Criollo, Head-turner

One of the boats that was turning heads at the europeans in sanremo was the beautifully presented Criollo with her perfectly varnish topsides and immaculate teak decks. sailed by Andreas Christiansen, michael kurtz and moritz Christiansen, they placed second in the evolution category, but would have won first prize in a beauty contest.

Designed by Warren Muir of Australia, and built in cold laminated wood by Hermann Egger of St. Aubin, Switzerland, in 1982, Criollo was one of three such built from an original design commissioned by JP Jenni. These were Z 132, Z 133 and Z 136. Z 136 was originally called Alain V and owned by Paul Ramelet, with Andreas Christiansen being their fourth owner. Owned by Andreas since 2007, the boat is absolute beauty following a major refit and remains a fast Evolution.

He first came across the boat in 2001.

“I was invited to helm this boat in 2001 and half an hour later we started the first race in Flensburg and at the first mark we were in first place ahead of Jochen Schümann, so I immediately got a very good feeling about this boat and was quite happy to have it.

“Then at the world championship we broke the backstay because the boat came from Lake Zurich and they were only fixed by rope and not for strong

winds. The good performance ended after two fifths, and in the end we placed 15th out of 40 boats.

“A couple of years later the owner had renovated the boat, put a carbon mast on it and new rudder, and it was for sale. Gunter Ahlers encouraged me to buy it. He is an expert in 5.5s and then he said I must buy it or the current owner will add an electric engine, so “you have to rescue it”. That started in 2007 and since then we are racing this boat whenever we can, but time is limited and we cannot race like everyone else, but we have enjoyed it.”

Criollo won the Evolution title at the worlds four times, in Torbole, Helsinki, Boltenhagen and Curacao.

His last big event was World Championship in Porto Santo Stefano in 2014, but he “normally competes in the Robbe & Berking Sterling Cup in Flensburg every year, where I was born, my home waters. But I also own a Dragon and a Nordic Folkboat, so I have too much choice.

“This boat was designed by Warren Muir and Ben Lexcen. It has a very sloped keel, and it is good in rough weather and waves and then it does very well. When we were in Curaçao, where there are always big waves and wind, we were always top five at the first mark, as long as we didn’t get too much water in the boat.”