Albert Strange 29 ft Gaff Yawl 1920 - Sold

For lovers of elegant small yachts combining artistry with practicality perhaps no other designer embraced this genre like Albert Strange. His boats were simple in concept yet sophisticated in their detail; practical and moreover capable of handling the worst of weathers. Albert Strange was designing yachts in the period in which the Yachting World was focussed on big yachts with many crew. His enthusiasm however was for vessels accessible to those of more modest means – and that could be sailed single handed.

From 2004 to 2007 VENTURE was totally rebuilt by boat builder and Albert Strange aficionado Jamie Clay; her restoration to the highest standards and seemingly regardless of expense. This is an incredible yacht in near perfect condition; beautiful, brave, businesslike – and without any pretence.

VENTURE has a very particular place in the already special Albert Strange story. She was the last design to be completed before his death in 1917 and one of the most successful - spawning a copy and three longer cousins built up to seventeen years after she was first launched by Albert Wooden of Oulton Broad, Norfolk in 1920.

For her commissioning owners, Great Yarmouth timber merchants HJ and ND Suffling, she was the result of much thought - including illustrated discussion in the prominent yachting journals of the day - into the perfect single hander, an ability that was honoured during a major restoration by Jamie Clay Boatbuilding for her present owner.

After two seasons of sailing east coast of England waters she was sold by the Sufflings to the west coast of Scotland and has remained based on Celtic seas; Scottish or Irish, ever since. She was notably owned for over thirty years by prominent Clyde Cruising Club member Ian Taggart, who first introduced her eventual restorer to VENTURE's enduring charm and beauty, and ability as a thoroughly seaworthy, sea kindly, easily handled and comfortable fast cruiser.

VENTURE's meticulous restoration completed in 2007, and great care in storage, sees her fit to sail well into her second century.

- Iroko keel, stem, stern post and counter timber
- Carvel planking 70% pitch pine original retained and 30% new larch at restoration
- Copper riveted to steamed oak frames (20% original)
- Other fastenings of copper or bronze
- Laminated iroko floors replacing original iron
- Additional laminated iroko half frames in way of engine
- Teak laid deck
- Covering board outer edge sits proud of topsides.
- Nibbed king planks on oak beams with oak lodging and hanging knees
- Teak toerail with tapered teak capping and open taffrail
- Teak cockpit coaming
- Teak coach house with composite 9 mm plywood / 5mm teak laid roof
- Solid teak laid fore hatch
- Original lead keel bronze bolted
- Protective brass coping to outside of stem

From aft
- All metal deck fittings of bronze by Colin Frake
- 2 x Closed bronze fairleads at counter
- Mizzen sheet block bronze pad eye, bronze mooring cleat
- Wallas galley stove mushroom exhaust
- Bronze mainsheet horse with stops and served bronze shackle traveller
- Solid oak tiller under mainsheet horse with bronze tiller head and teak deck fairing
- Mainsheet block bronze pad eyes either side of horse
- Teak chocks for boom crutch feet at covering board in way of mainsheet horse
- 6 x Toe rail scupper drain openings each side
- Teak cockpit coamings tapered to trunk cabin sides with radiused aft corners
- Gromet through aft coaming for mizzen sheet lead to bronze cleat on inner aft coaming face
- Self draining cockpit; 4 x drains
- Hinged hatch aft vents counter and accesses engine and cooker exhausts, and rudder tube
- Hinged / double hinged teak benches each side accessing stowage / equipment spaces under
- Water tank fwd port;
- Fuel tank and primary fuel and water strainer filters fwd starboard
- Spinlock ATCU winch handle socket-type engine throttle control to stbd
- Open stowage under side decks with fiddle
- Whale Mk 5 manual bilge pump forward port
- 2 x Water tight solid teak faced cockpit sole locker lids access engine, batteries and drive train
- Fore and aft cockpit bulkheads of V grooved teak lining
- Forward bulkhead with recessed companionway
- Grooves for multiple washboards and bronze tank vent fairings in fore-and-aft lining of recess
- Bronze headsail sheet cleats at outside of coamings
- Bronze ST headsail sheet winch each side of coaming on fashioned solid teak capped plinth
- Meissner Bronze ST headsail sheet winch each side of coaming on fashioned solid teak capped plinth
- Bronze running backstay Highfield lever with teak deck protection piece each side
- Associated bronze swivel mounted wire handling turning block in covering board forward
- Decorative carved name boards each side of coach roof
- Oval glass port light each side of coach house with bronze running lights forward
- Composite plywood / laid teak varnished coach roof with solid laid teak sliding companionway hatch
- Non-opening skylight with bronze glass protection bars
- Bronze pad eye between hatch and skylight
- Teak grab rail each side of margin board.
- 3 x Bullseye fairleads straddling covering board to first plank seam P and S for the 2 headsail sheets
- Combined cleat / eye forward and a further bullseye fairlead
- Bronze combined cleat / eye halyard fittings either side of main mast aperture
- Large lift-off solid teak laid and varnished fore hatch over forepeak / head
- Bronze anchor lashing fittings starboard foredeck
- Muir Atlantic Freefall 1050 anchor windlass with horizontal chain gipsy
- Oak Sampson post with copper chafe protection and bronze pin
- Bronze gammon iron with anchor chain / mooring rope rollers each side

