CCraftsmanshipraftsmanship
C/O THE OWNEREdited by Steffan Meyric Hughes: +44 (0)207 349 3758
Email: [email protected]CO CORK, IRELAND
Pimp my EtchellsROCKPORT, MAINE
'Restomod' for oldest HuckinsEXTER, DEVON
Burnett’s last design to go around
the world with a laughing cavalierEAST COAST
Priors and
Dauntless
yards for saleYard News
YACHTING SOLUTIONSC/O BILL TRAFFORDMore like this at classicboat.co.uk/category/yard-newsEven before the announcement that he’d won a prize
in our 2016 Awards (Best Spirit of Tradition boat
under 40ft/12.2m for a rebuilt Elizabethan 23), Bill
Trafford of Alchemy Marine had lined up his next
project. It doesn’t look great at first glance does it?
But the word ‘alchemy’, not to mention past results,
gives a clue as to how this boat might end up looking
by the time Bill has finished with it.
The plan is to draw the stern out to a natural
counter, giving an overall length of around 35ft. The
deck will come off and Bill will raise the topsides
slightly to give a bit of sheer. She is also getting a
Beta 14 inboard, overnight accommodation for two
and small galley and head. "The finished concept is
aimed somewhere between a 6-M and a 30Sqm and
should be able to outperform them both” says Bill. It’s
enough to make a yacht conservator break out in a
cold sweat, but this is effectively a new-build, not a
restoration. We look forward to seeing the result.Huckins, formed in 1928 and still building yachts today, is
one of the most cherished names in American motorboat
history, so a full rebuild of the oldest known survivor to bear
the marque is big news. That’s what’s going on at Yachting
Solutions with Avocet III, a 1931 Offshore 48 ‘Fairform Flyer’.
She was first bought by the 30-year-old Fred Voges, who
kept her for 50 years. She then suffered a period of creeping
decrepitude before being saved by Rhode Island conservator
Bob Tiedeman and finding new owners Jerry and Bette Bass
who restored her, preserving most of her originality. After
Jerry's death, Bette donated the boat to the Museum of
Yachting in Newport, RI. The museum, with its partner the
International Yacht Restoration School, elected to have
Avocette III re-built to act as their joint flagship. The work is
being done pro bono and involves a new, modified cold-
moulded hull (the original was carvel). The yard is calling the
job a 'restomod', in the tradition of modernised classic cars.The last design from the late Ed Burnett is nearing completion at Boatcraft
near Exeter. The 56ft (17m) bermudan cutter has been built by Boatcraft’s
Mike Ludgrove as his own yacht. She’s carvel built of coast-grown fir on
laminated mahogany frames, with three layers of GRP on the hull’s exterior.
Below she sleeps up to seven. “She’s an amalgam of lots of boats I admired
from Fife, Mylne and some early American designers. Ed Burnett and [design
collaborator] Howard Swift called it ‘the Laughing Cavalier’ after the painting
[Frans Hals, 1624]. They thought I looked like him and were taking the Mickey!”
The meticulous build included helicopter scouting in Canada for the best
spar-grade Douglas fir trees. Mike checked the hull for fairness by using light
distortion to show imperfections. After four men with longboards worked on
it for six weeks, there are none. Mike had just returned fron a 6,000-mile trip
from Cape Town to French Guiana when we spoke to him. In 2017, he plans to
sail around the world in his new boat with a crew of family and friends.The famous, historic
boatyards of Priors
and Dauntless have
come up for sale in
the Thames Estuary,
priced at £2 million
and £2.5 million
respectively. Both
are large yards with
great facilities and
healthy turnover and
both offer scope for
good profit. Both are
offered on a freehold
basis as going
concerns and neither
has permission for
housing as yet. Many
locals (and, no
doubt, the sailing
fraternity) hope to
see their continuance
as working
boatyards rather
than being turned
over to housing.
Watch this space...