Arrow
West Solent One Design (W Boat)
Sail number
W1
Designer / class origin
H. G. May, Berthon Boat Company, 1924
Class dimensions
34 ft 5 in length overall (LOA)
31 ft length waterline (LWL)
7 ft 5 in beam
Original class construction
Oak bent and laminated frames, red-pine planking, elm keel with 39 cwt lead, pine/canvas deck
Restoration
Two phases by Peter Brookes at Maldon
Return to use
Cowes and Mediterranean racing
Class, condition and restoration brief
Arrow is W1 of the West Solent One Design class, designed by H. G. May and built by Berthon Boat Company from 1924. The class combined oak bent and laminated frames, red-pine planking, an elm keel with 39 cwt of lead, and a pine/canvas deck.
Phil Plumtree found Arrow on the Hamble River in the late 1980s after earlier alterations, including a large cruising cabin. She was transported to Maldon on the East Coast for restoration by Peter Brookes.
The brief was to return the boat from altered cruising form to a West Solent One Design that could race properly again.
Peter restored Arrow in two phases, removing altered structure and rebuilding the yacht around the class’s deck layout, cockpit, hatches and rig.
Structure, deck and return to racing
The work included removal of the keel, sternpost, stem and iron floors, a complete reframe with wooden floors, new decks and deck layout, cockpit and hatches to the original arrangement, a basic interior and a new wooden rig as original.
Peter’s W-Boat rebuild method also addressed the usual weak points: cradling the hull, renewing stem, horn and rudder-box structure, replacing damaged frames and lower planking, fitting a much longer iroko mast step, Douglas-fir deckbeams, a marine-ply and teak deck, bronze fittings and through-deck rigging to internal bronze chainplates.
Arrow returned to racing at Cowes with great success, and later on the Mediterranean circuit. Phil Plumtree had a truck converted for Arrow so she could be transported to Mediterranean regattas.
Project enquiries
Every wooden yacht presents a different combination of construction, condition, history and intended use.
Speak with Peter Brookes about what should be retained, what requires attention and the right scope for the work.