Royal Offshore Racing

When the time came to replace Bluebottle, Prince Philip decided to opt for a yacht that could be used for both racing, and cruising. Initially, His Royal Highness considered chartering a cruiser-racer for the 1962 season, but this idea was soon dropped in favour of buying a second-hand ocean racing yacht. To implement this decision, Bluebottle’s final Sailing Master, Lieutenant Commander Michael Jones RN, later Captain M A Jones MVO RN, was summoned to Buckingham Palace at the end of the 1961 season and instructed by Prince Philip’s Treasurer, Rear Admiral Bonham Carter, to begin the search for Bluebottle’s replacement. To fulfil the cruising requirements, it was decided that the future yacht should have at least two single cabins for members of the Royal Family and a shower compartment. Realistically, this meant that Lieutenant Commander Jones was looking for a yacht of at least 50ft and soon his investigations revealed two likely candidates, namely the 70ft yawl Latifa, and the 63ft yawl Bloodhound. Both yachts were built in 1936, Latifa by William Fife & Son, and Bloodhound by Camper & Nicholsons. At first glance Latifa seemed an attractive option because she had good accommodation and required only minor alterations for her to meet the requirements. However, her higher purchase price and greater running costs influenced Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip to opt for Bloodhound. The sale was completed in January 1962 and, a month later, Lieutenant Commander Jones was despatched to Plymouth to oversee Bloodhound’s launching at Mashford’s yard where she had been laid up for some time.

Before Prince Philip’s racing flag could be worn by Bloodhound she required a major refit to modify the interior, replace the engine and alter the rig. Despite the need for this work, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip had bought a fine yacht, as Captain John Illingworth, who was appointed as the Naval Architect for the refit, explained in a letter to Admiral Bonham-Carter, “Bloodhound’s sea-going qualities were exceptional. Under all conditions of wind and weather she is safe and easy to handle, and going to windward fast she punishes herself and crew less than any boat I know.” Once Bloodhound had been launched she was sailed to Gosport to be refitted by her original builders, who of course had also built Bluebottle 14 years earlier. Charles Blake, who was a director of Camper & Nicholsons, personally supervised the work. He knew Bloodhound very well, having crewed in her many times, including the 1939 Fastnet Race which she won with her first owner, the American yachtsman Isaac Bell, who sold her a few months later to Patrick Egan and Lieutenant Commander Hans Hamilton RNVR. They laid her up for the duration of WWII in Gosport and relaunched her in 1946 to help kick start the post war regatta circuit. She changed hands again in 1947 when she was purchased by Sir Myles Wyatt, who went on to serve as the Royal Ocean Sailing Club’s Admiral from 1957 until his death in 1968. Charles Blake joined Bloodhound’s crew on several occasions when Sir Myles owned her, including when she got into difficulties off Selsey Bill on 29 July 1956, after she lost her sails in a severe storm and started drifting towards Owers Shoal. The crew managed to drop her anchor before they were rescued by the Selsey Lifeboat. Luckily, the anchor held and Bloodhound managed to ride out the dreadful weather.

Whilst Bloodhound’s sea keeping qualities were not in doubt, she suffered from a number of characteristics common among pre-war yachts. Her relatively heavy wooden mast and narrow beam caused her to sail at a fair angle of heel, while she was quite dark down below. It was these aspects that Captain Illingworth set out to improve. The wooden main mast was replaced with an alloy mast weighing 25% less, while the main sail was slightly reduced and provision was made for a mizzen stay sail. The sailing changes were completed by simplifying the winch and sheeting arrangements. These modifications to her rig had the dual benefits of making her easier to sail by a small crew, and improving her rating for racing purposes. The existing dog house was superseded by a bigger structure to provide deck-level navigation facilities, and a bunk for the navigator that could be used as a settee in harbour. Bloodhound’s petrol engine was replaced by a 35HP Perkins diesel which also provided power for the 24HP electrical windlass. Down below, the original double berth cabin was turned into two single berth cabins and the comfort of the four berth saloon was improved by losing some of the storage space, such as the transatlantic store cupboard. Bloodhound’s ventilation and lighting was improved by the replacement of her skylights with modern perspex-topped skylights. The galley and crew’s quarters were separated from the saloon by a door and bulkhead.

