Classic Boat A1 Design and Restoration Review

With the completion of A1 Atalanta last year it seemed like a golden opportunity for the Association to have another push at publicising our excellent wards. A1 was a very special boat in her conception, design and build. And Mike Dixon’s restoration from her dilapidated state back to what she is now is equally special.

Our Secretary, Bulletin Editor, Commodore and Webmaster worked together to draft an article which was submitted to the editor of Classic Boat during our Spring lockdown. To our delight the Editor felt that it would suit Classic Boat if we could provide some high quality photographs of her sailing. Oo-er, that presented an issue as A1 had been launched for only a few weeks in 2019 and was still high and dry thanks to Coronavirus – there were no suitable photographs.

When lockdown was relaxed a plan was hatched. Shortly after her launch A1, with her tender ‘Attagirl’, met up with A89 at Pin Mill for an early morning photoshoot. The weather forecast had given cause for worry but on the day we had the wished for sunshine and clicked off the equivalent of 6 rolls of film. And from over two hundred photos we managed to find a few which cleared the Classic Boat photo-bar.

You can see the photographs below and read the article in the November issue of Classic Boat on newstands now. We hope to be able to reproduce the article on the website in the future.