Buchanan stories

[EASLOOP]

rjb suggested a Buchanan thread - so here goes.

I own a 1962 East Anglian Sloop designed by Alan Buchanan and built in Maldon. She is mahogony on oak, has a laid teak deck, wooden mast and boom, and an ancient BUKH DV10 engine. I bought her in 1994 as a boat in need of serious work, as impressed upon me by Peter Gregson of Wooden Ships, Kingsbridge. Buchanan had supervised her rebuild of the hull after she had been wrecked off Alderney in the 70's. She appears to have been badly neglected over the following years as she had significant rot in covering boards, beam shelfs, deck beams, carlin, cross beam, and hatch covers. I also replaced her king planks and about a third of the deck with iroko. Her interior joinery was not very good and caused problems with water syphoning up through the edges of the plywood bulkheads. The list goes on. I have now virtually finished the hull and deckwork. She went back in the water last season only to show up two major leaks. She came back out in October and I was able to fix those leaks (I had completely stripped out and re-caulked both hull and decks) I had left out two short runs of cotton in the forward seams and hence the leak. Not too smart sometimes. I am now re-building her interior following pretty well the plans I got from Alan Buchanan. Along with the plans, for which he charged a modest sum, on trust, I was given a survey report prior to the re-build - most interesting.
I am now re seating the valves in the engine as it froze up on me last year. You never know, I might even get to sail it one day.
Any stories out there?

regards
John

 

[jhr]

The first boat that I can recall sailing on was my father's East Anglian "Reprise" - probably about the same vintage as yours and kept at Brightlingsea. Most of my recollections are of standing around, in the freezing cold, whilst Dad tinkered with the engine and varnished the woodwork (is there a common theme developing here?)

I also recall going out on her on a few occasions and, the first time, being terrified because she was leaning over; in my defence, I was very young then. We moved South in the mid 60's, and the boat came with us but was sold fairly soon afterwards. However, we continued to see her, as her new owner kept her on the Hamble for many years. I don't know what subsequently became of her, but there is a 4 berth sloop bearing her name on the MARS database, and I kind of hope it's her..............

Just remembered her sail number - 116 Y. Amazing how our brains become repositories of such trivia!

 

[rjp]

I bought Alysia 3 years ago from a gentleman of 84 who had owned her some years but was having health problems and difficulty keeping her maintained. He insisted on meeting me before even discussing selling her to me! He acquired her from the estate of the person who 'built' her and had launched her in 1972 (though there is some evidence that she was built for a previous owner, so I rationalise that she was part completed, sold, then fitted out over a number of years). She's a Scorpion 32 built of Iroko on Canadian Rock Elm frames with a lead keel and according to Alan Buchanan with whom I corresponde late last year, was one of six built at Great Wakering. I don't have the name of the yard/builder and would be interested if anyone can fill in this piece of information. She was previously known as Meaford Maid and seems to have been 'built' in 1963/4. I have most of the drawings for her which the previous owner bought from Alan Buchanan.

When I originally inspected her she was laid up ashore. I knew nothing about wooden boats, though had seen a Buchanan that I fell in love with many years previously. It was raining heavily and she had water pouring in through the side decks into buckets (both sides). I got her for what I considered a good price at the time, but in reality probably paid too much!

On the other hand I've not really regretted it (well perhaps occasionally!). I've got her ashore in North Wales close to home and have replaced the starboard hand carlin, the marine ply deck, a section of the coach roof over the galley, replaced the original glass fibre deck/coach roof sheathing with glass/epoxy, had most of the deck fittings regalvanised, fitted a new teak toe rail and am in the process of fitting everything back together. Work and weather permitting she could be in the water by August but who knows! Will be replacing all the rigging as I'm not sure if she isn't still on the original apart from the forestay which has roller furling fitted. Some work needs to be done on the rudder.

I'll approach launching with some trepidation. She's of splined construction and there is minor cracking along some of the glue lines but she hasn't opened too much considering she's probably been ashore since the '90s. I had to replace a short section of topside planking adjacent to one of the chain plates and found that the seams have a strand of twisted caulking cotton inboard of the glued in spline. I've spoken to a couple of wooden boat enthusiasts and general concensus seems to be she's in pretty good shape. Hopefully she'll take up well.

That's about it for now. Look forward to reading of other's Buchanan experiences.

John

 

[raven21]

Ah greetings fellow buchananites everywhere.
I am just in the throes of finishing an extensive (expensive) winter refurbishment on my lovely clinker built 31 ft buchanan sloop the Viking of Mersea an east coast one design, of 1961 vintage and said to be a former Fastnet race competitor, unfortunately I inherited absolutely sod all history of the boat let alone plans or drawings and I would dearly love to obtain some. so if anyone knows how or where I could get hold of some please dont hesitate to let me know and in return earn my undying gratitude.
martin.

 

[rjp]

Alan Buchanan is still around and living in the Channel Islands. When I wrote to him last year he seemed quite interested to hear about one of his boats and was even able to tell me how many of mine were built. If you write to him he may be able to give you some information particularly if you have any clues regarding history. builder etc. He regularly advertsies in the back of one of the monthly magazines (Classic Boat I think).

John

 

[willow]

Hi just thought I'd add my piece from across the sea I have recently purchased a 32ft Buchanan a Viking I believe It was built in 1967 and is constructed of edge fastened double skin Kauri with a cedar coach house with ply decks. Has a huge piece of lead on the keel and sails better than I would have imagined. Would love to hear any stories of Alans beautifull boats. It is also one of the few wooden boats I have seen with dust in the bilge, and gets used every weekend so far.

William Horne (New Zealand)

 

[AlexHall]

Bought a sad rusting hull in 2001 in Malta. Turns out to be a Buchanan gaff cutter, designed for a Squadron Leader A Whitby in 58. Hullbuilt in Holland and shipped to Hayling Island where Whitby completed deck and interior.Named her Alando after his and his wifes names. Sold some years later to John Stothert, some where near Bridgewater, modified the name to Orlando, he found it too corny. Sailed with family of 5 to the Baltic one year. Found post card of Lanzarotte with Orlando as main theme! At some time was in West Indies. Heard the boat was known in the Scillies. Sons took over the boat where it ended up in the med, was used in a photo shoot on the GQ magazine whilst near Taormina. Ended up in Malta and left, not to use another word.

Orlando is 33 loa, disp 8.3t, gaff cutter, steel hull with composite deck. In shape looks like Barbican. Sails well enough to have been engineless for the first 11 years and fast enough to have picked up 2 trophies for 2 and 3 place in the last year against modern boats.