Clockwise from far left: Bo (on left) and the team begin planking Ester’s deck with 15mm mahogany over the lattice of deck beams; her original trusswork design is redolent of a 1980s Admiral’s Cupper not a 1901 gaffer – rigid and light; a robust steel bar fixed to her angle iron frames serves as the chainplates for the main shrouds, taking the rig loads down inside the hull shell and into the keel structure; overhangs… this is what a 29ft waterline on a 50ft hull looks like; craftsmanship good enough to hang on your wall – Ester is now re-planked with steel frames tied to her deck beams via steel straps to the turn of her bilges, 120 more steamed oak ribs were then added for extra strength plus a further 30 deck beams; in-period steel rigging turnbuckles were carefully tailored to fit the limited space available
berth. Then she took part in the classic regattas at Monaco, Cannes and St Tropez. The latter saw her finest hour: ‘Our best sail was the first race in St Tropez where we had the famous skipper Fabrice Payen onboard as tactician, and we won easily. ‘We got a good start and the conditions
were perfect with steady breeze. We are under-canvassed in light winds. And we found the potential in the boat. One of the hot shots there told us we were like a For- mula One car in top gear!’ So what is she like to sail? ‘I thought she
would be more crazy,’ Bo opines, ‘but she’s actually very stable and she has a friendly feel. The aerodynamic design of the rudder makes her extremely handy and manoeuvrable; she feels more like a dinghy than a normal gaffer. ‘She also responds to the wind instantly. She has 1,080ft2 (100m2
) of sail area, so a
small puff makes her go off like a bang. But if she is not driven right you need seat- belts, because she will stop just as quickly. ‘You only need two to handle her but for
racing you would sail with seven or eight people – for trimming during a race; two for the main trim, two for the backstays
and two for the jib and reacher. ‘We have no winches, and we just have a
jigger for the jib sheet. As for the mainsheet – you just sit there and haul it in by hand. We don’t carry barber haulers or anything like that because we don’t need them. ‘She can definitely make 20kt under
sail,’ Bo avows again. ‘We sailed her in a fresh offshore breeze with two reefs in the main and one in the jib and her bow lifted up; there was spray coming up either side of the stern and we made 13.5kt boat speed. If we had taken out the reef from the jib and one from the main we could easily have reached 20kt.’ Bo’s partner Elisabeth sails with him
and on hearing about how well Ester sails she joins the discussion: ‘You have heard how she looks so nice and sails so fine but did you hear how when you sail Ester you often get a few blue marks?’ ‘Is that because it’s just very hard work
or is it because you are learning a new way of doing things?’ I ask her. ‘The first one,’ she replies smiling. ‘There is only 50cm (20in) between the
boom and the deck,’ Bo adds. ‘You have to be aware of it at all times. But it’s easy to
sail this boat. As for bruises, we are not allowed to complain.’ There is nothing that has survived of
boats that were made like this. ‘They were mostly monsters, and they didn’t last long,’ Bo says. When I mention Bona Fide, the 1899 Charles Sibbick 45ft (13.7m) gaff cutter, Bo almost scoffs. ‘I can’t find the words to say how basic she is in compari- son,’ he says. ‘I think we’d use “agricul- tural”?’ I suggest. ‘Yes, hah, yes,’ he agrees… and that’s the first time I have heard Sibbick getting a put-down like that. When Covid arrived it scuppered a
second season. ‘The boat would have suffered in the heat of the south,’ Bo says. ‘So in April 2020 we brought her back to Sweden. It needed to be done. We sailed her locally in 2021, but I no longer have the time to look after and campaign Ester so she is now for sale.’ Ester was certainly built to a rule but
she is not a rule boat, she is radical, strong and fast in her own right. To see her return is like finding a missing evolutionary link. A book about her is out soon: Ester –
Searching a Dream under the Sea. Please contact Seahorse for more details.
SEAHORSE 41 q
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