CYNTHIA
Clockwise from
top left: Cynthia
at sail; the drinks
cabinet; the
original builder’s
plate; sailing off
Falmouth with
her original rigwhich was a privilege I only fully
appreciated later when I realised
what we achieved: sailing a large,
sleek, engineless old boat among the
crowded Solent fl eets. Despite the variable winds and
the tides, we never once missed the last ferry home.”
However in 2011, the owners decided Cynthia was
becoming too much work for John, now in his 70s.
“We decided to fi nd someone who would be able to give
her a new lease of life,” said Richard, “and would love
her as we had.” It was Richard who started the process
(including instigating the CB article) which resulted in
“a surprising number of people who were interested”.
Eventually Peter Lucas was one of those invited to
Cowes to meet John.
“We had a quick look at the boat and then went to
lunch,” Peter told me. “It felt a bit like an interview.”
Peter made an offer but John responded by saying that
he wanted to come and look at Peter’s yard on the Dart.
He actually did so twice, and on the second occasion he
said “I think Cynthia will be very happy in this yard.”
They then agreed a price and, soon afterwards, Peter
took his lifeboat – he owns Duke of Cornwall, the
Barnet-class lifeboat that served at the Lizard from
1960 – up to Cowes to tow Cynthia to the Dart where
he brought her ashore at his own yard.
During her time in Cowes, Cynthia had been
maintained at Ned Williams’ yard and then at
Lallows. She was refastened in the 1950s, had
a fair bit more work done to her around 1980,
and then in 2000 Lallows renewed the transom,
part of the stem, the beam shelf and nearly half the deck
beams, and then laid a tongue and groove cedar deck
which was sheathed in glass and resin. But Peter knew
all too well that a fair amount of further work was now
needed so, with a certain amount of help, he set to work.
With regard to the hull, about 200 foot of topsides
pine planking had suffered fresh water damage and
was renewed with northern larch; the bottom ends
of 40 grown oak frames were repaired having “just
crumbled away due to electrolysis”.
Peter had concerns about the stiffness of the hull so
much work was done to address this. An extra fastening
was fi tted through each plank and steamed frame; six
partial bulkheads were fi tted, in ¾in thick plywood and
clad in teak; and two new laminated iroko ring frames,
to which the chainplates were fastened, were added.
The metal structure under the deck which Nicholson
had put in to support the deck-stepped mast was
removed as was the original mast step which was in
fi ve separate pieces of timber three foot further forward
“where it was rocking on the front of the keel”. Peter’s