Anyone know Flying Fish?

[Joesaila]

We did our yearly visit to Nantucket in August during race week and enjoyed all the really nice boats. But a highlight of the trip was just barely a glimpse of a really nice boat with a nice couple on board.... I was doing the final part of the trip back to Hingham, Ma. and overnighted in Onset. I went by a beauty of a sailboat with Maine reg. nos. on the way in and anchored nearby. Around sunset two people were coming back with a pizza in thier dinghy. I asked what kind of sail boat it was and the woman remarked it was a Giles Vertue, named "Flying Fish"....and that her husband had built it himself. It was 25feet long and I inquired if they'd sailed it down from Maine.....the lady said 'actually, we just got back from Europe'! They'd sailed over and back! I was speechless but got to speak to them when heading by the next morning....I asked if they'd seen any beautifle night skies and the gentleman remarked how they'd seen some pretty dark nights! I asked if they were going to write a book and the lady said they'd not really thought about that, but that it was now time to get back to reality and the working world....I wished I'd had the chance to ask a hundred other questions. Well here are a couple of pictures of Flying Fish, sorry about the botched focus....I did a search and found that an article was in one of Wooden Boat mag. around April....Hope someone does a follow up. Hope they do a book! man I'd love to hear "The Rest Of The Story!"

[svHyLyte]

The Virtue is a very old, very reliable, design by Laurent Giles from the Eric and Susan Hiscock "Wanderer III" era. While there has been much written on the boats, you might find a book written by David Hayes entitled "Me, My Old Man and the Cat" of particular interest as David and his Dad built the boat from a bare hull and deck and sailed her from Maine, through the Canal, down the west coast of South America with a stop at Easter Island, 'round the Horn, and home with no damage save a lost cat which, tho' I sympathized with David's sensibilities is a small price give how objectionable but ubiquitous the dam_ed things are, eh?

FWIW...

[Hartley18]

Nice post, JS.

Vertues are found all over the world and have been sailed all over the world. There really aren't all that many for sale since most get handed down as family heirlooms. If you wanted a small boat to do some serious ocean cruising, you'd be hard-pressed to find anything better.

"Wanderer III" wasn't a Vertue.. but it was definitely J. Laurent Giles.

[MARC2012]

Very pretty boat.marc

[Armchairsailor2]

If you want to know more about Vertues, click here.

One took part in the inaugural OSTAR (or what became it), and it was the star of the book "The Ship Would Not Sail Due West". Tough classics.

Flying Fish is V230, and is one of the latest ones built. Photos and other details can be found on the VOC website.

[svHyLyte]

Originally Posted by Hartley18

..."Wanderer III" wasn't a Vertue.. but it was definitely J. Laurent Giles.

No she was/is not--she was/is a "one off" designed by Jack Giles in 1952. My point was that Wanderer and Giles' earlier, smaller, Vertue Class yachts were of the same era (wooden ships/iron men & women) and while the Hiscocks are reasonably well known and so make a convenient point of reference, had I referred to Humphrey Barton and Kevin O'Riordan, few save a couple of old folks would have understood. The original Vertue was designed in roughly 1946-7 as a 25' Gaffer. Barton/O'Riordan earned fame for the class with their 1950 transAt in Vertue XXXV, the 35th boat of the class, tho' she was/is fitted with a Bermudian rig rather than Gaff.

FWIW...

[Hartley18]

Originally Posted by svHyLyte

No she was/is not--she was/is a "one off" designed by Jack Giles in 1952. My point was that Wanderer and Giles' earlier, smaller, Vertue Class yachts were of the same era (wooden ships/iron men & women) and while the Hiscocks are reasonably well known and so make a convenient point of reference, had I referred to Humphrey Barton and Kevin O'Riordan, few save a couple of old folks would have understood. The original Vertue was designed in roughly 1946-7 as a 25' Gaffer. Barton/O'Riordan earned fame for the class with their 1950 transAt in Vertue XXXV, the 35th boat of the class, tho' she was/is fitted with a Bermudian rig rather than Gaff.

FWIW...

svHyLyte, I wasn't having a go at you - simply making a clear distinction between the boat and the designer. Jack Giles incorporated so many aspects of the Vertue's design in "Wanderer III" that some people find it hard to tell the difference - and think it's just a scaled-up Vertue. Just to confuse things further, Giles' "Wanderer" class isn't an exact copy of the Hiscock's "Wanderer III" either - although at least they're the same length.

There was much changing in yacht design in that era and I'm still amazed that in the decades that have passed, no other designer has developed a better, more seaworthy, small cruising yacht than the Vertue.

[svHyLyte]

Originally Posted by Hartley18

svHyLyte, I wasn't having a go at you - simply making a clear distinction between the boat and the designer.....

No worries old son, ...didn't think you were.

As you may or may not be aware, the Hiscocks sold Wanderer III in the late 60's--and much of what else they owned--to have a steel yacht built in Holland. Once it was completed, they launched off on another circumnavigation in the course of which they stopped in Sausalito, Calif (USA) where they put up in a slip a few berths away from us so we had occasion to meet (if for no reason other than their damned switch-tailed cat insisted on doing its business on our cockpit cushions!) Eric was a very opinioned sort, particularly when he was "in his cups" which was not infrequent after 1600 and he once opined that Wandered III was the "..best yacht" he'd owned and far preferable to its successor, Wanderer IV, which he referred to as a "Pig Iron Tub" more than once (it seems he had terrible problems with the yacht until he put up in NZ for a refit of the rudder).

N'any case, Giles earlier yacht seems to have "Virtues" that persist to this day, eh?

Cheers,

svHyLyte

[Hartley18]

Eric Hiscock might have been a crabby old codger, but his opinions on yachts and yachting were certainly worth listening to! (well, most of them any way...)

Originally Posted by svHyLyte

N'any case, Giles earlier yacht seems to have "Virtues" that persist to this day, eh?

All too often, you don't know how good something is until you buy something "better"..

Personal opinion here, but I'm not convinced Giles designs didn't actually get worse in the years after the Vertue.. It happens.

[eherlihy]

Here is another pic from the owner's website;