Buchanan 49 ft Bermudan Yawl 1962 - Sold

SPEEDWELL OF CREMYLL, very much alive and well almost 60 years after her birth, is testimony to all that was good about the very best of British yacht design and building in the 1960s both aesthetically and structurally (she was built under survey to Lloyds Register's highest 100A1 classification), to the well-proven benefit of few changes in ownership (she has had only two), and to the fact that such a moderate-sized vessel can be owned, maintained and sailed under loving and dedicated family care.

Her ease of handling under sail can simply be attributed to the benefits of the yawl rig: in particular sailing in a blow easily, comfortably and safely under "jib and jigger" - self-tacking staysail and mizzen. It helps too that her present owners gave her that most aesthetically pleasing and yet highly practical of mainsail stowing systems, the "Dutchman".

It also helps that as well as designing a superbly strong and, of course, strikingly good-looking vessel, Alan Buchanan blessed her with enchanting and practical accommodation. Her raised level doghouse is a dedicated, separate yet connected space, as practical for passagemaking with its handy quarter berths and navigation area as it might be thought fun by kids to commandeer as their own cabin. Her athwartships galley, and 4-burner cooker - a rarity even in much larger yachts - serves directly forward to a generously dimensioned saloon, offering thoughts of delightful culinary evenings afloat among friends, with the charcoal stove adding comfort early and late season. And her generous forecabin with its proper companionway is far enough forward to offer a feeling of comfortable separation.

SPEEDWELL OF CREMYLL is ready to comfortably and practically enchant you over seas near and far.

The 49 ft / 15 m fast cruising yawl SPEEDWELL OF CREMYLL is a master class in moderation and proportion from designer Alan Buchanan, and a masterpiece of wooden yacht construction by Mashford Brothers of Cremyll, Plymouth – all at the top of their game when she was launched in 1962 as a 21st birthday present for Philip Debell Tuckett.

49 ft yachts didn't pop out of moulds in those days, and they were rarely built in series. The unique care and love that went into commissioning such a vessel included advance purchase of two huge teak logs, satisfying a desire for the long plank lengths and matching deck joinery that have helped preserve her shape and looks for almost 60 years so far. She was to be built to Lloyds 100A1; only the best would do.

After 19 years of fast cruising - including entry, under charter to Royal Marines officers Captain Ewen Southby-Tailyour and Lt. Dillon, in the Royal Western Yacht Club's 1970 two-handed Round Britain [and Ireland] Race - in 1981 she was loaned to the Island Cruising Club, Salcombe.

There she joined their fascinating flotilla of fine yachts available for use by members, including the 54 ft / 16 m Mylne / Fife cutter IRINA VIII and the 56 ft / 17.2 m de Vries Lentsch ketch LUCRETIA. It was from here in 1993 - or more correctly at the yard of her original builders where she'd always wintered - that her present, and only her second owners purchased SPEEDWELL of CREMYLL and sailed her north to a new life on the west coast of Scotland where she's been cherished and cared for as the family yacht for 25 years.

- Built under survey to Lloyds 100A1 (no longer classified)
- Teak planking copper clenched / bronze screwed to grown oak frames
- 3 x steamed Canadian rock elm timbers copper clenched between each pair of grown frames
- Painted topsides; carved and picked-out coving with finial detailing
- Bronze butt plates
- Iroko wood keel, stem, stern post and associated longitudinal structure
- Lead ballast keel, bronze bolted
- Galvanised and galvanised fastened strap floors to all frames and timbers
- Galvanised and galvanised fastened hanging knees and mast partners strengthening
- Extra beam shelf and clamps in way of main mast
- Mahogany rudder; bronze stock and hangings
- Propeller aperture, part in sternpost part in rudder
- Teak laid deck nibbed to varnished teak king plank; varnished teak covering boards
- Teak cockpit, trunk sides, hatches, sliding hatches and raised forehatch
- Non slip painted plywood cabin tops
- Teak raised toe rail, flush to hull planking, fashioned to radius

