Launch of Sheer Tenacity

Take two.........

The yacht is safely on the trailor ready for transport to the Hout Bay harbour.

The keel just kissing the water

The launch seen from the Hout Bay Yacht Club marina

Rod proudly naming his baby! SHEER TENACITY is born!

Nearly there.....

Bowsprit in place

Painting begins

Deck is painted and most of the fittings in place

Ready to launch

Launch day!

The crane begins to lift the yacht and we are moments from losing 3 years work!!


One of the crane's outriggers crushes a water main. The water is thankfully spotted immediately by the rigger and the yacht is more or less dropped back into the cradle moments before the crane starts subsiding into the sinkhole!

The waterpipe is repaired and the launch rescheduled for the following week

To work............

The new Shearwater hull is lifted into our garden

Work begins in the forepeak

More forepeak progress

Saloon - the turned rail is from the Roberts. We tried to save as much as we could from the old boat.


Saloon with door to the forepeak cabin

The galley and heads takes shape

12 portlights are fitted and the work on the deck begins

The toerail and teak in the cockpit is completed

Main cabin is completed

In the beginning..........

Tenacity is a 31 foot Miura. This tough little yacht was the first Miura to circumnavigate and did the round trip twice with her first owners, Keith and Marion Fletcher. We bought her in 1999 and she looked after us well as we learned to sail in Hout Bay.

We began to conceive the idea of long term cruising and realised that we were too old and too large for such a small yacht.We then bought a cold moulded wooden Roberts 44 which was in

an appalling condition but had an excellent engine, rigging etc.



We took her out of the water and transfered her to our garden where Rod started stripping the ply off to uncover whatever was beneath!

Well the pic speaks for itself!! Doom and gloom!!

Only one solution - scrap the hull and keep the good bits.


We started looking for a hull, deck and bulkhead of a size that could carry the equipment that we were stripping off the Roberts. To our joy, we found our dream boat in Acheson's factory - a Shearwater 39 designed by Dudley Dix from a brief given to him by our close neighbour, Gerfried Nebe who went on to build the first Shearwater from which the moulds were made. And so begins the tale of Sheer Tenacity.