Heroine for all
Here in Germany, we have Wilfried Erdmann. In England, they honour three sea heroes: Francis Chichester, who sailed around the world in 1966 with just one stopover on his "Gipsy Moth IV". Robin Knox-Johnston, who two years later became the first person to circumnavigate the planet non-stop with "Suhaili" as part of the legendary Golden Globe Race. And then there was Alec Rose and his "Lively Lady", the pop star among the Anglo-Saxon salt humps, so to speak.
Steve Mason, co-skipper on the Lively Lady during her circumnavigation from 2006 to 2008: "In fact, Rose is sometimes referred to as the 'everyman Chichester'. Chichester did manage to sail round the world first, but he had sponsors and a boat custom-built for the voyage. But Alec achieved this as a little man with money from his own pocket, and that's where the difference lies." That is what makes the "Lively Lady" so popular, then as now.
Greengrocer Rose dreams of the sea
Alec Rose grew up in Canterbury. Nobody in his family was a sailing enthusiast. His interest in the sport grew after reading books about shipping. When the Second World War broke out, he enlisted in the Royal Navy and sailed as an engine mechanic on a supply ship. After the end of the war, he bought a fruit business in Kent but, as he writes in his book "A Lively Lady", he was "still passionately addicted to sailing and read all the accounts of lonely travellers".
He bought an old lifeboat from a German ship, which he converted. After Rose separated from his first wife, he sailed single-handed to Amsterdam and the Frisian Islands. He married his second wife Dorothy in 1960 and the couple spent their honeymoon at sea, sailing to Spain. Halfway across the Bay of Biscay, however, Dorothy injured her hand while trying to deploy the drift anchor during a storm; the couple had to interrupt their journey for medical treatment in Brest. The couple returned to the UK, and "because it was necessary to earn some money", they bought a greengrocer's shop in Southsea, a suburb of Portsmouth, not far from the Solent.
It was there that Rose began to dream of sailing around the world. He watched the first Observer Singlehanded Transatlantic Race (Ostar) in 1960, which Chichester won, as if spellbound. Rose realised that he needed a suitable boat so that he could take part in the next race himself. After a short search, he found a 15-year-old, 36-foot wooden cutter for sale in Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight on the Solent. He was instantly smitten. "I liked the look of it. The ship was somehow different. I went on board and was immediately impressed by its solidity and strength."
Solid construction of the "Lively Lady" was the result of a mistake
Fred Shepherd, a popular designer of medium-sized cruising yachts in the 1930s and 1940s, designed the "Lively Lady". Although she had already been designed before the Second World War, the design remained a theory until a Mr Cambridge actually had it built in Calcutta, India, in 1948. Cambridge made some changes to the original design. The keel was modified, the freeboard increased and the deck fitted with a skylight instead of the original superstructure. The solid construction that had impressed Rose so much was actually the result of a mistake: 22-millimetre-thick Burma teak had been ordered for the planking, but wood with a thickness of 35 millimetres arrived instead. It was used anyway. It was a similar story with the frame. Instead of the steamed wood specified by Shepherd, it was fitted using thick, grown Thai padouk at intervals of just 37 centimetres.
Rose was less impressed by the old-fashioned gaff rig. He therefore commissioned Illingworth & Primrose, who were also responsible for the construction of the "Gipsy Moth IV", to design a new rig. They designed a cutter high-rigging with aluminium masts and a significantly shortened bowsprit.
When he set off from Plymouth for the second Ostar on 23 May 1964, Rose's assessment of his boat was rather sober. "She was very heavy, sturdily built, but by no means a greyhound. She has a good, long keel, a good stern and freeboard and a sweeping stern. Above all, she is a safe ocean-going vessel."
