Description

Betty Alan is a substantial modern gaff ketch, launched in 1999. She’s a combination of traditional and modern construction, with inch and a quarter mahogany planking glued-and-screwed to laminated mahogany frames, and a half inch teak deck over 5/8th inch marine ply. She is well built, beautiful, and rewarding to sail. She has freshly painted topsides, back to bare wood varnish on all bright work and most spars, and is currently in commission.

Hull:
Mahogany planking on laminated mahogany frames, epoxied throughout. Hull splined above the waterline and glass sheathed below. 6.7 ton lead keel. Weighted wooden centreboard, lifted by a simple pennant on to a mainsheet winch.
She’s 60 foot over spars, 50 foot on deck, and 38 foot waterline. 15 foot beam, draft with board up 5’ 9” board down 9’. Displacement is about 16.5 tons.

Rig:
Hollow spruce masts in tabernacles (the mizzen tabernacle being of welded aluminium for the sake of the steering compass), very substantially rigged in 7 x 7 stainless wire, hand-spliced by Harry Spencer, four sets of shrouds each side on the mainmast, mainmast running backstays to highfield levers, topmast running backstays to the lazy jib sheet winch. Harken furlers on jib and staysail. The topmast can be housed. Both main and mizzen topsails on jackyards.
Sail area in sq. footage
Main: 520
Mizzen: 187
Staysail: 180
Jib: 231
Jib topsail: 230
Main topsail: 212
Mizzen topsail: 54
Mizzen staysail: 214
Squaresail: not known.
Main, jib, mizzen and topsails are still the original suit by Hood, and are serviceable; staysail by McWilliam 2023, Mizzen staysail by James Lawrence, 2020, Squaresail by Sanders, date unknown (but in very good condition)

Deck gear:
All winches from the Lewmar Ocean range: Halyard and jib winches powered; staysail and mainsheet winches manual.
Lewmar Ocean Windlass.
Most deck hardware bronze, much of it cast for the boat, such as bowroller and stanchions.
Five dorade boxes, with bronze cowls.
The wheel is a handsome and large wood and brass custom made affair, with Edson chain and wire mechanism operating via a quadrant, with the autopilot hydraulic ram attached.
The steering compass is a fine antique Sestrel model, mounted below the Raymarine plotter.

Ground tackle:
The main anchor is a 40 kg Manson Boss, housed halfway along the bowsprit on its custom bronze roller, on 80 metres of chain, with a further 50 metres of Octoplait warp available. The kedge is a 15kg Rocna on 20 metres of chain, with a further 50 metres of Octoplait warp.

Machinery:
Nanni 6.280HE 6 cylinder diesel driving a Brunton folding Autoprop through a Hurth gearbox. Sleipner Sidepower bowthruster.
Wiring and fuel supply for genset in starboard cockpit locker (removed) and Seafresh watermaker in port cockpit locker (not in commission).

Tankage, all by Tek-Tank, monitored with a Tank Tender gauge at chart table.
Fuel 320 l
Water 360 l
Waste water 136 l

Electrics
4 x 110AH house batteries
1 x 110AH starter battery
Both charged by twin alternators on the diesel governed by a Sterling smart charger
240V charging from a Victron for the house batteries and a Waeco for the starter battery.
LED lighting throughout, both for the house and nav lights.

Electronics:
She was originally conceived of as a very simple boat, but the 2005 refit installed every gadget known to man, much of which we have slowly been removing to return her to a purer state. This winter we will complete this process, to leave her with twin plotters, autopilot, AIS, depth, and VHF.

Safety gear.
Seago 6 man lifeboat (new 2025).
Inflatable danbuoy.
Mahogany boarding ladder.

Accommodation
The saloon is a wonderful space, with full standing headroom throughout, a large table, mahogany panelled bulkhead, Taylor stove in its own fireplace, and 3 oil lamps. The table drops down on to the benches to make a large double, and the starboard bench makes a fine sea berth, with lee cloths.

The galley has a four ring gas stove with oven, a large fridge and freezer, a two bowl SS sink and good storage.

The aft cabin has two bunks with lee cloths, and the forward cabin has an infill to make a large double, with direct access to its own heads, with shower, sink, toilet and storage. The day heads are between the saloon, and are fitted out in the same way, as well as doubling as a wet locker.

