largely intact.

“We are overwhelmed by our good fortune in having located and captured images of Endurance. This is the finest wooden shipwreck I have ever seen. It is upright, well proud of the seabed, intact , and in a brilliant state of preservation. You can even see the ship’s name ENDURANCE arched across its stern directly below the taffrail. And beneath, as bold as brass, is Polaris the five pointed star, after which the ship was originally named,” says Mensun Bounds, marine archaeologist and Director of Exploration.

The timbers are extremely well preserved as the Antarctic seabed does not have any wood-eating  micro-organism and the clarity of the water is quite remarkable. The ship is, according to Dr Michelle Taylor from Essex University like a ghost ship and, “Sprinkled with an impressive diversity of deep-sea marine life-stalked sea squirts, anemones, sponges of various forms, brittlestars, crinoids (related to urchins and sea stars) all filter feeding nutrition from the cool deep waters of the Weddell Sea.”

Apart from these creatures no one is allowed to touch, or attempt to lift the Endurance or any of its artefacts from the Seabed. The search will remain non intrusive and no samples will be taken from the ship or surrounding seabed. Here it will lie as a designated monument under the international Antarctic Treaty, just as it sank to the sea bed over 100 years ago with its last movement literally freeze- framed in time.

Dr John Shears in summing up the success of the current expedition, said: “The Endurance22 has reached its goal. We have made polar history with the discovery of Endurance, and successfully completed the world’s most challenging shipwreck search. In addition, we have undertaken important research in a part of the world that directly affect the global climate and environment. We have also conducted an unprecedented educational outreach programme, with live broadcasting from on board, allowing new generations from around the world to engage with Endurance22 and become inspired by the amazing stories of polar exploration, and what human beings can achieve and the obstacles they can overcome when they work together.”

Since discovering the Endurance in 2022, the protection perimeter drawn around the wreck has been widened from a radius of 500m to 1,500m. Part of a newly published conservation management plan, this new preservation measure will protect the great shipwreck and her story.

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• Dave Selby’s Confession: Secret Blackwater Sloop

The post Finding the Endurance: History & Discovery of Shackleton’s Ship appeared first on Classic Boat Magazine.

Here’s two beautiful classic yachts for sale, just to cast your eye over… because why not?

Classic Yachts for Sale: Peel Castle

Peel Castle is a 50’ ex fishing lugger built in Porthleven, Cornwall in 1929.

Under the same ownership for the last 25 years she has undergone extensive renovation during that time and was converted to a three masted standing lug rig. This eyecatching rig allows for short handed sailing and she has cruised extensively, including Greece, the Azores and the Outer Hebrides. Her generous accommodation lends itself well to large groups for extended cruising and events and would suit the charter or sail cargo industry, having a registered tonnage certificate of 7.2 tons.

A very comfortable live-aboard with beautiful craftsmanship, she is currently afloat in West Cork, Ireland on her own mooring. With a new solid deck, engine and rig overhaul and recent haulout (including some new planking above the water, caulking, fresh anodes and antifoul), she’s for sale and awaits a new owner.

Learn more about Peel Castle

Contact Graham Bailey: ghambailey@yahoo.ie or 00 353 86 085 7067

Or check out Peel Castle on facebook 

Classic Yachts for Sale: Musketeer II

Musketeer II is a one-off Masthead Sloop designed by Alan Pape built by Curtis & Pape. In her 42 years of ownership, she has proven to be a classic and formidable racer. During the 1980’s & 90’s she achieved four 1st places and one 2nd in the West Bristol Channel Race, Fastnet 1989 2nd in class. 1St Place in 1996 Escale dans les Charentais (La Rochelle to Rochefort) and placed in the Round Ireland and European Cup (Brighton to Puerto Sherry).

Since 1996 she has been cruised extensively around the UK, Ireland, and Brittany. The 2021 Survey is a testament to her current Skipper/Owner.

Learn more about Musketeer II

Contact: Nikki Bowen at neyland@yachths.co or 07484079256

Show Me More:

• How D-Day Actually Worked: Operation Details 80 Years Later
• ‘True’ Vs Technology: Adrian Morgan on Sailing Gadgets
• Dave Selby’s Confession: Secret Blackwater Sloop

The post Two Classic Yachts for Sale: Wooden Boats on the Market appeared first on Classic Boat Magazine.

Virgo: Classic Pettersson launch

Virgo is one of the early twentieth century Pettersson boats, commuter boats of choice for Swedish folk with an island summerhouse, and designed to cruise quickly and smoothly across the archipelago on long summer evenings. The current owner took Virgo to Clare Lallow’s boatyard on the Isle of Wight, where she was stripped back, repaired as necessary and revarnished. A Beta Marine 60 engine was fitted with associated ancillary gear and new electrical systems to create a fine launch which combines classic 1920s styling with 21st century technology. The 25ft 4in (7.7m) build features varnished mahogany planking in a carvel construction on oak and metal frames. “She handles extremely well at sea but would be equally at home on an inland waterway or a lake,” says the broker. 

