BY THEO RYEMy involvement with what became the Invader project
started when Donn Costanzo of Wooden Boatworks
spoke to me at the 2013 Fife Regatta; a week which
saw, amongst other highlights, two of Fife’s prettiest
bermudan-rigged yachts from the 1930s, Latifa &
Saskia, racing together. Donn had a client looking for
an untouched, original late 2nd or 3rd International
Rule 8-Metre to restore; a well-trodden quest. In the
end we concluded there was nothing suitable on (or
off) the market; they had all already been restored,
heavily modified or lost; it seems that the days of “barn
finds” of original classics are fast receding.
When attention turned to possible replicas though,
there was a stand-out candidate in Invader II. Once
Donn had negotiated for copies of the plans, we had a
bit of homework to do; which involved corresponding
with the ever-helpful John Lammerts van Bueren of the
International Eight Metre Association, followed by a
trip to the Royal Canadian Yacht Club in Toronto. This
was Invader’s home for most of her life, and despite
having been sunk in the mid 1960s she was well
remembered; not least by David Howard, an ex-
Commodore of the RCYC and Invader’s skipper from
1945 until 1953, and his friend George Cuthbertson (of
C&C Yachts fame), who made changes to her rig.
We were also very kindly shown the impressive fleet
of 8s at the RCYC; the owners of the 1929 Fife Quest
copied her specification for us and the archivist
Beverly Darville was very helpful. A fine, fully detailed
period model in the clubhouse was the finishing touch.
The hull and keel calculations were an exercise in
detective work; there was a small note on the lines
plan that said “Yacht reduced in loft by scale 0.9941”; a
typical Fife tweak which resulted in some head
scratching, especially de-ciphering which of the
long-hand calculations of Fife from his original
notebook applied to the pre- or post-tweak hull.
Eventually it was straightened out; and armed with all
that, and knowledge of Saskia and several other Fife
8s, we finally felt equipped to build an accurate replica.
One area that was always going to be different was
the rig. Here the owner’s wish was to respect the
8-M rules, but accommodate the possibility of
short-handed day sailing, and also handicap racing in a
mixed fleet on the notoriously light-winded Oyster Bay.
We also had to parse that she had a reputation for firm
weather helm in period, which made her the subject of
several re-rigs (including one drawn in 1933 by the
Starling Burgess & Boyd Donaldson partnership), and
really came into her own after Cuthbertson’s mods in
the 1950s. The result is a rule-optimised Sitka spruce
mast with rod-rigging, maximum hoist and foretriangle
height, but set with aft-swept spreaders. That means
the runners can be ignored much of the time exceptDe-ciphering Fife’s calculations from his original notebook
for adding a bit more headstay tension or to stabilise
the mast in a chop or higher winds.
With the furling headsail, cut deliberately higher at
the clew than a typical 8-M full overlap genoa for
visibility, she is proving easy (by 8-M standards).
North Sails did their usual high-quality work, especially
Hugh Beaton of the Toronto loft who has a lot of
experience with the class; and Rockport Marine
executed a superb mast & rig package, including all the
custom stainless hardware.
The masthead option for a Code Zero or
asymmetric helps her out on the ultra-light days, and
can be removed if she has to race under the 8-M rules.
She hasn’t been measured yet but she was pretty well
on her lines and we are optimistic that she would do
so. The mast is positioned as originally rather than
shifting it aft (as many have done), so “J” is modest
compared to some of the tweaked 8s out there, but we
did push the forestay forwards as far as we could
allowing for the Bartel’s furler under deck. In other
words, reverting to a totally authentic rig as Fife drew
it is perfectly possible, but in the meantime we have a
nicely balanced rig which meets the design criteria.DRAWINGS BT THEO RYEINVADER
Above: Invader’s
refined rig
accommodates
the 8-Metre rule
and allows the
owner to go
short-handed
day sailing