30 YEARS AGO

JUNE 1992, CB46

What a gorgeous cover shot we had in June 1992! And just as in this issue you’re holding today, the cover boat is a Fife. This month of course, it’s the ‘last’ Fife. Back in 92, the cover boat was Kelpie, a 30ft (9.1m) ga˜ cutter from 1884, so one of the William Fife III’s earlier creations.

She was living in Sydney then, and the article was sent to us by none other than Larry and Lin Pardey – sailing royalty almost! The second yacht in the mag is Gulvain, a proper contrast. Built in 1949, the largest racing yacht built in Britain since the war (55ft), she represented the best and most modern thinking from the two British giants of ocean racing design at the time – Laurent Giles and John Illingworth. She is also, we thought, the world’s first aluminium yacht, built by the Sussex Shipbuidling Company. She’s thought to be still afloat. Mark Fishwick concludes his beginner’s guide to ‘Topsails for the Timid’. It’s an apt title, as topsails can be terrifying. John Beale looked at ‘the navigator’s dilemma’. RDF, Decca, Loran or GPS? Well, we all know who won that race! This is also the issue that features a ‘notice to mariners’ about our move to Link House in Cornwall, a far cry from lovely Falmouth.