The journal of Yacht Lemara

 

About Yacht Lemara

This blog is written and maintained by

Andre Raath with the support of my

long-suffering wife,

Cindy.

Launched in 1986, Yacht Lemara is a 45-foot home-built ferro cement ketch. 

She is a Peter Strong design, commissioned by Les Leonard and built on his farm in Darnall in the then province of Natal on the South African east coast. Les named her Lemara. The name is a combination of the Le from Les, the Ma of his wife's name, Maud, and the R and A from Relations All. His daughter, Maggie, sent me a scan of the build book of the boat. 

This is the link: 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bx2_w2zjh9-WYzBCRnlseHBzOEFOdVNsbG9FTVJmb25jdW1n/view?usp=sharing&resourcekey=0-mCz7M62OoBffnhIG5Joz_w

Her logbook has mentions of her having sailed to the Indian Ocean islands and many who pass by her mooring spot, recognize her, having seen her distinctive lines while they sailed in those waters.

I bought her in 2006 from Andrew Kaymer who had bought her in Richards Bay some 10 years before. He reports that he had sailed her into every port and harbor on the South African coast before finally finding a home in the Hout Bay marina. 

Andrew's life plan had taken a direction which did not include Lemara and her put her up for sale. When I bought her, she had been lying at moorings for some time and was in need of some serious TLC. Her bow had rubbed against the jetty and the armature was exposed, and her deck was spotty with rust and needed a good rub down and repainting.

I undertook basic repair work with a view to spending much time and money on her when these were in abundance. My friends and I sailed her around the Cape waters for some years, sometimes having to return to Hout bay in unanticipated gale-force winds.

While I never felt unsafe in her sailing in 60kts of wind, her open cockpit made sailing in these choppy seas decidedly uncomfortable. Pictures of her when I bought her, below.

If you look carefully at the cockpit area in the photograph above, the arches that at one time supported a bimini are still to be seen. The bimini was meant to protect the skipper from being drenched by a wave wash over the cockpit, in heavy seas. The canvas had however long ago decayed and the arches now just served as a reminder of better days long gone.

While I enjoyed sailing her and had begun planning an ocean sailing adventure, I hated the exposed cockpit arrangement, frying in the scorching sun or being drenched by the cold wash or spray in heavy seas.

In 2013 I was invited to accompany a skipper and his wife, Rolf and Jacinta, on the first leg of their return journey to Brazil, in his lovely boat called To Life. This leg took them to Namibia where I said goodbye and returned to Cape Town by bus while they set sail for Brazil and eventually, the Caribbean.  

"To Life" features a bimini and canvas roof over the cockpit and this proved to be a real blessing under all sailing conditions. Upon my return, I started contemplating the construction of one for Lemara.

Picture of To Life, below.

Over the next few months, I took photos of several boats which sported bimini's and more rigid structures and looked for pictures on the Internet of similar boats with cockpit protection.