signed 'J. Steven Dews' (lower left), inscribed with title on the reverse
oil on canvas
101.6 x 152.4 cm. (40 x 60 in.)
Footnotes

Provanance :- acquired directly from the artist.

“Velsheda”, another of the legendary J-boats designed by Charles Nicholson and dubbed “the steel-breasted beauty” due to her distinctive metal hull, was built in 1933 for Mr. W.L. Stephenson, the Chairman of Woolworth’s (U.K.). A fast yacht deemed the equal of “Endeavour”, especially in heavy weather, she even beat King George V’s “Britannia” on occasion and won many trophies for her enthusiastic owner during the golden seasons preceding the Second World War.

An exceptionally handsome centre-board Bermudian cutter registered at 123½ tons gross (113 net and 205 Thames), “Velsheda” measured 127½ feet in length with a 21½ foot beam and seemed assured of success upon completion in the early summer of 1933. Her first outing was at the Harwich Regatta where, disappointingly, she not only failed to make an impression but also broke her boom. Benefiting from a new boom and some radical alterations to her trim however, she was much improved and at the Clyde Regatta the same autumn she scored five ‘firsts’ to “Britannia’s” and “Shamrock’s” two each. Going on to Belfast Lough, where she broke her boom a second time, she achieved more success and ended her maiden season with a total of twenty 1st prize flags compared to her nearest rival “Britannia” which could only manage twelve. The next season, King George V’s last, brought “Velsheda” further success and she enjoyed an exceptional career until 1939 when she was laid up at the outbreak of the Second World War.

Surviving the War, unlike many of her great contemporaries which were destroyed when Camper & Nicholson’s Gosport yard was bombed, she was not refitted for racing and, sadly, was eventually consigned to a mudbank on the Hamble River where she languished for a number of years. Rescued in 1983 and frugally restored on a very limited budget, she raced a few more years until abandoned a second time through lack of funds. Finally acquired in 1995 by Ronald de Vaal, who commissioned Southampton Yacht Services to restore her completely to her former glory, she returned to sea in September 1997, every inch the sleek and gleaming beauty she had been in her heyday. One of the only three J-class boats still afloat, Dews has a passion for “Velsheda” and has painted her on numerous occasions, most recently in his portrayal of the 1999 Antigua Classic Week Regatta offered in these rooms last year.

Literature: See “A Cloud of Sail”, p. 58 (et seq.).