32 ft Berthon 8 Ton Gauntlet 1939/2014 - Sold

The Gauntlet Class's elegant and instantly recognisable lines, sturdy seagoing reputation, and jaunty air have endeared generations of yacht sailors who know a good thing. Most are still going strong, many have enjoyed restorations, but few with the finesse relatively recently applied to the 8-Tonner NAUSIKAA, once owned by author Graham Greene. The aim: to compliment the essential qualities above with accommodation in which a family could enjoy time aboard in comparative luxury: rare even on even a modern boat this size. The result is a success in our view, and moreover NAUSIKAA is no slouch, beating the entire fleet of the British Classic Yacht Club on corrected time in their 2014 Round the Isle of Wight race in often boisterous conditions.

Overseen by an independent surveyor

STRUCTURAL
- New stainless steel hanging plate knees around mast area
- New stainless steel plate floors fwd under berth
- All new floor bolts though planking
- One section of frame replaced due to decay
- Two feet section of stem head replaced due to decay
- New bronze stem head fitting and bow roller
- New bronze back stay fitting
- New bronze mast step

ACCOMMODATION
- All as fitted internal furnishings and joinery removed
- The hull on the inside striped back and painted
- All bulkheads made from top quality marine plywood clad with mahogany T&G
- All joinery made from mahogany, varnished, with joinery doors
- All bunk tops and other plywood made from top quality marine plywood
- New cabin sole made from oak
- Original clock and barometer refurbished

SYSTEMS
- All new electrics
- All new tanks and plumbing

ON DECK
- All original bronze fittings polished and re-used
- New standing and running rigging
- New spray hood and sail cover
- New stainless steel pushpit, pulpit and stanchions

Berthon Boat Company Yard No. 550

Berthon Boat Company's Harry G. May throwing down of the gauntlet in 1934 - a challenge to a client who had jilted his design for another boat - was the naming origin of a class that has become legendary in British yacht design and building. It was May’s GAUNTLET, drawn by in-house designer Rodney W. Paul, that was to prove the superior boat in the eventual contest. The subsequent Gauntlet Class, ranging in size from 8 to 26 tons Thames Measurement (a unit of volume rather than weight), became one of the earliest sail powered ‘series’ production cruiser/ racer types in British waters - and an intrinsically British classic.

NAUSIKAA was the second 8-Ton TM Gauntlet built by Berthon, the first being MITTEN of 1937, perhaps to be considered a 'stock boat' (or 'demonstrator' in modern parlance) as her first owner was none other than Harry G. May. NAUSIKAA's purchaser was local landowner and future Member of Parliament for the New Forest, (later Sir) Oliver Crosthwaite Eyre, a gift for his father, Major Jack Crosthwaite Eyre. As usual with yachts first launched in 1939, her destiny after one season was wartime lay-up, presumably with her builders. Not long after the war she was sold to E.J. Jeremy of Bournemouth, and in 1948 to Second World Water fighter pilot ace Wing Commander Alec Ingle, DFC, AFC, who was shot down four times and once captured an intact, just landed Nazi Focke-Wulf Fw190 fighter plane near his airfield after chasing it by car and holding up the pilot with his finger impersonating a gun.

Then in 1949 her ownership came full circle with purchase by author Graham Greene, who until 1948 had been a director at Oliver Crosthwaite Eyre's publishing house Eyre & Spottiswoode. Greene didn't have NAUSIKAA for long, but seems to have enjoyed some adventures with her on England's south and east coasts. However, by the 1950s, Greene's growing association with the film industry saw him cruising the Mediterranean aboard director Alexander Korda's 150 ton motor yacht ELSEWHERE. As Nic Compton wrote in his 2013 Classic Boat magazine story that broke the Greene and NAUSIKAA story: "sailing his own boat in England, it seems, didn't suit him quite as well as sailing other people's boats in the south of France".

There followed a series of short term ownerships:
- 1950-1953 R.H. Goddard (Ipswich) & F.W. Knight (London)
- 1953-1953 Mrs Diana L Spencer (London)
- 1954-1954 Mrs Diana Tylden-Wright (London)

Then in 1954 Dr Peter Burnett and his family's love affair with NAUSIKAA began and lasted for more than 40 years of cruising the south coast of England, and to Brittany and Scotland.

- 1994-2000 Stewart McDonald, Cowes
- 2000-2012 John Hutchings & Family (London/ Guernsey)
- 2012-2018 David Messum

It was London art dealer and serial classic yacht collector David Messum who undertook the extensive refit detailed above, having purchased NAUSIKAA in semi derelict condition with so many interior changes that little was original any more. In 2014, on her first outing to the Panerai British Classic Yacht Club Regatta she proved her worth in winning the Round The Isle of Wight Race from 29 starting yachts.

Under the most recent ownership of an experienced sailing family, during the 2019 and 2020 seasons NAUSIKAA has collected silverware at the Panerai BCYC Regatta, Cowes Classics and Cowes Spring Classics, and continued her 75 years of cruising the south coast of England. She's very ready for more.

