Update


The sad end of a lovely yacht: Iolaire lies broken and submerged on the north coast of Ibiza after an accidental gybe spun her onto the rocks with just her two owners onboard. Regrettably perhaps, the still discernible timber yacht could not be left in situ to quietly return to the sea and in the course of being removed was smashed into small pieces. There was no engine onboard before you ask


main boom foreguy. By the early 1980s we had the foreguy running from the end of the boom to the bowsprit end and back to a midship winch or cleat; now it could be rigged with no one going forward of the mast. It was always rigged when sailing broad off or dead downwind. It was obviously not rigged on 26 July. About 0200 Iolaire was


sailing dead downwind when an inadvertent gybe sent her heading inshore where she hit the rocks and sank… For 52 years Iolaire carried me and my family, friends and various


Grenadian crew safely throughout the entire eastern Caribbean, seven times across the Atlantic, plus eight times up and down the Thames into London, all with no engine. We cruised, chartered, raced, explored and we wrote about the eastern Caribbean and the Atlantic islands. These explorations produced the Imray-Iolaire charts of the eastern Caribbean and the Atlantic islands. It also generated hundreds of articles, three books and today’s best known cruising guides to the area. Iolaire was a lucky lady. In 1947 she was lying in the sub pens


in Gibraltar waiting for a new owner and crew to arrive to commence their transatlantic passage to the Caribbean. A few hours after the crew arrived a large surge developed in the sub pens. Despite heroic efforts, surging back and forth the davit brackets of a steam yacht alongside removed 13ft of bulwark and sheer strake. The new owner, the late RH Bobby Somerset, heir to the title of


the Duke of Somerset, was highly regarded by the Royal Navy. He served in WWII as navigating officer on an antiquated four-stack destroyer donated by the US Navy, then he delivered MTBs from Vospers yard to the navy. He did not hesitate to instruct local ship- wrights to find some teak and repair the damage! In 1959 we resurrected Iolaire. She had been declared a total


loss lying on the beach in St Thomas as a result of a broken anchor shackle. I bought her back from the insurance company ‘as is where is’ for $100. We got her off, put her on the nearest dock and set up a shipyard. We replaced frames, timbers, bilge stringers, planks, rudder, the main cabin interior… and reinstalled an engine, a big mistake. Iolaire was off on charter 13 weeks and three days after we’d bought the wreck on the beach. In 1961 Iolaire survived two hurricanes, then in 1962 she was


dismasted in Anegada Passage, but we managed to tow the broken spar into Norman Island, lift it on deck, scarf in a new 12ft bottom section, and she was back on charter 11 days later. In 1966 she lost the top of her mast off Dominica! Along with


my four-year-old daughter Dory (who would go on to navigate Dennis Conner’s B-boat in his successful campaign to win the AC back in Fremantle), plus a young Grenadian boat boy, I sailed Iolaire back under jury rig. A bare aluminium tube was delivered and we were soon sailing again. In 1984 she was caught by Hurricane Klaus.


14 SEAHORSE


It was only the second hurricane since 1851 that formed in the eastern Caribbean and headed NE. Iolaire was anchored on the north side of St Martin. She survived using six of her seven anchors. From 1985 until I sold her in 2009 Iolaire had six almost-


disasters. Three times avoided by skilful crew work. Three times she was saved by her own lucky streak. In her 114 years Iolaire safely carried her crews through fog, light and heavy winds and more gales than anyone can count. From 1928, when the RORC was founded as the Ocean Racing


Club, until 2009 she flew the RORC flag for 79 of the 81 years. Other than the war years of 1940 to 1945 she was in commission every season from her building in 1905 until her loss in 2019. If her gimbled cabin table could talk, the tales that table would


tell. From 1928 to 1932 she was owned by Major PT Rose Richards, from 1946 until 1955 by RH Bobby Somerset, both founding members of the RORC. Both served as commodores and rear- commodores of the club and both had distinguished military records. In the Somerset years C Sherman Hoyt was a frequent crew


member, as was Major Tilman, leader of the British pre-war Everest expedition and one of the first yachtsmen to visit the high latitudes which he did in his own Bristol Channel pilot cutter. Another was Cdr Bill King who started and ended his war career as a submarine captain, and sailed Galway Blazer around the world. They learned so much from Bobby that they referred to him as ‘el maestro’. Iolaire changed the lives of many sailors who either sailed on


her or read what we wrote as a result of her taking care of my family for 52 years. The spirit of Iolaire lives on as a half-model in the RORC clubhouse in London. Below the model are photographs of her under five different rigs with short notes of the various RORC members who owned her.


REWIND – Bob Fisher Turn back the clock, don’t stop until it’s gone back at least 40 years (for me it could have been 45). Newport, Rhode Island and 12 Metres, fresh in the memory. It was like the America’s Cup used to be (and some believe it should be today). The place was as fresh as ever, with a veritable swarm of ‘proper’ racing yachts from that era gathered for a championship. The only thing likely to stop were the hearts of those who’d been there in the days of glory of the class. Twenty-two 12 Metre yachts of assorted ages, many that had


seen those days in Newport, together. The sight of them parading in the harbour tugged at the heart strings and there were many among the huge fleet of spectator boats with tears in their eyes. Ashore Newport gave its all – the familiar haunts around Bannister’s Wharf were packed all day; some seemed to think that 


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