In 2001, I bought a Tela Dayboat from Greg Dalrymple at Salterns Boatbuilders in Old Bursledon. We named her Buccaneer.
Greg had set up Salterns Boatbuilders in 1996. The yard had originally been built in the early years of the last Century by the Admiralty as a base for experimental boom defence systems. It then became the operational base of the Secret Service (MI5), founded by Mansfield Smith-Cummings, whose spies included Erskine Childers, Compton MacKenzie, and John Buchan. Used as a base for the construction of experimental hydroplanes in the 1930s, it was then taken over by British Aerospace, initially as a place to store drawings and plans away from their main Hamble site in case of bombings. However, its quiet secluded location soon led to it being used to build midget submarines in WW2. It seems that it was abandoned after the war, and was eventually bought in the 1980s by a private owner. The site is designated as an SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest).
Greg ran Salterns as a small traditional boatbuilding outfit. Working alone or with one assistant boatbuilder, he specialised in producing classic gaff-rigged boats, with GRP hulls moulded from old original boats: the Memory 19, the Tela Dayboat, and the Wagtail Dinghy. He also turned out some one-offs – I remember a catboat being launched with her owner during one of my visits to the boatyard in Salterns Lane.
Situated on a small creek, off the Hamble river, Salterns Boatyard was an idyllic spot. I loved the Boathouse too: boats in the process of being built, the smell of wood and varnish, the tools, and the solid fuel burner in the corner, complete with the kettle. Indeed, I wonder if my desire to learn boatbuilding comes at least in part from my visits to that yard, and to seeing Greg’s work.
The original Tela was a ‘seeking’ boat from the Bristol Channel, built in 1911 on the Barry Docks in South Wales. Whereas the better-known Bristol Channel Pilot Cutters would race to the Scillies to meet incoming ships and provide a pilot, the little ‘seeking’ boats provided the same service for hopeful pilots, but did so in the vicinity of the docks themselves. These working boats had to be both seaworthy for their year-round work, and fast – the first to arrive got the pilotage job.
Apparently, Tela was built by an out-of-work Norwegian shipwright/sea captain, Gustav ‘George’ Helstrom, with the intention to outclass the current fastest ‘seeking’ boat, Stranger. Whether or not she did become the fastest boat at that time, is unknown, but she certainly proved her worth, later racing successfully in the Barry Yacht Club.
It was Chris Libby who designed the ‘modern day’ Tela at Penryn Bridge Boatyard. During a slack winter, he decided to build a GRP gaff-rigged dayboat. Finding the 16′ 6” Tela, rotting away on a beach up the river Fal, he decided that she would provide the ideal mould for his new boat.
Chris built about a dozen Tela Dayboats. In the late 1990s, Greg Dalrymple bought the moulds, made some amendments, and started production. Buccaneer is the fourth Tela built by Greg. At Salterns, he amended Tela’s design by changing the shallow L-shaped centre-plate to a higher-aspect ratio casting, that weighs in at 80lb (36kg). This increased the draught from 2ft 10in to 4ft with the centre plate down – just 1ft 2in (0.36m) with it raised.
Her LOA is 16′ 6″” (5.03m) – extended to 18′ 9″” with bowsprit (5.7m). Her beam is 5′ 6″ (1.68m).
With 550lb (250kg) of lead ballast, Tela now had a 50% ballast ratio, allowing Greg to increase the size of the rig by 30% to 150sq ft (14sq m). A topsail can also be rigged. I have one, but I find it more awkward than useful.
She is very stable indeed, and can usually be sailed without needing to sit out on the side decks; yet she is responsive, and easy to handle single-handedly if necessary.
Buccaneer is rather too heavy to launch and recover for a day’s sailing. She needs a mooring, and that has been the only real drawback. For a couple of seasons, I kept her in the creek by Salterns Boatyard, but was beginning to outstay my welcome. I moved her to a pontoon birth in Haslar Marina for a couple of years, which was very convenient, but costly. (Marinas usually charge by the length – including the bowsprit!!) I just wasn’t getting out enough to justify the fees. Since then, she has given us fun on the Norfolk Broads during a holiday in 2008 but, I am ashamed to say, has otherwise sat ‘berthed’ in our garage.
Now that I am working just a little, and have finished the Boatbuilding Course at IBTC, I hope that she will get a new lease of life. I have found her a berth at Fareham Marina. What it lacks in terms of ready access to the Solent, it makes up for in accessibility … and has cheaper fees than Haslar.
