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We hope to include photos of them as they come forward!

September 2016 we are very pleased to announce that Peter Clemmenson has kindly donated a copy of his drawings for his Kylix 'Pandora'. We are able to send copies out on DVD for £5.00, including post for the UK and £6.50 overseas.

Kylix was built in 1971 by F Smeeth of  Dedham, Essex, for Maurice himself and was the last yacht he owned.

LOD 27 ft

LWL 24ft
Iron keel and trim

Thames measurement 7 tons (7,112kg)
Sail area, working 306sq ft (29m²)

(with Yankee) 383sq ft (35m²)
Builder G F Smeeth

Dedham, Essex

Designer/owner Maurice Griffiths, GM

Write up in Y.M.

The Mk II  is 29' and 10' 4" at the beam. Overall she is 32'.  In a letter, Maurice comments very positively on the new design making the statement that "she looks a fine little ship"

The builders who  built  the Kylix MkII  told me that his company built the Kylix Mk I and after displaying it at the Ipswich boat show decided that there had been sufficient interest in the boat but most had commented that a larger version would be better. Apparently a conversation then took place between Maurice and Bure Marine, this is corroborated by the letter we have, and the Kylix 29 was approved by Maurice. Bure Marine then built four Kylix MkII's of which 'Risga' is one.

Information from the present owner of 'Risga', David Prior 2009.

As the twenty-first boat I have owned in fifty-odd years, Kylix was designed to suit an elderly single hander. Because at low water her moorings below Woodbridge lie in only 5 feet of water with less all round her, and Woodbridge Haven bar at lie entrance carries but 4 feet at LWOS, she had to be of shallow draught, and her centreplate has proved highly useful during the two seasons I have sailed her so far.

Her design is an enlargement of the 25ft Cockler class, of which some 30 boats had been built in various parts of the world in something over 20 years. With a fine run aft to a bawley-type transom well above the waterline, they have often shown a clean pair of heels to other cruising boats, while some have shown themselves capable of making lengthy offshore cruises, including transatlantic, across the Indian Ocean east to west, and a voyage around the Pacific islands.

Like her many predecessors, Kylix  (Greek for a broad shallow drinking vessel) has an outside ballast keel which ensures that she is self-righting if ever bowled over by a sea or a bad squall. With the ½ inch mild steel L-shaped centreplate fully down and drawing 6ft 3in, Kylix is as close-winded as one could wish, but she also handles with assurance even with the plate hauled right up and drawing only three feet.

In a twisty river like the Deben with its narrow channels, the centreplate could hardly be bettered as an instant warning device on the one fathom line—'time to go about, skipper'. Even when we have come to a stop on the ebb while coming round in stays, backing the jib and then—not till then—hauling the plate up smartly has got the ship sailing off on several occasions.

A handy ten-foot boathook, marked with black and white bands at foot intervals, is carried as a sounding pole for ditch crawling, while for greater depths the trusty lead line is kept in readiness in the cockpit. For my kind of modest cruising I have had no yearning for status symbols like echo sounders, wind vane steering gears, or glittering electronic devices, but find the ancient basic aids to the man who has learnt to hand, reef and steer sufficient for the enjoyment of home waters cruising.

With her large rudder, which is partly balanced, Kylix can be spun round in stays, turning on her plate, if called upon in a tight corner. But if left alone she is of a traditional type that will stay on course while you go forward, or get something from the cabin; while with her tiller pegged (it has a rack for belaying pins) or slip- knotted she will sail herself, or lie-to, for hours on end unattended.

I still have vivid recollections of a sail I had on a breezy day in a brand new GRP sloop. She was a smart craft in entirely contemporary fashion with a fat round body like a plastic bath, attached to a very short fin keel with a spade rudder working on its own under her stern. She went like a bomb under a strip of a mainsail and a genoa jib, but whether she had the wind on the beam, or right aft, or was close-hauled, you couldn't let go of the tiller for more than a second.

