CLASSIC SUPERYACHT
SUMMER 2012
From
In association with
RANGER - 42 metre J Class Available for sale through Edmiston
EDMISTON - WORLD LEADERS IN YACHTING LONDON:
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www.edmiston.com SUPER YACHT SALES I CHARTER I MANAGEMENT I NEW CONSTRUCTION
IssuE n0 2 COntEnts
6 24
5
Foreword
6
rise of the classic yacht scene
16
Eilean returns to antigua
22 angelo Bonati saves a wreck 24 World’s oldest steam yacht 30 new spirit rising
30 CLASSIC SUPERYACHT www.classicboat.co.uk Liscartan House 127-131 Sloane Street, London SW1X 9AS
Editorial Editor Dan Houston deputy Editor Sam Fortescue Senior art Editor Peter Smith News Editor Steffan Meyric Hughes Publishing Consultant Martin Nott Proofing Vanessa Bird advErtiSiNg Senior Sales Executive Edward Mannering +44 (0)207 901 8016 edward.mannering@chelseamagazines.com Client relationship manager Louisa Skipper +44 (0)207 901 8014 louisa.skipper@chelseamagazines.com advertisement production Allpointsmedia +44 (0)1202 472781 www.allpointsmedia.co.uk Managing director Paul Dobson deputy Managing director Steve Ross Commercial director Vicki Gavin Publisher Simon Temlett the Chelsea Magazine Company ltd Liscartan House 127-131 Sloane Street, London SW1X 9AS +44 (0)20 7901 8000 www.chelseamagazines.com Copyright the Chelsea Magazine Company 2012 all rights reserved
Cover photo: Eliean by tim Wright
FrOM Dan HOustOn, EDItOr
What’s in a name? The question, ‘what makes a classic boat’ is one that frequently occupies us here at CB Towers, not to mention the forums at our website: classicboat.co.uk. And most classics are obvious. Take a boat like Eilean on p16, a quintessential classic of the 1930s. But there’s another definition – that of the spirit of tradition (p30). These boats are modern in their underwater hull form, but retain classic lines above; think of wolves in sheep’s clothing. They’ll often have much of the performance characteristics of modern yachts, but showing the grace and looks of a classic enough to pass off well at classic events. Of course, they have to race in their own class, and SOT yachts can’t be handicapped the same way as the venerable old classics, but they do create an entirely new type of boat – the modern classic. So what fits the bill? Surely the 1930s J-Class (p34) is a thoroughbred classic? Curiously not. For although the J-Class have the same lines as their deep-keeled forebears, their modern rigs and accoutrements have propelled them into SOT. And far from being put down by that, the class is flourishing. There are now as many newbuilds as there ever were in the class heydey of the 1920s and 30s. CLASSIC SUPERYACHT SUMMER 2012
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Agneta
82 ft Knud Reimers Yawl 1950 AGNETA has many features of the Square Metre yachts for which her designer Knud Reimers became famous – but combined with those of fast ocean racers of the period making her perhaps an early version of today’s ‘mini maxis’. Having one of his designs described by Uffa Fox “...as near to perfection as it is possible to get in this imperfect World” Reimers’ AGNETA surely qualifies!
Rowdy
59 ft Herreshoff New York 40 Bermudan Cutter 1916 As a ‘Fighting Forty’ ROWDY has dominated her class in classic regattas. Meanwhile as the cruiser for which the class was principally designed, her sister RUGOSA flew the flag in 2001 to voyage some
€ 1,300,000 Lying France It is probably not surprising with his lust for beautiful things that Gianni Agnelli was to become AGNETA’s owner. More recently her light displacement and awesome performance has brought her wins in the Vintage classes of Mediterranean Classic regattas. AGNETA is offered in impressive condition and absolutely ready to classic race or cruise in comfort.
€ 1,150,000 Lying France 26,000 miles to the Americas Cup Jubilee. Authentic and her condition hard to fault ROWDY today personifies the total versatility of this design – one of very few as capable from any era.
