1896: CARIAD (a Welsh word for "Sweetheart") was the largest yacht that
Summers and Payne had ever designed and built to date. CARIAD
was built for Windham Thomas Wyndham-Quin P.C., K.P., C.M.G.,
O.B.E., 4th Earl of Dunraven and Mount-Earl, Baron Kenry.
January 15: CARIAD launched and then arrives at Southampton Docks and stepped
her masts. Later returned to Belvidere, Northam to ship her top
gear.
Cowes Week: First attempt for the Emperors Cup. Placed 30 minutes after the
winning time of 3 hours 17 minutes by "Anemone".
1897 February 19: Set sail for the Mediterranean, but not for long as she
sustained damage to her rudder trunk and had to put in for
Plymouth.
Mid March: Repairs completed at Northam and CARIAD under way again.
July 16: Return to Southampton from the Mediterranean to prepare for Cowes
Week.
October 15: Return to Summers and Payne's yard.
1898 February 11
to March 25: Fitting out for the summer season.
May: CARIAD leaves for Lisbon to participate in the "Vasco da Gama
Cup", a regatta to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Vasco da
Gama's voyage around the Cape of Good Hope to India. Achieved
first place and returned home to the Royal Yacht Squadron with
the cup.
1900: CARIAD bought by J. B. Miller, a prominent yachtsman of that
time.
1902: CARIAD bought by Captain C. B. Dixon-Johnson of Darlington, a
member of the Royal Yorkshire Yacht Club.
1913: Bought by Frank Chaplin, a member of the R. Y. S. (elected in
1911). Changed her name to "Fidra" (after an island in the
Firth of Fourth) and fitted her with a Bergius 4 cylinder
paraffin motor.
1919: FIDRA bought by a Swedish Navy Lieutenant and member of the
K. S. S. S., Sune Tamm and his brother Sebastian. With 4 other
officers and a crew of 6, all under the age of 30, they prepared
for the circumnavigation of the world.
1920 September: FIDRA departed from Karlskrona, sailed through Magellan's Strait
to Tahiti, Honolulu, Suva, Yokohama, Hong Kong, Singapore,
Colombo, Aden, Suez and Gibraltar, returning to Sweden in 1922.
1926: Lord Dunraven, Windham Thomas Wyndham-Quin, the original owner
of CARIAD, passes away at the age of 84.
1927: FIDRA bought by H. J. Wenburn and H. E. Evans of South Africa
and is taken to Capetown.
1929: Evans sells his share to Wenburn and Wenburn becomes the sole
owner of FIDRA.
1933: Wenburn desired to change the name back to CARIAD but Lord
Dunraven had built another yacht called CARIAD II. To
differentiate between the two yachts, it was agreed that
CARIAD II would become CARIAD and FIDRA would become CARIAD I.
1948: CARIAD I bought by A. W. Flitton of South Africa. Flitton
sails on CARIAD I to Trinidad in the Caribbean.
1953: Flitton installs a new General Motors 4 cylinder, 80 HP diesel
engine in CARIAD I.
1956 to 1960: During this period, CARIAD I reduced the sail area from 5,480
square feet to 4,500 square feet while keeping the gaff ketch
layout.
1963: CARIAD I bought by Loring C. M. Rattray of South Africa. The
home port was changed from Capetown to Durban.
1969: CARIAD I bought by K. Sutie also of South Africa.
1981 January: Following several years of chartering in the West Indies, it
was decided to completely gut CARIAD I and restore her to her
original style and beauty. This was commenced in Antigua, West
Indies in January 1981 and, when the vessel returned to England
to participate in Cowes Week in 1983, the work was completed by
Southampton Yacht Services who were previously Camper and
Nicholson's Northam Yard and prior to that, CARIAD I's building
yard, Summers and Payne. The modification was extensive, with
the main mast and spurs, part of the planking, the gimbaled
table, steering gears and wheel, ship's bell and the chronometer
being the only equipment reused.
1983 September 8: CARIAD I bought by Pamela Anne Marvyn of London, England.
1985 April 13: CARIAD I set sail for Turkey, experiencing storms on the way
whilst in Greece. Attended Agents Week in Marmaris and stayed
for the charter season in Turkey. The voyage to Malta in
September took 4 weeks due to stern shaft problems, adverse
weather, and lack of an inner jib which blew out after the
failure of the roller furling gear. Repairs were completed in
Malta including replacement of a number of planks and the return
to hanked on headsails. A new boom was made for the staysail.
The winter was spent in Antibes, France.
1986: CARIAD I set sail for Parma.
1987 September 13: CARIAD I bought by a Japanese corporation.
October 10: CARIAD I departs Malta for Japan. On the way, she stops at
Greece, Egypt, Djibouti, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
1988 January 31: CARIAD I puts in at Yap in Micronesia.
February 11: CARIAD I arrives at Naha, Okinawa. Remains in Naha until
March 8.
March 19: CARIAD I arrives at Yokosuka, Japan.
March 23 to
October 22: Repairs and modifications conducted at Sagami Dockyard
1989 April: CARIAD I displayed in the Yokohama Exposition "YES".
1990 January 14: CARIAD I sets sail for Singapore.
January 24: CARIAD I puts in at Kaohsiung, Taiwan for repairs of the main
gaff and mizzen boom.
1993: CARIAD I had been left abandoned by the Japanese corporation
that was about to go bankrupt at the burst of the Japanese
economic bubble. The Japan Charter Yacht Association heard
about CARIAD I and decided to see if she could be saved. They
took up a collection from interested members and bought CARIAD
I from the corporation that went bankrupt shortly after the
sale. Extensive repairs were done in Singapore including
replacing the broken main mast which was brought all the way
from England. On the way back to Japan from Singapore, further
work was done in Taiwan such as laying down the beautiful teak
and holly flooring.
August 26: CARIAD I arrives in Tokyo, Japan. Since then, she has been
active as the flagship of the Japan Charter Yacht Association
in trying to promote charter sailing and ocean leisure in
general.
