''Lulworth'' is a racing yacht that was built in
Southampton
Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...
in 1920.
The Big Class
The boat's name comes from
Lulworth Castle
Lulworth Castle, in East Lulworth, Dorset, England, situated south of the village of Wool, is an early 17th-century hunting lodge erected in the style of a revival fortified castle, one of only five extant Elizabethan or Jacobean buildings of ...
, which belonged to her second owner,
Herbert Weld, whose grandfather was a charter-member of the
Royal Yacht Squadron
The Royal Yacht Squadron (RYS) is a British yacht club. Its clubhouse is Cowes Castle on the Isle of Wight in the United Kingdom. Member yachts are given the suffix RYS to their names, and are permitted (with the appropriate warrant) to we ...
. The ''Lulworth'' (1920) was built by the White Brothers' Yard for Richard H. Lee, who wanted a racing boat to compete in the premier yachting league in Europe: the British "Big Class".
Shortages in the supply of premium spruce after World War I meant that ''Lulworth''s original lower-mast was made of steel instead of wood. This constraint handicapped ''Lulworth'' greatly, leaving her trailing older, more famous Big Class racers like
Thomas Benjamin Frederick Davis's
Herreshoff-designed schooner
A schooner ( ) is a type of sailing ship, sailing vessel defined by its Rig (sailing), rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more Mast (sailing), masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than t ...
''Westward'' (1910), ''
HMY Britannia I'' (1893) and
Sir Thomas J. Lipton's
Fife-designed 23mR ''Shamrock'' (1908).
Her
gaff-rigged
Gaff rig is a sailing rig (configuration of sails, mast and stays) in which the sail is four-cornered, fore-and-aft rigged, controlled at its peak and, usually, its entire head by a spar (pole) called the ''gaff''. Because of the size and shap ...
sail plan
A sail plan is a drawing of a sailing craft, viewed from the side, depicting its sails, the spars that carry them and some of the rigging that supports the rig. By extension, "sail plan" describes the arrangement of sails on a craft. A sailing c ...
was updated several times to no avail, until
America's Cup
The America's Cup is a sailing competition and the oldest international competition still operating in any sport. America's Cup match races are held between two sailing yachts: one from the yacht club that currently holds the trophy (known ...
naval architect
Charles Ernest Nicholson
Charles Ernest Nicholson, OBE, RDI (12 May 1868 – 26 February 1954) was a British yacht designer.
Biography
He was born in 1868, one of four sons and six daughters of Benjamin Nicholson (1828-1906), also a yacht designer, and the original Ni ...
redesigned the rig with a wooden lower-mast and adjusted the keel balance. By 1924, ''Lulworth's'' flaws were corrected and she became an accomplished racer in all subsequent seasons of the Big Class: from 1920 to 1930, she took part in 258
regattas
Boat racing is a sport in which boats, or other types of watercraft, race on water body, water. Boat racing powered by oars is recorded as having occurred in ancient Egypt, and it is likely that people have engaged in races involving boats and ...
, taking 59 first places, 47 of which were after 1924.
Obsolescence and revival
The 1930 America's Cup saw the arrival of the innovative
J-Class designs that made all gaff-rigged yachts obsolete. Despite The ''Lulworth's'' early successes against the J-Class ''Shamrock V'' (1930) before the America's Cup, handicapping rules in the Big Class were ended and ''Lulworth's'' racing career was over. In 1947 ''Lulworth'' was saved from the scrap yard by
Richard Lucas and his wife Rene. She was taken to Whites Shipyard for restoration and mud-berthed in the
River Hamble
The River Hamble in south Hampshire, England, source (river), rises near Bishop's Waltham and flows for through Botley, Hampshire, Botley, Bursledon, and Lower Swanwick before entering Southampton Water between Hamble Common and Warsash.
The ...
where she served as a
houseboat
A houseboat is a boat that has been designed or modified to be used primarily for regular dwelling. Most houseboats are not motorized, as they are usually moored or kept stationary, fixed at a Berth (moorings), berth, and often tethered to ...
.
In 1990 her hull was shipped to Italy in hopes of a refit. In 2001 she was bought by Johan J.M. van den Bruele a Dutch yachtsman who owned a mall shipyard for classic boats in Viareggio. A meticulous renovation was started in 2002 which saved 70% of her furnishings and 80% of her steel frames. The sail plan from 1926 was replicated to recreate ''Lulworth's'' rig, which features the world's tallest wooden mast. She was relaunched in 2006. ''Lulworth'' immediately re-entered racing competition and subsequently won a ''
Boat International
Boat International Media is a luxury lifestyle publishing company based in Wimbledon, London. The company publishes the magazines. ''Boat International'' ''Boat International US'' Edition and ''Dockwalk''. It runs the websites ''boatinternational ...
'' Award for the "Best refit of 2006".
''Lulworth'' is the world's largest gaff-rigged cutter.
Image:Tramonto_Imperia-Oneglia.jpg, Vele d'Epoca Imperia, 2006
Image:Sailing-yachts.Tuiga.Lulworth.Cambria.Cannes.2006-09-26.jpg, Regates Royales, 2006
See also
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List of large sailing yachts
This article lists active sailing yachts of and upwards in length. This list features vessels with sails which were classed as yachts when they were launched as well as any vessels which were subsequently converted to operate with sails and re-cl ...
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Yacht racing
Yacht racing is a Sailing (sport), sailing sport involving sailing yachts and larger sailboats, as distinguished from dinghy racing, which involves open boats. It is composed of multiple yachts, in direct competition, racing around a course mark ...
*
Comparison of large sloops This article lists the largest active privately owned single-masted monohulls in excess of 130ft (39.6m) in overall sparred length. Parameter list
Name: currently registered identification of the vessel
Year: year of launch of the vessel
Shipyard: s ...
Citations
References
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Iduna, the restoration of a classical Dutch yacht, Andrew Rogers, 2004.
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lulworth
1920s sailing yachts
Sailing yachts built in the United Kingdom