I am glad to report that Sheila raced with a selection of the best sailors of the “Société Nautique de la Trinité-sur-Mer” on August 17th. The fleet included an Imoca 50 so I do not need to explain that we were not the fastest on the race course. In fact she was the smallest as well and needless to say the star of the day.
Sheila received a wonderful welcome from the other members of the club and I am very grateful to them for being so kind with us.
Now Sheila is back to her mooring in the Golfe du Morbihan with great memories.
Sure, boats are made for sailing, not to be pampered and treated like a chimney-piece.
Sheila has been sailed hard these days (but mostly gently) and she will get the fundamental maintenance she needs after the summer. Still I am trying to maintain her beauty, and, as Mike would put it “gild the lily” each time it is possible.
The helm also got a bit of gold paint, although I need to find a different formula.
Leather and bronze, rather than heavy metal
The support for the boom needed varnishing, but it was also damaging the deck. Now it is just beautiful.
It is so hard to remove everything stainless steel. Stainless steel is very useful, but is not period for Sheila. The same applies to cruciform screw heads. All the shackles (with very few exceptions) are now bronze again.
The main challenge was with the standing rigging and it was very conspicuous. The shackles and the eyes on the stainless steel shrouds were just too visible. A solution was to replace everything with dyneema. This would have looked much better than shiny cables while not being period either. Sheila has spent her allowance for this year so I made leather protections which are operating as covers.
Moving to running rigging, there are not many knots to tie on Sheila, as most of the lines are spliced. Still a figure of 8, a bowline or a clove hitch are common and essential. Less common, but the jib halyard will not be of any help without it is the sheep shank. I had to learn it again.
Going by the book
Sheila does not carry her name printed on the hull, It should be printed on the stern, along with the two letters AY for her new maritime quarter. There is an exemption for ships less that 7m (and so she is.) The penalty is up to 3.750€. In 1905, it was a Board of Trade requirement to have it at the bow and the stern but Sheila was not carrying her name either, on the basis of an 1898 exemption granted to Humber Yawl Club members, their boats being small and pointed on both ends. But are the French Authorities aware of this ?
The penalty for not carrying a plaque inside the cockpit with all the registration details that paper pushers have deemed compulsory is steep as well – 1500€. So Sheila compromised on this one.
Dressed up
You might have read already that Sheila sports a boom and a mizzen cover made by my friend Yvonnic and his team.
The handwriting for Sheila is Robert Groves’.
Yvonnic also gave me some leftovers of the fabric he used, which I stitched into a mast step collar to limit water ingress.
And finally, I decided to include an improvement. It is an improvement for me because I need a chart table for pilotage inside the Golfe. Even when you feel you know the place inside out, you always have to go back and check the chart from time to time. And without an echo sounder you want to be quick and not take too many chances. Mike was writing in 1979 ; “Like old houses the interiors of boats are a very personal thing and Sheila’s had changed over the years to suit the tastes of her major owner to whom her survival is entirely due.” This area I used for my chart table was taken by his Taylors Parafin cooker which did not survive to 2024, so it was already slightly different from the original Sheila interior setup. The crockery area was also carefully removed and stored for different times.
On the 20th and 21st of July 2024, and on her 120th year, Sheila was racing and parading at Port-Navalo.
“Les Grandes Régates de Port-Navalo” were celebrating their 130th year. Port-Navalo is the harbour at the entrance of the “Golfe du Morbihan” in the South of Britanny. The tide race in the entrance of the Golfe is up to 8 or 9 knots, which makes it an interesting harbour to enter under sails !
Sheila raced on the Saturday against boats which were both magnificient and much bigger than her.
Pen Duick 2 (14m Costantini schooner winner of the 1964 Ostar Race with Eric Tabarly) won easily. The Lys Noir (24m 1914 Yawl), Krog E Barz (15m Gaff Cutter), and 3 Frères (11m Sinagot) finished ahead of us as well, in a dying wind. No boat smaller than Sheila finished before her and a lot of bigger boats were behind.
We took a safe start, as a port tack was the only way to pass the line, in the strong tide. The management of tide currents was also instrumental to finish the race. With boats of such different speed capacities, after 10 miles, many of our smaller opponents had given up. The reacher was a great asset and we used it with the spinnaker pole used as a whisker pole. We did not use the spinnaker and the pole extension.
On Sunday we paraded in the tide, with west wind increasing to 26kn. Sheila was sailing under jib and mizzen during much of the parade, her signature look. We surprised many Breton boat watchers who discovered her and I believe they enjoyed the show.
