Description
Virtue V 61, was built of steel in the Netherlands in 1954. She is still kept there and lovingly maintained by Ben Deveson who runs a very interesting website vertue61.wordpress.com
Virtue is unmistakeably a real Vertue but along with a very few sister-ships her thickened ‘wale’ or sheerstrake is replaced by a steel rubbing strake, which beautifully accentuates her lively sheer.
Virtue has a robust steel hull but her deck structures and accomodation are all finely varnished mahogany, and she is kept in fine shape.
When Virtue was built by Hitters & Proost in 1954, she was followed by a sistership the following year called Sarcelle. She is believed still to be afloat in the Netherlands. (See Sarcelle V 64)
A third metal-hulled Vertue was much more recently built in 1996. Luana V219, was built in aluminium, to Laurent Giles drawings, by Jachtbau Otto Kuenemund in Germany.
Here are two fascinating photographs of either Virtue, or her younger sister ship Sarcelle, under construction. All the photographs in this section of the website have been kindly supplied by her current owner Ben Deveson.
Virtue moored in her local cruising ground in the Netherlands. She is a serious-looking cruising boat.
Specification
- Laurent Giles design No: 226
- Builder: Hitters & Proost, Den Bos, Netherlands.
- Launch Date: 1954
- Hull Material: Steel
- Deck: Steel
- Engine: Yanmar 2 GM
- Ballast keel material: Lead
- Doghouse: Long
- Cockpit: Short
- Berths: Five
- Rig:
- Mast:
- Heads'ls:
- Backstay arrangement:
- Home Port: Badhoevedorp
- Current Owner: Ben Deveson
- Contact details:
- Email address:
- Other comments: Virtue was the first steel Vertue to be built, in 1954.