Rama II
(ex Ethelinda)

Sabot Design : Published 1933 

  
 

Rama II

Brighter Days Ahead for Rama II  
Ian Bentley, who bought Rama II in 2011, has been in touch to say that after some difficult years, he's intending get stuck in to restoring this delightful and interesting boat. Ian bought Rama II whilst recovering from an operation on a hernia only to then be told he had cancer and a heart problem.
Previously, Ian has restored one of the Yachting Monthly's Peoples Boats, Katra.

Ian
Ian Bentley, Rama II's current owner

The only example of the Sabot Design
Built with the name Rama II, by 1949, when she first appears in the Lloyd's Registers, she'd become Ethelinda. This name was kept until at least 1980. She's now, once again, Rama II. She is unique in that she is the only yacht built to the Sabot Design. She has a Broads style counterbalanced lowering mast as the original owner (William Duffield) intended to use her on the Broads and River Trent as well as on esturine waters.
Her recent history is troubled. She had a thorough, but amateur, rebuild in the 1990s that took several years to complete. Upon relaunch she never took up and the owner died shortly after. Tim Allen took her on, replacing a seized Ducati engine with a Yanmar and pottering about in her for a year. He reports that the sails were dreadful, a re-cut Westerly main. In consequence she didn't sail well, although she did look pretty.
Tim says of his ownership, "The low point had to be teaching my step-son who when asked to steer to port said he couldn't. I was determined not to shout, so calmly asked him to push the tiller over. Repeating that he couldn't, he held up the tiller with half of a disintegrating rudder stock attached".
Tim sold her on eBay to Ian for £285 in April 2011 in a sale described as being about "saving the boat".

Rama II
Rama II photographed by Tim Allen in 2010

Rama II Statistics
Built : 1932 by AV Robertson & Co of Woodbridge, Essex
LOA : 23' 5"
LWL : 20' 0"
Beam : 8'
Draught : 2' 9" / 4' 9" (Centre Boarder)
Displacement : 5 tons TM
OGA Boat Number : 0291

Rama II

Rama II Custodians and Home Ports
Ian Bentley (2011-2019...) Melton on the River Deben
Tim Allen (?-2011) Melton on the River Deben
WY Morgan (?-1980-?) Heybridge
PJ Parsons (1974-1977-?) Upnor
MR Andrews (1968-1973) Maylandsea
EA Parsons (1959-1967) Maylandsea
PG Rouse (?-1949-1958) Walton-on-the-Naze
William Duffield (1932-1937-?)

Rama II Links
Reviewed in 1932 in Yachting Monthly magazine
I have a copy of Yachting Monthly, July 1933, which contains the Sabot Design, also contained in Mark Miller's “A Catalogue Of Cruising Yacht designs”.

Page last updated : July 2019

 
  

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