Many thanks to the organization, we had a great week-end, and many thanks to my competent crew.
On the 13th and 14th of July 2024, we are training for next week regata in Port-Navalo with Vincent.
We want to try our two “regata sails”. The spinnaker is 200sq’ single luff, set masthead to stem-head with a 20’ pole. The pole is in the 2 parts, with a bamboo extension and is actually longer than the hull ! The reacher is set to the end of the bowsprit and sheeted direct or to the boom end. Sheila delivered beyond expectations and proved very fast in light airs. We have some minor adjustments to make and we look forward to next week !
Maybe you will notice that Sheila received some attention over the past weeks so that she is pretty for the summer with little details here and there. I will try to update you with those details later on.
The Court of Princess Sheila will be glad to see that she is back in shape.
We were blessed with one week of glorious weather. The efforts of the crew to get her back to sea water are just a memory and we are enjoying every moment. Still a lot to learn but we are improving our understanding of this wonderful yacht each time.
The next week was not as magnificient. But now Sheila is dressed for every occasion, thanks to Yvonnick and Karine.
Sheila’s new main sail cover – original lettering by Robert E Groves
It all started with two weeks with wind over 40 knots everyday and two months of rain.
That is when she decided she wanted to go to the beach at night. Unfortunately, I must take the blame for letting her. The stainless steel swivel on which the two mooring lines were set lost its shackle pin – the plastic strap proved insufficient under the circumstances.
Fortunately I realised it in the morning and with the next tide she was towed back for examination. A big thank-you to Loïc and Yves for making themselves available at short notice on a Saturday and being so professional and caring.
During the week-end spent on a mooring she was water-tight. We lifted her out on the next Tuesday and we were relieved of such a minimal outcome after a near catastrophy. Sheila scratched her hull and that is fixed. She damaged the bottom of her rudder – Loïc is working on it.
Still we did our review and extracted the wooden rudder stock (as good as in 1987) and decided to seize the opportunity for a professional review and tightening of the helm. In the meantime I was planning to sand and protect the deck with new coats of wood stain.
Our remaining challenge is that in the process we found crumbling steel bolts in the stern post, a broken stainless steel brace on the keel and a stem knee in dire straits. This area of the boat was last restored in 1979 and is under the cockpit so more exposed to rain water. And 1979 is a third of century past. The shipwrights have a challenge to meet without prior notice before she is back to sailing and I must confess I had other plans as well.
More news to come !
16th April update
Sheila should be back on the water on the 3rd of May. The deck is protected with two coats of stain and we found the time to paint the hull so that she can be pretty for the Summer.
Looking pretty with her new meter-class friends
30th April update
Loïc and the team have been doing wonders.
He uncovered the mystery of the original Albert Strange pintle bearing. The device was broken ages ago and replaced by a crude stainless steel brace more recently. To restore the original system we would need to remove the keel so this could only be undertaken at a later stage. The device deserves an article in its own right. In the meantime we have a restored stern post and a much safer system for the rudder.
Weather in Brittany is suboptimal for outdoor life.
The sails are sent out for cleaning, the wooden jib furler is in the shed, fixed, with new coats of paint and varnish.
The team at Delta sails are creating a new mainsail cover and a new cockpit cover.
The ship has a small solar panel to operate a bilge pump when she is on her mooring. It is just removing the rain water that gets into the cockpit and the cabin is dryer that way.
Lady Sheila is not an illegal alien anymore, and she can fly a French ensign. I think it is the first time in 120 years that she is registered as I did not find a Lloyds registry entry for her (1) I am not sure it is a sign civil administration has been improving in over a century. Also, this was a prerequisite to get a MMSI number for the portable ASN VHF. I will be able to send an automated distress signal with an identification and a GPS location – Groves never had that in his pocket.
And we are designing a new topsail rig. Many thanks to Mike for keeping the old invoice with the measurements of the yard and the club.
Greetings from France !
(1) 1st May 2024 note : I finally found a 1907 Lloyd’s registry entry. More to come on this !
With no main sail on the rig, I decided to test my talent at using her oar.
She is a canoe after all !
But she is a sailing canoe and I failed miserably at beating the tide and the wind. The solution was to restore her sailing capabilities with jib and mizzen. That was done rapidly (enough.) Still a bit of forward planning would have improved our looks. Of course Sheila was safely returned to her mooring.
I still have some maintenance work to do before she can sail again and I will be waiting for the new mail sail cover. Sheila will resume her sailing program in April or so.
