I can clearly remember walking along the pontoon in Haslar marina and seeing Volante, it was about 25 years ago and my heart stopped, at that time she just struck me as the perfect yacht. She is in fact a 38 foot classic cruiser racer designed and built by Camper & Nicholson of Gosport in 1961
A few years later I did see her up for sale, but we had Angelina our Endurance so I even resisted even the opportunity to have a look over Volante.
Back in those days she was painted white, now stripped back to bare wood which looks like teak planking. She's been in the care of Tim Gilmore formerly of Dolphin Quay until his move to Birdham Pool, for many years and has had an eventful time with mast replacement, substantial repairs to floors and planking, a partial sinking and running aground following engine failure at the harbour entrance. Details on Tim's blog.
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ReplyDeleteThis is the text of an email which I sent to Tim Barker the current owner with a brief history of Volante of Ville:
My dad bought her in 1966 from Aubrey Barr who had had her built in 1960. My dad died in 1995 and I with my brother and sister continued to own her until we sold her to Sean Macmillan of Spirit Yachts in December 2003. He is largely responsible for her appearance today. He restored the rig to 7/8 or 15/16 fractional – My dad had gone to masthead with an aluminium mast. While Sean built modern classics in a high tech way, he wanted an original classic. He changed the internal layout and a lot of gear but not much to the hull apart from laying teak on the deck – we had the deck epoxied after the original had worn out. He sold her to a German and she suffered some accident which led to her sale to the late previous owner, Tony White.
Her designer was Jeremy Lines and she was one of his first as a young man. Jerry was a member of Stokes Bay and I knew him well. Sadly he died late in 2018 but he always said the he had great affection for her because he felt he had achieved near perfection with her lines. Jerry was responsible for archiving a lot of C&N’s drawings with the National Maritime Museum. I am not sure if these included Volante’s but I have seen a drawing in the possession of a Dutchman who owned her near sister (Alchemy of Wight) built by Lallows of Cowes to a modified design.
I have continued to follow Volante since we sold her. From Tim Gilmore’s website we have seen all the work done over the years – glad I was not paying. In particular the replacement of the floor under the mast. In our later ownership I remember trying to de-rust the original from time to time after the galvanising failed. I was surprised that it lasted as long as it did.
Aubrey raced her successfully and we continued to race her during our ownership including many Cowes and Cork weeks as well as other racing in the Solent. Tony White did Fastnet a few years ago.
I am the new owner of the alchemy of Wight. Did a lot of investigation to know what shio it is. In end 2023 we will start the finishing of the restauration-refit.
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DeleteFred Reefman. f.reefman@kpnmail.nl. App on 0049172 2991392
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