From aft
- Fashioned taffrail at counter supporting 2 x bronze fairleads; walker log and flagpole sockets
- Galvanised cheek chainplates for mizzen running backstays and spinnaker sheet blocks
- Stainless steel raked pushpit with teak boarding ladder and outboard stowed, GPS antenna
- Athwartships fastened bronze mooring cleat
- Teak lazarette hatch
- 4 x bronze Laurent Giles Highfield levers for running backstays
- Well type cockpit with seating and bridge deck being extensions of the deck
- Varnished teak cockpit sole gratings
- 2 x Large cockpit seat lockers with solid teak lifting lids and cushions over
- Exhaust pipe runs through port locker to gate valve
- Teak cockpit coaming extending aft of mizzen with outer capping overhang
- Teak sheet cleats at outer face of cockpit coaming
- 6 x Sheet winches on teak pedestals
- Aft and forward: 2-speed H & M Engineering, aluminium drums; believed original
- Mid: newer 2-speed chromed bronze Lewmar 58 ST with alloy jaws, for mainsheet
- Jammers for mainsail slab reefs at forward port coaming fairing with trunk side
- Bronze steering pedestal with leathered, power coated wheel; rod / track rod steering system
- Stainless U bar with teak housing for Robertson instruments; autopilot; throttle; plotter; stowage
- Original bronze rudder stock head and clamp fwd of mizzen for emergency or return to tiller steering
- Sestrel steering compass in white alloy housing
- Engine start stop at cockpit well side to starboard of wheel
- Helmsman's seat, not fastened to deck
- Munster Simms plunger type bilge pump at bridge deck
- Galvanised and leathered teak two position boom gallows
- Garaged sliding teak hatch and teak double doors access to companionway
- Sprayhood over companionway hatch
- Bronze stanchion bases with bronze-topped stainless steel stanchions and double lifelines
- Lead blocks for yankee furling fastened to stanchion bases
- Yankee sheets lead to winch via toerail top block on sliding track
- Galvanised rollers at covering board for wire mainmast running backstays
- Varnished teak-sided, non slip white painted plywood-roofed cabin/ doghouse trunk
- Raised doghouse part has 2 x large bronze framed lights per side and oval opening port light forward
- Raised doghouse part: 2 x grabrails; 2 x large Simpson Lawrence brass Dorade cowls/ boxes
- Lower level has 2 x bronze framed lights per side
- Teak butterfly skylight with brass glass protection bars at lower level coachroof
- Chocks for life rafts and dinghy; line leads; heater flue at lower level coachroof
- Mast aperture forward of cabin trunk with painted plastic Dorade vents on teak boxes to sides
- 2 x Gas bottle stowage cut-outs between these Dorades
- Deck prism to port for WC compartment
- Teak rope retaining/ breakwater coamings each side from cabin trunk to forehatch house
- Padeyes for staysail boom sheeting
- Raised teak forehatch house with garaged teak sliding hatch; hinged washboard with latch
- Dorade/ tool box forward of forehatch with brass Simpson Lawrence cowl
- Port foredeck stowage for 60 lb / c 27 kg CQR bower anchor and c 35 lb fisherman kedge
- Starboard foredeck stowage for 35 lb / c 16 kg CQR spare anchor
- 2 x Bronze mooring cleats leading from 2 x bronze fairleads set into toerail
- Newall Petticrow Torkmaster hydraulic windlass with chain and rope gypsies and manual backup
- c 60 m x 10 mm galvanised plain link anchor chain
- Galvanised, stainless steel and bronze lever release inner forestay system
- Bronze topped traditional sampson post with brass chafe protection
- Bronze protection to flattened toe rail forward of mooring fairleads
- Galvanised stem head fitting incorporating forestay chainplate and 2 x anchor/ mooring rollers
- Stainless steel pulpit

General
- Accommodaton for 8 in three cabins
- Companionway and forehatch access to accommodation
- Split level accommodation with raised sole level in doghouse
- Step down to athwartships galley, saloon, wc and hanging lockers in passage to forecabin
- Finish is a mix of varnished teak structural and mahogany joinery; white painted bulkheads
- White painted deckhead; doghouse and cabin trunk deck beams varnished
- Teak sole boards and hatches
- Original in-period electric lighting throughout including bunk reading lights

Doghouse
- Access via three steps companionway ladder
- Large forward facing chart table offset to port, engine box under
- Folding stool
- 2 x chart drawers under
- Batteries under chart table to port of engine space
- Semi bulkhead forward: engine panel, electric switches, radar monitor, instrument repeater, VHF
- Stowage for misc traditional navigation equipment including Sestrel hand bearing compass
- Chart reading light
- Barometer and ship's bell
- Horizontal grab rails at trunk sides
- 2 x Quarter berths with open stowage under and open slatted hull lining
- Breaker panel at head of port quarter berth
- Whale Gusher 10 bilge pump
- Oilskin locker to starboard in offset to stbd passage to galley
- Access to engine from above by sliding chart table towards port quarter berth
- Access to engine from starboard side panel
- Access to engine sea cock and strainer and under sole
- Access in cockpit bulkhead and doghouse sole to diesel tank, cockpit drains, drive train and calorifier

Galley
- Step down via offset-to-stbd passage from doghouse
- Food stowage and deep built-in lift lid cool box to starboard
- Worksurfaces athwartships with 1½ inset stainless steel sinks
- Swivel taps for salt water and pressurised fresh water
- Sink waste pump out
- Gimballed Broadwater Marine gas cooker with 4 x burners, grill and oven; raised pan fiddles
- Gas valve outboard
- Pan, utensil, kitchen roll, plate and cup stowage outboard and at aft ceramic tiled bulkhead
- Starboard part of work surfaces dismantles to access engine space forward

