Cass is a Holman & Pye design from the early 1970s, whose build was a remarkable labour of love stretching over 20 years. Nigel Sharp reportsPhoto: Nigel SharpI used to do a lot of skydiving,\u201d Simon Mitchell told me. \u201cWhile you\u2019re still in the aircraft you have options but, once you leave the door, gravity takes over and you hope you make a safe landing at the bottom. But you can\u2019t guarantee it.\u201d
\nHe likens the process of completing Cass, his blue-hulled 40-footer, to \u201cfinancial skydiving\u201d. But while with skydiving it\u2019s the landing that\u2019s tricky and the falling that\u2019s supposed to be fun, in Cass\u2019s launch, although the process might have been painful, the end result is, as Mitchell puts it, \u201can extraordinary statement of craftsmanship which needs to be told.\u201d
\nIn the early 1990s, house builder-turned-boatbuilder Barry Cass was keen to buy a 1968 Holman & Pye design called Negomi (later renamed Cerinthe) but another buyer got there first. He instead decided he\u2019d build another Holman & Pye boat, from a design originally conceived as a fast family cruiser for the Walker family to self-build.
\nThe Walkers did so in Ayrshire, completing their yacht in 1975 and naming her Saboo. Cass was to begin his build at the other end of the country: putting up a purpose-built shed on some friend\u2019s land just outside Truro, Cornwall, and work on the yacht started in 1998.
\nSlippery and well mannered, Cass is right at home in Falmouth\u2019s Carrick Roads. Photo: Nigel Sharp
\nFor the first couple of years, Cass employed a local boatbuilder, who carried out the majority of the work on the hull. But from then on he was working largely single-handedly, and unsurprisingly progress was slow. Cass took a great deal of care in meticulously sourcing the best quality timber and other materials, and occasionally recruited friends to help with specific jobs like riveting, but also spent long periods of time away from the project doing paid work. By the early part of 2012, he decided that he\u2019d had enough and that it was time to look for someone else to complete the project.
\nAt that point the boat consisted of a 4\u00bd tonne lead keel; a complete hull with an iroko centreline, agba strip planking and laminated oak frames; iroko and cast bronze floors; beam shelf, deck beams and carlins in Douglas fir; and a ply sub-deck.
\nArticle continues below\u2026<\/p>\n
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The partially-built yacht was put up for sale with Peter Gregson at Wooden Ships. Some discussions with a potential client led to drawings for an alternative gaff yawl rig being commissioned, as a replacement for the Holman & Pye-designed masthead Bermudan yawl rig on Saboo, but nothing further came of it.
\nHowever, in 2015 Simon Mitchell, a former Royal Navy pilot who now runs an aviation company flying VIPs and heads of state in helicopters around the world, was looking for a boat to buy, having previously owned the 1911 Paine Clark double-ender Lora. Repeatedly browsing the Wooden Ships\u2019 website he couldn\u2019t help thinking Cass\u2019s boat would be a good project for the right person but that person wasn\u2019t him \u2013 the timing just wasn\u2019t right for his career.
\nPhoto: Nigel Sharp
\nOut of retirement
\nThen in early 2016 Mitchell went to see the boat with his old friend David Bentley, who\u2019d recently retired after working as part of the management team at Pendennis Shipyard for over 25 years. Bentley could see the partial yacht had been well built so far, and Mitchell realised the boat represented a \u201conce in a lifetime opportunity to do something really special,\u201d even though, he admitted, \u201cI had no idea how I was going to pay for it or how it was going to work out.\u201d
\nBut Mitchell did have two key factors on his side. The boat could stay in its custom shed until completed, and he had two highly experienced boatbuilders who were happy to work on the boat: Bentley himself and Nick Byatt, another recently retired long-term Pendennis manager.
\nNeither, however, had used their tools professionally for about 30 years, though Bentley recalls that it all \u201ccame back quite quickly\u201d. Initially they planned to work on the boat for a couple of days a week, though they ended up doing four or five, and they also occasionally brought in other former Pendennis colleagues.
\nThe cockpit and deck layout was designed to let the owner sail the boat solo, and allow novice guests to enjoy the view without getting involved. Photo: Nigel Sharp
\nDeck construction was completed with the addition of the coachroof. This was made up of teak coamings, laminated meranti deck beams, Douglas fir planking with ply laid over it and then sheathed in epoxy fibreglass. It was done to the same design as Saboo but with the addition of a traditional skylight. \u201cI had one on Lora and loved it,\u201d said Mitchell, who got hands-on with the coachroof construction.
\nThe cockpit was enlarged slightly compared to the original design with the seat margins in teak, and planking in agba that had been salvaged from the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal on which Mitchell had served for a couple of years and which was scrapped in 2011.
