Almita

An Invited Friend of The Harrison Butler Association
The centre board gaff rigged sloop built in 1906 to a design by FB Howden

Tricks Under The Water
The first cruising boat owned by Yachting Monthly's Dick Durham was Almita. He had a lot of fun with her as the following escapade, recollected by Nick Ardley, illustrates; "Dick and his crew, Pete, had accepted a challenge to take part in the Aldeburgh regatta. Seriously competitive, they prepared for the race by careened the boat to clean her bottom. The boat, Almita, was an engineless wooden centre-board sloop which Dick kept on the shore at Leigh-on-Sea. To the unknowing, Almita had the look of a deep keeled and was known locally for being slippery through the water. They made a strong start to the race with Pete coaxed Almita over the start line just ten seconds after the gun. Soon they were cutting inside their competitors who were in deep keeled boats. "What do you draw ?" asked one indignant sailor as they passed between him and a cud-chewing cow standing nonchalantly in a ditch outfall. "Six feet", was Pete's reply followed by an ambiguous, "but we can cut it back to five through the mud". The inquisitive yachtsman then followed in their wake, promptly running aground".

Almita Statistics
Built : 1906 by Gann & Palmer in Teignmouth, Devon, England
LOA : 25' 10"
LWL : 21' 7"
Beam : 7' 5"
Draught : 2' 6",
Displacement : 5 tons TM
OGA Boat Number : 1906
Sail Number : 10 (originally), 1906 (current)

Almita Custodians & Home Ports
David Smith (c2009-2017...) East Coast, England
Dick Durham (?-?) Canvey Island, Essex, England
RJ Davies (1980-1985-?) Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England
VN Davies (?-1946-1979) Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England
CL Lamare (?-1923-1939-?) Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England
WC Wilson (?-1911-?) Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England

Almita Links
• Almita on the OGA website
• "Gaff Vs Bermuban" Yachting Monthly article from 2009 featuring Almita

Page last updated : October 2017

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