Sail Number: KB 1
Vessel Type: Bermuda Sloop
LOA: 44′ 11″ / 13.70m – LOD: 44′ 11″ / 13.70m – LWL: 34′ 1″ / 10.40m – Beam 11′ 10″ / 3.60m – Draft 8 6″ / 2.60m – Displacement: 12 Tons – Hull Number: – Hull material: Wood – Year Built: 1953 – Original Owner: Roddy Williams – Current Owner: Private – Designer: Philip L Rhodes – Built by: Abeking & Rasmussen – Engine: Vetus Diesel 40 HP / 30 kW – Flag: United Kingdom – Location:
History
Sandeman – Built for Roddy Williams long time mayor of Hamilton Bermuda, She was the first ocean racing yacht to be built abroad for a Bermudian. To this day she bears her original sail number KB 1, passed on by former owner Warren Browne, he having also sailed as crew in the 1950s. In 1984 she came into the possession of Ross Gannon who with Nat Benjamin founded the Gannon and Benjamin (wooden) boat yard on Martha’s Vineyard. In the nine years of his ownership Ross converted her rig from a 7/8th fractional to masthead sloop and transformed the dilapidated cosmetic state in which he found her, albeit her original structural design and make up was sound.
Living on board, in due course Ross advertised her for sale and her seductive shape caught the eye of Tim Blackman, who in a joint venture with Mart Coad, purchased her in 1993. Ross prepared her for the voyage and an amateur crew from the UK flew over to sail her back.
She crossed to Lymington in 28 days but with the recession biting hard in 1994, the decision was made to put her on the market. John Swansborough bought and kept her on the East coast maintaining her fine condition.
In 2001 up for sale once more, Griff Rhys-Jones’ family were introduced to UNDINA. Having looked at every wooden yacht available up and down the East coast Griff found nothing to match her – so a deal was done. He commissioned the Staley yard at Faversham to give her a refit over that winter and she was to emerge in beautiful condition the following spring. Griff then sailed UNDINA
across the North Sea and through the Kiel
Canal to the Flensburg Classic Regatta, where she was the only British yacht participating, before cruising through the Baltic to St Petersburg and back to Helsinki. This trip is recorded in his book “To the Baltic with Bob”. Since then she has been something of a star on screen thanks to Griff’s enthusiastic impressions of “Three men in a boat” and thereafter – some cold English summers later – he has cruised and raced this “drop dead gorgeous boat” in the warmer waters of the Med. Indeed when last raced there she took a series of firsts to win the Classic Division at the Marseilles Les Voiles du Vieux Port Regatta. In due course Griff moved on to a larger – selling UNDINA to her current owner.
Provenance (The Wall of Remembrance – The Owners, Crew & Notable Guest):
Owner/Guardian: (1953) – Roddy Williams, mayor of Hamilton, Bermuda
Owner/Guardian: Warren Browne
Owner/Guardian: Ross Gannon of Gannon & Benjamin
Owner/Guardian: (1993) – Tim Blackman, Mart Coad
Owner/Guardian: John Swansborough
Owner/Guardian: (2001) – Griff Rhys-Jones