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The latest addition to New Zealand's classic yachting books has finally arrived. Filled with photos and stories, this book showcases the history and the spirit of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron's 'glamour class' – the K Class fleet.

'The Ks were beautiful boats to sail. When I look at them today, and I think of all the things we used to do in them - bloody hell! We were all pretty gung ho...' ~ Kim McDell talking about his time with Waiomo

In 1944 the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron held a world-wide competition to create a new class of keelers that would be just as comfortable racing as cruising in the sparkling waters of Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf.

The K Class fleet developed from this competition – 13 yachts designed by well-known local and international yacht designers such as Arch Logan, Arthur Robb, Bob Stewart, Bill Couldrey, James McGruer, and Olin Stephens.

Referred to in their hey-day as the 'glamour class' of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, the Ks were similar in size and shape to the International 8 Metre boats popular in Europe.

This book traces the history of the K Class and offers a glimpse into what it was like for those who were lucky enough to spend racing and cruising on them. Although the fleet was small, their beauty and performance touched the hearts of many sailors, and left the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron in no doubt they had created a very fine class.

From Bob Stewart's Helen to Sparkman & Stephens' Sapphire, the fleet has impressed and delighted many of New Zealand's yachting fraternity for almost seventy years.

Page after page of photos, from both professional photographers and family albums, highlight the joys of sailing such beautiful boats.

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K Class-The Hauraki Gulf’s Iconic Cruiser Racer.

A History by Jenni Mence

While researching an article on New Zealand’s Mauharangi Regatta back in February I was told by Stephen Horsley of a new book coming out that he had designed and that was written by Jenni Mence. It’s subject is the Hauraki Gulf’s famous racers/cruiser, the K Class. Well things move slowly in the Classic Yacht world so 10 months later, having contacted Jenni, and very generously received a copy of her book we are now able to show you a sample and bring to you an account of how this wonderful project materialised. It’s interesting that the book links in so well with Charlie Salter’s piece on the UK/NZ designer Arthur Robb , the second part of which will be published on this site soon. Picking up the book is a pleasure in itself. When you feel the matt laminated hardback cover with a large embossed “K” in your hands and smell the fresh printers ink you know that this book can certainly be judged by it’s cover! …. and having spent some time engrossed in the pages, I suspect that any Classic Yacht enthusiast, on either side of the Tasman (or Pacific for that matter) won’t be disappointed.

Jenni Takes up the story in her wonderfully informal and informative style…….

I was inspired to write the book because we own a K Class yacht (K2, Bill Coudrey-designed JENANNE ). Originally it was just going to be a small book with a few photos and information about each of the Ks - there were only 10 originally built, and three extra ‘ring-ins’, so 13 boats I thought - how hard could that be? Well! I am not a natural-born sailor, so I didn’t want to write a technical book about boats and wind direction and sail plans - I was (and still am) far more interested in the stories behind the boats and their people. What was life on the water like in the 1950s in Auckland, who were the people prepared to take on these boats, what about their families, what about the racing, what about the drinking…? The research into the boats and people turned into one very large rabbit-hole which took several years to emerge from! I have met some wonderful people along the way, many of them aged in their late 80s and 90s, who had the most wonderful stories to tell. Once I started down that track, I then set out to find as many of the original K Class owners/family members/boatbuilders/crew etc as possible. I have been blown away by the sheer number of people that could tell a story or three about the Ks - for a fleet of 13 boats, they certainly left a mark on many people. Even now, every time our K is out of the water, or we are in a bay around the Hauraki Gulf, there always seems to be someone around who has a memory of a K Class yacht. One memorable day on the Gulf saw two boats sail across to us to tell us their father/grandfather used to own our boat! We have ended up with a large, glossy coffee table book full of photos, many of them previously unseen as they came from family photo albums, plenty of ‘boat porn’, and loads of great stories told by old sailors, wives, children, crew, and boat-builders. I have had great comments back from people who have read the book, saying it brought back many memories, and even those who are not sailors have enjoyed the book for the tales of life on wooden boats. I am not sure how much you know about the Ks, so please bear with me if I am telling you something you already know.

The fleet developed from a competition run by the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron during the late 1940s. They wanted to build a fleet of yachts that would perform well in local conditions and satisfy both the serious sailor who wanted to go racing as well as the family that wanted to go cruising. The Squadron anticipated an influx of keen sailors returning from the war, and they thought a racer-cruiser yacht would meet their needs. There were many entries into this design competition, not just from New Zealand, but from around the world. It was eventually won by Arthur Robb, a Kiwi living and working in London at the time. The parameters for the design competition were clearly defined by the Squadron, with a view to developing a one-design class that would race competitively and cruise comfortably. This was a first for New Zealand yachting - up until then, the focus had been on racing, and the idea of taking the family out sailing was really quite a foreign concept. Unfortunately for the Squadron’s plans, each designer wanted to build their own entry, and so although the yachts are essentially the same, there are enough design differences within the Squadron’s parameters that the Ks became a restricted class rather than a one design class.

Photo-Warren Tuohey

Other renown NZ boat designers that took part in the competition included Bob Stewart, Jack Brooke, Bill Couldrey and Col Wild. While Robb won the competition, his winning design was never actually built. Major James Murray commissioned Scottish boat building firm Stebbings to build Robb’s design, but with several significant modifications as he wanted to race her in the UK. This yacht is MOKOIA. As a result of these changes, she is no longer met the specifications of the K Class yacht. MOKOIA was a bit of an urban myth around the Auckland boating scene as many people didn’t believe she had ever been built. She has sailed some magnificent races and covered many thousands of nautical miles, but has sadly never made it to New Zealand. Her story alone makes fantastic reading, and my husband and I were lucky enough to visit her in Australia, and meet one of the men who crewed on her during her lengthy and dramatic voyage from England to Australia. That was a real perk in my research of the Ks! So, back to the fleet. Bob Stewart’s HELEN was the first K Class boat to be launched in Auckland to tremendous interest at the end of the 1940s. She raced hard and fast and generated plenty of excitement in the yachting world. By the early 1960s there were 10 Ks built and racing; and three other yachts, NGATIRA (Steve’s boat) designed by Charles Bailey jr, and GYPSY and WAIOMO both of whom were designed by the great Arch Logan, had been re-designed to comply with the K Class regulations and were regularly racing with the fleet. James McGruer and Olin Stephens had also both designed K Class yachts for NZ owners. Olin’s yacht is called SAPPHIRE and she is one of the better known Ks - her original owner had her designed and built with speed in mind as he wanted her to be the fastest in the class (he raced her rather than cruised her - they would take a ‘mother ship’ away with them on races so they had somewhere to sleep etc). Although there is only around 12 years difference between her and the early Ks, the changes in boat design, build practices, and materials was great in that time, and it is very interesting to compare the first and the last of the class. (We have done this on many occasions as my brother-in-law now owns SAPPHIRE , and she and JENANNE have just spent the past 2 years or so side by side in a shed undergoing extensive restoration work.) Most of the Ks were built for Squadron members, and several RNZYS commodores had a K Class yacht. The other famous K Class owner was Sir Keith Park (of Battle of Britain fame). At a time when boats were commonly built in back-yards, the Ks were all professionally built. They were also among the first yachts to have a head included in the design as a nod to cruising comfort.

KATRINA II crosses RAINBOW- Photo Ivor Wilkins

As intended, the racing between the Ks was fierce. The Squadron was very proud of its fleet, and the boats took pride of place on many occasions. They were often referred to as the ‘elite’ class. Unlike the A Class yachts, the Ks could be sailed with a smaller crew, and were a lot more manageable. The K Class owners raced hard and partied hard. Up until the 1950s, women were a rarity on boats, and it was interesting to hear stories from both the sailors who loved the racing and the wives/families who loved the cruising; and discover the changes to the local yachting scene during this time. Kawau Island, in the Hauraki Gulf features strongly in the K Class history. The Mansion House was the scene of many a great party and the stories that came from those times are fantastic! Including many tales of a bar called the ‘Snake Pit’ - which served so many drinks to already inebriated yachties that no-one is able to clearly recall just where it was or what it was like - but the older sailors all know they drank there!

HELEN on her way to Patio Bay- Photo Ivor Wilkins

After the hey-days of the ‘50s and ‘60s, the Ks dispersed a little, still racing and cruising, but not as intensely and not as a fleet any longer. The incredible thing is, after all these years, all but one of the Ks are still in existence, albeit in varying states. The one lost K was reportedly sunk in Nova Scotia (Sir Keith Park’s ex boat). Two of the ‘ring-ins’, NGATIRA and GYPSY have reverted back to their original design; while JENANNE , KATRINA , THELMA, HELEN, KIARIKI and SAPPHIRE have all had extensive restoration work carried out over the past few years. Interestingly, many of the Ks have been in the same family for decades, and have only had 3 or 4 owners during their life; while others keep in touch with ‘their’ yacht despite ownership changes. We were lucky enough to get a box of historical documents and photos, including the original logbook and photos when we purchased JENANNE, despite the fact that she has changed hands more than any other K and has had over 20 owners! We are also still in touch with members of her original family, who turned out in force for the book launch, and still consider JENANNE (and therefore us) to be part of their family! Such is the enchantment of these boats.

