Wanhill 45 ft Gaff Cutter 1889/2001

THALIA is an astonishing throwback to the earliest, 19th-Century days of organised yachting, yet she’s a thoroughly practical, easily handled classic yacht. Wanhill of Poole is a name etched in the history of that period, and THALIA carries that direct lineage with her, together with the old world charm and amazing looks that have rescued this characterful cutter more than once from the chainsaw. Her Millennium restoration undertaken with skill and passion, honoured and enhanced in current ownership, has ensured a long future life, surely well into her third Century. In recent years THALIA has taken part in transatlantic adventures her original designer and builder couldn’t have dreamed of, and she’s been a cherished family cruiser-racer closer to home.

2020
- New bowsprit

2018-2019 - ELEPHANT BOATYARD, BURSLEDON
- Underbody refastened with marine bronze screws
- Rudder was repaired and strengthened

2011 - MARITIME ENTERPRISES, YARMOUTH/ ELEPHANT BOATYARD, BURSLEDON
- New mast, boom and spinnaker pole by Bob Snow, Maritime Enterprises
- All standing and running rigging replaced by Martin's Rigging
- New set of Ratsey & Lapthorn sails for the new rig
- Re-wired and re-plumbed
- Over a tonne of internal lead ballast removed
- Fitted to either end of the existing lead keel

1997-1998-2001 - BY IVAN JEFFERIS, BOSHAM HOE
- Completely rebuilt
- 80% of the hull planks were replaced
- A considerable number of frames replaced
- New Larch deck
- Wherever possible the original hatches fittings and interior elements reused

Classic Boat readers voted THALIA 'Gstaad Yacht Club Centenarian of the Year' in the Classic Boat Awards 2021 from an impressive short list of:
- MARIETTE (108 ft Herreshoff schooner 1915)
- OLYMPIAN (William Gardner-designed P-Class gaff sloop 1913)
- SUMURUN (94 ft Fife bermudan ketch 1914)
- TIRRENIA II (61 ft Fred Shepherd-designed gaff ketch 1913)
- TRASNAGH (40 ft Alfred Mylne Island Class bermudan yawl 1913)

The name Wanhill of Poole is firmly embedded in what might be termed the pre-history of yachting: the early to mid 19th Century period before the rise of the "yacht designer", when the builders were also the designers. THALIA is a remarkable link to these times.

For fans of 1970s and 1980s British TV series, the Wanhill story could be summed up as a cross between The Onedin Line and Howard's Way. Their prosperity grew through the 18th Century on the back of Poole's immense trade with Newfoundland, when the Dorset town reputedly had more ships trading with North America than any other English port.

The Wanhill family built ships at Poole, owned them, and enjoyed more than a sideline as clay merchants. The conclusion of the Napoleonic wars ended Britain's monopoly in North American trade, creating an economic slump in Poole; however the consequent increased safety of the seas - and royal patronage - gave rise to an explosion of interest in pleasure boating.

The next generation of Wanhills, brothers Thomas Junior and James, were ready to apply their skills to the designing and building of pleasure vessels, in particular some of the most innovative and successful racing yachts of the mid 19th-Century, culminating in the magnificent and legendary 108 ft racing schooner EGERIA of 1865.

Thomas Wanhill's son George Frederick was nineteen at EGERIA's launching in April 1865; all being well he might have anticipated eventually taking over the reigns of a thriving yard, but it wasn't to be. Just over a year after EGERIA's launching, and with an apparently healthy order book for yachts of significant size, losses on the shipowning side of the business - possibly through a reticence to engage with steam power; certainly from increased railway competition - threw them into spectacular bankruptcy.

