JAKE SUGDEN
WESSEX ARCHAEOLOGYCLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2016 17TELL TALES
SOLENT
All go in Cowes
Cowes was busy with classic boats in July as first Charles Stanley Cowes
Classics Week, which is now the biggest classic regatta in Britain, and then
Panerai British Classic Week took place in typically varied Solent
conditions. Solent Sunbeam ace Roger Wickens won overall at Cowes
Classics Week on his Sunbeam Danny. Giovanni Belgrano of the 1939,
Laurent Giles-designed 39ft (12m) one-off Whooper, won overall at the
Panerai event. See next month for full coverage of both regattas.
ROUND-BRTAIN
Veterans victorious
NEWPORT, RITwo new inductees
for AC Hall of Fame
A 2,000-mile voyage around Britain crewed by 38
military veterans was almost over as we went to press.
The Falmouth to Falmouth anti-clockwise voyage was
undertaken on the 71ft 10in (21.9m) gaff-rigged schooner
Spirit of Falmouth (ex-Spirit of Fairbridge), built in 1985,
and two further yachts.
The project was organised by the charity Turn to
Starboard's founder, former RAF squadron leader Shaun
Pascoe. The charity aims to help participants gain new
skills while raising awareness of the challenges some
veterans face after leaving military service. Many of the
veteran sailors had little or no sailing experience before
undertaking the voyage.The America’s Cup Hall of Fame, part of the Herreshoff Marine Museum,
recently announced two new inductees. Lord Dunraven (1841-1926) was
an Irish yachtsman who rejoiced in the full appellation of Windham
Thomas Wyndham-Quin, Fourth Earl of Dunraven and Mount-Earl. He
was by all accounts something of a renaissance man, being at various
times in his life a landowner, journalist, Conservative politician, big-game
huntsman, cavalry officer, racehorse owner and Squadron member.
He challenged for the America’s Cup (AC) in 1893 on the GL Watson-
designed Valkyrie II, nearly beating the first Herreshoff defender Vigilant.
He returned to mount another challenge on Watson's successor Valkyrie
III just two years later for a messy showdown beset by minor collisions
and spectator craft intrusion. His achievement was to persuade the New
York Yacht Club to remove the dangerous, shallow, inner racecourse at
Newport, Rhode Island, where the two cups were held, from the race
options, an action that has benefited many challengers since.
The other inductee is Ernesto Bertarelli, successful Swiss challenger
in 2003 off Auckland, New Zealand, successful defender again in 2007
off Valencia in Spain, and unsuccessful defender in 2010. As an owner
sailor, he follows in the tradition of AC legends like Harold Vanderbilt,
TOM Sopwith and Ted Turner. The America’s Cup Hall of Fame was
founded in 1992 by four-times defender and grandson of Nathanael
Herreshoff, Halsey Herreshoff. Over 80 AC heroes have been inducted
since then. The new inductions will be made formally in October.TREASURE
Davey Jones'
Locker online now
A new scheme to help protect
Britain's maritime heritage is now
encouraging people to record
finds of archaeological objects in
the seas off England and Wales.
The Marine Antiquities Scheme
allows anyone to submit a find and
have it seen by archaeologists. All
finds will be visible and searchable
to all. See marinefinds.org.uk.