\nWhen it came to the interior, Mitchell says he was \u201creally keen to ensure that we looked at everything that makes a boat work as a good sea boat. In particular I wanted a good wet locker, well thought-out stowage areas, and good access everywhere to make sure everything could be maintained.\u201d
\nCelebrating a job well done: Simon Mitchell (nearest camera) and Jack Gifford (at wheel) sailing Cass. Photo: Nigel Sharp
\nExperienced eyes
\nBentley and Byatt spent many hours mocking up each area of the yacht and it was here that their wealth of experience really came into its own. The result is, from aft: a galley to port in a snug seaworthy space outboard of a fore-and-aft half-height bulkhead; a chart table to starboard; a pilot berth and settee\/berth each side of the saloon; a heads compartment; and a forepeak with a berth offset to starboard and an infill to port to make it into a double. The internal joinery is in European oak with white painted bulkheads and utile soles.
\nAround the time that Mitchell took on the project, Jack Gifford established his own marine design studio in Falmouth and Mitchell became his first client. One of Gifford\u2019s first jobs was to help specify the engine, a 45hp Yanmar 4JH45, and design the engine beds. \u201cGetting this massive lump down in the tuck of the bilge took a bit of thinking,\u201d Gifford recalls.
\nEuropean oak interior joinery with laminated hanging knees. Photo: Nigel Sharp
\nThe boat is also equipped with a Mastervolt management system and inverter; an HEM watermaker; a Leesan electric toilet; fuel, fresh water and black water tanks by Henderson Plastics; a Webasto warm air heater, with one of the outlets in the wet locker; and LED lights throughout, including inside most of the lockers.
\nSit back and relax
\nMitchell was particularly keen that the deck fittings and rig should both look aesthetically pleasing and be simple to use, so that the boat was suitable for short-handed, even occasionally single-handed, sailing. \u201cI wanted a boat on which people don\u2019t have to help unless they want to,\u201d he explained.
\nThis resulted in a slightly enlarged cockpit with the mainsheet track moved aft of it; and a single-masted fractional cutter rig with swept-back spreaders and no running backstays, a foretriangle height and overall sail area about the same as Saboo, and a mast height almost 2m taller.
\nBy coincidence, Gifford also knew Saboo\u2019s owner, who was able to give him invaluable information regarding his boat\u2019s behaviour under sail in various conditions, and this helped him develop the new sail plan.
\nThe coachroof was modified to allow installation of a traditional skylight. Photo: Nigel Sharp
\nMitchell and Gifford specified Antal for most of the proprietary deck fittings, Facnor Flat Deck furlers for the headsails, Eurospars for the spars and Penrose Sailmakers for the sails.
\nMeanwhile the custom deck fittings such as the stanchion bases (all of them different to match the changing angle of the toerail), the stem head fitting and winch plinths were produced by another former Pendennis Shipyard employee, Sam Coltman, and by local fabricator Sandy Creadon at Seaweld.
\nJust as preparations were being made to launch the boat, the first Covid lockdown saw the yacht literally put under wraps. When eventually launched at the end of June 2020 she was christened Cass, \u201cin appreciation of Barry\u2019s ingenuity and dedication,\u201d said Mitchell.
\nOriginal drawings had a pilot berth outboard of the chart table, but Cass has a larger navstation with more room for electronics. Photo: Nigel Sharp
\nWell mannered
\nThe result is hugely pleasing. \u201cI knew she\u2019d sail well but wasn\u2019t prepared for just how good a sea boat she is,\u201d Mitchell told me before we took her for a day cruise, \u201cshe sails brilliantly.\u201d
\n\u201cShe seems quite slippery,\u201d adds Gifford, \u201cThe fully battened main gives her a lot of power off the wind: when you bear away she really takes off.\u201d
\nMitchell freely explains that Cass cost him considerably more than he was expecting, but he was determined to do the boat justice.
\n\u201cRepeatedly it was a question of having the guts to do what was right for the boat and resist the temptation to save money,\u201d he said, \u201cand now I keep seeing things which remind me of that and make me happy about the decisions I made.\u201d
\nCass specifications
\nLOA: 13.10m \/ 42ft 5in
\nLWL: 9.14m \/ 30ft 0in
\nBeam: 3.58m \/ 11ft 9in
\nDraught: 1.90m \/ 6ft 3in
\nDisplacement: 12.2 tonnes
\nSail area: 108.8m2 \/ 1,270ft2<\/p>\n
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The post The story of Cass: a yacht that was 20 years in the making appeared first on Yachting World.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cass is a Holman & Pye design from the early 1970s, whose build was a remarkable labour of love stretching over 20 years. Nigel Sharp reportsPhoto: Nigel SharpI used to do a lot of skydiving,\u201d Simon Mitchell told me. \u201cWhile … <\/p>\n