However, as with Bluebottle, Prince Philip’s various official commitments still restricted the amount of time that he and his children could actually spend onboard her. Rather than allow Bloodhound to spend most of the year tied up in Portsmouth, Prince Philip decided that she should be lent to Yacht Clubs to allow their members to sample offshore yacht racing. The Admiralty agreed to continue with the practice of appointing a Naval Officer as the Sailing Master but, being a larger yacht, it was decided that the Sailing Master should be supported by Chief Petty Officer Francis Drake and Abel Seaman John Capel to form the core crew. Thanks to the improvements introduced during the refit, these three men were able to sail Bloodhound themselves and in rough weather she would sail quite happily on just her jib and mizzen sail, reaching speeds of up to 6 knots to windward.

Prince Philip sailed Bloodhound for the first time during her sailing trials in June. Explaining what she was like to sail Prince Philip said, “Bloodhound was easy to handle and she responded very positively to her tiller. She was certainly much easier to steer in all conditions, with her rudder attached to her keel, than the modern round-bilged yachts with skeg rudders. Needless to say, she required quite a strong breeze to give her a chance of overcoming her handicap against smaller boats.” A month later His Royal Highness raced Bloodhound during Cowes Week. One of those who joined the crew for that Cowes Week was Commander Fergie-Woods, who was serving in Britannia at the time as the Royal Cypher Officer, as he recalls, “I enjoyed sharing the main sheet with Uffa Fox. He had a wealth of sailing experience, of course, plus a sense of humour and a little mischief. We were close on the wind when he said to Prince Philip, ‘you know, Sir, I find I can get closest to the wind if I lash my boom right down.’ Perhaps Prince Philip was only half listening, but Uffa found a line and tackle and he and I soon had the boom secured in no uncertain manner to a deck fitting. Uffa was pleased with the result but we were then upon the windward mark and Prince Philip was ordering ‘Ready about.’ The main was in no way ready to go about and I well remember Prince Philip’s immediate interest in what Uffa and I had been up to, to say the least.” At the end of Cowes Week, Bloodhound headed back to Gosport to load stores for Prince Philip’s cruise in Scottish waters before sailing on to Torbay to embark His Royal Highness. Having started the Tall Ships Race, Prince Philip joined Bloodhound for the voyage north to Campbeltown, where he was joined by The Prince of Wales, Princess Anne and Prince Carl-Gustaf, now The King of Sweden, for an informal cruise. Describing the normal routine for these Scottish cruises Prince Philip said, “we would anchor in the late afternoon / early evening in some sheltered spot and cook a good supper. We would then get underway after breakfast and sail during the day to some anchorage with just a picnic for a midday meal. We would eventually join up with Britannia and transfer to her for the passage to Scrabster and then on to Aberdeen. Bloodhound would pick up a Yacht Club crew to sail back south.”

Bloodhound’s annual sailing programme was planned around the Royal Family’s requirements for her. Once these had been passed on to the Sailing Master he was able to plan the rest of her programme accordingly. For example, if she was going to be used for a cruise along the Scottish West Coast by Prince Philip, Prince Charles and Princess Anne, the Sailing Master would try to find Yacht Clubs that wanted to sail on the voyages north and south. Equally, once in Scottish waters the Sailing Master could make her available for local Yacht Clubs to enter some offshore races. The only qualification for those wanting to borrow Bloodhound was that the party had to have the necessary experience and ability to undertake what they wanted to do with Bloodhound. Despite this core condition Bloodhound was never lent without the Sailing Master, who was always ultimately in command of Bloodhound whenever she was on loan. The scheme soon caught on and became very popular. In her first full season of Royal ownership Bloodhound was used by members of 32 different Yacht Clubs to sail 6736 nautical miles and spend 109 of her 162 days in commission at sea. Apart from the small number of people who came onboard for a day sail, each visitor spent an average of 4 1/2 days onboard Bloodhound. To make Bloodhound available to as many people as possible each person was charged just £1 per day which contributed towards food and normal running costs, such as fuel, water and harbour dues. This figure was increased to £2 in later years with Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip paying the remainder of Bloodhound’s expenses

