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"Robert Hastie" (research pic)529 viewsAll our models are fully researched. During this project, we took over two hundred photographs of the real boat, which was also building at the time. A couple of pictures are included here out of interest, showing details of the forrard and after hatch structures.
(models by John Davies and Frank Hasted)
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Shamrock V (J Class)529 views"Shamrock V" survives. At the time of writing (2001), she has just completed a magnificent restoration at Pendennis Shipyard in Falmouth. She has been restored to a condition very close to the original. The closest attention has been paid to everything, down to the details and materials of her cabin furnishings. However, despite appearances, in many ways she is now a very different boat. A conspicuous radar aerial decorates her modern mast, she has twin engines, and a full set of modern winches to control her rig. There is only one conundrum. Whereas in the 1930s, she seemed to manage with about 19 professional racing crew, and few winches, today, with the benefit of a full outfit of modern winches and other labour saving equipment, she seems to need about 30 hands.
It would be churlish to nitpick. Anyone who has seen that lovely dark green hull, endlessly graceful, slicing through the water, can only stand and wonder. Our model is a tiny tribute to a very lovely yacht. We hope you may feel it will grace your home or office.
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Lexington522 views
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Endeavour (J Class)514 viewsSo why didn't she win? As the proverb has it, "It's not the ships, it's the men in them". Vanderbilt's organisation and tactics were excellent, both before the Cup series and during it. Sopwith's were less so.
Thirteen of Sopwith's professional crew left his employ eight days before "Endeavour" was due to sail for America. In those days, professional yacht hands worked as fishermen over the winter. The Cup series was held in September 1934, so they would be back from America too late to get berths in the fishery. Sopwith refused to increase his pay offer to make up the difference. It seemed likely that their families would suffer real hardship. Despite a good deal of hysteria in the yachting press, all the "mutineers" soon found berths on other yachts, which would never have happenned if they had not had reason on their side. Sopwith engaged a crew of amateur sailors, most of whom had no experience of something as big as a J boat. The amateurs proved extremely efficient. All the same, losing most of the practiced professionals must have had some effect on "Endeavour"s performance.
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Enterprise (J Class)514 viewsBelow decks she was completely stripped out. Even the floorboards were slatted to reduce weight. She had a clean, open, deck layout. All halliards were led below, and a total of twenty-three winches ensured efficient handling of her lines. The mast was laminated from sheets of duralumin, in those days the latest modern wonder material. It was held together by about 100,000 rivets. It was stepped in a steel tube filled with a liquid resembling quicksilver, and a special member of the crew, known as the "mast nurse" had the job of seeing that the stays were properly adjusted on different points of sailing.
All this technology did not come cheap. "Enterprise cost about £100,000, or more than five times as much as the challenger, "Shamrock V". She was built in 1929, before the crash, and in America the rich had money to burn. Four American J class yachts were built that year. "Enterprise", "Yankee", "Weetamoe", and "Whirlwind" were all built without expense spared.
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Enterprise (J Class)514 viewsAs well as having a superb boat, Harold Vanderbilt, the owner and skipper of "Enterprise", used the best American management methods. His professional crew was well paid and well treated. The ship was run by an afterguard consisting of Vanderbilt as skipper and helmsman, an assistant helmsman, a navigator, and two specialists for the setting of the rigging and the sails. Each man had his job to do, to ensure the whole team functioned smoothly.
The selection trials to choose the defender were closely fought. "Whirlwind" proved a failure, but both "Yankee" and "Weetamoe" came close to beating "Enterprise". After the selection series, the Americas Cup contest of 1930 proved an anticlimax. "Shamrock V" never looked like winning even one race.
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Lexington513 viewsWe created this lovely model of the American privateer "Lexington", a vessel famous from the War of Independence, for a private collector.
While the model faithfully follows the best available historic material on the vessel, it is in fact modified from a well-known plank-on-frame kit. This enabled us to complete the model within a shorter construction time, and thus keep the cost down.
This sort of ingenious solution is typical of the bespoke service we offer clients. She is also a quite exquisite model.
(model by Gordon Williams)
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"Robert Hastie" (research pic)511 viewsAll our models are fully researched. During this project, we took over two hundred photographs of the real boat, which was also building at the time. A couple of pictures are included here out of interest, showing details of the forrard and after hatch structures.
(models by John Davies and Frank Hasted)
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Eye of the Wind510 viewsThe lovely little sail training ship "Eye of the Wind" is one of Frank Hasted's favorite ships. He has had many happy times afloat on her. This model was made for his beloved Lesley, to commemorate her introduction to offshore sailing, steering the ship on her eightieth birthday in a full gale.
If there is a ship which holds particularly happy memories for you, we will be happy to build a high quality miniature replica for you, too. One day, if the demands of the business ever give us enough time, I may ask Frank to build "Hoshi" for me; but that's another story!
(model by Frank Hasted)
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Euterpe506 views
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Eye of the Wind (detail)506 views
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"Robert Hastie"506 viewsDesigned by Camarc, a world specialist in this type of vessel (they have also designed boats for the New York pilot service), the "Robert Hastie" is a fine vessel of the most modern type. The model captures her powerful lines and distinctive appearance in every detail.
(models by John Davies and Frank Hasted)
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