33 High Street, Poole BH15 1AB, England. Tel: + 44 1202 330077 email: info@sandemanyachtcompany.co.uk www.sandemanyachtcompany.co.uk
CORY SILKEN
FOReWORD
Clockwork classics
ANGELO BONATI, CEO OFFICINE PANERAI
Just as the wind fills sails with power and life, enthusiasm drives the passionate and committed. For eight years, Officine Panerai has been helping to sustain and promote the extraordinary world of vintage sailing through its involvement with the Panerai Classic Yachts Challenge. Each season brings much that is new as well as offering us the opportunity to explore a unique world, thanks to the fascinating stories that each one of these beautiful craft has etched in her wood. For the last three years, the Panerai British Classic Week has been one of the high points of our racing calendar. In July, it takes us all the way to the legendary Cowes, on the Isle of Wight, to celebrate a piece of maritime history with a large throng of likeminded sailing protagonists and enthusiasts. Significantly, Officine Panerai’s Eilean, the bermudan ketch penned by design wizard William Fife III and built by Fife of Fairlie in 1936, will be making her first visit to Cowes this year. This year, in fact, is a very important year symbolically for Eilean, and not merely because of her presence at Cowes. In April, she also made her first return voyage to Antigua, where she’d spent much of her life, and where I discovered her in an advanced state of dilapidation in 2006. Five years and
endless hours of meticulous restoration later, Eilean sailed back across the Atlantic Ocean, powered only by the wind and the strong ocean currents. Throughout the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta, her return was celebrated with great joy by all that knew her before her decline. Seeing the huge effort that went into Eilean’s faithful restoration so warmly appreciated was incredibly rewarding, as was watching her sail the turquoise waters of the Caribbean once again. Different but equally beautiful turquoise waters, this time in Barbados, await all those courageous folk embarking on what I personally feel is the unmissable challenge of 2012, as well as the big addition to Panerai’s clasic sailing season: the Panerai Transat Classique. On 2 December, dozens of legendary classic sailing yachts will leave Cascais in Portugal, home to the exclusive Clube Naval de Cascais, to race their way across the Atlantic to Barbados. An event held only every four years, the Panerai Transat Classique is a truly extraordinary race that unites the beauty of the great ladies of the sea with the valour of man as he challenges the power of the ocean. What better way to end a season that, Classic Boat readers will not be surprised to learn, looks set to be superbly rich and rewarding. CLASSIC SUPERYACHT SUMMER 2012
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CLASSIC ComebACk Wooden boats are no longer niche. Steffan Meyric Hughes looks at the resurgent scene
CARIbbEAN
8
FIFES oN ThE ClydE The yachts of William Fife III, third in a line of Scottish naval architects and boatbuilders, today represent the apex of classic yacht desirability. Every five years, they gather on the Clyde Estuary near their ‘birthplace’ to celebrate. This photo is of The Lady Anne, a 75ft (22.9m) cutter built in 1912. CLASSIC SUPERYACHT SUMMER 2012
MARC TURNER
PREVIOUS SPREAD JAMES ROBINSON TAYLOR, PANERAI
The Caribbean regattas attract the world’s largest and fastest yachts in the spirit of tradition class. The islands of St Barths, St Martin and Antigua are increasingly host to this growing, largely American, scene where yachts cost tens of millions and are often well over 100ft (30m), like This is Us, the 125ft (38m) black schooner in this photo, taken at the St Barths Bucket in March.
Cory SILKEN
CLASSIC YACHT SCENE
J-CLASS RACING
TIM WrIGHT
No class has grown like the J-Class over the last five years. As well as the three Charles Nicholson originals dating from their heyday in the 1930s (Endeavour, Velsheda and Shamrock V), there are now five new boats in build or sailing. A record turnout of five is expected to race in the English Channel, at Falmouth and Cowes, this summer. The photo above shows Velsheda and Hanuman racing at the St Barths Bucket earlier this year.
B
Classic yacht racing in Australia and New Zealand is healthy, well-established and growing. Couta workboats regularly sail alongside yachts at Aussie regattas. New Zealand’s scene is centred around Auckland on the North Isle, where there has been a great boom in restorations of yachts drawn by ‘New Zealand’s Fife’, Arch Logan. Here, Thelma (Arch Logan, 1898, 76ft/23.2m) chases Prize (Chas Bailey, 1923, 43ft/13.1m).
Cb arCHIvES
ANTIPODES
y the end of the 1960s, modernity was the watchword of the developed world. Boats were increasingly built in a new material called glass-reinforced plastic, the moon had been conquered, new cityscapes meant people could live communally and cheerfully in high-rise blocks and computers would one day make work a thing of the past. Of course, history has shown just how rapidly some of those bold hopes faded. The dreams created a world we quickly began to see as a throw-away society of rampant consumerism, and plastic, more than any other substance, became its symbol. Suddenly, modernity seemed rather reactionary. CLASSIC SUPERYACHT SUMMER 2012
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CLASSIC YACHT SCENE
IN THE MED
MARK LLoyd PANERAI
The Mediterranean is, to coin a pun, the centre of the classic yacht racing world, with an annual calendar of events in the old port towns that attract large fleets of classics great and small. The watchwords are authenticity, respect and varnish, varnish, varnish. The warm summer nights are alive with moored yachts, passers-by and crews partying the night away. Much of the racing is under the rules of the venerable CIM (Comité International de la Méditerranée), founded in 1926. And be warned – not any old boat can join in. The photo shows the schooner Sunshine built in 2003 of Dutch steel in Burma, but to the original 1900 design by Fife III, and with a rosewood and teak interior. She measures 101ft (31m).
PANERAI GB CLASSIC The latest addition to the Panerai season, this British Classic Yacht Club event from 7 to 14 July is one of the premier outings for classic yachts in British waters. Taking place off Cowes, where it all began, there were 70 entries in 2011, and high hopes of more this year. On the up-and-up with Panerai behind it.
Yachting caps on the quayside at Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez, probably the greatest regatta of them all and the one that ends the northern hemisphere season. Then it’s on to the Caribbean for many... Classic yacht regattas are still very much on the up, despite the economic turmoil. We don’t know how big this thing is going to go!
