ff496 | The Flying Fifteen Blog

More news from Dovestone Sailing Club .

After having such a good time at both Burton open & Hayling Island classic’s last year with Mick Sholes in No 419 “True North” yet another fifteen rescued by my long time mate Dave Naylor) I knew I was going to miss her. what a super boat she had been to sail,

I spoke to Dave about doing a joint venture, something special, to enjoy in our old age and I began looking.

We found “Flute” No 496 in Hastings in September 2010. A Souter built hull, fitted out by one Norman Newall a boat builder from the Isle of Wight, as a special order for a Major Oliver Stuart in 1962. She had no spinnaker chute, a massive mooring stanchion sticking out of the foredeck as she had spent the summers moored off Seaview sailing club at the Eastern end of the Solent. She was still heavily Anti-fouled and retained her original white painted finish she had when new. All the fittings were of the original Tufnell type suggesting she had not been used for a good many years. If anyone can fill in its history please let us know

Once we got the paint off her we found some beautiful wood, It would be a shame to cover that up with paint we thought.

All the decks have had to be replaced although the ash stringers were like new. The side deck’s were single ply and just pulled off to be replaced with 3 layers of 3 mm to 4 mm mahogany veneers & a lot of work done on the hog around the keel area. A buoyancy tank built into the front and a spinnaker chute fashioned . We finished her, hurrying over the last few weeks and sailed her in her 1st race on the date of her 50th birthday on the 6th of June.

Some 1200 hours have gone into her, And guess what? She is a “Lovely” boat to sail with no vices at all.

Flute & True North will be at the Llangorse classic, just hope the sun is shining.

Rod Rowlands