STONE FAMILYSTONE FAMILYGABI STONETRISTAN STONE
with this particular moisture content and so on,’” Tristan
says. Stones has supplied some of the most admired
names on the classic circuit, including Eleonora’s top
mast, Mariquita’s Oregon pine top mast and sprit, the
teak used in the refit of Pelham Olive’s 1903 Kelpie and
also for Kelpie of Falmouth.
“I’d never have envisaged supplying some of the
bigger classic yachts and yards and it’s lovely to see the
boats out there sailing with parts of our timber in them,”
says Tristan, “But I enjoy working with the smallest
rowing boats as well. Our aim is to keep everyone
happy! Long-term we would like to maintain it as a
manageable business where we can keep the quality high.
Businesses can easily get too big and they lose the charm
of what it was all about.”
Sourcing sustainable teak has become an ethical and
legal minefield in recent years. Like all suppliers, the
Stones’ environmental credentials are checked regularly
and as recently as last summer they came out with flying
colours. Perhaps more than the official checks, it’s their
direct contacts in the source countries that gives them a
clear conscience. “We are not dealing with middlemen,
there’s no supply chain. So it’s easy for us to find out
where a particular log has come from in the forest and
ensure things are done right. I would never buy from a
non-sustainable forest because it’s not good long-term.”
Away from the yard, given any spare moment
allowed by his young daughter, Tristan is out sailing,
rowing, surfing, or fishing for sea bass in Tempest, the
family motor launch that was built at the yard.
“Everything I love is around the water,” he says. It’s no
suprise that when his Salcombe Yawl customers are
racing in August’s Regatta Week, and no paint jobs or
general repairs are needed (unless there’s an accident),
he can be found racing with them. So many friends
who shared his childhood of swimming, sailing and
rowing up the creeks to net sand eels for bait, have had
to move away for work. Tristan feels fortunate to be
raising his family in the place he has lived all his life,
where knowledge passed down through generations –
the rocks where the best sea bass lurk, or the twist of
tides against the shore – makes sense.
I ask Tristan what is he proudest of and his answer
is unexpected, but shows how close the family is tothe heart of the Salcombe
community. Some years ago
he saw how hard it was for
his grandfather to travel to
Plymouth for chemotherapy,
so with the help of a close
friend, he set about
fundraising for a local cancer
clinic. They threw a huge
party in the boatyard and
raised more than £48,000 in
one evening. This kick-started
community fundraising
efforts all over the Southwest,
the final tally enabling the
creation of a triangle of three
chemotherapy clinics serving
local areas.
One charity auction bid
was £1,100 for a day’s sea
bass fishing with Tristan. He
was worried in case they
didn’t catch anything, but after a lifetime of exploring
the local waters, it was no surprise they came home
with 12 bass in the locker.
A separate fundraising effort, raising money for a new
lifeboat, was by father Jim and friends, rowing from the
Channel Islands to Salcombe in a four-oared, clinker-
built regatta dinghy. They got to within two miles of
home before a storm intervened, but the sponsors paid
up willingly nonetheless.
Both Tristan and Jim travel widely now, their
itineraries taking in the biggest yards and the smallest,
their enjoyment as strong as ever in being able to
supply a fragment of yellow cedar for a flute, a length
of Sitka spruce for a Water Wag in Ireland or a full
teak deck for a J-Class. Tristan speaks with passion
about his visits to the lesser known yards and says
there are many great shipwrights and characters out
there building lovely boats who don’t have websites
and don’t usually get a mention, but whose skills are
no less than others. He says it’s great to meet like-
minded people who “love wood, love boats and value
quality and tradition”.
As I leave I am shown the Salcombe yawl Black
Tern (Y183), which Jim co-owns with his friend Will
Henderson, and races when he is over from Canada.
She was designed by the innovative Ian Howlett, of
America’s Cup fame. Black Tern has come a long way
from her predecessors, those little Salcombe fishing
yawls with their mizzens gallantly steadying them
against the tide, so nets could be cast and strings of
pots laid in exactly the right place. I think of these
craft, heavy with sweet crab and lobster, sea bass and
expensive flatfish, heading up creek towards the
railway which would transport their catch to the
Edwardian dining rooms of London. Today London
and indeed the world comes to Salcombe, to sail and
now to buy timber to maintain and build some of the
biggest classic yachts afloat. Through it all one
family’s name has remained constant, a heritage that
appears to be in very good hands.Top: Black Tern
racing in the
competitive
Salcombe
Yawl fleet
Above: Tristan
and Jim as the
barn starts to
go up
Below: The Stone
family c1900,
with Tristan’s
great
grandmother
looking out
of the top