Owners of Achilles sailing yachts met up recently with their designer, builder and sailor, Chris Butler.

Butler, of Butler Mouldings, Gowerton, produced the Achilles range of yachts, dingies, fishing boats and lifeboats for oil rigs until a serious fire in his South Wales factory closed the business in the mid eighties.

Butler now a youthful 76, held a question and answer session at Swansea yacht club on Saturday October 4th and re-lived some of his adventures on his Achilles yachts during Atlantic crossings competing in the OSTAR and the AZAB races, he also answered technical questions about the 24, 7m, 840 and 9m boats that he built and raced.

Organised by users of the Achilles 24 owners club website, members came from afar afield as Cornwall and the East coast.

Butler donated a self penned oil painting of a 24 off the Mumbles. This was raffled and raised £66 for the RNLI, in return Chris was presented with a framed photograph of one of his last builds a rare 7m which is now home in the British Virgin Islands and an Achilles Burgee made by Linda Rendle from Margate.

Achilles owners have two active sites on the internet www.achilles24.users.btopenworld.com, which is a source of useful reference information on the achilles 24 and www.flickr.com/groups/ achilles24/ which is an informal group for the exchange of views ideas and pictures on the full Achilles range.