Category: Racing yacht

Win a berth on board Leila in the Tall Ships Race this summer

Leila 2 Leila 1

A free berth for a youngster aged 15-25 years aboard the Victorian racing cutter Leila is up for grabs in this year’s Tall Ships Race, which takes place in the Baltic this summer.

The Leila Sailing Trust has been helped in getting Leila through her last stages of MCA coding by the National Lottery, which has provided nearly £15k in support.

Built in Greenwich in 1892, Leila is the fifth oldest yacht in the UK, and the last time she raced, she won the Round Britain in 1904.

The draw for a free berth on the July race from Denmark to Finland will close on May 1st.

The Suffolk-based trust is just completing a £176,000 five-year restoration. In March, Awards for All, part of the Big Lottery, granted almost £10k for the safety gear needed for her Category 2 MCA safety coding.

The Heritage Lottery fund who contributed nearly £50k four years ago, have also given another £5k to help with fit out and sails.

Leila will move from Southwold to Lowestoft after Easter, and will then get ready for her first weekend charter on May bank holiday. She plans to visit London, Ipswich and The Suffolk Yacht Harbour Classics before going to the Baltic for the Tall Ships in July.

Peter Radclyffe’s recent projects

Radclyffe Dilston Class 2

Radclyffe Dilston Class Radclyffe Design no 97 50m schooner

These striking drawings come from Peter Radclyffe Design – if that name seems familiar, it’s because he went public in Classic Boat with some drawings for a new J Class yacht last summer, and that he was responsible for rebuilding the Lulworth some years ago.

Peter tells me that the Dilston Class (top and above left) is named after the village of Dilston near  Corbridge, Northumberland, which is where his  family hails from. He adds that he learned a lot about the design of boats of this kind  from studying the work of John Leather – in the early 70s he lived in the same nearby to Leather’s home at Fingringhoe.

Design no 77, a 50m schooner, is based on the Vera Mary designed by JM Soper and launched in 1932. I think I’d want to take a photograph or 500 if she passed anywhere near me – if I could collect myself long enough to remember where I’d put my camera.

Pierhead painter Dominique Perotin’s portrait of newly built Victorian racing yacht Integrity

Integrity Painting

French pierhead painter Dominique Perotin has produced this portrait of the newly-built Victorian gentleman’s racing yacht Integrity – and it seems to me that she has joined the wonderful yacht’s growing legion of admirers. (Click on the link to see her website.)

Integrity was designed and built by traditional yacht builders and wooden boat repairers Stirling and Son of Tavistock, Devon and is listed for sale via the company website. There are also quite a few posts about her here at intheboatshed.net – click on this link and follow the trail of ‘older posts’ links to find them.

Integrity sailing 6

Integrity in flight

On the subject of Stirlings, boat builders sometimes get some funny commissions. Will Stirling and his colleagues have recently been building a pair of dinghy seats for a pub. I guess if a drinker feels wobbly some time, they can put it down to sitting in a boat, rather than blame the beer and wine…

Stirling & Son dinghy seat