TERN
Above left to
right: She’s been
taking class
victories in her
first Med season;
bowsprit was
retained; the
skylight, drawn to
Fife’s drawingssub-deck. “It was our one concession to modernity,” said
Paul, “to counter deck leaks and stiffen the boat up.”
Just as work was about to start on a teak deck,
which would be swept parallel to the covering boards
and snaped into the king plank, newly discovered
photographs revealed that Tern originally had tapered
planks – probably in yellow pine – snaped into the
covering board with no king plank, and it was decided to
replicate that in ½in (12mm) teak. The entire deck
superstructure was renewed in Brazilian mahogany. “The
one that was on her was afromosia, which is heavy,”
said Paul, “and it had portholes which she didn’t have
originally. All of the new structure, including the
companionway hatch and skylight was faithfully
reproduced according to Fife’s drawings.”
Tern’s new internal layout is simple: inside the
companionway a drinks cabinet to port and a discreet
electrical panel to starboard give way to Chesterfield
leather settees, while the forepeak is for sail stowage. The
style consists of contrasting gloss-varnished mahogany
and white-painted deck heads.
By 2013 a Yanmar engine had been removed and
from now on she would stay engineless. She’d also have
her original sail plan, with the existing mast, gaff and
bowsprit retained. All the new rigging was made by
Palma-based rigger Chuck Demangeat, generally using
modern materials and traditional methods. The standing
rigging is 7x7 unpolished stainless steel wire – to give theappearance of traditional galvanised wire without the
maintenance issues – all hand-spliced and served,
leathered at the top and looped on the mast, and with
solid thimbles and bronze rigging screws at the bottom.
The running rigging is almost all three-strand pre-
stretched polyester. Chuck has made two changes to the
rigging: blocks and tackle instead of highfield levers for
the runners; and a sheet span for the mainsheet. “When
Fife designed the Dublin Bay ODs in 1898 he specified a
sheet span so I’ve put Tern ahead of her time by a year.”
Asking Tern’s original sailmakers to produce a new
suit of sails was an easy decision, particularly as Mark
Ratsey lives near Iain’s father in Mallorca and offered to
do some measuring. He also discovered that the
company still had the original drawings and old stamp.SAILING TERN
Tern was relaunched in Palma on 18 April 2015, but it
wasn’t until 6 August – after her rig was completed and
various issues had been meticulously resolved – that she
first sailed. The following week she took part in Vela
Clássica Mallorca, but her owner didn’t get the chance to
sail her until Les Voiles de St Tropez in September, the
first time he had seen her since a week before her launch.
“The weather was perfect,” Iain told me, “really nice
seas and 15 knots of breeze. He told me Tern was like
nothing he had ever sailed before.”
Then I got the chance to sail on Tern myself, in
Gstaad YC’s Centenary pursuit race in which the 23
centenarian boats entered for Les Voiles were invited to
compete. Our skipper was Nick Svolis who has worked
for the owner on other boats for five years. We had a
cracking breeze but it was probably the big seas left over
from the gales which proved decisive: although Tern felt
perfectly safe and comfortable in them, the bigger boats
inevitably powered through them more easily.
Those involved in Tern’s restoration have gained
immense satisfaction from the project and are proud of
what they have achieved. “Our remit was to do the job
properly and not cut corners,” said Chuck.
“We have all fallen in love with this boat,” Paul
added, “and as to her history, we are still digging.”
It was half her lifetime ago that Tern was last in
Ireland but it is hoped that she will return there in 2016
to take part in the 150th anniversary celebrations of two
Belfast Lough clubs which played a significant part in her
origins, Carrickfergus SC and the Royal Ulster YC. One
thing is for certain: she will get some welcome.TERN
LOS
49ft (14.93m)
LOD
37ft 3in (11.35m)
LW L
25ft (7.6m)
BEAM
8ft 8in (2.64m)
DRAUGHT
6ft 3in (1.9m)
SAIL AREA
848sq ft (78.8m^2 )