Tradewind 35 Gaff Cutter Rig

This is a 1993 standard Tradewind 35 hull which unusually has a gaff cutter rig with a downwind yard arm.

It has a forward double cabin with heads/shower to port. Two saloon settee berths plus a pilot berth to port and aft stbd quarter berth.

She was conceived by retired Royal Marine Ewen Southby-Tailyour.

The basic concept was to explore and cruise in the northern high latitudes coupled with commercially chartering the vessel to, for instance, ‘ographers, ‘ologists, ‘oligers, mountaineers or any such professional body. She would also be used in more local waters by my friends and young and growing family when not otherwise employed.

DESIRED SPECIFICATIONS
1. She had to be sailed single-handed when necessary.
2. She had to be gaff-rigged – a personal love.
3. She had to be strengthened for ice around the waterline. Not to break ice but to be able to manoeuvre among small floes and brash ice with impunity. Likewise the rudder had to be solid and not hollow.
4. She had to carry up to two-and-a-half tons of food, water, fuel and climbing stores. Up to three months of self-sufficiency away from civilisation was the aim.
5. She had to cross a squares’l yard for ease and comfort when downwind sailing.
4 She had to have a black hull for a cold-weather climate.
5. She was to be fitted with a police-approved gun-safe sized for one rifle and one 12-bore shot gun with space for the appropriate ammunition, including ‘polar bear’ shot.
6. She was to be fitted with a safe large enough for the ship’s papers plus the crew’s passports, money and valuables.
7. She was to be fitted with a radar fixed as high up the mast as was practicable. VHF of course. Wireless/CD/cassette player with repeat speakers in the cockpit. GPS was to be an afterthought as I had three sextants. Plenty of paper chart stowage would be needed.
8. Six bunks was the minimum preferred number, each with plenty of individual locker space and individual reading lights.
9. A self-draining wet locker adjacent to the companion ladder was necessary.
10. The galley to be equipped with a two-hob stove, grill and oven. A large tub-style fridge. Salt water hand pump in addition to the usual hot and cold water pressure taps.
11. Warm air heating throughout.
12. Navigation port and starboard sidelights to be in the shrouds and not at the truck of the mast.
13. Underwater hull fittings to be kept to a minimum.
14. Heads with shower, basin, hot and cold water taps with plenty of locker space for personal equipment.
15. Copious bookshelf(s) in the saloon and above the chart table which, at its smallest had to fit a once-folded Admiralty chart.
16. Construction in order of preference: wood, steel, aluminium, cement, grp.
17. Hull to be ‘copperbot’ coated - or similar.
18. She was to be fitted with a ‘bonded stores’ locker that could be sealed by the customs.
19. Three anchors, one to be Admiralty Pattern for anchoring in kelp.
29. She was to have a long keel with a keel-hung rudder.

Building actually started very early in 1993. The copperbot was moulded into the hull and did not need replacing for at least seven years. The hull was ‘thickened/strengthened for ice’ around the water line and the interior was as already designed.
Six berths was the standard Tradewind 35 layout in two cabins but the pilot berth on the port side of the saloon, the deep quarter berth on the starboard side abaft the chart table and one half of the double bunk in the fo’c’stle could be sacrificed for stores, in addition to the normal storage spaces. In full expedition mode ‘hot bunking’ was the norm!

In June 1993 she was entered for the Two Handed Round Britain and Ireland Race. Then COWES CLASSIC, 19TH SEPTEMBER 1993.
She was exhibited at the 1993 Southampton Boat Show and attracted much interest and following on from here journeys were :
GIRONDE 1995, ICELAND 1997, RBR 1998, ICELAND 2000, ICELAND 2002, FRENCH CANALS 2003 – 2004, THE JESTER CHALLENGE 2006, then cruised extensively among the Channel Islands and the north Brittany coast, but mostly along the Biscay coast for usually two or three voyages each summer until sold to her most recent owner Mark in 2011.

In her current ownership since 2011 her hull was painted green and she has mainly been sailed in The Solent and the Channel.

These boat details are subject to contract.
Note: Offers on the asking price may be considered.