West Solent One Design W11

Wooden Ships Comments on this West Solent One Design W11

Launched in 1925 by Berthon of Lymington, she was the 11^th yacht of the class to be built.  Having spent much of her life on the east coast of England, she was found in the late 1980’s in a poor state and rebuilt extensively by acclaimed shipwrights Fabian Bush and Jamie Clay between 1990 -2001.

After this refit she was raced successfully around Essex and Suffolk until being sold back to the Solent in 2018.  There had been plans for her to race around the Solent as part of a charter fleet, but this did not materialise and the boat became a little neglected.  Purchased by the current professional boat builder owners in 2024, she has had a thorough and professional grade refit over the last 6 months and is now looking superb and is ready for her next owners to put to sea.

The class was designed by H. Jacobs and H.G. May of Berthons as a cost effective cruiser racer for the Royal Lymington Yacht Club.  At the time a new W class could be bought for £600, a similar 6 meter yacht would have cost £1500 so they were well received.  A total of 32 boats were built for the UK market, 5 built and shipped to Argentina and one built under licence in Bombay.  The design was adopted by the Royal Burnham Yacht Club where it was known as the Royal Burnham Restricted Class.

The WSOD, also known as the W class, has seen a huge resurgence in recent years with a number of original boats given professional rebuilds, as well as one or two new examples being built.  They are superb boats with exceptionally beautiful lines and have proven to be excellent classic regatta boats that only need a small crew and are still very competitive.

This is a very cost effective boat with which to take part in the big classic regattas and race amongst the finest classic yachts in the world while possibly having even more fun than those owners.

 

Length on Deck                          34’6”

Beam                                            7’6”

Draft                                             5’

Thames Tonnage                       6TM

Sail Area                                      500sqft

 

Refit Work 1990 – 2001

 

Centreline structure

– Lead ballast keel removed

– Defects in wooden keel attended to, and re bedded and refastened with new bronze l” keelbolts; – Deadwoods fore and aft were removed and renewed

– Iron floors removed and replaced with wooden floors

– All new floors bolted with new bronze bolts through the keel

– Damaged planking in way of the floors was repaired and replaced as necessary

– Stern post renewed along with the rudder trunking

– Horn timber repaired and reinforced

– A longer mast step introduced to spread the mast load beyond the join of keel and stem apron

– Any necessary repairs to stem and apron made

 

Framing

– Of rock elm; the frames and fastening were mostly sound

– Defects in sawn frames repaired and all the planking refastened with silicon bronze screws

– Intermediate steamed frames repaired and refastened; particularly at the bottom of the bilge no

– Garboards removed to expose the housings in the keel and all defects made good

 

Planking

– Repaired as necessary throughout

– Large seams were splined; most seams were re caulked in traditional fashion

 

Hull Stiffening 

– A structural teak bulkhead and new oak hanging knees fitted in way of the mast

– A teak structural bulkhead fitted at the fore end of the cockpit, also new oak hanging knees

– The beam shelf reinforced with a shelf clamp over 1/3rd of its length each side about the mast

– Repairs or replacement of remaining hull structure carried out where necessary including:

– Knees, apron, breast hook, stringers, transom, etc

 

Other

– New chain plates for the main rigging made from 316 grade stainless steel

– Deck beams and carlings replaced throughout; Douglas fir – or laminated iroko in way of mast

– A ¾ inch marine grade plywood sub deck fitted and glass / epoxy sheathed

– A new iroko and oak rudder and ash tiller made and fitted with bronze fittings

– A new oak Samson post made and fitted

– Re-painted/varnished inside and out

 

 

2025 Refit Work

-Hull sanded, faired and filled before repainting

-All bright work stripped to bare wood and revarnished

-Cabin and cockpit sanded and painted

-Deck repainted

-Mast – new foot scarfed in, stripped to bare wood and revarnished

-Lots of new halyards and lines

-Winches serviced

-All mast furniture replaced

-All new wooden blocks

-New fenders

-New mooring lines