Rewa, Gwynne and Anne on Board JEANNE. Wiseman, Neary Family Collection.

Phew! I hope this gives you a bit more background to the Ks, and an idea of the content of my book. As I say, I spent a lot of time hearing about and writing about the wonderful life that owning a K Class yacht offered. We are in love with our K and can’t imagine life without her.

Well if that doesn’t make you want to rush out and find a copy…………But you don’t need to!

Copies are available directly from Jenni It retails for $70.00 NZD, Or $67 AUD plus postage.

Hold on; it’s got us, an american schooner on kangaroo island.

In 1950 the RNZYS ran a design competition won by Arthur Robb and a subsequent 12 boats were built within the following decade.

The following gives a list of the 12 K’s courtesy of the Wooden Boat Forum.

Designed by Bob Stewart, Built by Col Wild in 1948 Bill Couldrey told me that Bob Stewart wanted him (Couldrey) to build the boat but as he didn’t have a yard at that time, it was arranged for Couldrey to build her at Col Wild’s yard. Bob Salthouse however says Couldrey was only on wages at the time & most work was done by Chris Robertson. Both statements are probably true.

K 2 Jenanne

Designed by Bill Couldrey, Built by Low Bros, Whangarei 1950. She was designed in late 1948, built in Whangarei and finished off by her owner, Murray Wiseman and did not hit the water until 1950.

K 3 Thelma VII

K 5 Kitenui

K 6 Penelope

K 8 Anthea II

Designed by Arch Logan, Built by Bill Couldrey 1935. Converted to the K-class rule 1953, design work done by Jack Brooke.

K 10 Katrina II

K 11 Kiariki

K 12 Sapphire

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K Class Classic Yachting Book

The Ks came about from a RNZYS design competition in 1944. The Squadron were keen to entice returning service personnel to get out on the water, and they wanted to be able to offer them a boat that would be suitable not just for racing, but also for cruising around the Hauraki Gulf.

Some of our best known designers and boatbuilders were involved in the development of the K Class fleet. Ex pat Arthur Robb won the competition, and Bob Stewart came second. Bill Couldrey, Col Wild, and Jack Brooke also entered designs. Ten boats were built between 1948 and early 1960s, and three other similar boats were redesigned to fit within the class criteria. They were initially intended to be a one design class but as most of the designers wanted to build their own boat, they quickly became a restricted class. As the Hauraki Gulf’s first racer-cruisers, the Ks and their owners were fiercely competitive when racing, but great mates when tucked up in a bay at the end of the day.

Collings and Bell, Col Wild, and Percy Vos, were some of the local boatbuilders involved in the Ks. The last K to be built was designed by Olin Stephens of Sparkman and Stephens, and no expense was spared in an effort to make her the fastest in the class.

The Ks were regarded by Squadron as their ‘glamour class’, and were also sometimes referred to as the ‘Aristocrats of the Harbour’. Some well known yachties owned Ks over the years, from Sir Keith Park, Piri Neary, Doug Reid, and Richard Ross, to several RNZYS Commodores.

Rather than writing a technical sailing book, I have focused more on the social side of what it was like sailing the Hauraki Gulf in a K Class in the 1950s and 1960s. Many former owners, crew members, family members, boatbuilders, and yachting enthusiasts have shared stories and memories of the Ks, and there are plenty of photos tracing the history of the class.

waitematawoodys.com #1 for classic wooden boat stories, info, advice & news – updated daily

Dedicated to the study & appreciation of wooden boats. waitematawoodys® was founded upon a desire to tell the stories & a need to archive the history of our classic wooden boats, the craftsman who built them & characters that owned & crewed on them. to share – email your photos, video's & stories to flora mckenzie at [email protected] – special thanks to marine author & historian harold kidd. click the follow button at the bottom right of the page to get email alerts on new & updated stories. ww gets a lot of emails every day – we like that, but sometimes we just can't answer them all, it's not that we're lazy or rude – just busy working on the next story :-) alan houghton – ww founder ©2024.

Tag Archives: K Class

Mystery st marys bay launches.

MYSTERY LAUNCH QUIZ

Haven’t offered up a prize in a while so today is a goodie. Thanks to a Mitchell Hutchings fb post we get to share the two brilliant photos above of the St Mary’s Bay area. Mitchell commented that the photos were dated 1980 but he was not sure of the date. Neil Gillard also commented that the date was more like the 1960’s, as at that time he was serving his time at Chas Bailey’s yard and he recalls the boats (probably the ferries) being moored there then.

This how the quiz will work – each launch you correctly ID, gives you one point – get all there right and you have 3 chances in the draw. ID only 1 = 1 chance. Launch (c) will be a challenge.

Entries by email only – closes 7pm 29-08-22 Answers to [email protected]

THE PRIZE: A copy of the Jenni Mence’s superb tome – ‘K-Class – The Hauraki Gulf’s Iconic Racer-Cruiser’ – 360 pages of photographs, illustrations and tales from the skippers and crew that sailed these stunning classic yachts.

Jenanne Raises The K Class Bar

Last week the Bill Couldrey built, 1945, K Class – Jenanne glided back into the water at the Milford Slipway after some serious TLC.

Note the boot topping colour – very flash for a 77 year old lady.

Me thinks sunglasses will be needed for the rest of the K fleet crews 😉

Classic Woody Yard Mooching

Update 05-07-2022 1st coat of the shinny stuff goes on

Classic Woody Yard Mooching

Dropped into The Slipway Milford the other day, very pleased to see the 1937, 38’ Sam Ford built launch – Menai, getting some serious TLC after languishing at the CYA’s Heritage Landing for many years, dockside chat was it was a permanent fixture.

As with most things in life, boat ownership goes in cycles and with new owners she is get the attention she deserves. Always nice to see painting prep well executed i.e. back to bare wood – that kauri looks as good as the day Sam Ford fastened it.

I understand a new engine has been installed so the TCL is serious – we like that 🙂

See more on Menai here https://waitematawoodys.com/2020/09/11/menai-a-peek-down-below-2/

While there the 1945 K-Class – Jenanne was getting a Jason Prew Paint Job, the photo is coat one of two top coats, already very slick.

Now a tip on how to get marine engineers to come down to your boat – keep your engine room as ship-shape as the 1965 Owen Woolley built launch – Adonis – the man from the Moon didn’t even have to put his overalls on 🙂

Beautiful Classic Cruiser – Racer

Let me draw your attention to a scary fact – there are only 10 weeks till Christmas Day, so my question to you is – will you be on the water over the Christmas / NY holiday period?If you have been thinking that 2021 is the year you move up to owning a classic wooden holiday home – read on.

KIARIKI Woodys with age-less classic looks, racing pedigree and un-rivalled provenance are very few and far between in New Zealand, so when the time comes for an owner to start looking for the next custodian, the drums start beating.

The yacht Kiariki was designed by owner Jack (John) Brooke and built by John / Jack Logan / John Salthouse and launched in 1959. Using the best kauri, her specs are 40’ x 8’9” x 6’. During the Brooke family ownership period she was always one of the top 3 yachts in the K Class fleet. But to the Brooke family Kiariki was as much a family cruiser as a racer, and John Brooke had a wonderful ritual of recording every cruise in the form of a chart overlaid with caricatures of notable and amusing events – refer examples below.

After a period of ownership outside of the Brooke family – Russell Brooke acquired Kiariki back in 2009, completing the ownership circle – grandfather > grandson and commenced a restoration at the Salthouse Yard – Russell’s brief to the yard that originally built her was simple ‘return her to the thoroughbred form she was in when she was launched’. The work included her decks stripped, caulked and painted – new fastenings, teak rails, sea-cocks, hatches and skylights. The cabin top roof was replaced and her interior was refitted. Not surprisingly her planking did not need repair – originally fitted by Jack Logan, his perfectionist approach meant the hull was still as good as it was when it was new.

I would recommend that anyone interested in Kiariki or in fact the K Class, should purchase a copy of the magnificent book ‘K CLASS – The Hauraki Gulf’s Iconic Racer – Cruiser’.

Chatting to one of the leading lights of the K Class division, they had this to say “Kiariki is one of the faster and larger boats in the fleet and of course with great provenance. I was on board a few years ago and she certainly appeared to be one of the best in the group”. Another K Class owner commented that he recalls that in Kiatiki’s last season of serious racing, she beat Katrina (one of the fastest boats in the fleet – then and still today) across the line in 11 straight starts – so whilst a very comfortable cruiser, to use the horse racing term – Kiariki has got legs.

