David Japp Archives - Amokura: a classic boat archive

1999: Following the IBTC refit

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1997: IBTC refit – key improvements

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1997-2000: Refit at IBTC Lowestoft

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Letter from Harry Spencer to David Japp, November 1995

webmstr — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 02:21:57 +0000

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Letter from John Leather to David Japp, July 1996

webmstr — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 16:38:50 +0000

Dear David Yacht AMOKURA Many thanks for your letter and renewed invitation to see the AMOKURA again when she arrives at Lowestoft. I look forward to this after so many years and expect to bring with me an old friend you may know; Bernard Hayman, late editor for many years of the Yachting World magazine and someone who also knows the AMOKURA from her racing days. I think Bernard sailed against her in some races long ago. Regarding the photo of her on the slip at the Lower Yard of The Rowhedge Ironworks Co.about 1950. It was one of several taken at the time by the late F.J. Armes, a very good marine photographer from Brightlingsea. His widow still lives there, over eighty and I believe rather crotchety as I tried hard last year to see the vast number of negatives and prints she still has at her home, kept in suitcases, but without success. I fear the lot will one day be thrown out and burned, as so often happens. I will try to get the whole lot taken in to The Nottage Institute at Wivenhoe, which besides its educational maritime functions has a large collection of local maritime items gathered over many years. As I am to become one of its Trustees in autumn, having first been a pupil at its naval architecture evening classes in 1943, I may be able to influence this. If I think of other things regarding the AMOKURA before we see her, I will let you know. Do tell me when it is suitable to visit. Best wishes John Leather

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Letter from George Millar to David Japp, January 1996

webmstr — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 15:41:35 +0000

Dear Mr Japp It certainly was a good day’s work when you bought Amokura. She was, almost certainly is, a great boat, a joy to handle, a truly wonderful seaboat. Isabel never forgave me for selling her. She wanted me to enter her in the first single-handed transatlantic race, but I had a new job in London, and wouldn’t go. That race was won by old Francis Chichester in a much smaller boat, and had we entered we’d have won by a mile, many miles. Richard Carr was a POW with me in Italy, then Germany, and was a dear friend. I did not know the man who bought her from me, but Isabel and I, sailing up Falmouth Harbour, came upon her by happy chance. She was lying, miserable, in an outside berth. It broke our hearts. But Richard and Susan came to stay with us on our then Dorset house and farm. The four of us drove down and Richard, who had sailed with us, sail-stretching in the Solent when we had first bought her, did an instant deal with the Falmouth yard and got sea-jockeys to deliver her immediately to Groves & Gutteridge, then the best of the Cowes yards, for a very complete refit. Richard and self both being Squadron members, we stayed there with our wives in comfort, and spent hours going over Amokura in her shed. We were deep-sea sailers, while Richard and Susan were then more Solent-orientated. They had every right to do what they wanted to her (and Richard already had heart trouble. They put Proctor spars in her (which I would have done because her spruce ones were worn out), but I would NEVER have cut down the height of her mainmast because she needed that big mainsail, especially to windward. The second alteration with which we disagreed was that they widened the self-draining cockpit, and the third that they installed a big Mercedes engine. Of course I know we were sailing cranks. Isabel got seasick when one motored. When I bought her (in the Menai Straits) I sailed her round night and day with the yacht hand on her (She had been bought from Sir Ernest Harston, who built her at Moodys in 1939.) I sailed her with the Welsh hand, very good, Crosby’s young son, and couple picked up in a bar ashore. We went watch and watch and made a fast passage to Moodys, where I had Robert Clark waiting to survey. He gave her bad marks because he wanted me to buy one of his boats, but I didn’t believe him, for I knew she was a cracker. The following spring Isabel and I sailed her out to Malta, and all over the Western Med on the way. The RCC gave us the Romola Cup for that. We were out in Malta beginning of May to fit out alongside Fort St Angelo, following which we sailed to Corfu, always just the two of us, spent a long […]

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Ownership history

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1997: A meeting between Amokura’s owners, old and new

webmstr — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 13:12:46 +0000

This photograph was taken in June 1997 at the Royal Thames Yacht Club (RTYC). From left to right: David Japp, Susan Carr, George Millar and Venitia Ross-Skinner (Millar’s friend and assistant). Japp had contacted Millar, and the Carr family, in order to research Amokura’s background and as part of that process arranged this meeting. The get-together was reported in Yachting Monthly (August 1997) together with this photograph.

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1996: As found in Vilamoura

webmstr — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 00:25:35 +0000

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