This 60ft modern classic represents one man\u2019s exhaustive quest to build his dream yacht. Toby Hodges joins Mike Ludgrove for Helena\u2019s maiden sail Photo: Ian RomanIt was a picture postcard spring sailing scene as Helena heeled into the gentle breeze funnelling out of the grand, cliff-banked entrance to the River Dart in south Devon. Perched on a varnished teak seat abaft the wheel, one that he had tailor made to see over the traditional-shaped coachroof, Mike Ludgrove seemed comparatively at ease \u2013 which is quite astonishing, when you consider the emotional rollercoaster he must have been experiencing.
\nThis was Helena\u2019s maiden sail, a day that would culminate in his most euphoric high since embarking on this project 15 years ago. Ludgrove\u2019s story is one of determination, resourcefulness and bloody-mindedness. Helena is his magnum opus \u2013 not a life\u2019s work, but one that he has poured enough into to ensure she lasts many lifetimes.
\nThe 60ft plank-on-frame yacht is a true modern day classic, a West Country-designed and built yacht, and one of the last boats to be blessed by the design talents of the late Ed Burnett. She is formed from a resourceful mix of recycled materials, including teak decks from a Victorian cotton mill in India and lead from Exeter Cathedral, together with the finest hand-shaped timbers.
\nHelena\u2019s striking sheerline is reminiscent of a 1930s yacht. Pictured here off Dartmouth during her maiden sail. Photo: Ian Roman
\nHelena is the product of art, craft and sheer graft. Her scrupulous, perfectionist build required the sale of three apartments, a house and Ludgrove\u2019s business \u2013 plus a crowdfunding campaign. She is the 64-year-old\u2019s lifelong dream, \u201cbut she\u2019s had everything I own,\u201d he admits. Ludgrove describes her build as an \u201cact of madness\u201d. \u201cBe careful what you wish for. I never imagined it would take every penny I had, the business and three flats \u2013 and it did. Even our house.\u201d
\nI\u2019d joined Ludgrove and his family for Helena\u2019s maiden voyage, from Exmouth to Dartmouth, and the weather gods seemed to be rewarding the toil involved to get her here, by providing warm, calm conditions. To take a yacht out on its first trip of the season can be nerve-wracking enough, so it is hard to imagine the emotions involved during the first sail of a yacht that you have built entirely yourself over 15 years.
\nWhat was the moment Ludgrove had looked forward to the most? \u201cThis! Sailing her for the first time,\u201d he beamed, \u201cto feel the wind in the sails and the motion through the water. I began to wonder if this time would ever come.\u201d
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Following that golden first sail, I had the privilege of guiding Helena onto a mooring in the Dart. As we clinked teacups and settled into the cockpit Ludgrove had so painstakingly sculpted, only then could I see the undeniable pride in his eyes \u2013 and only then did he admit the relief he felt.
\nThe dream
\nLudgrove grew up in Bermondsey and describes the London docks as his playground. \u201cI was always going to have to own a boat or build a boat,\u201d he recounts with the East End still evident in his accent, despite living in Devon for the last two decades. Aged 12, he had the opportunity to sail with Lord Amory aboard his 77ft classic ketch Rona, which was run as a charitable trust to take sea cadets and deprived children out sailing.
\nHelena shows her worth as she slides handsomely through the green West Country waters. Photo: Ian Roman
\n\u201cIt underscored everything I did from that moment,\u201d says Ludgrove. \u201cEverything in my life has since been connected with boats and sailing.\u201d
\nHowever it was not until the turn of the century that Ludgrove\u2019s dream became a step closer to reality, when he enlisted on a boatbuilding course in Lyme Regis. He built a foam sandwich Fireball, his first active step towards constructing his own yacht, but didn\u2019t want to continue working with foam and glassfibre.
\n\u201cI wanted a sturdily built boat that you could sail around the world,\u201d Ludgrove continues. \u201cIt had to have the living quality that a wooden boat possesses\u2026 something that would look at home in the 1930s alongside a Fife or Mylne and be the equal of a boat like that.\u201d
\nBy this time Ludgrove and his wife, Elaine, were living in Devon and got talking to a couple of local wooden-boat experts, Howard Swift of Yealmbridge Yachts in Newton Ferrers and Ed Burnett, who lived in Totnes. Swift put the concept down and was involved with the early stages of build, while Burnett helped with the lines and the maths \u2013 down to drawing every single mast fitting in fact.
\nBurnett is described as one of the most gifted and intelligent modern classic yacht designers of our generation. He was part of the design team for the Queen\u2019s jubilee barge Gloriana and helped row it down the Thames in the 1,000-boat flotilla for the 2012 celebrations.
\nHelena was to be his final design \u2013 he visited many times during the early stages of the build, but died in 2015 aged 43, without seeing the finished product. It seemed fitting that we sailed into the river his office overlooked.
