31 December, 2025
One of the great things about Christmas / New Year holidays is that it gives you plenty of time to lay on the couch with a mince tart in one hand and the TV remote in the other lost in the Youtube suggestions menu.
Two video suggestions were ones I had not seen before, and are of the “Big Class” of yachts of the 1930’s headed by George V’s Brittania. They are by far the most comprehensive coverage of this magnificent grouping of yachts that I have seen. Yachts that people lined the shoreline and other vantage positions to catch a glimpse of. Names such as the aforementioned Brittania, the 23mR’s White Heather II, Candida (before it became a toe fungus), Cambria, Lulworth and Astra, along with 135′ schooner Westward, from the pen of Natahniel Herreshoff and the J-Class yachts Velsheda and Shamrock.
Enjoy the most British of commentary where the collision of three 8mR yachts (think Frances and Defiance) is described as “isn’t that pictureesque…it would cost a lot of money that would”
Only Velsheda, Cambria, and Lulworth remain from this period and are a reminder of the power and grace of these magnificent yachts, and why it is we have Classic Yacht associations today.
Grab a mince tart and Enjoy
CYAA
