Three Boats I Lust After

[Wiley Baggins]

I recently saw a series of posts on the Off Center Harbor website that I thought might be fun to reproduce here. I know this list is not, for the most part, static for me. In fact, number three on my list is an impulse addition rather than a long-held favorite.

#1 Mylne’s South Coast One Design. A beautiful design with a lot of history. This is a big boat and for me having this boat would be a bit like the dog actually catching the car. I would have to utilize it in some sort of foundation/charity to get underserved kids out on the water. These boats were designed and built in 1902-1903. One of them, Eilun, was ocean raced with success after the second world war and won some significant silver in 1948. [At least] one of the class also measured and raced as a 12m at some point. I know Eilun’s rig was modified when she was ocean racing and I am sure the rig was modified for racing as a 12m. There is a double-headsail, Bermudan sailplan drawn in 1933 for Else IV, another boat in the class. Kelpie, one of the two remaining boats, has been for sale with the Sandeman brokerage for some time - http://www.sandemanyachtcompany.co.u...utter-19032012

#2 Alden Design No. 0852. This is a pugnaciously elegant little boat, thirteen feet long with a beam a bit over five feet. This would be a great tender for the Mylne design and wonderful to putter about in an estuary crabbing, fishing or just enjoying a spin around the waterfront. The boat is sized for the home builder. I would set mine up with a tiller aft. Plans available from M.I.T. http://www.aldendesigns.com/powerten...uts/d0852.html

#3 This is the impulse addition. I had a couple of durable flames contending for this spot (or higher), but this boat came up somewhat circumstantially. It is a very nice older Alden motor yacht of 35-feet. Currently for sale in the San Juan Islands, it looks like she needs nothing. The boat is only listed in the design appendix in Henderson & Carrick book, rather than being covered in one of the chapters. She is Design No. 589 and does show up in the M.I.T. database. http://www.aldendesigns.com/99years/...php?ID=917&s=1 For sale on Yachtworld - https://www.yachtworld.com/boats/193...iness-3716229/

I'm more than a little surprised to have a 2:1 ratio of power to sail. I blame it on entry #3. Anyone else have a three-pack they want to share?

[johngsandusky]

My list is much more general. I've owned a sloop, yawls and a ketch, I'd like a schooner.
I've owned several small boats, sailing dories, dinghies, a canoe, a kayak and a Melonseed. At some point I would like to add a sharpie to that list.
I could see myself cruising a pilothouse motorsailer as I get older.

[Nicholas Scheuer]

My avatar says it all, though your #3 is certainly lust-worthy.

[Sailor]

Three? You can pare it down to three? You're more devoted to the minimalist lifestyle than I am. My list is pretty long. It includes "within reason", if money were no object, lots of money but still includes limits..... Each has a number of vessels on it and some in between. I like your three though given your intended uses.

[rbgarr]

I'm in for this, but could never limit my 'lust list" to three.

So let's just do three Alden designs!

1. Quill, a large runabout for big family outings (and tender to Nassau, my #3): http://www.aldendesigns.com/powerten...uts/d0682.html

2. Merriel, for coastal cruising with grandchildren: http://aldendesigns.com/cutter-sloop-keel-cb/d0711.html

3. Nassau, for classic yacht regattas each summer: http://aldendesigns.com/raters/d0254.html

[Ian McColgin]

Should I ever finish Meg, I'll have the boat I lusted for over a half century. So, coming too close to reality to be on this list.

First would be an aesthetically improved LFH Marco Polo. The hull is beautiful. The rig, if fore, main, and mizzen are fully battened with lots of roach and a jib from added bowsprit to fore truck, starts to look good. The issue is the accommodation.

I'd start with an aft pilot house running from the front of the designed cockpit two a few feet ahead of the stern and 5' to 6' wide. Helms both starboard and port, centered outside helm, centerline companion to below, flush decks. I actually had rough construction and accommodation plans but Granuaile was wrecked before I could start.

Number two: The Ray Hunt and Waldo Howland designed and built the basically perfect schooner Mya. There are small changes to the accommdation I'd make but she's the best sailing schooner of her inches.

And finally Siorce, a 40'-something Bud McIntosh cutter with nice added pilot house. Very low in the water by modern standards, aggressive nearly plumb bow with a hint of knuckle. A boat to sail the world.

[AndanteEd]

The first three are very much on the lust list, but I might need to slip in a fourth as a tender...

