Sailing Zephyr IVvideo
My 24ft Yacht called Cumulus - will it survive this gale?
January 15, 2026 · 16 min · 5K views
Cumulus heaves to in rough seas at night.
What this video covers
Dave recounts the full history of Cumulus, a 24-ft double-diagonal mahogany yacht sheathed in fiberglass, which he bought in 1974 at Ferrybridge boatyard in Portland Harbour for £1,200.2:20 The boat was unconventional — raised topsides, an aft cabin, designed to be sailed from within — and was built by an apprentice boat builder as a metacentric design related to the X-Boat class, with monel metal keel bolts and a Lister single-cylinder diesel.1:56 Dave and a friend stepped the mast by positioning the boat under a road bridge and lowering the spar over the parapet.3:58 The worst experience came in August 1975 crossing from Sark to the Solent: a forecast of southwest 6–7, possibly 8, caught them 7 miles north of Alderney.11:08 Dave reduced to a five-foot strip of mainsail, then hove to overnight in the middle of the Channel rather than risk the Needles channel in darkness with the shingle bank covered in breaking seas.12:20 A customs officer confirmed the decision was sound — the Yarmouth lifeboat launched three times that night, and one yacht sank after driving its keel through its own hull on the bank.13:40 Cumulus was later sailed to the Mediterranean by a subsequent owner and returned to the UK years later, still sound.15:01
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