Volante Of Ville is a 38 foot classic cruiser racer designed and built by Camper & Nicholson of Gosport in 1961.

After being at Dolphin Quay in 2008 for a serious programme of repair work, she has had most of the major things wrong with her hull structure put right.

In 2009 her owner Tony Harwood entered the Fastnet race with 'Volante' and won the Iolaire Trophy (prize for the oldest vessel to take part).

Update 16 August 2015

Volante had her mast unstepped for survey. The survey found degradation in the timber around the upper most rigging attachment point. We were going to carry out a repair but found even more problems. Repairs suddenly looked like becoming most of the way towards the cost of a new mast.

It was a tough call for the owner, so we had a quote for a new mast from Jeremy Freeland at Collars which considering the size of the mast was far less frightening than expected!

So now 'Volante' awaits a lovely new mast to arrive at Birdham Pool.

The pictures show the decay in the old mast and also 'Volante' in the shed at Endeavour Quay, Gosport before we took the old mast to Birdham Pool. She is alongside a state of the art, Open 60's racing machine; talk about chalk and cheese!

Update 26 March 2017

'Volante' really needed one more sizable repair done. In 2008 we removed all the iron strap floors and repaired the underlying timbers, regalvanised the floors and refitted them on new bedding with new bolts except the ones that were underneath the engine and loo compartment. The ones under the loo compartment were a lot more involved because they incorporate before and aft fabrication (or girder) that forms the mast stop. The loo compartment needed to be completely dismantled to gain access and at the time it was a job just too big to contemplate in view of all the work that had been done already.

In Spring 2016 however the fact that this area of the boat's structure required attention came to light when the lovely new Collars mast was stepped. Shortly after she had been returned to her berth (still in Birdham Pool) she settled on the bottom. Fortunately there was less than a foot of water under her keel so the inrush only came up to just below the top of the saloon settee tops and as she settled down by her head raising the stern, engine, batteries and electronics all survived the sinking.

It was a terminal leak. Our lange submersible pump would empty her but if the leak had occurred at sea her own pumps would not have coped. The location of the leak under the loo compartment floor was un-accessible as the whole thing had been built in permanently sometime earlier by another owner.

When 'Volante' was lifted out and a surveyor from the insurance company had looked at her the cause of the leak was very obvious - a length of plank seam over a metre long had opened up.

The boat stayed ashore as it would have been completely inappropriate to attempt a temporary repair and then re-launch her. Tony Harwood thought for a while how he wished to proceed. We were given the all clear to remove the loo compartment structure to have a clear view of what was underneath and discovered that the mast step fabrication associated strap floors and underlying timber were in very poor condition.

On drawing sample floor bolts, all were found to have wasted very badly.

Tony instructed us to start the repairs in November 2016. Hopefully 'Volante' will be able to be re-launched for the new season in Easter 2017.

Update 28 June 2017

We completed all the timber, planking repairs and fitting of the new galvanised mast step assembly at the end of May 2017. We also rebuilt the loo compartment joinery over the repair area.

Volante then had a full survey carried out by Mike Andrews, who recommended that a few other items ought to be addressed, including checking/replacing chain plate fastenings.
She was re-launched and the mast re-stepped on 19th June.

Update 4 June 2018

After leaving Birdham Pool in June 2017, Volante got close to the harbour entrance and suffered an engine failure. With a Spring ebb under her, there was no time to get some sail on her before she was put ashore on the edge of the Winner bank. All the crew were taken out of her, but she had to wait until the night tide to be towed off by The Harbour Conservancy and Hayling Rescue, then taken back to Itchenor. A horrible experience for her owner Tony Harwood and his crew, especially in view of all the work that had just been carried out on the boat.

Volante was then brought back to Birdham again and lifted out of the water. The engine was found to have seized, and it was decided to replace it with a new engine of the same type (Yanmar 3GM). The hull below the waterline was surveyed again by Mike Andrews, and many of the splined seams were found to have failed as a result of the grounding. It was agreed then that the best way forward was to remove the timber splines from the under water seams after removing all the paint coatings, then check all the caulking, harden up or recaulk if necessary, then pay the seams with read lead putty instead of resplining.

The hull was then reprimed and some minor chafing of the after deadwood was repaired.

Tony Harwood then, in spite of the expense of the recaulking decided to have us attend to all the bright work and repaint the top sides. Volante came out of our shed looking very smart indeed, and after re-rigging, we took her back to Haslar Marina, Gosport, with Tony on board, just before Christmas 2017.

Update 13 June 2018

It was with great sadness that we heard that Tony Harwood, owner and great friend of Volante of Ville, passed away suddenly in May. Please take the time to read the post on our blog.

Update 23 May 2021

The first week of May 2021, Volante’s new keel bolts arrived, and we reunited her with her ballast keel on a new tarred felt gasket. When this work was completed, the boat was moved back into our shed, and work commenced on re-splining the hull topsides planking.

Update 30 October 2021

Volante now has had her topsides planking repairs completed, all the re-splining done, and many coats of primer undercoat applied before final topcoats. She is getting much closer to re-launching now!