General
- Companionway and the fore hatch access to the interior
- White painted bulkheads and deck head finish contrasting with varnished beams and joinery
- Raw teak 2 step companionway ladder to galley

Galley
- Sideboard to port with copper circular sink inset in teak top
- Brass manual plunger fresh water pump fed from cockpit tank
- Brass sink waste pump
- Double door stowage under
- Side deck LED down lighters
- Louvred door in port aft bulkhead to electric switch and breaker panel behind; radio above
- Corresponding starboard sideboard with hinged foldaway teak top surface
- Wallas Safe Flame diesel hob also operates as a fan heater with lid closed
- 2 x Drawer stowage under
- Side deck LED down lighters
- Louvred door in aft starboard bulkhead reveals Beta Marine engine panel
- Forward engine space under cockpit accessed by sliding ladder to one side removable panel
- Access via aftermost grated teak sole board to bilge sump
- Electric and manual bilge pump strum boxes; plastic sea cocks for engine cooling and galley sink
- Attractively teak-capped semi bulkhead fwd
- Step down forward to saloon

Saloon
- 2 x Full length settees berths with white-piped burgundy acrylic covered cushions
- Slatted bases and stowage under
- The port settee ends forward in a trotter box beneath a shelf / bookshelf locker fwd
- Grab handle worked into starboard aft corner of the shelf
- Space between this locker and the fwd bulkhead available for a hanging locker
- Varnished teak trunk cabin sides with teak trim to oval ports
- Teak lifting sole boards
- Open slatted seat back / hull lining
- Fine joinery finish and detailing throughout
- LED deck head lights fore and aft of non-opening skylight
- Double-hinged folding louvred doors access hatch to head / forepeak
- Step up and through bulkhead hatch

Large head compartment
- Jabsco Par WC on varnished teak plinth, piped via inlet and outlet vacuum valves each side
- Blakes bronze sea cocks
- Forward to chain locker abaft stem-stepped Sampson post
- Horizontal windlass motor in deck head above
- Space for lightweight gear stowage forward of Sampson post

Sloop-headed gaff yawl with Bermudan mizzen and jackyard topsail to original design
- Bobstay bronze hull fitting bolted through stem at waterline
- Bronze external chain plates worked neatly into covering board edge and toe rail
- Spars by Jim Byam Shaw with bronze fittings
- Douglas Fir main mast and boom
- Spruce mizzen mast and boom, topsail yard and custom headsail furler
- Bamboo jack yard; lead balanced
- Ash bowsprit
- Stainless steel 7 x 19 traditional hand spliced rigging by TS Rigging
- Ash blocks by Colin Frake

Sails by Mark Butler of James Lawrence in Clipper cloth
- Bermudan mizzen with one reef
- Gaff mainsail with two reefs
- Jackyard topsail
- Roller jib
- Heavy weather jib setting to stem head using otherwise stowed to mast forestay
- Synthetic tan coloured three strand running rigging

- Beta Marine 14 13.5 HP Diesel engine
- Traditional drive train
- Darglow Featherstream feathering three-bladed propeller
- 1 x 12V engine start / domestic battery
- 1 x 12V domestic battery
- Diesel tank believed Vetus plastic
- Primary fuel filter unknown make
- Water tank believed Vetus plastic
- Vetus plastic cooling water strainer

- Raymarine GPS Plotter: model TBC
- Raymarine RAY 54E VHF DSC radio
- 2 x LED down lighters in galley
- 2 x LED deck head lights in saloon
- Forepeak lighting TBC
- Port and starboard navigation lights at coach roof
- Lopolight combined tricolour and all round white navigation lights at masthead
- Mast / stern navigation lights TBC
- 2 x Handsets for anchor windlass

A meticulous, well documented and publicised complete rebuild / restoration was carried out by Jamie Clay Boatbuilding at Maldon, Essex, England, from 2003 – 2007, during which the lead keel, stem, 70% of hull planking and 20% of timbers were saved according to sound criteria.
Published drawings - found to be very accurate enabled the general arrangement; especially the trunk cabin, cockpit and rig details to be restored to very close to the original appearance.
The attractive trunk cabin appearance was restored from the drawings as the original had been replaced and discarded in the 1960s. The effect has been achieved by giving each beam a different camber.

The 14 ft / 4.3 m overall length of the cockpit coaming and trunk cabin teak boards was achieved during the restoration by purchase of a log specifically for this purpose.

VENTURE was sailed on post-launch trials in 2007 at Maldon, and very lightly on the west coast of Scotland, following which she has been very carefully and successfully laid up under the care of Ardfern Yacht Centre.