I suspect my list reflects a gentle yearning for a quiet life of leisure lived in more temperate zones than I have here:

1) Merlin - Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter

Merlin.jpg

Built in 2010 by Cockwells in Falmouth, UK. Larch on oak hull with teak decks. I sailed on Merlin two years ago and was stunned with both the design and construction. Being based on the original Bristol Channel Pilot Cutters she is fast, capable yet easily handled. The level of detail and traditional craftmanship that went into building her is extraordinary, especially when compared with nearly all other boats I've seen which have been built in the last few decades.

https://cockwells.co.uk/sail-and-mot...cts/merlin-48/

2) A 1980s/1990s cold moulded 3/4 or 1 ton class racing yacht with varnished topsides

7586792_20200912052154146_1_XLARGE1.jpg

In the early '90's I was fresh out of school and remember coming across one or two of these style of boats while racing. Wherever they came in the results, to me they just exuded a level of elegance that we could never hope to muster on our plastic fantastics. In a sport often obsessed with the latest thing, to build a modern (at the time) racing yacht from wood and then to varnish it was, to my mind, pure class.

Old Mother Gun (pictured) is a 1988 Rob Humphreys design. She's currently for sale on Yachtworld. I keep finding myself subliminally justifying the cost - then a healthy dose of reality hits me.

https://www.yachtworld.com/boats/198...ys-40-3713915/

3) International Dragon

125149689_wm.jpg

OK, so they are not the most comfortable boats for the crew, when it gets choppy you'll be fairly reliant on having a good bilge pump, in racing trim there are bits of string everywhere, they have no engine so its sail - or paddle when the wind drops...

... but, but, but: they are achingly pretty and, on a gentle summer's day, they are an absolute joy to sail.

As a teenager I was lucky enough to have occasional use of Bluebottle, a 1948 Dragon that had been given as a wedding present to the Queen and Prince Philip and at the time was based at Dartmouth Royal Naval College. Many enjoyable summer days were spent sailing her up and down the river Dart, often involving having to stop and go to a pub somewhere waiting for the tide to turn before being able to get her back to her mooring. I learnt a lot about boat handling under sail, working with the river's wind and currents and, um, beer with that boat.

Having been 'retired' about a decade or so ago to become a museum exhibit, I was delighted to see that Bluebottle has recently been fully restored with the idea to have her sail again during the 2020 UK Dragon Nationals. Unfortunately Covid got in the way of that event, but she is back to being a proper boat again.

https://www.britishdragons.org/a-yea...ht-bluebottle/

4) The tender

stbd-quarter.jpg

Something like this. Old thumper of an inboard engine.

As a proud island nation, for some unexplicable reason the UK has never seen fit to tie pub opening times to the local tides. As lovely as it would be to sail the Dragon there, practicality therefore calls.

Perhaps in this post-Brexit world things might change...?

That's my lust list, for now anyway.

Actually, now that I think about it there there is the Fairey Huntsman:

0x0_523_7318398415c63fa07734c9.jpg

There's no way to limit this to three boats!

[Wiley Baggins]

...I'd like a schooner.
.
.
.
I could see myself cruising a pilothouse motorsailer as I get older.

You're in luck. This popped up in my e-mail today. I had looked at a boat these folks listed a few years ago and every once in a while something interesting arrives.

[willin woodworks]

Brewer Chappaqiddick

Amesbury skiff

Hinckley Pilot

[johngsandusky]

You're in luck. This popped up in my e-mail today. I had looked at a boat these folks listed a few years ago and every once in a while something interesting arrives.

She's a peach! But I'm still sailing my cruising ketch. That PH Motorsailer is firmly in the "Someday, Maybe" category.

[WBViking]

My 3 (tough to stop at only 3...)
Nordic Folkboat (from the 1950's)

USA_76_001.jpg

Oughtred's Elf

Eldir-0492.jpg

Newick's Tremolino (with non-Hobie amas)

14484605_1591458061158667_6329774428274030888_n.jpg

[Sailor]

Top of my list is Fritha.

[Priscilla]

Top of my list is Fritha.

This Fritha.
C5BA3140-3057-4B96-9C92-1A533D87EE0D.jpg

[noexit]

My three include another Ian Oughtred design: Eun Na Mara. I could just barely build on in my workshop I think.
EunNaMara.jpg

My dream boat is a Spidsgatter. This is Pax out of Port Townsend, but there are several others in the Puget Sound.
245pax-11.jpg

The one that I like seeing at local tall boat and Wooden boat festivals, an an occasional sail on, is Adventuress.
Adventuress-by-ETBecker-22-e1479495069747.jpg

[Sailor]

Priscilla, that's my phone background image.

