recognized our achievement

TM

FEBRUARY 2010 www.clAssicBoAt.co.Uk

ISSN 0950-3315

9 7 7 0 9 5 0 3 3 1 1 3 4

0 2

cl

Assic

Bo

At

260 FEB

RU

AR

Y 2010

co

nc

oR

d

l ch

AR

tE

R

l Bl

Ad

E

l Am

AR

Yl

lis

FEBRUARY 2010 £4.50 OFF SALE JAN 21

Our restoration winner plans UK tour

Build yourself a boarding ladder

How we became

impounded in Greece

The yacht that got

stretched

Our gobal guide to holidays afloat

WIN! £800 TACKTICK WINdKIT

16 CLASSIC BOAT FEBRUARY 2010

RESTORATION OF THE YEAR WINNER

When musician James Boyd found a 1937 yacht for sale, he little realised how much of her original owner’s history he would uncover.Words and photos by Martin Smith

In August this year in a tiny, stone-built boatyard on the banks of the atmospheric River Fowey, a small concert took

place attended by around 50 people. In the open air, a virtuoso musician played pieces of classical guitar music interspersed with readings of poetry and excerpts from a ship’s log, all to the backdrop of the every-day sounds of a working river. The concert was inspired by one man and one boat, but it was really a homage to life and the role that boats can play in enriching it.

The boat that brought it all about, and in whose honour the concert was performed, was Concord, built originally for artist and writer Archie White, and newly restored by

Notes from a bygone era

James Boyd, Concord and Archie White

James Boyd reads from one of Archie White’s logbooks at his Bodinnick concert

CONCORD

17CLASSIC BOAT FEBRUARY 2010

attracted him to the photo, but, knowing that his son was on the lookout for some-thing like it, he was adamant that the two of them make the trip from the English East Coast to Scotland’s West Coast to take a look at what was being offered.

On arriving in Scotland it turned out that owner David MacDonald Smith was, for family reasons, having to part with the boat that he had owned and travelled in for more than 20 years. In that time he had racked up a huge number of sea miles, cruis-ing the boat to Norway, the Med, Portugal, Cyprus, Istanbul and further afield. James, like his father, was immediately interested. The pair viewed the boat, garnered what

information they could about her history and returned south to consider further whether this was the right boat to buy.

My God! What a findTo ascertain how much work would be required to get Penelee up to scratch, James paid further visits to Scotland, and asked Peter Williams of the Bodinnick boatyard, Fowey, whom he knew from sailing around the Cornish coast since his childhood, to take a look at her. Arriving on a dismal, grey day at the hangar at Loch Creran near Oban, where the boat was stored, Peter immediately saw through the accumulation of modern fittings and alterations to the

her current owner, classical guitarist James Boyd. The readings were performed by Archie’s daughter, Jennie Pyle.

It was the beautifully illustrated and lyrical logs that Archie produced of his voyages on Concord, both before and after World War II, that conjured up the idea for the concert in James’s mind. He was led to the logs, which resided for many years in the home of Archie’s daughter, by the boat herself and the discov-ery will lead to a major piece of British classical art being produced.

It all began when James’s father, also James, saw an advert for a boat called Penelee in the boats for sale section of Classic Boat. He has no idea what so

CONCORD


rare and elegant yacht beneath. His first impressions were: “‘My God! What a find. There’s a good-looking, well-built boat beneath all of the clutter.’ I lifted a few sole boards and could see that structurally she was in good shape. All the work on her had been done well, it’s just that there was so much alteration – in fact there was so much of everything you could barely move around inside.”

He quickly deemed her worthy of pur-chase, but in need of remedial work, the most pressing of which was a leaking deck.The interior, which had been modified to such an extent that hardly any of the original could be recognised, also needed work.

As a professional classical musician James is by no means over-blessed with cash, but he decided he could stretch his budget if he worked alongside Peter, doing the unskilled stripping-out, and postponed completing the interior. He closed the deal, and camped in a tent on the lochside among sea otters and kelp fronds while preparing the boat for the low-loader.

Internet researchOn returning south with his boat, James decided to do some searching on the inter-net, using the boat’s original name, Concord, and owner, Archie White. Nothing much materialised, except one

link to a blog entry by an academic from Leeds University. With little else to go on James tracked down some contact details for Terry Wassall and got in touch.

It turned out that while sailing at West Mersea, Terry had stayed with a Jennie Pyle. While there Terry had admired the various paintings on display and was told that they were by Jennie’s father, Archie. But what really got James’s attention was the mention of a detailed model and paint-ings of Concord that Jennie lovingly kept.

Bells started to ring as James knew that if he was going to restore the yacht to her original state, the chance to look over such material would be hugely helpful.