"Lively Lady" is modified
Despite sailing an already outdated boat, Rose was surprisingly successful in his first ocean race. He finished fourth, behind prominent names such as Eric Tabarly, Chichester and Val Howells, and a whole day earlier than Blondie Hasler. Even more important was his realisation that he loved sailing long distances alone. "I was glad and happy," he wrote, "I had a good boat, and I felt as free as the birds circling overhead. I was the king of my little world."
Rose had already started to think about the "greatest adventure of my life": he dreamed of sailing around the world single-handed. That's when Chichester announced his plans to sail to Australia along the so-called Clipper Route. "I then had the idea of following him and turning it into a kind of competition," Rose initially wrote, before abandoning the idea. "Looking at both boats, the 'Lively Lady' was no competition for 'Gipsy Moth IV', which was brand new and designed and built precisely for this type of race and also had a longer waterline," he wrote in retrospect.
Nevertheless, he made some important changes to the rig of his "Lively Lady", which he categorised as under-rigged. He lengthened the mast by 1.20 metres to enlarge the mainsail and added a mizzen mast to the boat. This was not intended to carry a mizzen sail, which would have interfered with the self-steering system, but instead a staysail was to be set on it instead of the mainsail on rough courses.
Clearly too heavy: 30 centimetres more draught than planned
The boat that Rose sailed on after leaving Portsmouth on 7 August 1966 (three weeks before Chichester, incidentally) had little in common with the ship designed by Shepherd thirty years earlier. With a displacement of 13.75 tonnes, compared to the original 7.5 tonnes, it was almost twice as heavy. Its draught had also increased accordingly, from 1.67 to 1.98 metres, and the waterline length had grown from 8.00 metres to 9.60 metres.
However, the highly publicised race around the world did not take place (that came later). The "Lively Lady" collided with an unknown object while crossing the English Channel, and Rose had to return to Plymouth to carry out repairs. Worse was to come: the yacht overturned while standing on land and broke four frames. Rose had to postpone his voyage for another year.
Rose finally set sail from Portsmouth on 16 July 1967, seven weeks after Chichester had completed his record voyage. The greengrocer had a trouble-free trip, stopping off in Melbourne to visit his son and in Bluff, New Zealand, to repair a fitting on the masthead. As predicted, the "Lively Lady" proved to be robust, safe - and slow: when Rose arrived back at his starting port in Portsmouth on 4 July 1968, even he was disappointed with his time. It had taken him 354 days, a full 128 days longer than Chichester.
Honouring a maritime hero
However, the reception in Portsmouth was gigantic: around 250,000 people came to welcome him, almost the same number of people that had greeted Chichester the year before. 400 yachts accompanied him across the Solent. A huge crowd cheered him and Dorothy as they stepped out onto the balcony of their modest home above their shop on Osborne Road. And, like Chichester and later Knox-Johnston, he too was knighted by the Queen.
The timing of Rose's voyage was actually awkward, occurring right between the great achievements of Chichester and Knox-Johnston. However, Rose was neither faster than Chichester, nor did he have a true first circumnavigation like Knox-Johnston.
Rose's achievement is nevertheless rightly recognised: of the nine competitors who took part in the original Golden Globe race - and who had set off both before and after Rose's return - only three made it past Australia (Knox-Johnston, Moitessier and Tetley); one sank (Tetley), one died (Crowhurst), and only one completed the journey (Knox-Johnston). Chichester and Rose made it look easy, but the fate of those who had embarked on a similar project speaks a different language.
"Lively Lady" seems to have been sidelined once again
Having reached a milestone with his journey, Rose continued to run his greengrocer's shop with Dorothy. He died in 1991 and the City of Portsmouth acquired the Lively Lady shortly afterwards for £15,000. For the next ten years, the council leased the vessel to the Meridian Trust, which maintained the boat and introduced disadvantaged young people to sailing. Although the yacht was in continuous use, no major refurbishment work was undertaken or even felt necessary.
