Floray currently sails out of Tollesbury. The photo of Floray ashore is by Bill Serjeant.
Sadly, Pineapple Poll was destroyed in a fire in 1969/70 whilst laid up in a shed at North Fambridge. The photo above shows the remains after the fire, with the stem, bow roller and keel clearly visible. Afterwards the stem was buried in a nearby ditch. At that time she was owned by Dr Alan Eley of North Fambridge.
Many thanks to Ken Layzell for the fire aftermath photos.
Bonito – Sarda of Burnham
She was brought to Australia by George Fox and took part twice in the Sydney to Hobart race. She finished 11th on handicap in 1965, skippered by D.L.Gilling. In 1967 she finished 41st on handicap, skippered by George Fox.
In about 1965 she was brought to Mornington by Harry and Murray Barnett who raced her successfully on Port Phillip Bay for more than a decade. She now rarely races but still cruises gracefully. She is reputed to have been the first GRP yacht in Australia. Her original marinized four cylinder Ford engine was replaced with a diesel and her hull surface has been renovated.
Many thanks to Tim Dixon for providing this information and the photograph above.
The boat had a Lloyd’s 100A1 certificate and an RORC rating. She was originally equipped with a 4-cylinder, 29 bhp Watermota petrol engine, but this has been replaced with a Yamaha 3-cylinder diesel.
At some point in time Silwen was renamed Cassis of Kent and spent a number of years mainly cruising England’s East coast. Since her last change of ownership she has moved to Cornwall, and the ‘of Kent‘ has been dropped from her name.
Cassis has special significance because she was the last boat to be built by Stebbings, or at least part-built. The registry documents and the Lloyd’s entry show her having two builders, Stebbings, and R.J. Prior & Son (also of Burnham-on-Crouch), so it seems likely that Stebbings started the build and that it was finished by Prior’s after Stebbings closed down.
Thanks to Jeremy Burnett for his help with this post. The photographs are copyright of Eastern Yachts and have been reproduced with the kind permission of Adrian Espin. Further photos can be found on the Eastern Yachts web site.
In the year of her build, Cyprinus was raced hard. The photos above are from the 1963 Cowes-Dinard race, but she also competed in the Dover Regatta, the West Mersea-Solent race and the Channel race (in which she was dismasted when a splice in the mainstay pulled out during a Force 7). She also won the EAORA Barnard Cup that year.
She was sold through Stebbings in 1964 to a client in Chicago, USA (YM July 1964).
The Alan Buchanan Bonito used a glass fibre hull made by Seamaster. The hull was a composite construction with wooden stringers running length ways to stiffen the boat. By today’s standards many such boats of that era were over engineered, but the result was a strong and stiff structure.
The hulls were then passed to Stebbings who built the timber deck and interior with traditional methods and materials. The deck was made up of teak on ply laid over a mahogany frame.
The coach roof was made of 3/4 inch marine ply again fixed to a mahogany frame. The interior was set up to sleep 5.
South’ard is the forward of the two yachts on the deck, the 41′ Holman Yawl behind her is Springtime, also built in Burnham-on-Crouch. Springtime was built in 1961 by Tucker Brown’s for A.E. Bird, Commodore of the Royal Burnham Yacht Club and a prolific ocean racer of the day. She’s still sailing, from Salcombe.
South’ard was described in an illustrated article in Yachting Monthly, October 1962. The text read,
Described as a special version of the Bonito class sloops, five of which have been produced in reinforced plastic by Stebbings at Burnham-on-Crouch this year, South’ard is in every way an up-to-date example of a fast cruiser-racer with good accommodation. The designers state that the hull was developed from their tank testing work with Saunders-Roe, and this yacht has been specially adapted from the standard model to suit conditions on the other side of the Atlantic, for South’ard is stationed at Hamilton, Bermuda.
In the general arrangement pan reproduced will be noted the galley with its alcohol stove to port and the ice box beneath the chart table opposite. Unlike many British and Continental designs of this size, South’ard has no quarter berths. Forward of the saloon with its two settee berths is a 3ft lobby of full width of the ship with roomy toilet, a large hanging locker for dry clothes, and the necessary doors for shutting off the rest of the accommodation. In the focsle are two built-in berths, shelves and chain stowage forward.
The seats of the shallow self-draining cockpit are at deck level with watertight lockers in each. The four-cylinder Universal petrol motor, which is rated at 30hp at 3,000rpm, is hidden beneath the bridge deck.
Like standard boats of this Bonito class the hull is moulded, with teak decks and deck fittings, moulded glass fibre cabin top, Ian Proctor metal mast, and gear and equipment of first quality throughout.
The layout differs from that of the standard Bonito class to meet the requirements of a yachtsman who races and cruises in her around Bermuda. Soon after delivery to New York, South’ard sailed in the Block Island Race, in which she came in second with 119 starters. Later taking part in the Bermuda Race, she was eighth in her class and thirteenth overall: a satisfactory record for a new English-built yacht. Her rating under the Cruising Club of America rule is a about 24.5ft.
Stebbings Archive 