Despite Bloodhound’s enormous success in introducing large numbers of people to offshore yachting it was clear by 1969 that the cost of operating her could no longer be justified. Although the charges to those who borrowed Bloodhound could have been increased to the point where they covered all of her expenses it was considered inappropriate for the Royal Family to enter the yacht charter business. This left no alternative but to lay Bloodhound up at the end of the sailing season and put her up for sale. Before that sad day arrived Bloodhound undertook her longest cruise, with a voyage through the Kiel Canal, into the Baltic, and round to Bergen. The trip was arranged because The Queen and Prince Philip were due to visit Norway in HM Yacht Britannia. His Royal Highness thought the use of Bloodhound would enable The Prince of Wales and Princess Anne to see something of the Norwegian Fjords. In the event they had very good weather. At the end of their short cruise Bloodhound sailed home via the Caledonian Canal, down the Irish Sea and on to France, before returning to Portsmouth to complete a voyage of 2,932 miles.

Bloodhound’s career as a Royal Racing Yacht came to a close on 13 October 1969 when she entered Portsmouth to conclude her 1969 season, in which she had sailed 7130 nautical miles. Thus, in just 8 seasons of Royal ownership, she had sailed 45,393 miles, most of which were completed with members of the various Yacht Clubs who borrowed her, rather than her owners. Not surprisingly, the sale of a Royal Racing Yacht generated interest very quickly and by November she had been sold to Louis Coureau. Following the sale of Bloodhound, Prince Philip was able to maintain the Royal Family’s connection to the sport of yachting thanks to the generosity of Sir Owen Aisher who kindly lent Prince Philip a succession of yachts to race in Class 1 at Cowes Week, beginning with Yeoman XVI in 1970.

Meanwhile, Bloodhound changed hands again when Louis Coureau sold her to Bernard Cook in 1974. He mainly used her for day sailing along the South Coast from her home port of Poole, where she became a familiar sight moored off Brownsea Island. By the mid-1980s, Bloodhound’s use declined as Bernard’s health deteriorated. Sadly, Bloodhound required an extensive refit by the time Bernard’s son Robert inherited her in 1990, so he took her to Southampton Yacht Services for a two-year package of work. When the rejuvenated Bloodhound emerged, Robert received a challenge for Bloodhound to race the recently restored Drumbeat for the Hermes Mumm Trophy. Sponsored by the prestigious French companies The House of Hermes and G. H. Mumm, the inaugural event was held in the Solent and hosted by The Royal Yacht Squadron in 1992. The famous yachtsman Sir Peter Blake agreed to be her skipper for the race, while Robert and his friends made up the crew. It proved to be a shrewd choice as Bloodhound won the race in style, even though Sir Peter had never sailed her before! The event grew in size when it was repeated in 1994, 1996 and 1998. Harold Cudmore took over as Bloodhound’s skipper for the subsequent events as she continued to prevail over the increasing number of competitors and win the Hermes Mumm Trophy outright in June 1998. Other highlights during this period included participating within the unforgettable America’s Cup Jubilee held in the Solent in 2001 and participating in the Mediterranean classic yacht regatta circuit that autumn.

A year later, Robert Cook sold Bloodhound to Richard Carr, who had fond memories of sailing with the Cook family in Bloodhound as a teenager during his summer holidays in the 1970s. Bloodhound was moored in St Peter Port in Guernsey at the time of the sale, and when Richard subsequently sailed her back to Poole with a group of friends in rough weather, they quickly discovered the veteran yacht required a further package of extensive work. Richard slipped her in Salterns Marina in Poole and embarked on a restoration. However, as the project unfolded, he reluctantly decided that it was going to be a much bigger task than he had envisaged, and he accepted an offer from the yacht surveyor Tony McGrail.

With the wholehearted support of his wife Cindy, the McGrails devoted the next four years along with their heart, soul and everything they had to restore Bloodhound to her former glory. Tony did much of the work himself, with the help of the shipwright Lee Woodford and engineer Colin Mundy, in a specially built shed on a farm in Sturminister Marshall, Dorset. When they relaunched her in 2007, Bloodhound became the only postwar Royal Racing Yacht in seaworthy condition. Sadly, the McGrails were unable to retain Bloodhound on a long-term basis and they reluctantly put her up for sale. They were determined to secure the right custodian and were thrilled to reach an agreement with The Royal Yacht Britannia Trust to sell her in January 2010 and ensure her long term future.

