Driac
Probably the oldest entry in this year’s race, Driac was designed by Charles Nicholson and built in teak on grown oak frames by Camper and Nicholsons. She was launched in June 1930 (her 80th birthday will fall during the race) and in her first season sailed 5,000 miles to Malta and back. She has had many owners and many adventures; Charles Lyster bought her in December 2008 and is gradually restoring her. The very high quality of her original build means that she is still very sound (her 12 keelbolts are of inch and a quarter bronze) so the work needed is not structural. Her mast is probably the original McGruer, her current sails date from the 1970s; this means she won’t point as high as we’d like, but watch out for us on a reach…
Inside she is reminiscent of a rather down-at-heel gentlemen’s club, redolent of pipesmoke and whisky and always warm owing to the diesel-fired Dickinson galley stove. This is the very latest thing, capable of boiling a full kettle in well under 90 minutes, it will also bake potatoes which are a very welcome comfort on watch in the dead of night.
Her first owner, A G H Macpherson, made a huge collection of maritime paintings which he gave to the nation and thus founded the Greenwich Maritime Museum; he was helped in this financially by the shipping magnate Sir James Caird and the name Driac (pronounced Dry-ack) is Caird spelt backwards.
Four of this year’s team are very old friends (Desmond is especially old) having worked together at Outward Bound Wales in the 1980s. They are joined by Stefan, a very experienced sailor whom they have got to know more recently. He is skipper of the Dutch Barge Volharding and knows the Scottish West coast very well.
