VAN DE STADT DESIGN     

                                                            YACHT DESIGNERS & NAVAL ARCHITECTS                                      

Design 624   "HALLOWE'EN"– FIFE’S FINEST

In the 1926 Fastnet Race she roared across the finish line in record time. From the Solent she roamed to the Norwegian fjords and the U.S. east coast.Here, after a thorough refit designed by the Dutch naval architect Cees van Tongeren of Van de Stadt Design, who also helms her, the legendary Fife yacht Hallowe'en leads the Côte d'Azur Classic fleet under the flag of the Netherlands.

Last season a splendid fleet of classical yachts met once again to do battle, but the most impressive "aristocrat de mer" of them all was undoubtedly Hallowe'en, making her comeback at the close of Monaco’s Classic Week. The yacht had hardly dropped her anchor at the Quai des États-Unis, when the international sailing fraternity - led by HRH Prince Albert of Monaco - flocked together to inspect with caressing glances and fingertips the result of the impeccable restoration to which the 24.50 metre long flush-deck yacht had been submitted. In the reflection of the warm evening sun it became clear that a competitor of top calibre had arrived. Soon she was to fulfil everyone's expectations... and how! Only a week later a superior Hallowe'en won the Régates Royales of Cannes in her class with four firsts and a second place, followed by two firsts and a second in Saint-Tropez. And before the season was half over Hallowe'en's proud owner Paul van der Bijl - on land a successful Dutch real estate entrepreneur - had won enough silverware to offer the whole of the ‘fine fleur’ on the docks a cupful of his famous ice-cold Dutch gin!
No less reason for satisfaction had helmsman Cees van Tongeren, partner of Van de Stadt Design, because it was his computer that produced the superfast design of Hallowe'en's new rig and deck layout. "The results of three quarters of a century had taught me that Hallowe'en is simply a very fast yacht", explained a sun-tanned Van Tongeren smiling from ear to ear, while unfolding the original 1926 blueprint. "How they did it we'll never know, but her hull shape is so ideal that she is not stopped by waves and she immediately speeds up in the lightest bit of wind, notwithstanding her 35 tons. She performed equally well on all other points of sailing. Behind the wheel one feels how perfectly balanced she is on her rudder - all you have to do is follow her lead, so to speak. This makes Hallowe'en, despite her not insubstantial length, easier to handle than any other classic yacht that I have ever sailed."

Cees van Tongeren has indeed gathered ample experience and know-how in this field: it started with Paul van der Bijl's Norwegian 10 mR racer Hybris (1927) some ten years ago. With this superb Johan Anker design they won the 1991 La Nioulargue with a devastating first place on handicap and in real time, as the first (and so far only) Dutch team ever. Between then and last season the Dutch duo collected all the prizes to be won between Porto Cervo, Imperia and Saint-Tropez with the ravishing cutter Eileen (a 1938 design by Christian Jensen). During all those years, however, one dream remained unfulfilled: to lay hands on the thoroughbred Fife yacht Hallowe'en.

In 1926, the year she was launched, it took Hallowe'en exactly three days, nineteen hours and five minutes to raise her name to ever-lasting glory, for that was the amount of time she needed in the Fastnet Race to cover the 600-plus nautical miles in a record that would only be broken thirteen years later by the Germany navy yawl Nordwind. England's best known yachting photographer Beken of Cowes did not move from her side and portrayed her equally beautifully from all angles. No superlatives sufficed to describe her flawlessly rigged power and splendour: "This is a picturesque craft, every inch good to look upon, whether swinging at moorings or racing with every stitch of canvas set and bellied to a breeze of wind." The yacht was created by the famous Scots yacht designer William Fife, who represented the third generation in a row leading a shipyard in Fairlie on the Clyde, where more than one thousand yachts were built up to 1940. During the time when Britain still ruled the waves, Fife of Fairlie, together with G.L. Watson and Camper & Nicholson, ranked among the absolute top of yacht designers. Among his clients were such illustrious sailors as the kings of Spain and Denmark, the duke of Medinacelli, Don Carlos de Borbon, the marquess of Cussy and the prince of Saxen Coburg Gotha. It was their hobby a hundred years ago that laid the foundation of modern yachting, and although most of their yachts were lost in the course of time, a handful of original Fifes survived, albeit mostly reduced to wrecks. Nevertheless one by one they returned to the water after fortune-swallowing restoration operations. The restoration boom began ten years ago with the gaff-rigged Tuiga of 1909, now the flagship of the Yachtclub de Monaco, followed by Kentra (1922), Altaïr (1930), Solway Maid (1940), The Lady Anne (1912) and Moonbeam (1903). As a result of this interest, Fifes have become much sought-after; if they appear on the market at all, the price is considerably higher than that of the average classical yacht.

