The Jack Laurent Giles-designed 25ft 3in (7.7m) Vertue blue-water cruising yacht has had many admirers and followers, not least two pioneering transatlantic sailors: Humphry Barton and later Dr David Lewis, who sailed his Cardinal Vertue in the first Observer singlehanded transatlantic race (OSTAR) back in 1960.
But of the 200+ Vertues built since the first, Andrillot, hit the water back in 1936, the best example has to be Sumara of Weymouth. She’s an absolute head-turner, which I first came across in a marina four years ago on the same pontoon as my own 27ft (8.2m) classic . Citing data protection laws, the marina management refused to give me contact details for her owner. But then last year while cruising around the Scottish Western Isles in , I came across this beautiful example again in Dunstaffnage Marina near Oban. The management there were much more obliging, contacting owner Alasdair Flint on Classic Boat’s behalf and we met there a week later.
