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On 25th April 1961, four enthusiasts - Ronnie Fines, Jack Pearson, Hugh McLelland and Bill McCann - met at the home of Bill Strang, then Vice-Commodore of Clyde Cruising Club, formed a committee and so Fairlie Yacht Club was established!

The vision of these yachtsmen, who were at the forefront of developing Clyde sailing in the latter half of the 20th Century, has resulted in a club which has trained and encouraged sailors who have achieved national and international recognition, cruised and raced in Scotland and around the world. These founder members and the friends and associates they nurtured and encouraged has given the Clyde one of its best known and best recognised clubs in the country.

31 members have served as Commodore and many more as Flag Officers and committee members since that time, and because of the initial vision and drive of these few men we now boast a club to be proud of and that is the envy of many. The current Committee Members for season 2023 are;

Brendan Bocker         Commodore

John Kent                    Vice Commodore

Calum McPhee           Rear Commodore

Neil Crawford            Committee Member

Ian Munro                  Committee Member

Ian Sawkins                Committee Member

Dee Scott                    Committee Member

David Carslaw             Hon Treasurer

Martin Maiden            Hon Secretary

Ex Committee

Peter Wright                Principal Race Officer

Bill Bower                    Moorings Convenor

Norman Cowie            Kip Racing Convenor

Keith Agnew                Trophies

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Fairlie: the Hamble yard that changed classic sailing forever

We look back at the transformative work of Fairlie Yachts, the famous Hamble yard that shut down earlier this year.

Full article, from the August issue, one sale. Click here to subscribe. Photos by Waterline Media

I t was a sad day when Duncan Walker and Paul Spooner finally shut up shop in Hamble and put Fairlie Yachts into liquidation at the end of February 2016. Many readers will know that running any boatbuilding company has been very hard work over the past few years in particular, but it will be no consolation to list the other casualties that Fairlie joined in the sector. Looking back over the quarter of a century of boatbuilding first as Fairlie Restorations and latterly as Fairlie Yachts, the team was responsible for some great projects; but there were always challenges.

The story started almost exactly 30 years ago. In the late 1980s a Swiss businessman called Albert Obrist owned an incomparable collection of Ferraris. What marked his collection out as one of, if not the, finest in the world was the quality of the restoration work that Obrist undertook. In a world already known for accuracy and high standards, Obrist raised it to another level. It was said that if the original leather used for a seat came from a particular breed of cows, Obrist would insist the restorers used the same, preferably from the descendants of the very same herd.

Despite having disposed of most of the collection in the early 1990s, the fact they were ‘Obrist’ Ferraris means the cars are still sought after today. In December 1985 Obrist bought a rather tired schooner, and his crew nursed her from Italy to Southampton. What they did with her has passed into classic yacht legend, and helped start the whole classic yacht revival.

The schooner was of course the 1931 Fife Altair , and her crew was Paul Goss, Duncan Walker, Donn Costanzo, Jeff Law, and Olive Adshead (the latter three the proud if by then rather impoverished owners of the Fife ‘ Sheevra ’ ex Clio , whose restoration had been noted and admired by Obrist). Along with the skills of the workforce at Southampton Yacht Services, a benchmark project was completed, restoring her as closely as possible to her original condition. Under Goss and then Steve ‘The Dog’ Hammond, Altair became the standard bearer for a revival of interest in classic yachts in general and in Fifes in particular.

Obrist was just getting started with Altair though. He had a vision of restoring Fifes just as he had Ferraris; with no compromise, authentic in every detail. He and Duncan Walker established Fairlie Restorations in the back of a large hanger at Hamble Yacht Services in 1990. They recruited two of the key members of the SYS team, shipwrights Nick Bowyer and Kevin Jepp, and formed a small team dedicated purely to restoration of Fife yachts. Obrist employed a young yacht broker at Camper & Nicholsons, William Collier, who had a passion for the classics, to seek out and buy him examples of Fife’s work; and in 1991 Duncan (with the help of a return to the Clyde of Altair ), managed to buy the bulk of the Fife archive of drawings from Archie MacMillan.

