THE two men behind one of the largest racing yachts to be built in Looe have given a ringing endorsement to the forthcoming (June 14 to 16) inaugural Made-in-Looe Reunion Regatta, writes John Collings.

Both legendary adventurer Sir Chay Blyth, skipper of the 65-ft trimaran, Brittany Ferries GB, and the boat’s world-renowned designer, John Shuttleworth, have fond memories of their time in Looe more than 40 years ago when their revolutionary race-winning speedster was built at the former Curtis and Pape boatyard in the West Looe woods at West Quarries.

Sir Chay, who became famous as the first man to row the Atlantic in 1966, was an admirer of naval architect Shuttleworth’s innovative ideas and it was while in the Caribbean French colony of Guadeloupe that the pair hatched a plan to beat the French at their own sailing game.

Everyone was saying a small trimaran was the way to go; they agreed, and decided to build a bigger one.

“We designed the 65-ft Brittany Ferries GB (believed to have cost £130,000 back in 1981). At that time people didn’t think you could engineer a big racing trimaran like that.”

Sir Chay, the former paratroop captain who was living near Rosecraddoc, Liskeard, at the time added: “I knew of Frank Curtis and Alan Pape; theirs was a fantastic, historical ’yard. It was back in time and they’d been building boats since the Ark, so you just knew that they knew exactly what they were doing.

“We believed we’d get a really good job done there and, by having John Shuttleworth on site in Looe, he made sure that everything was just right.”

Shuttleworth and his family decamped to Looe, renting a house on the cliff overlooking the sea during the construction work, and Sir Chay says he was ‘like a yo-yo’ always coming down to witness the work of the late proprietors, Alan Pape and Mick Marshall, and their 15-strong team.

As work progressed there were rumours about the trimaran’s 40-ft beam. Sir Chay said: “People were saying ‘we’ve heard Chay’s building a boat but, of course, it won’t get under the bridge.’

“The joke in the ’yard was always about how we were going to get it under the bridge.

“One of the workman said to me: ‘Of course, this won’t go under the bridge’ and I said no but they’ve got cranes and we’ll just lift it over the bridge...

“Anyway, when the time came we decided to do it at the crack of dawn, so as to minimise disturbance.

“The crane guys came down the night before and got in position at dawn and, of course, the boat was already to be towed down. But to our surprise there were loads of people there, all over the place; traffic stopped, of course.”

Made-in-Looe Regatta committee member and registration officer Paul Pengelly was among the hand-picked crew tasked with guiding the giant yacht downstream, as he had been a regular crew member on Pape’s own regatta-winning yachts.

“I remember feeling what a great honour and privilege it was,” said Paul, whose father, Terry, was harbourmaster at the time.

Also aboard were Alan Pape, Mick Marshall and Jim and Nick Soady as Brian Porter towed the boat downstream.

Sir Chay, who supervised the launching, had one more drama to face after the yacht was successfully hoisted over the bridge’s seven arches by Sheffield driver Ken Edge at the controls of British Crane Hire’s 14-wheeled 140-tonne crane.

“We knew that a small flotilla of fishermen were going to be waiting for us on the other side of the bridge,” said Sir Chay. “Our boat had a French sponsor (the Plymouth-based Brittany Ferries operation) and the fishermen were protesting about French interference in their fishing industry.”

“A spokesman came up to me and said ‘We’d like to stop you leaving the harbour, so when the boat’s over the bridge and landed the other side, we’re going to string all our fishing boats across the river so you can’t get out.”

Added Sir Chay: “Ah, it was great fun! But we had no quarrel with them airing their grievances.”

After about 30 minutes, the flotilla including the Sweet Promise (skipper Gordon Cairns), Southern Comfort (Bill Williams), Bri-Al-En (Peter Clements) and Ros Alisher (Baggy Fletcher) moved on and the giant trimaran departed, first to Plymouth where her mast was stepped.

The racing yacht went on to win a number of major offshore sailing races at a time when the French dominated the sport.

Sir Chay, now in his 80s but still leisure sailing, added: “I hope everyone has a good time at your regatta. Looe’s boatbuilding skills served me well and certainly need celebrating.”

Added Shuttleworth: “We loved our time in Looe, it was very nice, and your event looks amazing, good luck with it.”