Laurent Giles Classic 43 ft.
A unique beautiful immaculate maintained price-winning classic, the eldest sailing Laurent Gilles design present. Fast and winner of several races. A beautiful classic sloop, with a large rig for her length and an aft heeling mast, which is the reason she has beaten most standard new boats till 51 ft. Designed for South English coastal sailing, able to point high to the wind.
Easy to sail by 1 person. Gives comfortable space for 4 – 6 persons. Beautiful classic interior with classic and ‘contemporain’ features. The vessel is in sailing condition. She is better than new and ready for sail for another 60 years. The vessel has had a survey in 2009 and after this the owner, who owns the vessel no for 23 years, renewed the vessel with many things, eg in 2015 a brand new mainsail, 2 brass bull-eyes, bigger propeller, rudder renewed, the vessel newly painted, propane kitchen oven, plastic propane bottle, deck-stand for this bottle, the mast-top of stainless steel was reinforced, the railing is made stronger, new wind-vane and some other small changes.
As with any vessel she and especially her electronic equipment is not new and some electronics sometimes do, sometimes do not work, that happens. The new owner is also a care-keeper of this historic vessel and in return it will give for many years the new care-keeper a lot of fun and proud back. A personal note by the owner and history of the yacht: The vessel is totaly restored in 2002. In 1993 we became the proud owners of Helen.
We decided to restore her in a quality better then new to last for another sixty years at least. In 1996, after some years of pleasant sailing, we knew the ship and started a total refit. First we renewed the whole deck structure and everything which support the rigging. A totally new teak deck was laid upon new waterproof multiplex. We reinforced the deck totally. Stainless steel support plates for the rigging where laid under the deck, which was a replacement of the original steel (rusted) plates. In 1999 we bought a new foresail, Jib 1, tri-radial and a furling. Between 1999 and 2002 we started the second stage of our restoration project.
We renewed the lower planks around the keel dead wood (sand planks). These are standard a little bit thicker and stronger than the normal hull planks. The wood was good, but because of a mistake during her building in 1935 there was too much bolt rot. Copper fittings were used on steel frames inside. (Maybe such a lovely vessel was not designed to last more than 100 years). For more than 90%, all steel supports between keel dead wood and the hull where renewed by 316 stainless steel. The idea was to cover the hull with epoxy sheet, but only then when there was a 100% new and stronger vessel then the original under the epoxy sheet.
With the advice of West Epoxy Germany we ‘cascovered’ this perfect hull with a thin Trevira coat glued with epoxy. As a former surveyor we have seen extremely good results with ‘cascover’. Only the original glue – Resorcinol – is forbidden in Europe and so we used West epoxy as a glue. Trevira feels as very thin felt, works similar to felt and sucks the epoxy perfectly, it has not the force of a woven glass-material. It works and you see the planks again. It saves a lot of maintenance. The inside of the hull on most places painted with epoxy paint. In the winter we re-caulked the deck with Formflex, which is much better then Sicaflex in the subtropics. We also installed a new engine. The new engine is really silent. It is a 4 cylinder Lombardini 1204, 30 hp.
All stainless steel watertanks got an extra epoxy sheet as reinforcement. We renewed the whole kitchen interior and besides the two beds in the aft and the beds in the salon, we made a full kingsize bed, a nice separate sleeping place for two persons. The toilet/bathroom was upgraded and we made a new shower and shower tank under the floor. That tank is emptied by the same electrical pump of the toilet. The intention of the restoration was not repairing a nearly perfect hull, but give her a well deserved another 60 years. The hull was in perfect condition except for the keel-planks which had bolt rot due to wrong design. Steel frames fastened with pure copper refits. Changed those planks for Russian pine and changed nearly all keel-frames in stainless steel. Also renewed at the same time the transom totally. The bow-sprit construction got a total new stainless steel holding and also the rigging construction was totally renewed mostly in stainless steel. She has been always stored in a covered shed during winter times.
General:
One off, Design No. 13 Laurent Giles, named Helen, dimensions 13.50 x 2.80 x 2.10 m, built in 1935, designer:Laurent Giles, builder Philips & Sons Dartmouth, UK, S-shaped hull, keel: lead ballast on a wooden keel, building material: pine – oak, equipment cabin construction: teak and mahogany, implementation deck: teak, reapplied in 1996 and re-caulked in 2002, displacement: 11.000 kg, ballast: approx 6.000 kg, steering: tiller with autopilot , stainless steel pulpit, stainless steel guard rail, anchor with 50m of 10mm chain, electric windlass, finishing in teak and mahogany, 6 berths, 3 cabins, saloon head height 1.90 m, bedlengts 2m.
Engine:
Lombardini, type: LDW 1204, 30 hp, built in 2002, 4 cylinders, intercooling, new propeller 3-blade (2015), annual maintenance, gearbox TMC 60 – ratio 2 stainless steel fuel tank 90 l, hour meter, oil pressure and temperature gauge, various alarms.
Rigging:
Sloop Rig, wooden keel stepped mast in 2004, wooden boom and spinnaker boom, new standing rigging in stainless steel (2015), stainless steel and bronze fittings, adjustable backstay, self-tailing winches, brand new battened mainsail (2015), furling genoa, jib 1 and tri-radial forsail, all from 1999, brand new furling (2015).
Navigation equipment:
4 x service batteries, 1 x starter battery and 1 x anchor winch battery, shore power, battery charging Sterling Power 12V 25A, 12V and 230V, 150W Electric Silva autopilot drive: 1/4 hp, compass: bridge deck and electronic (Silva ) near mast foot, sounder, log, Silva VHF with DSC (computer-controlled), brand-new wind vane (2015), Silva GPS, several other electronics (Silva)
Gas and water.
Sea toilet, shower and basins, wash tank, manual by toilet pump, hot water system (engine and electric, water heater, electric pressure pump, stainless steel with epoxy water tank 230 liters, new galley cooker (2015), propane (plastic bottle on deck), stainless steel galley sink.
Safety / Extra
Manual bilge pumps and electric bilge pump, life raft, fire extinguishers, Zodiac dinghy, outboard 4 HP (3 years old but never used). In Greenwich Maritime Museum pictures can be seen and all drawings are available. Pictures: 1936 Beken of Cowes: 20465, 20467.