So, it’s time for a quick refurb. The sails have been checked, the spars have been prepped and varnished, the floorboards removed and re-oiled, and a split in the mast step has been fixed. I just need to service the outboard, scrape her hull and give her a couple of coats of antifouling.
The Tela really is a beauty, and Buccaneer always draws attention and admiring remarks and questions. It will be great to see her back in her element once again!
Lovely boat and a great project! Good luck with your post-BH4/IBTC career! I did a similar, but shorter (6 month) ‘Boat Fitting Course’ at a Government Training Centre in Southampton Docks in the mid 1980s….maximum 10 students, being tutored by ‘Mr. Neller’, an ex-Vosper’s boat builder (he trained Bob Forsyth as well!)…..both great woodworkers!….and at the end of the course they gave you a complete tool kit! It only ran for another year after I finished….great shame! I put an advert in the local paper saying I was looking for a local ‘fit out’ job and was contacted by an ex-Warsash Nautical College lecturer who had a new, steel, ‘Robert’s 44’ on his ‘small farm’ near Botley….he was off to the Solomen Islands for a 7 year cruise with his wife, so I spent the next 6 months fitting out the interior to his ‘spec’ (until his money ran out!!). He subsequently DID go to the Solomon’s and I next met the owner 8 years later and he’d sold the boat and was back in the UK….my boat fitting served him well apparently! I met Greg Dalrymple when I worked in a chandlery in Woolston for a couple of years (….having suffered from Tennis Elbow!) and he became a regular customer….very nice fellow and we still meet up, mainly at Sot’on Boat Show….at the time he was restoring a rowing skiff, before he set up ‘Saltern’s’ and built ‘Memory’s’. Good times!
Thanks for your response Tim. What a great experience that must have been with Bob’s mentor!! If you are still in touch with Greg, I’d love to re-make our acquaintance. Please put him in touch with me if you can.
All the best,
Stuart
Hi Tim,
Just in case you have previously registered for notifications, I wanted to let you know that the blog is up and running on a new server. Just type talesfromtheboatshed into Google and you will access the blog. I’m not sure that you can register for notifications at this stage, but if not I will ask Steve to see if that can be arranged.
Best wishes
Stuart
Stuart,
Very happy to find this article with such a great account of the origins of Tela. I have “Guinevere” the 2011 Southampton Boat Show boat. After a couple of seasons in Salcombe I shipped her to my winter sailing grounds here in the north of California, Tomales Bay. She is much admired. Our typical sailing is upwind to go NNW up the bay and then, after lunch on a beach, downwind to return to Inverness Yacht Club. I find the topsail incredibly useful in light air both directions and have worn out the one I commissioned in the UK and had a replacement made here since. Pulls like a mule off the wind especially!
I have taken 50lbs out of her to lift her bow in a chop. I don’t notice any significant loss of stabililty. And I should add that she rows remarkably well once moving. Easily driven hull, and the best balanced gaffer I have ever sailed.
Mark
Thank you Mark. Really glad you enjoyed the post. Wow, what a fantastic story – fancy … a Tela in California!! Yes, I think the ballast can usefully be reduced. Indeed, Greg suggested I try this when I chatted with him earlier this year. He’d love to hear your assessment of the boat, I’m sure.
Stuart
Stuart, I was in touch with Greg a few years ago. Ben Collins put me in touch. Ben had told him that he sailed Guinevere in California, and that I had removed some ballast from the most forward section, and he approved saying he had done the same. I was also in touch with Greg when I had to repair the centerboard uphaul block in the case. My local boatbuilder ended up designing a new system that you can find on the Tela Facebook group.
Truly great little boats but a little sadly I am now selling mine to fund a slightly larger dayboat capable of handling wind against tide on San Francisco Bay as well as Tomales Bay. SF Bay can get very rough at times and while I have enjoyed light air sailing on SF Bay through the pandemic, when it gets rough she ships a tad too much water when a strong ebb is running against the westerly with 2-4ft seas. I have had to work the pump pretty hard on a couple of occasions, as has my wife…..
Before I brought her to California and she was based in Salcombe, I cruised her as far west as Plymouth and as far east as the Exe. As we all know, the trick is picking the right conditions, ideally not headwinds. The best compliment I got was all five of a French crew in a 50 footer beating to windward in sheets of spray, saluting me with raised caps as Guinevere with topsail set skittered down a sizable swell on my way home to Salcombe from Dartmouth. They know a thing or two about sailing small boats in coastal waters!
