“She is a comfortable boat, not a racer, but carries sail well and keeps going when the conditions are rough. She is admired by all who see her and referred to as ‘a proper boat!’” So wrote previous owners of this Holman classic design, one of the legendary Whisstock's of Woodbridge Landfall Ketches that have won a reputation as fast and comfortable passage makers.
“She is a comfortable boat, not a racer, but carries sail well and keeps going when the conditions are rough. She is admired by all who see her and referred to as ‘a proper boat!’” So wrote previous owners of this Holman classic design, one of the legendary Whisstock's of Woodbridge Landfall Ketches that have won a reputation as fast and comfortable passage makers. She really is a superb, vice-free cruising yacht: the boldly-sheered, short-ended hull belies the fineness of the lines beneath; the cockpit is very deep and well protected; and the volume below impressive, very comfortably sleeping 6 people.
Brokers Comments
“She is a comfortable boat, not a racer, but carries sail well and keeps going when the conditions are rough. She is admired by all who see her and referred to as ‘a proper boat!’” So wrote previous owners of this Holman classic design, one of the legendary Whisstock's of Woodbrige Landfall Ketches that have won a reputation as fast and comfortable passage makers. She really is a superb, vice-free cruising yacht: the boldly-sheered, short-ended hull belies the fineness of the lines beneath; the cockpit is very deep and well protected; and the volume below impressive, very comfortably sleeping 6 people.
The Landfall Ketches
In the days just before yachts became built on production lines in factories often far from the sea, and with the products of the petrochemical industry, a run of seven yachts to the same design, fashioned from wood by skilled artisans using beautifully primitive yet highly effective tools, was a huge success.
Whisstock’s Boatyard at Woodbridge was already a success, founded 1926 in entrepreneurial optimism by 23-year-old Claude Whisstock on finding himself a redundant Brooke’s of Lowestoft apprentice boatbuilder during the General Strike.
Perhaps as a 30 years in business anniversary gift to himself, Claude conceived, Kim Holman refined, and the Woodbridge workforce made real in 1958, the 38ft ketch LANDFALL. This husky ketch embodied all Claude’s desires in a yacht: the surefootedness of a longish keel; a bowsprit for short tacking litheness in narrow waterways; moderately shallow draft for east coast of England waters; with the resulting wide beam necessary for stability affording almost unprecedented family cruising space in a yacht of this size and era.
LANDFALL struck a chord, and orders for more of the same followed: the ‘Landfall Ketches’.
From the third boat built onward - TAMMIE NORIE of 1963 which participated in the 1964 Transatlantic Race won by Eric Tabarly’s PEN DUICK II - the length on deck was stretched to just over 40 ft by extending the counter. Sold to an American after the race, TAMMY NORIE was sadly destroyed in a 1968 Connecticut boat storage fire. Writing fifty year later, her American owner Bus McElfresh’s son, cartographer Earl B. McElfresh recalled:
“A winter boat yard fire in 1968 in Essex consumed a number of boats including the TAMMY NORIE. My Dad was devastated and his search for a replacement vessel was very disappointing. He ultimately concluded he really just wanted another TAMMY NORIE. That meant contacting the original builder in Woodbridge, Suffolk, England and commissioning an almost identical vessel…. A new problem…when the yacht was constructed and ready—our sailboat was 3,000 miles away. Obviously an ocean crossing for somebody was in prospect. So 50 years ago, at the end of my freshman year at St. Lawrence University, I got to go to England with my family. My sister and I had been drafted into service as crew…”
Thus a second Landfall Ketch comfortably crossed the Atlantic to further prove the passagemaking ability of Claud Whisstock’s concept. The last Landfall Ketch, SISUMA II, was completed in 1974.
The Whisstock's Landfalls (by yard number):
409 LANDFALL for Claude Whisstock, 1958
415 PLEIADES EUHEMERAE for Captain Charles Coke, DSO, RN, RYS, 1960
424 TAMMY NORIE for Dr Robert McCurdy, Norfolk, 1963
440 ROSA MARIA for John Goldie, Essex, 1967
444 TAMMY NORIE (II) for Bus McElfresh, USA, 1969
449 KARAMA (now SILENT FLIGHT) for Christopher Pulley, Norfolk, 1972
451 SISUMA II, possibly for Keith Yeomans, Norfolk, 1974
©2022 Iain McAllister/ Sandeman Yacht Company Ltd.
