Caprice
Caprice was built soon after the Second World War in 1946 for Sir Frank Spriggs. Designed and built by McGruer near Glasgow in Scotland, she has been described by numerous sources as “one of the prettiest Six Metres ever built”, and is a very large example of the class at more than 38 feet long. Spriggs owned Caprice for six years before selling her on to R M Bowker, a sailmaker who kitted her out with a new wardrobe of sails.
Just two years later Caprice started the next chapter of her life, being sold to R W Oates and moving to Abersoch in Wales. Now renamed Caprece, she stayed in Wales for around 10 years, although she was sold to J H Shutt in 1959, who also owned Vengla. At this point, Six Metre sailing in the UK had reached an all-time low point, and the boat’s class qualification lapsed in 1960, presumably reflecting her use as a cruising boat.
In 1964 Caprece made another move, this time to Ireland, where she was owned by S H Grant and kept in Howth, just outside Dublin. In 1968 she made her way north to Strangford Loch where she was owned by Mr and Mrs Hawthorne. They fitted an engine to the boat in around 1970 and she sailed on the Lough for a number of years; Tom Hawthorne was still sailing her in 1995.
In 1996, however, she was sold again and this time she was restored to her original racing state by her new owner Richard Bond, who moved her to Somerset and had her rebuilt. She was racing again by 1999.
Bond started racing Caprice on the international circuit, competing in the European Championships in St Tropez in 2000. She raced successfully, both at the national and international levels and often found herself in the top three, such as in the Classic Division of the 2003 World Cup in St Tropez, where, sailing under GBR48, she finished 3rd.
In 2003 Bond sold her to Brian Pope in Cornwall who also had some success in her, winning the classic class in the Coupe de l’Entente Cordiale in Brittany in 2005.
2008 was a particularly successful year for her when Caprice won the European Championships in La Trinité sur Mer in Brittany whilst competing against a fleet of 22 classics.
By 2017 Caprice joined a number of classic Six Metres in the newly formed fleet in Sanxenxo, Spain, where she now sails regularly
Under the sail number K48, she came in 5th place in the 2021 European Championship in Sanxeno, Classic Division.
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