Lot 122: Candida and Astra neck-and-neck off Fishbourne

Richard M. Firth (b.1971)
Candida and Astra neck-and-neck off Fishbourne
signed 'Richard M Firth' (lower right)
oil on canvas
28 x 42 in. (71.1 x 106.7 cm.)

Candida , rated at '23 metres', was designed by Charles Nicholson and built by Camper & Nicholson at Gosport for Mr. H.A. Andreae, the wealthy merchant banker, in 1929. A magnificent Bermudian-rigged cutter of 95½ tons gross (174 Thames), she measured 117 feet in length overall with a 20½ foot beam and was completed principally as a response to a slight change in the International Rules in 1928. A highly successful boat, she was a frequent sight at Cowes during the early 1930s although towards the middle of that decade, she was re-rigged as a ketch, fitted with an oil engine and converted for cruising. By 1939 she had been re-rigged again, this time as a yawl, and renamed Norlanda , the name she still sported after the Second World War.

Designed and built by Camper & Nicholsons at Gosport in 1928, Astra was a beautiful Bermudian-rigged composite cutter of 91½ tons gross (83 net) and measured 115 feet in length with a 20 foot beam. Originally built for Sir A. Mortimer Singer, the naturalised British son of the inventor of the sewing machine, she was owned for most of the 1930s by Mr. Hugh Paul who enjoyed much success with her during the so-called 'golden years' before the death of King George V after the 1935 season.