amokura yacht

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Amokura: The classic yacht celebrating her 80th anniversary on the racing circuit

• October 29, 2019

A classic wooden yawl might not seem the obvious choice for offshore racing, But Nic Compton finds this classic yacht is up for it

Photos: Nic Compton

There’s no shortage of stunning boats moored at Port Pendennis in Falmouth when I visit the marina in June, not least a couple of enormous, shiny superyachts being polished to death by their crews. But I haven’t come to see them.

The boat I’ve come to see is tucked away at the far end of the outer jetty. With her glowing varnish, immaculately scrubbed decks and period fittings, Amokura looks every bit the timeless classic she is: a precious piece of maritime heritage to be nurtured and preserved and treated with the utmost respect and reverence. She’s a concours d’elegance winner; the lead boat in any parade of sail.

Yet, as she motored out of the marina towards the open waters of the Carrick Roads, Amokura wasn’t heading towards yet another classic boat festival, to compare baggywrinkle tying techniques with other aficionados – far from it.

Amokura ’s new ‘classic’ rig was designed by Ashley Butler for short-handed offshore sailing

This 80-year-old classic was off to Ireland to race, tack for tack and gybe for gybe, against a fleet of modern racing yachts in the 270-mile Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race. Not only that, but she was being sailed two-handed, by owner Paul Moxon and friend Steve Jones – not bad going for a 50ft wooden boat with no electric winches or other fancy gizmos.

And the D2D was just the qualifier en route to a bigger goal: this year’s Fastnet Race , in which Amokura was again competing in the two-handed division (sadly, she had to retire, facing a very windy forecast). It’s an unlikely development for this old wooden boat with no previous history of racing (she entered the 1959 Fastnet, but also retired) and might be expected to be resting on her laurels, just happy to have survived so long.

But her owner has clearly taken the old adage that ‘ships and sailors rot in port’ to heart and has ensured that both yacht and crew are race ready, regardless of age.

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Paul had relatively little yacht sailing experience when he bought Amokura in 2012. True, he spent more of his teens teaching dinghy sailing, first at Woolverstone Marina in Suffolk, then Mercury Marina on the Hamble and finally with the Island Cruising Club in Salcombe. He even bought a 21ft Pandora International centreboarder in his early 20s, and made a cross-Channel crossing on the Island Cruising Club’s schooner, Hoshi .

He did very little sailing, however, during his 20s and 30s, while he concentrated on his career (starting at PricewaterhouseCoopers and moving on to ABN AMRO) and having a family. When he finally decided to buy a boat as he approached his 40th year, he looked for something he could go long-distance cruising with his family.

“I had been on day charters in modern boats and didn’t like their tendency to broach in any sort of strong wind,” he says. “I wasn’t particularly looking for a classic boat, but I wanted a boat with the ability to go offshore and go places. That’s what pushed me towards the classics. When my wife and I saw Amokura , we liked her age and the heritage she embodied, and we figured: in for a penny, in for a pound.”

Paul Moxon (left) and Steve Jones met on a crew finding website

Paul had no intention of racing at that stage. He spent the first season cruising with the family around Palma, before bringing the boat back to the UK for some badly-needed restoration at Cockwells Boatyard in Falmouth – including new decks.

The lead keel was also dropped and rebedded and new garboard planks fitted in an effort to cure a persistent leak. He then sailed back to Palma, where Amokura was based for the next three years.

“The original plan had been to keep her in the UK,” he says. “But after our first year in the Med, we liked it and decided to keep her there after the refit.”

Back to original

As the job list grew, however, Paul decided to bring the yacht back to UK rather than face the “punishing heat” and equally punishing labour rates of refitting the boat in Palma.

Apart from anything, he had long harboured a desire to return Amokura to her original rig – or something approaching it – rather than the reduced rig with aluminium spars fitted in 1969.

“It was quite clear sailing in the Med that she was underpowered,” says Paul. “The rig looked stubby and not quite right, and she wouldn’t sail through any chop in anything less than ten knots.”

The boom crutch. Amokura is named after a Pacific seabird

The boat was still leaking too, particularly when the rig was put under pressure. So, in late 2015, Paul sailed Amokura back across Biscay to Ashley Butler’s new yard in Penpol, just outside Falmouth.

Ashley made another attempt at curing the persistent leak that had eluded previous shipwrights, this time removing the old wooden keel and replacing it with a new one carved out of a single, two-tonne piece of iroko.

