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Hedgehog is a J24 race yacht with a long pedigree.
She was built in 1987 by Jeremy Rogers of Lymington, Great Britain for the
Olympic Gold-medalist, Ian MacDonald Smith. Over the years she has won numerous titles and was originally built to be the
North Sails works boat. As Hedgehog, she won UK Championships and with an all-woman crew, steered by Titch Blachford,
won the McNamara bowl. Helmed by Olympic Finn and StarBoat sailor, John Greenwood, she again won the UK Nationals under the
name "Geriatric".
With David Bedford at the helm and Chris McLaughlin on the crew, in 1993
she won Spi Ouest Regatta, Brittany, in a race that saw many sinkings - finishing 10th overall on corrected time in a
400 boat fleet. Bedford and crew collected the prize for seamanship as well.
Changing hands to Charlie Whelan and being renamed "Completely Hatstand"
she saw her race success dwindle as J24's were dropped in favour of newer sportsboat designs.
She was found abandoned, rotting and full of water by Ian Southworth and
Chris McLaughlin in 2003 in a hedge in Hamble, Great Britain. After checking her hull number with the class and reflecting
where she was found - there was only one name for her after rebuilding - "Hedgehog"
Hedgehog required complete rebuilding and a short, quick dash to qualify
for the UK 2005 World Championship rapidly turned into a logistical and budgetary nightmare.
Initial work by a local in Hamble served only to remove the broken fittings.
He then disappeared and as initial team members, Ian and Chris were joined by the engineering expertise of Spinlock designer,
Nigel Smith, they began to realise just what they had taken on.
The mast was cracked, the boom split at the gooseneck. The winches seized
and the traveller bar had been removed.
The Trailer had rusted through - its wheels no longer turned and the
fore hatch was split. And only the intervention of Class measurer, Stuart Jardine, had prevented its complete loss for non
payment of mooring fees. It was clear that the £5000 budget was not going to be enough.
Hedgehog headed to a shed in Hamble to be stripped and dried-out, Her spars,
fittings and former green mould cvered sails went into a waste skip. The trailer disappeared for " Review" and vanished -
probably to a scrap yard.
Over the next three months Nigel Smith worked tirelessly to bring the elements
of hull restoration together. The split teak foot rails were removed and front hatch replaced with a new Lewmar fitting. The
hull was rubbed down sprayed and sprayed again. The keel repaired and the rudder cracks filled.
Meanwhile Chris drew on the resources of two American yacht chandlers, Layline
and Annapolis Performance Sailing, to obtain replacement fittings and the critical traveller bar.
And Nigel Smith persuaded Harken UK to support the project . Two large cardboard
boxes, containing labelled bags with every system required for a top J 24, made the journey from the Lymington HQ
to the shed in Hamble. And a cheque made the journey in the opposite direction!
| The more removed, the worse it looked |
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| Hedgehog had rotting balsa in the decks |
Hedgehog had been damaged by being left with the mast up for many years.
She didn't have a mainhatch cover, or a mast boot. Rainwater had seeped
down the rig and entered the deck balsa sandwich. The teak toe rails had rotted and all had to be removed, as did the
stanchions and the fore hatch.
Next steps
The clock was ticking to the first World's qualifier and the rig was clearly
unusable. New was the only solution, but budget had run out, and Proctor Selden had no mast extrusions. We missed the
first event.
A complete new mast - the last in
UK was sourced from Falmouth, a new boom from Plymouth and two Selden carbon spinnaker poles from Poole. Everything had to
be in place for the Poole, Southern Area Championship, 2004 and the crew, joined by former leading J24 Helm, Andy McLelland
and Ian's Hunter 707 trimmer, Sean Dwyer, worked through the night to make the first race.
| First time afloat |
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| Poole Southern Areas, 2004 |
Racing begins...
Heading out to the start, Chris McLaughlin found himself voted the
" oldest bowman in town" and as the wind freshened, Nigel Smith realised the old wooden mast chocks had split under load.
He headed below deck with a rubber hammer and duct tape - managing to lock the mast before the start. This was the beginning of
an exciting first regatta and by its close, Hedgehog had won its first Worlds Qualifier -
but was letting-in up to six buckets of water per race. The new toe rails
had not been sealed and neither had the stanchion posts - an oversight by the restorer!
| Hedgehog takes the pin start |
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| A great return for the crew |
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| Hedgehog, European Champion 2005,06 and 07 |
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| A rebuilt boat |
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