Ariel wins Classic Boat Award 2020

Apr 7, 2020

Every year, Classic Boat Magazine celebrates the best restorations, newly-built boats, people and more, in the wonderful world of traditional vessels and the people who float them.

We’re happy to announce that this year, the prestigious Classic Boat “Restoration of the Year Award: under 40” Award was given to “Ariel”.

In October, 2019 the Deben Cherub ‘Ariel’ was launched at The Woodbridge Boatyard after undergoing renovation of her topsides during the summer.

Much of the work was carried out and overseen by Tim Everson, her owner and great grandson of The Woodbridge Boatyard’s founder. With her old caulking raked out, handmade larch splines shaped to go between each plank and fresh oakum caulking in place, she has been repainted and now sits alongside her sisters, ‘Cherub’, after whom the rest of the class are named, ‘Rohaise II’, ‘Lynette’ and ‘Fortuna’ all back in the yard where they were built.

Built between 1924 and 1937 by Everson & Sons of Woodbridge, the Deben Cherub has come to represent the yard for many. Strong, affordable and appealing to families they were constructed from oak and Canadian rock elm with planking of larch or pitch pine, everything fastened with copper. The classically East Coast gaff-rigged cruiser-racer is ideally suited to the confines of river and estuary sailing and became a model for many pocket cruisers to follow.

Half a century since the Cherubs were last seen in large numbers, racing from the Deben Yacht Club under the starter’s 12 bore shotgun, fired by Alfred Everson, they are regaining momentum on the River Deben. Everson & Sons, renamed The Woodbridge Boatyard in 2010, is once again home to a ‘Chorus of Cherubs’ and we hope that the once hotly contested Cherub Cup will soon become a regular fixture again.