In 1910, Robert Groves had decided he wanted a larger Albert Strange boat, and commissioned Sheila II. In 1911, he found a new guardian for Sheila with Pat Walsh. During Pat’s time with Sheila, the boat stayed in Kingston (Dun Laoghaire – Dublin)
Sheila’s new life starts with a first prize.
In 1911, Sheila sails under the club flag of her new owner, the Royal Irish Yacht Club’s.
She has changed her original R Cain coton sails. Her new sails from 1910 are from the loft of Cranfield&Carter of Tollesbury.
This is the story of this picture, as narrated by Mike Burn to the ASA
CHERUB II, one reef in
A couple of weeks ago a picture of CHERUB II popped onto my e-mail screen, not the usual stuff for here was a picture of her sailing in a blow with her ‘new’ gaff rig, yet quite clearly an early picture. My eyes popped at real gold, which came from Canada, for drawings et al are fine but photographs of the real thing are priceless.
There followed a furious interchange across the ether to produce two days later a superb picture of SHEILA; my theories about the date had me going on full song as all the details told me this had to have been taken before her majestic rebuild in Dublin in 1914. As confidence between us grew Hilary Everitt, who had bought a box of old yachting photographs in an estate sale in British Columbia, started sending more scans and dates began to pop out of the undergrowth. On the back of the SHEILA pic was a date (magic) 1911; this is the earliest photograph of her I have by some 50 years! As more pictures emerged and Hilary began to unfold the story of the deceased of the estate roughly the following emerged. I admit to surmise in building the picture but have been as accurate as I can be; I hope you like it.
The man who took the pictures was the son of the Carlow MP (near Dublin) Layard (who appears in Burke’s). He lives in Canada but goes home in 1911 to sign on for the Royal Navy (pic of him in uniform), he is clearly a sailing man. His father almost certainly knows Pat Walsh (25 Dartmouth Square Dublin) Ireland’s premier canoeist who has just bought the already famous SHEILA from Groves to Dublin. But 1911 is the year that CW Adderton completes the build of QUEST II (des A Strange) at Dickie’s, but like QUEST I he sails her in Irish waters (A Strange: “A Sketching Cruise in in the Quest”, Dundrum Bay and Strangford Lough, HYC 1905) and they go on another sketching cruise to try out the new boat. There is a magnificently posed pic of CHERUB II anchored astern of QUEST II (it has to be her) both with rigs up in a flat calm; I do not believe this is coincidence. CHERUB II is crystal clear and has the after end of her lifting cabin top up on display.
In the box of pics is a photo of BEATRIX. She was designed by Sibbick and built at Cowes in 1891 but in 1911 she is owned by two Strangeistas, Richardson and Walsh (with A N Other Kelly) while Lloyds records her having been converted from a cutter to a yawl (HYC mod job by the Strangeistas?).
There are several pics of CHERUB II so very clearly her presence here is important tho’ it is hard to see whether it is Strange at the helm trying our the new gaff rig; he records in his YM piece on her that she handled better under gaff rig than the ‘club rig’ he actually fitted her with (despite having done her drawings in the HYC mag with gaff rig) so is this the time he got to find out the difference? One pic is quintessential stuff for proper Strange yawl sailors for that one in the blow shows her with full mizzen, full reefing jib, but the first reef is in the main; it is not, as every yawl writer and modern yawl sailor supposes, obtained by furling the mizzen; I sail SHEILA exactly like this today as that is how she sails best; CHERUB’s gaff mizzen is a huge sail! It is interesting to note that QUEST II, CHERUB II and SHEILA very clearly all have pole roller reefing.
SHEILA
The similarity of the rigs with their proportions, on CHERUB II and SHEILA is very interesting; SHEILA’s drawings in HYC 1904 show no rig so had CHERUB II already been converted by this time to show the way to Groves in his choice of rig and proportion for his new little ‘proper’ yacht; very specially that huge mizzen which is such a joy today? The pictures of CHERUB II show an almost vertical mizzen gaff, crossed, which seems to be standing well in the blow to windward, yet SHEILA’s stands fully ‘gunter style’ (it has jaws and a solid span) so setting perfectly to windward; is this gunter arrangement on SHEILA a logical solution to CHERUB’s crossed gaff or a derivation of the arrangements of the original battened lug in those pictures of CHERUB II in Scarborough harbour, which would clearly have stood perfectly! This is not a specious discussion as mizzens on very small yachts at this time (if they were fitted at all) were almost invariably of the fishing boat style (fully crossed gaff) because it was only the canoe boys who had been using the fully battened lug as they had for racing canoes. Very interesting indeed as following Strange designs had a longer mast with bermudan sail as a mizzen; my gut feeling is that the half-way house shown on both these boats gives the best arrangement for handling because the sail can be dropped down on its spar and then the boom brailed up to fully furl the sail not only to stop the boat but to put it away also without taking it off the spars.
Do we have in this window of time a real little Strangefest? — famous Strange boat arrives from Scotland, new Strange boat arrives fresh from the building, even more famous Strange boat is present (how is a mystery) while the Strangeistas also still have a boat they converted to HYC style; so a party is had and friends bring their cameras. The “how is CHERUB II on the Irish Coast” question will repay more study but I fear we will need more clues. One thing is clear which is that while Strange was alive his fame amongst yachting people of this ilk was considerable so those who espoused his designs kept together.
The details that Pat Walsh changed on SHEILA when he rebuilt her were minimal; he re-decked her with the exotic Kauri fully faired canoe deck (which I inherited) from her straight, white pine, fisherman’s deck and he added an extra mizzen shroud. I have retained that exotic deck (tho’ rebuilt in yellow cedar) as a compliment to Strange’s beauty and to Walsh while I have retained the extra mizzen shroud also (the gorgeous 1914 bronze shroud plates could not possibly be ditched!), her bowsprit might be a few inches longer while being a mite more substantial bearing in mind it holds the whole rig up and we have raced her hard (with a jib that just overlaps the shrouds), but otherwise she looks today surprisingly like this picture of 1911, despite the sails now being cut on the mitre. It has fired me to re-institute the little oak oval waterbreaker (which was handed down to me) on the foredeck behind the mast which can be clearly seen in the picture.
What a window across time from the ether! I hope you like the story and that someone may add more to it as we go forward.