Oyster News 52 - Oyster Yachts

The Royal Yacht
Squadron will host a
UBS Oyster Regatta at
Cowes, England, on July
6-10. We’ll need
volunteers at that time to
help rescue Vaughan,
who was still being held
in The Castle’s dungeon
when this went to press.
34 www.oystermarine.com
....of such a color and density as to fill one
with considerable foreboding." They made
for the cloud, rigged the sail as a water
catcher, and collected 10 gallons of the
precious stuff in buckets.
Still hundreds of miles from Antigua, with
wives having already flown out to greet their
arrival, they sighted a ship. "Over the
horizon came a red funnel bearing a yellow
scallop shell on top of an enormous white
bridge. It was an AFRAMAX (125,000dwt)
owned by Y.K. Pow of Hong Kong, which I
knew was on bare boat charter to Shell for
five years." Amherst hailed the ship,
identified himself, and arranged for calls of
reassurance to Antigua.
"Weeks later," Amherst says, "back in the
office I received an invoice from the
Shipping Manager of Shell addressed to me
in my full style for L10,000 for two crates of
vintage champagne, 6 kilos of caviar, two
crates of 40 year old port, and so on, transshipped
in mid-Atlantic, which delayed the
tanker a whole day for which they also
wanted payment. The whole bill was written
in old English – His Lordship this and His
Lordship that. They sent a copy to my
OWNER PROFILE
managing director and all my clients and
everyone, except perhaps me, thoroughly
enjoyed the joke."
Hugh Amherst is a private, reserved person.
Some of that might be occupational hazard
leftover from 40 years in the tight-lipped
shipping business. Some surely emanates
from his position as one of England’s titled
gentry. His peerage dates to 1892, and one
of his ancestors is Jeffery Amherst, who after
serving as Commander in Chief of British
forces that defeated the French in America,
was created "Earl Amherst of Montreal." The
family lineage includes two great-great
grandfathers, the 1st Baron Amherst and the
Marquess of Exeter, both Squadron
members. That’s a heap of maritime heritage
to lug around, but Hugh Amherst seems to
bear it with a light heart, and a smile. While
he has strong political opinions, and while he
has spoken in the House of Lords, he would
much rather be running the Royal Yacht
Squadron....or sailing.
Amherst has sailed his Lightwave 48 for 15
years from the Baltic to the Caribbean and
most places in between. "They only built 18
of them," Amherst says, "mostly for the US
market. I have the only one rigged as a
cutter." He and his wife, Elisabeth, delight in
finding quiet, out of the way anchorages
where they can relax unfettered. They had
discovered such an idyllic Caribbean spot
one balmy evening when another sail boat
arrived and dropped a hook nearby. Soon,
the visitors’ dinghy was launched, and the
skipper came rowing alongside. "He was
excited because his boat was named Pal,
and my Lightwave is named Hal," Amherst
says. "He said his boat name came from his
and his wife’s initials, Paul and Laurie. I
didn’t have the heart to tell him Hal is
named after Prince Hal from Shakespeare’s
Henry VIII. So I said, isn’t that a
coincidence. My boat is named for my wife
and me: Hugh and Lis."
Roger Vaughan
Photographs: by kind permission of Lord Amherst
Additional photographs: Roger Vaughan