Whilst all the other articles in my 'Martin's Articles' section on this site have been written by me, I have include this one written by Mike Fellows firstly because 'Belinda' is almost identical to my first cruising boat 'Tawnie Yeck' (the only difference being that Belinda is 4 years older and Tawnie Yeck had a dog house and Belinda does not have one).  The other reason for my including Mike's article on my site is that I think it is a remarkable story that he and various friends restored her from such a sorry state to her present pristine condition in just two months.  'Belinda is now 54 years old and looking really beautiful as you will see from the photographs below.

Mike and I have not met, but he emailed me just after buying Belinda because he found amongst Belinda's papers that a sister ship had been built called 'Tawnie Yeck'.  Keen to communicate with someone who had owned or perhaps still owned an identical boat, he googled 'Tawnie Yeck' and found my home page which showed a photograph of her and a brief history of the time that I owned her.  Mike emailed me and told me that he had just bought Belinda and would be interested to know how Tawnie Yeck sailed and my general opinion of her.

I replied singing her praises and asked Mike if he could send me some before and after photographs and if possible a description of the refit that he was about to start. Mike has done exactly that, in just two months, and I am very grateful to him.  Martin.

YACHT ‘BELINDA’S’ RE-BIRTH

I sold my steel 28 foot Van de Stadt cutter rigged yawl called ‘Kes’. She had served me well and kept me safe for ten years, she had taken me singlehanded around the UK, to Holland, Scotland’s West Coast, the Orkney Islands and many more ports and harbours. I felt that I had done everything that I had wanted to do with her and it was time for a reluctant parting of the ways. I sold her to a nice guy in Arbroath Scotland and delivered her there for him to enjoy.

So was that the end of my sailing? Not really, as I could get any amounts of sails on yachts sailing out of Hartlepool marina, and yacht deliveries. I thought no more bills, no worries, no maintenance, ideal!

I suggested to my wife Rose that we buy a touring caravan, with the intention of visiting some of the fantastic ports that I had sailed into with Kes. We looked around and purchased a caravan plus a new car to pull it and that’s where the story should have ended, but it had just started!

I was over Hartlepool marina chatting to the yacht broker that had sold Kes and he mentioned a yacht that was possibly for sale. Its mooring fees hadn’t been paid for some considerable time and it had been neglected for at least five to seven years. Her name was ‘Belinda’ I immediately recognised the name from about fifteen years ago when I had a Tyler 22 called ‘Duet’ and a guy called Ken had a 22 foot yacht called ‘Belinda’. Ken was a pilot boat skipper and he kept ‘Belinda’ in pristine condition, and I had always admired her. She looked like a proper little ship not one of these plastic tubs.

I went to the pontoon where she was berthed; in fact she had given birth to two young seagulls that were nested on her stern deck. She also looked a bit low in the water judging by her boot line. I managed to get on board, fighting off the protective gulls and found that she had water in the cabin above the floating floorboards, not a good sign! I eventually managed to pump the water out and got inside. She really was in a sorry neglected state both inside and outside. I decided to leave her for a couple of days then go back to see if she had filled with water again.     

I went back after about three days and opened her up, there was a bit of water in her but I put it down to rainwater as she didn’t have a self draining cockpit and it just went straight into the bilge. I plucked up some courage and mentioned it to Rose; I had told her that I wouldn’t be getting another boat in the foreseeable future.  We both went down and went aboard, Rose thought she was very pretty and that she would be prepared to give me hand to do her up, (this was a definite first, Rose doesn’t particularly like boats and certainly isn’t keen on sailing on the North Sea. This was the first boat that she had offered to help with, a great sign)

On 1st August 2009 I went to see the broker and we negotiated a price, I organised a lift out and a survey. I was still worried about the state of the hull, was it rotten, and was the boat beyond repair. She was lifted out and jet washed off, there were things growing on her that Jack Coustou had probably never seen before. The survey was carried out and she passed with flying colours, the sea cocks required changing and really that was about it apart from cosmetic work.  So the deal was struck and ‘Belinda’ was now mine, she was taken into the boat yard and put in a cradle ready for the hard work to start.
          
