Send your letters (and replies) to: Classic Boat,
Liscartan House, 127-131 Sloane Street, London SW1X 9AS email:
cb@classicboat.co.uk
First fin and skeg
In Yard News, CB 284, it is asserted that Huff of Arklow is the world’s first fin and skeg yacht. Built in 1951, she certainly was not the first. Sopranino, designed by Laurent Giles and Partners, predates her by a year. The same designers also produced a much larger yacht, the 52 ft (15.9m) Miranda IV, in the same year as Huff and with a very similar profile. The idea was not new even then. The first offshore yacht with a separate keel profile was Zeevalk, designed by Van de Stadt in 1949. Books such as Dixon Kemp’s
Manual, first published in 1878, show that there were many yachts with ballast keels separate from their rudders in the second half of the 19th century. Folkard also shows a model ‘6 rater’ called Sarnia of 1897 with a distinct skeg. When you look they are everywhere! Paul Savage, by email
And a Fife!
Sorry! In CB123 (September 1998), p34, is the sail plan and elevation of the ketch Dodo IV designed and built by William Fife for William Manera Bergius, with fin and skeg in 1927. JP Dole Robbe, Paris
Oban
poster This poster is one of a small collection I have of vintage travel posters, all
concerning Scotland. I was wondering if
anyone could throw any light on the vessels in this poster for Oban?
Fraser Smith, London
See Europe at Ally Pally and Cowes
Shirley’s Europe will be on
display at the Volvo
RYA Dinghy Show, 3-4 March
I was very interested to read your Class Notes on the Europe class dinghy in February’s Classic Boat. The Europe is certainly a classic, but it has moved with the times to remain a competitive class nearly 50 years after it was originally designed. Your article only refers to Shirley Robertson’s 9th place at the 1992 Olympics and her 4th in 1996 games. In fact Shirley did go on to win the Europe class gold medal in the 2000 Sydney games. Her
Sopranino sister Ticonderoga
– still sailing The 72ft (22m) ketch Ticonderoga, mentioned in Letters, CB283, remains as beautiful as ever, and sails today on New England waters in the summers and from
Antigua in the winter. A story on her and her sister ships (I am not sure how many have been built) would be great.
Leonard C. Smith, City Island, N.Y.
The Sopranino story fired my imagination as a schoolboy. What would I have given for such a boat? To my eyes she was beautiful. I still hold this opinion of the design. Your recent article was most enjoyable – it was great to see that two of my schoolboy heroes are still around. I got my wish eventually by building a Sopranino near-sister, a Barchetta, launched in 1998. I still marvel that two chaps could live in that little boat for nine months. Remarkable people.
My little boat is now in Holland and her owner, Jan Derks, tells me that wherever he goes she always gets plenty of interest. There does not seem to be anything like her there. Pat Webb, Harwich
winning boat is now preserved in the Classic Boat Museum, Isle of Wight, which will re-open to the public in April after moving to its new premises in East Cowes. Shirley’s Europe will also be on display on our stand at the Volvo RYA Dinghy Show, Alexandra Palace, London, 3-4 March. Anyone wishing to find out more about the Europe class is welcome to drop in and chat to us at the show. Andy Harris, Chairman, IECA(UK)
READER’S BOAT OF THE MONTH
Slim Jim II This is Slim Jim ll, 24ft (7.3m), Honduras mahogany on oak, built for my great-grandfather in 1926 by Banhams in Cambridge and still in our family. She has never left the Norfolk Broads and served as a patrol boat during the war. Martyn Dunham, by email
More readers’ boats on
www.classicboat.co.uk CLASSIC BOAT MARCH 2012 97
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100