It’s not such a great surprise, then, that the first event for classic wooden yachts emerged as early as 1973, with the Opera House Regatta on Nantucket Island. It was followed soon after by the launch of WoodenBoat magazine, which hosted the first WoodenBoat Festival at Port Townsend near Seattle in 1977. Four years later, a bar wager in the resort town of St Tropez in southern France prompted a race between new and old: a Swan 44 and a 12-Metre yacht. The 12-M won. The race became known as the Nioulargue, and it is now called Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez. A comprehensive circuit of classic yacht regattas soon sprang up on the shores of the western Mediterranean, prompting huge restorations costing 10
CLASSIC SUPERYACHT SUMMER 2012
NIGEL PERT
NIGEL PERT
ORGANISERS
many millions of pounds – in 1987, the re-launch of the Fife III-designed schooner Altair set the benchmark for what an authentic restoration ought to be, and for the next two decades, it seemed that hardly a month passed without the restoration of one of the great yachts from yachting’s glamorous past. Then, in the August of 2001, there was a watershed moment, not in the centre of the classic yachting world, the blue seas of the western Mediterranean, but on the Solent, off England’s South Coast. The America’s Cup Jubilee, held off Cowes to commemorate 150 years since the first America’s Cup was held there, attracted a fleet of classics the likes of which had never been seen before and has never been seen since. The fleet of 208
PENDENNIS CUP A biennial regatta held by the superyacht builder Pendennis, near Falmouth in Cornwall, this event aims to attract big boats. 2012 will mark the third iteration of the event, and a fleet of 14 yachts is slated to attend, made up of vintage classics, modern spirit of tradition yachts and a couple of modern yachts. This photo shows the Fife III Mariquita (right) and, in her black livery, the Herreshoff schooner Mariette.
CLASSIC SUPERYACHT SUMMER 2012
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CLASSIC YACHT SCENE
PARTY TIME This new 185ft (56m) three-masted schooner is a replica of a legend: the schooner Atlantic, raced across the Atlantic in 1905 by skipper Charlie Barr and crew, to set a speed record (just over 12 days) that would last 75 years. She’s pictured here hosting crews during the 2011 Trophée Bailli de Suffren offshore race for classics. NIGEL PERT
15-METREs caRLo boRLENGhI
With the recent re-launch of Hispania (far left), these four form a quartet of yachts built in the same era and to drawings by the same designer (Wm Fife III), to race under the same rule – the International Rule, often known as the ‘Metre Rule’. They are: Mariska (1908), Tuiga and Hispania (1909), and The Lady Anne (1912), all around 75ft (22.9m).
included seemingly every significant large classic yacht there was. In those few sunny days, pockets of interest from all around the world met in one place, and the effect on the scene was galvanising. Not long after it, big-name sponsorship entered classic yacht racing, first with the fashion house Prada then, in 2005, with the Italian watchmaker Panerai. Similar things were happening in New Zealand, Australia, Scandinavia, Britain and Canada, and by 2006, the annual events guide in Classic Boat magazine began listing in excess of 300 regattas. Today, the scene continues to grow, most notably in Scandinavia, where the new Baltic Series set in the historic ports of Finland, Sweden and Russia, has been growing at 12
CLASSIC SUPERYACHT SUMMER 2012
a phenomenal rate since 2010. The scene throughout the northern hemisphere continues to expand every year. Today, classic yacht racing is spreading beyond Europe, America and the Caribbean to South America – Brazil’s first classic regatta started in 2011 and Argentina has had a small scene established for longer. GRP classics are gaining popularity in America, as are newly-built spirit of tradition yachts – modern boats with looks that hark back to a bygone era (usually the 1930s). Large-scale restorations are now giving way to large replicas; in recent years, the schooners Atlantic, Westward, Elena and Germania have all risen from the pages of yachting history. But, as with rebuilds large and small, regattas continue to be the driving force.
The M52. Redefining Elegance.
Morris M-Series
Bass Harbor Office 53 Granville Road Bass Harbor, ME 04653 USA
www.morrisyachts.com +1 207-244-5509 sales1@morrisyachts.com
Newport Office Newport Shipyard, 1 Washington Street Newport, RI 02840 USA
CLASSIC YACHT SCENE
2012 MED SEASON For more details of classic yacht regattas and passage races in the Mediterranean, see the new CIM website: www.cimclassicyachts.org
14-17 JuNE
argentario sailing Week (italy)
PaNERaI
14-17 JuNE
10-12 auguST
trofeo illes balears (sPain) 13-19 auguST
trofeo CondÉ almirante (sPain) 26 auguST – 2 SEPTEMbER
24-30 JuNE
28-31 auguST
CorsiCa ClassiC (franCe)
semana nÁutiCa ClÁsiCa del mar menor (sPain)
CoPa del rey (sPain)
27 JuNE – 1 July
vele d’ePoCa di imPeria (italy)
23 JuNE – 4 July
troPhÉe bailli de suffren (med) 6-8 July
raduno di gaeta (italy) 11-14 July
PaNERaI
regata CoPa gitana (sPain)
les voiles du vieux Port (franCe)
vele d’ePoCa a naPoli (italy)
regata Puig (sPain) Top: Moored in St Tropez Above: Racing at Antibes
12-15 July
5-9 SEPTEMbER
19-22 SEPTEMbER
rÉgates de niCe (franCe) 24-29 SEPTEMbER
rÉgates royales Cannes (franCe) 29 SEPTEMbER– 7 OCTObER
les voiles de saint-troPez (franCe) 5-7 OCTObER
vele storiChe (italy)
REST OF THE WORLD 7–14 July
Panerai ClassiC Week Third time that the watch brand has sponsored this great event. Tel: +44 (0)1983 245100 www.britishclassicyachtclub.org
9-24 July
olymPiC Centenary, sWeden Series of regattas to commemorate the 1912 Olympics. www.cbm2012.eu
