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8 CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2019
FARIDA
“I knew that I’d buy her even before I set foot on her.
I thought her shape and sheer were gorgeous,” said
Michael. “We’ve had some fantastic sails in her since.
The lovely thing about Farida is she’s heavy – and she’s
got this lovely, long keel, and is very well-balanced.”
A LABOUR OF LOVE
Current owner John Richardson has arrived at the
marina by this point, and without much ado – we’d
spoken at length about the boat previously, so weren’t
strangers to one another – we motored out into
Portsmouth harbour, where the summer holidays were
had started early. John, an experienced sailor with lots
of solo miles under his belt, was unruffled by the light
breeze, Force 3 at best, but it was no joke taking the
helm of a boat like this, shiny with new varnish,
vulnerable with prettiness and loaded with history, into
the busy shipping channel. Clearly, you don’t stuff a
thing like Farida into the path of an oncoming ferry.
We set off on a long, gentle port tack, the best we
could lay to try to clear Gilkicker Point, praying for
a little more wind to fill the sails and tilt the deck a bit
for the sake of photographer Lester, who was following
us in a RIB and driver, very kindly lent to us by Premier
Marinas. Behind us loomed a giant ferry bound for
the coast of France, while ahead on the starboard side,
a ferry bound from the Isle of Wight approached,
bellowing her horn in the sour, repetitive little
monologue that means, technically at least, “make
your intention clear”. For a moment, I assumed it was
for us, but it turned out to be some other poor fool
afloat on the busy, blue glittering sea that day. The
Portsmouth-Ryde hovercraft joined in the mêlée,
skimming past in a plume of spray and white noise,
and then we were free, out of the rush of the shipping
lanes, and close to the coast, unhindered by strife and
sailing in a relative sanctuary of peace and silence.
When John found Farida in 2012, he believed, on
Opposite,
clockwise from
top: The new
interior, showing
engine box with
built-in chart table;
the mostly original
cockpit; detail
of the butterfly
hatch; new,
manual windlass;
lifting forehatch
with the quality
touch of a
portlight
the strength of a survey, that he’d bought a sound boat,
with a corresponding price tag of £35,000 (see box p10).
Until, that is, he was sailing around the Portland Bill,
known for its fierce tidal race, en route from Yarmouth
to Brixham, a year after purchase. “She’s a wet boat
anyway, but water was pouring in through the
sheerplank. The jibsheet track had been pulled out
of the deck. Cleats were pinging out of the mast.
A second surveyor, and boatbuilder John Shaw of
JWS Marine, rebutted the first survey. The keel was
hanging on by just two bolts. At least 12 hull planks
were shot. Frames crumbled in the hand. Cast-iron
floors were not even through-bolted to the hull. Farida
needed serious work. “It’s frightening now to think of
her slamming her way around Portland Bill,” recalled
John, an ex-headmaster and experienced solo sailor
who clearly does not scare easily. He barely needed to
add the words “alone” and “at night” to induce a shiver.
The rebuild took six years in the end, but at least it
gave the chance for some revisions to the interior. It’s
still mostly original, but John has added some modern
touches to make it more liveable. The sole-to-deckhead
aft bulkheads have been cut back at chest height, the
lost strength replaced with vertical steel poles, the better
to gain a sense of space and to let light into the cabin.
The new 28hp Volvo Penta is positioned to give access
to the propshaft, with the chart table built into the
engine box top. Electrics and batteries are sited neatly
in a convenient spot above the engine.
The offset companionway that opens on the
starboard side led to “quite a wet situation” in terms
of the starboard quarter berth, so John had that moved
to the port side. The cockpit is still largely original,
notwithstanding a more modern instrument array and
placement. John clearly believes in the sensible practice
(at least on a yacht this size) of furnishing much of a
yacht’s interior down its centreline to avoid cramped
conditions, so similarly, the heads, which is in the