Philip L. Rhodes SKÅL

Historical:

Wooden Ships Comments

Designed by Philip Rhodes and built by Casey of Fairhaven in 1930.

Philip Rhodes was one of the most respected prolific marine architects in the USA with many famous yacht designs still sailing today. His designs included the 12m Weatherly which won the 1962 Americas Cup, little day sailers, commercial vessels and motor vessels from launches to minesweepers for the US Navy.

By 1948 he was in on the early development of grp for hull construction with the Rhodes 18 sloop and although Skal’s gaff rig was probably old fashioned by the time she was built it was probably chosen for it’s more effective performance in a reaching race. By the 1960’s Rhodes was running a large design office and remained the inspiration of the company’s work up to his last design in 1970. He died in 1974.

Skal was ordered by two well-known yachtsmen for the 1930 Bermuda Race where she came a respectable 11th out of 42 starters when she weathered some very bad conditions which forced many of the fleet to retire. They also found her to be a comfortable cruising yacht as described in Richard Henderson’s 1981 book, “Philip Rhodes and his Yacht Designs”, ‘a dry boat with little water on deck, excellent sea-keeping capability and a comfortable motion’ . Her design shows a long keel but cut-away forward to reduce wetted surface and a full brandy-glass shaped midships section which with her generous beam helps her to stand up so well to her canvas. The remarkably flat buttock lines explain why they found her to create little quarter wave with consequent reduced drag. She has the classic Rhodes sweet unexaggerated sheer line and freeboard and with relatively short ends she is a compact boat with nothing too excessive about her.

Richard F Lawrence bought her for the 1931 Transat, the second smallest yacht in the fleet. The race was famously won by the Olin Stephens designed Dorade and while she has traded on this win ever since, Skal has been largely forgotten despite coming second in the 20 day race with a crew of 8, at one stage covering 823 miles in 4 days. While Dorade took a more northerly course from the start, Skal stayed with the fleet to the south, only cutting up to the north and crossing Dorade’s track on the approach to Ireland before turning south east a little late to approach Lands End thus losing valuable time to Dorade. Approaching Plymouth she encountered near gale force winds and rain squalls but stood on still carrying her topsail and overtaking both a steamer and a steam trawler!

She remained in UK after the race and little is known of her history in that period save that she was believed to have laid in Cowes until bought there by a young naval officer, George Hepple in 1947/8. The original rig is said to have been burnt in bombing in the War and subsequently replaced as a bermudian sloop. Cmdr Heppel sailed her as a family yacht out of the Helford River until his death in 1986 when she was laid up.

In 2003 she was sold by Wooden Ships to the present French owner and sailed over to Brittany for the major refit she now required. As work progressed it became apparent that the original structure had become very tired and only an extensive rebuild would return her to her original strength and capability.

The work was carried out by Hubert Stagnol in his Benodet boatyard 2006 – 2009. In 2007 she won the Belle Plaisance Race out of Benodet finishing ahead of the great Pen Duick, another famous yacht owned by the late Eric Taberley.

She took part in the 2015 Voiles de St Tropez regatta when she once more raced against Dorade.

Provenance (The Wall of Remembrance – The Owners, Crew & Notable Guest):

• Owner/Guardian: (1930-1931) George V. Smith and Hobart Ford, Rye, New York, vice-commodore of the Cruising Club of America, commissioned vessel to compete in the 1930 Transat Race.
• Owner/Guardian: (1931) Richard F. Lawrence, bought vessel to compete in the 1931 Transat, came in second to Dorade’s first place finish.
• Owner/Guardian: (1947-1986) Commander George Hepple
• Owner/Guardian: (2003) French Registry
• Owner/Guardian: (2018) Greek Registry

Resources

Philip L. Rhodes and His Yacht Designs – Page 60
Ocean Racing: The Great Blue-water Yacht Races, 1866-1935
Wooden Ships
Nowhere is Too Far: The Annals of the Cruising Club of America