Classic Boat — February 2018

(^18) CLASSIC BOAT FEBRUARY 2018
TELL TALES

Q& A

Peter Wilson of Davey & Co

How is the market for traditional

fittings in 2018? Very good, although

to pick one year is deceptive. Over

the last 10 years we have experienced

positive growth but not always year

on year. The key element for us is our

distributors around the world. We are

now at nearly 50 per cent export.

What is the oldest pattern you use?

Many items from our first proper

catalogue in 1919 are still in

production today but, of course,

patterns are replicated because

either more are needed to speed

production, or they break or wear out.

Many are from the first half of the

20th century and even those replaced

more recently are to exactly the same

design as before.

What is the history of Davey & Co?

Christopher Davey founded the

company in Leadenhall Street in

London in 1885. He moved shortly

afterwards to our famous address of

88 West India Dock Road and the

company grew through the 20th

century, but by the early 1960s, so

much was changing and Davey had to

modernise and contract. In 1988 we

moved out of London to Essex. The

growth of ‘classic’ boating and

restorations began to give us a new

role in the marine world and by

hanging on to our old ways we have

become a specialist in products that

few people make any more.

Are your products only for boats?

We have some non-marine accounts

and we know that some of our fittings

are finding their way into houses

through the chandlers. Over recent

years we have made street bollards

and brass bar stools to look like

bamboo, and lights and vents for

trains, plus supplying the film

industry.

What are your biggest sellers?

Mostly items from our unique patterns,

so cleats, fairleads, vents and lights

and so on. Our Wykeham-Martin

furling gear and bronze stars sell a lot.

How are your products made?

A great many are sand cast in

gunmetal. Once cooled they are

machined, if required, then held in the

hand against progressively finer

abrasive belts through to a polishing

mop, the same as we have been doing

for over 130 years. If molten metal

couldn’t be poured into a sand mould,

I don’t know where we’d be.

After years of refinement, have your

products reached a peak of quality?

We do not use modern machines that

can spit out exactly the same item

1,000 times. Instead, our hand-crafted

production methods bring character

and beauty to our historic fittings

which if ‘perfect’ would not look right.

That said, very few items are returned

to us.

Do you offer restoration work?

We do and it often means that original

gear can stay on the boat. It can also

work out much cheaper too. Even a

tricky item like a portlight that doesn't

want to come apart, at £250, is cheaper

to restore than buy new at £400,

especially if you have six of them.

HALESWORTH, SUFFOLK

Vanishing Sail screening

LONDON

Best sailors shortlisted

What better way to preserve the future of one ship than by

selling tickets to a screening of a film about building another?

The Wherry Maud Trust, raising money for the next six years’

conservation work, is staging a showing of Vanishing Sail. This

full-length documentary made by Alexis Andrews, and to

which we are acting as presenting partner, tells the story of

Carriacou boatbuilder Alwyn Enoe, legatee of a nearly dead

tradition of building wooden Carriacou sloops, and his mission

to build what might well be his last boat, in an effort to pass

on the tradition to his son. The screening is at The Cut in

Halesworth, Suffolk, at 7.30pm on 19 January. Tickets are just

£5. Book at newcut.org. Further screenings, including one at

Totnes on 25 January, can be found at vanishingsail.com

WORD OF THE MONTH

Six water grog

“A punishment in the British Navy during the days of sail,

inflicted on seamen found guilty of neglect or drunkenness.

It consisted of their daily tot of grog being diluted with six

parts of water instead of the normal three. It was a

punishment that fell into disuse around the start of the

20th century." Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea

Shortlists for this year’s Yachting Journalists’ Association

(YJA) awards have been announced. Matilda Nicholls (

years old – Laser Radial champion), Montel Fragan-

Jordan (17 years old – Cowes Week and Fastnet success)

and Crispin Beaumont and Tom Darling (29er class

winners) are the nominees for Young Sailor of the Year.

Alex Thomson (Vendée Globe), Paul Goodison (Moth

world champion) and Dylan Fletcher and Stuart Bithell

(winning 49er crew) are the nominees for Yachtsman of

the Year. The awards, instigated in 1955 by Sir Max

Aitken, have been won by, among others, Sir Francis

Chichester, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston (four times), Tracy

Edwards, Dame Ellen MacArthur and Sir Ben Ainslie.

Former winner and British PM Sir Edward Heath

ALEXIS ANDREWS