\nToby steers Helena into the Dart from a protected cockpit. Photo: Ian Roman
\nBoth Swift and Burnett had their own preconceptions for the project, which influenced the design. \u201cI wanted to finish it in four years and for an affordable price \u2013 \u00a3200,000 or so,\u201d said Ludgrove. \u201cBut Howard [Swift] said we could build a 60-footer just as quick for only a little more!\u201d
\nThey agreed on a classic, long-keeled design. \u201cEd wanted an elegant counter \u2013 and said it should have a bowsprit,\u201d Ludgrove recounts. \u201cIf you\u2019ve ever experienced a boat in a sea, he said, a sail on the end of a sprit draws a really good line.\u201d
\nIn contrast to many classic yachts, Ludgrove wanted an interior with comfortable spaces that could host friends and family for sociable occasions. Below decks is indeed a breath of fresh air. You expect such a traditional looking craft to be dark and somewhat pokey.
\nJoinerwork is in solid maple for an invitingly light feel. Photo: Richard Downer
\nBut a shallow companionway leads into a bright maple-finished interior. Ludgrove wanted it to be light enough to read a book below, so selected American rock maple \u2013 \u201cit\u2019s high in silicone so kills your tools,\u201d he reports, but the results are worth it, and the quality of joinerwork is exemplary.
\nThe marathon begins
\nThe Ludgroves were living near Totnes at the time Helena was being designed and were still running their caf\u00e9 and juice business. He put an advert in Farmers Weekly for a barn to use and got a call from a farmer who had an accessible barn near Honiton, Exeter, albeit with 1,000 tonnes of wheat still inside. \u201cA couple of months later, we had a contract, so I thought \u2018right, better start building!\u2019\u201d
\n\u201cThe first thing we had to do was create the biggest drawing board you\u2019ve ever seen \u2013 30ft x 60ft.\u201d This was used to draw out the body plan, sheer plan and waterline at full size. \u201cI wanted to loft out \u2013 it took a while to get the lines right, but you pick up discrepancies that way.\u201d
\nHelena\u2019s stem and frames take shape before she is planked up\u2026
\nLudgrove then brought the heavy equipment in, such as three-phase planers and saws \u2013 \u201cold fashioned, solid English machines, bought from companies going out of business.\u201d It was soon time to start laminating all the mahogany frames. \u201cWe made our own laminating jig,\u201d says Ludgrove \u2013 a four tonne machine for bending the frames, which he thinks produces a stronger result than steam bending timber.
\nLudgrove consistently refers to the build collectively, as a joint effort. But apart from friends and family occasionally helping with the heavy lifting stages, and Howard Swift in the early stages, the rest was just him, day in day out, year after year. Elaine was left to run their business. \u201cBut it was her idea that I build my own boat,\u201d Mike jokes, before adding more earnestly: \u201cEverything we had went into Helena \u2013 we bought no clothes, no holidays.\u201d
\nHours become years
\nBurnett insisted the build was bulletproof. \u201cEach plank was epoxied and stainless steel screwed to the one below and sheathed,\u201d Ludgrove explains, \u201cso the hull strength is massive.\u201d Rotating the hull was an enormous task, which nearly pulled the roof of the barn in \u2013\u201cI could see it bending!\u201d It was 2006, and, little did Ludgrove know then, but there was still a decade of fitting out Helena to go.
\n\u2026and later turned
\nAs the build tales continue, we move Helena from a swinging mooring to the visitor\u2019s pontoon in Dartmouth for the evening, to allow friends and family to board. While he clasps a well-deserved cold ale, I admire the swept decks Ludgrove has laid. The teak deck, it transpires, had originally been a cause of great financial concern, until a friend who runs a ship breaker business in Bombay told Ludgrove of a 19th Century cotton mill that was being broken up in India.
\n\u201cI was able to do the whole of the deck and cockpit with this proper thick rainforest teak,\u201d Ludgrove explains. The 7.5m planks were so heavy he had to set up rollers to move them and it took four people to put them through a cutting machine to get quarter-sawn, \u00bein thick planks.
\nHelena\u2019s ballast is another story of resourcefulness and hard work. Within her long keel lies 12 tonnes of lead, which once lined the roof of Exeter Cathedral. Having been given a hefty quote for the amount of lead he\u2019d need, Ludgrove decided to build a crucible, buy scrap lead and melt it into ballast himself. The Ludgroves were by this stage living in rented accommodation in Exeter and, after discovering the cathedral was being reroofed, found they were able to source the old lead.
\nAdding lead from Exeter Cathedral to the custom crucible\u2026
\nLudgrove built an insulated furnace and used propane bottles with flame torches and coking fuel to melt the lead. \u201cIt looked like Armageddon!\u201d his son-in-law Will Hoare remarks, having helped with the operation and documented much of the build.
\nDartmouth\u2019s dockside was by now teeming with tourists eating ice creams and fish and chips, many giving approving nods and comments directed at the lines and finish of Helena. Her topsides positively gleam.