Meanwhile, Paul spent several months with naval architect Theo Rye (now sadly deceased) experimenting with different sail configurations.

“We were trying to find the right balance between what was original and what works now,” he says. “We tested the rudder balance at various points of sail, and superimposed practical tests on the theoretical.”

Amokura was designed by Fred Shepherd and launched in 1939. Credit: Andy Nickerson

The result was a fractional yawl rig with wooden spars, no bowsprit and a large yankee (i.e. staysail), which resembles much more closely the rig shown in the iconic photos taken by Beken of Cowes in 1947 – although the new version sports white rather than tan sails. The spars were duly made by Butler & Co, while the sails were made by Peter Crockford at SailTech in Penryn.

By then Paul had teamed up with classic boat enthusiast Steve Jones, who himself owns a wooden Folkboat. Most of his long-distance sailing was done two-handed, with his wife and children joining the boat once they had arrived at their chosen cruising destination. The new rig was therefore geared for that kind of sailing.

“When we re-rigged the boat, we focused on making her easy to sail short-handed – or even single-handed with an autopilot. We’ve run all the lines to the bottom of the mast rather than run them back to the cockpit, which means they’re easier to pull because there’s less friction and there aren’t any lines on deck to trip you up.

“To hoist the main, for example, the halyard has a 2:1 purchase, to the top of the mast straight down to the deck, and because there aren’t any turning blocks, you have a straight pull. You use your weight to hoist the sail most of the way and put the halyard around the winch to sweat the last four or five feet.

“You only use the winch handle right at the very end, to tension the luff. We thought about how each job can be done short-handed for a Biscay crossing, so while one person is sleeping down below the other can reef the main single-handedly.”

Ashley Butler proved just the man to oversee the work; having himself sailed many miles short and single-handed, first on his restored Morecambe Bay prawner Ziska and then on an East Coast bawley he built himself (the 32ft Sally B ), clocking up two Atlantic crossings in the process.

The interior was rebuilt at the International Boatbuilding Training College in Lowestoft

He therefore knows all about the demands of sailing traditional boats with small crews, though he says, “as it turns out the simplicity of working the rig has led to it being really practical to race Amokura short-handed.”

And so Amokura set off with her new rig in 2016 to join the party at the Brest and Douarnenez festivals, winning her class at Douarnenez through the simple expedient of being the only boat in that class.

Paul and family also took the boat to the Gulf du Morbihan, where her most famous owner, George Millar, cruised on the yacht in the early 1960s, an adventure described in his book Oyster River .

George Millar bought Amokura in 1954

Paul even managed to trace the descendant of the same family who welcomed Millar all those years ago and swung from the same mooring Amokura had occupied then – even if the River Auray is now a long way from the verdant idyll Millar describes in his book, being as packed with moorings as the Hamble.

Getting serious

Back in the UK, Amokura attended the 2018 Sea Salts & Sail festival at Mousehole and took part in a light-hearted race around Mount’s Bay. But it was at the Hamble Classics that year that Paul really got a taste for competitive sailing. “It was the first time we’d done some proper racing, and I really enjoyed it. We got a good feel for it.”

Never a man to do things by halves, on the back of that success, Paul decided to enter Amokura in the 2019 Rolex Fastnet Race, simply “because it was there”. First, however, he had to get his ship in order.

The lovely traditional wheel. Steering is via a worm gear

“The racing has certainly upped the pressure,” he says. “We’re sailing the boat harder than before, which puts a strain on the hull, which means she leaks more. We replaced another plank last winter, which has helped, but to be honest at the moment I’m more focused on bilge pumps than leaks!”

Before she could compete in the Fastnet, however, Amokura had to comply with the RORC safety rules – which were clearly not written with an 80-year-old classic yacht in mind. Credit where credit’s due, the RORC proved open to the idea, and Paul found them generally “pragmatic”, “risk-focused” and “not box-ticking”.

“We had a sensible conversation with the RORC to work out what the regulations really meant and how we could sensibly comply. Amokura is essentially a very safe boat, but how do we reconcile that with a set of rules design to make modern boats safe to race?

“For example, the rules require you to carry an emergency tiller, but Amokura has wheel steering with old-fashioned gear linkage, so it’s not possible to fit an emergency tiller. Instead, we came up with a plan, if the steering fails, to use a sea anchor trailed over stern to alter course.”