[rkarakai21]

Jay Benford Sunrise Ketch, number 1
This is the second one built, named Smaug, this is an early picture before her rig was finished but she carries a square topsail and course as well. Absolutely love the hull, rig, and below decks layout for a small heavy cruiser.

lc3xkmx.jpg
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Second William Atkin Eric, Love the lines on this one too.. Although I like the bigger rig of the Benford boat better, over 1000 square feet of sail versus 588

Eric-04.jpg

[Hugh MacD]

My "lusts" have varied over the years, but I've always wanted a really nice planked dinghy. For years I was jonesing for a Rozinante and my wife fell in lust with a bit bigger boat
12' dinghy.jpg
Rozinante.jpg

96' Fantail.jpg

[John B]

My "lusts" have varied over the years, but I've always wanted a really nice planked dinghy. For years I was jonesing for a Rozinante and my wife fell in lust with a bit bigger boat
12' dinghy.jpg
Rozinante.jpg

96' Fantail.jpg

How'd the bigger one end up working out for you then, Hugh?

[Hugh MacD]

I teased Murn' that she really just wanted the cabana boy that should come with it

[Wiley Baggins]

There are some really great trios (and more) on these lists!

Top of my list is Fritha.

This Fritha.
C5BA3140-3057-4B96-9C92-1A533D87EE0D.jpg

If Fritha is your "within reason" boat I am almost afraid to see the other two

[Hugh MacD]

How'd the bigger one end up working out for you then, Hugh?

It made for a nice walkaround at the festival She (Olympic) has been sold back to the east coast so we don't get the regular visits to Port Townsend anymore, but I'm sure somebody is enjoying the Hell out of her

[John B]

This Fritha.
C5BA3140-3057-4B96-9C92-1A533D87EE0D.jpg

In the 80's or maybe 90s when she was still here I used to look at her and think she was pretty, but I couldn't understand why Butland built her. I was fixated on low and lean and reasonable performance on the wind, she always struggled coming up the Waitemata harbour back into the usual Sunday south wester with great wide tacks. We'd sail past her and be home and she was still way down there..

Now its different, I see a wonderful sea boat just begging for the trade winds, and close tacks ? Who cares.

[John B]

It made for a nice walkaround at the festival She (Olympic) has been sold back to the east coast so we don't get the regular visits to Port Townsend anymore, but I'm sure somebody is enjoying the Hell out of her

Dammit, you let it slip by.......

[Wiley Baggins]

Time to restore order to the universe. I'm replacing the larger Alden powerboat (as lovely as it is) with an old favorite in the sailboat category. Luke's Teal design -

[willin woodworks]

Thats a pretty little boat. I'll add that to my list......

[Wiley Baggins]

Thats a pretty little boat. I'll add that to my list......

Isn't she! I've been drawn to that design since I saw it in Uffa Fox's book Racing, Cruising and Design. There are some really great offerings in this thread, large (very large!) and small. Not surprised by the schooners, there's a romance to that rig.

[Wiley Baggins]

I'm in for this, but could never limit my 'lust list" to three.
2. Merriel, for coastal cruising with grandchildren: http://aldendesigns.com/cutter-sloop-keel-cb/d0711.html

First would be an aesthetically improved LFH Marco Polo. The hull is beautiful. The rig, if fore, main, and mizzen are fully battened with lots of roach and a jib from added bowsprit to fore truck, starts to look good. The issue is the accommodation.

I'd start with an aft pilot house running from the front of the designed cockpit two a few feet ahead of the stern and 5' to 6' wide.

Two more votes for pilot houses. Properly done, they are an eminently practical thing of beauty.

Surely there are more irresistible trios.

[southseas]

Current lustation - an Aussie classic vintage

[WI-Tom]

I wouldn't mind owning this boat, assuming delivery could be arranged:

San Jose.jpg

It was on 8 June 1708 that Spanish galleon San José erupted into flames off the coast of Cartagena, Colombia. The ship had been at battle with the British since late afternoon, and by night, the 62-cannon galleon had disappeared into the Caribbean Sea. With it, sunk nearly 600 people and up to $20bn worth of gold, silver and jewels.

Available now, lying just off Cartagena, I hear.

Tom