A bit of history of ‘Belinda’ – she was built in 1955 by R. A Hamper boat builders of Fareham Hants. She is a small mahogany on oak carvel planked cruising yacht classed as a Hamper 3 1/2 Tonner, having dimensions of LOA 22ft 6 inches, Beam 7ft and a Draft of 3ft 6inches. Approximately eight were built, a sister ship called ‘Iolaus’ formerly known as ‘Folly’ which is probably identical to ‘Belinda’. Another yacht built a bit later and with a dog house on called ‘Tawnie Yeck’.

She had had a few owners before Ken took her on, he sailed her for quite a number of years before selling her for a larger boat. From then on she was neglected and untouched by a varnish brush or anything else for that matter and was moved from pontoon to pontoon ending up alone with only the seagulls interested in her as a nesting place.

6th August 2009 I pressure washed off the hull and she was put in a cradle. From the 8th to 14th August I began the work of rubbing down the hull; giving her three coats of primer followed by three coats of white marine gloss, three coats of anti foul and three coats of blue boot line paint. Her hull now looked pristine once again and people thought that she was a fibre glass boat, the hull looked that fare.

16th to 23rd August I started on the inside, the rubbish was stripped out and dumped in the skip I could then change the sea cocks, rub down and varnish the inner hull and the rest of the woodwork. She was now beginning to look like a boat again. The Baby Blake toilet was removed as it was completely seized up ;  (back to bucket and chuck it) the engine and sink sea cocks were removed and replaced with ball valves. The coned heads valves were stripped and re-seated, just in case I do refit a toilet in the future.

The engine (a Yanmar 8hp single cylinder) was freed and the Morse controls removed freed off and adjusted, a new battery was purchased so the engine and re wiring can be carried out by my mate Joe, he’s more into technical things than using a paint brush. I informed my mates that if they wanted a sail in her then I expected a few hours of their time to scrape varnish etc, to which they all agreed.

26th August we dropped the mast using the marina boat hoist and stripped the old rigging etc off. New rigging had been ordered but in the mean time there was a lot of varnish stripping and re-varnishing of the mast to do. After stripping I applied six coats of a micro porous varnish (I had used this on Kes and it had stayed good for eight years) then refitted her new rigging, new nav light, radio aerial/ wind indicator and strobe light (had one on all my boats, great in fog or just to make other ships aware of you). Wednesday 9th September I shared a crane with a couple that were dropping a mast and raised Belinda’s mast; she now looks like a boat once again. A big thank you to every one that helped in that  tricky operation!

5th September I was now doing the toe rail; rubbing strake, cabin sides etc before being put back in the water. I also repainted the bilges in a cream colour which are an improvement on the mucky red colour that they had been.

8th to 14th September I rubbed down filled and repainted the inside cabin roof, this was a painful job especially in the forepeak, getting a six foot body, paint tin and brush into quite a small space then painting upside down. Trying to get the brush into the paint tin was a major job, and then getting the paint from the tin to the roof was even harder. By the time I’d finished I looked like a huge flock of sea gulls had shit all over me, I was covered in white paint but luckily I had covered up any part of Belinda that may have got splashed!

19th September, I applied the final coating to the cabin sides and cockpit coaming, four coats of the same micro porous varnish that I had used on the mast; it would have been great to have had her in a shed or barn that was free of dust as opposed to outside. But having said that, she’s looking very pretty once again. The inside looks like a skip again; full of tools, paint, varnish and spare parts waiting to go back on. Norman a good friend of mine is going to re glass fibre the coach roof then apart from the teak deck the outside’s finished.
   
Tuesday 22nd September, myself and Stu (a mate) removed the hose to the water pump and connected a hose pipe in its place to give me cooling water to the engine. This was a big moment, starting the Yanmar 1GM engine (hopefully) after lying idle for so long. Water on! The engine was turning but not firing which was probably due to the cylinder being dry. Checked for fuel and bled the engine, and tried again, there was plenty of smoke then a hesitant cough and she fired up. Checked for cooling water, there was none coming out? So it was off with the water and we stripped down the cooling system, firstly checking the impeller which seemed ok (I will change that once in the water) then we removed the various hoses which were all blocked up solid with salt crystals. They were all cleaned and reattached then I back flushed the engine with water to flush it out. Tried again and success she ran like a dream and surprisingly quiet for a single cylinder engine.