2-5 auguST
risor festival, norWay One of the biggest and best. Tel: +47 9138 7355, www.trebatfestivalen.no
9-12 auguST
7-9 SEPTEMbER
Racing in the 6-Metre, 8-Metre and 12-Metre classes in Flensburg. Tel: +49 (0)461 3180 3060 www.classics.robbeberking.de
Washington, another of the original regattas for classic yachts, attracting more than 300 craft. Tel: +1 (360) 385 3628 www.woodenboat.org
robbe & berking sterling CuP, germany
19 auguST
Port toWnsend Wooden boat festival, usa
oPera house CuP regatta, usa
9 OCTObER
Nantucket, Mass. The oldest yacht regatta in the world? This year sees its 40th anniversary, again, sponsored by Panerai. Tel: +1 508 325 7757 www.operahousecup.org
43rd year of this big regatta in Trieste with modern, traditional and super yachts racing round the cans. Tel: +39 040 411 664 www.barcolana.it
barColana ClassiC, italy
LOOKING AHEAD TO 2013 When the northern hemisphere action ends, it all starts in the Antipodes. Check www.classicyacht.org.nz for New Zealand events and www.classic-yacht.asn.au for Australia. Next up are the Caribbean events in April/May, with Antigua as their flagship. Hopes are high for the return of the quinquennial ‘Fifes on the Clyde’ regatta in Scotland, too. All will be revealed in April’s Classic Boat, which lists more than 300 events in Britain and around the world. 14
CLASSIC SUPERYACHT SUMMER 2012
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RetuRn to AntiguA Eilean sails again in Caribbean waters, helmed by Simon Le Bon, whose Duran Duran video made her famous. By Dan Houston
Yoichi Yabe
Yoichi Yabe
EILEAN
PReVioUS SPReaD coRY SiLKeN
Top: Former owner John Shearer and Angelo Bonati deep in discussion. Above: English Harbour, Antigua
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S
imon Le Bon has to concentrate. He’s not just the lead singer of the band Duran Duran today; he’s also yacht racing. More than that, he’s helming the 73ft (22.3m) classic wooden boat that the band used to make their video for Rio in 1982, almost exactly 30 years ago, in exactly the same waters – south of Antigua, West Indies. With 22 of us on deck and a good 15 knot breeze, there is plenty going on. Simon is getting constant feedback about Eilean’s performance, as well as the proximity of other yachts around us – some of which he can’t see because of the blind spots behind the sails. There are nearly 60 of them, with the usual mix of designs, including modern classics, and we’re racing at the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta, 19-24 April, an event which, like CB, has celebrated its 25th birthday this year. Eilean is almost as famous as Duran Duran here. CB has covered the restoration of the 1936 Wm Fife ketch, including her Transatlantic voyage back to the West Indies (CB286). She’s not featured in this supplement because she is a superyacht, but because she has a superlative pedigree as a classic. She was run from 1974, into the late 1980s
CLASSIC SUPERYACHT SUMMER 2012
as a local charter yacht by a piratical-looking Frenchman (of English parents) called John Shearer. Then she was crashed into by a freighter while in Malaga harbour in a gale, and although she’d lost her mizzen and had damage to her bulwarks, John was able to sail her back to Antigua for repairs. She went into the mangroves opposite the pretty boutiques and rum shops of English Harbour and, for the best part of two decades, deteriorated in the unforgiving sun. She became a bit of a cause célèbre among the passing yachtsmen, one of whom, William Shawcross, had sailed Eilean in his youth. His father, the celebrated barrister of the Nuremberg trials and Labour MP, Sir Hartley Shawcross, had bought her in 1964, and cruised her in the Balearics. William remembers seeing the ketch again in the 1990s, in Antigua: “I recognised her beautiful lines and took a dinghy across the harbour to see her, remembering the carefree days of youth. I stood on her filthy decks, horrified at the state into which she had fallen. Her interior had been taken out and I thought how wonderful if I could buy her and bring her back to her former glory. But I left her rotting under the trees…” It was to be a few years more, in 2006, when another sailor, a certain Angelo Bonati, also saw Eilean and this
CORY SILKEN
Above: Eilean under a press of canvas Right: Bending on the sails Below right: Chef Stef and Dan Ventner on the foredeck
CORY SILKEN
time persuaded Shearer to sell the boat. Bonati is the boss of the luxury watchmaker Panerai, which, in 2005, had begun sponsoring classic yacht regattas, including in Antigua. He took Eilean back to Italy, where a team of craftsmen restored her over three years. She had new steel ring frames, but they kept 70% of her teak planks; her original masts had been largely eaten by termites, so new spruce masts were made in Holland. Her teak deck and interior are all new, as well, but much of her deck furniture and fittings were refurbished. Eilean was relaunched at La Spezia in 2009 and sailed again in 2010. It was always Bonati’s dream to return her to Antigua. Bringing Duran Duran out for the 30th anniversary of the Rio video was the icing on the cake. For most of the racing, though, Simon Le Bon has been helming and Bonati has been discussing with sailmakers how to get the best out of the 76 year-old ketch. She’s racing for the first time in decades and some tweaking of the rig and sails will be needed. To be fair, she was never built to win races, but with her large press of canvas, she can be very exciting to sail. And there’s plenty of excitement when someone like Simon Le Bon is on the helm; among sailors, he is as well known for campaigning his yacht Drum in the
CLASSIC SUPERYACHT SUMMER 2012
19
Yoichi Yabe
DaN hoUSToN
TiM WRiGhT
EILEAN
