Classic Pond Yachts
Classic Pond Yachts
Albertine an 8 meter, to the first international rule.
I bought Albertine from the Russell Potts collection at Beale Park, she is a lovely and very unusual model, below is a link to Russell's page about Albertine on the VMYG web site.
http://www.vmyg.org.uk/pages/gallery/whatis/albertine.htm
A very interesting boat, but a bit of a problem for me. My thing is I want to sail the boats, it is why they were built in the first place, and to see them on the water is a sort of living history. But I have a problem with Albertine, most of the planks have opened up, if I put a torch inside you can see light coming out between the planks, which are very thin, I could glass sheath her, but I don't want to, I could leave her under water in the bath for a few days before taking her sailing, but a bit of a faff, and I am not sure it would be good for her to be soaked and dried out all the time.
A picture through the hatch showing the frames Russell mentioned, the build quality is very high, and the builder went to great lengths to save weight, the floors under the hatch are supported on one side by a frame, on the other with a knee, there are no mechanical fixings of the planks to the frames, pins/screws etc, the frames are to thin.
A picture showing the floors and the knees supporting the frames, the spring attaches to the hatch to hold it closed while sailing.
These pictures show the construction detail inside, to me it looks more like aircraft construction than boat building, interestingly there are repairs visible in both of these pictures, she has had a lot of doublers fitted to the frames along the port side, starting midships and going forward, the repairs seem to have been done in at least two goes, some of the doublers have been painted, most have been left bare wood. The repairs down the portside you could just about get your hand inside, but to me the work looks to well done to have been done blind?? also if you look at the picture looking aft there is a repair the the third frame aft of the rudder stock, you can see a bare piece of timber, it does not look as neat as the other repairs??
I can get my hand inside the hatch and just about reach most of the repairs forward, but touching is all I can do, also some of the planks have been sanded, and the neighboring planks untouched, the repairs look like they were done at different times, the one nearest the camera is painted. trying to get my hand aft, all I can do is touch the rudder post with my finger tip, the repair is another 3 frames aft. I can see no sign that the deck has been removed, how did they do the repairs ???
![IMG_0407[1].JPG](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/521513_fc3a9922bd1f4fdea0993233d8c8b7b5~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_388,h_291,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/IMG_0407%5B1%5D_JPG.jpg)
![IMG_0404[1].JPG](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/521513_482ffc02658c4574aa147ee0c6143882~mv2.jpg/v1/crop/x_397,y_743,w_3171,h_2030/fill/w_367,h_235,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/IMG_0404%5B1%5D_JPG.jpg)
![IMG_0406[1].JPG](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/521513_524dbc1bb82c4106a1d1eec367749360~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_388,h_291,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/IMG_0406%5B1%5D_JPG.jpg)
![IMG_0403[1].JPG](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/521513_a6785b50a9984ad1b58485e1ce81e076~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_600,h_450,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/IMG_0403%5B1%5D_JPG.jpg)
Some general pictures of the boat and deck gear, she is an amazing boat in many ways, you can see the lead fitted to the rudder, I wonder if they had to fit the lead as the rudder post is so raked the rudder would try to float, which would keep trying to put helm on, you can also see a small piece of timber let into the lead ballast, was this to get the trim right to make her measure? You can see she is set up for jib sheeting, and the good quality of the deck fittings, I will get her outside and rigged and take some better pictures when time allows.
What to do to get her sailing? I used a Tung/Linseed oil product inside Cymbeline, I was very impressed at how well that worked, and it seems nice a low tech for use on Albertine, I am going to set up my endoscope, and try to seal the bare timber inside the boat with the Tung oil, and whatever implement I can get inside to apply it! I am going to do a small test piece on the outside also with the Tung oil to see how that works, it is so thin I am hoping it will go into the small gaps in the planks and make her watertight.
28 April 21 - I have been thinking about the repairs, I got Albertine off her shelf and had a good look at the port side in the area of the repairs, a repair plank has been fitted in the area of the repairs.
![IMG_0421[1].JPG](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/521513_7b2a342314244ff3991e92885583e5b2~mv2.jpg/v1/crop/x_1097,y_881,w_3145,h_2229/fill/w_442,h_313,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/IMG_0421%5B1%5D_JPG.jpg)
You can see where the plank has been let in in this picture, you can also see a line of fixings running down the hull. I think the repairs must have been done whilst the plank was removed for the repair.
I have had a much better look at the hull, and I think Albertine has bigger problems than just open planks. Whoever built her was obviously at the top of his game !! the planks are quite wide, and shaped to take the shape of the hull, and to fit the frames inside, she is very lightly built, and now quite old.
![IMG_0422[1].JPG](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/521513_1de4fe3d921e479a8f98eb068475b21e~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_467,h_350,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/IMG_0422%5B1%5D_JPG.jpg)
This picture shows the open seams, what you cant see is that if you gently push the hull where they meet away from a frame they flex easily, so if she is just varnished, if the hull flexes while being handled the seams will open again. I am beginning to think she will have to be sheathed! More thinking to do.