daughter Octavia. Avia with grand-
The ‘8’ in the name Octavia is no accident!
54 CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2019 CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2019 55become her next yacht: the classic 8-M Athenadesigners of the Universal Class. She had an engine and good ), a 1939 8-M from Tore Holm, one of the master Ilderim II (now named
interior but turned out to need a substantial rebuild, and ended up stripped out to race. “I now had two 8-Ms! One [my heart, the other was the better boat.” In fact, SirisSiris was better ] had
in light airs. She sailed through a Mediterranean storm in 2005, making a steady six knots just under bare poles. Around this time, Avia was keen to race harder and switched
down to the more popular 6-M class to learn lessons she could take back to the 8s, as the 6-M class was actively developed until later than the 8s. By 2007 she had sold Ilderim II (she
would hold onto Tempestby this point, Avia had already won the coup d’Italia and the ) to help fi nance a bold project. It is worth noting that Siris until 2018) and all her 6-Ms (bar one,
coup de France, major yacht races contested in rotating classes, including the 6-M and 8-M classes. But it was not enough: that bold project, started in 2009, would be the commission, design
and build of a new 8-M yacht to be the fastest in the world. By the time was launched in 2014, there was not Miss U
much time for trials. “She flbut was a dog downwind” said Avia. By ew upwind
2017, the worlds in Norway. She’ll race again this year, then this winter, after exhaustive Miss U fulfi lled her brief and won
research, have a new keel fiher, Avia hopes, the fastest 8 in existence at the 2020 Worlds in Holland. tted to make
these pages, and it seems Avia will have had enough of them pretty soon as well: That’s quite enough of the moderns for
her new 8-M project is a replica build of the 1938 S&S yacht of which sank on her delivery trip near Prelude, the original
San Diego, California. came to England” Avia reveals. She fi“I kidnapped Olin Stephens when he rst
so we got chatting and I persuaded him to sell me the rights to met the great man (1908-2008) in 2001 in Finland. “I already knew about Prelude,
build her anew. But there are lots of mysteries in the drawings, so I really wanted to quiz Olin about them.” Not long after that,
Avia took her chance at an S&S meeting in England. “Ted Heath [ex-British Prime Minister] was there, along with Olin, among others. I got to meet them both. This was where I
kidnapped Olin and took him back to my house in Warsash for three days. He became part of the family and played with the kids. We talked about painting, his war and everything else
besides.” It’s worth mentioning that Avia fully endorsed Halsey Herreshoff’s endorsement of Olin – “simply the best man there ever was,” – and Avia got the answers she needed about the new
replica years, with some of it built into various components, awaiting for the build proper to begin. “My heart is in the classics. I’ll be Prelude, for which she’s been collecting timber over the
60 in 2021, and my plan is to swallow the anchor in the moderns, sell retirement pottering on Miss U [the modern 8-M] and spend my Prelude.” Sounds like a plan.
Theo Rye, late naval architect and CB technical editor, for all the help he has given her over the years.Avia made a particular request that we acknowledge in printShe started out in the classics, then
went modern and won at racing. Now, it seems Avia Willment has seen the
light once more and is rebuilding a
classic 1930s 8-M.
WORDS STEFFAN MEYRIC HUGHESFull Circle
AVIA WILLMENT W
hen people tell you they are “straightforward,” be on your guard because it can sometimes mean a brittle façade that hides an insensitive or
simply means she does not speak in lies or euphimism. She is well known as the one of the world’s top metre boat sailors and, more aggressive interior. In Avia’s case though, it
than that, a force within the International Class, particularly in terms of the 8-Metres. She’s also the owner of Universal Marina on the River Hamble near Southampton, which is where we have
met for a sandwich and a coffee. It’s the 8-Ms we’ve met to discuss, what with the class having its worlds in Cowes this 20-27 July. Now, almost any other class sailor would jump at the
interview as a chance to evangelise, but Avia recognises the class’s limited appeal – on paper at least. These are not the best boats for racing, after all, particularly in Britain where entire fl eet of 8s
(modern and classic) can probably be counted on two hands. Most of the moderns are on Canada’s Lake Ontario and the only decent concentration of classic 8s is in Scandanivia – particularly
Finland. The fact they are racing yachts means they are not particularly good for cruising. Nor are they plentiful, or cheap.
