Classic Boat — November 2017

Craftsmanship

CLASSIC BOAT NOVEMBER 2017 87

The Dory Shop celebrated 100 years of building dories this year,

with a lineage that stretches back, unbroken, to providing dories

for the great cod schooners in the dying days of sail. The yard is

picture postcard perfect, which is fi tting as the port of Lunenburg

is a UNESCO world heritage site. It still builds dories and variants

in the time-honoured fashion, from grown frames and tradtional

planking and fastenings, from 8ft (2.4m) upwards, for sail and

power as well as, of course, oars. It also runs two-week

workshops, where customers learn to build one of these iconic

little boats. The yard has, over the years, built quite a variety of

boats besides, including two cabin cruising schooners.

Artisan Boatworks recently launched its new tender for a super

yacht that is still in build. The superyacht owes much to a series of

sleek steam yachts, all named Corsair, that belonged to fi nancier

JP Morgan. They mostly had graceful period tenders from the

board of Nat G Herresho‘ , and the drawings for HMCo Hull 381

(one of four original Corsair tenders) were the starting point for

designer Matt Smith. The design spec called for low draught (for

storage on the mothership), classic looks, 24ft (7.3m) max

length, two cockpits, and a canopy for shelter.

The build of this new tender has a plywood bottom and

strip-planked sides. Equipment includes a bowthruster, bronze-

and-canvas awning and a vintage-style horizontal “steering

bar”. Artisan's Alec Brainerd describes her as having “the

elegance of a Newport yacht of the gilded age". She can take

two crewmen and 12 passengers at 20 knots-plus, with a

Yanmar 110hp diesel.

LUNENBURG, NOVA SCOTIA, CANADA

A century of dory-building in a

World Heritage Site

MAINE, USA

JP Morgan-style tender

C/O THE DORY SHOP

C/O ARTISAN BOATWORKS

TONY PICKERING

A good number of sailing vessels took part in

Operation Dynamo in 1940, but not many of the size

and ilk of the 30ft (9.1m) Kentish smack yacht

Cachalot. Now she’s been re-launched, after an

owner-led, decade-long restoration on the banks of

the River Deben, at Tidemill Yacht Harbour. She was

built in Folkestone, Kent in 1898 and has, like so

many boats her age, a history of illustrious owners

and periods of neglect, including time spent cruising

in Scotland’s western isles and in the Mediterranean.

Current owner Steve Yates fell in love with the boat

(particularly her counter stern) in 2005. After a year

sailing on the East Coast and planning a programme of

winter maintenance, she almost sank at her berth in

January 2006. Rot was discovered in the arch board and

beamshelf. She had also su‘ ered from over-enthusiastic

re-fastening of the planks. It was clear, by May 2007,

that Cachalot was a serious project and in the end, she

needed a new ply deck, 90 per cent new planking (in

larch), new sternpost, stem, rudder, bowsprit, bulwarks

and replacement or sistering of most of her frames. The

Yanmar diesel has been reconditioned and some of the

old teak deck has been used to make new boards for

the sole and cockpit. Fitting her out internally is planned

for 2018. She also still needs a new suit of sails.

Living in Derbyshire, Steve Yates and wife Beverley

Daley-Yates, both OGA members, bought a camper van

and lived by their project every summer. Read more at

cachalot.org.uk.

WOODBRIDGE, SUFFOLK

Sailing Dunkirk little

ship re-launched

Classic motor launch on sea trial

CB353 Yard News.indd 87 26/09/2017 13:28