Known to
take the
odd prize...
The 26ft 4in (8m) gaff cutter
Lone Wolf was built by Ashton
and Kilner in Hamworthy,
Poole, in 1905 as a ‘gentleman’s
pleasure yacht’. She cruised as
far as the Baltic and
Mediterranean between the
wars and sat out World War II
at Pin Mill, remaining on the
East Coast until 1983 when
OGA stalwarts Dick and Pat
Dawson bought her. Following
a refit at Hillyards in
Littlehampton she was moored
at the Elephant Boatyard at
Bursledon and more latterly in
Yarmouth, IoW. She has made
a comfortable cruising home
for the current owners for more
than 30 years and has been
known to take the odd prize in
gaffers and club races.Cross-Channel Enterprises at 60
The beach at Dover during the small hours of a January morning with a full Force 4 blowing is hardly
conducive to the idea of dinghy sailing, but at 3.28am on 9 January, 1956 two Enterprise dinghies left
Dover to make a cold night crossing of the English Channel to Calais, in one of sailing’s great, largely
forgotten, small-boat voyages. The boats, known simply as Enterprise 1 and Enterprise 2, were crewed by
Bruce Banks with wife Rosemary, and Bobbie Prenger and Flavia Nunes. The publicity stunt made quite
an impact not just because of the derring-do, but because the Enterprise class had been commissioned
as an affordable ‘Everyman’ dinghy from designer Jack Holt just a year before by The News Chronicle,
who covered the crossing in full. On 9 January, the crews pushed off from Dover beach and planed most
of the way to Calais in the lively conditions, experiencing thick fog at the French end. They had to delay
their entry into Calais for this photo to be taken by an aeroplane chartered by The Chronicle, a photo that
would appear on the news that night and in papers all over Britain the next day. They eventually arrived
at 10.10am. This was the era when newspapers would get behind sailing in a big way: in 1962, Holt would
collaborate with the Daily Mirror to design one of the most successful dinghies of all time, the
eponymous Mirror, and later that decade, the Sunday Times sponsored the famous Golden Globe yacht
race. The Enterprise continues to race to this day to the same design; more than 23,000 have been built.LONDON UK
‘Yachting knighthood’
for Mike Peyton
Cartoonist Mike Peyton (left) received
a long, standing ovation when he was
given a special Diamond Jubilee
Lifetime Achievement Award at
London’s Trinity House on 12 January,
at the Yachting Journalists’
Association (YJA) annual lunch. The
'jubilee' refers to the YJA, 60 this year.
Mike Peyton is 95. The Yachtsman of
the Year award went to Ian Walker,
first British skipper to win the Volvo
Ocean Race, and the annual Young
Sailor of the Year award went to
Topper champion Eleanor Poole (15).
Yachtsman of the Year has been
won by, among others, Sir Robin
Knox-Johnston, Edward Heath and
Dame Ellen MacArthur.EU
Survey rebuts
antifouling
concerns
In response to concerns that new
EU regulations on the use of
biocides might prevent private
boat owners from using antifoul,
the British Coatings Federation
(BCF) launched a survey to learn
about the public’s use of the
potentially dangerous paint.
The survey, which attracted a
response of 2,500 boat owners,
the vast majority of whom
antifoul their own boats annually,
revealed that more than 90 per
cent are “well aware of the
hazards involved” and that they
use “the appropriate level of
personal protective equipment”.
The BCF is now reviewing a
14-page preliminary report on
the responses, and was to hold a
meeting on 3 February to discuss
how best to use the findings as a
tool for lobbying.C/O TH EOWNER
C/O YJAC/O ENTERPRISE ASSOCIATIONLone Wolf
1905