CONCORD


James tracked down Jennie, who was overwhelmed to find that the boat she knew as Concord was going to be cared for. On visiting her home, James found it to be crammed with Archie memorabilia – his artwork and mementos of the family’s beloved Concord. As well as the paintings and prints that he had expected, Jennie provided James with the early history of the boat and the man she was built for.

Though he was a dedicated and profes-sional commercial artist, Archie was also ebullient, sociable and possessed a huge sense of humour. He had lived through the war, surviving many sailing comrades, only to pass away at the age of 57 due to a long-

standing heart problem. Photographs of him show a larger-than- life character, pipe constantly in hand, who seems always to be ready to ham it up when the camera was pointed in his direction.

Tireless artistJudging by the amount of his work that remains, Archie was also a tireless artist. He would while away his time between sailing trips and professional work by painting, doodling, illustrating logbooks, making woodcut prints or ships in bottles. His untimely death left a large void in the family, which the sale of his beloved Concord shortly after his death only intensified.

Though David MacDonald Smith had kept in touch, for many years at a time the logs, models and paintings served as the main reminder of the happy times the fam-ily had spent aboard Concord.

As a part of the rich haul of material, Jennie showed James the seven bound logs that Archie had written of his travels with the boat. One look into these hefty tomes was enough to tell James that these were a very special memento: the words were poetic and poignant, while page after page was illustrated with beautiful watercolours, woodcuts and sketches, and James pro-ceeded to read as much as he could. By the end of his stay with Jennie, James had shed

Concord’s restoration 2009

Concord’s interior, left, as was; right, as is, following strip-out and refit

Arriving (as Penelee) at Bodinnick


Left: The new deck, in yellow cedar, and coachroof

a few tears as Archie had taken him on pre-war voyages with friends, through the build-up to hostilities and then recorded the losses of good sailing friends. But the texts were always full of hope and life, and it was this that gave James the idea for his commemoration concert when the boat was finally rebuilt.

With a soft spot for the boat since the moment he had seen her, and now having unearthed such a rich history, James was left with little choice but to bring all the elements of the story back together. Initially, on her arrival in Cornwall, Concord was stored at the Toms yard at Polruan due to a lack of space in Peter’s yard, and James

Above: Concord’s sail plan and lines, and Archie White’s model of her

Right: In frame at Kings of Pin Mill

ConcordAuxiliary gaff yawl (aka Mersea Concorde, Penelee)

Designer: Sydney BelchambersBuilt: HW King & Sons, Pin Mill, 1937 LOA: 36ft (11m)LOS: 54ft (16.5m)LWL: 28ft (8.5m)Beam: 9ft 8in (3m)Draught: 5ft 6in (1.7m)

Concord’s design and launch 1937

CONCORD


set to work filling skips with the unwanted interior and and other unnecessary items. In February 2008 she was ready for the move to a shed at the Williams yard, which she filled with just centimetres to spare. From then on the serious work started.

Removing the deckThe original deck had at some stage been stripped of canvas and given a 5/8in teak overlay, which meant that finding precisely where it was leaking would be extremely difficult. In the end, sense prevailed and it was decided to remove the whole lot, replacing it with new, at the same time removing the coachroof covering.

With access now available to the entire hull, it was confirmed that Concord was in fine shape for a yacht of her age. Having oak rather than metal floors throughout was undoubtedly one reason for her good condition. Some work was needed around the engine installation, where bolts had rotted out some of the timber, leading to a new bearer being put in place and a 2ft (0.6m) section of planking being renewed. Her engine, an aged but unoriginal Lister, was replaced at the same time with a new 38hp Beta diesel.

It was also deemed prudent to check the keel bolts, which though only mildly wasted were replaced with new wrought-

iron bolts made by the Real Wrought Iron Company. The majority of her deck beams were in very good shape and remained untouched, as were and did her pitch-pine planking and her rock-elm frames.

Testament to her buildersSome work was needed in the counter area, and to the rudder partners, with some tidy-ing up of the main mast partners and the sampson post beam, but considering her age and the number of sea miles she had covered, Concord was a testament to her builders – Kings of Pin Mill – and the mate-rials they used. Budgets being tight and well-priced teak at the lengths involved

Above: From Archie’s photo album, this would appear to be the naming ceremony (Archie in dinghy in shirtsleeves with pipe)

Left: Archie, with pipe again, in the shed at Pin Mill

Right: Concord under sail

September 24, 1939 “The wind had all gone so we had to engine all the way to the Pin Mill. Got to the Butt and Oyster at five to ten and put in some quick work but there was no need to hurry as ‘time’ was called at 22.30 we discovered later. Went round to Jack Powells for petrol. The next morning Winch and I went ashore for oil. Came back with a varied selection of newspapers and saddening reading they made. Headlines – France calls up 1,000,000 men. Hitler’s forces amassing troops on Czech frontier. British navy mobilizes. Walton seemed dead. A few people stood about waiting. The day itself was still and seemed to wait too. What the end will be no-one can tell... Shall we sail our boats again next year? Shall we paint pictures?”


being hard to come by, James took the advice of John Moody of Traditional Sail in Salcombe to use yellow cedar as a replace-ment deck covering, but sticking with varnished teak for the king plank and cov-ering boards, rather than the cheaper options such as afrormosia.

