GALAXY GATHERING AT SUFFOLK YACHT HARBOUR
GALAXY GATHERING AT SUFFOLK YACHT HARBOUR
There was a fine collection of classic yachts to be seen on the River Orwell over the weekend of June 13 and 14, including a large number of Stellas taking part in the East Coast Classics Regatta hosted by Suffolk Yacht Harbour at Levington.
The Kim Holman-designed Stella class celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, and the strongest present-day fleet is still at Burnham-on-Crouch (where most of them were built in the 1960s by Tucker Brown). They are also keenly raced still at West Mersea and these distinctive clinker-built stars can be seen at several other places up and down the East Coast and beyond.
Round from Aldeburgh, was Peter Wilson’s restored Eight Metre, the eyecatching red hulled ‘If’, designed and built in 1930 by Bjarne Aas (designer of that other classic yacht, the Dragon). At nearly 50ft overall, ‘If” was possibly also the longest boat in the regatta.
Also from Aldeburgh (below with red sail bag) was an example of the graceful double-ended Tumlaren class designed in 1933 by Knud Reimers, and described by Uffa Fox as ‘the most advanced type of cruiser in the world.’ The 32ft ‘Cohoe’ which won the 1950 Transatlantic Race with Adlard Coles, was a ‘stor’ (big) Tumlaren.
Two more striking yachts from the ‘30s were the sister ships ‘Mystery II of Meon’ and ‘Cereste’ both
38ft Mystery class designed by Robert Clark. ‘Mystery II’ was built by Moody & Son in 1936. ‘Cereste’, thought to have been originally called ‘Melody’, was built by Sussex Yacht Works at Shoreham in 1938 and has been extensively restored in recent years by Jonathan Dyke, MD of Suffolk Yacht Harbour.
Back in the early 1960s my father, Jack Coote, went East Anglian Offshore Racing in another Mystery class built at Shoreham in 1937. She was ‘Mystico’, then owned by George Farmer, and I remember being told that she was ‘very wet’ – not surprising considering her low freeboard. There was no engine and they had some hair raising times including towing home a dismasted fellow competitor, under sail, from a Harwich-Hook race.
The Maurice Griffiths-designed ‘Malwen’ was built in 1949 at West Mersea where her distinctive red hull and beautifully varnished brightwork still catch the eye., as they did alongside the pontoons at the weekend.
Not quite so old but still looking purposeful was the Alan Buchanan-designed ‘Vashti’ built for Sir Maurice Laing by Priors at Burnham in 1958 and a crack ocean racer in her day. ‘Shantan’, a slightly later Buchanan designed racer, is also still going strong; she was built by Wm Wyatt at West Mersea in 1964.
The West Solent Restricted class is 85 this year and W1, the stunning ‘Arrow’ was at Levington (below) looking as lovely as the day she was launched by the Berthon Boat Company at Lymington in 1924. Restored to the last detail, she even has customised leather spreader protectors.
Another West Solent, ‘Dinah’, was also at the Classic Regatta, she was built in 1927, has since been converted to a cruiser-racer and is currently based at Orford. ‘Benita’, based at Aldeburgh, was built in 1930 and there are several more examples of this class that have been beautifully restored in recent years on the East Coast.
It certainly gladdened the heart to see the elegant lines of these classic yachts, often with varnished wood spars, standing out among the sea of soul-less white plastic hulls and metal masts at Suffolk Yacht Harbour on the weekend.
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