WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF CLASSIC YACHTS

Welcome to the second edition of our annual publication Classic Yachts, bringing together some of the nest articles from Classic Boat magazine. Over the next 130 pages you’ll read the stories behind the most impressive restorations of recent years, you can feast your eyes on some of the most magni cent yachts ever built, and if you happen to be lucky enough to have an elderly wooden boat in your possession, our expert writers o er practical tips on how to look a er her. Classic Yachts is a cocktail of stunning photography, engrossing stories and inspiration for your own sailing.

At our recent Classic Boat Awards, guest speaker John Lammerts van Bueren spoke of how just 40 years ago, the main reason to buy a wooden boat was not for its looks, but rather because it was cheap! Conversations about ‘authenticity’ were not part of everyday life. Since then, a global industry has grown up, driven by a customer base that is as passionate and knowlegeable at grassroots level as it is at luxury level.

It’s a community of people across the world who are brought together for one reason – the boats. And those boats might be pilot cutters, they might be 120 schooners, they might be tall ships, they might be wooden powerboats, they might be modern classics. It’s a diverse and thriving scene and the list of nominees and winners in the annual Classic Boat Awards re ects that. We review the awards winners in this magazine and we also reproduce John’s emotive speech in full.

e classic boat world is of course rooted in the past, but it keeps pace with the times. e story of Starling Burgess, an 8-Metre yacht that we feature in this magazine, is one of the most remarkable of recent years, breaking new ground in carvel building.

But at the same time it’s quite typical of the classic boat world, in that it features a generous and dedicated owner, with a team of inordinately skilled and criminally unsung cra smen.

row in the work of a long-dead and talented designer and then the end product – a boat so gorgeous it stops tra c – and you have a story that will surely stir the heart of anyone. In this world, history is brought to life in the most complex and sublime way.

ere is much else to enjoy in Classic Yachts. We hope you enjoy paging through and marvelling over, as we’ve done, some of the great eet of wooden boats still a oat today.