\nLongboard sanding was the most thankless task says Ludgrove. \u201cWe spent months doing it but ended up with this lovely finish.\u201d He also vacuum-infused a layer of glassfibre above the topsides for durability. Achieving this level of finish for the paint he says was perhaps the hardest task \u2013 along with building an iron carriage from lorry wheels in order to move Helena out of the shed to allow a crane to get to her.
\n\u2026and fitting it to the keel
\n\u201cAlthough it [the build] has been joyful it\u2019s been an exercise in hardship,\u201d Ludgrove reflects. \u201cLife is difficult, but when it\u2019s difficult I\u2019m the sort of guy to try it. But I think this has cured me \u2013 I think I want it easy from now!\u201d
\nLudgrove built the spars himself but his challenge was finding enough room to do so. The farmer cleared another barn to allow Ludgrove to build his 70ft mast on the diagonal. He shows me the template he used, which involves 14 vertical sections, glued around a hollow centre and wiring conduit \u2013 \u201cthe maximum number of glue lines for the maximum amount of strength,\u201d he explains.
\nThe only parts of Helena that Ludgrove didn\u2019t build himself were the machinery, winches, sails, portholes, electronics and upholstery.
\nNo compromises
\nThe C-shape galley connects to cockpit and saloon
\nBut why did the build take so long? \u201cEverything had to be patterned and made with hand tools to fit exactly,\u201d Ludgrove replies. \u201cEverything had to be jointed. Every knee was made with a lapped joint to take the loads properly. It was perfectionist and obsessive.\u201d
\nThis precision mentality is arguably what led to Ludgrove pouring his worldly goods into the financial mix. \u201cWe sold the flat in London \u2013 that\u2019ll see it through, I thought. But then I wanted a Caterpillar engine, Andersen winches, a bow thruster \u2013 it all added up.
\n\u201cI couldn\u2019t compromise on the equipment,\u201d he admits. \u201cSo we began to dissolve the flats, the retail business I owned, then the property in Totnes\u2026 then the house in Exeter. It swallowed up everything.\u201d
\nLudgrove used to pattern every part in hardwood, in case he wanted to build a second boat. \u201cI took great pleasure in burning them all about three months ago \u2013 I just couldn\u2019t bear the though of someone saying \u2018come on, let\u2019s build another one\u2019!\u201d
\nCrowdfunding a classic
\nFinally the money pot ran dry and led to the difficult decision for Ludgrove to ask the public for funding through a crowdsourcing campaign to help get Helena from shed to sea. She was finished but still needed extracting from the barn, and to be launched and rigged with sails.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s not easy asking people for money,\u201d Ludgrove concedes. \u201cBut we were not asking for a gift \u2013 people can come for a sail.\u201d He was selling day sails. \u201cPeople were contributing because they just wanted to be part of the project. One person then offered all the money we needed.\u201d Both Hyde Sails and Naturalmat also provided heavily discounted equipment.
\nThe tall cutter-rigged sailplan harnesses the light breeze. Photo: Ian Roman
\n\u201cSo now Helena has to do something different to what was planned. We need to get her working and making money otherwise we\u2019ll have to sell her,\u201d Ludgrove explains. The layout and interior should help encourage guests and paying clients. The lion\u2019s share of the accommodation is reserved for the lovely, light saloon, with an open bulkhead connecting to the galley.
\nIt was Easter Friday when I joined Mike, Elaine, one of their sons, Henry, and son-in-law Will for Helena\u2019s maiden sail. Just two days later she left for Brest where she picked up her first charter. She then sailed across the bay of Biscay, rounding Cape St Vincent as we went to press, bound for Greece to do the Spetses Classics regatta with some Australian guests who\u2019d bought time aboard during the crowdfunding stage.
\nSo Mike and Elaine have begun a very different new life aboard Helena. \u201cI want people to enjoy the boat \u2013 that means a lot to me,\u201d Ludgrove confesses. \u201cIt\u2019s a life-changing thing to build this and a privilege. There\u2019s nothing humdrum about it.\u201d
\nRelief, pride and smiles: Mike Ludgrove finally helms the yacht he built entirely by hand
\nI can\u2019t help but wonder what has been the most rewarding part of building Helena. \u201cNow,\u201d Ludgrove replies without hesitation. \u201cWhen people say \u2018I love your boat\u2019.
\n\u201cI hope lots of people come sailing,\u201d he continues \u2013 and really means it. \u201cI want her to be a source of joy. That\u2019s what sailing\u2019s about.\u201d
\nSpecifications
\nLOA: 19.00m (62ft 4in)LWL: 13.23m (43ft 5in)Beam: 4.08m (13ft 5in)Displacement: 28,500kg (62,831lb)Sail area: 160m2 (1,722ft2)
\nFirst published in the July 2019 edition of Yachting World.
\nThe post Helena: The homebuilt labour of love that was 15 years in the making appeared first on Yachting World.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This 60ft modern classic represents one man\u2019s exhaustive quest to build his dream yacht. Toby Hodges joins Mike Ludgrove for Helena\u2019s maiden sail Photo: Ian RomanIt was a picture postcard spring sailing scene as Helena heeled into the gentle breeze … <\/p>\n