Hallowe'en's first owner was Lt. Col. J.F.N. Baxendale, a senior officer in the English army, who had won his spurs in the trenches at Verdun during World War I. Being rather wealthy, this gentleman was looking for new challenges and pleasures in offshore yachting. Tradition has it that the war-horse was unable to stomach his meagre result in the 1925 Fastnet Race, and therefore, as a member of the exclusive Royal Yacht Squadron in Cowes, decided to raise his standard of aspirations. Baxendale immediately travelled to Scotland, where William Fife's shipyard was commissioned to build a fast cruiser with a 50-foot waterline. In deviation of what was customary up till then the design was given a new-fashioned Bermuda (sloop) rig instead of a gaff rig. This was a remarkable choice, since this type of rig had not yet proven itself as particularly fast in offshore racing. Shortly before Fife was launched with the commission to re-rig the royal yacht Brittannia, so in this specific field he was an expert too. On 29 June 1926 building number 745 was launched and given the mysterious Scottish name Hallowe'en. The hull was made of 1.5 inch thick teak planks on solid inland oak frames, "that are the best of their kind and of the best workmanship and finish, all to the satisfaction of the owner", William Fife wrote in the yard contract. Just two months later Baxendale was able to squeeze the utmost out of his brand-new yacht in the Fastnet Race and beat the entire fleet with an impressively high average speed. Hallowe'en rounded Fastnet Rock, the turning point of the race, seven hours before the next quickest competitor and, despite problems with the compass and a major tear in the mainsail, she crossed the finish line in Southampton with no less than a ten-hour lead.

In the next three seasons the laureate yacht skimmed along the coast of Biscay and the Riviera. Then followed the Norwegian fjords, now under the ownership of Alfred Larssen, the commodore of the Royal Norwegian Yacht Club. This industrialist renamed her Magda, like his eight (!) previous Fifes, and as flagship she was regularly steered by crown prince Olaf. In 1938 she made a transatlantic crossing to North America, where after years of radio silence she was discovered under a tarpaulin in a sleepy little marina by New York Yacht Club member Walter Wheeler. This old salt named her Cotton Blossom IV, rerigged her as a yawl and successfully took part in all the long-distance races on the U.S. east coast in the fifties. There the Fife battled against famous Sparkman & Stephens yachts such as Stormy Weather and Nina, and came second behind the S & S yawl Bolero in the 1954 Bermuda Race. She was subsequently used as a charter yacht, shuttling between  New England and the Caribbean, and eventually donated to the Museum of Yachting in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1986 after covering many, many nautical miles.

