CLASSIC BOAT FEBRUARY 2018 95Send your letters (and any replies, please) to:
Classic Boat, Jubilee House, 2 Jubilee Place,
London SW3 3TQ
email: [email protected]Reading the article on the Lake Constance Pilot Cutter (January issue) I
wondered if this was my fi rst real encounter with the phenomenon of ‘fake
news’. This modern boat is as much a pilot cutter as I am a fi sherman.
Perfect for gentle lake daysailing she may be, but I fear the tough
workboatmen of years gone by may be rolling in their graves.
Julian Tripp, via emailA great piece about the fi lm Dunkirk in your summer
edition. You might be interested in the story of MTB
102, which spent a month during shooting in France
with a volunteer crew – but were edited out in the
fi nal cut. The MTB 102 Trust supporters were stunned
and understandably more than a little miff ed! MTB
102 made eight Channel crossings during the WW2
evacuation.
Richard GossAdrian Morgan’s letter in the
December edition about design
competitions refers to competition
judges’ negative comments of many
designs submitted during the 1940s,
some of which were by Service
personnel. One design, which no
doubt would have met with approval
had not circumstances prevented an
entry, was a 27ft (8.23m) LWL sloop.
The idea was conceived by Major Alan
Mills and Duncan Campbell while they
were prisoners of war, having been
captured by the Japanese on
Christmas Day, 1941. Alan and Duncan,
who possessed a BSc and was also an
A.M.I.Mech.E, intended for the boat to
be built on their release at the end of
the war. In the event it was not until
1949 that a syndicate comprising of
the two principals with the addition of
CB Suff rey and JW Dickson placed an
order with the Berthon Boat Co to
construct the yacht. As a third year
apprentice naval architect, I was
involved with the lofting process and
was most impressed by the beauty of
the lines and the accuracy of the
drawings supplied. To use an Uff aism:
“Boy, if it looks right, tis right.”
Jim Hazel, Locksheath‘Fake’ pilot cutter?
Dunkirk omission
More on Manxman
Conway search
Time on their hands
Wild
PRINCESS
A ‘pilot cutter’ with a fi& bulb retracting keel, n
on Lake Constance. She’s unusual – and she’s fast
WORDS SAM FORTESCUETop: hollow mast from locally grown pine; Above: Stefan Züst at the helmS
wiss boat builder Stefan Züst, a great bear of a man, with the beard of a wild Norseman and long hair with a hint of ginger to match,
is obsessed with speed. Barely a conversation passes that doesn’t contain reference to such-and-such a boat that he beat into port or
overtook on the racetrack. The agent of this performance? Her name is day race-boat. She’s a 30ft gaffer that he built and named Alzira and she is no modern-
after Voltaire’s Inca princess who triumphs against the Spanish conquistadors. Stefan loves the Verdi opera of the tale, but what really appeals is the subtext of the
primitive Ancients beating the newcomers.Cutter, much to the ire of some. For starters, there is no He describes the boat as a Lake Constance Pilot
tradition of pilot cutters on Lake Constance. “Well, why couldn’t there be?” Stefan asks. More importantly,
perhaps, the boat has a very flprofisheer, plumb bow and long bowsprit might give her a le – and a hydraulically lifting bulb keel. Her subtle at, modern underwaterThe Conway OD is enjoying something of a revival in that
neglected boats are being refurbished by club members
and made available to sail and race. Of the 14 original
boats, up to seven are regularly seen in the bay and two
GRP examples will be with them for years to come.
WH Rowlands drew the boat with a plumb stem and
wide transom to cope better with the chop encountered
locally. It is not to be confused with the Conway and Menai
Straits OD, otherwise known as the Royal Anglesey Fife.
Interest has been shown in tracking down two more of
these boats that were built in Tarbert at the yard of
AM Dickies, Bangor.
Records show that in 1936 one was built for Sir George
Ilay Campbell and a second for Robert Morton who had
several boats built by Dickies including the classic,
Cruinneag 111. The latter COD Skate is seen in Lloyds from
1947-1951 after which the trail goes cold. Any information
on these wayward boats appreciated.
Ned CoackleyC/O NED COACKLEYASSOCIATION OF DIRKIRK LITTLE SHIPHere is some more about the K-Class
yawl Manxman (above), mentioned
on the Letters page. Manxman sailed
for many years before WWII from
Edgartown, Martha’s Vineyard.
Skippered by Samuel Norton, she
was described as the world’s largest
cruising yawl. A few folks remember
her fl ying in under full sail. She would
work her way into the inner harbor,
round up and sails would be
dropped. All without resorting to the
engine. I’m much too young to have
seen it myself, but it was an amazing
feat of seamanship. Designed by
W Starling Burgess and launched as
Katoura in 1927 by the Herreshoff
Manufacturing Company, she was
111ft 7in LOA, 75ft LWL, 20ft beam,
13ft 6in draft with a total sail area of
6,987 square feet.
Virginia Crowell Jones, MA