CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2016 95LETTERS
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Classic Boat, Jubilee House, 2 Jubilee Place,
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email: [email protected]Childers’ boat behind bars
Fairlie’s fi ne legacy
Gipsy Moth IV was
Chichester’s fault
Reading your article about Irskine Childers and his adventures in the Frisian
Islands in the early 1900s (June issue) reminded me of my time as skipper of the
sail-training vessel Golden Vanity twenty years ago, and her possible link with
Mr Childers. Golden Vanity was built in 1908 for the marine artist Arthur Briscoe,
and named after the ship ‘sailing in the lowlands low’ of the once-famous folk
song of that name; likely inspired by Briscoe’s own cruising in the ‘lowlands low’
of the Frisian islands. I am told that Briscoe and Childers were friends who sailed
together from time to time, and I would like to imagine that they compared
notes of their adventures cruising along the German North Sea coast. Childers’
last boat, the Asgard (above), with which he smuggled guns into Ireland in 1914,
became a sail-training vessel like Golden Vanity. Purchased by the Irish
Government in 1961, she took youngsters sailing from 1968 until 1974, and so
with these tenuous associations, I sailed Golden Vanity to Howth in 1995 to pay
homage to the old yacht, now an exhibit in Dublin’s museum, commemorating
the struggle for Ireland’s independence. The museum is located in Kilmainham
Gaol, originally built by the British to hold and execute Irish political prisoners,
and whilst the visit was a sobering one, I couldn’t help be amused by the irony
that the notorious old lady should have ended up behind bars!
Adrian Allery, via emailI write regarding Theo Rye’s article on Gipsy
Moth IV (August issue). When the grand old man
approached Illingworth and Primrose he gave them
some very particular requirements, which were
incompatible with each other. He demanded a fast
boat capable of beating the clipper ships times,
with a displacement of no more than 9 tons and
with no sail bigger then any sail on his old boat,
Gipsy Moth III.
Angus Primrose, who was solely responsible for
the hull shape, decided that to achieve these
speeds the boat had to have a waterline length of
at least 38ft with long overhangs. The problem
came with the displacement limit. With the large
and heavy tanks, radio equipment and batteries
which Chichester needed the boat would have to
have less ballast than Primrose considered
desirable. And so it proved. During the design
process Primrose pleaded with Chichester to no
avail to increase the displacement limit.
After the launch Chichester relented and a
further ton of ballast was added. This of course had
the eff ect, as Theo Rye correctly points out, that
the boat was now under canvassed due to
Chichester’s sail size requirement. Chichester never
liked the boat but this was really his own fault and
not that of the designer. Chichester never got on
with Primrose or with the builders, Camper &
Nicholson. At the launch the old man together with
his cousin, Lord Dulverton, who paid for the boat,
had a ferocious row with Campers and with
Primrose about the cost. When Chichester arrived
in Sydney he sent Primrose a grumpy telegram in
which he said: “I have now found proper designers
to design a new keel profi le.” Primrose, furious,
wrote back: “Just get on with it. If you have only
reached Australia the boat is hardly run in yet.”
A Scottish newspaper later described the
voyage as “splendid but without charm”. A
sentiment which well sums up the whole venture.
Nicholas Gray, Sandwich, KentI thought Theo Rye was right on target in his assessment of Fairlie’s contribution to
the development of the classic world over the past few decades. Albert Obrist,
Duncan Walker and all who have worked at the Hamble yard should be recognised.
Sam de la Rue, via email50 CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2016FAIRLIE RETROSPECTIVEthe proud if by then rather impoverished owners of the Fife ‘and admired by Obrist). Along with the skills of the Sheevra’ ex Clio, whose restoration had been noted
workforce at Southampton Yacht Services, a benchmark project was completed, restoring her as closely as possible to her original condition. Under Goss and then
Steve ‘The Dog’ Hammond, bearer for a revival of interest in classic yachts in general and in Fifes in particular. Altair became the standard
had a vision of restoring Fifes just as he had Ferraris; with no compromise, authentic in every detail. He and Obrist was just getting started with Altair though. He
Duncan Walker established Fairlie Restorations in the back of a large hanger at Hamble Yacht Services in 1990. They recruited two of the key members of the SYS team,
shipwrights Nick Bowyer and Kevin Jepp, and formed a small team dedicated purely to restoration of Fife yachts. Obrist employed a young yacht broker at Camper &
Nicholsons, William Collier, who had a passion for the classics, to seek out and buy him examples of Fife’s work; and in 1991 Duncan (with the help of a return to the Clyde of Altair), managed to buy the bulk of the Fife
archive of drawings from Archie MacMillan.the small ads for sale in Cyprus, Walker nursed her back The first project was the 15-Metre, Tuiga. Spotted in
to the Hamble and the team of about half a dozen set to work, with Obrist as the patron. Obrist’s attention to detail was extraordinary. At one stage he was said to be
investigating buying land in Egypt to grow the correct type of cotton to replicate her original sails; that didn’t happen in the end, but Ratsey & Lapthorn (her original
sailmakers in 1909) were persuaded to replicate theTop: Walker (left) and Paul SpoonerDucan
Opposite, clockwise from top left: Altair,
the boat that started it; aft cabin on
Mariquitaon the project; Fairlie 53 Shemara; joinery
under sail; Fairlie 55 in buildI
t was a sad day when Duncan Walker and Paul Spooner finally shut up shop in Hamble and put Fairlie Yachts into liquidation at the end of
running any boatbuilding company has been very hard work over the past few years in particular, but it will be February 2016. Many readers will know that
no consolation to list the other casualties that Fairlie joined in the sector. Looking back over the quarter of a century of boatbuilding first as Fairlie Restorations and
latterly as Fairlie Yachts, the team was responsible for some great projects; but there were always challenges.The story started almost exactly 30 years ago. In the
late 1980s a Swiss businessman called Albert Obrist owned an incomparable collection of Ferraris. What marked his collection out as one of, if not the, finest in
the world was the quality of the restoration work that Obrist undertook. In a world already known for accuracy and high standards, Obrist raised it to another
level. It was said that if the original leather used for a seat came from a particular breed of cows, Obrist would insist the restorers used the same, preferably from the descendants of the very same herd.
