A Fascinating History
I thought members might be interested in the following:
Over the last few weeks I have been fortunate to be part of an email exchange, predominantly between Jim Crow and Trevor Spero, giving an insight into Stella Lyra’s history. Jim emailed me as General Secretary in the first instance wondering if I would be interested, which of course I was!
Here is an abridged version of the exchange.
I thought you might like to know some history about Stella Lyra in the 60s which might be of interest to the Association or the present owner. She was ‘ in the Army’ and owned by the Royal Signals Yacht club from around 1963 to 68.As a young Royal Signals officer my posting was changed at the last minute before leaving Malaya on return to UK.I was relieved to learn in April 1966 that instead of going to the Outer Hebrides, my wife and I who had been married 3months earlier in North Borneo, were going to Blandford in Dorset. There my main secondary duty was to act as the Royal Signals Yacht Master and look after Stella ,moored a few miles away in Poole Harbour and to teach keen young soldiers the delights of offshore sailing where Stella was used as the sail training boat for soldiers on Adventurous Training. Many a time I arranged weekend cross channel trips from Poole to Cherbourg for 4 or 5 budding sailors. I had been fortunate to have become involved with offshore sailing while at Sandhurst and also Singapore where we ventured out into the South China sea. The army was fortunate to have a spare and very large garage at Blandford Camp in which to house Stella for overwinter maintenance, housed in a custom made cradle. As far as I remember she was sold in 68 to two chaps- from where I have no idea ,as she was not really big enough for the intended role. Coinciding with her sale and after much deliberation and visits to Camper and Nicholson at Portsmouth, we took delivery of a brand new Nicholson 32. My good friend and fellow officer who took over my responsibilities, much later went on to design and oversee the building of a steel hulled cruiser in Oman. He and his wife then sailed to the Far East and after many adventures now live in Phuket. I have been over to see them several times. With best wishes, Jim Crow
Many thanks for that fascinating piece of Stella history. Do you mind if I put it up on our website? I wonder, do you have any contemporary pictures?
Best regards,
Peter Dyson
SCA General Secretary
Thanks for your quick response. No problem about the website. If you’d like to hang on a day or two I’ll see what I or my chum Tom Scarff might have in the way of photos.
Best regards,
Jim
Thanks Jim. I’m happy to wait a while to see what you can come up with. From memory I think she is owned by Trevor Spiro currently so I’ll forward your email to him in the meantime – he’ll be fascinated.
Best,
Peter
My chum and I have found a few photos of Stella Lyra when she was doing good stuff for the Royal Signals Yacht Club while based in Poole Harbour.
I’m afraid they’re not very exciting being mostly of friends and family aboard Stella when there were no soldiers aboard, taken in 1966 or 67. By then we had countersunk the ‘Plessey’ waterproof plug on the deck providing power to the mast headlight and installed a cockpit dodger
There is a single image of Stella under engine in Poole Harbour channel, on her way back to her mooring with me at the helm. At that stage we still had the rigid dinghy which was soon to be replaced by an inflatable one thus saving deck space.
You might also note the bosun using an RDF compass which was the height of navigational technology in those days. This meant we relied on admiralty charts, binoculars, books of UK south coast and French Channel harbours, and local knowledge.
Please use them as you wish.
With best wishes
Jim
Many thanks for that – a real “period piece”! I’ve forwarded them to Trevor, the current owner and will get something posted on the class website.
Best, Peter
Hi Trevor,
I hope you are well. I’ve had a couple of fascinating emails from Jim Crow concerning Stella Lyra so am forwarding them to you. I’ll do a cut and paste job and put them on the website if you’ve on objections.
Best,
Peter
Hi Peter,
Very pleased to have been of assistance to you all. I hope Trevor can give the old girl an extra polish up on behalf of Royal Signals.
Incidentally I now live in NE Hampshire but bought our first house in Black Notley near Braintree in 1970. There was a village shop with an earth floor and there were still gas lamps at the railway station.
Time marches on.
Best regards
Jim
Dear Jim & Tom,
Delighted to hear from former carers of Lyra and I did know a little about her history. I am attaching below some copies of the registration Certificate which I am sure you will find interesting and also am p-age of Nina Croads Diary which is amazing as she rebuilt Lyra whist working as a shipwright at the Elephant Boatyard. She sailed her single handed most of the time and cruised everywhere.
She talks of the origins of ownership and use by the Royal Signals.
She had a narrow escape in the Channel Islands when she hit a rock see photo. I do have the full description in her log and will try to find it and copy to you.
I have cared for Stella Lyra for nearly 17 years and I think she has survived very well and still looks brilliant and attracts a lot of attention. It is hard work to keep a wooden boat looking good but I am lucky to have a boat shed in our factory complex so she spends the winter under cover and can be worked on in any weather. She is nearly always ready for launch April 1st.
Lyra now has a brand new spinnaker, main and No1 which has made her very fast again and we only race her and don’t cruise. The Jowett Jupiter is my other classic!! It matches Lyra really well.
Kindest regards and hope you get the photos etc. okay. Trevor.
Dear Trevor,
Very many thanks for the documents and the wonderful photos. I like the coloured spinnaker ! She looks in wonderful condition! The jag’s pretty good too.
The comment about possible being abandoned by summer 70, after we sold her doesn’t entirely surprise me. The two chaps who came to Blandford to view her in the big shed, and make the purchase were clearly not very experienced sailors, if their conversations were anything to go by. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’d had a lovers tiff…..
Pity about the holing off Alderney- always a tricky place to get in to etc.
Brig Smith-Windham would have been the Commodore of the RSYC at the time. We had other well-loved and well used boats. Firstly Pegasus, based at Gun wharf Quay in Portsmouth when it was still the RN ‘Gun wharf’ (it’s now a very smart shopping centre with flats nearby), and later at Kiel on the Baltic. She was a really good sea boat and both Tom and I have sailed on her but not at the same time as I remember. The attached photo shows a crowd of young R Signals Officers feeling very pleased with themselves have recently arrived in St Peter Port!
After Stella Lyra we also had a Nicholson 32 and then I can’t remember the next one.
With best wishes
Jim
Best,
Peter