John S Hill Boatbuilders - News & Articles

The Rebirth of 'Varen' - by Fergus Mitchell 2000

It's often said that the biggest single investment the wooden boat owner makes is time.

The happiest owners are the ones that realise this before starting out. For Charles Hunter-Pease, Greenock born and raised, it was that knowledge that brought him back to wooden boats after many years of fibre glass and plastic alternatives. "The first boat I ever owned was a Clyde 1924 from 1897 which I bought for £500 and sold for £1000. Then I had a boat called 'Jelmar', built in 1951 for 3 taxi drivers from Glasgow who's wives were Jean, Elizabeth and Margaret. Since then, its been all plastic boats. I had a Victoria 34, a Hallburg-Rassy 36 and the last was a Hallburg-Rassy 39." A busy accountant by trade, Charles made the conscious decision to reign back his working hours in order to spend more time with his growing children. And having a bit more time, naturally enough, made the prospect of returning to the joys of a wooden boat much more viable. So, when an advert in a magazine appeared offering two for sale, Charles felt he had to make the journey back to the Clyde to see for himself. The owner, it transpired, was advertising both because he planned to sell whichever went first and keep the other. he saw Greylag at the Clyde River Boatyard in Renfrew, but their was no spark. "Although she was nice, she just wasn't what I was looking for," Charles recalls. But the other boat was different.

"I came down to Kip Marina, and there was this boat just lying there. She was just one of those boats. I just looked at her...the shape, the shear on the back. She was perfect."

'Varen' is certainly a beautiful vessel. Built to a G.L. Watson design at the famous Moody's Yard in Southampton in 1961. She was, by all accounts their last wooden boat. She measures 37ft long by 10ft beam and is 9ft from deck to keel, giving a good 7ft of headroom below.

Seeing Varen on that first fateful day, also awoke some powerful childhood memories in Charles. When I was a boy in Greenock, I used to race on a Cruiser 8 called Caitlin, originally Charm of Rhu, and that's where I fell in love with that shape...the design...they were McGruerr's design and build I think. That was what attracted me."

But no matter how strong his feelings towards Varen, taking her on would require a fairly considerable leap of faith. She was in a fairly sorry state, having some off second best in a tussle with a channel marking buoy in the Kyles' of Bute. The stem-post was cracked through and wanted replacing, along with several of the hulls teak planks.

The insurance payout on Varen would cover all the obvious damage, as well as splining work and all the topside varnishing. But first Charles had to get some comparative quotes for the work. Asking around for some recommendations, he heard from old pal Robert Kitchen about a well regarded boat builder who worked out of the Clyde River Boatyard where Charles had originally seen Greylag. This was John S Hill. After a meeting and a chat about the job, Charles knew he'd met the right man for the job. "The bill for the crash repairs was about £13,000 but if the insurers had come to me and said his quote was a few quid over, I'd have paid the extra myself. As it turned out, Johns price was more than reasonable".

So it was that Varen was moved up river and into Johns care. Once again, perhaps there was a tinge of nostalgia in Charles decision. John Hill is very much part of that great tradition of Clyde boat building that Charles so admired. He started as an apprentice at the famous Silvers yard at Rosneath in 1964, before moving up the Gareloch to that other famous boatbuilding establishment, McGruerrs, then in Clynder. He started his own business in his back garden in Johnstone. Frequent use of the Clyde River Boat Yard in Renfrew led to John establishing a permanent base there. The company itself is still based eight miles away in Johnstone, although thankfully no longer in the garden shed.

The major repair was obviously the replacement of the oak stempost. After opening up the planking at the bow, the full extent of the damage was revealed. The stem was cracked right through from the impact of the collision. Replacement would be no easy task, not least because a properly aged piece of oak fourteen feet long and two and a half feet thick is just not to be found these days. Hugh Collins set about making a replacement by laminating twenty-four strips of American oak laid along the lines of he original stem, then carving it into shape. the results speak for themselves.

Sourcing replacement planks for the hull was no simple task either as John recalls. "There was a bit of time spent trying o get them right. It's hard enough getting teak the right length, but the real problem was getting the colours to match. But we managed it! I'd say we got the match 99% perfect. With this kind of job, what you're aiming for is a repair that no-one will ever spot. I know theirs six new planks at the bow, but even I find it hard to spot them".

As so often with slightly neglected wooden boats, there were plenty of nasty surprises lurking. Charles remembers reading the surveyors report . "It basically said she was in immaculate condition upto a few years ago. Now she was moving down, soaking inside. All the instruments were waterlogged, all the cushions were shot, the sails were really rather old, from 1981 I think, and were ready for changing. The rig itself was set up skew-whiff. What she really wanted was some tender loving care". And, as it turned out, a year and a half's work.

"The original idea" says Charles, "was to do all the insurance work at Johns and leave it at that, but as I saw the standard of work they were doing, I said lets go to town and do the complete interior". And so they did.

