Design and Construction
The Vertue's lineage runs through English classic boatbuilding and its later fiberglass adaptation. The prototype of 1936 was followed by steady evolution, with the design named after the Vertue Cup, an annual literary prize of the Little Ship Club, which Vertue No5 Epeneta won in 1940 for a 745-mile Biscay cruise. Early hulls were gaff-rigged; later ones were all Bermudan-rigged, with some converted. The first changes after the war added a doghouse for standing headroom aft and moved the mast to the coachroof. Later tweaks raised the sheer by a plank and flattened it slightly for more sitting headroom, and shortened the mainsail boom to eliminate the bumkin anchor. In 1976 the design was completely redrawn with 8 inches more beam and 5 inches more length for fiberglass construction, around 30 GRP boats built by yards including Westerly and Bossoms in Oxford.
Wooden construction varied by yard. E.F. Elkins Boat Yard in Christchurch was the most prolific builder of the type; RAUMATI, built there in 1962, shows the classic recipe of teak bottom planking, mahogany topsides, English oak backbone and framing, bronze floors, a lead keel, and all-teak deck structures anchor. She represents the final flourish of English classic construction before Cheoy Lee's Hong Kong boats entered the U.K. market. Caupona, Vertue No8 built at Woodnutts in 1939, 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 vessel that rewards relaxed steering. Yachting Monthly noted she sails better and faster with sheets eased and pointing slightly lower than her highest point of sail, and is slow to come about by today's standards, needing to be sailed through the tack anchor. Caupona's owner finds she carries just enough weather helm to come into the wind if left unattended, with a tiller lanyard holding course long enough to put the kettle on. The 1976 fiberglass redraw and the earlier Bermudan conversions broadened the rig's practicality without altering the essential docile, seakindly character that made a 25-foot boat cope with a knockdown in the Atlantic.
Accommodations
Space below is honest and compact. The Mk I Vertue offers only 5 feet 8 inches under the sliding hatch and a couple of inches less under the coachroof, and the design's successive variations were mostly aimed at improving accommodation rather than speed. The original 10 hulls, including Caupona, carried a short cabin trunk aft of the keel-stepped mast, lower freeboard, and a jaunty sheer. Later dogs and raised sheers addressed headroom. On Caupona an owner rebuilt the non-original chart table and galley and re-angled the settee backs from inclined to vertical, widening the bunks from 20 to 22 inches — a reminder that modest dimensions invited owner refinement rather than factory luxury.
Refits and Ownership
Ownership of a Vertue often means living with period systems. Caupona's 10hp single-cylinder Bukh diesel of unknown vintage delivers a steady 5 knots, and she carries three anchors — a 25lb CQR, a fisherman, and a Danforth — with rodes for regular, kedge, and emergency use stowed under the cabin sole amidships, but no windlass. A boom tent improves cockpit comfort; cooking is a single-burner Origo spirit stove, with no fridge, so milk and wine cool in the bilge by the mast. The only structural work her owner undertook was replacing sound keel bolts for peace of mind. Such restrained upkeep matches a class where more than 200 hulls still carry their owners across oceans.
The Verdict
The Vertue is a small cruiser with an outsized sea record. At 25 feet on a 21-foot-6-inch waterline, 7-foot-2-inch beam, 4-foot-4-inch draft, 9,590 lb displacement, and 4,500 lb ballast, she is heavily built for her length and carries 395 square feet of sail. She demands an attentive hand through tacks but repays it with weatherliness and a legend built on real voyages.
Pros
- Proven ocean capability in a 25-foot hull, including Atlantic and Cape Horn passages
- Long evolution of accommodation improvements while keeping 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; needs sailed through the tack
- Minimal creature comforts unless owner-upgraded
