S
o many restorations start with good
intentions but never make it to the end, for
any number of reasons. This, however, is
one restoration that can never be
completed. It most certainly does not
have a happy ending, but I believe it is a
story worth telling.
In October 1900 Thomas Wills Sandford of Dublin
commissioned Charles Sibbick to design and build a
7 tonne fast cruiser, listed as number 264 in Sibbick’s
works ledger. For some reason (possibly he changed his
mind and decided he needed a bigger yacht) we don’t
believe this boat was built, instead he ordered Witch,
number 283, described as an 8 tonne fast cruiser.
Sibbick’s Albert Yard in Thetis Road, Cowes would
have been a busy place at this time, although famous for
designing and building light displacement raters, the
market for these out-and-out racing boats had dried out
in the UK, he was still building similar boats for the
Mediterranean, some still with fin keels and a few 24ft
linear raters for home and foreign waters, but most of
the yachts in build were cruisers. Most were of fairly
light displacement like Madcap and Chittabob III and
were also used for racing, Madcap (which still exists) for
club racing in the Solent and Chittabob III (last seen in
France in the 1970s) on the east coast. Sibbick’s biggest
yacht, the 63 tonne yawl Ruth was also in build for
Mr B Densham, heir to the Mazawattee Tea company.
We know that Sibbick was building yachts to the
highest standards, the Lloyds survey of Ruth at the time
of launch stated that “the materials were very good
throughout and workmanship excellent”. Magazines at
the time also commented on the workmanship
and quality of the woods used being of the highest
standard. Ruth was still being used as a houseboat
(named Aglaia) in Littlehampton until she was
dismantled in the mid-1970s.
Witch is first mentioned in The Yachtsman magazine
in January 1902 as being nearly completed, we don’t
have an exact launch date but probably April or May
1902, so Witch and Ruth must have been nearing
completion and launch around the same time.
Sibbick’s company went out of business in January
1903, so perhaps only 20 more boats were built after
Witch, including Ripple, still sailing in Dartmouth.CONSTRUCTION
Witch was built by Edward (Ted) Williams as lead
shipwright. Most of Sibbick’s fast cruisers including
Madcap, Chittabob III, Riva and Betty IV (now Giga),
the latter two of which are still sailing, were built with
grown frames with steamed ribs fastened by rivets.
Witch was built with large 3in x 3in grown oak frames
18 inches apart in the same style as the larger yawls
Saunterer, Thalassa and Nedda (still sailing in France).
Although bigger, their lines are very similar. The futtocks
were joined by oak dowels and the frames doubled for
most of her length, pinned with bronze rod. This strong
construction undoubtedly contributed to her survival.
The frames were riveted through the elm keel, tuckedunder the teak keelson and the whole held together by
wrought iron floors. The floors were held by four
fasteners each side, half inch bronze bolts for the lower
two and copper rivets for the upper two, possibly
because these were inside lockers and the nuts may cause
problems with stored items. The one inch bronze keel
bolts went through the centre of each floor, with coach
screws in the same position on the apron and aft.
Witch was planked in pitch pine of 1¼inches with
American Rock Elm garboards. Although the garboards
and a few lower planks were shot, most of the rest was
in near perfect condition apart from around the iron
chain plates. The planks were held by bronze nails (or
dumps) of square section hammered through into the
oak frames. Larger cast bronze round dumps were used
at the plank aft ends and at butt joints. The few butt
joints were on double frames, no butt blocks were used,
most of the planks on the topsides were full length, that’s
more than 36 foot long. The shear plank was teak, again
nailed, no screws were used in the planking.
The tops of the frames were fastened by copper
rivets to a pine beam shelf, 2 inches x 6 inches which
was connected to the oak stem and apron by an oak
breast hook, and aft to an oak false transom one
section ahead of the actual teak transom block. She had
oak lodging knees around the mast and wrought iron
hanging knees at the mast and companionway. The gap
between the top of the beam shelf and the underneath
of the deck was filled by a decorative panel from the
bulkhead aft to the rear of the cockpit with holes in
Sibbick’s unique pattern forming ventilation for the
lockers. Ceiling strips nailed to the frames covered all
of the planking in the same area. I had some of both the
original ventilation and ceiling to copy.
The sternpost was oak and extended up to deck level
with a pine rudder box. The central counter timber was
teak with oak horn timbers again bronze bolted to iron
floors. The rudder stock was teak and the blade elm.
The deck beams were oak, 3 inches x 3 inches with
only a small amount of camber, these were set into the
top of the beam shelf with a half dovetail and fastened
with a bronze dump. Carlings for skylight,
companionway and cockpit were of a similar
dimension dovetailed into the beams and screwed. The
hatches, skylight etc were screwed direct to the beams
and carling from below.
At deck level the King planks were teak, widening to
14 inches aft of the mast. The skylight, hatches,
companionway and so on were also teak, although the
covering boards (and presumably the toe rails and caps)
were mahogany. The deck was American yellow pine
secret fastened in bronze and probably started life as 1^1 / 8
inches thick. The deck boards were basically parallel
with the king plank with each plank tapered fore and aft
and snaped into the covering boards. The small cockpit
was panelled in teak on a pine frame and was probably
lead or zinc lined. It had lead pipe self drainers and skin
fittings held in place with white lead paste and brass
tacks (below the waterline!) these were still in place
when I bought Witch. The port drain pipe also had an