ANTIGUANICE YACHTING INSIDER NEWSLETTER

Coral the yawl, by Beken of Cowes.

Following publication of our story about the beautifully-restored Coral of Cowes during the Antigua Charter Yacht Show, we were contacted my Angela Mantle of Toronto, Canada whose family had been associated with the yacht in her early years.  These are Angela's stories:

'I was surfing the web for information about CORAL today and was delighted to see your article on this grand old yacht. 
My grandfather was John Nichols Badcock, of Newlyn, England.  In the 1930's he joined the crew of CORAL in the position of helmsman.  He served in this position all through the 1930's until the outbreak of the Second World War. My mother, now 93, remembers her father getting the call early in the spring to take the train to Southhampton to ready the yawl for both sailing and competition.

'We have a photo taken of CORAL the year she competed in and won Queen's Cup in 1934 and a photo of my grandfather taken in 1934 wearing a cardigan with the CORAL RYS ensignia.  For the past two years I have been tracking CORAL's history back to her early years and have discovered that when she was built in 1902 for Dr. MacMahon of Cork, her name was Bamba III.  She was renamed CORAL in 1923 and came under the Royal Yacht Squadron and was then owned by Sir Hugh Drummond and then by Frank Chaplin.
 
'Just prior to outbreak of the Second World War, CORAL sailed to Germany with the idea of staying in harbour for a few days.  When the yawl arrived, the harbour master asked the captain to lower the British flag. The captain refused, so they hauled anchor and sailed off to friendlier lands!

'For my mother and our family it has been wonderful to see CORAL be given a new life and we are continuing to track her journey.'

We were delighted to receive these stories from Angela and welcome our readers to submit any stories that have relevance to something that has been published in Antigua's Yachting Insider newsletter or anything that would be of interest to our readers.

To read the original Coral of Cowes story that we published in December, click here.

By Kathy Lammers, Editor of Antigua's Yachting Insider