WORTH THE WAIT

“A handy little cruiser with comfortable accommodation, a good turn of speed, at a moderate price, and one that should render a good account of herself in handicap racing.” That, according to Yachting World in January 1922, was what Brightlingsea boatbuilders Aldous Ltd planned to produce, with luck in some numbers, giving yachtsmen “an excellent opportunity to secure an exceptionally fine little cruiser at a moderate price at a time when we are taught to believe such construction is impossible”. Aldous Ltd had been building boats for almost 90 years – smacks initially, and then smacks and yachts alongside each other – and up until the First World War had been controlled by the Aldous family. By now, however, the firm was being run by managing director Arthur Boyes, who had also designed this 46ft (14m) LOS gaff cutter, which he was hoping to put into production. As it turned out, however, not only was this almost certainly the only yacht design ever produced by Boyes, only one of them was ever produced – Ayesha.

was built with an English elm keel, English oak stem and sternpost, and with larch planking on oak frames and intermediate steamed Canadian rock elm timbers. She was launched in June 1922 and for the first six years of her life was officially owned – according to Lloyd’s Register of Yachts – by Boyes himself, and then by Aldous Ltd. In the same month she was completed, she won the opening race of the season. Among her racing successes the following year was a third place at the Royal Temple YC’s regatta at Deal, in which King George V’s won the Big Class.