Camper and Nicholsons Royal Yacht 'Bloodhound Sail Boats For Sale - POA

Vital Statistics of the Camper and Nicholsons Royal Yacht 'Bloodhound

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Short Description of the Camper and Nicholsons Royal Yacht 'Bloodhound

Originally built by Camper and Nicholson in 1935, Bloodhound is one of the most famous classic yachts afloat, She has been totally restored by her current owner and is presented in 'as new' condition. Her famous owners include HRH Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh, who owned her during the 1970's. Camper & Nicholson yacht Bloodhound not only has great provenance, she is also capable of establishing herself as the yacht to beat on the classic circuit.

Owner's Comments of the Camper and Nicholsons Royal Yacht 'Bloodhound

This is a rare opportunity to buy one of the most famous yachts ever built built by Camper & Nicholson. She has a unique history having been owned for a long period by the UK Royal family and used by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh as their personal yacht.

The current owner, a specialist yacht restorer, is selling 'Bloodhound' as a completed project, commissioned and ready to sail away. The build is now complete other than some finishing to the interior fit out, with sea trials commencing at the end of may 2007. The completed boat is now fully fitted out to a high standard, using the rig designed by John Illingworth for HRH the Duke of Edinburgh.

'Bloodhound' is no ordinary yacht. She is one of the few authentic classic 1930's racing yachts left. Her uniqueness and attraction lie in the fact she was one of the most successful racing yachts ever built, becaming the Queen and Prince Phillip's personal yacht during the 1960's.

“Bloodhound” is British Flagged on the part one register in the current owner’s name and is fortunate to have retained her only name throughout her life. Her ownership heritage is listed in the Lloyds registers with concurrent bills of sale since Miles Wyatt’s sale to the Queen and Prince Phillip and thereon to Bernard & Robert Cook to the present day.

Short history

Bloodhound needs no introduction to the yachting enthusiast as she has been imprinted in the forefront of the world yachting scene since her inception in 1936, her profile elevated to superstar status when she became the royal yacht during the Sixties.

She was one of three yachts designed and built by Camper & Nicholson to the twelve metre class (third rule). Rather than follow the finer and lighter lines of the pure racing (i.e. round the cans) twelve metre classes, these yachts were modified for ocean racing purposes which involved heavier and more powerful hulls with increased accommodation. Neither three actually competed against the contemporary twelves but were adopted within the ocean racing (RORC) class one. Incidentally her sister ships, Foxhound and Stiarna, are now thought to be lost.

Throughout her various ownerships, her fortunes have wavered slightly, but throughout her sixty seven year life, she has remained in active use while virtually original in appearance and in structure. She has remained active right up until the autumn of 2002 when she was sailed from Guernsey to Poole through a gale to undergo a well overdue structural and internal refit. This is where Tony McGrail, the current owner, enters Bloodhounds long and remarkably successful career of this yacht. Bloodhound is remarkable, not only for her extensive racing trophies collected over the years (she was rated the most successful class one yacht right up until the late sixties) and as the Queen and Prince Phillip’s personal yacht for nine years, but remarkable for her durabilty and ability to remain continually at sea in all weather over much of this period.

Here are some of the accolades bestowed on Bloodhound.

"Bloodhound notched up an impressive list of overall and class wins in most European offshore races since the 1939 Fastnet". (Lord Faversham - Great Yachts.)

"A brilliant boat to windward who punished herself as little as any boat I know in a big seaway." (John H Illingworth. The Malham Story.)

"One of the most sucessful racing yachts ever built by my father." (John Nicholson - Great Yachting Years)

"Bloodhound’s exceptional string of pre-war victories set her apart from her stablemates". "She has enjoyed a glittering career." (Franco Pace & William Collier - Charles E Nicholson.)

"The most outstanding of the cruising twelve metres was Bloodhound, the winner of many races and the most comfortable of vessels at sea." (Uffa Fox - The Book of Sailing.)

"Brilliant performance-compared with a twelve metre they gained the oceans of the world". (Douglas Phillips-Birt).

"The most famous ocean racer ever built" (Ian Dear - Camper & Nicholsons - Two centuries of yacht building)

For more pictures, up to the minute details of work and to discuss refit specification please contact boatmatch.

Offers are invited, a suitable part exchange would be considered.

Camper and Nicholsons Information

Since 1782, Camper & Nicholsons has been synonomous with the world's leading yachts. Today, Camper & Nicholsons International remains the global leader in all luxury yachting activities, specialising in the sale, purchase, charter, marketing, management and construction of the finest yachts in the world. Their team of dedicated sales and charter brokers, yacht managers and staff all share a passion for being at sea and possess a range of experience and knowledge far beyond anyone else in the industry.

History

Frances Amos
In 1782, Frances Amos started a shipyard in Gosport across the harbour from the Royal Naval Dockyard at Portsmouth. In 1809 Amos apprenticed his great-nephew William Camper, and by 1821 the yard was building small trading ships.

William Camper
As Amos had no children, in 1824 he allowed his nephew Camper to take over the lease on the yard. Camper forged strong links with the wealthy members of the Royal Yacht Squadron, positioning the business in the emergent yacht building industry. For twenty years from the launching of the cutter Breeze in 1836, Camper built up a reputation as a builder of fast yachts, favoured by a prestigious clientele. However, the defeat in the inaugural 1851 America’s Cup followed in 1854 by the outbreak of the Crimean War and the consequent cessation of yachting heralded a premature decline to Camper’s career.

