How Many Roads?

As founder of Fairlie Restorations, Duncan Walker has been behind more big-yacht restorations than anyone else. We ask him to reflect on the past 30 years

- Steffan Meyric Hughes

Three decades is a long time – in many ways 1987 feels like yesterday. Or as Duncan Walker, whose career started that year, puts it: “A lot has changed and a lot hasn’t.” It’s a comment that’s hard to argue with – an engineer’s comment, which is what Duncan is – but he adds reflectively as we stroll across the busy hard at Hamble: “Ellen MacArthur used to sail out of here – pontoon H – before anyone knew her name. We barely noticed her until her round-the-world voyage.” But we’re not here to talk about Dame Ellen. We’re here to talk about the big-yacht restoration scene, which started around the same time as Duncan – and Classic Boat – with the relaunch of the Fife schooner Altair and Elizabeth Meyer’s J-Class Endeavour rebuild.

The beginning of the classic yacht restoration scene as we know it today began with a philosophy borne of car restoration. It was a Swiss Ferrari conservationist, Albert Obrist, who applied his exacting standards to yacht restoration on the Altair project, to set the tone for nearly everything that has followed – or at least set the standards for best practice. “Albi would get it right at all costs,” Duncan said over lunch (chicken noodles and a cold cider) overlooking the Hamble near his office. “If he couldn’t get the exact right leather for a steering wheel, he’d buy an expensive handbag and tear it up. He didn’t believe in upgrades either. The only thing he upgraded in his Ferraris was the brake fluid, as the old stuff was hygroscopic and attracted rust.” It wasn’t always easy of course: Duncan recalls the struggle to get even colour matching on the now-famous ‘