Bryan Cambray recalls the yacht that was constructed between escort and patrol duties!

Twostep produces Onestep

There cannot have been many HM ships during the Iast war on which a yacht was built but this is exactly what happened when HMS Twostep was based at Bougie in North Africa during the summer of 1943. The CO; Lt. B.L. "Monty" Moir (later Lt. Cdr.) RNVR, was an architect by profession and had raced National class dinghies, and hit upon the idea of building one between the escort and patrol duties. The idea was to build something more exciting and quicker than a service heat with such materials as could be found and which could he sailed by all and sundry, not only the officers. In the first place he built a model of a sailing canoe constructed of wooden bulkheads and stringers and covered with canvas and it was on those lines that work started.

(left) Onestep under construction on the deck of Twostep
(courtesy B. Cambray)

How it was built. The trials and changes are best described in these extracts taken from an article "monty wrote for "Yachting Monthly" and which appeared in January 1945.

'The "firm" consisted of Lt. E. "Pat" Hawksworth, RNVR (being First Lieutenant, he kept the usual eagle eye of "Jimmy the One" on the job, to see that all was as it should be). Sub. Lt. T. Porter, RNVR chief carpenter and joiner, and Cox'n A.R. Crawford, P.O.P.S. Sail-maker, rigger and general jack-of-all-trades.

I was designer and assistant constructor. A search of the docks proved very fruitful and large quantities of dunnage were brought aboard (much to the First Lieutenant's disgust, as the ship was never clear of wood shavings and timber from thence to the completion) and construction was started on one of the ship's boat's decks. A keel of 4in x I1/2in was laid, the stern, transom and one main bulkhead set up. Round these we bent the gunwales cf 2in x 1 in and stringers of 1in x1/2in at 7in centres. These were fixed into sternpost and transom and allowed to take their natural shape before the remaining bulkheads were fitted.

The deck was given a good camber by the bulkheads and assisted by band boards at intervals of 12in, let into the gunwales and centre line bearers. The whole of the hull and deck was then covered with canvas and recovered with balloon fabric (which we had scrounged at sea).

The original centre cockpit proved too small, so an additional after cockpit was added. This was to be later known as the "Wrennery" or Wren carrier, as it was hoped to take Wrens sailing with us. For the mast two pieces of spar found in the local boatyard were scarved together to give some 21ft. When this was brought on board everyone shook their heads and said she would never carry it so, in a moment of weakness, I reduced the length by 2ft.

The material for the sails consisted of Purser's duck and a Purser's sheet made up by the Cox'n, and a very good set, too.

The hull was painted black, deck white and cockpit blue, and the great day for launching arrived.

Out on trial, however, we found the sail area was far too small, as was the centreboards, so many minor alterations were required. Another 46sq ft was added to the mainsail, making a total mainsail area of 108sq ft, with a foresail of 22sq ft, giving 130sq ft in all, and a mast of total height of 27ft. A new and deeper plate was obtained, giving a draught of some 4ft 3in, and she was finally completed after about two months.