October1st rubbed down and re-varnished the cabin sole, cleaned and re-glued the loose teak decking (a temporary measure) refitted the berth cushions after Rose had washed them several times. Gave her another coat of anti foul and tidied her out a bit. She now looked like a boat, inside and out and was ready to go back in the water. I booked the hoist for the following day and hopefully at 11.45 on the 2nd October she will be afloat again.  

October 2nd and it was re-launch day.  Daryl, Rose, Sara & Martin came to see her being re-launched.  Daryl supplied a bottle of champagne to celebrate the occasion.  She was taken in the hoist slings from the boat yard to the launching area and gently lowered, but not before the champagne was splashed over her bow and the rest splashed down our throats. Then it was into the water with me and Daryl on board. I lifted the cabin sole to check for any water ingress, it was tight as a drum, not a drop of water showing. The engine was started and once free of the slings I took her out astern and turned her round then headed for her new home on pontoon C berth C21. We tied her up and Rose, Sara and Martin joined us for a look around her.  I was then left on my own to tidy up and play about with the mooring lines as a severe gale warning was out for later on with winds expected to reach 60+ mph, which they did.

Everything was battened down and a cover put over the cockpit (it’s not self draining, so any rain water ends up in the bilges).  I’m going to get a proper fitted one made for the cockpit area. Next week I’ll set up the rigging and hank on the sails, check the wiring and a 1,000 other jobs, but she’s getting there and looking very pretty into the bargain. 

Belinda back in the water, but there is still quite a lot of work to do to bring her back to her former glory.  Now the real journey begins!! 

Mike Fellows

Mike,

Thank you so much for your story of Belinda's refit, and for all the before and after photographs. Loading your story on to my site has brought back so many memories of 'Tawnie Yeck' who I sold 23 years ago and only because I wanted to start a sailing school and needed a bigger boat. 'Tawnie Yeck' means 'Little Bird' in Romany, she taught me an enormous amount in a very short time. Her engine was a petrol Stuart Turner and was extremely unreliable, firstly because it was 27 years old and secondly probably because I didn't really understand it.  It would stop without any warning and the only way to get it going was to take the carburetor to bits and clean it, I got this down to less than 5 minutes, but often the engine would stop at a critical moment such as a harbour entrance or whatever and so it was essential to have a plan B and even C!  This made me into a much better seaman and one that never relied on the engine.

In addition to Tawnie Yeck having a Dog House, she also had a bulkhead between the fo'c's'le and the saloon, with a curtain to give a little privacy when sitting on the heads, which was situated between the two fo'c's'le bunks. Privacy was however limited only to the lower half of the body because it was only possible to carry out this operation with the fo'c's'le hatch open and the shoulders and head being above deck level!  An inscrutable facial expression was necessary on these occasions to prevent people on boats moored nearby realising what the lower half of the body was actually doing!!

I sailed the entire length of the English channel with her and across to France and the Channel Islands.  Close-hauled with her tiller lashed she would sail herself beautifully.  My last cruise with her was from Poole to St Katherine's Dock in London. I had a crew from Poole to Portsmouth, but he had to go home at the end of a week sitting in Port Solent with gale force winds in the channel, I managed to persuade another friend to come down to Port Solent and join me. With him I got as far as Brighton, more bad weather held us up there plus Christmas day was that week, so we both went home for Christmas leaving Tawnie Yeck at Brighton, my friend couldn't join me after Christmas so I decided to conitinue alone.

My passage to London from Brighton took three days, with a stop at Ramsgate and another anchored just outside the Medway river.  I remember it as being the most enjoyable cruise that I have ever done. I enjoy the company of friends acting as crew, but this trip is engraved on my memory, entirely on my own, with no GPS or Decca, just my trailing log for keeping my EP up to date and my handbearing compass and an ancient echo sounder to fix my position when I got the opportunity. Following about 3 weeks of gales, I had high pressure and light winds all the way, it was very cold but I enjoyed it immensley.

With very best wishes and my thanks for your excellent article.  Martin.