Modern safety gear

In the end, the main modification was to alter the forehatch fittings to ensure it could be opened from both inside and outside, and it could be locked properly. Amokura also had to be fitted with modern safety gear, as evidenced by the rash of white plastic boxes, which have sprouted around her aft deck.

Other changes were made not for compliance but to upgrade the boat “from a cruising to a basic racing set-up”, including fitting new wind and speed sensors because, as Paul says, “if you haven’t got reliable sensors, you can’t work out an accurate wind angle. It’s a luxury we haven’t had before and has made a big difference.”

Handles to open hatches from both sides had to be fitted

And then there was the small matter of a spinnaker. “I was warned off having a spinnaker, because people thought it might be a stretch too far for short-handed sailing. But I decided to try it anyway, and I’ve never looked back,” he says.

“The brief to Gavin Watson at Penrose Sails was to make a sail that was more forgiving to cope with short-handed sailing, so we’ve had to trade off some power for ease of handling. The shape is narrower at the shoulder, but it sets easily and you can just leave it and go off and make a cup of tea. If you don’t like the look of something, you can shield the spinnaker behind the main and snuff it down.”

Charging full speed ahead

It’s a credit to Paul’s sympathetic approach that he has managed to make the yacht ‘race ready’ without indulging in the shiny bling that blights so many other racing classics. If it wasn’t for all the safety gear attached to the guardrails aft, you’d never know.

Amokura has been sympathetically restored to her former glory

Out on Falmouth Bay, the wind picks up to a brisk Force 5, and Amokura laps it up. With her 20 tons of displacement it takes a lot of wind to worry her, and in these conditions she just charges full speed ahead, several times achieving hull speed judging by the hollowed out wave amidship.

Her two-man crew give a bravura performance, holding on to full sail for the photos, despite the breezy conditions. Swooping and leaping over the waves, she really does look like the Pacific Ocean seabird after which she is named.

Amokura might be 80 years old, but she sails like a yacht in her prime. Paul’s ambitious campaign has breathed new life into her tired timbers and, whatever the results on the race circuit, has ensured she is in a fit state to sail for another 80 years.

Amokura specification

LOA:   15.32m (50ft 3in) LWL:   11.58m (38ft) Beam:   3.66m (12ft) Draught:   2.13m (7ft) Displacement:  20 tonnes

Extracts from George Millar’s article for the 1954 Royal Cruising Club journal

“[ Amokura ] will eat up to windward with the best of them, which is the only true insurance policy afloat; further, with her yawl rig and reasonable length of keel she is a good one for self-steering both on and off the wind.

1 June 1954

On June 1st we took 18 shirts, 12 towels, and 14 linen sheets (I do not hold with sleeping in blankets) to the 24-hour laundry, which has an Italianate name, and that morning we entered the docks to fill our two 20-gallon tanks with gasoil.

The engine, burning only ½ gallon an hour, will give us 5 knots in a calm; so our range is about 400 miles under power. We also took paraffin (8 gallons), fresh water (125 gallons), distilled water, lubricating oil, linseed oil, and turpentine.

3 June 1954

All went well (especially Amokura ) until 0930, when we were over the Kaiser-i-hind Bank, some 60 miles SW of Ushant, and the wind headed us. I experimented until she sailed herself closehauled, the boomed foresail sheeted in very hard, the mizzen rather free, the main trimmed for efficiency.

She needed one and a half spokes to hold her off, and thus she seemed to travel better than with my tired self fussing over her. That day, the next, and the intervening night, we touched the wheel no more, except when putting about.”

Amokura on sea trials in Southampton Water in 1939

The many lives of Amokura

1939 – Designed by Fred Shepherd and built by AH Moody & Son, Swanwick, on the Hamble for Major (later Sir) Ernest Harston. She was named after the Maori word for the red-tailed tropicbird, a seabird native to the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

Her original sail plans show a small staysail set on inner forestay, and later photos by Beken of Cowes show her setting a large yankee on the outer, fractionally rigged forestay. The hull was painted black.

1946 – Described as a “most marvellous ocean racer” by Uffa Fox, in a private letter to Fred Shepherd

1953 – Bought by Manchester builder EA Crosby.

1954 – Bought by George Millar, who was awarded a DSO and a Légion d’Honneur for his wartime exploits. Millar sailed widely on Amokura , including trips to the Mediterranean, and wrote about her in his book ‘Oyster River’. Entered the 1959 Fastnet Race, but retired.

