Gstaad Yacht Club’s Centenary Trophy
British-flagged Kismet (pictured above) won the 11th edition of the Gstaad Yacht Club's Centenary Trophy, the rendez-vous at Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez for classic yachts aged 100 years or more. Kismet, built in 1898 and famously one of the houseboats pulled from a mud berth on the English east coast, was skippered by owner Richard Matthews. The boat is the first Fife design to have won the race, having entered twice before, each time making the podium. Second was the Herresho Bar Harbor 31, Scud (1903), owned by Patrizio Bertelli, with Torben Grael calling tactics, while third was another Herresho, the NY30 Oriole (1905), sailed by a Spanish crew.
An elated Matthews said: “We are very happy. The boat went perfectly we never had her going so fast windward. The course was perfect and we had enough wind. It was just a perfect sail. We were looking back and kept saying: ‘Where are they?’. We saw Scud coming up fast but we thought we had enough time. The key moment was when we decided to change the small jib to a bigger one. We have got a great crew, very good sailors.”
Kismet is coming up for her 125th birthday next year and Matthews said he would love to return to defend the title.
The Centenary Trophy is raced in a pursuit format, with the 'slowest' boats setting o first. Consequently the finish is often close. However, this year Kismet, after starting seventh out of 22, was ahead of the rest in three minutes and remained so for the 9nm course.
The Gstaad Yacht Club event welcomed some newcomers this year, including: the oldest boat on the water at Saint-Tropez, the pilot cutter Madcap, built in Cardi, Wales, in 1874; a German ketch from 1920 designed by Herbert Wustrau, Wiki; and what is almost certainly the Mediterranean's only regularly competing Solent Sunbeam, Dainty, from 1922 (see below).
The 22 entrants also included the two boats that enjoyed an epic tussle for first last year, the William Gardner-designed P-Class, Olympian, of 1913, and the Herresho, Spartan, of 1912, the last remaining NY50. The biggest participant was the the 177ft (54m) three-masted topsail schooner Shenandoah of Sark launched in 1902. Further centenarians in this remarkable fleet were the P-class, Chips, of 1913, the Fife ketch Sumurun of 1914, the Fife Jap of 1897, the Liljegren design for the 1912 Olympics, Marga, and the Thomas Rabot-design, Lulu, from 1897.
Participants saw a film celebrating the first decade of the Centenary Trophy, comprising images by Juerg Kaufmann, as well as a new film about the race, made by Shirley Robertson and Vertigo films.
A newcomer to the Gstaad Yacht Club’s Centenary Trophy in September was the Solent Sunbeam Dainty, qualifying for the race as she turns 100 this year, along with the class that she spawned – Dainty was the first Sunbeam designed by Alfred Westmacott in 1922. Bosham-based Peter Nicholson has owned Dainty since he was 19, racing and winning in many Cowes Weeks as well as countless other regattas. The boat is maintained at Haines Boatyard in Itchenor, where the classic wooden Sunbeam keelboat fleet is now being bolstered by GRP replicas, 11 so far. Dainty has been trailed to the Mediterranean regattas each summer for the last 17 years, and although she has been refused entry to some events for her 27ft (8.2m) LOA, when entered she has raced against the most famous classics afloat – Anna Boulton's shot here shows her passing Elena of London. At the Gstaad Yacht Club’s Centenary Trophy this year Peter Nicholson was presented with a commemorative book by Bruno Troublé. solentsunbeam.co.uk