the devil wears prada

Great Britain has awaken from a long slumber of sporting mediocrity. In the last Olympics, her medal tally (27 gold and 67 total) was second only to the US and, by population, so far ahead at the top of the table that GBR is in a class of her own now. Yet we’ve always struggled with the biggies: 1966 was a long time ago. And, of course, the America’s Cup. I can’t have been alone in hoping for a repeat of Sir Ben’s incredible comeback performance sailing for the USA against NZ in 2013. This time, we fell quickly to the Italian onslaught. In this issue, David Frost tells the story of the UK’s 1901 challenge, when his great grandfather Edward Sycamore took us the closest we ever came to…

built on faith

“I used to do a lot of skydiving,” Simon Mitchell told me. “While you are still in the aircraft you have got options but, once you leave the door, gravity takes over and you hope you make a safe landing at the bottom. But you can’t guarantee it.” He was telling me this by way of an analogy for the story of how he took on a part-built boat project and saw it through to completion, a process which he often refers to as “financial skydiving”. Finances aside, however, there is absolutely no doubt that he made a safe landing: as he puts it, “the end result is an extraordinary statement of craftsmanship which needs to be told.” In the early 1990s, builder-turned-boatbuilder Barry Cass was keen to buy a 1968…

tell tales

HENLEY-ON-THAMES New home for historic collection The Rose Toop Collection of classic Thames river boats and artefacts has a new home after its patron bought Hobbs boatyard at Henley-on-Thames. Adam Toop becomes the first new owner of the historic Hobbs site in more than 100 years. The Rose Toop Collection is widely admired and Toop has been searching for a new home for it for some years. Toop is chief judge and co-chair of the Thames Traditional Boat Festival, alongside The Hon Lady McAlpine, and has been behind several major restorations of river and other craft. He said: “After an exhaustive search lasting many years, I am delighted to have found the perfect home for the Rose Toop Collection. “The restoration, preservation and maintenance of these important craft can be sustained only by actively supporting…

rebel rabbit

Don’t believe everything you read on Facebook. Dick Carter, the self-taught American yacht designer who upstaged the leading lights of yacht design in 1965 with his breakthrough Fastnet winner Rabbit, is very much alive and kicking. And so too is his Class III racer/cruiser Rabbit thanks to Italian Carter design devotees Francesco and wife Mietta Gandolfiwho bought the yacht as a rusting steel wreck and had her faithfully restored to her former glory. The work has been a worthy and enjoyable penance for helping to spread word of Carter’s untimely demise after hearing that Dick had died in 2007. Francesco had heard this from French designer Yves-Marie Tanton who had worked for Carter 43 years before. He and Yves got their just desserts when finding Dick standing on the other side…

saleroom

BONHAMS Global warming hits salerooms The market in memorabilia from the great age of south polar exploration is heating up, thanks to global warming. That’s the conclusion of Matthew Haley, head of books and manuscripts at Bonhams, who said: “We have seen Antarctic photographs and artefacts rocket in value over the past decade, and my sense is that climate change and images of shrinking ice shelves are increasing interest in earlier records of polar regions, with greatest focus on the south.” Estimated at £4,000-6,000, Herbert Ponting’s image The Freezing of the Sea, taken in 1911 on Scott’s last fatal expedition, which we pictured last month, went on to sell for £19,000. The artwork for the front cover of The South Polar Times (CB392) produced on Scott’s 1901-4 expedition did even better, fetching…

objects of desire

MARIQUITA PRINT It can only be one yacht with that sail number – and what a stunner she is. This appealing shot of Mariquita is one of a series of classic yacht prints for sale by Mindthegap. £TBC mindtheg.com WIND ROSE COMPASS The Nautical Company produces this handsome compass with a colourful wind rose design, in red, navy and green, presented in a quality wooden gift box, “a beautiful gift for nautical enthusiasts”. £54 thenauticalcompany.com PERSONALISED DECK SHOES New deck shoe brand Wuzzos is offering a branding service so you can have your boat name, sail number, initials, company name or even your skipper’s name embossed on a pair of high-spec, leather deckies. The hot-foil emboss can be overlaid in silver or gold or left natural to provide a dark, burnished finish. £15 extra on the price…