An iconic gathering
Rob Weiland enjoyed a trip down memory lane prompted by the passing of boatbuilder Bill Green
End of the year coming up and planning for the holidays. In the northern hemi- sphere many boats are in storage and on the other side I hope you enjoy fair winds. Pretty soon it is Key West Race Week and then into the Caribbean. Paradise is around the corner, if you can find a ride… With a bit of sailing experience and for sure with a bit of social skill, that is not impossible. Up until the 1980s crewing on raceboats was for young people one of the few ways to travel the world. Those days getting paid to sail was for the very happy few. The first time I received money for sailing was racing Flying Wilma, the renamed Flyer 1, in the 1980 Nedlloyd Spice Race from Djakarta to Rotterdam. How much? The equivalent of 180 euros per month… these days a student would not live on that. Why has this sprung to mind? Not just because one tends to reflect near Christ- mas, but also because I just participated in the Bill Green Bike Ride in memory of the Lymington boatbuilder Bill Green, who passed away in October. And I met one of the Flying Wilma crew there, Daniel Wlochovski. From that trip Daniel went on to navigate Flyer 2 to her Whitbread Race win…
44 SEAHORSE
I could fill the rest of this page with try- ing to paint a picture of Bill in words but this has been done very eloquently already by his friends, including Hugh Welbourn (in Seahorse) and Malcolm McKeag (in Scuttlebutt): Eight Bells – Bill Green. Our bike trip finished at Warborne Farm in the Hampshire New Forest, where close to 200 people gathered. Lymington from the mid-1970s til the turn of the century was the centre of racing yacht construction and home to many who worked in the industry. Local boatbuilder and sailor Jeremy Rogers, joined in the 70s by Bill Green and Ian King, set new standards for both boat construc- tion and competitive offshore racing. Among their successes, the Doug Peterson- designed Contessa 35 Gumboots won the 1974 One Ton Cup, the Contessa 43 Moon- shine was top-scoring boat in the 1977 Admiral’s Cup and the Contessa 39 Eclipse finished second in the rough 1979 Fastnet to Ted Turner’s much larger Tenacious. Both Jeremy Rogers and Doug Peterson were at the farm. As were former clients of Green Marine like Bert Dolk (Promotion VII). I also saw Graham Walker of Indul- gence fame – his 50ft Indulgence was built at Green Marine as Juno V for Mike Peacock. Fellow Lymington boatbuilder Neville Hutton, former Sparcraft director John Green, Mani Frers (Promotion VII was his first full drawing job at his father’s firm), Hans Zuiderbaan (ex-ORC chair- man), mast designer Andy Steiner and many sailors, friends and Green Marine
employees were also present.
In 1982 Bill, Ian and their wives Elsa and Dianne founded Green Marine; the first boat launched was Panda ’83 (Hugh Welbourn design) for Peter Whipp who also had her successor, the Fastnet-win- ning Panda ’85 (Philippe Briand design) built at Green Marine. A good number of TP52s were also built by the yard: Patches and Cristabella in 2005, Bambakou in 2006, Stay Calm III in 2007, Rán IV and Container in 2011. And the Mini Maxis Jethou and Rán II in 2009.
Back in the day and Lymington was home to so many well-known industry names, such as Barient Sparcraft, B&G, Ian Terry Engineering, Berthons Shipyard, Riggarna, Hood Sailmakers and also had many high-level local suppliers, such as Dave Crawford (engines), Datayacht (elec- tronics), Rouse (rigging), Charles & Penny Arton (upholstery). In the 10 years starting in 1986, as project manager I was involved with the construction of 22 IOR and IMS boats… just in Lymington.
My first Lymington project started in 1986, a Farr One Tonner for Peter de Ridder named Mean Machine which was built by Neville Hutton. Local designers at the time were Rob Humphreys, Ed Dubois and Malcolm McKeon and David Alan- Williams. Sailors and manufacturers from all over the globe would come to Lyming- ton to do business. Eventually they all ended up in the Chequers Inn. In those days, with the fax machine only just
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