34 CLASSIC BOAT APRIL 2016How often do you get the chance to sail
your boat with her designer? Nigel Irens was a
steady hand aboard my 22ft Romilly
STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHS NIC COMPTONSAILING WITH
THE MAN
ONBOARD
T
wenty years ago, I was working at the office of
Classic Boat magazine when I got a call to
review a boat on the River Dart. It was the
latest design by that doyen of modern multihull
design Nigel Irens, better known for ENZA and (later)
Ellen MacArthur’s record-breaking B&Q. The previous
year, Nigel had taken some time off from designing
high-speed racing yachts to create something completely
different: a lug-rigged cruising boat. With her high-
peaked lug sails set on carbon-fibre spars and her slim,
easily driven hull, the 29ft 6in (8.99m) Roxane was like
nothing anyone had ever seen before and caused a
sensation. At a stroke, Nigel had transformed the face of
traditional boat design.
Now, it was the turn of her little sister: the 22ft
Romilly, built on the same principles, by Dartington
Boatworks in Totnes. It was flat calm when owner Bill
Stanton took me for a drift on the river, so I hope I
could be forgiven for not seeing the boat’s full potential
right away. And, rereading my article, it’s clear to me I
didn’t really ‘get’ what the boat was about. I had only
ever owned long-keeled, wooden cruising yachts, andOur starting
point was the
Fowey estuary.
We were
headed for
Dartmouth, 6o
miles to the east