Homes & Interiors
A Classic Reborn
It has sunk three times, been broken into, and been dock bound for almost 15 years, but the Romola is finally ready to set sail again - and its Edwardian splendour should turn a few heads when the yacht moors at Cannes.
When Fred Multon spotted a yacht for sale in Dunstaffnage Bay, near Oban, little did he know that his plans to buy and renovate it would go from being a small restoration project to a 17-year labour of love. A keen sailor, Fred was with his family delivering some equipment on the west coast in 1988 when he spotted the Romola. The yacht had sunk its moorings at Harrogate - the owner of a caravan park at Dunstaffnage bought it from the divers who rescued it.
Having purchased the yacht, Fred towed it to the Caledonian Canal where it promptly sank again on Christmas Day. After repairing the Romola and installing new engines, he sailed it to Leith Docks where it once again disappeared under water in 1989. 'I had a phone call from the harbour master saying a tug boat captain had spotted the yacht lying awfully low in the water,' says Fred. 'Twenty minutes later she was gone, just hanging on by the mooring lines. I think some kids had got on board and opened a sea cock.'
The vessel was lifted out of the water and pumped out, but by this time what was left of the interior fittings had floated off round the docks. Fred decided to set out renovating it properly. After some research he discovered that the Romola was built in 1903 by Camper & Nicholson - the equivalent of the Rolls Royce or Bentley in yachting terms. He managed to get a photograph of what the steam yacht looked like in 1905 and decided to restore it to its original splendour as an Edwardian gentleman's yacht. Fred is still trying to piece together the yacht's history - apparently it made a trip to the Baltic in 1910 where it ran out of coal and had to be rescued by a passing fishing boat.
By replacing the steam engines with diesel, more room has been opened up on the Romola, and the yacht can now sleep six guests and four crew. One of the unique things about the Romola is that it has three separate quarters. The crew inhabits a small area at the front, along with the washing machine and freezers. This would ideally suit a wife/husband skipper/engineer couple who could sail and run the yacht together, according to Fred. There are two double rooms off the main cabin area, which includes the galley, then a saloon with a master bedroom at the rear of the yacht. With the yacht about to go to Cannes for charter, Fred thinks it is ideally suited for honeymooners - who would have the privacy of the main saloon and bedroom to themselves - or anyone else who wants to experience the ultimate in luxury sailing.
Although Fred, together with joiner Alastair Letch, virtually had to rebuild the Romola from scratch, they have faithfully recreated as many of the original features as possible from original drawings. All the moldings and proportions of the wood panelling are as they would have been, although oak, teak and cherry wood has been used throughout instead of the mahogany used to build the yacht. 'The main challenge is that as you go through the yacht, it changes shape,' says Fred. 'She is a long narrow vessel with a distinct curve of the deck. That means all the panelling is in the shape of a parallelogram.'
Local suppliers have been used as much as possible in terms of fitting out the Romola, with Fred's daughter, Polly, responsible for the sumptuous yet comfortable interiors. Waverley Upholstery in Edinburgh handled the soft furnishings, with all the linen provided by the White Company. The cabins have all the home comforts you could hope for, including a power shower, air conditioning and plenty of storage space. There is a stereo system in each cabin, along with mains electricity. Although modern, the lights are a reproduction of a similar design used by the White Star Line in Liverpool - the owners of the Titanic - which would have held candles. The stylish saloon is equipped with most things you'd expect in a normal living room; a flatscreen television, cd player and radio and plenty of books for a rainy day. Polly covered the speakers with an art nouveau Liberty fabric to blend in with the rest of the décor, and the carved medallions on the furniture are one of the few original fittings to survive.
In the two cabins off the galley, the beds can be put away during the day and replaced with a table. Classic Marine in Suffolk provided a lot of bits and pieces for the Romola, and Polly hunted antique fairs, junk shops and the iron foundry at Beaverhall in Edinburgh for the antique three legged piano stools, Persian rugs and other fittings.
Although compact, the galley is kitted out with a microwave oven and two fridges, and has a dining area for guests, although most meals are served at the large table on deck. Despite the potential for breakages, Polly has bought Da Vinci crystal glasses and classic fine white china for the yacht. To ensure the kitchen area doesn't turn into a disaster zone in stormy weather, all cupboards have specially designed linings to hold the glasses and crockery in place when the yacht is at sea.
The trip to Cannes will be the first time Fred sees how the yacht handles in the water as it has been at Leith Docks for nearly 15 years. After all his hard work, Fred's looking forward to seeing the Romola in the Mediterranean, but he hasn't hung up his tools hey. He already has another yacht waiting to be restored...