Lady Be (Frers 45)

Lady Be was the first of the production Beneteau 456, after Beneteau decided they needed a fast offshore yacht in their production range. She was designed by German Frers and, although supposedly a production yacht, the hull was constructed in Kevlar and carbon-fibre/foam sandwich with a stripped out interior. She was 13.8m (45.3ft) long, with a beam of 4.2m and displacement of 9,225kg, and carried a rating of 35.4ft.

Lady Be in hard reaching conditions (photo Facebook)

Eric Duchemin was recruited by Beneteau to campaign Lady Be for the French Admiral's Cup trials and just failed to gain a place. However, she came under the eye of Peter Blake, who was looking for a yacht to charter for the hastily prepared New Zealand Admiral's Cup team where she would join Neville Crichton's Frers 43 Shockwave. Crichton had initially planned his boat for a New Zealand team, but when no other boats came forth for selection, he campaigned Shockwave in the Australian trials. Despite her dominance of that series, however, Shockwave was not selected and Crichton found himself with a hot boat in need of team-mates. He managed to goad the New Zealand sailing fraternity into action, and Ian Gibbs joined the fray by chartering Swuzzlebubble IV, the former Epiglass New Zealand (Wee Willie Winkie), a Holland 40 and near sistership to his earlier Swuzzlebubble III which was top individual yacht in the 1981 Admiral's Cup.

Lady Be rounds a windward mark during the second race of the 1983 Admiral's Cup, just ahead of US yacht Locura

Blake thought that Lady Be could be made competitive for the Admiral's Cup, particularly if Duchemin stayed on, and chartered the French yacht. Following an unremarkable 16th place in the first race of the series (where Shockwave finished last after incurring a 23 place penalty), Blake proved his point in the second race when, in a reasonable breeze in the Solent, Shockwave and Lady Be had a great race together to finish third and fourth respectively. That was as good as it got however, as lighter winds in the two ocean races put the bigger boats like them out of the running. The Channel Race was a small boat benefit, and Lady Be finished in 41st place, with Shockwave not much better in 32nd. In better conditions in the fourth race, Lady Be finished 17th and then 16th in the Fastnet race finale, to finish as 19th yacht overall, with the New Zealand team taking sixth place.

Lady Be seen here during the 1983 Admiral's Cup, trying to outrun the smaller yacht Almagores (Peterson 43), which finished second on individual points and was part of the second placed Italian team (photo Phil Uhl)

Lady Be powers upwind under full main and no.3 genoa (photo Facebook)

Lady Be to windward to team-mate Shockwave at the start of the second race in the 1983 Admiral's Cup (photo Johnathan Eastland | Ajax)

Lady Be leads Scarlett O'Hara downwind during the second race of the 1983 Admiral's Cup (photo Alan Sefton | NZ Yachting)

The following sequence of photos are of Lady Be taken by Larry Moran on the long downwind leg of the St Petersburg to Ft Lauderdale race during the 1984 SORC. Lady Be was sailed by Francois Chalain and finished in 3rd place in Class C (and 14th overall) with division placings of 8/2/2/1/9/8.

Lady Be during the St Petersburg to Ft Lauderdale race during the 1984 SORC (photo Larry Moran)

Lady Be on her way to second place in the St Petersburg to Ft Lauderdale race (photo Larry Moran)

Lady Be with Bravura and Secret Love (overall winner of Class C) following (photo Larry Moran)

Lady Be with Bravura and Secret Love following, and Invictus out to the left (photo Larry Moran)

Lady Be with Bravura and Secret Love following (photo Larry Moran)

Another photo of Lady Be during the 1984 SORC, this time by Guy Gurney

It is understood that Lady Be was sold to Russell Hoyt in Newport, R.I. and renamed Destination where she was actively raced on the US east coast. In 2009 she took part in the ARC 2009 race under the ownership of Jurgen Dobbelaer and with her original name of Lady Be. Unfortunately she had to abandon the race due to leaks in the rudder post. She was transported to Muiden in the Netherlands in 2010 and is in service as a charter yacht for day trips on the IJsselmeer (as of 2016).

Article updated July 2024