40 CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2016which to sail around the world with your No, it’s not the most impractical boat in
young family, it’s the best!
WORDS AND PHOTOS BRUCE HALABISKYA CASE FOR THE
OCEAN-GOING
GAFFERONBOARDVixenthe Hawaiian Islands sailing off Maui inCLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2016 95LETTERS
Send your letters (and also any replies, please) to:
Classic Boat, Jubilee House, 2 Jubilee Place,
London SW3 3TQ
email: [email protected]Done it before
Seeking Xyris sisters
In his excellent article on why a gaff rig is the best
for offshore voyaging (A Case for the Ocean-going
Gaffer, CB339), Bruce Halabisky makes the point
that if you’re caught in a blow on an old boat, you
know that she’s likely to have been through worse
before. That, to my mind, is one of the reasons to
buy a classic. A modern design cannot possibly
provide the same peace of mind.
Tom Pillay, Durban, South AfricaStraight lines
We wonder if Bruce Halabisky has been misled into
thinking that Vixen’s ability to run straight is
because of her gaff rig. Looking at her lines (below),
we wonder if perhaps it might be that she has a
good metacentric shelf as promoted by Dr Harrison
Butler. Another reason for regretting Ed Burnett’s
untimely death is that he would have been able to
advise on this. ‘Captain Bunsby’
Bunsby (Captain John or Jack), owner of the
Cautious Clara. Captain Cuttle considered him “a
philosopher, and quite an oracle.” Captain Bunsby
had one “stationary and one revolving eye”, a very
red face, and was extremely taciturn. The captain
was entrapped by Mrs McStinger (the termagant
landlady of his friend Captain Cuttle) into marrying
her — Dickens: Dombey and Son (1846).
Captain Bunsby is now used to refer to the
owners of the 11-ton cutter Cautious Clara.
Peter Crook and Elspeth MacfarlaneI hope someone out there might connect
me with the current owners of the sister
yachts to my Camper & Nicholson Xyris 30ft
sloop, currently in restoration in Hayling
Island. All were built at Campers in Gosport
in 1939, then laid up until 1946. They were
owned by some interesting names over the
years, one by the Nicholson family as their
family yacht, another by film star Peter Finch
and mine by the Woolworths millionaire
WL Stephenson, who also owned Velsheda,
designed by the great CE Nicholson. The
Xyris yachts were also designed by CE,
according to the Lloyd’s register of the time,
testimony perhaps to their fast, elegant and
practical appointment.
I have traced the current names of all of
the yachts made at the time. They are Ellen
Sofia, Seadrake, Fidget (sunk), Lady of Kent,
Twink and my boat Gadwall.
It would also be wonderful to know
where Gadwall may have sailed to over her
75 years.
Armand Attard, via emailTail
ending
I have enjoyed
your publication
ever since I
received issue 1
and still have every
issue. I sent you an
email last month in
regard to an
improper cleat on
Maurice Griffiths’
Nightfall, page 43
in issue 337.
I am disappointed
to see the same
mistake on page
110, issue 338, at
the bottom of a
letter regarding
aesthetics.
Thank you for
allowing my minor
rant about a
peccadillo that
offends my
sensibilities.
Allan Vaughan, via
emailEditor replies: The
tail end has been
taken through the
loop on top, a
minor crime on
some boats but I
have no doubt
Nightfall’s
experienced owner
had good reason
to tie it as he did.ARMAND ATTARD