Top: John Shearer helms his beloved Eilean off Antigua again Above: Nick Rhodes and Simon Le Bon, of Duran Duran with Sig Bonati and the crew of Lone Fox at the prizegiving Above right: John Shearer, Don Street and Simon Le Bon
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1985 Fastnet race, where she lost her keel – Le Bon and crew were trapped underwater for 40 minutes. He went on to campaign the same boat in the 1985/86 Whitbread Round the World Race. So the atmosphere on Eilean is concentrated. No-one, for instance, is talking about making that video, which helped propel Duran Duran to worldwide success. After the race, Simon lets on that he has not raced at a classic yacht event before. But he now keeps a 29ft (8.8m) motor boat, a classic Riva Aquarama, for use on the Italian lakes. “I don’t get to use her as much as I should, but we take the boat to Ibiza most summers – she’ll do 50 knots. “I first got into sailing when I was 11. A local vicar (Simon was in a church choir) took a group of us sailing on the Norfolk Broads – it must have been 1970, because Lola by the Kinks was at the top of the charts. He had a Mirror dinghy which we towed behind a bigger boat, and I took this Mirror out and got the bug. I joined Ruislip Sailing Club, sailing Graduates. Crewing was easy, but when I started helming, I realised there was a lot more to it than that; in sailing it’s the person who makes the least number of errors who wins.”
CLASSIC SUPERYACHT SUMMER 2012
Simon, who was joined by fellow band members Nick Rhodes and Roger Taylor for the last two days and prize giving at the regatta, remembers going to Antigua with Duran Duran to make two videos – Rio and (Waiting for the) Nightboat. “Eilean was the biggest boat any of us had been on – 73ft was a lot of boat at that time. We hired her for a week, but we did the filming in two days. Antigua was a fantastic place and I think the experience got me back into sailing. It certainly led to buying the Maxi yacht Drum. “It’s amazing seeing and sailing Eilean again. She was an important boat for us and we’d heard she was being restored. I think she looks in even better condition now, but she has those original fittings like her wheel and compass binnacle, and her deckhouses, where you can see dents and scrapes under the new varnish – stuff like that makes her the same boat that was built by the Fairlie craftsmen back in the 1930s.” In May, Eilean was shipped to the UK and is due to take part in the Panerai-sponsored BCYC regatta at Cowes in July. From there she will make her way back to the Mediterranean.
IMPERIAL JAPANESE NAVY BINOCULARS
2 8 E A S T 7 2 N D S T R E E T AT M A D I S O N AV E N U E N E W Y O R K N Y 1 0 0 2 1 (212) 772 2664 info@nicholasbrawer.com www.nicholasbrawer.com
Angelo BonAti
eileAn’s sAviour When he first set eyes on Eilean in 2006, Angelo Bonati was in Antigua. It was love at first sight, as he explains to Dan Houston
S
o who is Angelo Bonati? A lot of us sailing at classic regattas over the last seven years have probably heard his name; we may even have met him, at one of the cool hospitality tents set up by luxury watchmaker Panerai – which has made a name for itself as a specialist sponsor of classic yacht regattas... and which he runs. Signor Bonati, as colleagues call him, is a businessman specialising in luxury brands. He took over as CEO of Panerai in 2000 and, in 10 years, took the company from relative obscurity to being one of the world’s leading luxury watchmakers. Panerai, founded in 1860, had limited itself to making divers’ watches for the Italian Navy – it invented luminous hands and numbers – and producing specialist instruments. Up until 1993, when the Navy’s needs changed and Panerai was forced to branch out, it had made just 300 or 400 pieces. These original watches command eye-watering sums on the watch auction market today. Panerai watches are not lightweight – the make is synonymous with chunky timepieces that help your arm to swing like a pendulum. And they are not cheap: the entry-level costs more than £2,500. But as the 1990s progressed, the brand acquired a huge cachet, especially with actors like Sylvester Stallone, who ordered a special run called Slytech to give to his friends. In 1997, it was taken over by the luxury house Richemont, which lists Cartier and Mont Blanc pens among its brands. And Sig Bonati was brought in as international sales and marketing manager. Bonati is a sailor – he keeps a Hallberg-Rassy yacht in Liguria, so in 2005, five years after becoming CEO, it seemed a natural step to start sponsoring the burgeoning number of classic yacht regattas. Panerai now supports a number of these events in the Mediterranean, Caribbean, American East Coast and, since 2010, at Cowes in the UK. The watchmaker had begun sponsorship of the well-regarded Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta in 2005, but it was at the 2006 event that Bonati first saw Eilean, looking forlorn in the mangroves of English Harbour. “She appeared really damaged by neglect and time, and
she was half covered in rust, but she was still afloat. She is an important piece of history, and I saw an affinity between her design and the Panerai brand – which is also about good design and the sea. “I looked over her with her former owner (John Shearer) and I just fell in love with the boat.” He returned home and hatched a plan to buy Eilean for restoration: “I researched our Italian boatyards to find one that could faithfully restore a classic yacht, and I found Del Carlo in Viareggio. John Shearer saw the opportunity of Eilean being restored back to her splendid beauty and so he sold her to us and she was taken to Italy for restoration. I spent every weekend crossing Italy from my office in Milan to the Viareggio yard during the three years’ work; we became a team!”
