One of the great side-effects of the boom in classic yachts and in no-expense-spared restorations is the revival of craftsmanship.

A great example of this is the creation of two new topmasts for the 160ft schooner Eleonora. She lost both when she gybed with a topmast runner slack while training for the Westward Cup in Cowes.

That was just over two weeks ago and the new topmasts and all the new blocks have been made, shipped to Southampton and are being rigged on Eleonora as I write.

That’s a fantastic achievement by Bob Snow and his team at Maritime Enterprises in Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight. They made both the main topmast and foretopmast in 13 days flat.

Both spars are hollow and were made from prime quality slow grown Douglas fir supplied by Stones Timber in Devon. The main topmast is 16m and the foretopmast 13m.

Bob’s team worked between 16 and 24 hours a day over a ten-day period to do it.