SILENT FLIGHT Provenance
WHISSTOCK'S BOATYARD LTD. YARD No. 449
Original name: KARAMA (from the first two letters of three family names)
For her commissioning owners boarding KARAMA for the first time, the step up in space from their previous Laurent Giles 28 ft Peter Duck SCAMP DUCK would have been akin to entering Doctor Who's Tardis. But it was a natural progression in boat ownership, allowing vastly increased cruising range around the North Sea from their Waldringfield, Suffolk, mooring - and on one occasion to the Baltic.
The Pulleys sold KARAMA to John Marsh in 1997 who gave her a 25-year refit and her present name before in turn selling in 2001 to Stafford and Jenny Taylor when her mooring moved to the West Country and cruises were mostly south to Brittany, where SILENT FLIGHT was based for several years.
In present ownership since 2017, SILENT FLIGHT has cruised the south coast of England and wintered in the safe and skilled hands of Traditional Shipwright Services at Poole.
©2022 Iain McAllister/ Sandeman Yacht Company Ltd.
Recent Refits
2022
- Topsides and brightwork professional refinishing
- Engine service
- New feathering propeller
- Some plank and bulwarks replacement and repair
- Some teak deck replacement and repair
- Steering quadrant disassembled; reassembled
- New Samson post; associated repairs to framework
- Gas system check
- Off boat Baby Blake toilet service
Construction
- Carvel iroko planking on close spaced steamed oak timbers
- Copper fastened
- Stem, keel, transom, and sternpost of iroko and oak
- Massive sawn hardwood floors
- Laid teak deck
- Iroko coach roof, coamings and trunk
- Traditional long cast iron keel
- Keel hung iroko rudder
Deck Equipment, Layout and Ground Tackle
FROM AFT
- Stainless steel davits for tender
- Bronze fairleads port and starboard
- Galvanised pushpit, stanchions and pulpit
- Stainless steel guard rails
- Aft deck with gas bottle
- Teak laid deck (1997)
- Wide and uncluttered side decks
- Deep cockpit well protected with high coamings
- Teak grating cockpit sole
- Helm position with seating aft
- Traditional teak and bronze spoked ships wheel
- Steering compass;p autopilot; speed / depth / log, engine control
- Bridge deck separates helm position from fwd cockpit
- Mizzen mast stepped on massive log bolted across adjacent sawn floors
- Seating either side; access below to tanks under the side decks
- Lewmar 48 2-speed self-tailing sheet winches on pedestals outboard port and stbd
DOGHOUSE & TRUNK CABIN
- Varnished teak hand rails fore and aft each side
- Coach roof sheathed in glassfibre cloth and plastic resin
- 2 x Dorade vents
- Teak slatted decking on coach roof
- Main mast stepped on the coach roof
- Period brash navigation lights
SIDE DECKS
- Genoa tracks port & starboard (2018)
FOREDECK
- Forehatch
- Bowsprit heel against a very sturdy Samson post and bolted
- Steel gammon iron
- Samson post fitted through deck and securely mortised into the apron
- Bronze cleats port and starboard
- Galvanised fairleads
GROUND TACKLE
- Simpson Lawrence Horizon 1500 electric anchor windlass (2000)
- CQR Bower anchor with calibrated galvanised chain
- Fisherman kedge anchor with warp
Accommodation and Domestic Equipment
ACCESS AND GENERAL
- Sliding hatch in doghouse, doors and companionway steps down
- Pilot seats port and starboard
- Cabin joinery in various varnished hardwoods
- White painted bulkheads and deck heads
GALLEY TO PORT
- Plastimo Neptune 4500 gimballed stainless steel 2 burner gas cooker
- Grill and oven
- Stainless steel sink with crockery stowage
- Mixer tap (2017)
- Spice rack and cutlery drawers
- Rinnai gas fired water heater sited above the galley sink.