She was so flighty she had to be steered with care over every yard of the way, and it made me think how a boat of this type must exhaust her crew on any long passage, especially in blowy weather. Yet I have seen yachts of this fashionable production. type publicised as the answer to the family man's prayer. But if instead of comfortable cruising your ambition is to win places, whether in handicap or offshore racing, then you won't have a chance these days with any traditional type.

Apart from making appreciably more leeway (about 8 degrees close-hauled in a Force 3 breeze with the plate up) and being somewhat more leisurely in stays, there is no noticeable difference in the feel of the tiller whether the plate is up or down. Innocent crews have happily turned to windward without realising that the plate was up all the time.

Having sweated on other people's fore- decks to manhandle a heavy anchor through the pulpit and then lash it down to deck chocks, I have an inborn dislike of lifting the full weight of a yacht's bower anchor at all. In days gone by, before Sir Geoffrey Taylor invented the plough-type CQR anchor in the 1930s, we used to winch our fisherman anchor up to the stem head, and then with a line to the crown pull the upper fluke to the rail and lash it there.

The anchor was thus firmly stowed 'Britlingesea fashion', like the smacks, yet always ready to let go at once.

The short wide bowsprit on Kylix carries the double roller chain lead fitting a foot forward of the stem, so that no ugly bow fender is needed, and the starboard roller is boxed over. For stowing, the shank of the CQR anchor is hauled firmly into this box, where no sea can shift the anchor, yet it can be let go at a moment's notice. This same arrangement was adopted by the Hiscocks for the CQR bower anchor on their 48ft steel ketch Wanderer IV.

On Kylix the heel of the bowsprit fits between two stout oak bitts which stand 1ft 3in above the deck with an oak cross- tree in trad fashion; and when making fast other boats' warps, what a Joy they have been compared with the inadequate little Samson post or worse, the small mooring cleat, found on so many production boats' foredecks today.

For day sailing, when I am virtually single-handed, the Wykeham Martin furling gear jib and the forestaysail working on a boom have proved a sound and easily.....

Click the pics on the left to read more of the  article written by Maurice about the boat he designed and had built for his retirement!  They are rather large JPG files, but are worth the wait!

Information from Adrian, She is a Kylix Class boat, and has just sold to  new owners 2006.

July 2011, Andrew the new owner has joined us and  sent this picture in.  She has changed colour and berth, she now sails from Bucklers Hard on the River Beaulieu.

Owners and sailed by Han Julius of Holland.  Looks a fine ship!

Hopefully there will be some of you "Eventiders" who can tell me more about my boat !

Thanks for a great website !

Best regards Bo

SOLD- Kylix  'Ina'

1985 Maurice Griffiths Kylix - Ina

A beautiful 27ft classic yacht with all the charm of a classic wooden boat without the maintenance. Her GRP construction is complimented by teak brightwork, long keeled, she draws 3ft with the centreboard up, 6ft with it down, for improved upwind performance. Cutter rigged with self-tacking staysail and roller reefing genoa.

4 berth with twin single berths in a forward cabin and double in main saloon which provides a sit around table. Chemical toilet in separate heads, to reduce underwater openings to engine cooling intake only. Warm air heating, all lighting changed to LED for reduced power consumption. 

Hi John, I was reading with interest the Kylix pages and saw the request for information as to what happened to Jemima (29ft extended Kylix) well I’m glad to say she is owned my myself and my partner Carol and based for the time being in South Wales, previously we were in Lowestoft. I will take some  photos in the summer. The varnish on the topsides has been removed and painted white.. but apart from that nothing has changed. We live on the boat and I have to say as a live-aboard she is superb, warm, dry and very spacious.
Kind Regards

Paul Darlison

Currently moored in Bideford, Devon whilst we refit. So lots of sandpapering (oh Joy!) repairing and painting, we are also having legs made so we can explore the west coast a lot more before we move again. Hopefully we should be finished in about 5/6 weeks. I have attached a photo from last year and once we have finished we will take another, she should look very different. 

We live on the boat and I have to say as a live-aboard she is superb, warm, dry and very spacious.

regards

Paul

Good luck Norman.

Owner Peter Clemmesen

2016 sold to Jan who is in touch with us!