We tend to forget just how large those Whitbread (brewers) boats were,the one on the left was built overseas but the one on the right,Wesbank, was built right here in Cape Town,at the time she was said to be the largest Carbon Fibre construction ever made world wide? Wesbank was built in the suburban area of Constantia,on land owned by the Grenvilles who built her,they also built Nissan Skyline,a much smaller yacht designed to do ocean races,neither Wesbank or Nissan Skyline ever reached their full sailing limits,I think being underfunded was the main factor.
Wesbank was later sold and fitted out to a very high standard,the contract was managed by Tom Maben who now restores classic cars,the senior carpenter in charge was Richard,who drove Tom quite mad at times,taking a day off work to go fishing was all fair and ok for Richard, I seem to remember suplying the teak to her decks,plus the contact for laying them as well?.On her delivery trip up the East Coast she hit a reef and was written off.
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