Laurent Giles has always been regarded as an originator in yacht design, gifted, capable and confident in his skill and ability to design innovative yachts of astounding beauty and performance.
In 1955 this confidence was manifested in the design and construction of Cetewayo, a 7/8 fractional Bermudan sloop, which was built on speculation of sale, rather than commission, by Morris and Lorrimar on the Clyde. Without much difficulty she was sold to Sir Henry Spurrier and, under her former name Zulu, was raced on the Clyde in her first season gaining five firsts and only being out of the prize list once.
Cetewayo's racing achievements are as glorious and honourable today as in her debut year much to the hard work and restoration of her present owner David Murrin. Her story has not always been one of glory, however, and might indeed have ended in tragedy, if it were not for David who found her, in 1989, perched high on Pembroke Dock in an abandoned and what would seem terminal condition.
When David undertook the massive task of transforming Cetewayo from a bare rotting hull, with only few remaining internal bulkheads, to the fast, sleek condition she is in today, his initial objective was to reconstruct her so she could be sailed 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, with storms in the Irish Sea putting her to the test.
After a season of racing in and around the Solent the decision was made to optimise her racing potential by competing under a system called 'CHS', Channel Handicap System. In order to make the most of this system a continuing programme of restoration, innovation and improvement was undertaken year on year. This included a newly shaped keel, new duel cockpits and improved race instrumentation amounting to 800 crew hours' worth of work in 1995. Successive winters of refitting saw further changes with the installation of a new engine (48 h/p Kaboto marine diesel auxilliary), a complete rebuild of the transom rudder and steering allowing extra winches to be installed, facilitating the use of higher performance Mylar race sails.
Cetewayo's lines reveal she was built to be fast. Her sleek outline, long waterline dimensions and a distinctive overhanging transom immediately say speed. Laurent Giles' original design for Zulu, together with her heritage as a classic wooden yacht, has been transformed and synchronised with the advancements in modern technology and equipment. Cetewayo is now a honed powerful racing yacht with incredible performance against glass fibre competitors in the Modern Class.
Cetewayo's latest addition is a suit of state of the art kevlar race sails one might more commonly see on a Whitbread 60 as opposed to a long slim hark back to the fifties complete with wooden 19.2 m hollow mast, constructed with glued spruce, and a spruce boom. But that is the trademark of this boat. She is one of a kind, for it is not often one sees a yacht flying the most modern kevlar sails from a wooden mast. There is logic to such an approach, however. An aluminium or kevlar mast may be lighter and stronger, but the high shock loads developed by kevlar sails are partly absorbed by the more flexible wooden spar, loads that could otherwise extensively damage the structure of an older boat.
That is not to say that Cetewayo has not seen fairly dramatic changes including a complete rebuild of the transom to accommodate running backstay winches supporting the rig with it's complement of vast masthead and fractional asymmetric and symmetrical spinnakers. One might wonder what Laurent Giles would think of his design forty-five years later; David Murrin is sure he would be proud.
Performance, speed and racing results are a reflection of the achievement and benefits of Cetewayo's renovation. She has won many races including the Commemorative Round the Island Race at the America's Cup Jubilee which, when David choose to race in the Modern Class, was not a popular win amongst the other competitors and thus a largely unheralded feat!