Change of plansWorking flat-out towards his goal of get-ting the bare boat up and running, it was at about this time that some major changes occurred in James’s plans – he met his future wife, proposed and got married. The idea of a single male sailing a boat without an interior is one thing, but the

other half of the newly-married couple, Ellie, the niece of Devon-based broker, Peter Gregson of Wooden Ships fame, had other ideas and could not see the sense in putting off the inevitable day when the boat would have to be finished.

Ellie set about buying all the pots, pans, crockery and cutlery that would fill the boat, so that the galley and cupboards could be tailored exactly to fit and plans and budgets were re-jigged for Peter Williams to build a new interior as well. In order to work on the boat as well as to save money, the newly-weds were sleeping on the floor of Peter’s sail loft, but still the budget grew. The National Register of

Historic Ships acknowledged the signifi-cance of Concord and the work that was being done on her by awarding a £2,000 grant, but this was rapidly eaten up in the rush to complete the restoration.

James is one of those obsessive charac-ters who forgo all else when they zone in on a project and at times he went for entire days without finding the time to eat, as job after job would crop up in his bid to ensure that the preparation was always done to enable Peter to perform the skilled work – Ellie would continually have to bring new T-shirts and underpants for James as he was in the habit of using his own for rags and cleaning cloths.

From Concord’s logs and Archie’s paintings: the caption of the desolate postwar study, below, reads: ‘But things like that, you know, must be, after a famous victory’

September 25, 1938 wind ENE, very light“Picked up moorings at 5pm and so brought Concord’s first season to a close. The sails are now stretched and ready for dressing. What the vessel will do in rough weather we don’t know, but she seems nicely balanced and very satisfactory so far.”

Concord’s illustrated logbookCONCORD


“I had no idea how the costs would add up,” James comments. “I worked out the other day that we spent more than £1,000 on sandpaper alone.” He was also unpre-pared for how manual work might jeopardise his professional career: “All the chemicals and cleaners softened my nails and damaged the skin, which made playing more difficult for a while. And then there was the day that Peter was swinging the sledgehammer while I was holding a drift. I suddenly thought about what the conse-quences might be if he missed or slipped, so I suggested that we might swap roles. His reply confirmed he was never going to trust me with his hands.”

With the boat’s structural work and interior completed, she was relaunched with a small ceremony at Bodinnick in May 2009, and James noticed that as soon as she emerged on to the water people began referring to her as Concord again, rather than Penelee.

Words and musicJames set himself the goal of having her up and sailing in time for this year’s Fowey Classics rally, and it was there that this elegant and historic yacht was honoured, in an amalgamation of words, atmosphere and haunting guitar music, once again becoming the focus of an artist’s muse.

Though James is renowned as one of the most talented modern guitarists of his gen-eration – he graduated from the Royal Academy of Music with honours in 2000 and has been presented with the highly regarded Julian Bream Guitar Prize – he shuns the accepted routes of producing music through established record companies and the Bodinnick concert was just the start of a much bigger project with this in mind. In the past James has independ-ently released music – most notably a CD entitled Shapes of Sleep, inspired by the East Coast landscape and lifestyle, which won the highly regarded Gramophone magazine Editor’s Choice award. Now

June 15, wind SE moderate.“We crept passed houses dark under the trees. At the bridges we startled the night with vociferous blasts on the foghorn. A figure in clogs would appear, rubbing his eyes and stuffing his shirt into his voluminous trousers.

The bridge would slowly swing and, as we glided through, a fishing rod with a sabot would be dangled across the deck to receive the usual ‘thank you – good night’ – ‘gut nacht / dankyou’ – and so on again. Sometimes on a bend we would come upon an outside lamp lighting the facade of a house, like a scene on a stage. The little breeze blew true across the fields, rustling the trees and behind us the wash of the vessel lapped the rushes lining the banks. It was like travelling through a fairy land.”

Sunday April 17, 1939wind NE light and cold “An invigorating sail with birds singing in the early morning and Burnham asleep as we slipped quietly past on the tide. The wind freshening, we proceeded to beat through the Ray Sand channel against a strong tide and fresh, squally cold wind and the familiar lumpy sea. Concord’s behaviour in the strongest wind she has had so far encountered was all that could be wished. The motion was easy and it was a pleasure to feel her powerfully shouldering herself on her way.