Lying UK, asking £47,500, Henley Sales and Charter, hscboats.co.uk

Scamp: Ready to roll

The 20ft 8in (6.3m) Baycraft 19 made an impression when she first appeared at the Thames Trad a few years ago, for her sense of handsome utility and roominess. The boat is inspired by a 1954 ‘sea skiff’ design by William and John Atkin and offers the same sort of performance and accommodation as that, or one of the 1950s runabouts like a Lyman Sea Skiff or similar by Chris Craft. The build, however, two layers of strip-planked cedar sheathed inside as well as on the outside of the hull, offers easy, modern maintenance and the ability to live on a trailer without opening up. An Admiralty trailer is supplied for this purpose, as well as a full-length boat cover.

As a category D boat the Baycraft is licensed to carry seven people, and in category C, five people. The broker says: “She is roomy and comfortable with a good turn of speed if on lake or estuary, given the 40hp Honda outboard. One could equally fit an electric outboard if preferred. The seating for six to seven people includes a table that fits neatly between the aft seating and tucks away under the aft deck when not in use.” 

Lying UK, Asking £39,950, Henley Sales and Charter, hscboats.co.uk

Want to view more classic boats for sale?

Here’s a wide range of brilliant classic boats on the market.

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• ‘True’ Vs Technology: Adrian Morgan on Sailing Gadgets
• Dave Selby’s Confession: Secret Blackwater Sloop
• Boatbuilding in Britain: Guide to Great British Boatyards

The post Classic Boats for Sale: Two Wooden Motorboats on the Market appeared first on Classic Boat Magazine.

Old-fashioned Sailing in a Sparkman & Stephens Yawl

My first long ocean voyage, a circumnavigation of the globe, had more in common with voyaging in the post-war years than it did with contemporary ocean sailing. My husband Seth and I made that voyage in the first years of the 21st century; therefore, if we had been much wealthier, we could have sailed in a style not greatly different from that which is common today. As it was, our experience would have felt familiar to such iconic voyagers as the Smeetons or the Pyes.

Our sloop was built in 1968, to a 1954 design. Specifically, she was an imitation of the famous Sparkman & Stephens yawl Finisterre (winner of three consecutive Bermuda Races), although she was a sloop rather than a yawl. Despite being 38 feet overall, and 27 feet on the waterline, she displaced 24,000 pounds. She had a relatively shallow-draught keel, with a centerboard that could be lowered for upwind performance. She was low to the water, had sweeping overhangs and a narrow stern, and a small cabin with a traditional layout. Her chart table was expansive and her bunks were narrow. Although her hull was constructed of solid fiberglass, she had a solid mahogany cabin, coamings, and toerail; her ports, stanchions, and most of her other fittings were bronze. Even her propeller shaft was bronze. Her engine was a Perkins 4.107 that leaked an embarrassing quantity of oil. The boat herself leaked, through the chainplates, coamings, winch bases, toerail, and many other places. We slowly but surely resolved all these leaks over the course of our circumnavigation, but they were there for a time, just as they had been for many sailors over the centuries.

Bit by bit, small upgrade by small upgrade, Seth and I did bring ourselves into the current century, or at least into the late 20th century. By the time we dropped the hook back in Maine, after four years of sailing around the world, we had solar panels, electric light, a Pactor modem for email over the single sideband radio, and even a minuscule refrigerator. But at the beginning, our only concession to modernity – or rather, the only piece of it we could afford – was a small black-and-white GPS. This showed us merely our latitude and longitude; the rest of our navigation we did on those large paper charts that today are pretty much relegated to wall decoration.

Our electrical capacity was limited to the very small battery bank we had, only 270 amp hours. We used this to power the little GPS, our VHF radio, and our navigation lights while underway. Those three little bulbs, however, drew enough amperes that we were concerned about the electrical draw on a long passage, especially on our Pacific crossing, a month at sea from Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands to the Marquesas Islands of French Polynesia. So we went to the tremendous effort and expense of installing a small wind generator while we were in Panama. With this extra power, we were later able to install an electronic depth sounder (what luxury!) and then much later on, the tiny fridge, just big enough to keep any fish we caught from going bad before we could eat it.

A couple of years later, in Australia, we replaced the wind generator with solar panels, realizing that we disliked the necessity of anchoring in windy places, and also the fact that the blades had maimed at least one poor seabird. The increased reliability of our electricity, especially in sunny places like Queensland, led us to install electric cabin lights. Up until that point, however, we had lived as sailors for centuries had done, with an oil lamp to light the cabin after dark.

