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‘Sibyl of Cumae’ carries the dragon head and tail at the cove lines showing that she was a vessel designed and built at the Fairlie yard by William Fife III in 1902. Sibyl and her sister ship Nyama were smaller scale yachts of the much larger vessel Lucida and probably used for local racing in her early years. Originally she was a gaff cutter with three open cockpits and carried a crew of up to eight hands for racing. This was changed most likely in the 1930’s in Ireland when a Bermudian Rig and coachroof assembly were fitted. The vessel was laid up in Ireland during the war years and this is the reason that the five ton lead keel was not lost to the war effort. Just after the war Sibyl was purchased by Major Nicolay and Lita Edwards and kept at Lock Goyle in Scotland. During their ownership of nearly 40 years she was extensively raced and cruised in Scotland and Ireland and more extensively cruised from Brittany to the Baltic. This was all widely reported in the Yachting press of the day. During this partnership she had many rigs including sloop, ketch and wishbone ketch. During the 1980’s, Sibyl was again cruising the West Country when she was damaged in a storm and put ashore for insurance repairs. Sibyl was looking very sorry for herself and at that time owners John and Dorothy Merrett took over ownership and embarked on a complete restoration which was now required. The vessel was stripped down to the bare hull with deck, coachroof and ballast keel removed. All the original planking and steamed timbers were in good order and retained with a new deck and coachroof fitted to the same 1930’s style. One ton of lead was cut out of the ballast keel to compensate for the engine, tankage and other creature comforts to be fitted for modern day cruising and the rig put back to the 1930’s Bermudian Sloop arrangement. A deal of steel reinforcement was added in way of the mast to minimise the rigging strains on the 100 year old structure.
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Sibyl has been extensively cruised and raced in the
West Country and down the Brittany coast by just the two of us
and is always recognised as a fine example from the board of William
Fife.
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