Classic Boat - May 2018

CRAFTSMANSHIP

KEN LAYZELL

C/O SAM FULFORD

BRANDY HOLE, ESSEX

Twist again, like we did in 1967

Boatbuilder Sam Fulford has put down roots in East Cowes, by

restoring a 105-year-old slipway, or ‘marine railway’ to use the more

descriptive American term. Sam took a lease on the slip, originally

built by Groves and Gutteridge in 1913 in September last year, and got

to work. It was a big job, necessitating a complete refabrication of the

cradle, although Sam and team, known as ‘Wooden and Steel Ship

Repair’ were able to use half the original oak backbone. The cradle has

130 cast-iron wheels, 86 of which had to be replaced by re-machining.

The two outer track cradle sections, which provide stability, were

refurbished by using the original wheels, choosing the best from all

130, and re-machining to equal diameters and widths, so the 22 wheels

on each side would all bear equal load. “One wheel larger than the rest

would do all the work, and point load the tracks,” Sam pointed out.

The timber work was all in first-class condition, but new steel

cladding was fitted and new bolts tying the whole assembly together

driven in. The first boat, Dawn Hunter, a 50 tonne MFV-style workboat,

now privately owned, has already been slipped. The slip is now the Isle

of Wight’s heaviest capacity haul-out facility.

Retired woodwork teacher Ken Layzell has taken

on a pretty major Twister restoration. He’s been

at it since 2014, replacing the deck and, with

friend David Hewitt (83), refinishing all the

brightwork and most of the interior.

It’s a big job, particularly for a man who

already owns a perfectly good Twister. “I did it to

save her,” Ken told us.

In 1967, when Ken was 20, he approached

Sonny Cole of the Tucker Brown yard, and

asked if he could photograph the build of

Cheetah of Burnham, which went on to become

the fastest Twister of them all, proving her

worth by beating the designer Kim Holman’s

own boat, Twister of Mersea, at Cowes Week.

Cheetah of Mersea was built for Harry

Croker, a big figure in the intense racing scene

of those days, when men like him would order

a new boat every season or two. Ken’s father,

back in 1969, bought the Twister Oliver, which

Ken owns to this day. His restoration of

Cheetah of Burnham, built to race and around

half a tonne lighter than her sisterships, is

around half complete.

Ken is refreshingly honest about how big

these projects are, even if you have the skills,

as he does: “I have lain awake at night,

worrying at two in the morning about the

work that lies ahead,” he said.

The Twister is a wooden, carvel-planked

(later GRP) cruiser-racer sloop, masthead

bermudan-rigged with a pleasing, traditional

shape, transom stern and long keel. They ruled

the roost in racing from the first one, in 1963

until 1968, and enjoyed many intermittent

successes thereafter.

Bluebird K7 captured the eyes of the world

when she streaked across Coniston Water on

4 January 1967 at a record-breaking speed of

over 320mph, before hitting some disturbed

water from the previous run and being

catapulted into the air. She smashed back to

the surface of the lake, instantly killing her pilot

Donald Campbell. The wreckage was

rediscovered on the lake bed in 2000.

Campbell’s body, never located by the original

1967 dive team who first found the wreckage

of the boat, was found the year after that, and

both he and his boat were raised. The

legendary jet-powered hydroplane has been

rebuilt over the last decade under project

leader Bill Smith, and this August, she will

make her first high-speed run in 51 years, on

Loch Fad on the Isle of Bute in Scotland’s Firth

of Clyde. The next step in her journey back to

speed will be a run back on Coniston Water.

EAST COWES, ISLE OF WIGHT

150-tonne slipway restored

ISLE OF BUTE

Bluebird K7

to run again

C/O BILL SMITH