Craftsmanship Yard News
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Email:steffan@classicboat.co.uk
HAMPSHIRE UandI – original speed
I recently wrote in these (‘You and I’), I was dead right. When Alastair Garland came across the Fife-designed Belfast Lough day racer propped in a field back in 1995, it was her lucky day. Alastair is always busy restoring other people’s boats in his shop on the northern fringes of the New Forest so he wasn’t in a hurry, but at last the yacht is sailing again. His restoration philosophy is to retain everything he can of the original. The result is surely not so different from the boat that raced in 1897 against her 10 sisters. Now, she is the sole survivor. Soon, I’ll be telling the whole story of how Alastair somehow managed to save 85 per cent of her planking as he replaced the stem, the wooden keel, the rudder post and the horn timber while keeping her archboard with the carved name. As a sailor, I’ll also let you in on how it feels to helm this remarkably rapid boat. So hold fast, dear reader…