1960 – Bought by Horace Morgan, based at Corpach, near Fort William, Scotland

1969 – Bought by Richard Carr MBE, of Carr biscuits, a friend of George Millar who was in the same POW camp. Carr reduced her rig and fitted aluminium spars.

Amokura moored in Montfalcone, Italy in the 1970s

1979 – Under American ownership, sailed to the Caribbean, the East Coast of America and back to the Med. Hull painted white.

1981 – Described as “seaworthy family cruiser” in Cruising Under Sail by Eric Hiscock

1990 – Seized by Spanish authorities for drug smuggling and sold to Peter Guan, who kept her in Vilamoura, Spain

Amokura  was refitted in 2013

1996 – Bought by ‘serial classic boat enthusiast’ David Japp and restored at the International Boatbuilding Training College in Lowestoft.

2004 – Bought by Jane Scrinar & Anthony Harwood, based in the UK.

2006 – Bought by Peter & Gillian Phillips, and was based in Valencia, Spain, then Cogolin, France.

2012 – Bought by Paul Moxon. Redecked in 2013; rerigged with wooden spars in 2016; hull painted dark blue in 2019.

Article first published in the October 2019 issue of Yachting World.

Amokura: Oyster River and beyond

Where do you begin with a boat such as Amokura? In many ways she encapsulates everything that could be aspired to with the term ‘classic boating’. A desirable designer and builder; a long and cared-for existence, testament to fantastic original build standards – it goes without saying that she is a majestic piece of hardware – and a list of wealthy and famous owners all add up to a pretty sound package for classic boating stardom. But add in that she was also the subject of one of the most beloved books in yachting history and she levitates into a class all by herself.

Oyster River , written by George Millar and published in 1963, tells the tale of a long summer in the Golfe du Morbihan, France, the like of which most of us can only dream as we gaze longingly at scudding cloudscapes to the sound of the dishwasher completing a cycle. It’s probably fair to say that for anyone who has read the book and loves classic craft, sailing is never quite the same again. Oyster River sets a standard for cruising adventure that is pervasive, but all too elusive.

Her history and the catalogue of her care is told today on the website dedicated to her by her current owner, so we shall tell our story, perversely, both at the end and the beginning…

Every picture, they say, tells a story, and often the perusal of a boat’s original drawings can show a vessel in a new light. But until recently Amokura had been separated from her build-plans, so when their whereabouts came to light it became the owner’s aim to correctly reunite all the elements. And what a set of plans they are.

Beautifully presented drawings were the pride of any respectable design office but the detail and art on show in Fred Shepard’s workings, when the drawings eventually emerged, go well beyond simple documents produced to enable manufacture.

Firstly, there is the level of detailing – notes on structural materials, joints, even profiles, form prolific and fascinating sidebars – but it’s the overall art on show that is so captivating: the handwriting, shading, line consistency, the wording – “ Before Converting Timber, Lay off on Floor – and Check ” – even punctuation, shows what sets the truly great apart from the merely brilliant.

We think they tell a fundamental story, so here they are hopefully to catch your attention.

(Please click images to zoom and scroll.)

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Amokura was built in 1939 for Major (later Sir Ernest) Harston, Aide-De-Camp to Lord Mountbatten. Fred Shepherd designed her and supervised the build, at AH Moody & Sons Ltd, at Swanwick in Hampshire. She was later owned by the author George Millar, who wrote extensively about her in his book Oyster River, describing a summer spent cruising the Gulf of Morbihan in the early 1960s.

Amokura was later sold to Richard Carr, of the Carr biscuit family, who re-rigged her with aluminium spars and a smaller rig, then sailed her extensively in the Mediterranean through most of the 1970s. In the 1980s she sailed to the Caribbean, the US East Coast and the Mediterranean, and was based in the Mediterranean for the early 2000s. Since 2016 she has been based in Falmouth where she has undergone major refurbishment at Butler & Co. Her 1970s shortened aluminium rig has been replaced with wooden spars and a sail plan design by the late Theo Rye in keeping with her original design. She has been strengthened internally with laminated hardwood floors and bronze diagonals to allow her to compete in offshore racing.

Amokura qualified for and entered the 2019 Fastnet race but was unable to complete the course due to equipment problems. She entered again in 2021, completing the race and winning the Iolaire Block trophy for the oldest boat to complete the course. She is entered for the 2023 Fastnet race.

