Charter and tuition of RYA courses on board a famous yacht built in 1930 and maintained in excellent order with berths for four plus a skipper.
The yacht is based at Milford Haven giving access to some of the most beautiful waters in the British Isles.
Driac was a one-off design by the world-famous designer Charles Nicholson, built at Gosport by Camper and Nicholsons (the Rolls-Royce of yachting) in 1930. She was built for A H G Macpherson who named her Driac after the wealthy Scottish industrialist Sir James Caird who had supported him financially (Caird spelt backwards is Driac, pronounced Dryack).
Uffa Fox rated the yacht highly, especially after an early 5,000 mile cruise to Malta and back he described her in his famous set of books on design as being 'near to perfection, with her seaworthiness, comfort and speed.'
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"Driac has been working as a sea school since 2017 and people absolutely love her," says skipper owner Charles Lyster. "She has so far had one Yachtmaster Offshore candidate examined and passed aboard and lots of Day Skippers.
"I am running seven 5-day courses (competent crew/day skipper/coastal skipper), three 3-day courses (Start Yachting/competent crew) one 9-day intensive Dayskipper theory and a practical course in July - (2 days theory, 2 practical, 2 theory, 3 practical) and in June I am running a 10 day cruise down to Falmouth and back for the Falmouth Classics. We will go via the Scillies and have a few days there and probably return via St Ives and Lundy. I'm keen to promote this as a great experience for mile building, skippering days, overnight passages and general fun. Dates are all in a google Calendar on the 'Dates' page of her website but I could send you them in another format if that would be helpful. I generally run courses Sat-Wed or Wed-Sun as incorporating a weekend makes it easier for people with work commitments.
"All courses have room for 4 people plus me as skipper, all cost £100 per head per day and food is cooked fresh aboard with a glass of wine with meals. Feedback for the food is excellent (even the week I had to go vegan...). I will consider requests for skippered charter at £400 per day and could cruise to Ireland or the Scillies or further afield. Next year I aim to run a fuller programme but I have other sailing and domestic commitments this year."
"As far as I know she is the only classic yacht of the interwar years on which you can do RYA courses and I'm keen to promote this. With her Bermudian rig and winches she demands the same skills you would need on any more recent vessel but people learn a lot else besides, because she retains so many ancestral features, like hanked on sails."
