RIGGED TO PERFECTION
The Getting Afloat page in the June 2012 issue of Classic Boat featured a boat called Cynthia, a centenarian which was described as “still sailing and still largely original, although in want of a good ‘tidy up’”. Among those who read this was Peter Lucas who had first seen Cynthia when he was a schoolboy on holiday with his parents on the Isle of Wight. “We used to go religiously to watch the start of the yacht racing on the Squadron line,” he told me, “and I used to see this strange green boat with really nice lines.”
Some years later in 1978, Peter started a Dartmouth-based rigging business. In the early 1990s, he was awarded the contract to rig and service the 10 boats built to compete in Chay Blyth’s British Steel Challenge round-the-world race. As a result, he sold his company – and investing the proceeds in boat storage facilities, one on the banks of the river Dart where he built a covered wet dock, and the other at nearby Stoke Fleming – and worked for Blyth for the next three editions of the race.
But memories of “the strange green boat” never really left him. About 30 years ago he tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to contact the owners through the Cowes harbourmaster, but as soon as he saw the CB piece – which said “the owner invites offers from would-be owners capable of looking after properly” – it seemed like the opportunity he
