Sumara heads towards Greenland.......again! Our opening photograph shows Sumara sailing off the north coast of Iceland. As I sit here in sunny South Devon, enjoying the latest heatwave which is made comfortable by the afternoon sea-breeze that kicks in every day, I'm getting increasingly excited by the stream of posts being beamed south from within the Arctic Circle. Alasdair Flint is having another go at exploring Scoresby Sund in East Greenland, aboard the brave Sumara, and the latest ice predictions are looking promising...... we can only continue to watch this fascinating challenge as…Read more

Our Vertual community occasionally have extra special events to celebrate, and this year, like the legendary London buses that you can await for ages, they are coming along thick and fast! No sooner were we able to celebrate the memory of Cardinal Vertue doubling the Horn, the proper way in Bill Nance's capable hands, than we now have more adventure actually being sought before our very eyes. Sixty-six years after she first entered the OSTAR, as Blondie Hasler's idea soon became known, it has now become the 'Jester Challenge' and this year's four…Read more

Cardinal Vertue It's unbelievable that Bill Nance's high latitude single-handed passage from Auckland to The Horn in December 1964 remains largely unrecognized by the world's media. His bravery and the outstanding seamanship necessary to drive his little Vertue, Cardinal Vertue, alone across the Southern Ocean at an average speed of 122 miles a day for 38 days was indeed beyond belief at the time. This was two years before anyone else had even attempted it. Now, once again, he is being put forward for recognition by the International Association of Cape Horners, IACH,…Read more

Spring sprang a few days ago here in south Devon, where everyone is feeling winter-weary, and hoping for some more sunshine soon. So, to lift our spirits further, here is another selection of Vertual delights to propel us onwards towards the Summer. Regular contributor Alasdair Flint has got us all off to a flying technical start this time with some great insights into some of the more technical aspects of how he likes to rig Sumara. He has sailed thousands of miles aboard this beautiful boat, so he is certainly worth reading. Then…Read more

Welcome to another Christmas Newsletter, with wonderful decorations thanks to Brianne and her Vertue Ashiki based in the Pacific NorthWest about whom we shall hear more later on. Although Vertues are regarded by many as quintessentially cruising boats, it is now becoming clear that when a few of them get together they often seem to race. So this time we have our regular report from the autumn Trieste Barcolana Regatta. Next year's single-handed transatlantic race for small boats is being joined, for the first time since 1960, by a beautiful Vertue, Eden Marindin,…Read more

Welcome to another quarterly Newsletter from around the world and it is largely written by yourselves, the Vertue Owners. Regular contributer Ben Deveson has sent some impressive photos of his Virtue racing amongst a collection of much larger boats which demonstrates that Vertues are no sluggards, even in light weather. Mark Anderson, who has recently bought the Ocean Vertue Kea, and has been refitting her, reports that she caused quite a stir at the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Show in September. From South Africa I'm delighted to report that Karen Cross' new edition…Read more

Welcome to your 35th VertueYachts quarterly NEWSLETTER! Bettina, above, racing in the Trieste Barcolana is a fitting image to introduce this summer's stories. Believe it or not, this is the 31st. Newsletter since the first one was published in July 2016. We have tried to keep the ethos of a kind of Vertue Owners Association Newsletter/update of all things Vertual and I am extremely grateful to you growing band of owners and others who now contribute regularly to this little bit of fun. Owning a boat can be quite a serious matter for…Read more

Welcome to your regular quarterly Newsletter for an update on Vertuelly anything. This time I'm delighted to have been able to start proceedings with another delightful account in our ongoing series about 'My Vertue and Me'. Bill Rogers has transported us to the wonderful coastline of Massachusetts, where he completed a masterly 'deep refit' on his exquisite boat Stronghold, since when he has also taken her north across the Bay of Fundy and on up to Nova Scotia. Another, completely different, major project is being meticulously undertaken by Joop van Son in the…Read more

We really do have a bumper Christmas Edition for you this year, and the best bit is that most of it has come from you! For starters I want to thank Ben Deveson for his timeless photograph of his elegant steel Vertue, called Virtue, that graces our front page. I have started with a short piece about the Vertues currently for Sale, that illustrates some of the diversity to be found within the Vertue fleet. Then Juan-Pablo and his delightful Grace, who have featured here before, have checked in and it is good…Read more

Welcome to the antidote to budgets and elections! I'm delighted to introduce this autumn Newsletter with a couple of images of Wellow Maid, one of those rare and elegant Vertues built from the Monie drawings. The first image, above, shows the wonderful conditions in which her every need is carefully administered by her doting owners Richard and Marion Heming. The boat is based in Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, and can be seen sailing in the western Solent and beyond, where she appears in the picture below. Wellow Maid surging along on a sparkling…Read more