Send your letters (and any replies, please) to:
Classic Boat, Jubilee House, 2 Jubilee Place,
London SW3 3TQ
email: [email protected]As someone who has owned two wooden yachts, one bought in my youth
and one in retirement, funded via a civil service salary and then a pension,
I commend your new Aff ordable Classic series. I’ve always thought that
the bargain you can fi nd in a wooden yacht, if one is to do the refi t and
upkeep oneself, make having rudimentary woodworking skills very
valuable indeed.
Robin Lloyd, LancashireI recently picked up the October issue of your
splendid magazine and was fl icking through it before
starting a more in-depth read.
My attention was drawn to a photograph on page
55 and I immediately recognised the vessel in
question (Dodo IV). I fi rst sailed in her in 1973 when
she was owned and operated by the London Sailing
Project. I have very fond memories of that fi rst
voyage. I went on to sail in her again in 1974 during
the Tall Ships Race from St Malo to Portsmouth and
later that year was selected to sail as a Watch Leader
with the Project. I sailed in her several times over the
next fi ve years and learned a lot, both about sailing
and myself. I seem to recall that she was a bit
sluggish to windward due to the ratio of her length to
beam, but off the wind on broad reach or beam
reach, she was quite quick.
She was a lovely old vessel and the time I spent in
her generated some very happy memories which will
stay with me forever.
Clive Cripps, via emailBoyd’s Circe
Greetings from sunny
Queensland. As a boy I
was raised in Beaumaris
on the Menai Straits,
Wales. I started sailing
with the Sea Scouts but
my mentor was an
elderly gentleman,
Colonel Roy Davidson.
He had a very beautiful
yacht on which he taught
me and many of my friends the fundamentals of
larger boat sailing.
I’ve just read the very interesting article about
David Boyd in the November CB and I see a reference
to a 6-M called Circe. The colonel’s boat was called
Circe and I believe she was a 6-M. Can anyone shed a
little light on this for me?
Thanks for a great magazine, I have read it since
issue one.
Geoff Walton, via emailI have some sympathy with your February Letter of
the Month, suggesting we should not be too harsh in
our judgment of Donald Crowhurst and that his
achievement in sailing over 16,000 ocean miles
singlehanded should be recognised. However, in my
view the most under-appreciated competitor in the
1968 Golden Globe race is Nigel Tetley.
He entered the race in Victress, an almost identical
trimaran to Crowhurst’s, without any of the
modifi cations the latter claimed would make it a
vessel suitable for a circumnavigation. He was one of only three competitors to
round Cape Horn, a feat of masterly seamanship in a plywood trimaran. The
other two, Bernard Moitessier and Robin Knox-Johnston have their place in
sailing history. Tetley might well have joined them by completing the race in the
fastest time. With a thousand miles to go, he was a full two months ahead of
Knox-Johnston’s time and he was the last genuine competitor in the race,
Moitessier having decided to stay at sea. But he learned on his radio that
Crowhurst was still going and not far behind, so he pushed his badly damaged
boat too hard and it broke up. He was rescued at sea. But for the duplicity of
Crowhurst, he might well have been able to nurse Victress home, which would
have changed the course of his life.
Tetley died in tragic and peculiar circumstances in 1972 and is now a
forgotten fi gure, despite his heroic performance in the race. I accept that
Crowhurst was caught in a trap, but it was one of his own making. When all
hope was gone, he could have dropped out as other competitors did, despite
the fi nancial diffi culties waiting for him at home. He would have had a story to
sell at least – and his family would not have lost him. He made a diff erent choice.
So, I agree that we should be sensitive to the plight of Crowhurst, but spare a
thought for Tetley, much the braver man.
Chris Main, via email
Aff ordable classics
David Boyd’s Dodo IV
Tetley was the real hero
AN OWNER’S VIEW
“below decks choose a stripped-out racing interior and others a comfortable By modern sbut adequate. Some tandards she’s basic
cruising set up. The Stella is like sailing a heavier version of the
Dragon I used to race. Wpleasure to handle and light enough to trail. Most owners manage any leaks easily. We love having ith modern deck gear it’s a
Timoanormally do local rega back in the family and will never sell her. We ttas and east coast cruising.
