Full Circle for Tara

The 1968 Bri on Chance Jr de igned T r , formerly Complex VI , ha re urned o he coun ry where he wa uil y Va or oy in Hel inki over half a cen ury ago. Af er recon ruc ion in I aly in 2012, Tara re urned o Finland in 2019.

In 1968 Dr. Britton Chance, winner of the Olympic gold in Helsinki in 1952, commissioned his son Britton Chance Jr. to design a new hull to be built by the Finnish shipyard Vator Oy AB.

The boat was built with a quite unique construction, as seen in the picture. All the laminated keel floors from rudder post to mast foot were integrated into the frames from gunwale to gunwale. Between those heavy frames were the thin bent frames. Also the boat is without a traditional bilge.

With the name of Complex VI and sail number US 78, this was the last wooden construction of the Helsinki shipyard. In 1970 the boat was acquired by Thomas Sprecher, a former

honorary president of the International Class Association, who renamed her Joker III, registered in Switzerland under the sail number SUI 104.

Some of the Britton Chance jr boats in 1968 were slow and unsuccessful in a breeze over 12 knots. In the 1968 US Olympic Trials in California, Complex VI finished 14th out of 17 boats, the worst of the new boats.

Following the fate of many other 5.5 Metres of the last period of the Olympic era, in 1973 the hull was modified by separating the rudder from the keel, which made the boat much more competitive. Sometime in the following years the boat was sold to France where it took the sail number F 41 and the name before Tara Fai, sailed by R. Branellec, and subsequently only Tara when it was owned by Thierry Calage. It was sailed from the French military port of Ile aux Moines, before it was abandoned on land.

In 2012 Tara was found by Maria Cristina Rapisardi, of the Italian 5.5 Class. She undertook the renovation of the hull and in 2013 Tara was brought to Italy, and carefully restored by the Ernesto Riva Shipyard. She was measured with the sail number ITA 78 to recall the US original.

In the following seasons they participated assiduously in all the national and international regattas obtaining excellent results including victories in the 2015 Royal Kaag Classic Cup and the World Championship Classic division held in Nynäshamn in Sweden.

In 2019, Tara came full circle and was returned to Finland, and sailed under the burgee of Lahden Purjehdusseura (Lahti Sailing Club), to the north of Helsinki.

Sailed by Roope Juhonen, Pekka Honkavaara and Janne Heikkilä, they won the 2019 Royal Kaag Classic Cup and the Quail Trophy in Helsinki in 2019, to continue the legacy of this classic 5.5 Metre.

Below, far right and top left: Tara sailing in Helsinki in 2019 • Left: Tara on Lake Como in 2018 • Below left and right: Complex VI in construction at the Vator’s boat yard in 1968