Ness Yawl Clodia

Many of you have already met Giacomo de Stefano. Hes the intrepid traveler who made a self propelled trip on the river Po, Italy in a Ness Yawl. That trip was conceived to raise awareness of the environmental condition of the Po and other major industrial rivers. Giacomos perspective, from sea-level (literally) is a very emotional one and the boat he chose reflects the spirit of the endeavor perfectly.

On his upcoming trip he will leave from the UK and make his way to Istanbul, using another Ness Yawl.

The boat Giacomo is using for this journey is Clodia, professionally built by Roland Poltock in Venice and Villa del Conte, Italy.

Designed by Scottish designer Iain Oughtred, the boat is 19 ft.LOA(5.6m) and similar to those the Vikings once used for fishing and transport and also related to those the fisherman from the Shetland Islands still use.



Clinker built, planked with mahogany plywood, she’s light but very seaworthy and good for both rowing and sailing.
She is built of 9mm okume plywood, italian oak and larch with pine for the floor boards. The beautiful tanbark sails are made by Core Sailmakers in Venice.





Clodia is designed to sail and row from London to Istanbul for a project called Man On The River, 5300 km by oar and sail, to promote the concept of a sustainable way of traveling with respect for overburdened European rivers.

HMS Victory Yawl Boat

Will Sterling from Tavistock in Devon, kindly sent details of this ships boat which his company built for Nelsons flagship HMS Victory. Victory although kept in dry dock in Portsmouth naval base is still a serving ship in the British Navy.



Will explains "Having studying the ships documents the Curator of HMS Victory realised that a 26 yawl had been part of the 1805 ships complement of boats. In 2008 he determined to have a yawl built."



"Stirling and Son won the tender and built a yawl under MOD contract. The boat was built to a draught of 1797 from Greenwich Maritime Museum."



"She is built of full length planking copper and bronze fastened and is now on display in Portsmouth, alongside HMS Victory, the flagship of the Royal Navy."

If youre visiting England then its really worthwhile to take the time to see HMS Victory (and her neighbouring historic ships Warrior and Mary Rose), and not least Wills fantastic yawl.

Bristol Channel Cutter Baggy Wrinkle

The early pilots of the Bristol Channel earned their living by seeking merchant vessels approaching land and using their detailed knowledge of local navigation, pilot them safely into port.

The Pilot Cutters would race westwards to meet the incoming ships. The pickings were rich if you could get them, which meant being the first out to the incoming ship, racing and outwitting other pilots. The results were unparalleled seamanship and the evolution of very fast, able boats.





The cutters were usually crewed by a skipper, a "boy" and the pilot on the outward journey. Once alongside the incoming ship the boy would row the pilot to the merchant vessel, where the pilot would scramble aboard.














Baggy Wrinkle is a British Channel Pilot Cutter built in 1982 at the Northwest School of Boat Building. Her home waters are the western US and though far from her ancestors, she is very well suited for the ravages of the eastern Pacific Ocean.

Concordia Yawl

While we are talking about Waldo Howlands Concordia Company, we might take a look at the most famous design to come out of that shop in Massachusetts.

The Concordia yawl was designed in 1938 by naval architect C. Raymond Hunt for Llewellyn Howland and built by Llewellyns son Waldo.

I found this Concordia yawl preparing to hoist anchor while cruising in the San Juan Islands near the western extreme of the Canadian border with the US.


Concordia Yawl Design Specifications:
Length Over All 39-10"
Length Waterline 28-6"
Beam (Extreme) 10-3"
Draft 5-8"
Ballast (Iron Keel) 7700 Lbs.
Displacement 18000 Lbs.
Sail Area 690 Sq. Ft.
(Fore Triangle, Mainsail and Mizzen)

Construction - Oak keel, steam bent laminated oak frames, African mahogany planking, bright mahogany deck trim, canvas covered main deck and house top, bronze plank fastenings, galvanized iron keel bolts.

Rig - Hollow spars, including spinnaker pole, stainless steel rigging, galvanized tangs, bronze fittings and winches.

The Concordia yawl has won numerous prestigious races including the Newport/Bermuda Race (1954 & 1978), the Annapolis Race (1955), Cowes Week (1955) and the Marblehead-to-Halifax Race (1955 & 1997); Proving that a cruising boat can also be competitive.

Lanteen

To most of us in England, the boats of the Mediterranean are characterised by the Lanteen sail with its huge spar and a sail something in shape like a 30/60 triangle. Studies have shown it to be a very aerodynamic rig with good upwind performance, which sets a large amount of sail area on a relatively low mast.

Thanks to Jaume Escanellas in Mallorca who blogs at La Mar (Google Chrome will automatically translate for you as best it can from Catalan to English) for sending these pictures. Jaume originally posted comments on the recent post about a Greek Fishing Boat regarding the Mallorca Lanteen Association which has some great photographs of these boats. There are clear differences in boat type between a "bot" and a "lute" which are referred to on the site, bot refers to a transom stern boat as in the post on Capitan Valdes, so Im guessing a lute is a double ender, perhaps someone more knowledgeable could confirm.


Below are a collection of traditional boats in the Mediterranean port of Sete in the south of France with many similarities to Jaumes Balearic boats, the flush deck to the bulwarks would have made a very effective platform for both fishing and sailing, the small hatches providing access below and a very secure way of keeping water out without the complication and potential weakness of cabin construction.

And of course there are those lovely long lanteen spars.

Concordia Sloopboat Feather

Glenn Woodbury is skipper of this little sloop which was designed in the mid-1960s by Captain R.D. "Pete" Culler when he was working at the Concordia Company in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts, USA.

Feather was built by John Graham in Sausalito, California in 1983 and now resides on Marrowstone Island in Washington state.



Glenn describes his fine vessel:

"She is clinker built, 17-8" long, 5 feet wide, and draws 18 inches with the centerboard up and 3 feet with it down. She is rigged as a gaff knockabout sloop with 172 square feet of sail, 127sq ft main and 45sq ft in the jib. There is no standing rigging and the jib is set flying. She displaces 1240 pounds with rig and anchor and carries as many as six adults. She has two sets of reef cringles in the mainsail, allowing her to sail to weather in 35 knots of wind with both reefs in and the jib set"






I have sailed in company with Feather and she is as fine a small boat as you will ever find.

doryman