Monday 24 June 2019

My kind of boats

While I love gaffers and day boats, a type of boat that really stirs my soul are classic offshore yachts like these.


I recall being holed up in the Yealm years ago on the next mooring to this sloop while we waited out a gale, that raised doghouse looks a great place to take watch.


Above a relatively modern either a  Crealock or Pacific Seacraft, either way  lovely looking. Shame modern marina's charge so much for that bowsprit.


Is there anything so lovely as a classic yawl, no idea what this is Alden or S&S perhaps. looks like it's American CCA influenced.

5 comments:

  1. The first photograph here in this post is of "Cardhu". She is featured in Eric Hiscocks book 'Cruising Under Sail'.

    There is a beautiful full page photograph of her facing page 193 with the caption:

    "Cardhu, Sir Thomas Lee's 16 ton cutter, is one of the many handsome yachts to come from the board of J. Laurent Giles, R.D.I., M.R.I.N.A. Designed for a lightweight crew, and built by Port Hamble Ltd. in 1962, she has her staysail on a boom so that its sheet needs no attention when tacking."

    I have lusted after this beautiful and commodious cruising yacht for decades - how nice to see her still being used and looking so shipshape.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Alden is correct about this being a photo of "Cardhu" and my wife and I were privileged to have cruised on her around the Solent in the late '70's when she was owned by the Lee's family.

      She was sold to new owners several years ago and sadly I lost my photos of her. Thanks to this blog I have one again.

      (Sir Tom did comment to me that the new owners had fitted a wheel in place of her original tiller.) I must say she sails as beautifully as she looks.

      Thanks for this reminder of happy memories that led to a passion for sailing for my family

      Delete
    2. My wife and I borrowed Cardhu for a trip from Poole, where Tom Lees kept her, to the Channel Isles via Cherbourg. Around 1985 I think. When we got to Cherbourg we realised that there was no red ensign on board. Tom was a member of the RCC and I thought it better to fly no ensign rather than the blue one from the masthead which is allowed only if the owner is on board. As I recall there was an autohelm you could attach to the tiller.
      Cardhu is a lovely yacht, designed and fitted out only for cruising, not racing.

      Delete
  2. Thanks for that Alden, lovely boat and looking better today than I remember her when last seen in the Yealm, as I recall they had just sailed back from Alderny and ducked into the yealm to miss the gale, we all hunkered down safely while out at Misery Point (Yealm entrance) it was - well, pretty miserable.

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  3. Hi Max. The black yawl, Amokura, was built by Moodys, your local Swanwick yard, to a Fred Shepherd design in 1939. He retired that same year, so she was one of his last, and possibly best yachts.

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