USED BOAT TEST
WIND ELF
astern. But Hightime was on her best
behaviour as she executed an impeccable
three-point turn and pottered off towards
the lock.
We motored out into the channel, where
the wind was light and dead on the nose.
So there was nothing for it but to put-put
against the tide down towards Itchenor
- something that would have been
impossible on the effectively engineless
Josa II 50 years ago.
Once we made it past Itchenor and freed
off towards East Head, it was time to hoist
sail. And in the case of this boat, ‘hoist’ is
the correct word. Ben went forward to
hank on the jib and feed the mainsail
slides into their mast track. And with no
halyard winch to be seen, hoisting from
the mast looked hard work.
Hightime’s mainsail halyard had the
same ‘double’ rope tail that was on Josa
II. It ran through a block attached to the
wire part of the halyard to halve the load...
and it gave me another fl ashback. When
we arrived in Funchal (Madeira) in 1968,
we dropped the anchor and lowered the
sails in a hurry so we cold crack open a
bottle to celebrate our fi rst landfall.
Unfortunately we made a hash of
disconnecting the main halyard and it
promptly departed towards the masthead.
Neither of us had any intention of
climbing up to retrieve it. So we left it
swinging where it was and eventually went
to bed. Miraculously, we found it obligingly
loitering beside the boom when we
emerged the next morning.
With the sails hoisted (albeit with a saggy
jib luff courtesy of an overlength wire strop
at its tack), Hightime gently put her shoulder
to the task and sailed serenely along at
around 3 knots in the light wind,
accelerating to around 4.5 knots in the
occasional puff. The difference to a
modern lightweight fatty was obvious. The
tiller felt pleasantly fi rm and the boat never
‘twitched’ or heeled with sudden violence in
the gusts. It was so effortless and relaxing.
Of course her light weather windward
performance was not as sharp as a
modern boat’s. This was partly down to
fairly shapeless old sails and the wide
jib-sheeting angle and partly down to her
weight and long keel. And when off the
wind, the lack of a kicking strap to prevent
the boom from lifting didn’t help
performance. Like Josa II, Hightime has an
ancient Wykeham Martin bronze roller
reefi ng fi tting on the gooseneck. So
without the special U-shaped claw system
around the boom (or reefed mainsail),
there was nowhere to attach a kicker.Downwind oomph
Hightime did not carry a spinnaker, so we
had no way of adding downwind oomph.
Josa II carried one that fl ew for ten
minutes before we shredded it after
leaving Madeira, which was unfortunate,
because we were in a hurry! We had
departed the UK in early June, so we were
sailing into the hurricane season. In order
to try and make Barbados by August, we
always aimed for maximum speed,
averaging 115 miles a day with a best
24-hour run of 144 (including a 0.5 knot
current). Not bad for a heavy andwell-loaded little yacht with a 19ft LWL.
Without spinnaker, we resorted to the
time-honoured and highly effective twin
headsail rig (2 genoas; or 1 genoa +
working jib; or working jib + trysail set
fl ying as a jib; or trysail + storm jib; or
storm jib only ... depending on the wind
strength) and it worked a treat. Since we
did not have self-steering (our home made
effort failed dismally), we hand steered,
running a fi ve-hour two-watch system at
night, then grabbed another couple of
hours sleep between meals and shorter
daytime watches.Sheer joy
Yet it’s hard to describe the joy of driving
a good little ship down the trade winds.
Only those lucky enough to get down
there will ever know the beauty and
immensity of the ocean and skies and the
exhilaration of speeding down continuous
rolling swells. Of course there was no way
that Hightime could replicate trade wind
sailing within Chichester harbour! But in
smooth water and light winds, she still felt
splendid. She’s no hot-rod of course; but
most family sailors prefer a predictable
and reassuring ride in a steady yacht.
“My fi ancé Samantha had not set foot on
a yacht before July 2017 when we took
Hightime out for the fi rst time. Neither had
our now 11-year-old greyhound, Millie,” said
Ben. “It’s fair to say that she was very quiet
on this fi rst small jaunt to Itchenor and back,
but was keen to participate (Samantha, not
the dog!). Since then I’ve been happy for
Samantha to set the pace, cruising back
and forth to East Head and West Pole, up to
Emsworth and round to Southsea. She
fi nds that being in charge of the chart and
following our progress from A-B as well as
working through the tide time calculations
etc. helps her confi dence a lot.”
It’s great to see how this particular Wind
Elf has become a happy family yacht.
A combination of classic charm, steady
performance and an easy motion is a
great recipe – provided the owner enjoys
doing an occasional bit of maintenance to
keep his classic yacht in good shape.
If not, there are plenty of GRP long keel
cruisers around that have similar sailing
qualities... but you’ll have to forsake the
charm of all that wood!1949 builder’s specifi cation
LOA 25ft
LWL 19ft
Beam 7ft
Draught 4ft
Displacement 31 ⁄ 4 tons (7,280lb)
Keel weight: 1 ton 5 cwt (2,800lb)Owner Ben McMinn is happy to
potter around Hightime’s home berth
of Birdham Pool in Chichester
harbour‘It’s hard to describe
the joy of driving a
good little ship’
For a full and long-lasting
Coppercoat treatment on a 25ft
Wind Elf, you would need 6lt
costing £594.
Contact: Aquarius Marine
Coatings Ltd,
Unit 10
St Patrick’s
Industrial Estate,
Shillingstone,
Dorset, DT11 0SA
Tel: 01258 861059
http://www.coppercoat.com