Tag: yacht racing

A Christmas card from Lowestoft, 1911

What a cracking little Christmas card in reader Tom Edom’s family!

Can anyone tell us what these boats were please? Write to me using the comments link below or by email to gmatkin@gmail.com and I’ll pass the message on.

This is what Tom has to say:

‘This was a Chrismas card sent to my Grandfather in 1911, who seems to have owned Snipe a one design raced out of that fine port. But my one design knowledge starts somewhere in my parents generation.
‘They look like raters to me but raters were not one designs were they?
‘It seems that Snipe was not quite at the head of the pack but that a good time was had by all.
‘Hope this is an interesting quest.
‘Best regards, Tom’
Many thanks Tom – I’m sure it will be!

Original Velsheda hatch up for auction

Velsheda hatch 1

It’s amazing what comes up when you write a weblog like this… I thought someone might be interested in acquiring this little piece of J Class history.

Peter Davies was for many years sales director for Southampton Yacht Services, and was involved in rescuing many fine old classic yachts for refitting by the yard – and along the way accumulated a few interesting items.

Here’s one that’s for sale – legendary J class racing yacht Velsheda’s original hatch, replaced in her major refit a few years ago.

Velsheda was designed by Charles Ernest Nicholson and built in 1933 by Camper and Nicholsons at Gosport, Hampshire for businessman William Lawrence Stephenson. Between 1933 and 1936, she won many races and competed with other great yachts including Britannia, Endeavour and Shamrock V. She was laid up in 1937.

Velsheda was later rescued from her Hamble mud berth in 1984 and economically refitted for charter work with a new steel mast and
limited interior.

In 1996 she was sold to a new owner and relaunched after a complete rebuild in 1997 by Southampton Yacht Services
(SYS).

When her hull was delivered to SYS in 1996 it came with a shipping container containing deck furniture removed from her by a previous owner and partly restored by his crew at the time. However, during the 1997 restoration new hatches and a new deckhouse were constructed by SYS, so the old hatch was no longer needed…

Velsheda hatch 2

The America’s Cup and its effect on sailing at Belfast Lough, 1897

Did the America's Cup destroy Belfast Lough Sailing

I don’t follow racing by choice – I’m interested in the technology but can’t bring myself to care who wins. But even I know that the America’s Cup seems to be endlessly controversial and often seriously troubled.

And in Belfast in the last years of the 19th century it may have done more harm than good, or so this piece argues. And there’s some nice news about a restoration of a grand old boat too…

My thanks go to boat designer and home boat building guru and sailmaker Mik Storer.

Here’s the publisher’s introduction:

‘The 35th America’s Cup series will be staged in Bermuda in 2017, and already the first team – Ben Ainslie Racing – is starting to settle into its base in the islands at the beginning of a developing process which, it is hoped by locals, will contribute significantly and sustainably to an economy which is by no means as prosperous as the popular image of Bermuda would suggest.

‘Yet past experience of being involved with the America’s Cup circus suggests that while there are definitely immediate and highly visible benefits, they’re ephemeral and are more than offset by a hidden but very definite downside. And the pace of the event at its peak is at such a level that almost immediately afterwards there’s a sense of anti-climax and recrimination which can poison a sailing centre’s atmosphere for years. W M Nixon considers how sailing’s most stellar event affected Irish sailing, looks at a more recent continuation of this story, and then takes up the tale of an old boat whose class’s health suffered collateral damage from America’s Cup fallout.’

 

 

http://afloat.ie/blogs/sailing-saturday-with-wm-nixon/item/27803-did-the-americas-cup-destroy-belfast-lough-sailing