How Many Roads?

As founder of Fairlie Restorations, Duncan Walker has been behind more big-yacht restorations than anyone else. We ask him to reflect on the past 30 years

- Steffan Meyric Hughes

Three decades is a long time – in many ways 1987 feels like yesterday. Or as Duncan Walker, whose career started that year, puts it: “A lot has changed and a lot hasn’t.” It’s a comment that’s hard to argue with – an engineer’s comment, which is what Duncan is – but he adds reflectively as we stroll across the busy hard at Hamble: “Ellen MacArthur used to sail out of here – pontoon H – before anyone knew her name. We barely noticed her until her round-the-world voyage.” But we’re not here to talk about Dame Ellen. We’re here to talk about the big-yacht restoration scene, which started around the same time as Duncan – and Classic Boat – with the relaunch of the Fife schooner Altair and Elizabeth Meyer’s J-Class Endeavour rebuild.