In Newport a careful five-year restoration project was begun. The deck was replaced and all the hull planking was removed and again placed on the frames, which turned out to have lost none of their original stiffness. Even the elegant Edwardian interior of natural polished mahogany and blond cypress was intact apart from a few changes and was given its old lustre with a new layer of varnish. By then the museum's funds had been depleted and the only option left was to sell Hallowe'en to a Swiss enthusiast who transferred the yacht to the south coast of France. "I, too, was interested in Hallowe'en back then", says Paul van der Bijl about his first encounter with the yacht in 1991. "A post-stamp size photograph in an advertisement had caught my eye, and the unusual dimensions immediately appealed to me. With Cees van Tongeren I flew to Newport, where we had to dig out the yacht with the mast flat on the deck from underneath a thick layer of snow. What I saw was truly the most beautifully lined yacht ever built, Fife's absolute jewel in the crown. The key is her powerful sheer, swept stern and her stretched bow heralding the later J-class boats, and despite that an old-fashioned bowsprit. That combination makes Hallowe'en a unique example of a very remarkable transition phase in the development of yacht building." No sale was made at the time and during regattas in the years that followed there was nothing to do for Van der Bijl and his crew on board Eileen, but to attempt over and over again to beat Hallowe'en on the water.

Then suddenly in 1998 it became known that the yacht was on the market, and Van der Bijl did not have to think long. After finding a new Dutch owner for Eileen, he bought Hallowe'en, without the out-of-date rig. With the experience of two successful restorations of his earlier yachts, his brief to Cees van Tongeren could be short: combine optimal speed with optimal boat-handling. After studying the Fife archives which are kept at Fairlie Restorations in Hamble near Southampton, Van Tongeren behind his drawing board at Van de Stadt Design in Wormerveer, the Netherlands, developed the design of a new cutter rig that deviated as little as possible from the 1926 original. In view of easy handling it was necessary to reduce the length of the boom so that it would not extend beyond the transom. Then all fittings were specified in actual-size drawings, after which they were custom made from stainless steel in the south of France. A major problem was where in the world a supplier could be found for first-class quality sitka spruce of adequate length for Hallowe'en's new spars. But that task was successfully completed, too, albeit after substantial searching, and thus a huge mast of more than 30 metres could be stepped on the keel last spring. It is 4.5 metres taller than the old one, and with 4 degrees it has one degree less rake. An 11.5-metre boom that could swing inside the backstay was added as well as a boomed jib controlled from the cockpit. Hood Sails was commissioned to cut a dacron sail wardrobe, resulting in an upwind sail area of 280 sq.m. Off the wind a 210 sq.m. reacher extending from the end of the bowsprit to well beyond the mast is hoisted, and while the sailbag of Hallowe'en's secret weapon indeed says "reacher", the sail has been affectionately named "Grote Stappen Joop" (Big Step Jack) ever since the first leg on which she reached hull speed. In order to control such forces of nature one requires better-than-average hardware, and that is why the not insubstantial order for the delivery of ten beautifully styled winches, each with the ship's name engraved, went to Meissner Winches. These chromed bronze self-tailing winches beat just anything in quality and they were placed on their hardwood bases by the competent hands of ship's carpenter Timo de Vries, who is also Hallowe'en's skipper. In style with the character of the yacht a choice was made for classic wooden sheet and rigging blocks, also carrying the ship's name and sown into soft calfskin to prevent wear and tear by the skilful leather ‘cosmetic’ Paula Cinkuanta from Italy.

William Fife II knew better than anybody the art of designing yachts that were fast, seaworthy and at the same time exceptionally beautiful, or in his own words "fast and bonnie". As a sign of authenticity he had his gilded dragon logo, by which this "artist in boats" distinguished himself from the others, chiseled on either side of the bow of all his yachts. In those days details such a man-hour eating detail cost £1 10s, today even after indexation not a brush would hit the paint pot. The restoration of classical yachts is an extremely expensive hobby at top level, which only few dare undertake. So, when Hallowe'en screamed into the bay of Saint-Tropez at glorious speed last autumn, the local yacht club was instantly generous enough to offer her a permanent berth, prominent in the Vieux Port. And that is an honour that was bestowed on only one other famous yacht: Moonbeam, also a very fine Fife of Fairlie.

© Robert W. H. Mens, Amsterdam
Photography: Patricia Lascabanne/Aphoram