I can advise that we have been tasked with finding the next custodian for Kiariki – so woodys if you or someone you know wants to be cruising this summer – initial expressions of interest to [email protected]

30-10-2022 UPDATE – Kiariki has had a post winter tidy up, and will be ongoing detailing over summer. The K Class would have to be one of the smartest looking keelers afloat.

Maroro + Special Boat Shed Invite

MARORO + SPECIAL INVITE TO VISIT BOAT BUILDER – PETER BROOKES SHED Thames woody – Brian Thomas, sent me the above photo of his launch Maroro, that he and his son have spent the last 8 years rebuilding at Kopu. Since her recent relaunch she now resides at Thames Marina. The above photo was taken of her from the Thames Wharf Cafe. In his note Brian mentioned a blog that featured the rebuild but I have been unable to trace it or get more intel from Brian, so today’s story is a bit of a ’name & shame’ i.e. hopefully Brian will see this and be in touch 🙂

From the photo it appears to have been a very smart restoration.

SPECIAL INVITATION – A Peek Inside One of Your Best Wooden Boatbuilders Shed

You are invited to an open afternoon at Brookes Boatbuilders, to view the restoration of:

Fife Yacht, Impala
Refit of K class yacht, Katrina II
Restoration of Launch, Amakura II
The many other wooden boats at the yard – Matia, Ladye Wilma, Kotiri, Pilot Cutter, Kenya II (Peter’s own classic launch)

DATE : Sunday 1 st November

TIME: 2pm-7pm

ADDRESS: 108 Woodhill Park Road, Waimauku, Auckland These invites only happen every 3>4 years so woodys do not miss out, it will be an amazing afternoon.

A Spirit of Tradition Woody + Win Prizes

A Spirit of Tradition Woody

Today’s launch was designed American designer – Ted Brewer and appears to be based on the traditional Maine lobster boat. She was built in New Zealand in c.1989 from strip plank cedar epoxied and glassed. She measures 30’ overall with a beam of 9’1″ and draws 2’4”. A fully reconditioned Nissan SD22 provides the forward motion.

Her tme listing (thanks Ian McDonald) is very impressive and she appears to be good value for the asking price. Home port is Kerikeri.

WIN YOURSELF A COPY OF THE HOT OF THE PRESS BOOK – K CLASS

This could be the final WW competition before Santa slides down the chimney. As always – entry is via email only to [email protected]

Entries close midnight Friday 20-12-2019 . All correct entries will go into the draw for a copy of the book – K Class by Jenni Mence. Plus a bobby prize – a waitematawoodys t-shirt, drawn from all email entries received – correct or not.

Q waitematawoodys editorial assistant – Flora McKenzie shares her name with a pioneer Auckland business women from the waterfronts past. What line of business was Flora in? Remember – enter via email only.

The benefits of a self draining cockpit

The benefits of a self draining cockpit

Help ID This Launch – Lady Fay

MYSTERY LAUNCH – Lady Fay

Its Starting To Look A Lot Like Christmas

I ts Starting To Look A Lot Like Christmas

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Yachting World
Digital Edition

J Class: the enduring appeal of the world’s most majestic yachts

October 9, 2023

Only ten J Class yachts were built before the Second World War stopped the movement in its tracks, but in the last 20 years these magnificent sloops have made an incredible comeback. Why has the J Class remained irresistable? David Glenn explains.

One of the most awe-inspiring sights in modern yachting is the Spirit of Tradition fleet blasting off the start line at the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta. It happens every year at the end of April. Chances are it will include at least two J Class yachts, hitting the line on the gun at full tilt, exploding through the cobalt blue Caribbean rollers at anything up to 12 knots as they charge upwind.

Watching Velsheda , Ranger , Shamrock V and Endeavour will bring a lump to your throat, such is the emotion generated by these beautifully proportioned 130ft racing machines with their carbon rigs driving 170 tonnes of steel, aluminium and teak towards the weather mark. It’s heady stuff.

Watching them is one thing; racing quite another matter. In 1999 I was aboard the rebuilt Velsheda , taking part in the Antigua Classic Regatta. I had a single task as part of a four-man team – to tend the forward starboard runner. Nothing else. “Let that go once we’ve tacked and the whole rig comes down,” warned skipper Simon Bolt, as another wall of water thundered down the leeward deck and tried to rip me from the winch.

Dressed in authentic off-white, one-piece cotton boiler-suits, which had to be worn with a stout belt “so there’s something to grab if you go overboard”, they were tough, adrenaline-filled days out. God knows what it was like up forward as massive spinnakers were peeled and headsails weighing a quarter of a tonne were wrestled to the needle-sharp foredeck as the bow buried itself into the back of yet another wave. Sometimes you daren’t look.

But with the race won or lost, back on the dock the feeling of elation, fuelled by being part of the 36-strong crew aboard one of these extraordinary yachts, triggered a high like no other. You knew you were playing a role, no matter how small, in a legendary story that began in 1930, was halted by World War II and then defied the pundits by opening another chapter 20 years ago. Today with five Js in commission, all in racing trim, and at least two more new examples about to be launched, the J Class phenomenon is back.

Why is the J Class so popular?

Why does a yacht with an arguably unexciting performance – they go upwind at 12 knots and downwind at 12 knots – costing £20 million to build and demanding eye-watering running costs, seem to be burgeoning during the worst recession since the class was born?

There is no single answer, but you only have to look back to the 1930s and the characters that owned and raced the Js on both sides of the Atlantic, sometimes for the America’s Cup , to understand why the class occupies a special place in yachting history. Underlying everything is the look of the J Class. It seems to transcend any change in yachting vogue, displaying a timeless line with outrageous overhangs and a proportion of hull to rig that is hard to better.

They possess true elegance. There is no doubt that captains of industry who want to flex their sporting muscle have been drawn to a class which only the very rich can afford and there are distinct parallels between J owners in the 1930s and those of the past 20 years. The difference is that in the 1930s owners liked to shout about their achievements and hogged the pages of national newspapers. Today, they are as quiet as mice.

Origins of the J Class

The J Class emerged in 1930 and marked a quantum leap in yachting technology, but comprised a hotchpotch of design altered over many years.

The J Class – so named because it was the letter allocated to its particular size by the Universal Rule to which the yachts were built (K and M Class yachts were, for example, shorter on the waterline) – emerged in 1930 and marked a quantum leap in yachting technology.

The so-called Big Class, which flourished in the UK in the 1920s, was impressive, but comprised a hotchpotch of design altered over many years. Yachts like King George V’s Britannia , built in 1893 as a gaff-rigged cutter but converted in the 1920s to Bermudan rig to rate as a J, Candida , Cambria , White Heather and schooners like Westward were even larger and more expensive to run. But as the greater efficiency of the Marconi or Bermudan rig became apparent their days were numbered.

One catalyst for the J Class itself was legendary grocer Sir Thomas Lipton’s final crack at challenging for the America’s Cup in 1931. He did so under the Universal Rule with the composite, wooden-planked, Charles E. Nicholson-design Shamrock V .

It was the 14th challenge since 1851 and the Americans, despite the withering effects of the Great Depression, reacted in dramatic fashion, organising their defence with four syndicates, each bulging with millionaires, putting forward separate Js: Enterprise , Whirlwind , Weetamoe and Yankee , which apart from Enterprise had already been launched.

Key to the American effort was the remarkable Harold Vanderbilt of the New York Yacht Club, who had inherited fabulous wealth from the family’s railroad companies, making him one of the country’s richest men.

Brought up on the family’s Idle Hour estate on Long Island Sound, he was a keen and accomplished sailor, and he used American technology and teamwork to build a far superior J in Enterprise. The defence completely overwhelmed Lipton’s effort. The British press castigated Lipton’s lack of preparedness and old-fashioned attitude. Vanderbilt, who among other things is credited with inventing contract bridge, left no stone unturned. “Mr. Harold Vanderbilt does not exactly go boat-sailing because summer is the closed season for fox-hunting,” stated an acerbic critic in the British yachting press.

Later when Shamrock was owned by aircraft builder Sir Richard Fairey and was being used to train crew for another Cup challenge, Beecher Moore, a skilful dinghy sailor who was draughted aboard the J to try to sort her out, reported in Yachts and Yachting many years later: “We found that when we got on board it was very much like a well-run country house, in that the gentleman does not go into the kitchen and on a well-run J Class the owner does not go forward of the mast.”

J Class tactics: Britain vs USA

A look at the huge gap between the British and American J Class tactics and designs in the early years of the America’s Cup.

In the early days there was a yawning gap between the way the Americans and British approached the Cup and, for that matter, how they ran a yacht. Revolutionary metal masts, Park Avenue booms to improve sail shape (the British copied this American design with their ‘North Circular’ version), bronze hulls that needed no painting, superior sails, and campaigns that cost £100,000 even in those days, blew away the Brits. Lipton had spent just £30,000 to build and equip Shamrock .