We had two fresh water tanks under the settee berths; for the first year we pumped our water at the galley sink with a hand pump; when we reached New Zealand, we upgraded to a foot pump. In ports where we could easily obtain fresh water, we would fill a “solar camping shower” bag with it, letting the black bag sit in the sun to heat the water and then washing ourselves with it up on deck. This was rather pleasant in deserted tropical anchorages, but was less enjoyable in colder locations, or in crowded harbors where we felt a bit exposed, even wearing our bathing suits. On passages we used our fresh water only for drinking and cooking; a shower at sea was a bucket of saltwater.

We rowed to and from the shore, aboard our eight-foot faux lapstrake solid fiberglass dinghy. We cooled our boat in warm places simply by opening the hatches; we warmed ourselves in cold places simply by layering on clothing or blankets. We always sailed. We used our oil-leaking engine only to maneuver into tight marinas or harbors; often we sailed right on and off our anchor, and we never motored at sea. We used less than 40 gallons of diesel fuel per year. If there was no wind – as there wasn’t for six days off Australia’s Northern Territory – we just drifted.

For the first year and a half of old-fashioned sailing, we obtained weather forecasts simply by looking at the sky and the barometer. Then, upon leaving New Zealand, we joined a single sideband radio net, on which a man back in New Zealand reported weather forecasts. Another year and a half after that, upon leaving for South Africa from the French island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean, we finally upgraded to receiving GRIB files over SailMail, via a Pactor modem hooked up to our SSB. With the advent of our Pactor modem, we also finally had primitive, text-only email communication with the outside world. Before that, voice communication with other radio stations – other boats with SSB or VHF – had been our sole contact with the world beyond our little sloop. Indeed, on our Pacific crossing, we only had the VHF on which to communicate, meaning we could speak only to those vessels that came within 25 miles of our position. Over the course of that month-long passage, a month that just the two of us spent out of sight of land, we spoke with only one ship.

There is a certain element of difficulty in living in this way. There are times when you are very tired, or the wind is blowing strong, and you wish you had an outboard motor for the dinghy. Sometimes the dishes you washed in the light of the oil lamp turn out not to be all that clean in the light of day. Your hair itches after weeks of seawater bucket “showers.” Drifting out of sight of land, in a dead calm, in tropical heat, for a full week, taxes your mental stamina in way not familiar to most modern Westerners. Reading the sky and the barometer to estimate your own weather forecasts requires an attentiveness and observation power beyond what most of us are used to. Living without refrigeration restricts your diet in unpleasant ways. Sailing without modern aids like radar, AIS, chartplotters, and electronic autopilots makes for quite a bit more work and more vigilance. This is especially true in thick fog, even more so when that fog is hiding a busy roadstead like Cape Town, South Africa. Hauling a 60-pound anchor up by hand, especially in deep anchorages, when you have many feet of chain to haul up as well, requires serious strength. And making ocean passages aboard a low-freeboard, heavy displacement boat, especially in high winds and steep waves, makes for a very wet ride.

But it also provides a unique satisfaction. Like a lengthy mountain trek or climb, it shows you that you are capable of discomfort and effort beyond what you may have expected. Just as the author and pioneering aviator Beryl Markham found when she left home as a very young woman, it’s liberating and satisfying to discover that, “I never had less and I never needed more.” Combined with the marvelous experiences of offshore voyaging – the seabirds wheeling in the pink sky as the sun rises after a dark night of rain squalls; the flying fish shimmering over the waves; the delicious taste of a tuna you caught yourself; the feathery tops of palm trees at the end of a long passage; spinning yarns with fellow sailors; Sunday brunch with a local family on a remote island; the quiet stillness of a protected cove – sailing like this, in a style many people today would find primitive, provided Seth and myself with a unique joy.

Old-fashioned sailing: Connecting with the Natural World

I think that the true reason for this was that the simplicity of it necessarily connected us more fully with what we were doing, with the natural world through which we were moving. Creature comforts, as lovely as they are, in some ways form a barrier between us and our world. Finding a balance between the two is important: after all, Seth and I did not cross the Pacific on a raft, Kon-Tiki style. We had bunks with bedsheets, a gas burner on which to cook hot meals, and enough tins and dried food to last us for months. But we lived much closer to the elements than we would have done aboard a more modern, kitted-out yacht. It’s hard to feel removed from the ocean, and from the act of sailing across its vast expanse, when green water is coursing down the decks and drenching you on your watches in a gale. When we reached an island or a bay or a harbor, we would carefully nose around it before dropping the hook; hauling up the anchor by hand had given us a great appreciation of the depth of the water in which we anchored. Drifting in calms instilled deep gratitude for the gift of wind. The dim light of the oil lamp meant that our daily routines were much more in keeping with the rising and setting of the sun, and we appreciated full moon nights much more than we ever had before. Seawater showers and a poor diet offshore made the simple pleasures of bathing in fresh water and eating fresh fruit in port into supreme joys.

