Our featured boat for May is ‘Songbird’, an 18ft Heir Island Sloop, no 23 and the last to be built. The cover photo shows the Irish fleet sailing in their home area, Heir Island.
‘Songbird’ was built in England by a boatbuilder in Totnes, Devon. The other 22 were built by Gubby Williams of Heir Island and are raced and cruised in Roaring Water Bay near Baltimore, south west Ireland. The blurb from Gubby reads: “The boat is fast and well mannered. The decent displacement, a third of it amidships makes her powerful and buoyant. Hollow waterlines forward maybe be villains responsible for a stew of evils from hellish imbalance and buckets of drag when heeled, to depletion of the ozone layer but they keep the foredeck dry and, best of all, they look sharp and sexy!”
‘Songbird’ has a GRP hull, everything else is wood. She has a large mainsail (137 sq ft) and two jibs, larger and smaller, let’s not get too technical. She is ballasted and weights three quarters of a tonne. She has a ply centreplate, so draws very little and crossing the Deben bar at LW has never been a problem.
She is lovely to sail, speedy also tippy but she feels safe out at sea in a moderate chop. We camp out on her, sleeping beneath a custom made boom tent. It’s not high luxury but the simplicity makes up for the lack of homely comforts. She has an electric outboard, good points are that it’s clean and silent, cons are that the battery may run out whilst crossing the shipping lane.
‘Songbird’ is the only HIS in England, so if you want one you’ll have to wait for mine to come up for sale. You can always request a trial sail, I’m sometimes looking for a crew!
Words: Shona Fairchild
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