The last time a Vertue crossed the starting line of a race in Plymouth Sound was when Cardinal Vertue did so at the start of the Observer Singlehanded Transatlantic Race in 1960. Cardinal Vertue in 1960 Her skipper, David Lewis, embarked on many further extraordinary seafaring adventures all over the world. Cardinal Vertue later completed an astonishing single-handed circumnavigation of the Southern Ocean, south of the three great Capes, under Bill Nance's energetic command. Ten years earlier Vertue xxxv had been driven hard across the North Atlantic, against the prevailing westerlys, by Humphry…Read more

The first green leaves are uncurling from within the brown buds on the trees outside my window, urged on by the warm spring sunshine. I'm ashore for a bit of a refit just now, awaiting some new plumbing to the ticker, and dreaming of fair winds and blue seas............ like this lovely photo of the Tegra sailing up the Sir Francis Drake Channel off her home port of Nanny Cay, Tortola. So, I'm afraid today's Newsletter will be rather short. ________________________ I've always had a particular admiration for the gaff-rigged Vertues, as regular…Read more

Welcome to our fourth Newsletter this year! MERRY CHRISTMAS! A SPECIAL AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND FEATURE! In 1962 Bill Nance worked his way into Fremantle aboard Cardinal Vertue under jury rig, after 'running his easting down' from Cape Town and losing some of his mast on the way. It was one of the most audacious passages ever completed with a Vertue, although what happened to him and the boat next was not the proudest moment for the Australian bureacratic machine. By that time, at least four other Vertues were already afloat on the…Read more

Vertue News continues to be sent from many corners of the globe and I am pleased to be able to report on a varied selection of boats this month. Of the three early 'classics' I feature, I'm afraid one of them may be in terminal decline. However, I also have good news of two 'ocean' Vertues, and updates about a trio of boats from the 1960's. Finally, I can report on another three Vertue II's, including one of the strip-planked boats which is now based in Captain Cook's old home port of Whitby,…Read more

First of all I want to thank all those kind fellow Vertue enthusiasts who have been in touch with news and updates from all four corners of the globe once again. I can't do this without you, it's as simple as that! Meanwhile, as you can see when you search the BOATS section on the toolbar above, we have now updated the boat descriptions right up to the low V130's: real progress, at last! The Adriatic Fleet of Vertues in Trieste This Newsletter is the third consecutive 'Quarterly' edition and I'm planning to…Read more

Many Vertues are now over 50 years old so it's a pleasure to be able to report on the current project to restore one of the older boats, Grace. She is shown above enjoying a brisk sail. Following on from the somewhat controversial refit of Andrillot recently I can now also report that a real, gaff-rigged Vertue, Fionn, has come onto the market on our own East Coast. We also return to South Africa for the story of 'The Baby Boat', Vertue Carina and her remarkable voyage to Denmark. Finally we visit the…Read more

Andrillot as originally drawn When Jack Laurent Giles was commissioned to design the little 5 tonner that was to become Andrillot he had lifted the lines, studied, and raced aboard the old French pilot cutter Jolie Brise. He also knew the British, converted pilot cutters such as Saladin and the old, transom-sterned Dyarchy, owned by his friend Roger Pinkney. By then he had also designed the little 23' Isabella, the first of a small fleet of about 17 'Lymington L' class dayboats, that were found to be ideal for a bit of racing…Read more

TALE TELLER IN SOUTH AFRICA Here in our Island Kingdom, off the northwest coast of continental Europe, it is the shortest day of the year, amidst the gloom of the pandemic and the uncertaintly of our relationship with neighbouring countries. So what we need is a bit of colour, light and cheerfulness, and where better to look than SOUTH AFRICA! So this Newsletter has become a kind of South African Vertue Feature! We don't get to hear much sailing news from that area of the world and it was only a chance tip-off…Read more

Virtue Fidelis, seen here, is a very special boat. She was commissioned by Stanley Glanfield in 1951 just when a committee of experts were looking for special exhibits for the forthcoming Festival of Britain in London. Her builders, Stebbings, of Burnham on Crouch, must have been delighted when she was chosen to be one of those outstanding exhibits to illustrate the best of British craftsmanship. She was launched as Festival Vertue. Since then, she has had very few owners, and is now based in Dartmouth where she has been racing in Start Bay…Read more

I am delighted to report that WoodenBoat Magazine have just published a completely new article about The Vertues in their July/August 2020 issue Number 275. Their commission last autumn enabled me to spend some serious time going back over my years of archives, and extending them to improve our understanding of how these tough little yachts developed. I have also spent time researching the context of their evolution and putting forward what influences Jack Laurent Giles might have been aware of when the first boats of the class were conceived. I'm tempted to…Read more