More than 200 Vertues have been built worldwide. Their owners’ exploits have become legendary among ocean-cruising sailors, from Humphrey Barton’s 1950 transatlantic crossing in Vertue No35 to David Lewis’s third-place finish in the first OSTAR aboard Cardinal Vertue in 1960.
Design and Construction
The Vertue’s lineage spans traditional English boatbuilding and a later adaptation to fiberglass. The 1936 prototype was followed by steady development. The design took its name from the Vertue Cup, an annual literary prize of the Little Ship Club. Vertue No5 Epeneta won the cup in 1940 for a 745-mile Biscay cruise.
Early hulls were gaff-rigged. Later boats were all Bermudan-rigged, and some of the earlier boats were converted. The first postwar changes added a doghouse to provide standing headroom aft and moved the mast to the coachroof. Later revisions raised the sheer by one plank and flattened it slightly to increase sitting headroom. The mainsail boom was also shortened to eliminate the bumkin.
In 1976, the design was completely redrawn for fiberglass construction, gaining 8 inches of beam and 5 inches of length. Around 30 GRP boats were built by yards that included Westerly and Bossoms in Oxford.
Construction of the wooden boats varied by yard. E.F. Elkins Boat Yard in Christchurch built more Vertues than any other yard. RAUMATI, built there in 1962, illustrates the classic specification: teak bottom planking, mahogany topsides, an English oak backbone and framing, bronze floors, a lead keel, and all-teak deck structures documented in this profile of the boat. She represents the final flourish of traditional English construction before Cheoy Lee’s Hong Kong-built boats entered the U.K. market.
Caupona, Vertue No8, was built at Woodnutts in 1939. Her hull was larch on oak, with 2x3-inch sawn oak frames spaced 24 inches apart and two steamed oak ribs between each pair.
Rig and Handling
The Vertue is a traditional long-keel boat that rewards relaxed steering. Yachting Monthly noted that she sails better and faster with the sheets eased and the bow pointed slightly lower than her highest point of sail, and is slow to come about by today’s standards, so she must be sailed through the tack.
Caupona’s owner finds that she carries just enough weather helm to turn into the wind if left unattended. With a lanyard on the tiller, Caupona will hold her course long enough for the owner to put the kettle on.
The 1976 fiberglass redraw and the earlier Bermudan conversions broadened the rig’s practicality without changing the docile, seakindly character that allowed a 25-foot boat to cope with a knockdown in the Atlantic.
Accommodation
Space below is straightforward and compact. The Mk I Vertue provides only 5 feet 8 inches of headroom beneath the sliding hatch and a couple of inches less beneath the coachroof. Most of the design’s successive changes were intended to improve accommodation rather than speed.
The original 10 hulls, including Caupona, had a short cabin trunk aft of the keel-stepped mast, lower freeboard, and a jaunty sheer. Later doghouses and raised sheers improved headroom.
On Caupona, an owner rebuilt the non-original chart table and galley. The settee backs were changed from inclined to vertical, widening the bunks from 20 to 22 inches. These modest dimensions encouraged owner refinement rather than factory luxury.
Refits and Ownership
Owning a Vertue often means living with period systems. Caupona’s 10hp single-cylinder Bukh diesel, of unknown vintage, delivers a steady 5 knots. She carries three anchors: a 25lb CQR, a fisherman, and a Danforth. Their rodes, intended for regular, kedge, and emergency use, are stowed beneath the cabin sole amidships. There is no windlass.
A boom tent makes the cockpit more comfortable. Cooking is handled by a single-burner Origo spirit stove, and there is no fridge, so milk and wine are cooled in the bilge beside the mast.
The only structural work undertaken by her owner was the replacement of sound keel bolts for peace of mind. That restrained approach to upkeep suits a class in which more than 200 hulls still carry their owners across oceans.
The Verdict
The Vertue is a small cruiser with an outsized record at sea. She measures 25 feet overall on a 21-foot-6-inch waterline, with a 7-foot-2-inch beam and 4-foot-4-inch draft. Displacement is 9,590 lb, including 4,500 lb of ballast, and she carries 395 square feet of sail.
She is heavily built for her length. Although she demands an attentive hand through tacks, she repays it with weatherliness and a reputation founded on real voyages.
Pros
- Proven ocean capability in a 25-foot hull, including Atlantic passages and voyages around Cape Horn
- A long evolution of accommodation improvements while retaining the original seakindly hull
- Traditional construction, with documented sound structure under careful ownership
Cons
- Tight headroom and beam by modern standards
- Slow to come about and must be sailed through the tack
- Minimal creature comforts unless upgraded by an owner
