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Flame of Gosport is the prototype Nicholson 43, built in 1968 by Camper & Nicholson to race in IOR Class II, but also to be cruised in some comfort by the standards of the sixties. Flame was the name given to every prototype of a Camper & Nicholson class.
She was raced hard, but took on a second life cruising under two owners before us - one based in the Solent and one on the West coast of Scotland. This last owner took her down to the Mediterranean and left her ashore in Lavrion, near Athens, where she was put up for sale and we bought her.
She is a sloop, built at the time when mainsails were small and genoas large, with a hull-stepped mast. She had been fitted with a furling forestay for cruising, but otherwise had her original rod rigging. We inherited her original selection of three spinnakers - quite extensive for a cruising boat! She has 7 berths in two cabins, galley, large chart table and heads. She is very different in design from modern boats, having a fine bow and stern, and being only 30 feet on the waterline.
Since returning to her builders in Gosport in June this year, she has had a number of repairs completed, leaks fixed (we hope), new paint and varnish work and a lot of new equipment fitted for long distance cruising - wind vane self-steering prominent among them. She has had a new rig and mast and an additional new jib for downwind sailing, of which we hope to be doing plenty, trade winds permitting.
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