Before heading north to join Britannia on public display in Leith, Bloodhound was repainted in her former Royal livery by Berthon’s Lymington shipyard. For several years, Bloodhound spent about 10 months a year in Leith on display alongside Britannia, before heading off to the West Coast of Scotland for July and August. For these two months, she would be manned by a crew of Yotties, who offered skippered charters from her temporary base in Oban, to recreate the type of cruises enjoyed by members of the Royal Family when she was owned by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip in the 1960s. Soon after acquiring Bloodhound, the Trust’s Chief Executive Bob Downie purchased Mervyn Pearson’s painting depicting a fictitious gathering of Britannia with the Royal Racing Yachts Bloodhound, Bluebottle and Coweslip for the Trust. Mervyn had produced a similar painting for Prince Philip that was used on Britannia’s menus, and it inspired Bob to find out what had happened to the latter pair of yachts. His initial research indicated that Bluebottle was on display at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall in Falmouth and Coweslip was preserved by the Classic Boat Museum in Cowes. Thinking that they were both in safe hands he turned his attention back to the Trust’s projects including the recently acquired Bloodhound. However, the dream of reuniting the four yachts at some point in the future remained at the back of Bob’s mind until a change in the circumstances of the two Royal Racing yachts led to the Trust taking on responsibility for their preservation in 2017.

Like so many aspects of life, Bloodhound’s pattern of use was interrupted by the restrictions introduced during the Covid pandemic. Once these restrictions were finally lifted, the Trust primarily focused on re-opening Britannia to the public, relaunching its 5 star floating hotel Fingal and initiating Bluebottle’s second racing career. In a remarkable twist of fate, Bluebottle won the first race she had contested in 60 years during the 2021 Cowes Week and then went on to win the regatta’s Dragon series with a day to spare. This led to the development of an ambitious programme of racing at the highest levels in both national and international regattas. In addition to achieving an unbelievable level of success, the initiative introduced Bluebottle to a whole new audience in home waters and further afield who would have never seen, or heard about, the Royal Dragon if she had remained on display in Leith. It also helped raise the profile of Britannia and the rest of the Trust’s work. The impact made by Bluebottle’s programme triggered a review in the way which the Trust preserves Bloodhound, rather than simply reverting to the pre-pandemic model of her spending 10 months on static display in Leith and 2 months based in Oban. The Trust wanted to find new ways to share Bloodhound and her rich heritage with a much wider audience in accordance with one of the Trust’s core objectives to educate people about the four Royal Yachts that it cares for. However, before Bloodhound could undertake a programme of events, she returned to Berthon’s Lymington shipyard in 2025 for routine maintenance and to be repainted following her recent prolonged spell of inactivity. The Trust hoped the work could be completed in time to enable Bloodhound to participate within the Royal Thames Yacht Club’s 250^th Anniversary Regatta in Cowes. However, during her voyage south to Lymington, Bloodhound started taking on water off the Norfolk Coast on 6 April and her crew called upon the Caister lifeboat for assistance as a precautionary measure in line with the Trust’s “no risk” policy. Once the lifeboat crew had transferred additional water pumps, they took Bloodhound in tow to Great Yarmouth where she arrived safely that evening. Bloodhound’s skipper, Mark Stapley, and his volunteer crew of Yotties, subsequently resumed their voyage to Lymington where Bloodhound was slipped for a thorough inspection to assess what further work was required.

With the 90^th anniversary of Bloodhound’s launching approaching, the Trust decided to embark on a major programme of work to ensure she complies with the latest regulations and will sail safely into her second century. On completion of this work, the Trust will announce the details of her future programme to help encourage offshore sailing at a grass roots level, which will be reminiscent of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip’s efforts to do this when they owned Bloodhound. It is also hoped that she will also participate in the occasional classic yacht regatta and major commemorative events as well as forming part of the Britannia experience in Leith.