Then in 2003, a campaign was launched to free the "Gipsy Moth IV" from her concrete grave in the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, where she had lain for the previous 35 years. Two years later, at a cost of £300,000, she sailed again and was ready for her second circumnavigation, this time with a crew of "deserving young people" on board. Once again, it seemed, "Lively Lady's" wealthy rival was in the spotlight, while Rose's humble yacht was confined to home waters.
Rescue of the "Lively Lady"
However, one Portsmouth resident was determined to counteract this fate. "It didn't seem fair to let 'Gipsy Moth IV' take all the credit," says Alan Priddy. Almost single-handedly, the motorboat racer launched a campaign to make the "Lively Lady" seaworthy again. Instead of a complete overhaul, Priddy and his team opted for an extreme refit programme. This included a new engine, a new rig, new sails and more.
Based on her former voyage, the "Lively Lady" set sail from Portsmouth on 28 July 2006, ten months after the "Gipsy Moth". On board were Priddy, a co-skipper and two young crew members. Their plan became a two-year, multi-leg round-the-world voyage - through the Suez and Panama Canals instead of the three capes for insurance reasons. In the end, nine co-skippers and 39 crew members took part in the anniversary voyage.
Even Rose's grandson, Nigel Rose, sailed part of the journey. Just like back then, the "Lively Lady" proved to be a trustworthy ocean-going boat. "We were buffeted by 50 knots of wind behind Canada, but she coped well," says Steve. "We were cramped in the cockpit. The boat was virtually flat in front of the top and rigging, but it was moving in the right direction at a speed of one knot." However, the boat suffered some damage from its journey.
Large-scale restoration by volunteers
The Lively Lady returned to Portsmouth on 5 July 2008, 40 years and one day after she completed her first circumnavigation. A legal wrangle ensued, mainly over the legal status of the yacht, which at the time was classified as a museum piece in the community museum's collection. In 2010, Priddy set up a new trust called Around and Around to rent the boat from the council and maintain it. And he re-registered it as a historic vessel.
A large-scale restoration project was launched. In contrast to the fancy and expensive refit of the "Gipsy Moth IV" at Camper & Nicholsons, the work on the "Lively Lady" was carried out by a small team of volunteers under the supervision of Steve Mason. The main work was to renew the deck and replace rotten, inaccessible frames. The hull, on the other hand, has been almost completely preserved. The teak from Burma has withstood 50 years at sea and two circumnavigations without so much as a creak.
Rose's vision: everyone should be able to learn to sail on the high seas
The restoration of the "Lively Lady" cost £15,000, which was raised by patrons, the city of Portsmouth and donations. A small financial outlay compared to the cost of the "Gipsy Moth" - but the "Lively Lady" is also cobbled together accordingly. Another circumnavigation was planned for 2020. Some of the crew members who had already sailed around the world between 2006 and 2008 were to be on board. They are now adults themselves and, as qualified skippers, wanted to take a group of young people on the trip of a lifetime. The coronavirus pandemic thwarted this plan. Instead, the time was used to continue restoring the "Lively Lady". New projects with young people are currently being planned.
Rose's vision remains the same: Ordinary people without a large financial background should be able to practise ocean sailing. Thanks to the perseverance of a few individuals, a new generation of sailors is now being trained to follow in his footsteps. That is more than the humble grocer from Southsea could have wished for.
Technical data of the "Lively Lady"
- Total length: 10,98 m
- Waterline length: 9,45 m
- Width: 2,81 m
- Depth: 2,01 m
- Weight: 13,7 t
- Sail area on the wind: 54,7 m²
- Sail carrying capacity: 3,09
Other special boats:
- J/V 43: Class 40 orientated racer is also a cruiser
- "Polaris": Passage Maker designed for the far north
- "Betty Blue": Transformation of a dinghy cruiser into a piece of jewellery
- Whitbread racer "Maiden": Women on a circumnavigation with a mission
- 75-series warping cruiser: "Gun" enriches the classic scene on Lake Constance
