39ft Hillyard 9 Ton
Trimley Maid, a wooden Hillyard 9 Ton, won the 2017 prize for most beautiful yacht.
‘I’ve owned Trimley Maid for 10 years,’ explains Grant Jamieson-hesk. ‘I’ve done the ARC on a friend’s yacht but wanted to take my own boat across and explore the Caribbean. Knowing the boat so well gives me confidence in her.’
Grant’s elegant double-ended yacht is a design from another era, where windward performance was less of a priority. Her conservative sail plan and cutter rig are well suited to shorthanded downwind sailing. Affixed to the stern is a self-steering system by Hydrovane which appears, if anything, overengineered.
‘It’s a brilliant setup that works well in anything other than very light winds, but we also have an electronic autopilot, so perhaps we’re a little bit more high-tech than we first appear. Power consumption is an issue and that’s where the vane comes into its own.’
One of the smallest yachts in the fleet, Grant plans to do a circuit of the Caribbean before heading back to Europe later in the year.