I have fallen in love with Concord. I have always thought she was a good boat. Now I am in love with her.”

Above: One of Archie White’s models of ConcordRight: A decorated chart showing Concord’s voyages in 1938 – with a note that it ‘must not be used for navigational purposes’

CONCORD


Concord has taken this thinking entirely to another level. The boatyard recital was a try-out for a series of concerts and work-shops inspired by Archie’s logs and Concord’s travels that James intends to take ‘on the road’, or, more accurately, on the water.

Musical voyageJames will be bringing Concord back to the East Coast for a concert at this year’s Aldeburgh Festival (11-27 June) where she will lie alongside the quay at Snape Maltings, and has plans to voyage around the British Isles with musicians, composers and poets producing concerts and work-

shops as they go. The aim is to encourage new work that will be performed at concert venues along the way. The whole ensemble of sailing, inspiration and artistic creation-will be filmed for a television series to mark the Benjamin Britten centenary in 2013.

James hopes that through the concept he can persuade contemporary British composers to produce exciting new music for modern classical guitar, which is some-thing that has been overlooked in recent decades. Explaining, James says, “I just hate the idea of producing hooked-on-classics-type populist music, but very little new, modern, British music has been writ-ten for the guitar in decades. I think that

on the back of something like this, we can get the really great modern British com-posers out there to take an interest.

“There’s a lot of work to do to pull it together, but for now Ellie and I just intend to sail Concord as much as possible, doing some of the trips that Archie and her previ-ous owners would have done and trying to live up to her past.” It seems that Archie White’s Concord is going to continue with her talent for providing inspiration for artists through a whole new era.

James Boyd: www.jamesboyd.co.uk Peter Williams: Bodinnick Boatyard, Polruan, Cornwall PL23 1LX, Tel: +44 (0)1726 870987

Born in 1899, Archie White was educated at Colchester Royal Grammar School and served for two years with the Royal Engineers in World War I, before training part-time at London’s Southampton Row Art School.

He worked for Yachting Monthly before joining the Imperial Tobacco Company, where he worked for more than 30 years as an advertising artist.

In appearance Archie was described as; ‘not the kind of man you would usually associate with an artist.’ At over 6ft tall, he was big and weighed 13st 4lb with ¼lb of tobacco in his pocket! He married Lila Rainbird in 1927 and they had two daughters.

Archie had always loved sailing, often cycling from Colchester with Lila for day or weekend sailing in their small

boats Oxbird and Acushla. In 1937 the 11-ton yawl Concord was built for him at Pin Mill by H King and Sons to a design by his friend, Sydney Belchambers.

Concord was sailed for just one more season before being laid up on the marshes along Coast Road for the duration of the war, which Archie spent in the RNVR.

Archie wrote several books as well as numerous articles on sailing and related subjects and in the last year of his life did a series for the BBC with Bob Roberts entitled We Will Go Down to the Sea. He designed the West Mersea Yacht Club burgee.

Archie kept beautifully illustrated log books of his own travels on Concord around the Essex and Suffolk coast, over to Holland – a favourite landfall – France and the Channel Islands.

A founder member of the Little Ship Club and the Narrow Seas Club, his rule of thumb was ‘always sail with the wind abeam’, so the destination of voyages could sometimes be changed at the last minute. He usually invited friends to sail with him and very pleasant and jolly voyages they were too.

Archie was an informed lecturer and a witty after-dinner speaker, but he shunned publicity and rarely sold his paintings. He exhibited regularly at watercolour societies in London and at the Royal Water Colour Society. He helped other Mersea artists get started and encouraged their work.

Of all his many talents his rare talent was for water colours. He was a professional and took great pride in his work, while his ever enquiring and inventive mind made all that he did sparkle.

Through his writing, art work and love of the East Coast, he captured a genteel era that in our ever more complicated world we can look back on with affection. He had a vast number of friends, and to peers and paupers he was always the same Archie White.

Jennie Pyle

Archie White: his art and writings

Left: Archie’s 1947 publication, Tideways and Byways in Essex and Suffolk. Other titles, some featuring Concord, included the Puffin Picture Book Sailing Ships, 1951, and Sailing, published by Pitman in 1939

The little vessel here portrayed,Sails o’er the tumbling waves.A splendid wind fills all her sailsThe flowing tide to save

She keeps her course, she holds her poiseForever sailing onShe keeps alive the memoryof pleasant days agone

Of all that was and all that isto be when war shall ceaseAnd we shall sail the seas againIn Concord and in Peace.

recognized our achievement

Documents

Transcript of recognized our achievement