Kara Third

An Invited Friend of the Harrison Butler Association
Waterbug One Design by JW & A Upham  

  
 

Kara III

Kara Third : A Waterbug Restoration
Simone Mancini, head of conservation at the National Gallery of Ireland, has been restoring a classic yacht in Dublin's Dun Laoghaire marina. The yacht is Kara Third, built to the Waterbug design, and one of the sixteen such vessels constructed in Brixham by the Uphams' yard between 1938 and 1960. It is thought that Uphams took a Harrison Butler design as their starting point, possibly his Cyclone II, but enlarged and with a fatter stern. The result was a bigger and, arguably, more sea worthy boat. Kara Third has certainly undertaken some impressive voyages, most notably one from Ireland to Greece and back in 2004. The HBA's Authentication Officer, Paul Leinthall-Cowman, has ruled that the Waterbugs are too far removed from any of Harrison Butler's designs to be considered genuine Harrison Butler designed boats. However, all sixteen are Invited Friends of the HBA.
Simone has had many perplexing issues to resolve during his restoration of Kara Third not least of which has being trying to figure out if around one ton of lead blocks, free to move around in Kara Third's bilges, should be there or not, and, if so, how to secure them. Fortunately, Myriam Spicka, who owns another of the Waterbugs, Mowa, has been able to provide photographs of the balast arrangements on her boat. Kara Third's restoration, started in 2015, had progressed sufficiently well for her to be relaunched in 2017.

Kara Third Statistics
Built : 1954 by JW & A Upham of Brixham
LOA : 24' 2"
LWL : 21' 0"
Beam : 8' 4"
Draught : 4' 6"
Displacement : 6 tons TM
Lloyd's Register : N° 184054
Signal Letters : MHSR

Kara Third Custodians & Home Ports
Simone Mancini (2012-2018...) Dun Laoghaire Harbour, Dublin, Ireland
Mr Brendan Green (?-2012) Dun Laoghaire Harbour, Dublin, Ireland
Stanley V Rogers (1969-1983-?) Brixham, Devon, England
SJ Dobell & Mrs JS Dobell (1967-1968) Lymington, Hampshire, England
David Bowen & Mrs Pamela Bowen (1964-1966) Torquay, Devon, England
JM Foster (1954-1963) Brixham, Devon, England

Kara Third Links
The Waterbug - A Derived Design ?, HBA Journal N°75, New Year 2016
Pedigree of The Waterbugs, HBA Journal, Autumn 2016
A Waterbug Restoriation (Kara Third), Crusing Yachts, Autumn 2017 

Page last updated : April 2018

 
  

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