GIPSY MOTH IV: DESIGNED FOR ONE

Helm and cockpit

Gipsy Moth IV was built to protect her skipper. The long wooden tiller rises from the rudder post directly beneath the mizzen mast, and curves up to meet the helm’s hand near the forward end of the cockpit. It’s comfortable and sheltered to sit up against the bulkhead, out of the elements. Here the instruments are right next to you on port side and the compass is on the bulkhead on starboard.

On the coamings each side are the two winches for staysail and jib. The mainsheet, rather than a conventional purchase system, has a mainsheet winch on the coachroof, familiar in many cruising boats today. The mizzen stands inside the aft end of the cockpit, and on it are the winches for the mizzen sheet and the mizzen and mizzen staysail halyards. For a boat of her size and age, it is remarkable that every one of the main winches and the instruments are all within reach without leaving the helm.

Self-steering

Immediately aft of this is the head of the rudder stock, complete with a quadrant to which the windvane self steering would be connected — steering on ‘autopilot’ was built into the fabric of the boat rather than as a later addition.

Foredeck

A solo skipper would still need to go on deck for sail changes, but her rig was designed for maximum sail area within a simple and easily-handled rig. With twin forestays and innerstays, sail changes are made much easier by the ability to hank-on and even hoist the new sail without unhanking the old sail. If necessary, a sail can be dropped and lashed down, without needing to drag it below.

Coachroof

Working on deck is made easier by her flush decks, a design feature first tried on the Camper and Nicholsons Rocquette a year earlier. Gipsy Moth IV’S diminutive coachroof still looks remarkably modern; curved Perspex windows allow good all-round visibility, including a clear view of the sails without leaving the shelter of the cabin.