Sail Number: 1536 C
Type: Cutter
LOA: 49’6″ / 15.10m – LOD: – LWL: 32’9″ / 10.00m – Beam: 9’6″ / 2.90m – Draft: 7’3” / 2.20m – Displacement: 11 tons – Ballast: – Yard Number: – Hull material: Wood – Designer: William Fife III – Built by: Gridiron & Marine Motor Works, Carrigaloe, Cork bay, Ireland – Year Launched: 1898 – Original Name: Yum – Original Owner: Campbell M. Keir – Former name(s) – Sail Area: 160 m2
Historical:
Le Télégramme – In the spring of 1898, the Irish shipyard Cummins & Bros launched Yum, a 15.10 m long racing cutter for Adolphus Fowler, an Irish yachtman. In his first season, Yum’s record is most encouraging, with four victories in ten races. As always with winning boats, the owner receives attractive offers to purchase. The sailboat was sold in 1899 to Campbell M. Keir, a British regatta. In the absence of results for the next three years, the latter sold it in 1902 to the Frenchman André Hachette, who renamed it Grisélidis … before selling it six months later to Mr. Mac Henry of the Cercle de la Voile de Paris (CVP)
Yum sails in Douarnenez
In 1907, Pierre Taconet, its new owner, brought him back to Le Havre and sold it to Georges Grus who gave him the name of Magda. Three years later, the Fife plan again became Grisélidis with M. Raillard, who sailed in Brest until 1912, when the cutter returned to the CVP with Gaston Cailleux. In 1914, Jacques Richepin acquired it and based it in Douarnenez. Yum is now called Cora V. It is the inhabitants of Nantes Jean and André Lebec who give him the pretty surname of Pen Duick – the chickadee in Breton – in 1935. Three years later, the Scottish cutter is acquired by Guy Tabarly. There son, Eric, then aged seven, made her first steps there. In the early 1950s, Eric became a sought-after team member. But he does not forget the old family cutter who is slowly dying in La Trinité, his father having no finances to restore it. In 1952, on the eve of enlisting in the French Navy, he told his father that, whatever it cost him, he would save Pen Duick. “Well, I give it to you!” Eric Tabarly has just added his name to the long list of Yum owners. Eric will devote all of his spare time and savings to reviving his boat. At Easter 1959, the bet is won. The cutter will sail again, racing or cruising, until 1964. That year, Eric Tabarly won the Transat solo on board the Pen Duick II, a plywood ketch. From then on, the sailor chooses to put his cutter in brackets, to devote his life to ocean racing. Wintered for over twenty years, Pen Duick underwent a new phase of work in the 1980s. Raymond Labbé was responsible for rebuilding the hull, as well as the fittings and the deck plan. Raymond will even have a green underwater paint made for his friend, for the sole purpose of regaining the patina of the original bronze lining! This is how the Fife plan was able to start a second life. Eric Tabarly, evoking with emotion his wet cutter below his farmhouse on the banks of the Odet, once wrote: “Art object, precious, demanding sensual, lively, capricious, such is my Pen Duick, my boat. ”
Provenance (The Wall of Remembrance – The Owners, Crew & Notable Guest):
- Guardian/Owner: (1898-1899) – Adolphus Fowler
- Guardian/Owner: (1899-1902) – Campbell M. Keir
- Guardian/Owner: (1902-1902) – André Hachette -Renamed Grisélidis
- Guardian/Owner: (1902-1907) – Mr. Mac Henry
- Guardian/Owner: (1907) – Pierre Taconet
- Guardian/Owner: Georges Grus – Renamed Magda
- Guardian/Owner: M. Raillard – Renamed Grisélidis
- Guardian/Owner: (1914) – Jacques Richepin – Renamed Cora V, Douarnenez
- Guardian/Owner: Nantes Jean and André Lebec
- Guardian/Owner: Gaston Cailleux Renamed Pen Duick
- Guardian/Owner: Guardian/Owner: (1938-1952) – Guy Tabarly
- Guardian/Owner: (1952) – Eric Tabarly
- Guardian/Owner: Jacqueline and Marie Tabarly