The first project was the 15-Metre, Tuiga . Spotted in the small ads for sale in Cyprus, Walker nursed her back to the Hamble and the team of about half a dozen set to work, with Obrist as the patron. Obrist’s attention to detail was extraordinary. At one stage he was said to be investigating buying land in Egypt to grow the correct type of cotton to replicate her original sails; that didn’t happen in the end, but Ratsey & Lapthorn (her original sailmakers in 1909) were persuaded to replicate the stencils of the period rather than use their famous red semi-circle badges on the tacks of her sails; and, most remarkably, to hand-stitch the entire mainsail. Looking back it is easy to forget just what a brave idea it was to rebuild a First Rule 15-M boat, 75ft (22.8m) on deck, tiller steered with no winches and the best part of 4,000 sqft (371m 2 ) of sail to control. Walker and his team reached out to the likes of Harry Spencer and Spencer Rigging, and thankfully found the skills were only dormant and not totally forgotten. Heading out on to the Solent for her first sail trails in the autumn of 1992 most people understood Walker’s decision to fit her with (removable but unoriginal) stanchions and lifelines (Obrist, when he saw them, was said to be less understanding).

Alongside Tuiga there was a growing collection of yachts awaiting restoration including Miquette (12-Metre), The Lady Anne (15-Metre), Fulmar (8-Metre) and Mariquita (19-Metre). Even by Obrist’s standards it was an audacious scheme and as soon as Tuiga was finished in 1993 she was for sale. Eventually she was bought by the Yacht Club de Monaco, where she has been a perfect figurehead for the club ever since.

Friends of Obrist, Ernst & Doris Klaus, then approached Fairlie, keen to have a yacht restored for a round-the-world trip. Duncan was following the stop-start work on Kentra , a 1923 Fife ketch in Scotland, and finally managed to buy her at auction and bring her south. Her complete restoration, to Lloyd’s, like Tuiga , took two years; in the meantime, the Klauses also had Fulmar restored. Kentra was relaunched in 1995 and duly made her circumnavigation.

Those projects eased Fairlie into a more commercial way of working, but it was still practically unique in being dedicated to restoration. Work on Belle Aventure, Madrigal , the 8-Metres Osborne, Carron II and the Morgan Giles Siris , and the complete restoration of The Lady Anne followed in the 1990s. A strip-plank new build of the gaff cutter Nomad designed by Ed Burnett and Nigel Irens was in some respects anomalous, but pointed to the future. There were some difficult periods but its work was widely recognised for its high quality and it retained a reputation for authenticity and attention to detail. Agnelli, the head of Fiat at the time, had seen Tuiga ’s deck and admired it; when he came to build his Frers carbon race boat Stealth at Green Marine in 1996, he requested that Fairlie lay the deck, which it duly did, along with building and fitting what was then a radically light carbon/nomex interior. Based as it was on the core of time-served craftsmen who had done their time as apprentices at Camper & Nicholsons in the 1970s, the working environment at Fairlie was often gritty, not to say old-fashioned; and over the years a few failed to make the grade. The many who did had an excellent grounding in traditional boatbuilding skills, and most if not all find themselves in command of very marketable skills. That in itself is a notable legacy.

The 15-Metre Hispania was also rescued at the 11th hour by Collier and a search for a new owner for her was started. That eventually culminated in Fairlie rebuilding the hull before her fit-out in Palma and re-joining the nascent 15-Metre fleet again in 2011.

In 2001, the restoration of what many think of as Fairlie’s flagship, Mariquita , was started. The last known survivor of the class, she was the largest project the yard undertook. With the active involvement of Obrist and Klaus, it was little wonder than she was restored with precious little in the way of concessions. Relaunched in 2004 and new from keel to truck, her skipper Jim Thom (ex skipper of Kentra ) embraced the purist philosophy and was a tireless advocate of sailing her in the traditional manner. She has made her mark in regattas across Europe, one of the most photographed and recognisable classics.

