CLASSIC BOAT MAY 2015 19MASSACHUSETTS, USA
Onassis’s Cat boat sold at auction
Scallop, a wooden 12ft Beatle Cat dinghy commissioned in 1969 by Jacqueline
Kennedy Onassis to teach her children John Jr and Caroline Kennedy to sail, sold for
$13,500 (£9,000) at auction on 19 February, reports Barry Pickthall.
Built in Massachusetts by Concordia Yachts, this dinghy, similar to ones the
Kennedys used at their Hyannis Port home, was ordered after Jacqueline’s
marriage to Aristotle Onassis, and shipped to the Mediterranean. It is number 1426.
Peter Eastman of Howard Boats acquired Scallop in 2000, unaware of the
previous ownership. He says: “Beatle Cats have traditionally had their names
applied with cast bronze letters with screw holes unique to each letter. The name
was not on the boat but the
screw holes were still in the
transom and I was able to screw
the letters for Scallop. That was
the best part of her restoration.”
JFK’s Star Yacht (TTs passim)
was withdrawn before the sale.CORY SILKEN CORY SILKENC/O RR AUCTIONLeading Dutch naval architect Andre Hoek collected three awards at the
Showboats Design Awards on 25 February. The 151ft (46m) Pilot Classic
ketch Elfje won the Naval Architecture Award for Best Sailing Yacht, and the
156ft 6in (47.7m) ‘Classic’ Wisp won the Exterior Design and Styling Award
and Interior Design Awards. Andre thanked the Royal Huisman yard and
interior designers Redman Whitely Dixon and Rhoades Young. Elfje also won
her class at St Barths Bucket, we learned as we went to press. See page 24.PEMBROKESHIRE, WALES
No more boatbuilding at Mitec
The recent news that Mitec, part of Pembrokeshire College, will
cease to offer boatbuilding as a subject, reached us in March. The
college’s inability to take more students on is a result of Welsh
Government funding cuts. Those in the first year of the two-year
course will be able to finish, but no new students will be able to join
the City and Guilds Level Three course.
Course instructor John Edginton told CB that this is a real loss,
being one of the last government-funded boatbuilding courses in
Britain. “Soon it will be impossible for young people to learn
boatbuilding without a lot of financial help from parents,” he told
CB, referring to the expensive private courses run by the likes of
BBA in Lyme Regis and IBTC in Lowestoft and Portsmouth.
The course took in a dozen or so students every year and
around 70 per cent went on to find jobs in the marine sector. Many
of the rest, said John, found closely related jobs in fields like
furniture and musical instrument making. “Mitec graduates don’t
sit around on the dole,” he assured CB.KITZBUHEL, AUSTRIA
Three awards for Andre Hoek
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