WITCH
Above and facing
page top right:
Basil Lubbock
(with dark trilby)
with his wife and
friends on Witch
in 1913.
Facing page: the
newly repaired
engraved rudder
head and
compass (and
original iron
tiller) were not in
the workshop
and are safe;
original iron
floors shot
blasted,
galvanised and
ready to bolt
through new
grown oak
futtock; the
interior looking
aft showing new
oak deck beams
and carlingsarm forming a deck scupper aft of the cockpit coaming.
There was a large bronze flush deck mounted bilge pump
to starboard. The deck hardwear was minimal; the
foresail sheets went through bronze bonnets screwed into
plates flush with the deck, the cleats were all wood and
the main sheet horse was of the buffered variety.
The interior was only simple with V lockers in the
forepeak, a small galley just aft of the mast to port and
heads to starboard. A bulkhead separated the saloon
from the forepeak with a panelled door that also
operated as the heads door. The saloon had simple
benches with lockers under and removable panels in the
top, all in mahogany with beading around the edges.
The original gaff cutter sail plan is clear in the 1914
photographs and was originally by Ratsey & Lapthorne.HISTORY
Thomas Wills Sandford commissioned Witch when he
was 23 years old and a student in Cambridge. My guess
is that not many 23-year-old students commission yachts
now, maybe a new BMW or in extreme cases an Aston
Martin, not a yacht. But Edwardian Britain was quite a
different place and owning a yacht was a fashionable
thing to do. Wills Sandford’s family home was Castlerea,
County Roscommon, Ireland. He was the son of a
landowner with a large estate, his great grandson, also
Tom Wills Sandford contacted me at one point and knew
nothing of Witch, although he did have a memory of a
photograph of his great grandfather on a different yacht.
He told me that he was considered the black sheep of the
family, spending the family fortune on yachts, horses and
other fun-filled vices and that by the First World War
there was little left of the estate. Witch was registered in
Kingstown (now Dun Laoghaire), he was a member of
the Royal Alfred and St George Yacht Clubs. Wills
Sanford sold Witch after only two years.
A number of owners followed before Witch was
bought by Basil Lubbock in 1913. Lubbock is an
important figure in maritime history, particularly
regarding the Cutty Sark and the last days of the clipper
ships, having written a number of books on the subject. I
just knew that as a writer and historian it was likely that
he will have left something, somewhere. I finally found a
collection of documents and notebooks in the NationalMaritime Museum in Greenwich. One of these related to
the period when he owned Witch and a small racing
yacht called Dot. It’s not a log in the proper sense but
includes weather and tide, who was on board and
journeys made from their mooring in Hamble. It also
includes many fantastic photos giving me every detail of
the rig and deck layout. It’s clear from the photos that
the cockpit coaming had been doubled in height, I guess
suggesting that Witch was a wet boat, but must have
made making-off the sheets very difficult. It’s also nice to
know who all the people in the photos are, including his
wife (also called Dot) and the paid hand, named as
Dornom, I believe his first name was Alf.
Lubbock owned the Manor House in Hamble, he was
a founding member of the Hamble River Sailing Club as
well as a member of the Royal Yacht Squadron, the
Royal Southern, Royal Fowey and Royal Motor Yacht
Clubs. Lubbock’s first entry on 3 September 1913 read
“First sail in the ‘Witch’. Wind NNE, nice breeze, went
out at ten o’clock to the East Bramble and back. Very
pleased with the behaviour of ‘Witch’, showed good
speed. Got back in at 12.30”.
The entry for Wednesday 4 August 1914 reads:
“Started to lay up the ‘Witch’ owing to war being
declared with Germany”.
During the First World War he fought with the Third
Wessex Brigade, Royal Field Artillery in India and France
and was awarded the Military Cross.
Lubbock’s next sail was 31 July 1919, almost exactly
5 years since the last, “Lovely day, nice westerly wind.
The ‘Witch’ romped along as usual”. He sold Witch on
26 September 1920 for £350.
An engine was first added in 1921, made by the
Bergius Launch Co. of Glasgow with two cylinders and
7.8bhp, this had the propeller on the port side although
later engines had the prop shaft through the centre of the
stern post. Other owners followed, I don’t know much
about many of them but from 1935-1937 Witch was
owned by Professor Julian Taylor. He ran a successful
practice in Portland Place, London and was consulting
surgeon to University College Hospital and a member of
the United Hospitals Sailing club in Burnham.
Taylor sold Witch to James Burroughs of Leigh-on-
Sea who made the change to bermudan rig in 1938. The