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Displaced and unused for a few years, Cetewayo languished on a buoy off Campers in Gosport waiting for a new owner. Unfortunately, he came in the form of an individual called Humphrey Polson, who put a deposit on Cetewayo. Then he persuaded the Campers staff to give him the keys and sailed off with his new love into the sunset. Cetewayo and its new almost-owner then disappeared from the radar screen for almost six months until by chance the manager of the Gosport Campers yard was working at Campers only other UK yard in Pembroke Dock for his summer break. There, whilst in a small boat with his family, he rounded a creek to find Cetewayo  moored on a buoy. Keen to recapture his company’s honor, he quickly contacted Brian Stewart, who proceeded to place an Admiralty writ on the vessel, but not before Mr. Polson had Cetewayo lifted out on a Friday night onto the only jetty in the harbor that could accommodate her, under the pretense of a weekend’s work. Then on Saturday and Sunday his own yard’s workforce descended on the jetty and stripped Cetewayo of her interior, leaving only a carvel shell, and a pile of wood by her side. One can only speculate at Mr. Polson’s rationale, that he thought that in the this condition he might pay less and thus keep the yacht. Instead, there was a long legal battle in which Mr. Polson paid back increments to Brian Stuart, until  a critical point was reached at which Brian forced Mr. Polson to sell the vessel.

 

Meanwhile, one Thursday night while sifting through a copy of Yachting World, David Murrin saw Cetewayo for sale for  £25,000, and was struck by her  perfect and beautiful hull form. Two days later, David was under said hull with his brother, charmed by what was  obviously a beautiful boat that, despite being in need of huge amount of work, would be well deserving of the effort. Undeterred, the 26 year old purchased her, and in what was a dramatic twist, had to pay off Brian’s old mortgage and  enter into an agreement with Mr. Polson to put her back together, as the latter owned the only classic boat yard on the river.

 

When David undertook the task of transforming Cetewayo from a bare rotting hull, with only few remaining internal bulkheads, to the elegant racing condition she is in today, his initial objective was to reconstruct her to then sail for a season prior to a complete renovation. Following eight months of hard work in Pembroke, she was ready for her 'maiden voyage' to Plymouth. This voyage  from Pembroke Dock was the story of a great escape from the clutches of her Pembroke jailer, as the yard struggled to complete its jobs before departure. On  the first attempt, the jib track ripped off, and on the second her engine failed within the first hour of the voyage. A major storm lasting several hours in the Irish Sea then put Cetewayo and her crew to the test.

 

For the first few seasons, in the Solent David used Cetewayo as a cruising yacht much as his father had done with his family’s beloved Harrison Butler, “Minion”, on which David was conceived and brought up on the weekends and summer holidays. However, in 1993, David entered the Yachting Monthly Cowes Classic Regatta in which he won the Round the Island Race. He then won a most memorable event in  the first ever match race with the Fife, “Solway Maid”, Which was  kindly organised over two days by the RYS.

 

David’s conclusion at the end of 1993 was that racing Cetewayo was enormously fun, but that, since that there were not enough classic yachts to race regularly, Cetewayo should instead  race modern yachts for practice. Thus began the process to optimize her true racing potential by racing her under a system called 'CHS' (Channel Handicap System), which was the fore runner of IRC. For her debut, she entered the Hamble Winter Series, with what, at the time, was a handicap of 1.01, well away from her optimum rating (now 0.958 ). In addition, this big heavy yacht was not set up to race round the cans against modern light yachts. The result, predictably, was a jolly good trashing and a placing at the back of the fleet. However, the eight Sundays of racing provided many lessons that would applied over the coming winters to enhance Cetewayo’s  racing performance.

 

In order to optimize Cetewayo’s CHS handicap, a continuing programm of restoration, innovation and improvement was undertaken year on year for seven years. This included faring the hull and keel, improved race instrumentation, re-winching the whole boat with Anderson winches and re-arranging the back stay runners, replacing Laurent Giles levers with winches. In addition, the transom, rudder and steering system were rebuilt and strengthened, and the covering boards and garboards were replaced. On the inside, the interior was rebuilt to a higher standard than its original white plywood finish, replete with aluminum door frames.

 

The experience of learning just how finely balanced was Cetwayo’s design, and her sensitivities to various modifications to her handicap in relation to her boat speed, was one of the many great pleasures her owner experienced as he developed a relationship with her over many years.

 

During this period, the Dacron sails were replaced by the first white Mylar sails built by Doyle’s. Mylar has a much higher modulus than Dacron and many people suggested that the addition of such sails would pull an old wooden yacht apart. However, the counter- argument was that such sails would undergo less deformation and stretch and, consequently, would retain their shape maintaining the power generated as a forward driving force rather than a heeling moment. As Cetewayo is a long narrow boat, it would be easier for her to absorb a driving forward force than a heeling moment that constantly puts stresses on the narrow lateral rigging and down into the garboards. In addition, the high shock loads developed by high modulus  sails would be partly absorbed by the more flexible wooden spar, and the use of traditional sheets. She became a trailblazer, for it was and is today not often that one sees a yacht flying the most modern Kevlar sails from a wooden mast and boom constructed with glued spruce.

 

With the first two seasons use of Mylar sails, there was a marked increased success and performance. The next suit of racing sails were Kevlar and straw colored, and with improved shapes from Reilings these powered Cetewayo to many a victory. In addition it was recognized that for a small decrease in the foot length of the mainsail Cetewayo could fly masthead kites rather than fractional kites. This turned her into a rocket down wind, and yet made very little difference to her upwind performance. ->

 

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