Other refits followed including work on Moonbeam III, Hallowe’en and Altair ; and the complete restorations of the First Rule 8-Metre Lucky Girl , the 1897 Cork Harbour One-Design Jap , and the GL Watson-designed dayboat St Patrick . Work for large classic motor yacht restorations such as Nahlin, Bluebird and Shemara also showcased the skills of the team. In addition, Paul Spooner’s own designs for new yachts made regular appearances. The first was a long-keeled design called Niebla in 2003. The next in 2011 was the Fairlie 55, a fin-and-bulb-keel design that was soon on the Med circuit in the Spirit of Tradition class. The last example was a 53ft (16.2m) design intended for single-handed offshore cruising called La Dama , which proved a challenging project over the best part of three years. Despite ongoing work on a new-build houseboat, also to Spooner’s design, a lack of future orders and an increasingly difficult financial situation finally prompted the closure. It was presaged when Fairlie Restorations when into receivership in 2012; re-established as Fairlie Yachts on the same site and with most of the same workforce, the new company faced many of the same difficulties as before and despite a long fight, eventually it proved unsustainable.

Following Obrist’s vision, Fairlie was instrumental in establishing validity of the idea of purist restoration, especially in a commercial setting; it regularly set new standards for the quality of its work, and has left a fine legacy in terms of yachts, skills and people.

FOR THE RECORD: BOATS BUILT OR RESTORED BY FAIRLIE OVER THE YEARS

Tuiga   1993

Fulmar (IRC 8-M) 1994

Kentra 1995

Nomad (Ed Burnett) 1998

Madrigal 1998

Osbourne (IRC 8M) 1998

Carron II (IRC 8M) 1998

The Lady Anne 1999

Siris (IRC 8M) 2000

Mariquita 2004

Niebla (new build) 2005

Bluebird (deck structures) 2005

Altair 2005

Hispania (hull and deck) 2006

Moonbeam of fife   2007

Lucky Girl (IRC 8-M) 2008

Hallowe’en 2009

Nahlin (deck structures) 2008-2010

Kelpie 2009, 2010, 2011

Fairlie 55 2011

St Patrick 2011

Falcon (IRC 8M) 2012

Fairlie 53 2015

Shemara (exterior deck structures) 2012-2014

Helen (IRC 8M) 2014 & 2016

Houseboat 2016

Kentra (re-coppering) 2015 Antaren 2016

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24m Fife classic The Lady Anne wins Monaco Classic Week

The Fife-built classic sailing yacht The Lady Anne has been crowned winner of Monaco Classic Week after taking line honours. 

The 24-metre classic was built in 1912 and is one of just three 15 Metre models still sailing, along with the Yacht Club de Monaco's flagship Tuiga (1909) and Mariska (1908). All three sisterships crossed the finish line within four minutes of one another, beating their much larger rivals such as Atlantic , celebrating her 120th birthday , and former Monaco Classic Week winner Creole .

Held in partnership with the Yacht Club de Monaco, Monaco Classic Week is a biennial, invitation-only event that welcomes around 100 of the finest classic sailing and motor yachts and celebrates their unique history with a number of coastal races and exhibitions. The Monaco Classic Week Trophy, however, not only takes race results into account but also the quality of restoration work as assessed by a jury of experts who are looking at how faithful it is to the original plans, the materials used to build the boat and the knowledge of those who restored them. The Lady Anne garnered the most votes from the jury.

“This event is unique in its genre as it brings the most beautiful yachts together in Monaco so the public can see what yachting was like a hundred years ago. If we don’t preserve our history, what do we have left? History can tell us what the future will be like,” said Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, president of the jury.

The next event hosted by the Yacht Club de Monaco will be the third edition of the Monaco Smart & Sustainable Yachting Rendezvous between 24 and 25 September. 

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Shooter Files by f.d. walker

Street Photography Tips, Interaction, Travel, Guides

Apr 24 2017

City Street Guides by f.d. walker: A Street Photography Guide to Moscow, Russia

*A series of guides on shooting Street Photography in cities around the world. Find the best spots to shoot, things to capture, street walks, street tips, safety concerns, and more for cities around the world. I have personally researched, explored and shot Street Photography in every city that I create a guide for. So you can be ready to capture the streets as soon as you step outside with your camera!

At over 12 million people, Moscow is the largest city in Russia and second largest in Europe by population ( Istanbul is #1). An urban, cosmopolitan metropolis with more than enough glitz and glam to cater to the elite, but without losing its fair share of Soviet era roughness around the edges. It can be fast paced, brash, busy, and trendy like other big cities, but it has its blend of West meets Russia atmosphere and beauty that provides plenty of unique interest. The Red Square is as famous as it gets, but there’s so much more to this city, including the most beautiful subway system you’ve ever seen. It would take years to capture all of Moscow, but that means you have an endless amount of areas to discover.