Saloon
- 2 x Pillar grab rails at semi bulkheads between galley and saloon
- Folding and gimballed table with fiddles and bottle stowage under
- Traditional 2 x settee and 2 x pilot berth arrangement with passage forward offset to starboard
- Leather cushioned settees with stowage under and behind seat backs
- Leather cushioned pilot berths with hinge-up upholstered lee panels, doubling as settee back rests
- Open slatted hull lining and bookshelves at pilot berths
- Horizontal grab rails at trunk sides
- Bengco stainless steel charcoal heater and flue at port forward bulkhead on ceramic tiled panel
- Forward trunk mounted oil lamp, ship's clock and barometer
- Starboard settee ends forward with sideboard with drawers under; press outboard
- Butterfly skylight with Highfield single action adjustable catches
- Oil anchor light swinging under skylight
- Passage forward to starboard of mast

Head compartment to port
- Blakes forward facing toilet with Blakes seacocks outboard
- Corner sink unit with mixer tap
- Shower with brass rail and curtain
- Double door locker outboard
- Vanity shelf
- Deck prism
- Large double door hanging locker opposite head to starboard
- Passage via sliding door forward

Forecabin
- Alt access by forehatch and seven step ladder
- Raised fore hatch house offers standing headroom and light
- 2 x Single berths in Vee configuration with midships bench seat forward; stowage under all
- Varnished hull interior structure
- 2 x Brass and wood framed netting folding shelves; oars and boathooks stowed at port shelf
- Mirror on cabin side of sliding door
- Owner constructed removable bulkhead to forepeak

Forepeak
- Access by ventilated lift off panel in bulkhead
- Rope stowage
- Original/ emergency laminated tiller stowed to starboard
- Spare helm wheel
- Chain locker
- Deck head access to windlass hydraulic pipes

Cutter-headed Bermudian yawl rig
- Through-deck keel-stepped 2 x spreader Sparlight original aluminium main mast
- Aluminium main boom believed newer
- Separate track for trysail at main mast
- Through-deck counter timber-stepped 1 x spreader and strut Sparlight mizzen, and boom
- Bronze bar handle type halyard winches at both masts
- Kemp kicker / vang strut
- Stainless steel standing rigging with bronze bottle screws and toggles to steel chain plates
- Stainless steel running backstays to both masts; bronze Laurent Giles “Highfield” levers
- Koden radome, Firdell radar reflector and VHF antenna at mizzen
- Spruce staysail club boom on detachable inner forestay

Current working sails by Owen Sails
- Mizzen
- Slab reefing mainsail using Dutchman self-stowage system
- Self tacking staysail on club boom
- Masthead genoa on Profurl roller furler
- Modern cordage running rigging
- Storm jib, light weather headsail, trysail and mizzen staysail

- Perkins 4.236 75 HP naturally aspirated Diesel motor, 1986
- 7 knots at 2,000 rpm
- Forced draught ventilation to engine and battery space
- Vacuum valve riser to beside chart table
- Traditional drive train via hydraulic gearbox to fixed three-bladed propeller
- 4 x 12 V batteries spit to two banks
- 2 x Alternators
- Hydraulic pump at engine forward for anchor windlass
- Electrical switch and breaker panels at chart table and port quarter berth
- Electric fog horn
- Calorifier heated by engine
- Stainless steel Diesel fuel tank under cockpit; gravity feed; c 50 gallons / 230 litres
- S.S water tank under saloon sole; wing tanks under aft of settees; Total c100 gallons / 450 l

- Garmin GPS Map 235 Sounder plotter at helm
- Robertson Dataline instrument readouts at helm
- Robertson Autopilot controls at helm
- Icom M59 non DSC VHF at chart table
- Koden MD3400 Radar - believed inoperable and due for replacement
- Nav lights: bicolour at pulpit; stern at pushpit; main mast steaming and tricolour / anchor
- Clock and barometer in saloon; barometer at chart table
- Sestrel steering compass at helm

- Gas shut off at head and at galley and gas alarm
- Engine space fire extinguisher, not automatic
- Fire extinguishers throughout
- Fire blanket beside cooker
- Munster Simms manual plunger type bilge pump at bridge deck
- Whale Gusher 10 manual bilge pump in doghouse
- Electric bilge pump with float switch
- 6-person Life raft
- Flare pack under starboard quarter berth

As is often typical in a yacht so well designed structurally and well built from fine materials under Lloyds 100A1 survey, that remained in-class for around 30 years, and has had only two owners in almost 60 years of life - SPEEDWELL OF CREMYLL has never undergone restoration, but has always received regular maintenance and attention to what has needed done.