Silver Apple, a yacht designed by a father and owned by a son

As a happy snapper with a bridge camera and of course a smartphone, I have snapped thousands of photos of boats, birds, bikes and other stuff. So when I realise I haven't posted anything on my Captain's  blog for a while all I have to do is look in the giant folder where I have been trying to sort my photos out for over a year now. There is a massive folder in there called "Boats" and inside that one many others, one of which is "My boats" . Now I use a fairly broad meaning to that word "My' and what it means is the boats I have sailed or handled or delivered. Or spent a lot of time on in many cases. Or own...

Back in 2018, I was full time captain on a yacht called Artemis, a Beneteau 57, which belonged to the owner of Corfu Yacht Yard. The boat was used for some charter and owner family trips and on some days when I was not out on it and not too busy fixing and maintaining stuff, like watertanks and aircons and engines, I would do some work at the boatyard too, or on boats that were maintained by the yard crew. 

One of these boats was the amazing "Silver Apple".

Silver Apple was designed by F.Spaulding Dunbar and built to his design in 1967, the year I was born,  in Mallorca, Spain. She is a 45 foot wooden ketch with some very interesting features, like tandem lifting keels and twin engines. 

I was called upon initially to prepare her to be lifted out and deliver her to the yard.

 I then also had to do a survey of her safety equipment for the insurance company, which really gave me the opprtunity to have a real close look at all of her ins and outs. She had a very cosy aft cabin, a deep and very safe center cockpit, and of course that lovely feeling that wooden boats have, that they are somehow alive, they have a soul. 

In the yard with my R100GS in front of her

Bart Dunbar her owner, is the son of F..Spaulding Dunbar, the designer of Silver Apple and has owned her for many years. When he turned up to take her away to Italy, I found out he was intending to sail her all the way to the US!

He was a lovely gentleman and even offered me a place on the crew to go as far as I wanted, Italy, Spain or further. He also gave me a copy of a book called Wood, Wind and Water dedicated to his father's design work. He designed some really beautiful and unusual yachts. 

 

Info on who she was designed for

A lovely dedication thanking me for all the work on her

Reference to Silver Apple having sailed as far as the Chinese coast!

Folllowing are a few pictures of her interior. I didn't go very far on her, but spent lots of time aboard painting and fixing things and checking her equipment out. She definitely confirmed my love for classic yachts!

On the slipway almost ready for launch

Her bow undercover

Can't beat a wooden deck for looks!

Dorade vents boxes double up as nav light mounts

The old fashioned wire halyards you dont see now

A very basic maisail roller furler

Binnacle

The two sets of instruments fro the twin Yanmars

Looking up to the sky, wooden masts

Here's a couple of instruments you dont see much now

And yes, she had a stove!!

The classic heelmeter and paintings

Cooker with marble top

Engine control

Talk about a classic compass

Even the toilet is a classic!

Lovely wooden interior

Slightly dangerous gas compartment as not vented overboard...

All in all, a boat to remember. She is somewhere in the states now. They got an award for having sailed so far from the Cruising Club of America..

 

Silver Apple sailing

 

 

While looking for info on Silver Apple and Barlett Dunbar, her owner I found this

 Seems like I was in the presence of US sailing royalty!

 

Sailing in the UK (Part 2)

 Following on from Sailing in the UK (Part 1)

 

Back in 2019, I undertook what started off as a "simple" mile-building trip in tidal waters and was to be one of the best sailing trips I have ever had. In fact calling it a "trip" is an understatement... it was a voyage!

Following my arrival on Minke II, the Hallberg Rassy belonging to my friend Tim, I had a couple of free days while waiting to depart. I took the opportunity to explore nearby Portsmouth and catch a ferry to the Isle of Wight, where more friends awaited.

A few years back, having given up on being a shop owner, I had toyed with the idea of taking a course at IBTC. That is the International Boatbuilding Training College in Portsmouth.

I found my way to the Portsmouth dockyards and discovered that the college was based there!

I was enthrallled by the number of projects, the beauty of the wood and the hulls laid open in various stages of repair. Like a massive surgical bay, what some might call carcasses of a large variety of boats lay there below the walkway and I snapped happily away, trying not only to take it all in but also to somehow retain some of this magic to take away with me. 

Where to start I do not know... This could be a very long post, easily worthy of "parts" 2b and 2c even... 

So here goes with a few photos...

Spinnaker tower, a Portsmouth landmark.

One of the things I most loved about my voyage along the voast of te UK was that every seaside town seemed to really live and breathe its nautical and historical heritage. This was something I had first noticed back in 1989 when I had visited Cowes on the isle of Wight. I seem to remember even the butcher there had some kind of nautical theme on his sign!

So here in Portsmouth, Spinnaker Tower. If you are a sailor, you kind of immediately know, you are in the right place... 

It took the maximum zoom of my camera to take this photo of the end of the pier

My first experiences of what it means to be in a tidal area. Mud!

In fact mud as far as the eye can see...

and a bit more mud...

A boat with legs

almost seems unbelievable the large boat is floating..

 This was a tidal mile builder and I was getting my first experiences of tides even before I had set off. Here is a little piece of etymological treasure I found in a book too. Did you know that the word "tidy" comes from the tides? Because tidy is neat and regular like the tides... 

The HMS Warrior

Hms Warrior detail of bow

Work boats to the backdrop of HMS Warrior

 

The Hms Warrior 

HMS Warrior was  the largest, fastest, and most powerful warship of Queen Victoria’s fleet.Click here to find out more about her.

Spotted this going out when I was there, it is an MTB!

As you may have gathered I am interested in boats, period.  Sailing, motor, classic, modern, work boat or pleasure, if it floats I am intrigued. Furthermore I am interested in their stories... The above is the MTB or Motor Torpedo Boat 102. Click on the name to find out more about her history too. Now some of you who are local sailors in my waters (the North Ionian) may find something you recognise in that hull shape. Especially those of you who often do the "milk run" between Corfu and Paxos Island. If you haven't recognised it or guessed yet, yes it is the two daytripper boats, one called Sfendoni and the other Petrakis who are converted MTB hulls from the war!!

In fact that is something fairly common in Greece, where many wrecks of the war were salvaged and became the first ferries and trade ships to connect the mainland and islands of war-ravaged Greece.

A black headed gull

A young Herring Gull

Another black headed gull on the beach

I also had a chance to snap a few seabirds while there, you shall see more in later posts.I was amazed at the size of some of the gulls in UK. they seemed so much bigger than the Mediterranean ones.

Heading into the Dockyard itself, here are some photos of boats that were being repaired there.

Hey there is a bit of bare wall here! "Stick a boat on it!!"

A corner of the workshop floor

Steamboat Janet

 

 I am going to wrap this up somewhere here, there is just too much. 

I'll be coming back soon with more photos and stories from Portsmouth, HMS Victory and my "English voyage".