"We decided to lift everything up. She's had steel floors replaced half way back. They re-did the bilges, re-did the lot basically"

Although the standard of work carried out by the previous owner couldn't be faulted, Charles found some aspects of the layout just didn't fit with his ideas.

"The gentleman who had her previously had a bulkhead with doors just inside the cabin, so you could shut yourself off in here if you really wanted to. Perhaps he had one of a crew or something like that, maybe two. It just seemed to me to be a bit claustrophobic".

The authenticity bug had really bitten and Charles wanted to extent to the ships engine. John put Charles in touch with Glasgow firm Seward Engineering. By extraordinary stroke of luck, they happened to have the very thing. "A new 1961 Kelvin diesel engine, exactly what was in there. It was taken round narrow boat shows, bolted to the back of a lorry to show how they worked. Its exactly the right engine to be in there, only 18hp, very slow revving, slow running. Just the job"

For John, Charles determination to fine the exact engine was very telling. He knew Charles was the kind of man who would appreciate the best that his team could offer. As John remarked "when you see somebody going to all that bother, taking all that time, you kind of get the feeling for what they're after. It's good to see"

As work progressed, Charles paid monthly visits to the yard to see how things were going. he liked what he saw. "I love doing the work, the craft involved. But I wouldn't be competent to get it to this stage myself, so meeting someone like John has been great. he doesn't overdo something, he doesn't do things just to sell you more work, so theirs a level of trust there. Johns done his time working in a yard that used to build wooden boats. So when you ask him why is this done, he absolutely knows. John has a lovely sign over his door.

"Quality remains after the price is forgotten"

"To me, his price is very, very good and the quality...absolutely faultless".

For Charles, Johns craft is perfectly illustrated by something that was almost an afterthought in the re-birth of Varen. "I got him to make me a ladder, to go down the side. It's got little strips of leather to protect the hull. It's got those little stainless steel hooks on the top. It has these varnished teak treads, but he's still left a slot at the back of each one, so you've got a hand-hold and you're not hanging onto wires. And its got the little chamfer underneath so that if the dinghy catches it, it'll push away and not lift it. Brilliant! Where do you find that skill nowadays? John and Malcolm sat down and invented this thing from scratch and it looks like it's been with the boat from the start".

Theirs one problem that faces every restorer who sets out to return a boat to its former glory. What to do, where the need for modern navigation and safety equipment outweighs the push for authenticity. Originally, Varen would have had a paraffin stove on board, but bottled gas is the modern way so a discreet box was placed just forward of the mast to hold the bottles. Another case in point was the old binnacle which stood in Varens cockpit. It wasn't up o the job, so John contacted Malcolm at Custom Craft in Paisley. As Charles recalls "it was really big. the glass had gone, you could barely see the compass. I think it was original but it stuck out too far. So Malcolm, the stainless steel man, made that pipe to take all the instruments. And it's a work of art!". John attracts people round him who can do the jobs properly. Not just authentically, but well. It gives you confidence. I've been up here maybe ten or twelve times over the last year and I've never felt worried for one moment"

With work on Varen nearing completion. Charles was in need of a tender. Typically he made the decision to reject the standard inflatable dinghy in favour of something more in keeping with the Varens looks. She would originally have carried a small wooden tender, fitted with a sailing rig. Again, John came up trumps, although by a slightly circuitous route. "I asked John where I could find a dinghy and he said he hadn't a clue. But then I saw a picture of one on the wall in his workshop. I asked his son about it. He said his father decided to build a couple to sell as a sideline. I asked him for a look at one. We measured it and it fitted perfectly. If you take the bang, the pram, the doghouse here...it's a perfect fit. It's clinker built, but plywood so it works out a lot lighter than the original would have been. And it's a little bit of John up there. I mean, theirs a lot of him in this boat, but that tender is something special..."

As we spoke, at Largs Marina at the end of July, Charles and John were making a few last minute adjustments to Varen. Charles will keep her at the port of Lymington on the Solent, around an hour and a half's drive from home. But first, theirs getting there. Charles cant wait.

"We'll stop off at Bangor, Howth, Kilmore Quay where I haven't been before, then, depending on the weather either to the Scillys or to Falmouth then up the coast, Salcombe then home. Most of my sailing is along there, west of Lymington towards Falmouth. It's a nice cruising area. And despite having sailed the channel all this time, I've never been to France yet so I should do that".

And will we see Varen back off the west coast of Scotland again?

"Yes, because I get bored. We'll probably have a trip with the boys in two years. There are a lot of people who saw her, last year under the previous ownership, who said "is she staying?", so I know a lot of people would miss her up here.

Johns pretty sure that Varens graceful lines will be seen in these waters again. "There's no-where to beat sailing off the West coast of Scotland. he might get the wee urge to come back up here. He's got friends up here, his roots are up here, so maybe with a bit more time on his hands...?"

For John, seeing Varen sail off into the sunset is offset by the satisfaction of a job well done. "At the end of the day, its work. Its nice to see a customer like Charles going away happy with something that you know you've made a good job of. For me, that says it all. that's what we're about