But George seems to have lived comfortably running the clay side of the business, and occasionally honouring his family's wooden boatbuilding and seafaring traditions. He designed THALIA for himself, possibly based on an earlier Wanhill model and perhaps built in the premises of the Allen family's Poole shipyard. The early - probably first season - portrait here shows that she first sported a fiddle bow and had the appearance of a miniature EGERIA in profile. In her builder's ownership THALIA appears to have raced locally and cruised extensively. A summer 1891 Falmouth shipping movement report sees her just arrived from Ireland where she must have been quite a hit as by late summer she'd returned there in the new ownership of long time Commodore of the Munster Corinthian Yacht Club (soon to become Royal Munster YC, now incorporated in Royal Cork Yacht Club), Richard Foley, a shipowner and customs agent at Cork with a country residence at Lismore, County Waterford. THALIA first arrived at Queenstown (now Cobh) on 2nd August 1891, and won her first race there that day at Monkstown Regatta in fierce squalls.

Subsequent south coast of Ireland owners were:
- 1892 - James W. Nicholson, Cork, possibly a wine merchant there
- 1896 - Robert William Belton, Monkstown, Cork, insurance agent and stockbroker
- 1900 - John Newsom White, Kilkenny, retired Waterford corn merchant
- 1905 - Edgar White, Waterford, his son

By 1911 THALIA had returned to England with Frederick Palmer of Boston, Lincolnshire and would remain on the east coast for decades under many ownerships, mostly moored at Benfleet, Essex. Worthy of special mention is Frank Clay, a founder member of Benfleet Yacht Club who owned THALIA c.1932 to 1963. She's still remembered there.

By the late 1960s THALIA was a tired old lady, and at one time threatened with the chainsaw at that infamous boatyard of doom, Belsize, St. Denys, Southampton. But not only did she receive a stay of execution, by the early 1970s she was cruising the Atlantic islands, west coast of Africa and the western Mediterranean with the redoubtable Hugh K.B. Roberts. Purchased at Ibiza in 1978 by E. Bruce Willard, THALIA then returned to the south coast of England at Swanwick. Under different ownership, a restoration was begun in the mid 1980s at Combes Boatyard, Bosham, West Sussex, but not finished.

THALIA's remarkable revival by Ivan and Fiona Jefferis of Bosham Hoe, West Sussex - preventing another chainsaw threat - began in 1993 and is detailed in the Restoration section.

Post-first phase restoration, THALIA took part in the memorable 1998 Champagne Mumm Classic Regatta at Cowes. Then, when complete, the 2001 America's Cup Jubilee Regatta - appropriately so as three Wanhill designed and built yachts had taken part in the original 1851 race round the Isle of Wight. She then made an Atlantic Crossing with the ARC Race in 2003, and remained in the Caribbean until purchased there by her present owner in 2011.

For the past decade THALIA's 21st Century pampering has continued under present ownership and she has been a regular sight for sore eyes at Solent classic regattas and in cruising down channel.

©2024 Iain McAllister/ Sandeman Yacht Company Ltd.

- Oak (underbody), pitch pine and Douglas fir planking on oak frame
- Bronze fastened underbody (2018-2019)
- Bronze and copper fastened topsides
- Lead ballast keel
- Keelbolts except for two - 2021
- Larch swept deck (2001)

GENERAL
- Quarter-sawn swept larch deck
- Varnished teak king planks
- Raw teak covering boards
- Raw teak capping and taff rail on bulwarks
- Traditional stanchioned transom
- 12 x Bronze stanchions (in storage)
- Teak superstructure carpentry

FROM AFT
- Bronze fairleads port and starboard
- Stern light
- Bronze bollards mooring cleat
- Ash mainsheet block
- Bronze mainsheet cleats port and starboard
- Varnished boom gallows
- Tiller
- Self-draining helm cockpit well with teak grate
- Engine throttle and stop-start controls
- 2 x Bulwark stanchion cleats
- Coarse and fine running backstay tackles port and starboard
- 2 x Bronze cleats for running backstays port and starboard

RAISED HOUSE OVER MAIN CABIN

- Raw cleats port and starboard for roller working jib
- Deck prisms port and starboard

COMPANIONWAY BOOBY-HATCH

- Butterfly skylight
- Teak chocks for 8-person liferaft
- Bronze mushroom vent

MAST POSITION

- Deck port light to port
- Raised forehatch with portlight
- Deck prism to starboard
- Bronze manual warping windlass
- Capstan and cleat
- Electric Lewmar windlass under bowsprit
- Bronze mooring fairleads port and starboard
- Anchor stowed in stemhead roller
- 45 m Chain and rope
- Second anchor below with 15 m of chain and rope

