Clockwise from
top left: leaving
the muddy
shores at Maldon;
crossing Biscay:
port of call in
Gibraltar; the
crew in harbourSPONGE BOAT TO GREECE
Eleni is constructed of larch planking on oak frames
fastened with galvanised nails and her decking is of
spruce planking. The first thing that strikes you is her
exaggerated sheer and flaring topsides built to throw off
the sudden katabatic-powered seas of the Med. Her
underwater profile is powerful, too, provided by a deep,
rounded bilge; if you were to take a boiled egg and slice
it in two lengthwise you’d get some sense of it.
On deck and below it’s the sheer that rules. On deck
you find yourself hill-walking to get for’ard and below
the fore-cabin deck-head curves upwards alarmingly for
the uninitiated.
The forepeak has two single berths illuminated by
three port-holes beneath a whale-back cuddy-style
forehatch. To move aft, crew crawl through a dog-flap
door into the saloon, passing a head to port which sports
a traditional Blake toilet, sourced by Jim.
The saloon has one settee berth to starboard and a
short seat behind the drop-leaf table to port. Also to port
is the galley: a simple layout with sink, small worktop
and a diesel-operated hob (Barnaby is no fan of gas).
Opposite the galley is the eye-level chart table – I’m a
big fan of this. To be able to lean, while standing, against
the navigation surface rather than crane over it is a plus
in my view. Beneath the chart table is a very roomy
quarter berth to starboard. The whole accommodation is
attractively and warmly lined with pine.
On deck, Eleni sports a wide, deep and comfortable
cockpit with a centre thwart behind which is a lazarette
situated beneath her curved tiller.She has wide decks protected by high bulwarks, atop
which is a wooden handrail – very useful for hanging
coiled ropes as well as assisting crews forward.
Access to the forepeak from deck is via a whaleback
cuddy independent from the main coach-roof.
Access to the 50hp Beta diesel – which replaced a
54hp Perkins from a combine harvester, self-marinised
by Hans – is via the cockpit sole. It throws a three-
bladed feathering prop.
Her 8ft bolt-sprit pivots and can be hove-up vertically.
When shipped, it sports a jib hanked to a Wykeham
Martin roller on a traveller. The staysail is on a roller,
too, and sets on the stem-head. She sports three reef
points in the mainsail and has running backstays.
The mainmast is the original Bermudian cut-down by
Jim to take the gaff. It is stepped on the keel.
Barnaby paid £30,000 for the boat and she is now
insured for £50,000 reflecting the investment he made in
her conversion to gaff.
Eleni’s shake-down cruise to Brighton will be
followed by the passage across Biscay and into the
Mediterranean to Corfu, with Barnaby and his 22-year-
old boat builder son, Arthur, who has just graduated
from Lyme Regis Boat Building Academy, as crew and
Max Liberson as delivery skipper.
Before casting off his mooring warps at Maldon,
Barnaby gave the plaque (inset page 59) hanging in the
saloon a wipe over.
‘When Hans sold me the boat he said: “I will leave
you Konstantinus and Eleni, they will look after you.”ELENI’S
CREWDICK^ DURHAM