For more information, contact Robbe & Berking Yachts, Telephone: +49 (0) 461 31 80 30 65, E-Mail: classics@robbeberking.de TECHNICAL DETAILS: LOA INCL. SPARS: 78 ft 0 in / 23.77 m LENGTH ON DECK: 67 ft 0 in / 20.42 m KEEL: Long DISPLACEMENT: 75 tonnes DESIGNER: Fred Shepherd CONSTRUCTION: Carvel pitch pine, double oak frames, copper riveted, hand-forged floors and deck knees, deck and superstructure in teak, masts in white spruce bronze. LWL: 54 ft 0 in / 16.46 m BEAM: 15 ft 0 in / 4.57 m DRAFT: 10 ft 0 in / 3.05 m BUILDER: J. N. Miller & Sons St Monans Fife ENGINE: Mercedes-Benz OM352 100 hp YEAR: 1935 LOCATION: Germany participated in the RORC Cowes–Ouistreham Race, with an 1,800-mile summer cruise of Norway, the Baltic and Holland thrown in for good measure. Whether Ella was laid up, or requisitioned, during the war years remains a mystery which continued immediately after the war with Lloyd’s Register of Yachts listing her owners as specialist car dealers and bodybuilders Spikins (Twickenham) Ltd, the firm of the then well-known motor racing driver and aviator Bob Spikins. But that must have been a very brief affair. In 1947 Ella was taken north again, now under the ownership of Clyde Cruising Club Commodore Robert J. Dunlop, whose business interests ranged from ship owning to whisky distilling. She was based in Rhu on the Firth of Clyde under the new name Veleda and her wishbone was removed for perceived safety and practicality. Dunlop’s previous yacht was the converted 1931 Alfred Mylne 12-Metre Veronica. Replacing her with Veleda presumably was a lot due to her greater capabilities as a comfortable and spacious family cruiser, mothership to his family’s small boat racing activities, and a most suitable »Commodore ship«. Veleda’s month-long summer cruise of 1950 took the Dunlop family from the Clyde to Norway and back, both ways via the Caledonian Canal: a very pleasant and successful experience. But, sadly, time was running out for Robert Dunlop. He sold Veleda in August 1952, and was dead at the age of 61 by November. Up to the 1970s, she had any owners who sailed her mostly on the south coast. A further change of ownership took place in 1974, which was the start of the ocean roving period in this yacht’s life that she is known for in living memory. She was purchased in Cowes by Mrs Joan Lacon (later Coventry) of Norris Castle, Isle of Wight, and Captain Mike McMillan whose previous command had been the 96 ft Charles Nicholson ketch Cynara which he had sailed to Japan in 1973. Following a major refit at Cowes during which the fore part of the accommodation was refitted with charter in mind – with the beautiful mahogany guest accommodation thankfully unaltered – Lacon and McMillan sailed Veleda to Antigua, leaving Cowes in January 1975. They sold her in 1976 to former charter guests Wolfgang Friedrichsen and Alex Barber, with Mike McMillan staying on as captain for a summer cruise to Nova Scotia and Labrador, and participation in the New York Grand Parade of Sailing Ships »Operation Sail« of the US Bicentennial Program. On return to Antigua, Andy Pack took over as skipper and Veleda embarked on a two-year circumnavigation. By the late 1970s she made her first visit to Hamburg and became part of the maritime museum there which Wolfgang Friedrichsen had been involved with for many years. But her ocean roving continued into the mid-1990s under Captain Knut Kähler. DUNLOP’S PREVIOUS YACHT WAS THE CONVERTED 1931 ALFRED MYLNE 12-METRE VERONICA. read more Fotos: ZVG 102
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