In the second Cup challenge in Js, in 1934, Sir T. O. M. Sopwith’s first Endeavour , also designed by Nicholson and equipped with wind instruments designed by her aircraft industrialist owner, nearly won the Cup, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory after leading the series 0-2. Sopwith was also up against Vanderbilt, who this time sailed Rainbow , which many considered to be the slower boat. But the British campaign was hobbled by a pay dispute – Endeavour ’s crew got £5 a week but they wanted a raise for ‘going foreign’ – and the campaign approach was again brought into question when the first thing to be stripped off the yacht when they won a dispute over reducing weight was the bath!

Back in Britain, the 1935 season proved to be the zenith of J Class and Big Class racing, although by the end of it the Js were under the cosh for their tendency to lose masts. Five went over the side that year and Endeavour II , launched with en eye on the next Cup challenge, lost hers twice.

There was added spice in the competition off the shores of the UK with the arrival of the American J Yankee , now owned by millionaire and Listerine businessman Gerard Lambert, who enjoyed sparring with the Brits. But even Yankee lost her mast and the press rounded on the class for being dangerous and wasteful! That wasn’t enough to stop Sopwith, whose tail had been extracted from between his legs following the last defeat in Newport: Endeavour II was towed across the Atlantic in a veritable armada that included the first Endeavour. The British yachts found themselves up against the most advanced sailing machine the world had ever seen – Ranger , dubbed ‘the Super J’.

Vanderbilt was the man to beat again. Not only had he bankrolled the entire defence as American business remained beset by a struggling economy, but he used highly scientific means to perfect design. The brilliant naval architect Starling Burgess, who had designed for Vanderbilt throughout the 1930s, was now aided by the equally brilliant but considerably more youthful Olin Stephens. Between them they finally selected ‘model 77-C’ from six tank tested.

The yacht was considered ugly by some and not a natural to look at, but Vanderbilt’s team trusted the science (still the difference between the Americans and the Brits) and Ranger with her bluff or barrel bow and ‘low slung’ counter was the result. She proved to be dynamite on the race course and Endeavour II didn’t stand a chance. She was beaten in five straight races by large margins. The Americans and Vanderbilt had done it again. War then brought an end to an extraordinary era in yachting.

Only ten J Class yachts were built to the Universal rule and not a single American yacht survived. Most were scrapped for the war effort. In any case, the American way was to discard the machine once it has served its purpose. In Britain they faired a little better, and some Js were mud-berthed on the East and South Coasts. Two survived in the UK: Velsheda , originally built by the businessman who ran Woolworths in the UK (W. L. Stevenson named her after his daughters Velma, Sheila and Daphne), but which never challenged for the America’s Cup; and Endeavour , saved by becoming a houseboat on the Hamble. Shamrock ended up in Italy and survived the war hidden in a hay barn.

J Class resurgence

Seemingly resigned to the history books, the J Class made a triumphant return in the 1980s.

In his seminal book about the J Class, Enterprise to Endeavour, yachting historian Ian Dear predicted in the first edition in 1977 that the likes of the Js would never be seen again. By the time the fourth edition was published in 1999 he was quite happily eating his words!

The American Elizabeth Meyer was, without doubt, instrumental in bringing the class back to life when in the 1980s she extracted what was left of Endeavour from a amble mud-berth, began rebuilding her in Calshot, and then moved her to Royal Huisman in Holland, who completed the restoration superbly. With the transom of the original Ranger mounted on a bulkhead in her saloon, Endeavour is still regarded as one of the best-looking and potentially fastest Js.

She was owned briefly by Dennis Kozlowski, the disgraced tycoon who ran Tyco, who famously said: “No one really owns Endeavour, she’s part of yachting history. I’m delighted to be the current caretaker.” Unfortunately he ended up in prison and the State of New York became Endeavour’s ‘caretaker’ before they sold her to her current owner, who has kept the yacht in the Pacific. She’s currently being refitted in New Zealand.

Ronald de Waal is a Dutchman who until recently was chairman of the Saks Group in the USA and has made a fortune in clothing. He has dedicated a lot of time to improving Velsheda over the years since he had her rebuilt by Southampton Yacht Services to a reconfigured design by Dutch naval architect Gerry Dykstra. Ronald de Waal steers the yacht himself to great effect and has had some legendary tussles with Ranger, the new Super J built in Denmark for American realestate magnate John Williams.

The rivalry between the two is fierce and even led to a collision between the yachts in Antigua last year. But Velsheda would have been lost had it not been for British scrap-metal merchant Terry Brabant who saved her from a muddy grave on the Hamble and famously sold his Rolls-Royce to cast a new lead keel for the yacht. With very little modern equipment he sailed her hard in the Solent, chartering her and crossing the Atlantic for a Caribbean season, all without an engine! Without Brabant’s initiative Ronald de Waal wouldn’t have what he has today.

Shamrock V is owned by a Brazilian telecommunications businessman Marcos de Moraes who had the yacht rebuilt at Pendennis Shipyard in Falmouth in 2001. He tends to keep away from the race course but with a number of events being planned in the run-up to the 2012 London Olympics he might be tempted back. The latest new J to launch, Hanuman, a modern interpretation of Endeavour II, has recently entered the racing fray. She was commissioned by serial yacht owner Jim Clark (Hyperion and Athena), the American who brought us Netscape and Silicon Graphics, and who remains a colossus in Silicon Valley.

Hanuman, named after a Hindu deity, built by Royal Huisman and designed by Gerry Dykstra, has had no expense spared when it comes to rig and sail wardrobe. Last year she beat Ranger in the Newport Bucket but in March this year she lost out 2-1 to the same boat at the St Barths Bucket. They were due to meet again with Velsheda at the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta in April. Another Dutchman, property developer Chris Gongriep, who has owned a number of yachts including Sapphire and Windrose of Amsterdam, has given the go-ahead for a new version of Rainbow, which is well advanced in Holland at Freddie Bloesma’s aluminium hull fabrication yard. The yacht, reconfigured by Gerry Dykstra, will be in the water in 2011 with a full-on race programme.

About to be launched is Lionheart, the biggest J so far, redesigned by Andre Hoek and built in Holland by Claasen Jachtbouw, after an extensive research programme. Unfortunately, her owner’s business commitments mean that he won’t be able to enjoy the fruits of this project – she’s for sale with Yachting Partners International and Hoek Brokerage. What an opportunity to join a class with such a remarkable history and one which looks destined to run and run!

First published on SuperYachtWorld.com on Aug 4, 2010

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Crusader, K-24

Built in 1985 according to the International Third Rule- America’s Cup. Owner’s Comments: CRUSADER, built by Cougar Marine in Southampton, was launched in January 1985 at the London Boat Show by HRH Princess Diana. She was designed by Ian Howlett as Britain’s challenger for the 1987 America’s Cup in Fremantle, Australia. CRUSADER was competitive, but ultimately the elimination series was won by Dennis Conner with Stars and Stripes, who went on to win the America’s Cup from the Australians. In 1990, Richard Matthews, the founder and then owner of Oyster Yachts, acquired CRUSADER from Graham Walker, the principal of the British challenge. Retaining the original rig and deck gear, an engine was installed, guardrails were fitted, and the yacht was outfitted as a cruiser-racer for use in UK waters. CRUSADER completed four Fastnet races and proved to be very competitive racing under the IRC rating rule. Results included the Burnham Town Cup, twice winning the coveted Britannia Trophy and the Gold Cup during Cowes Week, as well as winning a number of offshore races, including an overall win in the RORC Cowes – Saint Malo race. For the 2001 America’s Cup 150th Jubilee Regatta in Cowes, CRUSADER returned to her original 12-metre configuration, with the engine, guardrails, and accommodation removed. Racing in the Grand Prix division, she won one race and was third in her class in the regatta, which was arguably one of the largest and most competitive gatherings of the 12-metre fleet ever held. Over several seasons up to 2013, CRUSADER had a series of friendly boat-for-boat races with her near-sister ship, Italia. Afterward, Italia changed hands, and CRUSADER was laid up ashore at Fox Marina for several seasons. A new engine was installed, and in October 2020, she was launched to commission a new Doyle mainsail but was laid up ashore again from 2021 to 2023. 2024 is very much ‘a summer of the 12s,’ for which CRUSADER was extensively refitted in preparation for the 12-metre World Championship event in Porquerolles, France, in June 2024. She is also expected to take part in a special invitational 12-metre regatta based in the America’s Cup marina in Barcelona during the elimination series for the 2024 America’s Cup contest. CRUSADER is also expected to participate in the Regatta Royales in Cannes and the Voiles de St. Tropez, where the 12-metres will race in their own class. In preparation for the 2024 season, refit work included a complete overhaul of her hydraulic systems, winches, and deck gear, and an upgrade of the B&G sailing instruments with a new masthead system, compass, processor, and additional MFD. Her mast has always been stored under cover; spars and standing rigging were checked, and new running rigging was installed. Her 12-metre certification was revalidated, including a larger mainsail to utilize her engine and propeller allowance. A total of six new North sails were purchased in ’24, giving her a complete race inventory. There are many other sails and an inventory of spare parts included together with a 40ft container. After 34 years with CRUSADER,Richard ,now 75, has decided it is time to find a new owner to take her forward to her next chapter of adventures. She is priced to sell and serious enquiries are invited.

