Brer Terrapin, Mike takes up the story

Ruth and Mike contacted me recently about the yacht Brer Terrapin, which was the boat that introduced me to keelboat sailing back in 1976. My first transatlantic voyage was on this boat.

 

A picture I took as we sailed Brer Terrapin into Rupert Bay, Jamestown, St Helena, circa 1977, this will have been the boats third visit there by then.

Hi Roy

To clarify: I am Mike Smith, Pip Smith's brother.

I understand you were in touch with Ruth very recently in connection with her past and the ketch Brer Terrapin. I would be very happy to shed whatever light I can on the building of the yacht and hopefully to send you a few pictures, if we can find any that are suitable. Obviously in the 60's there was no such thing as digital photography, with the result that what I have - and it's not much - is on slides and if I remember correctly, they were not particularly good pics. Ruth says she has a number of photos which have been in a drawer for the last 34 years, so maybe they could be scanned.

Pip Smith, I think he is steering Brer Terrapin with his foot, we did the same!

Very briefly, Pip and I started building the yacht together in the garden of our Johannesburg home. Soon after that I got married, moved to Pretoria and ceased to take an active part in the planning and construction. My father took over and was very involved for a number of years. In the end it took almost seven years for the boat to reach the stage where all it still needed were the masts and sails. Pip was doing his medical degree and then an internship during this time so only had limited opportunities to build. It was then transported to Durban, the masts and sails ordered and fitted and he and Ruth with their one-year-old son, James lived on it for about a year. Pip then persuaded his father to join him on the trip from Durban to Cape Town where the boat remained in the Royal Yacht club until Pip, Ruth and the kid set sail for Rio.

Mikes story is below:

Brer Terrapin: 

In about 1967 my brother Pip decided that rather than spend the weekends in Johannesburg doing arbitrary things, he would like to embark on a project and have something solid to show for it. The first step was to find a suitable boat to build: With this in mind he and I went down to Durban and in the harbour saw the ketch "Ingwe", which was based on the design of a Norwegian lifeboat. We bought the plans from the owner who had himself constructed "Ingwe". We paid the princely sum of R200! Worth a lot more then of course.

 

The plans were drawn, most of them full size, on our sitting room floor. First to arrive was a large and very heavy chunk of Kari which was shaped, using an adze into the wooden keel. A mould was then made out of cheap wood to the shape of the metal keel. While this was being cast, the ribs at the different stations were drawn full size.

The ribs were of American white oak and the hull of planks of Sapele Mahogany three centimetres thick. The strakes were attached to the ribs with copper nails. The bow consisted of about eight layers of white oak, steamed in a homemade steam box into which steam from a boiling drum of water was fed, bent to shape and laminated.

The decking was teak, as were aspects of the cabin interior. Pip, who was studying medicine at Wits University, heard that the old medical laboratories at the university were being dismantled and refitted. He managed to pick up some really amazing teak counters for next to nothing, and with these he constructed the seating in the well where the compass was fixed and where the helmsman would sit and operate the tiller.

An exciting delivery was a large crate from the UK containing all the navigational equipment, the portholes, winches and other metalwork. Together with our father, Pip commissioned the making of two stainless steel water tanks and two fuel tanks which were placed under the seats in the cabin.

After seven years in the making and Pip's medical degree completed, Brer Terrapin was loaded onto a low loader and transported to Durban harbour. At one point on the trip, the load would not fit under a bridge on the old road to Natal. Letting the tyres down on the truck permitted the yacht to just scrape under the bridge and continue on its way. Pip, his wife Ruth and their new-born  son James spent nearly a year living on the yacht in Durban harbour while the masts were sourced and fitted and the sails made. Joined by his father and a friend, they sailed around the coast to Cape Town, a notoriously rough trip. Some time later the couple with 9 month old James set sail for Rio, stopping in at St Helena on the way.

The experience proved too much for Ruth with the responsibility of a baby aboard. Brer Terrapin was sailed back to Cape Town by another couple and it was put up for sale and after some time, sold to a Cape Town resident. Pip and family moved to Pietermaritzburg where he took a position on the staff of Edendale Hospital and bought a timber farm just outside Greytown. A few years later he died tragically.

Since then reports have surfaced of the yacht being spotted in Mauritius, California and various other locations. I understand from another blog on this site that it sank in an American port, was refloated and refitted. At the base of the main mast is a gold half sovereign.

Mike Sith.

Pip Smith with his baby son James on deck and I presume in Durban Harbour?

This is a cockpit I remember very well!

Yacht Brer Terrapin under full sail, being a ketch she also carried a Mizzen Staysail, a wonderful sail to fly if the breeze was in the right quarter.

My thanks to Ruth and Mike for supplying the words and photos but also to Justin, blog master for the HBYC as it was he who extracted many of the pictures from a zipped file for me.

Roy