News

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

Here is the lovely Vertue Sumara in Salcombe this summer, on her way down Channel. Welcome to the latest Newsletter. Once again, I am delighted to be able to bring you a variety of Vertual News from across the Globe. Our little fleet of diminutive vessels continues to entrance and amaze those of us who admire their feats and the dedication with which some of their owners keep them going. From the very last of the grp Vertues, via some quite remarkable examples of craftsmanship to restore two of the finest Ocean Vertues…Read more

Back in 2020 our Christmas Newsletter featured several South African based Vertues, including Vertue Carina, seen here in Simons Town. Daniel Brink was in the process of restoring her after some years of neglect under previous ownership, and she looked very smart indeed. This year, on our way back from visiting my brother in Sydney, Australia, our ship called in to Cape Town. Following some last-minute communications with John and Karen Cross, they very kindly picked us up and took us down to Simons Town to look at the boat...... Vertue Carina's beautiful…Read more

JUNK RIGGED VERTUES In the Spring Newsletter earlier this year I briefly mentioned three Vertues, whose owners had chosen to rig them with 'chinese' junk sails, each set on a single mast. They were called Speedwell of Hong Kong, Jilly and Chu-Fa. However, this autumn I was contacted by Craig and Rebecca, whose boat Caber was also junk rigged. Since then, they have very kindly provided lots more information about Caber, as well as one of the three boats, Jilly, who wasn't called Jilly at all! We have also been joined by Ute…Read more

HERE is the beautiful Wanderer III lying peacefully in Ocean Harbour, South Georgia. We are delighted to be able to bring you some more treats to enliven these dull, northern autumnal days. Firstly we are concluding the amazing story of Bill Nance's single-handed doubling of The Horn with Cardinal Vertue. It is this kind of inspiration that fires the imaginations of all Vertue owners, especially those in the midst of restoration projects. So it is fitting to be able to report on three of these, currently under way in the south of England…Read more

This Newsletter seems to be taking on a somewhat retrospective feeling, responding as they all do to the material that you kind Vertue enthusiasts contribute. This time there is also a certain amount of input from 'the archives' and it is from there that this wonderful photograph of the magnificent Dyarchy, taken by Eric Hiscock, has been resurrected. Before coming to this, the latest of the occasional episodes of the Vertue Design Dynasty story, we are also really delighted to be able to put into print the first part of an insightful account…Read more

Here are Island Vertue and Tui (above), alongside one another in Hobart, 'lending tone' to one of the world's great traditional sailing festivals. We are lucky to have so many keen Vertue owners in that corner of the world, some of whom have very kindly sent full reports of the proceedings. Meanwhile, we are always trying to improve the Vertue database that is easily 'searchable' on this modest website, so I have included another appeal for information on one of the elegant grp Vertues: please contact me if you can help, with this…Read more

Credit entirely due to Enea Riboldi for this delightful drawing of his own Vertue BettinaRead more

WoodenBoat Magazine have just released one of my articles about Vertues onto facebook https://www.woodenboat.com/vertues I am really grateful to them for doing this as it will introduce our little website to an even greater worldwide audience. VERTUES FOR SALE It has never been my intention in developing this website for Vertue enthusiasts, to use it for commerce. However, just as I try to report on all aspects of the boats, they do change hands from time to time, so it would therefore be inconsistent not to include some information about this activity. Unusually,…Read more

Mea bravely beat her way right around Britain! Here at VertueYachts we are just amazed at the valiant effort put in by Matteo and his two crew, Paolo and Mahoney, who each joined him for different legs. They drove Mea onwards whilst she had to beat nearly all the way, from Plymouth to Plymouth, making good around 1900 miles. Every time she started a new leg the wind had gone ahead, and Matteo was only able to use his spinnaker for a few hours in 36 days! For all the details, please see…Read more