CRUSADER, built by Cougar Marine in Southampton, was launched in January 1985 at the London Boat Show by HRH Princess Diana.

She was designed by Ian Howlett as Britain’s challenger for the 1987 America’s Cup in Fremantle, Australia. CRUSADER was competitive, but ultimately the elimination series was won by Dennis Conner with Stars and Stripes, who went on to win the America’s Cup from the Australians.

In 1990, Richard Matthews, the founder and then owner of Oyster Yachts, acquired CRUSADER from Graham Walker, the principal of the British challenge. Retaining the original rig and deck gear, an engine was installed, guardrails were fitted, and the yacht was outfitted as a cruiser-racer for use in UK waters. CRUSADER completed four Fastnet races and proved to be very competitive racing under the IRC rating rule. Results included the Burnham Town Cup, twice winning the coveted Britannia Trophy and the Gold Cup during Cowes Week, as well as winning a number of offshore races, including an overall win in the RORC Cowes – Saint Malo race.

For the 2001 America’s Cup 150th Jubilee Regatta in Cowes, CRUSADER returned to her original 12-metre configuration, with the engine, guardrails, and accommodation removed. Racing in the Grand Prix division, she won one race and was third in her class in the regatta, which was arguably one of the largest and most competitive gatherings of the 12-metre fleet ever held.

Over several seasons up to 2013, CRUSADER had a series of friendly boat-for-boat races with her near-sister ship, Italia. Afterward, Italia changed hands, and CRUSADER was laid up ashore at Fox Marina for several seasons. A new engine was installed, and in October 2020, she was launched to commission a new Doyle mainsail but was laid up ashore again from 2021 to 2023.

2024 is very much ‘a summer of the 12s,’ for which CRUSADER was extensively refitted in preparation for the 12-metre World Championship event in Porquerolles, France, in June 2024. She is also expected to take part in a special invitational 12-metre regatta based in the America’s Cup marina in Barcelona during the elimination series for the 2024 America’s Cup contest. CRUSADER is also expected to participate in the Regatta Royales in Cannes and the Voiles de St. Tropez, where the 12-metres will race in their own class.

In preparation for the 2024 season, refit work included a complete overhaul of her hydraulic systems, winches, and deck gear, and an upgrade of the B&G sailing instruments with a new masthead system, compass, processor, and additional MFD. Her mast has always been stored under cover; spars and standing rigging were checked, and new running rigging was installed. Her 12-metre certification was revalidated, including a larger mainsail to utilize her engine and propeller allowance. A total of six new North sails were purchased in ’24, giving her a complete race inventory. There are many other sails and an inventory of spare parts included together with a 40ft container.

After 34 years with CRUSADER,Richard ,now 75, has decided it is time to find a new owner to take her forward to her next chapter of adventures. She is priced to sell and serious enquiries are invited.

Sail Number	K-24
International Rule	THIRD Rule-AC
Year Built	1985
Designer	Ian Howlett
Builder	Cougar Marine
First Owner	British America's Cup Challenge, PLC
First Name	Crusader I
First Sail Number	K-24
First Country	Great Britain (GB)
Original Homeport	London, England
Other Names	White Crusader (1986)
Current Status / Condition	sailing
Current Location	Ipswich, England (GB)
Construction	Aluminum alloy with winglet keel

Nautical Antiques | Lannan Ship Model Gallery – Lannan Gallery

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Vintage K Class Pond Yacht

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About the Item

Dimensions : Height: 121 in (307.34 cm) Width: 14 in (35.56 cm) Depth: 98 in (248.92 cm)
Materials and Techniques : Wood
Period : 1930-1939
Date of Manufacture : 1930
Condition : Good
Seller Location : Norwell, MA
Reference Number : Seller: X-1 1stDibs: LU1741218484602
Retrieving quote... Ships From: Norwell, MA
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YEKATERINBURG: FACTORIES, URAL SIGHTS, YELTSIN AND THE WHERE NICHOLAS II WAS KILLED

Sverdlovsk oblast.

Sverdlovsk Oblast is the largest region in the Urals; it lies in the foothills of mountains and contains a monument indicating the border between Europe and Asia. The region covers 194,800 square kilometers (75,200 square miles), is home to about 4.3 million people and has a population density of 22 people per square kilometer. About 83 percent of the population live in urban areas. Yekaterinburg is the capital and largest city, with 1.5 million people. For Russians, the Ural Mountains are closely associated with Pavel Bazhov's tales and known for folk crafts such as Kasli iron sculpture, Tagil painting, and copper embossing. Yekaterinburg is the birthplace of Russia’s iron and steel industry, taking advantage of the large iron deposits in the Ural mountains. The popular Silver Ring of the Urals tourist route starts here.

In the summer you can follow in the tracks of Yermak, climb relatively low Ural mountain peaks and look for boulders seemingly with human faces on them. You can head to the Gemstone Belt of the Ural mountains, which used to house emerald, amethyst and topaz mines. In the winter you can go ice fishing, ski and cross-country ski.

Sverdlovsk Oblast and Yekaterinburg are located near the center of Russia, at the crossroads between Europe and Asia and also the southern and northern parts of Russia. Winters are longer and colder than in western section of European Russia. Snowfalls can be heavy. Winter temperatures occasionally drop as low as - 40 degrees C (-40 degrees F) and the first snow usually falls in October. A heavy winter coat, long underwear and good boots are essential. Snow and ice make the sidewalks very slippery, so footwear with a good grip is important. Since the climate is very dry during the winter months, skin moisturizer plus lip balm are recommended. Be alert for mud on street surfaces when snow cover is melting (April-May). Patches of mud create slippery road conditions.

Yekaterinburg

Yekaterinburg (kilometer 1818 on the Trans-Siberian Railway) is the fourth largest city in Russia, with of 1.5 million and growth rate of about 12 percent, high for Russia. Located in the southern Ural mountains, it was founded by Peter the Great and named after his wife Catherine, it was used by the tsars as a summer retreat and is where tsar Nicholas II and his family were executed and President Boris Yeltsin lived most of his life and began his political career. The city is near the border between Europe and Asia.

Yekaterinburg (also spelled Ekaterinburg) is located on the eastern slope of the Ural Mountains in the headwaters of the Iset and Pyshma Rivers. The Iset runs through the city center. Three ponds — Verkh-Isetsky, Gorodskoy and Nizhne-Isetsky — were created on it. Yekaterinburg has traditionally been a city of mining and was once the center of the mining industry of the Urals and Siberia. Yekaterinburg remains a major center of the Russian armaments industry and is sometimes called the "Pittsburgh of Russia.". A few ornate, pastel mansions and wide boulevards are reminders of the tsarist era. The city is large enough that it has its own Metro system but is characterized mostly by blocky Soviet-era apartment buildings. The city has advanced under President Vladimir Putin and is now one of the fastest growing places in Russia, a country otherwise characterized by population declines

Yekaterinburg is technically an Asian city as it lies 32 kilometers east of the continental divide between Europe and Asia. The unofficial capital of the Urals, a key region in the Russian heartland, it is second only to Moscow in terms of industrial production and capital of Sverdlovsk oblast. Among the important industries are ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, machine building and metalworking, chemical and petrochemicals, construction materials and medical, light and food industries. On top of being home of numerous heavy industries and mining concerns, Yekaterinburg is also a major center for industrial research and development and power engineering as well as home to numerous institutes of higher education, technical training, and scientific research. In addition, Yekaterinburg is the largest railway junction in Russia: the Trans-Siberian Railway passes through it, the southern, northern, western and eastern routes merge in the city.

Accommodation: There are two good and affordable hotels — the 3-star Emerald and Parus hotels — located close to the city's most popular landmarks and main transport interchanges in the center of Yekaterinburg. Room prices start at RUB 1,800 per night.

History of Yekaterinburg

Yekaterinburg was founded in 1723 by Peter the Great and named after his wife Catherine I. It was used by the tsars as a summer retreat but was mainly developed as metalworking and manufacturing center to take advantage of the large deposits of iron and other minerals in the Ural mountains. It is best known to Americans as the place where the last Tsar and his family were murdered by the Bolsheviks in 1918 and near where American U-2 spy plane, piloted by Gary Powers, was shot down in 1960.

Peter the Great recognized the importance of the iron and copper-rich Urals region for Imperial Russia's industrial and military development. In November 1723, he ordered the construction of a fortress factory and an ironworks in the Iset River Valley, which required a dam for its operation. In its early years Yekaterinburg grew rich from gold and other minerals and later coal. The Yekaterinburg gold rush of 1745 created such a huge amount of wealth that one rich baron of that time hosted a wedding party that lasted a year. By the mid-18th century, metallurgical plants had sprung up across the Urals to cast cannons, swords, guns and other weapons to arm Russia’s expansionist ambitions. The Yekaterinburg mint produced most of Russia's coins. Explorations of the Trans-Baikal and Altai regions began here in the 18th century.