History
She was designed by Jeremy Lines, who trained with Fred Parker, and spent most of his career in the design department of Camper & Nicholson. He designed her for his friend Mark Varvill as an interpretation of a larger Mylne ketch. This is very evident from her ends and sheerline, but she has substantially greater beam and shallower draft, presumably influenced by her home port having originally been Chichester Harbour.

The hull was built at Latham's yard in Poole, of mahogany planking glued and screwed to laminated mahogany frames, and was floated and then trucked to Varvill's home in West Wittering. She was completed by shipwrights under Varvill's direction, with some work done by the owner himself. She was launched in Birdham Pool in Sussex in 1999, as Diligent II, named after Mark Varvill's father's ketch Diligent, which was at one stage the school yacht of Gordonstoun School (the internet will disgorge photographs of a handsome young Prince Philip on her).

Jerry was a leading figure in the Society of Yachting Historians and the archivist for Camper & Nicholson, and lived and breathed yachts. His fellow apprentice at Fred Parker’s Dorset Yacht Company, Ian Nicolson, who has had a distinguished career as yacht surveyor and author described him as “a truly great designer, developer, owner’s friend” and added that “one of Jerry’s greatest achievements, and there were many, was the designing and commission of Diligent II”. Jerry was resolutely old-school, and the boat was designed entirely by hand, in imperial measurements; no millimeters or computers were involved in the process. We have an extensive archive of all the hundreds of drawings for her, which are included with the boat.

Tragically the first symptoms of the cancer that killed Mr. Varvill were already evident when the boat was launched, and he was already too ill to take part in her appearance at the 2001 Americas Cup jubilee regatta where she won her class in the anniversary Round the Island Race. His family kept her for several years before selling to the next owner, who commissioned a major refit by Berthon, and renamed her Samphire. He was a builder, and the boat was actually on a delivery passage towards the West Indies when his firm went into receivership at the beginning of the Financial Crisis in 2007, and she was recalled to the UK.

As originally conceived she was very simple, with basic electronics and no winches - the refit included a lot of bells and whistles which were not really essential, but the refit did include the fitting of winches and an autopilot, which have transformed her, meaning that she can be sailed shorthandedly. We often sail double-handed (and we are sailors of modest accomplishment), yet when playing at regattas, we can have a crew of ten in which everyone has their own string. She is no marina queen and is great fun to sail - one can amble along under mizzen and jib if one feels lazy, or go whole hog and play with topsails. She is also exceptionally sociable - the saloon references Edwardian yacht style and both relaxes and amuses. For three winters we used her as a pied a terre in Limehouse Basin in London, and both there and elsewhere we have had some wonderful parties aboard, with up to eight around the table. The cockpit is as capacious as is the saloon, and is easy to work and easy to lounge in.

Our ownership has seen her cruise, initially from her base in Burnham-on-Crouch, to Orkney in 2013, the Netherlands in 2014, Brittany and the West Country in 2015. In 2017 she headed West again for the first stage with the intention of completing a slow circuit of the British Isles, but ended up sailing up and down the left hand side of Ireland, which "caught our hearts off guard and blew them open". The log of those two extraordinary years won the Hanson Cup in 2019 and was reprinted in Yachting Monthly.

Without exactly meaning to, we then ended up buying a property in South Kerry which included 40 acres of woodland and an old house and have lived here since. What with the demands of work and woodland, we now find that we can't spend the time with her that she deserves.

In short, we are now unlikely to fulfil our ambitions with the boat, which has led us, reluctantly, to offer her for sale. We have had the most wonderful time with her, have always found her entertaining and safe. We are usually the most beautiful boat in an anchorage, and find that somehow she always makes people smile. When building her Mr. Latham joked about her being built as strongly as an icebreaker, and she has certainly been that socially.

She is currently in commission, will be laid up in SW Ireland under cover while we continue this current refit, and we are already planning a Hebridean cruise in early 2026, unless the right buyer comes along before.

All but the headline photograph are current images, taken in August 2025.

She is UK and EU Vat paid, and is outwith the EU Recreational Craft Directive.

Specifications

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