GALENE and the Teal Class

When you know, you know, says the old adage about love. And it seems that it can equally apply to boats. Take James Smith, who comes from a salt-water family: his father, mother, and step-grandfather all served in the Merchant Navy. James joined the Sea Scouts and has sailed dinghies from a young age; he raced a Laser 2 out of Bosham in West Sussex, England, for many years before himself joining the Merchant Navy as engineer and traveling the world in cargo and passenger ships. But he never owned anything bigger than a dinghy.

Then, one fine day in 2000, he decided it was time to buy himself a yacht. He soon spotted an elegant 30' sloop for sale in the local paper and went down to Poole on the south coast to have a look at her. “I took her for a trial sail and loved her to bits,” he remembers. “I’ve sailed on a lot of dinghies, so I can feel a boat very well. And GALENE feels just right. You hold on to the tiller, and it feels just right.”

On “impulse,” James bought GALENE (he pronounces it so that it rhymes with Delaney) without even looking at any other boats. Yet, as impulse buys go, it seems to have turned out rather well. For here he is, 24 years later, happily sailing the boat on Carrick Roads in Falmouth, Cornwall.

“Take the helm, and see what you think,” James says. So I take the helm, and it does feel firm and steady—or “just right,” as he put it. In fact, it’s not the only thing about GALENE that is just right. For an 86-year-old wooden boat that has been through at least 14 owners and had major surgery at several points in her life, she feels remarkably homogeneous. The woodwork is all neat and tidy, the varnish well-tended, the non-original teak decks immaculate. Overall, the mix of bronze and modern fittings speak of an owner who knows when performance matters more than originality and yet is willing to be traditional when the situation is right.

With a boat as beautiful and authentic-looking as GALENE, one must wonder: Why bother with the Fifes, Nicholsons, and Watsons of this world when you can have a 1938 Luke Brothers yacht that ticks all the same boxes at a fraction of the price?

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