Yacht and Sea: Gustav Plym: 1960

£2.00

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This book is an account of the design and construction of Elseli IV, a 35ft wooden sloop. The goal was to compete in the 1957 Fastnet Race. Indeed the last part of the book recounts the fierce battle that took place to be the winner in class 3, with Elseli IV competing with Adlard Coles’ Cohoe III. The race itself was one of the fiercest that had happened until then. 48 boats started, and only 12 finished. The overall winner, was the Class 1 Carina II, a lovely American yawl, but she lifted the deck beams off the stringers. in the process.

I learned a lot from this book, and it fired my desire to get a seagoing yacht. A good read

The book is in fair condition, but the dust jacket has long since disappeared.

SKU: BoEx03 Category:

Description

I remember that 1957 Fastnet for a strange reason. The day it started was my birthday, 8th August 1957. I had gone on a dinghy cruise with Chris Cohen in his GP 14 dinghy. We had spent  night at anchor in Newtown using sleeping bags and a boat cover over the boom. I think we had a single primus stove. We then sailed over to Ower Lake (before the Calshot Power Station was built) and anchored there. During the night the wind increased. In the gusts we nearly capsized with the windage of the cover over the boom. It was 8th Aygust the next morning, the day the Fastnet started. As  the race started in a gale, we made our way back to Millbrook (under what is now the container terminal) under a small GP jib. (no main). We did not come off the plane until we were well past Dock Head. So I followed the rest of that Fastnet Race with considerable interest.

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