Emotional rEturn Eilean was relaunched to much fanfare (and hundreds of international press) in La Spezia in late 2009. For Sig Bonati, getting the Fife afloat again brought out some strong emotions. “I had a flashback, to that special moment when I found her, and every single further moment dedicated to her restoration. Sailing her for the first time was simply a beautiful experience, and the craftsmanship that had been put back into the boat meant she was like a work of art that had been brought back to life. It was at that moment that I realised the investment had been worth it.” The yacht appeared at the Panerai-sponsored 2010 regattas, though she was not yet racing. However, there was always a desire to bring her back to Antigua, where she is so well known, and so she was sailed to the Caribbean in February (see CB286). On the delivery trip, which I was lucky enough to be part of, we kept in daily touch with Bonati via texts from our satellite phone. At one point we diverted to Cape Verde (because of a gas leak) and we almost anticipated him joining us there; he was especially interested in our fishing, as he is in all aspects of the yacht; at Antigua he was deep in conversation with a sailmaker about improving her performance. “Arriving in Antigua was a truly emotional moment for me,” says Bonati. “She is so well known there. All the boats starting blowing hooters and horns and I do confess I had a tear in my eye.”
YOichi Yabe
“Sailing her for the first time was simply a beautiful experience”
Left: Angelo Bonati onboard the restored ketch Eilean
CLASSIC SUPERYACHT SUMMER 2012
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edwardian splendour It’s full ahead for Cangarda, the world’s largest steam yacht. Words and pictures by Kathy Mansfield
CANGARDA
T
he turn of the last century in America was a time of opulence. It was also the turn of a great economic cycle, the resurgence from the recession caused by the railroad bond bubble that burst in 1873. New ideas were emerging and fortunes being made. And it was not until 1913 that America introduced a proper income tax, so the wealthy were doing very well indeed. In this febrile atmosphere, magnificent homes were built and yachting became the favoured sport. The boats of the wealthy raced in Long Island Sound, and steam yachts were the ultimate in what we now would call superyacht design. And one of the finest of them all, the sumptuous 126ft (38.4m) steam yacht Cangarda, was launched in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1901. At the time, she was one of many, but today Cangarda is the only American-built steam yacht in existence and one of only three steam yachts in the world. She is firmly in the tradition of Edwardian splendour, with her clipper bow, trailboards picked out in intricate gold leaf, her low-slung sheer, raked masts and stack, and the burnished mahogany superstructure. White canvas awnings stretched on frames over the aft deck, to protect the elegantly dressed owner and his friends from coal dust when at full stretch. During the day, passengers could also sit in the graceful smoking room just for’ard of the aft deck, its
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panelling and windows protecting them from the breeze, with a curved mahogany staircase leading below to the four double staterooms and two guest bathrooms. Both the owner’s stateroom and a larger VIP stateroom were lit by mahogany skylights fitted with Tiffany glass. In the evening, owner and guests would go for’ard to the deck-level dining room that seated up to 10, gleaming with a varnished Cuban mahogany sideboard plus panelling, silver candlesticks and serving dishes, leather-upholstered dining chairs, and the large, bevelled glass windows framing the view of harbour and coast. Above the dining room is the ship’s wheel and binnacle; below decks for’ard are quarters for the Captain, eight crew and a galley, and behind that, the large engine-room. With a beam of just 17ft (5.2m) and a 7ft (2.1m) draught, Cangarda is an elegantly classic shape with an easily-driven hull.
