Designed by Karl Martens and built by Matthiessen & Paulsen in 1938 near Kiel as part of the German Naval fleet, Hiltgund was originally a training boat for naval personnel. She first appeared
in Lloyds Register of Yachts in 1939 when she was listed as owned by the Kriegsmarine and was registered at Cuxhaven.
Under Admiral Raeder, the Kriegsmarine (German Navy) placed large orders with a number of yards to expand the fleet
of training yachts and dinghies between 1935 and 1939. Experience in small boats was known to be very beneficial
for building up seamanship, self reliance and an understanding of the sea.
During the period when limits were in place on the size of German armed forces after the Treaty of Versailles in
1919, the size and number of warships permitted was strictly controlled. Training yachts offered a loophole whereby
naval personel could gain valuable experience at sea. |
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50 Square Metres similar to Hiltgund
before the Second World War
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After the Second World War, Hiltgund arrived in England as part of
a fleet of about 60 yachts (Operation Homeward) which were requistioned as war reparations (the windfalls). Around
14 ex-Luftwaffe yachts were also sailed over (Operation Sallyport) and about 100 other smaller craft were shipped
from Germany to the UK.
Hiltgund
was renamed Pegasus and from 1946 to 1959, she was stationed at the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth where she was
house yacht for "St Vincent".
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Pegasus (Hiltgund) in the foreground on the right with six other
windfalls
at the start of the Plymouth to St Malo Race - 1951
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In a race on the 4th of June, 1949, she came 5th in a fleet of 10 Fifty Square Metres. The event was a coastal race during an
annual rally run by the College for which the Dartmouth 50s were joined by Windfalls (50s & 100s) from Portsmouth & Devonport.
This rally and coastal race interrupted the routine Summer Term Saturday afternoon races sailed by the 6 College yachts,
competing for the Hindenburg Trophy. (The trophy was won at Kiel just prior to WW II by a naval officer.) In 1949
Pegasus was
second in the first two races and won the remaining eight. |
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| Around 1960, Pegasus was transferred to the Royal Naval Barracks at Portsmouth where she was
possibly used by the Royal Marines and became known as Sea
Victor under which name she continued until 1996 when
she returned to her original name Hiltgund. |
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Postcards of Sea Victor (Hiltgund) while in forces ownership - from the Fryer family collection
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| By the mid 1960s, Sea
Victor had passed from the armed forces to private ownership.
A RORC certificate of rating dated June 1966 gives the owner as Ewing Trawlers Ltd, Port St Mary, Isle of Man. |
At around this time, Sea
Victor was bought by Robert Francis Fryer who had sailed
with Peter Beard and Donald Crowhurst. She was kept moored on the River Itchen in Southampton not far below the
Vosper Thorneycroft yard.
As Robert Fryer's family were not particularly interested in racing, she was mostly used for cruising along the
south coast to destinations such as Weymouth, Poole, Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight and there were occasional
voyages to the Channel Islands and France.
There was also a period of about six months when Robert Fryer's wife and 2 young children lived aboard while they
were looking for somewhere to live in the Southampton area.
Changes in family circumastances caused the Fryers to part with
Sea Victor in the early 1970s and it is thought that she
was then not used much or looked after very well for a number of years. |
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[photo from Fryer family collection]
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Painting of Sea Victor (Hiltgund) by Colin Richardson - the original hangs in Robert Fryer's son Henry's home.
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Nothing else is currently known until Sea Victor was bought by Nigel Gilkes in
September 1977 as "an empty hull". It would seem that a considerable amount of remedial work was then
undertaken. Certified as seaworthy by a surveyor in September 1980, it must be assumed that she then spent a least
a few seasons afloat.
Nigel Gilkes parted with her in late 1984 and the particulars issued by Ancasta Marine Brokerage (Gosport) show
a good inventory of sails (even if some were a little elderly), new spars from Procter in 1981, an engine and downstairs
accommodation for 5 including galley equipment and heads fitted with a Baby Blake and washbasin.
In 1990, she was acquired by Malcolm Brown who reports her to have been in a bad way - "just a damaged hull".
Regrettably, his plans to restore her were never realised.
However, things looked up for her when Peter Wilson bought her in May 1995, changed her name back to Hiltgund and completely
rebuilt her at the Aldeburgh Boatyard. She was re-launched in 1997 and proved quick and seaworthy if a little wet in
adverse conditions. She subsequently enjoyed a successful racing career and in 1998 she was overall third in the Hermes
Mumm Regatta.
Since 2001, she has been cruised and raced by Chris Perring (and John & Gilly Bourke to 2005) on the West Coast
of Scotland. She has competed in the Scottish Series on Loch Fyne and the CCYC Round Shuna Race and taken part
in the Crinan Classic Boat Festival on a number of occasions. In recent years, Hiltgund has cruised between Northern
Ireland, Skye and the Outer Hebrides.
She is now based at Crinan
near Lochgilphead in Argyll. |
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