We ask top sailors and marine industry gurus to choose the coolest and most innovative yachts of our times. Tom Cunliffe nominates Lady Belle\u201cIt\u2019s 50 years since my wife and I were beating down the West Solent in our first tiny yacht and saw a cloud of sail running in from seaward,\u201d say Tom Cunliffe as he recalls his first sight of Lady Belle.
\n\u201cShe was smaller than we\u2019d imagined but, being a gaff yawl with every stitch set, she\u2019d looked bigger than she was.\u201d
\nShe proved to be Lady Belle, a Falmouth quay punt built by Harley Meade in 1909.
\n\u201cDuring our far-off youth we lived in a wooden-boat community on the Hamble River. Lady Belle became a part of this.
\n\u201cWe always lusted after her and when she came up for sale half a dozen years ago, my daughter and her husband bought her.
\n\u201cSo, still on the Hamble, she puts to sea with a young family, teaching two lively lads the ways of the sailor.
\n\u201cLady Belle came home to us after half a century. How cool is that?\u201d
\nLady Belle stats rating:
\nTop speed: 7 knots
\nLOA: 8.5m
\nLaunched: 1909
\nBerths: 4
\nPrice: \u2018Not for Sale\u2019
\nAdrenalin factor: 20%
\nTom Cunliffe
\nTom Cunliffe is one of Britain\u2019s leading writers on sailing and the sea.
\nHe is an authority on classic yachts and has sailed his own to destinations as diverse as Brazil, Greenland, the Caribbean and Russia.
\nHe and his wife, Ros, sail their American cutter, Constance.<\/p>\n
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The post World\u2019s coolest yachts: Lady Belle appeared first on Yachting World.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We ask top sailors and marine industry gurus to choose the coolest and most innovative yachts of our times. Tom Cunliffe nominates Lady Belle\u201cIt\u2019s 50 years since my wife and I were beating down the West Solent in our first … <\/p>\n