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Interestingly, the design for Lotus, the Menai Strait One Design, was drafted by Fife some fifty years before Dickies of Tarbert built her and two other sister ships in 1934. At the time of her design one other yacht was being built, Uandi, which is still in existence and waiting to be restored. Lotus is mahogany planked on an oak frame with teak laid deck and a lead keel. Little is known of her history prior to 1960 other than that she was often seen sailing in Torbay by an hotelier from Torquay. In the early 1970's she arrived on the River Itchen. Following a long period of neglect she was eventually retrieved from the shore, having broken away from her moorings, and was held by the Wilment Shipyard as payment for debt. Payment was not made, however, and ten years ago, Maurice Wilmot, chairman of the Classic Boat Museum, Newport, IOW, bought her for £750 complete with 12 inches of guano and a small bay bush growing inside her! Alistair Garland, with Maurice, fully restored Lotus and she was back in commission by 1998. The original shear strakes were too rotten to be retained but the original "dragons" were sectioned off and bonded to the inside of the hull, new dragons being carved forward. As for the bay tree, it is now quite large and happy in Maurice's garden! Lotus is kept at the Classic Boat Museum in Newport but she is far from being a museum piece. She sails regularly and Maurice trails her to Classic Regattas in Europe, Benodet, St Tropez, Flensberg and the last Fife Regatta on the Clyde. Indeed he is credited as attending every Classic Week in the Mediterranean with Lotus in the astounding book, "La Passion Bleue ... a Tribute to Owners", produced by the Comite International de Mediterranee.
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