Iron, cast iron and copper were the main products. Even though Iron from the region went into the Eiffel Tower, the main plant in Yekaterinburg itself was shut down in 1808. The city still kept going through a mountain factory control system of the Urals. The first railway in the Urals was built here: in 1878, the Yekaterinburg-Perm railway branch connected the province's capital with the factories of the Middle Urals.

In the Soviet era the city was called Sverdlovsk (named after Yakov Sverdlov, the man who organized Nicholas II's execution). During the first five-year plans the city became industrial — old plants were reconstructed, new ones were built. The center of Yekaterinburg was formed to conform to the historical general plan of 1829 but was the layout was adjusted around plants and factories. In the Stalin era the city was a major gulag transhipment center. In World War II, many defense-related industries were moved here. It and the surrounding area were a center of the Soviet Union's military industrial complex. Soviet tanks, missiles and aircraft engines were made in the Urals. During the Cold War era, Yekaterinburg was a center of weapons-grade uranium enrichment and processing, warhead assembly and dismantlement. In 1979, 64 people died when anthrax leaked from a biological weapons facility. Yekaterinburg was a “Closed City” for 40 years during the Cold Soviet era and was not open to foreigners until 1991

In the early post-Soviet era, much like Pittsburgh in the 1970s, Yekaterinburg had a hard struggle d to cope with dramatic economic changes that have made its heavy industries uncompetitive on the world market. Huge defense plants struggled to survive and the city was notorious as an organized crime center in the 1990s, when its hometown boy Boris Yeltsin was President of Russia. By the 2000s, Yekaterinburg’s retail and service was taking off, the defense industry was reviving and it was attracting tech industries and investments related to the Urals’ natural resources. By the 2010s it was vying to host a world exhibition in 2020 (it lost, Dubai won) and it had McDonald’s, Subway, sushi restaurants, and Gucci, Chanel and Armani. There were Bentley and Ferrari dealerships but they closed down

Transportation in Yekaterinburg

Getting There: By Plane: Yekaterinburg is a three-hour flight from Moscow with prices starting at RUB 8,000, or a 3-hour flight from Saint Petersburg starting from RUB 9,422 (direct round-trip flight tickets for one adult passenger). There are also flights from Frankfurt, Istanbul, China and major cities in the former Soviet Union.

By Train: Yekaterinburg is a major stop on the Trans-Siberian Railway. Daily train service is available to Moscow and many other Russian cities.Yekaterinburg is a 32-hour train ride from Moscow (tickets RUB 8,380 and above) or a 36-hour train ride from Saint Petersburg (RUB 10,300 and above). The ticket prices are round trip for a berth in a sleeper compartment for one adult passenger). By Car: a car trip from Moscow to Yekateringburg is 1,787 kilometers long and takes about 18 hours. The road from Saint Petersburg is 2,294 kilometers and takes about 28 hours.

Regional Transport: The region's public transport includes buses and suburban electric trains. Regional trains provide transport to larger cities in the Ural region. Buses depart from Yekaterinburg’s two bus stations: the Southern Bus Station and the Northern Bus Station.

Regional Transport: According the to Association for Safe International Road Travel (ASIRT): “Public transportation is well developed. Overcrowding is common. Fares are low. Service is efficient. Buses are the main form of public transport. Tram network is extensive. Fares are reasonable; service is regular. Trams are heavily used by residents, overcrowding is common. Purchase ticket after boarding. Metro runs from city center to Uralmash, an industrial area south of the city. Metro ends near the main railway station. Fares are inexpensive.

“Traffic is congested in city center. Getting around by car can be difficult. Route taxis (minivans) provide the fastest transport. They generally run on specific routes, but do not have specific stops. Drivers stop where passengers request. Route taxis can be hailed. Travel by bus or trolleybuses may be slow in rush hour. Trams are less affected by traffic jams. Trolley buses (electric buses) cannot run when temperatures drop below freezing.”

Entertainment, Sports and Recreation in Yekaterinburg

The performing arts in Yekaterinburg are first rate. The city has an excellent symphony orchestra, opera and ballet theater, and many other performing arts venues. Tickets are inexpensive. The Yekaterinburg Opera and Ballet Theater is lavishly designed and richly decorated building in the city center of Yekaterinburg. The theater was established in 1912 and building was designed by architect Vladimir Semyonov and inspired by the Vienna Opera House and the Theater of Opera and Ballet in Odessa.

Vaynera Street is a pedestrian only shopping street in city center with restaurants, cafes and some bars. But otherwise Yekaterinburg's nightlife options are limited. There are a handful of expensive Western-style restaurants and bars, none of them that great. Nightclubs serve the city's nouveau riche clientele. Its casinos have closed down. Some of them had links with organized crime. New dance clubs have sprung up that are popular with Yekaterinburg's more affluent youth.

Yekaterinburg's most popular spectator sports are hockey, basketball, and soccer. There are stadiums and arenas that host all three that have fairly cheap tickets. There is an indoor water park and lots of parks and green spaces. The Urals have many lakes, forests and mountains are great for hiking, boating, berry and mushroom hunting, swimming and fishing. Winter sports include cross-country skiing and ice skating. Winter lasts about six months and there’s usually plenty of snow. The nearby Ural Mountains however are not very high and the downhill skiing opportunities are limited..

Sights in Yekaterinburg

Sights in Yekaterinburg include the Museum of City Architecture and Ural Industry, with an old water tower and mineral collection with emeralds. malachite, tourmaline, jasper and other precious stone; Geological Alley, a small park with labeled samples of minerals found in the Urals region; the Ural Geology Museum, which houses an extensive collection of stones, gold and gems from the Urals; a monument marking the border between Europe and Asia; a memorial for gulag victims; and a graveyard with outlandish memorials for slain mafia members.

The Military History Museum houses the remains of the U-2 spy plane shot down in 1960 and locally made tanks and rocket launchers. The fine arts museum contains paintings by some of Russia's 19th-century masters. Also worth a look are the History an Local Studies Museum; the Political History and Youth Museum; and the University and Arboretum. Old wooden houses can be seen around Zatoutstovsya ulitsa and ulitsa Belinskogo. Around the city are wooded parks, lakes and quarries used to harvest a variety of minerals. Weiner Street is the main street of Yekaterinburg. Along it are lovely sculptures and 19th century architecture. Take a walk around the unique Literary Quarter

Plotinka is a local meeting spot, where you will often find street musicians performing. Plotinka can be described as the center of the city's center. This is where Yekaterinburg holds its biggest events: festivals, seasonal fairs, regional holiday celebrations, carnivals and musical fountain shows. There are many museums and open-air exhibitions on Plotinka. Plotinka is named after an actual dam of the city pond located nearby (“plotinka” means “a small dam” in Russian).In November 1723, Peter the Great ordered the construction of an ironworks in the Iset River Valley, which required a dam for its operation. “Iset” can be translated from Finnish as “abundant with fish”. This name was given to the river by the Mansi — the Finno-Ugric people dwelling on the eastern slope of the Northern Urals.

Vysotsky and Iset are skyscrapers that are 188.3 meters and 209 meters high, respectively. Fifty-story-high Iset has been described by locals as the world’s northernmost skyscraper. Before the construction of Iset, Vysotsky was the tallest building of Yekaterinburg and Russia (excluding Moscow). A popular vote has decided to name the skyscraper after the famous Soviet songwriter, singer and actor Vladimir Vysotsky. and the building was opened on November 25, 2011. There is a lookout at the top of the building, and the Vysotsky museum on its second floor. The annual “Vysotsky climb” (1137 steps) is held there, with a prize of RUB 100,000. While Vysotsky serves as an office building, Iset, owned by the Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company, houses 225 premium residential apartments ranging from 80 to 490 square meters in size.

Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center

The Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center (in the city center: ul. Yeltsina, 3) is a non-governmental organization named after the first president of the Russian Federation. The Museum of the First President of Russia as well as his archives are located in the Center. There is also a library, educational and children's centers, and exposition halls. Yeltsin lived most of his life and began his political career in Yekaterinburg. He was born in Butka about 200 kilometers east of Yekaterinburg.

The core of the Center is the Museum. Modern multimedia technologies help animate the documents, photos from the archives, and artifacts. The Yeltsin Museum holds collections of: propaganda posters, leaflets, and photos of the first years of the Soviet regime; portraits and portrait sculptures of members of Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of various years; U.S.S.R. government bonds and other items of the Soviet era; a copy of “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, published in the “Novy Mir” magazine (#11, 1962); perestroika-era editions of books by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Vasily Grossman, and other authors; theater, concert, and cinema posters, programs, and tickets — in short, all of the artifacts of the perestroika era.

