The second disaster occurred in the summer of 1971. My son and his wife, together with her teenage sister, ventured too close inshore when anchoring in Osborne Bay, Isle of Wight. Zenith took the ground and lay at an angle at low water. This had happened on a number of occasions before in different places and was not of great concern. Unfortunately the summer of 1971 was very hot and dry and the gunwhale and adjacent planks had opened up. On a rising tide they admitted quite a lot of water into the bilges. The acuteness of the angle also caused some engine oil to escape from the filler pipe (if she had heeled to port this would not have occurred) and spilled petrol from the carburettor. This was a lethal mixture on a hot summer’s day, and when my son decided to make tea while waiting for the tide to float her off, there was an explosion and fire.

He suffered first degree flash burns to his legs – fortunately he had put on a shirt after sunbathing. His wife, still sunbathing on the cockpit, leaning against the doghouse and her legs stretched out along the cockpit seat, was out of the line of flash and escaped uninjured. Her young sister, sitting at the end of the counter with her feet in the water, had her hair, eyebrows and eyelashes singed even though she was more than 12 feet away from the doghouse companionway. His wife reacted with admirable promptness and had my son up from below and over the side into the sea in a matter of seconds – there was only three feet of water at the time and no fear of drowning.

Not far away, anchored in deep water was a Brazilian yacht competing in the Admiral’s Cup series, with two crew members (the rest had gone ashore in the yacht’s dinghy) waving frantically, each with a couple of shiny chromium-plated fire extinguishers, but with no means of getting close enough to use them. My son, recovered from the shock of the explosion and revived by his sudden immersion in the sea, scrambled back on board, launched the dinghy and rowed over to fetch them. Some precious time was lost in trying to make the extinguishers work – instructions were in Portugese. Eventually a number of jets were playing on the seat of the fire in the doghouse. By that time the police launch Ashburton had arrived and my son and his family were taken off. The last thing Brian tried to do before leaving was to explain to the Brazilians, who spoke no English, that they were standing on top of the petrol tank while fighting the fire. By great good fortune there was no further explosions and they succeeded in putting the fire out. Meanwhile the police launch landed its passengers in Cowes, where an ambulance was waiting to take them to Newport Hospital. Ashburton returned, and when the tide lifted her, Zenith was towed to Cowes and moored alongside the Town Quay.

When I saw Zenith the following morning she was a sorry sight. The lower mast and boom were blackened, the terylene mainsail had partially melted and hung down in festoons, while down below, there were large area of charred timber, including frames and planking. I found the petrol tank still half full of fuel – four gallons – while under the tank where paint was stored, every tin had exploded with the heat.

This was almost my last view of Zenith. As far as the underwriters were concerned she was a write-off. They sold her to a breaker’s yard in Southampton and she was brought by an enthusiast who had her extensively repaired by the Elephant Boatyard in Bursledon. It was said that the new owner cruised her to the Baltic and road out a very severe gale in the North Sea. Later, friends said that she had been seen in a Welsh harbour.

Thereafter, Zenith was just a memory of eighteen years of very happy sailing. Imagine my surprise, therefore, when in 1990 my daughter took me to a boatyard in Falmouth to see Zenith as I had never seen her before – completely restored to the 6-metre she was when launched at Fairlie on the Clyde in 1924. But that is another story.

Ends.

Zenith was rebuilt following the fire of 1971. She is seen here in the Netherlands in 1973. Image from archive record SPTY.1.3.

John Reeve-Fowkes recalls seeing Zenith restored to her original state in 1990. She was rebuilt in 1981 and her cabin removed. Image from archive record SPTY.1.11.