Sailing Magazine
by Richard Crockett
I am always fascinated by those folk who take on yacht restoration projects as there is simply nothing finite in them, and more often that not gremlins which appear the more the vessel gets stripped down.
I do admire the patience, tenacity and perseverance of those who undertake these projects.
This is how ‘She’ was described by the author of this feature: A 35’ sloop with a beam of 9.5’ and draught of 6’, the 45’ high mast rather towered over her. Built by Prior and Sons Ltd., at Burnham-on-Crouch in 1960 to the design of Alan H. Buchanan Ltd., her first owner was Bob Watson who christened her ‘Cervantes’. An early claim to fame was that she sailed against Edward Heath, then Prime Minister of Britain, in the Cowes Regatta.
In the mid-1960s she was sold to Bob and Sheila Fleming who changed her name to ‘She’. Their inaugural cruise was to the Caribbean in the late 1960s. They then set out on an interesting circumnavigation. Both of them were qualified in the medical profession, she a doctor and he a dentist. When funds were running low, they set up local practices for a while at various ports of call before proceeding on their way. Arriving in Cape Town in the mid-seventies, their travelling was over as Bob Fleming had developed an allergy to the sun and could no longer sail. She was ‘moth-balled’ for a while.
This is another interesting restoration project and well worth a read.
I just wonder where she is today?
READ IT ALL HERE: Pages from 2010 12 – SAILING Magazine – OCR