changing hands She was built in less than five months at the Pusey & Jones Boatyard in Wilmington, Delaware, which had launched the Edward Burgess-designed America’s Cup defender Volunteer in 1887. Her first owner was Charles Canfield from Michigan, who had made his money in the lumber trade. He named the boat using his own name and that of his wife, Belle Gardner. They sold her in 1903 to George Fulford of Brockfield, Ontario. He was an MP in Canada when he
wasn’t selling “pink pills for pale people”, a dubious concoction containing iron. He owned a grand 20,000sqft (1,850m2) mansion, now a museum, on the banks of the St Lawrence River in the Thousand Islands area, a perfect place to moor a magnificent steam yacht. George died in 1905, the first Canadian to be killed in a car accident, but his family kept and used the boat, now named Magedoma, using syllables from the names of his wife and children. For 20 years they cruised the Thousand Islands, and on 5 August 1927, hosted a memorable dinner cruise for the Prince of Wales, later Duke of Kent, the British Prime Minister, Sir Stanley Baldwin, and the Canadian PM, William Lyon Mackenzie King. It is said that guests of summer hotels along their route cheered the yacht as she steamed past with royal colours flying. Once the Second World War erupted, the Fulford family donated Magedoma to the Royal Canadian Navy for training cadets. She was returned in poor condition, and the family sold her to Cameron Peck, who added her to his collection of 12 steam yachts and 168 cars. She was being repaired and converted from coal to oil in 1954 when Peck concluded he was dying of cancer. He sold all his possessions and moved to Arizona – where he lived another 30 years. Frederic Burtis Smith bought her, returned her name to the original, and lived aboard for 30 years in Rochester, upstate New York. It was probably thanks to
Above and left: The mahogany dining room seats 10 in splendour Right: Classic counter stern
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his efforts that Cangarda did not sink into oblivion like so many fine old boats that had no place in the new world of middle-class leisure and glassfibre. In the 1980s, an attempt was made to restore her by Richard Reedley, and all interior fittings, interior and deckhouses, engines and equipment were removed for storage near Boston, Massachusetts. The John W Sullivan triple-expansion steam engine went for reconditioning to the Kew Bridge Steam Museum in London, and the hull was partly re-plated. Unfortunately, Reedley became ill, money ran out, and in 1999, the hull sank in Boston Harbour. But Cangarda came to the notice of Elizabeth Meyer, the restorer of the J-Class Endeavour, who had her raised and moved to Fairhaven, Massachusetts, to join the safely-stored deckhouses and interior. If the right person came along, here was a stunning, if rather overwhelming, restoration project. Five years later, in 2004, that person proved to be venture capitalist Bob McNeil, though he suggests that the boat found him rather than the other way round. From San Francisco, Bob was an ocean racing enthusiast, and had already restored and raced a Herreshoff P-Boat, Joyant, using the exacting work of Jeff Rutherford in Richmond, California.
painstaking restoration Bob saw the original hull, deckhouses and other parts of Cangarda while attending the 2002 Herreshoff Rendezvous. The idea of restoring the last of America’s Edwardian-era steam yachts became a dream that he figured could become reality. A deal was struck with Elizabeth Meyer, the original Pusey & Jones plans were obtained, and hundred of photographs of the boat were scanned in order to replicate details as completely as possible. The plan was to move the boat out west for restoration at Rutherford’s Boatshop, then cruise the west and east coasts and take her on a trip to Europe. At over 60 tonnes and steam-powered, the vessel is subject to US Coast Guard regulations. The hull, therefore, needed to be rebuilt to American Bureau of Shipping standards, with two layers of plywood fitted below a teak deck, and various health and safety measures introduced. The hull had, in any case, rusted
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through, and was replaced with welded plates, rather than the original riveted construction. In order to cruise meaningful distances, the original 1911 Almy coal-fired boiler was replaced with an oil-fired system, automated with electronic controls as well as manual. Modern navigation and communication equipment was installed, though carefully, so as to be concealed. Hydraulic steering was also fitted, a couple of diesel generators tucked in where the coal bins used to be, and the galley cooker converted to gas. Other than this limited modernisation, the boat is as original as possible. When the Fulford grandchildren came aboard at Brockville, Ontario, in 2011, they saw the boat of 1905. So much had survived – the Cuban mahogany deckhouses, the fo’c’s’le, bulkheads, skylights, staircase, handrails, furniture, fixtures, portholes, anchor, windlass – even the boarding ladder. The four staterooms were preserved, though not the crew quarters and galley. It is a rare restoration that is able to incorporate so much that is in such good condition. With its original riveted bulkhead, the enormous engine-room behind the galley is much as it was with its seven engines – the Sullivan triple-expansion main steam engine with its bright polished brass engine top and valve covers; two feed pumps, one a backup, providing water to the boiler; the steam circulating pump driving seawater through the condenser; an engine to pump
Above: Elegant aft deck in the evening sun Below: Brightly polished brass engine top
CANGARDA
water out of the condenser and into the air pump where any oil is filtered out before returning the water to the boiler. The last two engines power a bilge pump and a windlass. The original valves and sight gauges, all bright polished brass, are still used, and the electric panel and steam pressure sensors are reinstalled along with the original telegraph bell. It’s a magnificent sight in itself.
extensive cruising Cangarda was relaunched in 2009 – dramatically, almost capsizing as she came down the slipway – and since then has been very actively used. Her first trip was from San Francisco to Los Angeles, through 9ft (2.7m) beam seas, when air got into the fuel oil lines off the coast of Monterey. The experienced crew switched to manual operation, making it possible to relight the engines. I asked Bob about that trip: “The great significance was Cangarda’s seaworthiness as she lay in the wave troughs in the high seas and winds that built to 35 knots-plus that afternoon. When back under way, she showed a seaworthy delight as she surfed down the late afternoon swells.” After a brief stay in Los Angeles and San Diego, Cangarda steamed on down to Mexico, where she was transported by ship to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. From there she steamed up the east coast to Isleboro, Maine, again on her own bottom. The next year, she voyaged
down to New York City, then up the Erie Canal to Canada and Brockville on the St Lawrence Seaway, to make a nostalgic return to Fulford Place, to the delight of the local inhabitants. “It is nice and quiet sailing on a steam vessel,” says Bob. “None of the roar of an internal combustion engine, just like sailing. Though, also just like sailing, one needs to pay attention to this beautiful lady. She deserves the respect of a good seagoing boat.” Climbing Cangarda’s mahogany boarding ladder for the first time during last year’s Camden and Eggemoggin Reach Races in Penobscot Bay, Maine, I was struck by her other-worldliness. Relaxing in deckchairs under the white awnings of the afterdeck and retreating to the smoking room and, later, the magnificent dining room, was a voyage back in time. Every feature and detail spoke of a different era. There were differences, of course: our clothes were less cumbersome and more comfortable, and Bob himself cooked dinner – and had also designed the launch. But the hiss of steam the next morning was totally authentic, the pistons working down in the engineroom totally original, the surge of power as we started through the harbour, surely the finest boat there, a moment to savour. There were ghosts here: Charles Canfield, George Fulford and his family, and Nat Herreshoff, whose grandson Halsey was aboard, acting as navigator on Joyant.
