Zephyr
15-metre motoryachts of this size and sophistication were big news at the time of Zephyr‘s original build. In August 1939, Yachting World published a lengthy article on her “modern design” with two V8 engines. “Very rarely is it considered worthwhile to carry out a series of tank tests of a motor cruiser of less that 50ft,” the piece began. “But it is occasionally done in Holland if a high performance is required. In the case of Zephyr this was very carefully carried out in the tank at Wageningen and it is to the credit of the designer that the scale model showed practically a straight line resistance curve up to 19 knots”.
Unsurprisingly, no records exist of how Zephyr fared during the war years but she clearly avoided the fate of the many yachts destroyed during this dark period for the Netherlands. The owners, the Smit family, were able to make good use of their not insignificant original investment of 14,000 Dutch guilders in the 1950s and 1960s. Less is known about the yacht’s later years apart from the fact that Zephyr had a Greek owner for some time who added a flybridge and two stern drives.