So here’s a Street Photography guide so you can be ready to capture all that Moscow has to offer before you even arrive!

• Patriarch’s Pond
• Old Arbat Street
• Maroseyka Street
• Tverskoy Boulevard

Top 5 Street Spots:

1. red square.

The Red Square is the most famous square in not just Russia, but all of Eastern Europe. The name actually doesn’t come from the color of the bricks or communism, but from the name in Russian, Krásnaya, once meaning “beautiful” before its meaning changed to “red.” This large plaza is what you see on the cover of guide books and magazines for Moscow, with St. Basil’s Cathedral being the center piece next to Lenin’s Mausoleum surrounded by the Kremlin Wall. Of course, the Red Square attracts hordes of tourist due to the main attractions, but all that activity around an interesting atmosphere does provide street photo opportunities. It’s also the central square connecting to the city’s major streets, providing a good starting point to explore outward.

You’ll also find the popular pedestrian only Nikolskaya Street connecting the Red Square to Lubyanka Square. This line of expensive shops includes plenty of activity, while also leading you to another popular square. Filled with history rivaling any city, the Red Square and surrounding areas are the heart and soul of Russia.

2. Patriarch’s Ponds

Patriarch’s Ponds is one of the most exclusive neighborhoods in Moscow. Despite the name being plural, there’s only one large pond, but it’s worth a visit with your camera. It’s a popular spot for locals and expats to come relax or take a stroll around the pond. You get an interesting mix of young and old too, from young love to “babushkas” feeding pigeons. It’s a very peaceful park atmosphere in one of the nicer areas within the city center, while bringing enough activity for street photography. 

The pond is shallow and in the winter becomes a popular spot for ice-skating too. The area is also well-known for the location in the famous Russian novel, The Master and Margarita. 

3. Old Arbat (Stary Arbat)

Old Arbat is the most famous pedestrian street in Moscow, and dating back to the 15th century, also one of its oldest. Originally, it was an area of trade, but soon became the most prestigious residential area in Moscow. During the 18th century, Arbat started attracting the city’s scholars and artists, including Alexander Pushkin. Cafes lined the streets and impressive homes filled the neighborhood. Since then, New Arbat street was created as a highway in the area, while Old Arbat was paved for a 1km pedestrian only walkway.

Due to the historic buildings, famous artists that lived here, and the bohemian atmosphere, Old Arbat has become a big attraction for tourists today. Now, there’s a mix of cafes, restaurants, souvenir shops, street performers, street merchants and other attractions for visitors, and some locals, to come enjoy. It can get really busy here and there’s usually something interesting going on so it’s a good street to come walk with your camera for guaranteed life.

4. Gorky Park

One of the most famous places in Moscow is Gorky Park. The official name is Maxim Gorky’s Central Park of Culture & Leisure, which gives you an idea of what goes on here. When built, it was the first of its kind in the Soviet Union. Divided into two parts, it stretches along Moscow River. One end contains fair rides, foods stands, tennis courts, a sports club, a lake for boat rides, and more. This end brings more active life due to its number of attractions, while the other end is more relaxed, where you’ll find gardens, trees, older buildings, and an outdoor amphitheater.

Gorky Park attracts mostly locals so it’s a good spot to capture the non-tourist side of Moscow life. Muscovites come here to escape the city and unwind in a picturesque setting. The park remains alive outside of the warmer months too, especially when the lake turns into the city’s largest outdoor skating rink. I’d recommend taking the metro out here to spend at least half a day exploring the massive park’s life with your camera.

5. Maroseyka Street

Maroseyka Street is a popular area not too far from the Red Square. The long, winding street turns into Pokrovka and is lined with restaurants, cafes, bars and places to stay. It’s actually where I like to stay when I’m in Moscow due to its location and solid street photography opportunities itself. You have Kitay-gorod station near and if you keep walking southwest, you’ll get to the Red Square. But if you walk northwest, as it changes to Pokrovka, you can find a long street of activity for photography with its own interesting atmosphere.

