Driac

Driac was a one-off design by the world-famous designer Charles Nicholson and built at Gosport by Camper and Nicholsons (the Rolls-Royce of yachting) in 1930. She was built for A G H Macpherson and he named her Driac after the wealthy Scottish industrialist Sir James Caird who had supported him financially (Caird spelt backwards is Driac, pronounced Dryack).

She is an exceptionally well designed and built cruising/racing yacht and attracted the attention of Uffa Fox (the leading innovator in boat design between the wars and a great competitive sailor) who wrote enthusiastically about her in his 1934 book ‘Sailing, Seamanship and Yacht Construction’ saying ‘she is so near to perfection, with her seaworthiness, comfort and speed.’ In 1930 the owner sailed her 5,000 miles to Malta and back, an unusually ambitious voyage for a small yacht at that time, which won him the Royal Cruising Club Challenge Cup.

Designer Charles Nicholson

Driac is a bermudian cutter, built of teak on grown oak frames with a five ton lead ballast keel attached with bronze bolts; the best possible construction of the time. As a result she has survived her years with very few problems.

Driac has been continuously sailed throughout her long life afloat; she was extensively raced by her second owner, Matthew Hackforth-Jones, from the ‘30s to the ‘50s and she sailed in the Baltic and on the West coast of Scotland in the ‘60s and ‘70s.

Driac was built with serious, long-distance cruising in mind so she is strongly constructed with a low and sturdy cabin roof with small, strong portlights (large cabin windows are often the achilles heel of a yacht in severe conditions). Her self-draining cockpit is fairly small to minimise the weight of water it can hold and behind it is an 8 foot counter stern which lifts in a following sea and reduces the likelihood of a wave breaking and ‘pooping’ the vessel.

Inside is a comfortable saloon with a chart table, galley, charcoal stove and two bunks and a quarter berth. In the bow the focs’l offers two more bunks and between the saloon and the focs’l are the sea toilet and the wet locker. Many modern yachts are built around their accommodation with minimal regard to sailing quality; Driac comes from a time when the hull design came first and accommodation was fitted in afterwards. As a result she has a slim, deep hull and is smaller inside than many a plastic boat but she is fast and sea-kindly. She is well equipped but she is a sailors’ boat and has no pretensions to luxury.

As a bermudian cutter Driac has an essentially modern rig; there is no gaff and sheets and halliards are handled with winches, but she does have a bowsprit and carries up to three headsails. If you learn to sail on Driac you will learn a full range of modern techniques but on a beautiful boat with character and individuality. If you want to get involved with rubbing down and varnishing, painting, splicing, whipping or learn any other traditional skills to help maintain the old girl then you’ll be very welcome.

Charles Lyster

Driac is owned and skippered by Charles Lyster, an adventurer, craftsman and Yachtmaster Instructor who has many years experience of working with groups on the sea and in the mountains.

Charles worked for Outward Bound in Mid Wales and as Chief Instructor at Outward Bound in Chimanimani, Zimbabwe in the 1980s. During that time he travelled widely and climbed in Europe, Africa, Asia and South America.  He has sailed in a great variety of vessels including many modern fibreglass and steel yachts and dinghies but he has always been most drawn to vessels which are either genuinely old or which are traditionally built; boats which have character seeping from their very frames. He has sailed dipping lug cutters, tall ships, Thames barges, Dutch Tjalk barges, and a gaff-rigged trawler as well as his own faerings and classic yachts. It is the journey which creates the satisfaction, the sense of exploration, of finding somewhere new. Each boat can do this on the scale appropriate to its size and capabilties.

He set up and ran the cancer charity Odyssey for 15 years, worked as a designer and maker of fine furniture, provided health and safety training in the steel industry, worked as a facilitator on management development programmes, has built several small boats and is a partner in a small business building shepherds’ huts. Each summer he sails on the West coast of Scotland running Father and Son voyages on the brigantine Lady of Avenel.

Charles bought Driac in 2009, only discovering afterwards that his father (a Naval Architect who died in 1988) owned a book which describes her. Having carried out major restoration work to Driac over several years he knows her intimately and he has sailed her many thousands of miles, exploring coasts and islands and taking part three times in the Three Peaks Yacht Race.

He has a deep love of wild places and is never happier than in a remote anchorage.

‘Yet all experience is an arch, wherethrough gleams that untravelled world, whose margin fades forever and forever as I move…’

Teaching Approach

Charles’s approach to teaching is informed by his years with Outward Bound. It is experiential, so while you may be given demonstrations, you will also be allowed the opportunity to make mistakes, reflect and learn from them. It is highly individualised; there will be a maximum of four students aboard so you will get plenty of practice and personal attention to ensure each individual has understood in their own way. It has depth, you will get much more than the bare minimum of modern sailing technique; through sailing a traditional vessel you will gain insights into the principles underlying all sailing which are highly transferable to different boats and situations and this will be set in a rich context of background knowledge which helps make sense of what you are learning.  Finally, you will get individual feedback every day to make sure you know how things are going, and a chance to give feedback yourself to make sure you are getting what you need from the experience.