Let me know if you come to Northern California in the winter and we will go for a sail. I am just north of Totnes in the summers, with my wooden Swallow Bayraider 20 “Pippin” on a mooring on the Dart. All the best, Mark
Hello Stuart
I am planning on doing the boat building course at the Boat Building Academy in Lyme Regis. Looking for designs to build I came across the GRP Tela Dayboat and your article here about Buccaneer. I was very intrigued for one by your story to which I can relate to very much as I am also making a change in my professional life to (not sure where it will be taking me though, I just know I need to do more with my hands and people). An then the history of Tela caught me, especially as I have a strong connection to Penryn and the Southwest Working Boats. I lived there for 8 months and documented the build of the Falmouth Pilot Cutter “Pellew”. Some of the boat builders of the area have become friends and now my mum lives there. As the Original “Tela” was found on the river Fal it made me think it would be a great Project to rebuild her if I can find enough material to replicate the design.
Unfortunately Nobody at Collars will answer my requests and I can’t find a way to get hold of Greg either nor am I able to find any information on Chris Libby or Gustav Helstrom.
As you seem to be in touch with Greg I was wondering if you by any chance have any more information or lead to where I can find more information, or maybe you would even be able to connect us. Anything would be greatly appreciated.
I am a film maker based in Zürich, Switzerland where I sail my 1966 O-Jollle. (Olympic Monotype designed for the 1936 Olympics)
You can see my Films about the Pilot Cutters in Falmouth on my Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndyWeimer
Kind regards
Andy
Hello Andy
Great to hear from you. What an interesting project!
The moulds at Collars still belong to Greg. I am happy to put you together. If you are thinking of making a Tela in wood (Carvel?) at the BBA, you will need to take measurements from a Tela to loft the boat. You could certainly take them from mine!
It would be great to discuss things – please send an email to stuartmorgan@doctors.org.uk to let me know your phone numbers we can have a chat.
Best wishes,
Stuart
I first saw the Tela in Classic Boat mag azine in an article written by Judy Brickhill. I loved its development story and loved its traditional lines. So much so I cut out the article and pictures and pinned it on my barn wall in the hope of owning one day. Some years passed. Then I saw another article in Watercraft and saw Tela had been updated by Greg at Salterns. I had some money by chance and decided to see it at the Southampton boatshow in the late 90s. I fell in love with the look of her and Kingfisher was commissioned the same day. Greg could icelollies to the Eskimos! She has been on the water on the river Yare in Norfolk ever since. Mostly sailed single handed with me and my dog. I have sailed her in Scotland coast to coast along the Great Glen three times in the awesome company of the Sail Caledonia organization. Hopefully to repeat this again in 2023 for their 20th anniversary. I have also sailed Kingfisher in the French sailing festival Semaine du Golfe in the Gulf of Morbihan a couple of years. Both events are fantastic fun. Tela handled both events wonderfully. She also now sports a blue and white topsail that looks very impressive. Very photogenic and a real head turner. She sails in heavy weather wonderfully well and performs well in lighter airs. She has handled gusts of force 6 on Loch Ness, reefed of course. That was very challenging. We managed to complete the race when many other craft abandoned it. Tela is so incredibly well balanced with virtually no weather helm in heavy conditions, it almost sails itself. I have owned Kingfisher 20 years and having sailed many boats and can honestly say its been a joy and total fun. I have had so many compliments wherever i have sailed. There many videos of Kingisher’s adventures and travels on YouTube. Just search on Salterns day boat or day sailer or Sail Caledonia. You will find them. Happy viewing. Abdgo and buy one. Life is too short not to 🙂
Thanks for getting in touch Paul. That Great Glen sail sounds like a super idea – I shall look up the Sail Caledonia Organisation for details. Greg has, as you probably know, retired, but is always happy to give any advice on his boats. Best wishes, Stuart
Hi, It looks like you have enrolled on the Caledonian week. I was checking up on the entries so far and your name popped up. I see the committee have hijacked another picture of Kingfisher and put it up with your name against it. haha. Not complaining at all as its a cracking shot of a Tela in full flight. Its better than our current pic which was sporting a red mirror dinghy jib and was used briefly as a heavy weather option! With you, me and Mark taking part there will at least be some Tela talk to offset some of the Bayraider conversation.
Hi Paul,
Just to let you know that the blog is up and running on a new server. Just type talesfromtheboatshed into Google and you will access the blog. I’m not sure that you can register for notifications at this stage, but if not I will ask Steve to see if that can be arranged.
Best wishes to you and Bee,
Stuart