The Yeltsin Center opened in 2012. Inside you will also find an art gallery, a bookstore, a gift shop, a food court, concert stages and a theater. There are regular screenings of unique films that you will not find anywhere else. Also operating inside the center, is a scientific exploritorium for children. The center was designed by Boris Bernaskoni. Almost from the its very opening, the Yeltsin Center has been accused by members of different political entities of various ideological crimes. The museum is open Tuesday to Sunday, from 10:00am to 9:00pm.

Where Nicholas II was Executed

On July, 17, 1918, during this reign of terror of the Russian Civil War, former-tsar Nicholas II, his wife, five children (the 13-year-old Alexis, 22-year-old Olga, 19-year-old Maria and 17-year-old Anastasia)the family physician, the cook, maid, and valet were shot to death by a Red Army firing squad in the cellar of the house they were staying at in Yekaterinburg.

Ipatiev House (near Church on the Blood, Ulitsa Libknekhta) was a merchant's house where Nicholas II and his family were executed. The house was demolished in 1977, on the orders of an up and coming communist politician named Boris Yeltsin. Yeltsin later said that the destruction of the house was an "act of barbarism" and he had no choice because he had been ordered to do it by the Politburo,

The site is marked with s cross with the photos of the family members and cross bearing their names. A small wooden church was built at the site. It contains paintings of the family. For a while there were seven traditional wooden churches. Mass is given ay noon everyday in an open-air museum. The Church on the Blood — constructed to honor Nicholas II and his family — was built on the part of the site in 1991 and is now a major place of pilgrimage.

Nicholas and his family where killed during the Russian civil war. It is thought the Bolsheviks figured that Nicholas and his family gave the Whites figureheads to rally around and they were better of dead. Even though the death orders were signed Yakov Sverdlov, the assassination was personally ordered by Lenin, who wanted to get them out of sight and out of mind. Trotsky suggested a trial. Lenin nixed the idea, deciding something had to be done about the Romanovs before White troops approached Yekaterinburg. Trotsky later wrote: "The decision was not only expedient but necessary. The severity of he punishment showed everyone that we would continue to fight on mercilessly, stopping at nothing."

Ian Frazier wrote in The New Yorker: “Having read a lot about the end of Tsar Nicholas II and his family and servants, I wanted to see the place in Yekaterinburg where that event occurred. The gloomy quality of this quest depressed Sergei’s spirits, but he drove all over Yekaterinburg searching for the site nonetheless. Whenever he stopped and asked a pedestrian how to get to the house where Nicholas II was murdered, the reaction was a wince. Several people simply walked away. But eventually, after a lot of asking, Sergei found the location. It was on a low ridge near the edge of town, above railroad tracks and the Iset River. The house, known as the Ipatiev House, was no longer standing, and the basement where the actual killings happened had been filled in. I found the blankness of the place sinister and dizzying. It reminded me of an erasure done so determinedly that it had worn a hole through the page. [Source: Ian Frazier, The New Yorker, August 3, 2009, Frazier is author of “Travels in Siberia” (2010)]

“The street next to the site is called Karl Liebknecht Street. A building near where the house used to be had a large green advertisement that said, in English, “LG—Digitally Yours.” On an adjoining lot, a small chapel kept the memory of the Tsar and his family; beneath a pedestal holding an Orthodox cross, peonies and pansies grew. The inscription on the pedestal read, “We go down on our knees, Russia, at the foot of the tsarist cross.”

Books: The Romanovs: The Final Chapter by Robert K. Massie (Random House, 1995); The Fall of the Romanovs by Mark D. Steinberg and Vladimir Khrustalëv (Yale, 1995);

See Separate Article END OF NICHOLAS II factsanddetails.com

Execution of Nicholas II

According to Robert Massie K. Massie, author of Nicholas and Alexandra, Nicholas II and his family were awakened from their bedrooms around midnight and taken to the basement. They were told they were to going to take some photographs of them and were told to stand behind a row of chairs.

Suddenly, a group of 11 Russians and Latvians, each with a revolver, burst into the room with orders to kill a specific person. Yakob Yurovsky, a member of the Soviet executive committee, reportedly shouted "your relatives are continuing to attack the Soviet Union.” After firing, bullets bouncing off gemstones hidden in the corsets of Alexandra and her daughters ricocheted around the room like "a shower of hail," the soldiers said. Those that were still breathing were killed with point black shots to the head.

The three sisters and the maid survived the first round thanks to their gems. They were pressed up against a wall and killed with a second round of bullets. The maid was the only one that survived. She was pursued by the executioners who stabbed her more than 30 times with their bayonets. The still writhing body of Alexis was made still by a kick to the head and two bullets in the ear delivered by Yurovsky himself.

Yurovsky wrote: "When the party entered I told the Romanovs that in view of the fact their relatives continued their offensive against Soviet Russia, the Executive Committee of the Urals Soviet had decided to shoot them. Nicholas turned his back to the detachment and faced his family. Then, as if collecting himself, he turned around, asking, 'What? What?'"

"[I] ordered the detachment to prepare. Its members had been previously instructed whom to shoot and to am directly at the heart to avoid much blood and to end more quickly. Nicholas said no more. he turned again to his family. The others shouted some incoherent exclamations. All this lasted a few seconds. Then commenced the shooting, which went on for two or three minutes. [I] killed Nicholas on the spot."

Nicholas II’s Initial Burial Site in Yekaterinburg

Ganina Yama Monastery (near the village of Koptyaki, 15 kilometers northwest of Yekaterinburg) stands near the three-meter-deep pit where some the remains of Nicholas II and his family were initially buried. The second burial site — where most of the remains were — is in a field known as Porosyonkov (56.9113628°N 60.4954326°E), seven kilometers from Ganina Yama.

On visiting Ganina Yama Monastery, one person posted in Trip Advisor: “We visited this set of churches in a pretty park with Konstantin from Ekaterinburg Guide Centre. He really brought it to life with his extensive knowledge of the history of the events surrounding their terrible end. The story is so moving so unless you speak Russian, it is best to come here with a guide or else you will have no idea of what is what.”

In 1991, the acid-burned remains of Nicholas II and his family were exhumed from a shallow roadside mass grave in a swampy area 12 miles northwest of Yekaterinburg. The remains had been found in 1979 by geologist and amateur archeologist Alexander Avdonin, who kept the location secret out of fear that they would be destroyed by Soviet authorities. The location was disclosed to a magazine by one his fellow discovers.

The original plan was to throw the Romanovs down a mine shaft and disposes of their remains with acid. They were thrown in a mine with some grenades but the mine didn't collapse. They were then carried by horse cart. The vats of acid fell off and broke. When the carriage carrying the bodies broke down it was decided the bury the bodies then and there. The remaining acid was poured on the bones, but most of it was soaked up the ground and the bones largely survived.

After this their pulses were then checked, their faces were crushed to make them unrecognizable and the bodies were wrapped in bed sheets loaded onto a truck. The "whole procedure," Yurovsky said took 20 minutes. One soldiers later bragged than he could "die in peace because he had squeezed the Empress's -------."

The bodies were taken to a forest and stripped, burned with acid and gasoline, and thrown into abandoned mine shafts and buried under railroad ties near a country road near the village of Koptyaki. "The bodies were put in the hole," Yurovsky wrote, "and the faces and all the bodies, generally doused with sulfuric acid, both so they couldn't be recognized and prevent a stink from them rotting...We scattered it with branches and lime, put boards on top and drove over it several times—no traces of the hole remained.

Shortly afterwards, the government in Moscow announced that Nicholas II had been shot because of "a counterrevolutionary conspiracy." There was no immediate word on the other members of the family which gave rise to rumors that other members of the family had escaped. Yekaterinburg was renamed Sverdlov in honor of the man who signed the death orders.

For seven years the remains of Nicholas II, Alexandra, three of their daughters and four servants were stored in polyethylene bags on shelves in the old criminal morgue in Yekaterunburg. On July 17, 1998, Nicholas II and his family and servants who were murdered with him were buried Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg along with the other Romanov tsars, who have been buried there starting with Peter the Great. Nicholas II had a side chapel built for himself at the fortress in 1913 but was buried in a new crypt.

Near Yekaterinburg

Factory-Museum of Iron and Steel Metallurgy (in Niznhy Tagil 80 kilometers north of Yekaterinburg) a museum with old mining equipment made at the site of huge abandoned iron and steel factory. Officially known as the Factory-Museum of the History of the Development of Iron and Steel Metallurgy, it covers an area of 30 hectares and contains a factory founded by the Demidov family in 1725 that specialized mainly in the production of high-quality cast iron and steel. Later, the foundry was renamed after Valerian Kuybyshev, a prominent figure of the Communist Party.