Andrew Gilmour. Andrew’s father and was restored and brought Timoa once belonged to ”
back into the family in recent years.NEW SERIESMain picture:and Suffolk Yacht Harbour Timoa at the Scorpio
Regatta 2017. Inset: typical Stella
interior and cockpit EMILY HARRIS
74 CLASSIC BOAT FEBRUARY 2018 CLASSIC BOAT FEBRUARY 2018 75W
elcome to a new series in Classic Boat, aiming to highlight the ‘affordable’ classics
wallet-busting prices. No matter how deep your pockets, – the many types of wooden boats that you will find on the market for less than
everyone loves a bargain, and an easily handled yacht, with affordable running costs, simple maintenance and no need to find extra crew, is possibly the greatest bargain known to
man. For less than the price of a secondhand car, you get fun, adventure and satisfaction (okay, and the odd grazed knuckle and moment of complete frustration) for as long as
you own and maintain her.£10,000 ($13,000 or €11,300), but generally the boats we We have pegged our ‘affordable’ tag at a maximum of
feature each month will be available for far less. There couldn’t be a better boat to kick off the new
series than the Stella, an archetypal, small post-war British cruising yacht. The Stella has it all – great looks, proven sailing ability, good for racing and for cruising, solo or
with a family, for a day or for much longer, with proper accommodation below. There is a steadily growing fleet,
with many in restoration (both professional and amateur) and a great owners’ association. The Stella was drawn by the English naval architect Kim
Holman as a ‘bigger Folkboat’ and the first, Rosethe board so thoroughly at Burnham Week that some , was launched in 1959. Just two days later she swept La Vie en
questioned her rating! Theo Rye, “a careful piece of work”, with a fairly full The Stella was, according to our late technical editor
waterplane, higher than average beam and near 50 per cent ballast ratio, creating a winning formula. They have a reputation for being slippery in light airs as well as
standing up to the heavy stuff, yet that waterplane carries enough buoyancy aft to take a full cockpit load without
squatting. The Stella has bags of freeboard, which is not immediately apparent, as the clinker planking breaks up the topsides visually. Those topsides also pave the way for
more accommodation below, while keeping a fairly shallow lid over it.
to the extreme elegance of the Scandinavian Folkboat that inspired it, the gains in accommodation will be a This is a pretty boat and although it gives a little away
bargain many will settle for happily: you get a hanging locker and galley, two good settee berths and two pipecots in the forepeak. By today’s standards, it’s savage, but in comparison to yachts her size and vintage, the
Stella offers a lot here. Other advantages include unusually good engine access and wide sidedecks. It’s in the sailing that Stellas really please. They tack
nimbly thanks to the cutaway forefoot, accelerate quickly and are easy to handle, with no running backstays to manage and a transom-mounted mainsheet horse for
an uncluttered cockpit. As many owners have testified, the Stella is quick when you want, for racing, and safe when you want, for cruising, with the deep cockpit.
more than some, due to their clinker build. One correspondent noted a chorus of bilge pumps at the They are not perfect: they have a tendency to leak
Stella 50th anniversary regatta back in 2009, but this can be improved by a number of methods, like
tightening the fastenings.woodies of this size and vintage, but its size means Running a Stella will be much in line with other
much of the maintenance is doable by the owner. Suffolk Yacht Harbour, a hotbed of Stella activity, is
offering Stella owners a grcomprises a summer swinging mooring, winter hard standing and craneage each way, for £1,200 per annum. eat annual package, which
For everything else Stella, contact class secretary Peter Dyson: [email protected]£6,500 by Cardnell, mahogany on oak, restored 2011-2015. Price includes trailer Alcyone, Stella No17, built in 1960
stellaclass.org£9,950by Cardnell, rebuilt 1990, restored 1996-9 with much work since Acamar, Stella No19, built in 1960
stellaclass.orgFree!Tucker Brown, stored under a tarpaulin, some frames and planks need replacing Phaea, Stella No25, built in 1961 by
stellaclass.orgThree on the marketAFFORDABLE
CLASSIC
StellaSTELLALOA 25ft 10in
(7.9m) BEAM
7ft 6in (2.3m) DRAUGHTT
3ft 10in (1.2m)
SAIL AREA 338sq ft
(31.4mDESIGN DISP ²)
3.25 tonnesLESS THAN
£10K