- Isotherm Cruise 49 electric refrigerator with energy management system 2003
NAVIGATION TO STBD
- Full size chart table, with stowage under
- Table can be raised to expose a single pilot berth
- Radar, GPS, master instrument repeater and weather fax by chart table
MAIN SALOON
-Large and comfortable U-shaped settee to port converts to a double berth
-Stowage space behind
-Settee berth to stbd a also with
-Lockers outboard and drawers below
-Dining table to port and seats 6 comfortably
FORWARD TO HEAD COMPARTMENT
-Blake’s sea WC (new inlet valve, seals
-Tannoy ventilator overhead
-Stainless steel wash basin with vanity mirror
-Shower head and taps with pressurised hot and cold water
-Rinnai gas fired water heater
FORE CABIN ACCESSED BY SLIDING HARDWOOD DOOR FWD
- Vee berth with infill make a large double berth
- Drawers under the port berth
- Large bin locker under starboard berth
- Shelved lockers to starboard
- Handrails and bookcases above each berth
- Hatchway access to the foredeck
Rig, Sails and Canvaswork
RIG
- Bermudan Ketch Rig
- Gold anodised spars by Sailcraft except main boom
- Deck main mast
- Self tailing halyard winch
- Lewmar 8 winch at base of mast
- Keel mizzen mast
- Spinnaker pole
- Main boom by Z-Spars (1997)
- 'Gas' kicker
- 1 x 19 stainless steel standing rigging
- Gas kicker
- Z-Spars headsail furling system
- Synthetic rope running rigging
SAILS
- White Dacron by Suffolk Sails
- Slab reefing mainsail (1999)
- Furling Genoa (1997) and mizzen all white Terylene by Suffolk Sails
- Pale blue mizzen staysail date unknown; possibly original, probably by Gowen
- White Terylene hanked Genoa; possibly original, probably by Gowens
CANVASWORK
- Mainsail and Mizzen sail covers in dark blue
- Spray hood with vision panels
- Dodgers
Mechanical Electrical and Tankage
MECHANICAL
- Phoenix 42 (based upon a Perkins 104.19) 4 cylinder 43 hp diesel engine fitted new Aug 97
- Freshwater cooling via heat exchanger, on flexible mounts
- PRM Delta hydraulic gearbox with drive via a flexible coupling to a stainless steel shaft
- 3-Bladed feathering propeller (make TBA) in apperture (2022)
- Cutlass bearing new 2017
- Bruntons hydraulic shaft brake
- Cockpit mounted engine instrumentation panel
- Tachometer, temperature, battery state and exhaust temperature gauges
ELECTRICAL
- 70 A Alternator / charger
- 1 x 105 Ah engine start battery
- 2 x 105 Ah domestic batteries
- 2 x 150 Ah batteries dedicated to the bow thruster
- 240 V shore power system with ring main
- Merlin auxiliary mains battery charger
- Portable solar panel
TANKAGE
- Fuel: c.160 L in 2 x stainless steel tanks (1997)
- Water: pressurised hot and cold from 55 L hot water tank in galley (pump 2018)
- Engine calorifier (2018) and 240 V immersion heater
- Deck shower
- Gas bottles in aft deck locker
AUTO PILOT
- Simrad HLD2000 electro hydraulic autopilot
BOW THRUSTER
- Vetus 80 kW bow thruster (2000)
- Battery (2018)
Navigation and Communications
NAVIGATION
- Sestrel Major steering compass
- Garmin 75 GPS interfaced with instrumentation
- Simrad HLD2000 electro-hydraulic autopilot drive unit
Raymarine (all 2017)
- Touchscreen a98 - 9" MFD WIFI DWNVS SONAR Display
- Quantum 18" Q24C Radar
- Quantum Radome with SC20 mast mount
- i50 Tridata display
- Speed - ST600 - ST60
- Short Arm Wind Transducer
- i60 Analogue wind display
- AIS 650 Class B transceiver & splitter (2022)
- Autopilot: ACU-400 Control Unit; p70s control head; Evolution EV1 Sensor Core
- Autopilot interfaced with the other instruments and GPS
- Nav system repeaters at cockpit with master instrument at the navigation station
COMMUNICATIONS
- Navico Sea Ranger 5600 VHF radio telephone
- IHS combined weather fax
- ICS Nav 6 Navtex
- Blaupunkt stereo radio/cassette player
Safety
- Plastimo canister stowed 6-person life raft in service
- Life sling
- Fire extinguishers
- Fire blanket
- Electric gas detection alarm with 2 sensors
- First aid kit
- Jackstays
- Twin deck lights
- 2 x manual diaphragm bilge pumps
- Electric bilge pump (2017)
- Electric navigation lights
Other Equipment
- Rigid GRP tender, rowlock and oars
- Stainless steel boarding ladder
- Fenders, and various mooring warps
- Boat hook
- Dodgers with vision panels
- Winter cover
- Cockpit cushions
Disclaimer
These particulars have been prepared from information provided by the vendors and are intended as general guide. The purchaser should confirm details of concern to them by survey or engineers inspection. The purchaser should also ensure that the purchase contract properly reflects their concerns and specifies details on which they wish to rely.