And, as Avia herself (straightforward, remember) puts it, “we’re at the end of an
era in this class. It’s hard to build a new one when you have to ship it to Canada to race.”So, the questions remains: why an 8?
“Mental obsession! When you race one, the power and momentum feel very different to a plastic fantastic. When modern,
competitive sailors try it, they don’t realise – they think you can throw it around. You have to do everything more calmly and
slowly to preserve momentum.” Much of that will apply to any classic yacht of course, but the reason Avia loves the 8s particularly
is the size. “6-Ms are too small. They are like little ponies - they jump around. And 12-Ms are huge. That’s a whole different level. The
8-M is on a human scale – the perfect size. It’s like da Vinci’s man in a circle. They relate to human form.”
started sailing dinghies at about 10, but never competed. By the Avia was brought up in Surrey and the Sussex coast and
time she had gained her degree and become an architect, Avia was more interested in racing cars than yachts. This is hardly surprising when you consider that her father, John Willment of
JW Automotive, was one of the key players behind Ford’s famous Le Mans 24-Hour victories in 1968 and ‘69. Avia raced with some success in suped Austin 7s, Formula V and Sports- After the birth of her two children, a friend got in touch to say there was an “old classic yacht” on a pig farm in Norfolk. “I had no idea what is was” said Avia, who bought it on sight. It
won’t surprise you to learn that it was an 8-M: rule boat from Morgan Giles, built in 1925. In 1999, headed from pig farm to Fairlie Restorations and a year later Siris, a second Siris
emerged as new, engineless and pure, to race in Italy and the south of France in the fiShe was a beautiful boat – and the wrong boat. “I made a few rst season of her second life.
mistakes with cruising, but an engineless 8 is not ideal for that.” The next year, campaigning SirisSiris in Sweden, Avia came upon what was to , thinking she would be good for family
Olin Stephens “I kidnapped
when he came to England”JOHN KNOWLESJAMES^ RO
BERTSON
TAYLORCOURTESYOFSYH^ REGATTASend your letters (and any replies, please) to:
Classic Boat, Jubilee House,
2 Jubilee Place, London SW3 3TQ
email: [email protected]Women in Classic Boat
I just wanted to compliment you on the plethora of ladies
that graced the pages of the recent edition of Classic
Boat. Not only was there an excellent piece on Avia
Willment (below) – recognition long overdue! – but then
just a few pages later there was an excellent feature on
Holly Latham (right). It did the heart good to read both
pieces and I say bravo to these talented women who
have made what is already a great magazine that bit
more interesting. Keep up the good work CB!
James ClarkCutty Sark’s straight stem
Looking again at David McGregor’s Tea Clippers (the best
compilation of clipper plans), I can spot only a couple of examples
of truly completely stems. However, on the main point Mr Edgar
and I are in agreement – Cutty Sark is unique in having no rounding
of the forefoot. Again, I agree that Cutty Sark cannot be acclaimed
as the fastest clipper of all time, but she was among the fastest.
Although her performance in the tea trade for which she was built
was nothing special, she was a record breaker as a clipper in the
Australian wool trade, for precisely the reason Mr Edgar states:
she performed best in strong winds, which her route home round
Cape Horn gave her.
Dr Eric Kentley, by email
An Atalanta to paint
Some years ago, I had a spending boat known as an Atalanta (I named
her Aquilo). She had two small cabins fore and aft of a centre cockpit
under which was a small petrol engine. I rarely used the engine, she
sailed beautifully in the waters in and around Salcombe. I no longer sail
but I amuse myself painting at Kingsbridge Art Club – mostly boats and
sea scenes. Unfortunately, I do not have a photograph of my beautiful
Atalanta from which to paint my masterpiece. If you could fi nd me one,
I would be grateful. Incidentally, I believe that the RAF used to drop the
hulls of the Atalantas into the Channel for crews of drowned RAF pilots
and aircrew on their return to England. They would not have used the
sails I suppose, but they would have had an engine and two snug cabins.
Victor Carr, Kingsbridge, Devon