Lot Essay
Lulworth was designed and built by White Bros. at Itchen in 1920 for Mr. R.H. Lee of Bovey Tracey, Devon. Originally christened Terpsichore and rigged as a cutter, she was registered at 123 tons gross (111 net and 186 Thames) and measured 95 feet in length with a 22 foot beam. Purchased by Sir A. Mortimer Singer - the immensely wealthy naturalised British son of the American inventor of the sewing machine - after Lee's death in 1924, Singer renamed her Lulworth, a name she retained after being purchased by Alexander Paton in 1928. A splendid boat from the start, she nevertheless came into her own under Paton's colours and became a familiar and successful competitor at Cowes during the final years of King George V's long patronage. Ironically, Lulworth was laid up in the same year, 1935, as her great competitor Britannia (the King's yacht), although she suffered a better fate being sold to Mr. Carl Bendix who kept her until the Second World War, whereas Britannia never sailed again after the death of King George V in January 1936. Somehow Lulworth survived the hostilities, was refitted after the war and is still afloat and sailing competitively in races such as this despite numerous changes of ownership.