- Teak hull planking
- Copper clench fastened
- Sawn oak frames with 2 x steamed rock elm timbers between
- Iron floors with bronze keel bolts and lead ballast keel of approx 3.5 tons
- Teak toe rail and capping
- Teak superstructure, coamings, fore hatch and cockpit joinery
- Iron floors with bronze keel bolts and lead ballast keel of approx 3.5 tons
- Oak deck and coach beams with galvanised iron hanging knees
- Stainless steel by mast
- Yellow pine deck fibreglass sheathed; non-slip painted.
- Marine ply interior bulkheads clad with T&G mahogany
- Mahogany interior joinery and doors
- Oak cabin sole

FROM AFT
- All teak deck joinery, bulwark and cover boards
- Stainless steel stanchions set in bronze bases and guard rail
- Gates amidships in the guard rails port and starboard

AFT DECK
- Bronze back stay fitting
- Stainless steel pushpit
- Bronze Panama fairleads
- Teak and bronze mooring cleats port and stbd
- Tiller steering
- Teak lazarette hatch with bronze mushroom vent

COCKPIT
- Varnished teak coamings and raw teak grating
- Engine controls stbd by helm
- 2 x Lewmar 40 self-tailing foresail sheet winches
- Engine instruments on cabin port side facing cockpit
- Teak trunk cabin sides
- Three chrome bronze opening portlights
- Traditional teak sliding companionway hatch
- Teak washboards
- Ash mainsheet block and sheave leading sheet to cleat to starboard
- Varnished teak cabin top grab rails each side
- 2 x Deck prism lights in coach roof
- 2 x Bronze foresail sheet cleats; one each side
- 2 x Prism lights in side deck
- Bronze deck mast step
- Bronze halyard winches on mast
- Bronze mushroom vent over head compartment below
- Teak framed fore hatch – slightly raised
- Prism light in foredeck
- Manual Moyle Marine period anchor windlass
- CQR anchor on bronze deck mounts and chain
- Teak mooring cleats and bronze Panama eyes
- Bronze stemhead fitting with bow roller

GENERAL
- Accommodation for 4 in 2 x cabins
- Well-lit, warm ambience
- Good headroom under trunk cabin
- Separate, full-beam head compartment accessible from both
- Tongue & groove bulkheads; white painted deckhead; contrasting mahogany joinery
- Varnished teak grab rails full length of trunk cabin sides
- 3 x Brass framed opening ports each side in the trunk cabin elevations
- 8 x Deckhead lights

FROM AFT
- Sliding hatch and demountable companionway ladder; 4 x steps down
- Panels abaft steps reveal the engine compartment

GALLEY TO PORT
- Hinge-down work surface over top companionway ladder step
- Large stainless steel sink; mixer tap
- Stowage lockers outboard and under
- 'Levante 2' gimballed stainless steel 2 x burner gas hob & oven (2014)
- Top loading portable refrigerator in open hanging locker to starboard
- Semi bulkhead forward

CHART TABLE TO STARBOARD
- Open hanging locker aft
- Full size chart table with lifting top for charts/ tools
- Ship's isolator panel, chart plotter and VHF radio in panel outboard
- Good sized lockers below
- Semi bulkhead forward

SALOON
- 2 x Settee berths with trotter boxes aft
- Stowage under settees; joinery lockers above and outboard
- High gloss table (stows in fore cabin)
- Bronze pedestal (stows in head compartment)
- Bi-fold doors forward

ATHWARTSHIPS HEAD COMPARTMENT
- Jabsco manual WC to port; lockers over
- Inset stainless steel basin unit to starboard
- Mixer tap/ shower head
- Lockers under and outboard
- Shower tray under lifting sole and pull out shower unit
- Separate doorway access to forward master cabin

FORWARD MASTER CABIN
- Lined with varnished mahogany open slats
- Berths can be either 2 x singles 'v' berth, or double with insert
- Fresh water tank under
- Forehatch to foredeck
- Bulkhead forward with joinery hatch door

FOREPEAK
- Chain locker

RIG
- Deck-stepped double spreader main mast believed Douglas fir
- Simpson Lawrence bronze halyard winch
- Fir boom
- Varnished spruce spinnaker pole
- Stainless steel standing rigging (2014)
- Mixed synthetic running rigging (2014)
- All ash cheek blocks for main sheet
- Genoa and halyard cleats at mast foot
- Headsail furler (2014)

SAILS
- All new 2013-2014; Sanders Sails, Lymington
- Traditionally hand worked, narrow-panelled, off white premium Dacron
- Mainsail with one reef
- Roller reefing mitre-cut genoa
- Spinnaker

CANVASWORK
- Mainsail cover
- Cockpit spray dodgers

MECHANICAL
- Nanni N2.14 2 cyl 13.8 hp / 10.30 kW Diesel
- 3 Fixed bladed propeller
- Morse type engine control in cockpit

ELECTRICAL
- 240 V Shore power
- 2 x 12 V batteries in cockpit lockers
- Alternator
- Battery charger
- Isolator/ switch panel at Nav station

TANKAGE
- Stainless steel fuel tank in cockpit locker starboard (2014)
- Stainless steel calorifier cockpit port side (2014)
- Stainless steel fresh water tank forward (2014)
- 1 x Calor gas bottle in lazarette locker

- Raymarine chart plotter
- Icom M323 VHF
- Sestrel clock and barometer

- Plastimo Crusader 4-person canister life raft
- Manual bilge pump
- Auto electric bilge pump
- Fire blanket
- Danbuoy
- Brass navigation lights

- 5 x fenders
- Warps / mooring lines

Image 4: Nic Compton