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Built in Scotland in 1889 as the gunboat HMS Sparrow, this 165’ three masted barque saw active service in the Persian Gulf and around Africa in the suppression of the Congo slave trade. She migrated to Sydney, but served the crown again as an escort for the Royal yacht Ophir when the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York (later King George V and Queen Mary) toured New Zealand in the winter of 1901.

Five years later she was purchased by the NZ government, renamed Amokura, and converted to a maritime training ship for 12-14 year old boys. Living aboard the Amokura (in port) sixty boys at a time were prepared for careers at sea, being schooled in seamanship, navigation, gun drill, and marine engines, and crewing on summer cruises to the sub-Antarctic Islands and the Kermadecs. The training scheme was a success on one hand, but tremendously expensive on the other, and when Amokura failed her survey in 1919 the government gave up on the controversial program, and the Amokura.

Stripped and sold in February 1922, her remaining days were spent as a “coal hulk” (a floating storage bunker), a far cry from her tropical escapades with the Royal Navy. The years she lay tied up in Port Nicholson, Wellington, must have been especially heartbreaking to the local sailors, many of whom could fondly recall their apprenticeships aboard her as this was where she had been based as a training ship. She was finally sold one last time in 1953, and towed to Saint Omer Bay in the Kenepuru Sound for use as a store hulk and jetty. Though reported to be broken up in 1955, she was in fact only stripped, and Amokura‘s collapsed hull is still here in Saint Omer Bay.

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Classic yachts doing the 2021 Rolex Fastnet Race

Classic yachts from different eras will be taking part in the Rolex Fastnet Race on 8 August. And as the race approaches its 50th edition in 2023 and the 100th anniversary of the Royal Ocean Racing Club, which organises the event, two years later, RORC is encouraging more classics to take part, particularly those that can boast prior association to the bi-annual blast around the Fastnet Rock, finishing this year for the first time in Cherbourg.

Oldest in the fleet of more than 400 boats in 2021 is Amokura , the 50ft yawl built by Moodys in 1939, originally for Lord Mountbatten’s Aide de Camp, Ernest Harston. Amokura competed in the 1959 Fastnet Race and again 60 years on in 2019, but finished neither. She was famously owned by George Millar, who wrote the sailing classics Oyster River and White Boat to England .

Current owner Paul Moxon bought Amokura to take his family cruising, but has since got the racing bug and the boat has been strengthened for racing by Butler & Co in Falmouth. Paul races double-handed with Steve Jones and says: “Rather than it sitting there looking pretty, it’s designed to sail long distance and there is a real attraction to throwing it back into that world.”

Some of the most significant maxis from the third quarter of the 20th century are entered in the 2021 Fastnet. The 63ft S&S designed yawl Rafanut was built in 1955 for Jacob Wallenberg of the Swedish banking and business dynasty. She is now campaigned by his grandson Fredrik, who has followed in his grandfather’s footsteps by winning the Gotland Runt in Rafanut , albeit in the classic division.

Stormvogel has recently completed an extensive refit in Bodrum, at Metur Yacht, with Ian Hulleman, the yacht’s Kiwi skipper for the past 12 years, overseeing all work. Stormvogel ’s manager and Rolex Fastnet Race skipper Graeme Henry, who has been involved with the yacht since 1987, describes the refit as “bringing Stormvogel back to a new level of performance while maintaining the original 1961 concept and 1960s’ style”.

From the early 1970s, built in wood, is the German One-Tonner Oromocto . She is a family ‘hand me down’ and has for the last 11 years been raced by Kai Greten, whose grandfather Ernst had commissioned and campaigned her during the 1970s.

The 1967 Swan 36 Finola is a Sparkman & Stephens design skippered by regular RORC racers Chris Frost and Welsh transoceanic rower Elin Haf Davies.

Stuart Greenfield’s Morning After is an S&S 34 from the same era, while one of the most heavily campaigned yachts in RORC races throughout the last 22 years has been Harry J Heijst’s immaculate S&S 41 Winsome , dating from 1972 and built by Royal Huisman.

This year’s race will be the Dutchman’s tenth, having missed one due to ill health and another in 2007, when he admits there was a crew mutiny, with 35 knots of wind at the start. He says he proceeded to sail her home to Holland in 40 knots downwind.