the early 1990s, the fact they were ‘Obrist’ Ferraris means the cars are still sought after today. In December Despite having disposed of most of the collection in
1985 Obrist bought a rather tired schooner, and his crew nursed her from Italy to Southampton. What they did with her has passed into classic yacht legend, and helped
start the whole classic yacht revival.her crew was Paul Goss, Duncan Walker, Donn The schooner was of course the 1931 Fife Altair, and
Costanzo, Jeff Law, and Olive Adshead (the latter threeWe look back at the transformative work of Fairlie Yachts, after the company
closed its doors earlier this yearSTORY THEO RYE PHOTOS WATERLINE MEDIAFAIRLIE
RETROSPECTIVEChichester, by Eileen Ramsay
62 CLASSIC BOAT JULY 2016
interesting case study, but not such a pleasant sailContradictory design parameters mean she’s an
THEO RYE
H
aving just won the first singlehanded transatlantic race in 1960, Francis Chichester wrote: “I think my yacht is too
the ideal size, in my opinion.” His yacht for that (and the 1964 race) was the Robert Clark design which was 13 tons (Thames), so Chichester was big for singlehanded sailing... A 9-tonner is Gipsy Moth III
advocating a considerably smaller boat. When he had the opportunity to build a custom yacht in 1965 specifically to sail around the world singlehanded, he commissioned
the design from the partnership of John Illingworth (who had redesigned Primrose. The design and build process was difficult. The final design was stretched to 10.4 tonnes displacement Gipsy Moth III’s mast) & Angus
(and 18.5 tons Thames, more than twice what Chichester had originally asked for); when Chichester protested, Illingworth explained that due to her length
she would be easily driven.separate rudder, so it was agreed to extend the keel so the rudder could hang off the sternpost. It sounds like a Chichester also complained about the proposed
most curious way for the design to evolve, and things did not improve. When she was launched she proved horribly tender. Forced into adding a ton to the keel, she
was eventually 11.5 tonnes displacement. A whole chapter of his book devoted to a detailed discussion of the problems.In Further OffshoreGipsy Moth Circles the WorldGipsy Moth Circles the World (1969) Illingworth replied to is
Chichester’s version of events. Illingworth had advocated a schooner rig, but Chichester insisted on ketch, and limited the maximum size of the working
sails for handling reasons (Chichester was 64 and had a long history of health problems). Working from the sail plan to derive the hull shape, Primrose went for length to generate speed potential, but was
handicapped by Chichester’s resistance to a larger boat; the result was very narrow and, with insufficient ballast, tender. The extra ton of ballast rectified things, in Illingworth’s opinion, so the result was “very
adequately stable”; but Chichester was still far from happy with her stability and (with the rig size by then fixed) felt she was also now under-canvassed.0.27 is narrow, and ballast ratios associated with this length/beam ratio are more usually approaching 50% (or The parameters are telling. A beam/length ratio of
more) to provide the necessary righting moment; in any event, waterline beam effectively determines initial stability, so this was always going to be a boat that tended to sail at a large angle of heel. Comparison to
Sparkman & Stephens acknowledged was herself too narrow) is instructive:Dorade (which Stephens
BeamBeam/length ratioLW L 38.5ft0.27Gipsy Moth IV10.5ft 10.25ftDorade37.25ft0.27
DraughtDisplacement 7.75ft11.5 tonnes7.63 ft17.3 tonnes
minimise wetted surface area, but Chichester’s insistence on a long keel offset that at a stroke. The “bite” from the aft end of the keel was presumably part of the same By keeping her light, Primrose was evidently trying to
thinking, but it was filled in when she reached Sydney in an attempt to improve directional stability; Chichester complained that she rolled (as did Dorade) and tended to
broach when off the wind. Other complaints were that the helm was impossibly heavy, that she would hobby-horse in moderate seas, was very sensitive to sail area, trim and heel angle, had a tendency to slam on the wind,
would not point in any sort of sea, and would not run downwind under bare poles. The remarkably fine waterlines, especially aft, are certainly contributory to
some of the behavioural quirks, but Chichester’s complaints are evidently exacerbated by his antagonism to the design; he obviously took against it from the start, and was quick to damn and slow to praise as a result.
miles in the first 25 hours (average 7.6 knots), 1,400 miles in eight days; and the pairing completed the 29,630 mile circumnavigation in 226 days of sailing. A twitchy, On the other hand he recorded some fine runs; 190
flawed thoroughbred for a man that wanted a steady pony, perhaps, but she makes an interesting study in the art and science of yacht design.GIPSY MOTH IV
ILLINGWORTH & PRIMROSECLASSIC DESIGNSCB ARCHIVE