6. Tverskoy Boulevard

Tverskoy Boulevard is the oldest and longest boulevard in Moscow, beginning at the end of Nikitsky Boulevard, and finishing at Pushkin Square, a spot to come for activity itself. The boulevard is made up of two avenues, with pedestrian walkways in-between. You’ll find grass, shrubbery, trees, benches and more walking it’s almost kilometer length. Many people come here to enjoy some relaxation, walk their dog, or just to use it to walk wherever they’re going. Its center location also provides a nice place to walk with your camera near plenty of other spots you’ll want to check out anyway.

Sample Street Walk:

For a full day of Street Photography, covering some of the best spots, you can follow this sample street walk for Moscow:

• Start your morning walking around the Red Square (1), while exploring the surrounding area, including Nikolskaya Street
• Then walk northwest to Patriarch’s Ponds (2) and slowly walk the pond and surrounding area with your camera
• Next, walk east to the Pushkin Monument and stroll down Tverskoy Boulevard (6)
• Once Tverskoy Boulevard (6) ends, it will turn into Nikitsky Boulevard. Follow this down until you get to the start of Old Arbat Street (3), across from Arbatskaya station
• After you’re done walking down Old Arbat Street (3) for more street photography, spend some time checking out Moscow’s beautiful metro stations
• To finish off the day with more street photography, get off the metro near Red Square (1) again, Maroseyka Street (5) or wherever you’re staying for the night.

3 Things I’ll Remember about Shooting in Moscow:

1. museum metro.

The Moscow metro system was the first underground railway system in the Soviet Union and today includes 203 stations across 340km of routes. The elaborate system has some of the deepest stations in the world too, with escalators that seem to go on forever. None of this is what makes it so special, though. Many of its stations feel like stepping inside a museum, making it without a doubt the most interesting and beautiful metro system I’ve been in.

When built, Stalin wanted to make the metro stations “palaces for the people” with marble, chandeliers, and grand architecture. The best part is the variety of architecture and styles used, making many of the stations a completely different experience visually. You could easily spend a whole day traveling the stations and there are even tours available for people who wish to do just that. My advice, though, would be just to buy a ticket and hop on and off at different stations, while exploring different lines. The museum-like surrounding mixed with the crowds of characters can make for a great photography experience.

Since there are so many stations, here are some of my favorites to check out:

• Novoslobodskaya
• Mayakovskaya
• Elektrozavodskaya
• Komsomolskaya
• Ploschad Revolyutsii
• Dostoyevskaya
• Prospekt Mira

2. Moscow is Big

It’s no secret that Moscow is a big city, but it can feel even bigger with how spread out much of it is. This is especially true if you compare it to cities outside of Asia. If I compared it to cities in Europe, I’d probably say only Istanbul would warrant more time to really discover the depths of this city. Most only explore around the Red Square and surrounding area, but that is such a small part of the city. Although, that central area does give you plenty to see on its own.

Fortunately, I had a good friend living in the city to show me around, but it opened up my eyes even more to how much there is to discover in Moscow. It’s a big city with a variety of atmosphere that can take you from “east” to “west” and trendy to rugged depending on where you go. I’d imagine you’d have to live here a while to really know the city.

3. Cosmopolitan Mix of East meets West

Modern skyscrapers mixed with amazing architecture, a world-class metro system with museum-like beauty, trendy fashion and chic clubs, Moscow is a rich mix of Russian culture and history in a more western cosmopolitan package. There is a push to keep the Russian culture, while also pushing forward with a modern metropolis the whole world will envy. This comes with an impressive skyline, that continues to grow, and endless modernities, but with soviet nostalgia and atmosphere mixed in for good measure.

Mixed in with this grand western cosmopolitan atmosphere, is a strong national pride in Russia. This includes their famous leader, Vladimir Putin. Maybe no other place will you see a country’s leader more often. All over, from the pricey tourist shops to the underground walkway stalls, you’ll find goods with Putin’s likeness covering them. From t-shirts to magnets to Matryoshka dolls. There’s a strong national pride that can be seen around the city, which also extends to their leader. Moscow is many things. It’s East meets West, modernizations meets Soviet era, and a whole lot more.

What To Do For a Street Photography Break?:

Eat at a stolovaya.

