Graduate 2024 Innuendo Restoration - Part 1: The story
by Andrew Wilford 17 Jun 2012 07:25 BST
My love affair with the Graduate
My love of “all things Graduate” started I guess nearly 40 years ago when first started sailing at the age of 15. My first sailing experience was in an elderly GP14 and then a succession of Enterprises all owned and maintained by my school in North Wales. Very soon I decided I wanted my own boat but I wanted something just a bit different.
Looking through the shelves of the school library I found a sailing book which contained pictures of an early “Dandy Grad” sailing on the river Trent … the self same picture as used by the Class Association when detailing the various design options. This boat looked modern, racy and just a bit different.
I then had to set about persuading my father to make the “investment” in a boat. I wrote off to Mike Noakes for details and prices etc and he had to endure countless questions from this “school boy” up in North Wales.
Eventually my father … rather than saying yes … gave some sort of innuendo suggesting that were I to do well in my “O” levels he would consider such a purchase. After all boats were expensive and a new Grad in those days cost all of £185; by the time you had added a trailer and various other “bits” the price rose to nearer £350… WOW!
So it was that after achieving my grades in 1967 that I persuaded my father to act on his innuendo. I recall that he and I drove from Stafford (where I lived in those days) to Nottingham to visit the yard of Mike Noakes and Wyche and Coppock Ltd. A rambling old mill known as Radford Mill in Norton Street greeted us. I remember walking up an ancient outside staircase to the show room on one of the mills upper floors. Upon entering I was greeted by the splendid sight of a brand new Merlin, National 12 and an OK but no Graduates. Naturally I was a little disappointed until Mike said that he had a shed full downstairs. My father and I went downstairs to what I recall as some sort of out house which was “full of new Graduates” all beautifully varnished. I guess there were six or seven
boats there and I was told to take my pick. Back in those heady days Wyche and Coppock produced I believe about 2 boats a week … they were almost a “stock” item! How times have changed.
I picked a boat although I have to accept they were all identical but recall the expression of horror on Mike’s face when I said I wanted it painted black. That he was not having so the boat remained varnished … a very wise decision!
Clearly the boat had to fitted out and so it was that on Thursday before Easter in 1968 Dad and I drove again to pick up my new boat. Even now I can feel the excitement “… What are you going to call her?” said Dad. Why “Innuendo” of course … so it was that Graduate sail number 2024 was born!
I always was a bit of a “rebel” and so I had a spinnaker fitted to the boat which I have to say worked very well. I also chose to have Enterprise blue sails … the boat looked an absolute dream!
Her “maiden voyage” was on Easter Saturday 1968 when I sailed her from Mudeford to Christchurch and back.
Innuendo and I spent some four years together and I have many happy memories of racing and sailing the boat out of Tenby Sailing Club every summer. I have one particular vivid memory of sailing at the Nationals in Saundersfoot when between races in particularly squally conditions we tried out the spinnaker and planed past the then National Champion… Peter Conway… with some ease! Do spinnakers work on the Grad … they most certainly do!
I kept Innuendo for about 4 years before selling her to be replaced by a Fireball. The boat was sold to Robin Elt in Worcester and from then on I lost track of her … oh how I missed Innuendo!
A chance browsing on ebay found my looking at my old boat on the Auction Site… I had to have her back! The next time I saw my old boat was in May 2005 and what a sad sight she made … since leaving my care she had clearly led a very very hard life. Virtually every piece of timber in her hull was absolutely saturated and I guess she was well over 15kgs overweight. The decking had been replaced but not sealed underneath and so this had completely perished. The floor was heavily blackened and elements of the hull “butchered” in a vain attempt to save weight.
If only Innuendo had been stripped down earlier in her life and allowed to thoroughly dry out then perhaps some of the real damage could have been avoided.
Part 2: The Rebuild Starts can be found here