Cruiser-racers
I loved Peter Poland’s article on the British Cruiser Racers. If ever there was a British designer ‘for the masses’ it was David Thomas. I was fortunate to meet him by chance at the Southampton Boat Show and his eyes lit up when I told him I loved my Bolero and he was astonished that she was in China.
She was like the middle sister between the Sonata and the Impala (the family resemblance is striking) and designed as a Quarter Tonner under the IOR. in fact the prototype Purple Haze won the inaugural revamped Quarter Ton Cup.
She slips along very nicely in the light stuff yet I remember being spat out of the Forth with 35+ knots true on the anemometer and the speedo jammed against the stop with her still behaving very nicely indeed.
Having wanted one for years, when I came to work in China it would have been hard to let her go so, with some generous assistance from Maersk, I brought her along where I was informed by the head of China Customs that she was the first privately owned racing yacht in China.
She is