Stolovayas are Russian cafeterias that became popular in the Soviet days. You grab a tray and walk down the line of freshly prepared local dishes, and select whatever you want from the chefs. They’re usually inexpensive and a much better value than restaurants, while giving you the opportunity to try from a wide selection of everyday Russian food. They’re also very tasty. I always include some borsch on my tray and go from there. The places themselves are all over Moscow and usually come with Soviet-era aesthetics to complete the experience.

Street Safety Score: 7

*As always, no place is completely safe! So when I talk about safety, I’m speaking in general comparison to other places. Always take precaution, be smart, observe your surroundings and trust your instincts anywhere you go!

Being the 2nd largest city in Europe with over 12 million people, you’re going to have your dangerous areas, but for the most part, it feels safe walking around. Russia is statistically higher in crime compared to most of Europe, but this generally doesn’t apply to tourists and visitors. Around the Red Square and surrounding city center, you should feel completely safe walking around. Pick pocketing can happen, but no more than other touristic places. I always explore Moscow freely without coming across too much to worry about. It’s a spread out city, though, so of course it matters where you are. Just use basic street smarts, know where you are and Moscow shouldn’t give you a problem. 

People’s Reaction Score: 7

Moscow is fast paced, big city life, which usually means people aren’t too concerned with you, or your camera. I don’t find people notice or pay much attention to me when I’m out taking photos in Moscow. For the most part, people just go about their day. You shouldn’t get too many looks or concern. But it can depend on the area you are in. The more you stick out, the more you might get noticed with suspicions. I’ve never had any problems in Moscow, or Russia, but just be careful who you’re taking a photo of if you get out of the city center. Other than that, it’s about average for reactions. 

Street Tips:

Learn the alphabet .

Much of Moscow, including the metro system, doesn’t use english. The Russian alphabet uses letters from the Cyrillic script, which if you aren’t familiar with it and don’t know the sounds, can be hard to decipher the words. This is most important for street names and metro stops when trying to get around. It can save confusion and make it easier getting around if you learn the basic alphabet. At the very least then, you can sound out the words to see which are similar in the english conversion, which can help matching them to maps. When out shooting street photography, getting around is as important as anything. So save yourself some time and frustration by learning the Russian Alphabet.

Use the metro

While Saint-Petersburg feels very walkable for a city its size, Moscow can feel very spread out, even for its bigger size. Outside of the Red Square area, you can have plenty of walking before getting anywhere very interesting, so you’ll need to take the metro a lot if you really want to explore the city. Maps are deceiving here too, it will always be further than it looks.

Another reason it’s less walkable than Saint-Petersburg is its completely different set-up. Moscow’s streets are mostly contstructed in rings with narrow, winding streets in-between. This is common with medieval city cities that used to be confined by walls, but you usually don’t have it in a city this massive. Saint-Petersburg has a more grid-like pattern that also uses the canals to help you know your way around. When it comes to navigating on foot in Moscow, it can be more difficult, so bring a map and take the metro when needed. It’s why Moscow’s metro carries more passengers per day than the London and Paris subways combined.

Explore other areas if you have time

Moscow is really big. While most people stay around the Red Square within the Boulevard Ring, there’s so much more to the city. I covered some other spots outside of this circle, but if you really want to see the city, you’ll need time. If you do have time, some other areas I’d check out first are Zamoskvarechye, along some of the south and western Moscow.

Inspiration:

For some more inspiration, you can look through the Street Photography of Moscow photographer Artem Zhitenev  and check out 33 of my photos taken in Moscow .

Conclusion:

Moscow’s name brings a certain mystique, but once you’re there it might bring a different atmosphere than you expect. It’s big and sprawling, but beautiful in many ways. It can feel like a European capital on a grand scale, but you can definitely find its Russian side in there.

The urban sprawl of Moscow can be intimidating, but give it enough time and you’ll be rewarded with plenty to discover. All with the world’s best metro system to take you around.

I hope this guide can help you start to experience some of what Moscow contains. So grab your camera and capture all that Moscow has to offer for Street Photography!

If you still have any questions about shooting in Moscow, feel free to comment below or email me!

(I want to make these guides as valuable as possible for all of you so add any ideas on improvements, including addition requests, in the comment section!)

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