Severn

K 23

A bit of SevernThe whole Severn thing started when Fred Meyer fell in love with a Fife girl named Finola. Unfortunately for Fred she was already married to a rather eccentric Dr. Brito Abrau from Lisbon who refused to divorce. Fred was left to sing the blues, and trust me, the man was unbearable, all he could talk about was Finola. Then it struck me that Finola had a twin sister, Severn ! You see Fife built four 8-Metres from the same lines plan. Fulmar and Falcon were first, then he took the same lines, spaced the frames 2” wider and built Finola and Severn and the later was the most successful of them all, winning La Coupe de France in 1931, 1932 and 1933. But Severn was broken up in the seventies, so I suggested to Fred to not overcomplicate matters and just build a new one to the old lines and so it happened. At Absolute Restorations, David Vieira recreated Severn to the way she was when she ran down the slip at Fairlie in 1930. Luckily for everyone around Fred things went back to normal. She was and is fast and ridiculously bonnie. Fred figured she should be sailed by people who knew the ropes so he asked a bunch of pretty good guys to race her for the 8 mR Worldcup in Hyeres. The names “may” ringt a bell… are you ready? Okay, here we go: Ed Baird took the tiller and he was joined by Brad Butterworth, Murray Jones, Simon Daubney, Warwick Fleury, Peter Evens and Dean Phipps as Brad would say, great handy guys to have on board. …. Together these men won the America’s Cup more than any other team, ever .. Guess who won the Sira Cup and the Neptune Trophy in 2009 and rightly so !! Not long after Werner Deuring bought her and he still keeps her on Lake Constance.The latest update is that she has been sold and will return to the circuit actively . So maybe we will be seeing something maybe never been seen before. In 2024 the World Cup will be held on the Clyde. The Royal Northern and Clyde Yacht Club will host it and there is a big change that we will see Severn, Carron II, Fulmar, Falcon, and Saskia at the start line.. all Fife designed Eight Metre yachts.And then of course there is the other Severn II, K-30, and she was designed by Alfred Mylne in 1934. She has sailnumber CAN-7 and is at in Toronto and is actively raced by Cedric Gyles. Another great name on a great boat and really pretty boat carrying the Gyles family tradition of racing the Eights on Lake Ontario.