The first Russian factory museum, the unusual museum demonstrates all stages of metallurgy and metal working. There is even a blast furnace and an open-hearth furnace. The display of factory equipment includes bridge crane from 1892) and rolling stock equipment from the 19th-20th centuries. In Niznhy Tagil contains some huge blocks of malachite and

Nizhnyaya Sinyachikha (180 kilometers east-northeast of Yekaterinburg) has an open air architecture museum with log buildings, a stone church and other pre-revolutionary architecture. The village is the creation of Ivan Samoilov, a local activist who loved his village so much he dedicated 40 years of his life to recreating it as the open-air museum of wooden architecture.

The stone Savior Church, a good example of Siberian baroque architecture. The interior and exterior of the church are exhibition spaces of design. The houses are very colorful. In tsarist times, rich villagers hired serfs to paint the walls of their wooden izbas (houses) bright colors. Old neglected buildings from the 17th to 19th centuries have been brought to Nizhnyaya Sinyachikha from all over the Urals. You will see the interior design of the houses and hear stories about traditions and customs of the Ural farmers.

Verkhoturye (330 kilometers road from Yekaterinburg) is the home a 400-year-old monastery that served as 16th century capital of the Urals. Verkhoturye is a small town on the Tura River knows as the Jerusalem of the Urals for its many holy places, churches and monasteries. The town's main landmark is its Kremlin — the smallest in Russia. Pilgrims visit the St. Nicholas Monastery to see the remains of St. Simeon of Verkhoturye, the patron saint of fishermen.

Ural Mountains

Ural Mountains are the traditional dividing line between Europe and Asia and have been a crossroads of Russian history. Stretching from Kazakhstan to the fringes of the Arctic Kara Sea, the Urals lie almost exactly along the 60 degree meridian of longitude and extend for about 2,000 kilometers (1,300 miles) from north to south and varies in width from about 50 kilometers (30 miles) in the north and 160 kilometers (100 miles) the south. At kilometers 1777 on the Trans-Siberian Railway there is white obelisk with "Europe" carved in Russian on one side and "Asia" carved on the other.

The eastern side of the Urals contains a lot of granite and igneous rock. The western side is primarily sandstone and limestones. A number of precious stones can be found in the southern part of the Urals, including emeralds. malachite, tourmaline, jasper and aquamarines. The highest peaks are in the north. Mount Narodnaya is the highest of all but is only 1884 meters (6,184 feet) high. The northern Urals are covered in thick forests and home to relatively few people.

Like the Appalachian Mountains in the eastern United States, the Urals are very old mountains — with rocks and sediments that are hundreds of millions years old — that were one much taller than they are now and have been steadily eroded down over millions of years by weather and other natural processes to their current size. According to Encyclopedia Britannica: “The rock composition helps shape the topography: the high ranges and low, broad-topped ridges consist of quartzites, schists, and gabbro, all weather-resistant. Buttes are frequent, and there are north–south troughs of limestone, nearly all containing river valleys. Karst topography is highly developed on the western slopes of the Urals, with many caves, basins, and underground streams. The eastern slopes, on the other hand, have fewer karst formations; instead, rocky outliers rise above the flattened surfaces. Broad foothills, reduced to peneplain, adjoin the Central and Southern Urals on the east.

“The Urals date from the structural upheavals of the Hercynian orogeny (about 250 million years ago). About 280 million years ago there arose a high mountainous region, which was eroded to a peneplain. Alpine folding resulted in new mountains, the most marked upheaval being that of the Nether-Polar Urals...The western slope of the Urals is composed of middle Paleozoic sedimentary rocks (sandstones and limestones) that are about 350 million years old. In many places it descends in terraces to the Cis-Ural depression (west of the Urals), to which much of the eroded matter was carried during the late Paleozoic (about 300 million years ago). Found there are widespread karst (a starkly eroded limestone region) and gypsum, with large caverns and subterranean streams. On the eastern slope, volcanic layers alternate with sedimentary strata, all dating from middle Paleozoic times.”

Southern Urals

The southern Urals are characterized by grassy slopes and fertile valleys. The middle Urals are a rolling platform that barely rises above 300 meters (1,000 feet). This region is rich in minerals and has been heavily industrialized. This is where you can find Yekaterinburg (formally Sverdlovsk), the largest city in the Urals.

Most of the Southern Urals are is covered with forests, with 50 percent of that pine-woods, 44 percent birch woods, and the rest are deciduous aspen and alder forests. In the north, typical taiga forests are the norm. There are patches of herbal-poaceous steppes, northem sphagnous marshes and bushy steppes, light birch forests and shady riparian forests, tall-grass mountainous meadows, lowland ling marshes and stony placers with lichen stains. In some places there are no large areas of homogeneous forests, rather they are forests with numerous glades and meadows of different size.

In the Ilmensky Mountains Reserve in the Southern Urals, scientists counted 927 vascular plants (50 relicts, 23 endemic species), about 140 moss species, 483 algae species and 566 mushroom species. Among the species included into the Red Book of Russia are feather grass, downy-leaved feather grass, Zalessky feather grass, moccasin flower, ladies'-slipper, neottianthe cucullata, Baltic orchis, fen orchis, helmeted orchis, dark-winged orchis, Gelma sandwart, Krasheninnikov sandwart, Clare astragalus.

The fauna of the vertebrate animals in the Reserve includes 19 fish, 5 amphibian and 5 reptile. Among the 48 mammal species are elks, roe deer, boars, foxes, wolves, lynxes, badgers, common weasels, least weasels, forest ferrets, Siberian striped weasel, common marten, American mink. Squirrels, beavers, muskrats, hares, dibblers, moles, hedgehogs, voles are quite common, as well as chiropterans: pond bat, water bat, Brandt's bat, whiskered bat, northern bat, long-eared bat, parti-coloured bat, Nathusius' pipistrelle. The 174 bird bird species include white-tailed eagles, honey hawks, boreal owls, gnome owls, hawk owls, tawny owls, common scoters, cuckoos, wookcocks, common grouses, wood grouses, hazel grouses, common partridges, shrikes, goldenmountain thrushes, black- throated loons and others.

Activities and Places in the Ural Mountains

The Urals possess beautiful natural scenery that can be accessed from Yekaterinburg with a rent-a-car, hired taxi and tour. Travel agencies arrange rafting, kayaking and hiking trips. Hikes are available in the taiga forest and the Urals. Trips often include walks through the taiga to small lakes and hikes into the mountains and excursions to collect mushrooms and berries and climb in underground caves. Mellow rafting is offered in a relatively calm six kilometer section of the River Serga. In the winter visitor can enjoy cross-mountains skiing, downhill skiing, ice fishing, dog sledding, snow-shoeing and winter hiking through the forest to a cave covered with ice crystals.

Lake Shartash (10 kilometers from Yekaterinburg) is where the first Ural gold was found, setting in motion the Yekaterinburg gold rush of 1745, which created so much wealth one rich baron of that time hosted a wedding party that lasted a year. The area around Shartash Lake is a favorite picnic and barbecue spot of the locals. Getting There: by bus route No. 50, 054 or 54, with a transfer to suburban commuter bus route No. 112, 120 or 121 (the whole trip takes about an hour), or by car (10 kilometers drive from the city center, 40 minutes).

Revun Rapids (90 kilometers road from Yekaterinburg near Beklenishcheva village) is a popular white water rafting places On the nearby cliffs you can see the remains of a mysterious petroglyph from the Paleolithic period. Along the steep banks, you may notice the dark entrance of Smolinskaya Cave. There are legends of a sorceress who lived in there. The rocks at the riverside are suited for competitive rock climbers and beginners. Climbing hooks and rings are hammered into rocks. The most fun rafting is generally in May and June.

Olenii Ruchii National Park (100 kilometers west of Yekaterinburg) is the most popular nature park in Sverdlovsk Oblast and popular weekend getaway for Yekaterinburg residents. Visitors are attracted by the beautiful forests, the crystal clear Serga River and picturesque rocks caves. There are some easy hiking routes: the six-kilometer Lesser Ring and the 15-kilometer Greater Ring. Another route extends for 18 km and passes by the Mitkinsky Mine, which operated in the 18th-19th centuries. It's a kind of an open-air museum — you can still view mining an enrichment equipment here. There is also a genuine beaver dam nearby.

Among the other attractions at Olenii Ruchii are Druzhba (Friendship) Cave, with passages that extend for about 500 meters; Dyrovaty Kamen (Holed Stone), created over time by water of Serga River eroding rock; and Utoplennik (Drowned Man), where you can see “The Angel of Sole Hope”., created by the Swedish artist Lehna Edwall, who has placed seven angels figures in different parts of the world to “embrace the planet, protecting it from fear, despair, and disasters.”

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: Federal Agency for Tourism of the Russian Federation (official Russia tourism website russiatourism.ru ), Russian government websites, UNESCO, Wikipedia, Lonely Planet guides, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, National Geographic, The New Yorker, Bloomberg, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Yomiuri Shimbun and various books and other publications.

Updated in September 2020

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YEKATERINBURG: FACTORIES, URAL SIGHTS, YELTSIN AND THE WHERE NICHOLAS II WAS KILLED

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