Beautifully restored to sail away

Ceres is one of those cases of a yacht recently restored at great effort, that now needs a new owner, because the restoring owner is suffering a period of ill health. In fact, the restoring owner is none other than eye surgeon of Moorfields in London, Rhodri Daniel. I should know because he picked a piece of flaking rust from my eyeball many years ago, having instantly surmised that I’d been scraping away at old metal under a classic car; the ‘car’ was actually a Hillyard 9-tonner. Ceres, 1960, was built in mahogany on oak by Eversons on Suffolk’s River Deben, to the lines of the most successful racing smack on the east coast at the time, with a sail plan by Maurice Griffiths. She’s 30ft LOA and 45ft over spars with that long bowsprit and bumpkin, and rigged as a gaff yawl with a bermudan sail on the mizzen. The current owner bought her in 2019 in a bad way and sent her to Larkmans boatyard in Suffolk, where she was restored over two years. The job is complete other than the skylight, which has been built new but needs to be fitted to the deck; and the boat needs a new mast and some running rigging. The mizzen mast was built new five years ago by Iain Richardson in Orkney. Below decks, she has two berths, one of them very long (the good doctor is over 6ft tall) and one suitable for someone up to 5ft 8in. There is a further double berth in the forepeak, with a heads between, and a privacy curtain. Gear includes a Taylors stove, paraffin cabin heater, modern nav gear; and the engine is a brand-new Nanni 28hp with a midline prop shaft (previously offset). Rudder, sampson post, all skin fittings and much more are also new, as a result of the recent restoration. The asking price has had £7,000 reduced to allow the quoted cost of a new mast.

Lying Woodbridge, Suffolk, £25,000, Tel: (0)7715 707157