Previous page: Raised bulwarks conceal a higher cabin trunk elegantly, giving (above) a very traditional cabin layout but with standing headroom – and an extra hatch
B 32 CLASSIC BOAT APRIL 2012
y dint of life’s hierarchy, just as the editor came back from a flying-fish transat aboard the Fife ketch Eilean (see page 8), your humble news editor was on his way from London to Falmouth on Brunel’s historic
Great Western Railway for some winter sailing. A day or two in England’s best county is always a plus though, whatever the weather, and I was soon quayside with boatbuilder Ben Harris at Falmouth Marina looking at his newly-built yacht that has more than a little of the Falmouth Quay Punt about her. Alva, for that is her name, is an unusual beast, initially inspired by a famous Quay Punt, Curlew, now in the maritime museum but crystallised through the designs of a Cornish emigrant to Canada, Paul Gartside, who brought his westcountry heritage, and that of Falmouth in particular, to the lines of his boats. Falmouth of course is still home to Europe’s last working sail fleet, in the form of the Falmouth Working Boats, gaffers that dredge for oysters during the winter months. One of them was out there on Carrick Roads that day, drifting down the beds, its single fisherman busy with his cold-handed work. Ben’s boat, his first build, brings together all of these influences, together with his personal heritage, which is very much bound up with his adopted home. First impressions quayside, apart from the Force 5/6 howling
through rigging and making conversation difficult, are of a 30ft (9.1m) boat, pleasingly simple, particularly in the rig, which is easily understood at a glance: a 4:1 mainsheet, tiller steering and two winches each side of the cockpit to do duty for jib, staysail and running backstays – “no fancy Highfields here,” Ben points out. The deck is uncluttered, the few low mushroom vents clearly incapable of stubbing a toe on a barefoot visit topsides in the dead of night.
RAISED BULWARK There is no fence on Alva. Instead, the low bulwark, raised an inch or two from the design-stipulated toerail, gives the deck a good working lip without the false security and inconvenience, not to mention long-term leak potential, of guardwires on stanchions. Another advantage of a bulwark are the kevels – the long wooden cleats set into its inner face, taking care of springs and breast lines without taking up deck space.
Set into the aft end of the cabin trunk is a standard sliding companionway hatch with removable washboards below. More unusually, a second lifting hatch sits further forward on the coachroof, just abaft the mast. This gives ventilation at anchor and a bit more headroom, although headroom is not lacking here: it’s 6ft (1.8m) by design. It’s just that Ben is a little bit taller than designed and Alva, while she’s his boatbuilder’s calling card, was also built as the Harris family yacht. Three circular portholes each side of the
PHOTOS, PREVIOUS SPREAD, ABOVE AND RIGHT: TOM BENN
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