In 1842, 14-year-old Ben Nicholson joined Camper’s yard as an apprentice. As there was no clear male heir in the Camper family, Nicholson had risen in the yard to become chief designer, producing the innovative 1860 design for the schooner yacht the Aline. The yacht’s racing success and subsequent orders prompted Nicholson’s further promotion and facilitated his choice as Camper’s replacement when he retired in 1863.

Camper and Nicholson
The company of Camper and Nicholson was formed in 1863, financed by both William Camper and the Lapthorn family. Nicholson undertook a 30-year programme of expansion, more than doubling the size and scale of the facilities. The design and construction of large schooners dominated the firm’s output, and Nicholson added a refit and maintenance business made possible by the expansion of the yard’s facilities.

The 1900s
The arrival of Ben's three sons in the firm occasioned a final name change to Camper and Nicholsons. Eldest son Benjamin made his impact through the supply of crew, drawn mainly from regional fishermen, for leisure and racing purposes to the yachts built for the rich clientele - a service that continued until 1939. Youngest son Arthur W. found his ability best applied through managing the maintenance and construction facilities of the yard, and the purchase of expansion facilities in Southampton.

Charles E. Nicholson
Middle son Charles emerged as the consummate yacht designer, able to combine elegance with speed and seamanship. In the early 1900s Charles developed a new powered craft which would enable the owners to come from their “big-boats” before and after the competitions. In 1912, Charles introduced the 15-metre design Istria with a Marconi rig, the first yacht in the world with a lightweight, laminated wood construction. This led to further developments and growing expertise in the use of lightweight materials. This ultimately led to arguably Nicholson's most beautiful sailing creation, the 1927 commissioned Vita.

Post World War I "Golden era"
In 1914 C&N had produced the world’s first large, diesel powered yacht M.Y. Pioneer. Capitalising on this, Camper and Nicholsons remained the world’s leading builder of motor yachts through to the outbreak of WWII. The largest of these motor yachts was the 1,629-tonne MY Philante built for Sir Tom Sopwith. This was the third motor yacht built by C&N for Sopwith, and after he bought the America’s Cup yacht Shamrock V from the estate of Sir Thomas Lipton in 1931, Sopwith commissioned Charles to design the 1934 J-Class yacht Endeavour, and 1936's Endeavour II.

The height of C&N was probably 1937's Cowes Week which came to be known as Charlie Nicholson’s Regatta. All the J-Class, three quarters of the 12 Metres, half the 8 Metres and many of the ocean racers were from Charles’ board, as were many of the motor yachts in the spectator fleet. And yet for all the success, less than ten percent of C&N's output during his time was racing yachts.

Post-World War II
Just prior to World War II, Charles's son John Nicholson began to assist with the design office. After the War, John's cousin Charles A. Nicholson, known as Young Charlie, sent his second son George to the Riviera to work for a friend’s brokerage firm, and persuade both owners and crews to return their yachts to the yard for winter repairs. Charles E. Nicholson continued to chair the company until his death in 1954 aged 86. In the late 1950s, Young Charlie's son Peter developed the production offerings of the company with large motor yachts and custom sailing yachts, including his own 1964 showcase yacht Rocquette. With no experience of GRP or additional yard space for production, C&N commissioned Halmatic to mould hulls for the initial Nicholson 36 yacht designed by Peter, followed by the Nicholson 32 and then 26, 38, 43, 48, 55 and 72. By the time stock production had finally ceased in 1981 of the Nicholson 32, 369 boats had been built. Other production models which made up the 1,400 boats produced during this period included: Nicholson 32 - 369 boats + 20 in Australia; Nicholson 35 - 228 boats; Nicholson 38 - 134 boats; Nicholson 33 - 120 boats

Company structure

Being family owned, C&N had always had a propensity to develop subsidiaries to have complete control over production. In the 1960s Camper and Nicholsons Marinas Ltd was formed to develop old Admiralty land adjacent to the main yard. In 1961, in light of the amount of construction and refit/repair work it was generating for the home yard, George Nicholson persuaded his father to buy out his friend in the Cote d'Azur brokerage business, renaming it Camper and Nicholsons International. By this point the company had numerous offices around the Mediterranean, as well as Australia, the Caribbean, Hong Kong, Singapore and both coasts of America.

These companies plus the building and repair facilities were now held by Camper and Nicholsons Holdings Ltd. In 1972, Camper and Nicholsons Holdings Ltd formed a joint venture with investment and house building company Crest Securities Ltd., to form Crest Nicholson, and develop more former Admiralty sites. Having sold off C&N Electrical Ltd in 1974 for cash, and deciding to shut the Southampton yard, the assets of Camper and Nicholsons Holdings Ltd became part of Crest Nicholson. George Nicholson was not happy with the full merger, and left Camper and Nicholsons International to form Solidmark, which he built into a successful brokerage, consultancy and yacht management company.

In 1981, then Managing Director Tony Taylor led a management buyout of the boating companies and Camper and Nicholson Marinas, which finally cut the ties to the Nicholson family. Under the name Camper and Nicholsons Yachting, production of stock boats at custom yachts for supportive owner/share holders, including Nick Maris, continued in Gosport until 1989, when the business was bought by Campbell Laird.

In 1991, Nick Maris approached George about merging Solidmark with Camper and Nicholsons International, which George agreed to become MD of again. When George sold CNI in 2001, Nick Maris bought out the remaining share holders in Camper and Nicholsons Marinas, while Camper and Nicholsons Yachting was bought by industrialist Salvatore Ferragamo, who restarted stock production in Gosport in 2004 with a 42-foot (13 m) motor yacht. The Gosport yard finally closed in December 2005, with production moving to Scandinavia (Nautor Swan) in 2006, in light of a development offer from a joint bid by Camper and Nicholsons Marinas and Crest Nicholson.