Currently on the waiting list for the Rolex Fastnet Race is Pen Duick VI , the last of the series of yachts campaigned heavily by Eric Tabarly. The 73ft André Mauric-designed aluminium ketch competed in the first Whitbread Round the World Race in 1973-74, during which she dismasted twice. Most impressively Tabarly entered this same maxi yacht in the OSTAR in 1976 and entered the history books when he won the race for a second time (following his victory in 1964), despite the 32-tonner usually requiring a crew of 12 to handle her.

Pen Duick VI competed alongside the 1977–78 Whitbread Round the World Race as an unofficial entrant, due to her keel being ballasted with spent uranium.

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Amokura: The classic yacht celebrating her 80th anniversary by racing

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Ferretti Group announces its presence at Moscow Boat Show 2013

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Written by Zuzana Bednarova

The Ferretti Group, one of the world top companies specializing in the design, building and sale of motor yachts, with an amazing portfolio of eight of the most exclusive and prominent brands, is thrilled to announce its participation in the Moscow Boat Show 2013. From 12 to 17 March, two of the Group fleet’s most successful yachts will be presented as absolute premieres for the Russian market: motor yacht Ferretti 530, representing Ferretti Yachts , and the 27-foot Iseo superyacht tender by Riva .

Ferretti 530 Yacht to make her Russian premiere at Moscow Boat Show

This year’s Moscow Boat Show will also offer the Ferretti Group the opportunity to announce all yachting enthusiasts in Russia and Northern Eurasia a new important achievement in its international growth: the renewal of its exclusive dealership agreement for the Russian Federation with its partner Premium Yachts , one of the leading dealers operating in the boating sector in Russia , which will represent the Ferretti Yachts , Pershing , Itama , Bertram , Riva e Mochi Craft and Ferretti Custom Line brands.

The agreement – which was officially announced today during a press conference attended, among others, by Ferruccio Rossi (Ferretti Group’s CEO), Alexey Kurochkin (Premium Yachts’s President), and Stefano Campanelli (Sales Manager for the EMEA area for Ferretti Yachts, Pershing, Itama, Bertram, Riva, Mochi Craft and Ferretti Custom Line) – is part of Ferretti Group’s strategy for a further expansion on the European markets offering the best short/medium-term growth perspectives, also thanks to the financial soundness regained following the strategic partnership forged with the Weichai Group.

More specifically, the Russian boating market holds a great potential for the Ferretti Group’s development because of the rapid growth of average wealth among the population and an increasing interest for Made in Italy luxury goods, like Ferretti Group yachts.

Through the renewal of the agreement with Premium Yachts, the Group will further strengthen its highly selected distribution network – which currently includes approximately 60 dealers ensuring the best possible customer care in more than 80 countries worldwide – as well as its presence in the traditional EMEA ( Europe , Middle East , Africa ) area, one of the three macro-regions (besides the America and the Asia-Pacific) into which the Group’s sales structure is divided.

Moreover, in a medium/long-term perspective, the Ferretti Group is expecting an increasing interest on the Russian market not only for flying bridge yachts above 70’ in length, but also towards smaller crafts, both flybridge and open/coupé ones, which are particularly suitable for river cruising or pleasure boating in Russia’s large lakes. Consequently, the renewal of the dealership agreement with Premium Yachts also allows to look ahead at the future aiming to conquer new market segments where less competitors are currently present in terms of both products and geographic location.

The press conference, which was held today at the Lotte Hotel in Moscow, had also the objective of introducing attending journalists and yachting enthusiasts to the main new products launched by the Ferretti Group over the last few months, namely: motor yacht Ferretti 870 , Ferretti 690 yacht , and the project of the new flagship Ferretti 960 superyacht for the Ferretti Yachts brand; luxury yacht Pershing 82 ’ and superyacht Pershing 108’ New Edition for Pershing; Riva 63’ Virtus and the project of the new Riva flagship, 122’ Mythos yacht , as well as the entire range of the Itama, Bertram and Mochi Craft brands.

The yachts launched over the last few months by CRN – the Group’s brand specialising in the construction of steel and aluminium yachts between 40 and 90 metres – were also presented during the conference: the two superyachts: CRN superyacht Jade (60 metres long) and CRN mega yacht Chopi Chopi (80 metres long), the latter being one of the largest pleasure vessels ever built in Italy and the largest one ever built by the Ancona-based shipyard.