I think that slowing down our lives, reducing them and simplifying them, added enormously to the joy and wonder of our ocean sailing and the beauties of each new landfall. Perhaps the biggest contribution to this was our lack of communication with the outside world. Satellite communications back then – and I am only speaking about less than 20 years ago – were prohibitively expensive. Internet connection on a sailboat was unheard of, not even quite believable, a bizarre extravagance that megayachts were rumored to have. SSB radio with slow modems and text email service was as high-tech as it really got, and Seth and I didn’t even have that for the first three years. We communicated with those at home sporadically: via letters posted from a port with a post office; via emails sent from internet cafes; and sometimes via phone, in conversations curtailed by the expense of a long-distance connection from pay-phone booth. And so we lived much as people had for generations, socializing with the people in our immediate vicinity, making new friends when we went to new places. In short, we lived in each moment in the place in which we found ourselves. At sea, that meant with only each other, and the sea and sky and the wild creatures, for company. The simplicity of that, the slowness of it, the immediacy and intimacy of it, resets your mind in way, enables a degree of focus and calm that’s missing in the fast pace of the digital world.

And so, while Seth and I have upgraded now to slightly larger, cold-molded wooden sloop, with pressure water, an anchor windlass, and even radar, our floating home remains relatively simple. Thus, sailing remains the time and place in which we reconnect with the natural world, with the ocean we are sailing upon, with the wildlife we observe, with the people we meet, and with each other.

Show Me More:

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The post Traditional Seamanship: Why Old-fashioned Sailing is Best appeared first on Classic Boat Magazine.

Classic boats for sale: Impala, the Late Fife sloop project

Here’s a rare chance to own a late Fife III yacht halfway through a quality rebuild project at a fraction of the price. Her keel-up restoration, which has cost $700,000 (£330,000) so far by Brookes Boatbuilders in Auckland, NZ has left the boat “better than new.” The yacht has been rebuilt in the highest grade materials, like teak for the planking, kauri for the frames, and bronze fastenings and fittings throughout. She needs a new deck (but all the structural part is done), new accommodation and systems to the next owner’s desires, and ideally a new rig. Peter is very keen to finish what he started, but can also prepare the boat for shipping to a different finishing location.

“This is a wonderful product of the post-Fife period at the famous Fairlie yard, that sailed from England to New Zealand in the 1970s, and surely deserves to take to the high seas again,” says the broker. “Late-period Fife cruiser-racer designs in the handy 35-45 feet range are exceptionally rare; Impala presents a wonderful opportunity.” She comes complete with a new (and fitted) Yanmar 3YM30AE diesel and GORI three-bladed folding propeller. 

Lying Auckland, NZ, Asking £75,000, sandemanyachtcompany.co.uk

Healey 55: The boat that sank Stirling Moss

A holiday in the Bahamas in the 1950s where keen water-skier Donald Mitchell Healey holidayed with a young Stirling Moss persuaded the motor manufacturer that there was business to be had in pacey, competitively-priced sports boats to complement his company’s sports cars.

Healey had already scored a hit with the Austin-Healey 100, which evolved into the 3000, and set up Healey Marine in Warwick in 1955. The 16ft (4.9m) Healey 55, announced at the 1956 London Boat Show, was built of marine ply with mahogany frames and keel and classy planked decks. Motive power, as you’d expect, was car-derived, with a centre-mounted BMC 1,489cc in-line four, as fitted to the MGA sportscar. And ads for the Healey 55 proclaimed: “As thrilling on the water as the famous Healey sports car… it is built in the tradition of the fabulous world-record-breaking Healey Sports Car and is every bit as good as it looks.”

This Healey 55 has been fully restored over a number of years and is described as “one of the finest examples you will see, so well done it would be difficult to find fault or incorrect detail.” With a new road trailer and cover, it’s yet to hit the water; the fully rebuilt MGA engine and transmission have also been bench-tested. 

Healey wound down its marine venture in the early 1960s after producing around 1,400 boats, including, it’s thought, around 50 Healey 55s. One notable episode features Stirling Moss who hit a reef in one in the Bahamas and later recalled: “As every good captain, I stayed with my sinking ship until the end.”  Both Moss and the salvaged Healey survived.

Lying Milton Keynes, Bucks, Asking £27,500, classicmobilia.com

Show Me More Classic Boats for Sale:

• 6 of the best classic yachts for sale
• Classic Yachts for Sale: Two Remarkable Boats on the Market
• Boat Design & No Need for Ugly Boats: Tom Cunliffe’s Column

The post Classic Boats for Sale: Yachts & Motorboats on the Market appeared first on Classic Boat Magazine.