Above left: Cangarda’s shady aft deck Above top: Owner Bob McNeil firing the cannon Above bottom: Sunset, riding at anchor
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Spirit of tradition A shortage of Big Class yachts for restoration means a new breed of thoroughly modern classic is rising. Peter Willis reports
SPIRIT OF TRADITION
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Above and left: Hetarios was launched in May 2011 Right: Morris Yachts’ M80 as it could look
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hoever came up with the ‘spirit of tradition’ tagline was a genius. It expresses perfectly the value placed on the classic lines of Fife, Mylne and their peers, and the aspiration to emulate their grace and elegance, without being constrained to follow their views on hull form. It provides naval architects with glorious role models and inspiration while leaving them free to bring to the party more modern thinking on the dynamics of sailing. The movement is well placed to fill the gap in supply as the pool of restorable Big Class centenarians dries up. It also enables owners to specify their own requirements, and express their own tastes in terms of interior
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furnishings, as well as providing space for all the accoutrements of modern living that the great designers had never heard of, much less considered incorporating.
dutch masters Interestingly though, even tradition is not immune to the vagaries of fashion, and there is currently a distinct move towards more of a workboat look at the bow, with a widespread trend for plumb stems. Both Gerard Dijkstra and Andre Hoek have designed recentlylaunched boats in this style. Hetarios, the 220ft (67.1m) Dykstra ketch (formerly known as Panamax) launched by Baltic Yachts last year, combines the plumb bow “of a Bristol Pilot Cutter” with a long bowsprit, a graceful sheerline and a
Modern Morris Yachts In Maine, USA, Morris Yachts reports it is currently building its second Sparkman & Stephens–designed M52. Described as a classically-styled cruising yacht it is currently the largest built vessel in the company’s repertoire, having evolved from the daysailer M36, launched eight years ago and with numbers sold approaching 70, and the M42, a weekender with a large daysailing cockpit. Sales of the M42 are now in their mid-20s, with exports to Holland and Peru. Design drawings for an M65 and an M80, again by S&S, are already available for those seeking greater luxury or longer-distance cruising.
Above: Morris Yachts’ luxury M52 under way
Left: Hoek’s joint project with Wally Yachts to produce a design based upon the 1893 America’s Cup contender Pilgrim
traditional long overhang. Kamaxitha, 160ft 8in (49m), is another Dykstra design from the Royal Huisman yard, which again references Pilot Cutters, as well as Brixham Trawlers. Andre Hoek has a 151ft (46m) ‘Pilot Classic Ketch’ in build, again with Royal Huisman, as well as a 192ft (58.5m) design on the drawing board. Hoek has also entered into a joint project with Wally Yachts to produce a design based upon the 1893 America’s Cup contender Pilgrim, which had a fin keel, spade rudder – and even a bow rudder. The project arose out of a discussion between Andre Hoek and Wally’s Luca Bassani about what the likes of Fife and Herreshoff would have come up with if they had been designing yachts today. There are lines for 132ft (40m), 164ft (50m) and 197ft (60m) versions.
Kamaxitha awaiting spars before her launch in 2011
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SPIRIT OF TRADITION
Left: The Mylnedesigned PF36 will be capable of circumnavigation
Above: The new wooden J from Spirit Yachts is called Cheveyo
All of these designs tend to include deckhouses, a feature introduced last year by Spirit Yachts on the 50DH and 57DH. A 65ft (19.8m) version is in build, and there are lines for a 110ft (33.5m) model. “We designed them as an alternative to classic Spirit yachts for people who want to go further afield in slightly more inclement circumstances,” says MD Sean McMillan.
Mylne designs Another nascent trend among superyachts, again with a workboat slant, and aimed at the intrepid owner, is the ‘expedition’ boat. Mylne & Co is about to appoint a builder for its PF36 Path Finder, a rugged motoryacht capable of circumnavigation, with a retro feel and a pre-war hull shape designed for fuel economy. In fact, 34
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though it draws on the Mylne tradition, the design is by David Gray, present owner of Mylne & Co, and Albert Montserrat, head of design.
J-class renaissance 1930s J-Class design seems more real deal than ‘spirit’ but in spite of their long overhangs and their long deep raked keels, their carbon rigs and modern deck fittings keep them classed as SOT. Hoek’s Atlantis – based on an unbuilt Frank C Paine design with a maximum waterline – is due for launch by Holland Jachtbouw this year, while another unbuilt design, Tore Holm’s Svea, is about to be started at Bloemsma’s specialist aluminium yard. Meanwhile Spirit Yachts is gearing up to start its all-wood J, Cheveyo, in Ipswich.
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