The Lady Beryl

My model of the Lady Beryl is based on a yacht I used to sail frequently on the Irish sea in the Morecambe bay area mostly. Peil Island was my favourite anchorage, it being a small Island off the coast of Walney Island where many sailors and fishermen would enjoy the company of Rod and Karen the landlords of the Ship Inn and also `crowned` royalty from a very strange law of the historic past. The Island is steeped in historic happenings.

I was forced to give up my sailing because of becoming a full time carer to my sweet wife Beryl following a devastating stroke she had in 1995.

I had enjoyed many years of sailing yacht of one size or another so it was very hard for me to have to sell `Lady Beryl`. I got the idea that I could scratch build a model of her from memory and a couple of pictures so I would maybe one day be able to see her sail again with me once again at the helm, though this time as a ghost skipper .

The full size yacht was known as a Norman S19, rigged as a Bermudan sail set, no spinnaker. All the necessary navigation equipment and powered by an outboard motor, though she could be converted to inboard though the room below would have been hampered by this. She had twin bilge keels that were just right for the shallow waters I used to sail in because I could `beach` her wherever I wished and never a worry about going aground. Though I was `caught out` on a couple of occasions in pretty bad blows ( weather ) I could always feel safe and secure at the helm knowing she could get me to home port in safety..though one time through my false feeling of security and temporary stupidity in total darkness I was hit hard by a gigantic wave full on my port side which came as a sudden roar out of the darkness, likened to a runaway train, that literally shot me over the starboard side, over the guard rail into the boiling sea. My stupidity was that I hadn't clipped my safety harness to its anchorage owing to my recent visit below for a brew whilst on auto-helm. I, to this day, don't know how far I was thrown but it was surely more than 8 to 10 feet away from my boat. The next wave bashed the boat again and threw it in my direction which enabled me to scramble aboard wet, shamed, and with an injured right hand but once again safe and securely strapped in. A lesson learned the hard way for sure, though I cursed myself for letting this almost tragic event happen knowing that through all my years of sailing in nasty weather etc, I had never not used my knowledge of safety at sea and especially when one is on ones own. Never again mate!

Well now returning to the model, I wanted to fit it with a centre deep keel and fit an inboard motor, everything else was kept as the full sized yacht. The reason for the deep centre keel was that she would never sail close to the wind, this added many hours to many voyages because tacking was hampered by the twin keels especially when battling against an adverse tide. Also twin bilge keels on a model just isn't on when it come to ballast and the danger of being over stressed by the sails that could easily cause an embarrassing capsize with the resulting cost of damaged equipment. The inboard motor on the boat is self explanatory.

The model was built planks on frame, carvel style, so she would be smooth round bilge to be sheathed in GRP as was the decks and superstructure. I built her upside down up to the deck stage then turned her over onto her specially made holding frame to accommodate the long centre keel. I spent many months working out how to & what to in the radio control area more so in the control of the two sails to work in unison. This yacht being a one off not a commercial kit brought many hiccups along the way. I found many modellers on line etc who were willing to help but none of the advice was totally of use because of my below decks restrictions but I do thank all concerned for their many differing ideas.

I have now at last come up with what looks like it will work as I've planned but the `maiden` voyage on the lake will only reveal the true state of affairs.

I needed a `throw` of 14 inches for the travel of the sheets from one end of the below decks to the other. Any less would not allow me to sail close hauled, and more would trip the control cord off the drum winch causing a nasty snarl-up that would strand the boat mid lake. The reason for the motor is for just such an experience or lack of wind.

I will be updating as things progress.

Update

I took the Yacht `Lady Beryl` on her `shake down` cruise to the Bury Metro club Lake. It soon became obvious to myself and Bernard, our chairman, that in my quest to make this boat a complete replica of my full sized yacht I'd given it a deep open cockpit area with seating and not taken into account that the original Yacht was fitted with `self draining` in the cockpit floor, which wasn't possible to fit in the model so as soon as the boat was hit by a sudden broadside gust of wind she took on a vast amount of water that filled the rear of the hull, luckily the bulkhead between the cockpit and main cabin area was semi water tight, I say semi because we found some of the water had seeped through a hole that the servo cable from the radio to the steering servo (Which resided under the cockpit floor). I was able to bring her into port under the auxiliary motor that was in the main cabin but not effected by the water ingress. This manoeuvre would have sunken her if I had to bring her in under sail for sure.

But a `shake down` is what these problems are all about. I could have called this one a `shake up` when I saw her stern end under water as she came into dock with her bow pointing skywards. I only wish I had had my camera with me, but I didn't!

Bernard and I had a long discussion as the boat was draining out on its stand.

Bernard came up with a few good ideas, one being to move the steering servo from the vulnerable position under cockpit floor to somewhere in the cabin and run a `loop` system of rope running along the cockpit seats and out to the rudder arm, then to seal the cockpit floor completely because I would no longer need access to the under-floor area. He also suggested I fit a drain tube out through the stern, level with the `sealed` flooring above the water line of course, that would drain any future ingress of water. Another of Bernard's suggestions was to run the `main sheet`, that was now running through the cabin / cockpit bulkhead and another point of ingress of water that had filled the cockpit, to now run it through a flexible tube that, when the sails were attached it would be above the cockpit water line.

The picture (above) shows the new positioning of the steering servo that work very well indeed because the steering cables can run beneath the sail winch cables.

Since the `revamp` I took her out on the lake and she behaved very well. The wind got up enough to put her on a close reach that put her gunnel under as she took on water. She came up well and I brought her in for inspection, she had drained a lot of the water through the stern but not as well as I expected so I've now fitted a larger drain tube 3/8" ID that I will be trying out on her next voyage.

The cabin floor was dry, so things are now ship-shape below.

Her sail trim needs sorting slightly because I can't yet get the `slot` to work as I wish. With her being quite a heavy boat, I find she can't point high enough into wind because of the slot problem. On a `reach`, broad or beam, I find her rudder isn't deep enough, so she is awkward to steer, so she's to have a rudder re-fit also. Three added inches should do the trick

The picture of her under sail is her latest trial at Bury and she looked elegant as she went by.

More up-date later on the sail control re-fit.

Many thanks to Bernard.

John Worthington