8 February 2016

The Loss of 'Espada' (GBR-50R)

From the Quarter Ton Facebook page: There was a fire in the Medina Yard in Cowes on 25th January 2016 and very sadly the Farr Quarter Tonner Espada was lost.

Built in 1980 by Geoff Hunt for Michael Evers of West Mersea, she was one of five sisterships from Bruce Farr, another one of them being Anchor Challenge. Mike sold her and she became Silent Movie and lived down in the West Country before being bought by Terry Dinmore in Poole. Morty (Peter Morton) bought her from Terry in 2005 and started a complete restoration. 
Espada featured as one of the top Quarter Tonners of the fleet that contest the revived Quarter Ton Cup every year in Cowes - seen here in the 2014 edition of the series (photo Paul Wyeth, 1/4 Ton Facebook page)
Morty was running out of time to complete her for the Quarter Ton Cup in 2006 and fellow competitors Jim and George Webb, Tony Dodd and Spillers came over to Cowes to help out. Morty successfully compaigned her for two years, winning the Quarter Ton Cup in 2007 and lending her to Jamie McWilliam for Cowes Week 2006. Morty then found Anchor Challenge and passed Espada onto his wife Louise in 2008 who campaigned her for six years. Espada won the Quarter Ton Cup again in 2011 with Colette Richmond and in 2013 with Louise Morton. 
Louise Morton and the Espada crew winning the 2013 Quarter Ton Cup
She was sold in February 2015 to Julian Metherall who immediately prior to putting her away for winter storage had repainted the decks and smartened her up. She will be sadly missed. An iconic Quarter Tonner, much loved by all.


A full list of her results can be seen here, and she features in a previous post here on her original conversion to IRC by designer Mark Mills.


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