- Berths for up to 6 in three cabins
- Electric LED lighting throughout the boat

FROM AFT

- 3 x Steps down from companionway scuttle
- 1st Step has stowage
- 3rd step is engine box
- Oak cabin sole
- Oak and pine panelled carpentry

GALLEY TO PORT
- Bronze manual salt water tap
- Hot and cold taps
- Smev 2 x burner hob with oven and grill
- Partly tiled top surfaces
- Cold box
- Food and crockery lockers
- Drawers

CHART TABLE/ TOP LOADING FRIDGE TO STARBOARD
- Electrical panels in 2 x lockers outboard

- 2 x Deckhead lights
- 2 x Deck prisms

PASSAGE AFT TO OWNER CABIN
- Double berth to port
- Lockers and isolator panel under
- Shorter single berth to starboard
- Banquette
- Lockers under
- Dresser midships aft; lockers under; mirror over
- Unglazed butterfly hatches in house top
- Hanging locker to starboard
- Clock and barometer
- 2 x Bulkhead lights

SALOON
- Settees port and starboard
- Butterfly skylight hatch in deckhead
- Stowage behind starboard settee
- Calorifier and water tank behind port settee
- Drop leaf saloon table on centreline
- Sideboards port and starboard forward

DOOR IN FWD BULKHEAD TO PORT TO WC COMPARTMENT
- Jabsco electric toilet
- Hinged teak seat over
- Ceramic basin with mixer tap
- Shower - teak grate and sump
- Locker over and under
- Bulkhead light
- Deck light in deckhead

DOOR IN FWD BULKHEAD TO STARBOARD TO FWD ACCOMMODATION
- Berth/ workbench to starboard
- Lockers under
- Berth to port
- Lockers under
- Ladder up to forehatch
- Hanging locker to starboard
- 2 x Bulkhead lights
- 1 x LED deckhead light
- Deck prism

FO'C'SLE
- Stowage
- Chain lockers

RIG
- Traditional Gaff Cutter
- Single spreader pole mast (2011)
- Boom (2011)
- Gaff
- Spinnaker pole housed up mast (2011)
- Bowsprit with bronze spreaders (2020)
- Standing rigging new 2011
- Bronze alloy rigging screws at chanelled chainplates
- Wykeham Martin roller for jib

SAILS
Ratsey & Lapthorn 2011
- Mainsail
- 'Jib headed' topsail
- Staysail
- Working jib
- Flying jib
- Traditional spinnaker
- (J109 asymetric spinnaker also available)

CANVASWORK
- Hatch covers
- Mainsail boom cover
- Staysail cover
- Liferaft cover
- Whole boat winter cover with standing room under

MECHANICAL
- Yanmar 3YM30 3-cylinder 29 hp diesel
- Wing shaft
- 3-Bladed Kiwi feathering propeller

ELECTRICAL
- Voltmaster charging unit
- Shore power with inverter for 240V laptop and phone charging points
- 2 x Main domestic batteries (2019)
- 1 x Engine start battery (2019)
- 1 x Windlass battery (2011)
- Battery isolation and parallel switches below

TANKAGE
- Stainless steel water tank (new) c. 250 L
- Stainless steel diesel tank (new) 60 L
- Hot water cylinder: heat via shore power and engine

OTHER
Eberspächer hot air heating: saloon; forward and aft cabins

- Full set of Raymarine Tacktick instrumentation with AIS transponder
- WIFI link to electronics
- Masthead VHF; control unit below decks; hand held mike in the cockpit

- 8-Person liferaft
- 8 x Life jackets with harnesses
- 4 x Lifelines
- Deck lines
- Removable stanchions and guard wires
- Life ring
- Danbuoy
- MOB Danbuoy with light and a throw line
- Throw line
- Climb aboard ladder (in a case)

- Traditional wooden boarding ladder

Main, #2 & #4: Lloyd Images
#3: Guido Cantini/ Panerai