When twin Brothers Billy & Brian Smyth of Royal North of Ireland YC at Cultra brought the Bermuda-rigged 35ft West Solent semi-OD Class Suvretta to Belfast Lough in the late 1950s, she was still very much as designed and built by Harry May of the Berthon Boat Company of Lymington in 1924. Of austere comforts with limited headroom under a flush deck, the emphasis was clearly on racing. Yet by the time the Smyth brothers took over, the only significant change was a slight shortening of the mainboom to facilitate a standing masthead backstay.
Suvretta was soon cutting the mustard with the Belfast Lough and Strangford Lough fleets, and in 1960 she won the North Channel Race - from Cultra to the Clyde - with the large Clyde Cruising Club fleet returning towards Clyde Week. In time, after several more successes, the Smyth brothers became more comfort-minded, and moved on to the hefty 9-ton Dalkey-built sloop Wynalda, with which they cruised extensively to take many awards, including the Irish Cruising Club's Round Ireland Cup, but there was no way Wynalda matched Suvretta's sparkling racing success.
Suvretta in Belfast Lough off Cultra in 1960, when she won the North Channel Race overall from a large fleet. Photo: ICC
Suvretta meanwhile moved on to Stoupe Corry of Strangford Lough YC, who continued the pattern of successful regatta and occasionally offshore racing. But by the 1970s her life had taken a new turn when she was bought by deep-sea tug skipper Sam Davis, also of Strangford Lough. He improved the onboard comfort with a rugged coachroof, and went off on a Transatlantic circuit cruise, with an extended and leisurely time island-hopping through the Caribbean, before finally heading for Ireland and home in the summer of 1979.
SURVIVING FASTNET STORM OF 1979
This meant he was caught right in the middle of the Fastnet Storm of August 1979. But while Sam and Suvretta had a rough time of it and went through several serious knockdowns with one that may have been a pitchpole, his workmanship on the coachroof withstood the test, and in time he was able to sail for port, battered but unbowed even if without auxiliary or electrical power.
Suvretta in 2007, on her way for complete restoration and still with the coachrooof as fitted by Sam Davis for his Transatlantic circuit cruise in the 1970s
Based back in Strangford Lough, Sam worked hard on tough professional tugboat skipper assignments mainly in the Middle East, and in time acquired a Rival 41 which he re-named Suvretta, and cruised to the Pacific and round Cape Horn. The original Suvretta meanwhile was eventually swept up in a new enthusiasm for the fine boats of the West Solent Class, and in 2008 she re-emerged, sailing in Suffolk and in such superb order that she won classic awards.
Suvretta born again. The distinct toe to the keel is a factor in her good windward performance
Fast forward to 2024, and Suvretta is reaching her Centenary in the ownership of Victoria and Chris Preston, racing in Cowes Week near her birthplace of Lymington. Until quite recently, the Prestons raced a J/109, but thought that a move to classics racing with a thoroughbred like Suvretta might give their sailing extra meaning. It seems old habits don't die. They raced Suvretta so well that the ageless Centenarian – with the experiences of a dozen lifetimes behind her – was declared "Boat of the Week".
The canvas-covered deck as orginally designed a hundred years ago was originally much less expensive than a teak-laid deck, but restoring and maintaining it these days is a special skill
