Classic Pond Yachts
Radio 6 Meter 'Flair' a John Lewis design from 1989
I saw this boat in Beale Park, she had the sail number K863, I made enquiries and found out she was called 'Flair' she was a John Lewis design from 1989, and was a boat he designed for himself, and built by Ken Jones in 1990, and she is in his book, cover and her page shown below. Obviously I bought her straight away!
Above is the front page of John Lewis's book, first published in 1990, showing some of his designs, below the introduction of Flair.
Below is the lines drawing for Flair in Lewis's book, when you look at the drawing (I will change these to better pictures soon) the lines are beautiful, he was a very good designer, who designed a lot of very successful boats, a clever man.
Below is the rating Certificate for Flair, showing that she was first registered in 15 August 1992.
Here she is ! you can see why I bought her now ! I have also joined The model yacht club at Setley Pond as that is the closest club that sails 6 Meters.
I have had a look through the results for the 6 meter class, and I can't find Flair in any results, in any clubs, it looks like she has never really raced in any major events, I am hoping to change that ! But progress slow it is over a year since I bought her, I have to get myself started sorting her out.
Here are a couple of deck views, I have some work to do, there is some damage aft, a split in the deck, which looks like it could be Formica or similar.
Here she is with mast stepped with A rig. She has a lot of sails, sad that some smoker has stuck his fag through the A rig main in two places, why do they do that ?
She looks nice with some wind in the sails, I have a few jobs, I don't understand why the diamond spreaders are so high ? for them to work properly the diamonds need to be fitted the same height as the Forestay, then they tension the forestay, without bending the mast to much. As they are there is no mast support where the forestay is fitted to the mast, see picture insert. I will move them, she needs some shrouds then more of less ready as far as the rig goes.
Here is the deck layout, decks need a good clean up, she has an old 28 mg RC unit and an old Whirlwind sail winch, I have not tried it yet but I bet the whirlwind works!! Gooseneck and jib radial gooseneck in good shape.
Here is the Whirlwind winch, the sheeting lines need replacing, the flat section next to the winch is for the receiver and/or battery, not very waterproof !!!
Here is the rudder servo, as already mentioned the deck needs a clean up, the rudder turns smoothly, no play, the steering system just needs taking apart and cleaning, check the rudder servo works, then re assemble.
A nice radial Jib fitting, again a strip down and clean, grease and reassemble. I use a Teflon grease, works well.
The mainsail gooseneck and kicker are well made, someone was building good gear back in the 1990s. She also has a very nice deck hatch, won't stop much water, but very pretty, Also nice but old sails, PJ Sails did well, they must be over 30 years old!!!
As expected with the history of this boat, good quality build, picture below looking forward. You can see the mast and the wire used to take radial jib fitting loads.
Picture below of the inside looking aft, you can see the rudder servo and mainsheet post. Interesting that there is no fore/aft or rake adjustment with the mast, there's confidence!
Going to have to get my act together and get her sailing, will try to do a film of her sailing on the River Hamble, a lovely looking boat.