“The renewal of our dealership agreement with an important partner like Premium Yachts – which has worked on the Russian market for almost 10 years and can boast an outstanding product knowledge and an excellent local market penetration – and the presentation of the Group’s latest models are an integral part of our development strategy on the EMEA markets offering the best growth perspectives in the short-medium term,” stated Ferruccio Rossi, Ferretti Group’s CEO. “The Moscow Boat Show 2013, which has now reached its sixth edition, will extend over approximately 45,000 square metres this year and will be attended by more than 350 international boating companies. This Show represents an interesting business opportunity for us and an unmissable event in terms of visibility, since we are identifying a considerable growth potential in this area thanks to the timeless attractiveness of our products – true ambassadors of Made in Italy production all over the world”.

Please contact CharterWorld - the luxury yacht charter specialist - for more on superyacht news item "Ferretti Group announces its presence at Moscow Boat Show 2013".

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Ferretti Group

42M FERRETTI SUPERYACHT

SEVENTH SENSE

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Amokura: a classic boat archive

1939: amokura features in the yachting monthly article “new designs”.

This article originally appeared in The Yachting Monthly in February 1939.  You can access a copy of the original article  here .

A Fast 50ft. Yawl

Shepherd-designed 23 ton cruiser.

LOA………………………………..50.75 ft. LWL………………………………….38.0 ft. Beam…………………………………..12 ft. Draught…………………………………7 ft. Lead keel…………………………7½ tons Sail area …………………….1,020 sq. ft.

MANY experienced cruising yachtsmen have a preference for the yawl rig, despite the contention that it is not so close-winded as the cutter. But many assert that a yawl sailing with the mizzen stowed is more comfortable in a hard breeze than a cutter of the same size with the main- sail reefed down.

A fine example of the modern fast cruiser of this type is now under construction by A . H . Moody & Son, Swanwick Shore, near Southampton, to designs by Fredk. Shepherd, M.I.N.A., for Major E. S. Harston, of Wyndham Place, London, W.1.

The owner required a speedy vessel having the maximum possible accommodation in a 50-footer, and suitable for both cruising and handicap or ocean racing on occasion. The plans, which are reproduced, should satisfy these conditions very well.

The lines are sweet and easy and promise plenty of pace. Although not based on the metacentric shelf system, the hull has in fact an almost straight and excellent shelf, and in profile the yacht is undeniably a good-looker. The overall length is 50 ft. 9 in., the water- line length is 38 ft., the beam 12 ft., and the draught 7 ft., working sail area 1,020 sq. ft.

Now in process of being framed up, the hull is constructed of 1¼ in. pitch pine on grown oak frames, spaced 21 in. centres, with one bent timber of American elm between each pair of frames. The decks and the deck fittings are of Burma teak, and the interior woodwork will be carried out in light waxed oak. Delivery is to be at the end of April.

Installed below the floor of the bridge deck is a 4 cylinder 12-36 h.p. Gray petrol motor fitted with 2 to 1 reduction gear, and accessible by means of a flush hatch in the floor of the deck shelter. Ventilation of the engine space is arranged by means of cowl type inlet and mushroom type extractor vents, and two fuel tanks, each of 20 gallons capacity, are located under the side decks aft. The fresh water supply of 120 gallons is carried in two inter-connected tanks below the cabin flooring amidships.

MAJOR HARSTON’S 23 TON YAWL Below decks her accommodation is planned for space and comfort. Tiller steering and the position of the 12-36 h.p. Gray motor, tucked well aft under a bridge deck, are points to be noted.

There is 6 ft. 1 in. headroom throughout the accommodation, inclusive of the fo’c’sle, where there is one built-in and one folding cot berth, and a concealed lavatory for the crew. A spacious galley, equipped with an Electrolux refrigerator, is placed between the fo’c’sle and the saloon, which, in addition to the settees, has Pullman type beds.

A sliding door at the after end of the saloon leads to a wide lobby, having a bathroom and lavatory on its port side and a single berth on the opposite side. On the starboard side of this lobby is the entrance to a large and comfortably fitted double-berth cabin having an emergency exit to the bridge deck.

The Bermudian yawl rig appears to be well balanced and well stayed, and should be easily handled. The mainmast is a hollow spar 60 ft. in height above the deck, and the solid mizen mast has a height of 26 ft. Roller reefing is provided for the main boom, and there is a double detachable forestay.

As 1939 is a Fastnet year, it is permissible to hope that Major Harston may be able to enter his new yacht for our foremost ocean racing event.

A fairly heavy displacement, with easy lines, promise a seakindly hull. LOA 50.75 ft. LWL 38 ft. Draught 7 ft.