There’ll be celebrating in West Cork this Easter, and rightly so, as the 1902-vintage cutter Lady Min – designed, built and sailed in Schull by the O’Keeffe family during 120 years – has been garlanded with honours at this week’s International Classic Boat Awards in London.
Painstakingly restored to pristine condition by Tiernan Roe of Ballydehob for current “curator” Simon O’Keeffe, it has been a remarkable project in every way. For although Lady Min sets a standard gaff cutter rig which is very much of its time, underneath it the original designer-builder-owner Maurice O’Keeffe put a hull of such advanced type that it still looks modern today.
Lady Min at Volvo Cork Week 2022. Don’t be fooled by that old-style gaff cutter rig. It’s set above a hull whose basic shape still looks modern today. Photo: Bob Bateman
Inevitably with the speed such a hull provides, Lady Min made considerable demands over the years on the engineering soundness of her construction. But thanks to some major maintenance jobs from time to time, when Tiernan Roe of Roe Boats began the complete revival project in 2014 there was enough of the original boat in good order to enable him to bring her up to “better-than-new” condition in an authentic restoration for a debut in 2022, a debut which saw her winning major trophies at regattas all along the South Cork Coast from Crookhaven to Crosshaven.
Tiernan Roe analysing Lady Min’s condition at an early stage of the restoration. When Maurice O’Keeffe designed and built her in Schull in 1902, he was pushing the limits (successfully too) in terms of advanced yet seaworthy hull shape and light weight of construction. Photo: Roe Boats
With the Awards Ceremony in the Royal Thames Yacht Club and follow-up Lady Min gatherings in both the Irish Embassy and the Royal Ocean Racing Club, a bright cloud of stardust from London now floats over a project which, at its most demanding stages, saw Tiernan Roe painstakingly deciding what needed restoring and what needed renewing in order to bring Lady Min to a condition which properly honoured the memory of Maurice O’Keeffe.
Maurice was his own Project Manager in Schull back in 1902 when – having created the preliminary drawings – he retained a talented local boat-builder to be his foreman in a neighbourhood boat-building project which - in due course – saw the new Lady Min in Lloyd’s Register officially recognised and named as having been built in Schull in 1902, with Maurice O’Keeffe as Designer and Builder.
There are very few – if any – 120-year-old boats sailing today that could claim this rare distinction, and then carry off an international award as a bonus. But further rare interest with an Irish dimension in the London announcements was to be found in the fact that the boat which probably most closely ran Lady Min for the overall Under 40ft Award was one that originally sailed from Howth, and made her debut afloat at the East Coast port eight years before Lady Min appeared in Schull.
The 1895-built Loch Fyne-type cutter Marishka off Howth in 1896. Photo: W H Boyd
Although a gaff cutter of comparable size, Marishka provides a remarkable contrast with Lady Min, as she is of Scotland’s very traditional Loch Fyne type, which can also be seen to perfection in Stephen Hyde’s restored Cruachan of 1896 vintage in Crosshaven.
As for Marishka, she was originally built for Noel “Pa” Guinness of Howth, who was a busy man around boats in 1895, for in addition to adding Marishka to the local fleet, he was a founding member of Howth Sailing Club (now Howth Yacht Club), serving as Vice Commodore until 1948 when founding Commodore Walter Boyd finally departed the scene, leaving Pa Guinness as the top man for another dozen years until he too made his last voyage.
Victorian sportsmen par excellence. Noel Guinness (left) helming his Howth 17 Rita in Howth Sound in 1898. Photo: W N Stokes
He’d kept Marishka (which had been designed by David Fyfe of Great Cumbrae Island and built by Morris & Lorimer of the Holy Loch) for maybe a dozen years, and found that a month’s cruising with a regular shipmate to Scotland each July worked wonders for his marriage, a domestic harmony additionally helped by his becoming one of the first owners of a Howth 17 in 1898. His boat Rita was first into port, sailed under his own command down from builders Hilditch of Carrickergus in April 1898 in challenging weather, and consequently she became No 1, and still sails and wins, now owned by Marcus Lynch and John Curley.
Meanwhile, Marishka went through various owners (including apparently Tom Cunliffe at one stage) until in 1996, having finished and published the Howth YC Centenary History in which Marishka featured, I got word that she’d be in the Falmouth Classics that summer. So we arranged to meet up as Falmouth would be on our way as we sailed from Schull (don’t ask) to St Malo to see a cruising boat built by James Kelly of Portrush in 1896.
Marishka in Falmouth, 1996. Photo: W M Nixon
All the pieces came together, and there was Marishka in Falmouth, looking the absolute thrice-distilled essence of the Loch Fyne type, with owner David Reay looking the ultimate personification of the classic yacht devotee, as he knew that – having celebrated Marishka’s Centenary the previous year - now was the time for a bit of a restoration, and he expected her to be out of commission “for a little while”.
Restorer at the ready – David Reay aboard Marishka in Falmouth in July 1996. Photo: W M Nixon
Well, the “little while” has become 25 years. But the result is very impressive. Marishka is even more authentic than when new, as the original nondescript chainplates have been replaced with the traditional channel system, which looks very well, as does everything else. Indeed, it has to be said that Lady Min has certainly achieved quite something, to come in a nose ahead of this very special Howth boat in the International Classic Boat Awards 2023.
Sailing again after a 25-year restoration – Marishka steps out in style in 2022. Typical of the painstaking attention to detail are the “more authentic” shroud-supporting chainplates on channels
