10 classic sailing yachts competing at Les Voiles de Saint Tropez

Les Voiles de Saint Tropez marks the previous occasion on the Mediterranean racing calendar and is heralded as a single of the most prestigious regattas in the globe. In its 24th calendar year, the regatta will take place across two months from September 24 to October 8, with the 1st welcoming all vintage yachts and modern day boats up to 18 metres in size, ahead of the Maxis get to the h2o in week two. As the competition gets underway, we a glance at the line-up of vintage schooners and wooden yawls receiving ready to race…

Shenandoah of Sark 

Duration: 55m
Builder: Townsend & Downey

Shenandoah of Sark has welcomed superior-profile aristocrats, Hollywood heavyweights and even royalty on board because her start in 1902, which tends to make her a person of the oldest superyachts continue to sailing now. She was created as a triple-masted picket schooner with a 13 metre bowsprit and she flies 2,646 sq. metres of sail. Even though she is a born racer, Shenandoah of Sark has savored a lot more leisurely cruising around the a long time, and has circumnavigated as considerably as Norway, Madagascar and the distant shores of South Ga. A crew of 12 operates her day-to-working day, but in race method she can be manned by as lots of as 30 crew. 

Elena

Duration: 55m
Builder: FNM

Elena is a replica of a 1910 sailing yacht by the same identify and her design and style pays tribute to the golden age of sail. The unique Elena was created by Nat Herreshoff to acquire the 1928 Transatlantic Race exactly where she sailed from New York to Santander in record time. She has been created with racing bones and her crew has collected plenty of silverware considering the fact that her start – Elena has gained Antigua Vintage Week, Les Voiles de St Tropez and Monaco Common 7 days. Elena is now for sale.

Cambria

Size: 41.15m
Builder: Fife

Cambria was commissioned by newspaper magnate Sir William Berry and shipped in 1928. Immediately after savoring fifty yrs on the racing circuit she inevitably fell off the radar. She was assumed to have been ruined, like many sailing yachts of her time, in the Second Planet War but was rediscovered in Australia in the 1990’s and restored to her former glory. Just after her rebuild, there was no doubt now that Cambria at the time yet again fulfils Fife’s basic requirement of a yacht – that she be both “fast and bonnie”.

Naema

Length:  39m
Builder: GraafShip

Developed in 2013, Naema is a beautiful case in point of a contemporary classic built by Olivier F. van Meer and centered on by an Alfred Mylne schooner named Panda that sank in 1983 just after a fireplace ravaged her to her waterline. Naema was crafted at Graafship in Turkey and underwent a sizeable refit in 2014 which observed her plumbing, engines and technical tools taken out and changed. She is a regatta frequent possessing competed at The Superyacht Cup, The Candy Retail outlet Cup and the Inaugural Capri Classica.

Iduna

Size: 33.52m
Builder: Feadship

Iduna is a rare case in point of a vintage Feadship sailing yacht. She was sent in 1939 and remained the major yacht to depart the Dutch shipyard right up until 1960. She has been refitted numerous occasions in the course of her lifestyle which includes one particular that observed her rig modified from a gaff ketch to a Bermudan ketch. Most notably, she underwent a full restoration in 1999 led by Dutchman Johan van den Bruele. He was determined to maintain as a lot of the original vessel as achievable, which includes the primary mast, skylights, deck saloon, compass, anchor winch and steering wheel. Any new components that have been necessary were being designed working with conventional boatbuilding methods to stay accurate to her first make. Iduna is presently for sale.

Puritan

Length:  38.4m
Builder: Elco

Puritan is a single of the most noteworthy schooners at any time constructed and her historical past is effectively-documented. Due to the fact her development in 1930, she has served active duty in the US Navy during World War Two, sailed in between Nova Scotia and Cape Horn and even acted as a research vessel for the American Museum of All-natural Heritage on which a new mollusc was found out and named Puritanina harribaueri in tribute. Puritan is a gaff-rigged schooner designed by famous American designer John Alden. She has experienced a range of house owners during her existence and has been refitted many periods (and even saved from the scrap heap on one particular situation). She went on to become a regatta typical on the Mediterranean circuit.

Sumurun

Size: 28.65m
Builder: Fife

Sumurun was commissioned in 1914 by a baroness as a reward to her husband and is just one of the oldest competing yachts in this year’s Les Voiles de Saint Tropez. She was crafted utilizing teak and oak by Scottish shipyard Fife and hailed as a person of the swiftest and most attractive yachts afloat. Sumurun’s story is stuffed with vivid personalities, a multitude of racing victories like the total earn at Antigua Classics 7 days in 2013, and an class that has transcended the vagaries of more than a century on the water.

Hallowe’en

Duration:  24.69
Builder: Fife

Hallowe’en was introduced in 1926 as a Bermudan cutter, which was uncommon in the times when gaff-rigged racers dominated the various regattas. Her proprietors ongoing to experiment with her rig and sooner or later, she was transformed to a yawl. Hallowe’en put in quite a few years racing the Mediterranean and the Atlantic in advance of falling off the radar. She was later on found by Walter Wheeler and renamed Cotton Blosson IV in advance of continuing her record of ocean racing and inevitably remaining donated to the Classic Boat Museum in Rhode Island the place she awaited a significantly-needed refit. Just after five years of do the job in Newport, money dried up and Hallowe’en was experiencing the scrap heap when Elizabeth Meyer, the lady driving the restoration of  J Class Endeavour helped discover a purchaser to restore her to her former glory. 

Aschanti IV

Duration: 34.8m
Builder: Burmester

Aschanti IV is a staysail schooner built in 1954 as Aschanti of Saba. She is a veteran of the world’s traditional yacht regattas and has received on numerous events such as an all round get in the 2022 Antigua Classics Regatta. A extensive refit by Lürssen in 1994 noticed the installation of up-to-day technological know-how such as hydraulic winches and two 36.5 metre spruce masts. What begun as an improve swiftly became a whole rebuild as just about every endeavor was produced to reconstruct the boat making use of standard boat-building procedures. This bundled riveting her unique steel plates back again in location.

Mariella

Duration: 24.08m
Builder: Fife

Mariella was developed at the Fife shipyard in 1938 to a design and style by Alfred Mylne and sent as a Bermudan yawl. Her mainmast stands 28 metres tall and she flies 279 sq. metres of sail. She has been owned for many years by Carlo Falcone, proprietor of the Antigua Yacht Club Marina, and has raced in lots of classic regattas on equally sides of the Atlantic about the past 75 years. She is a typical competitor at the Antigua Basic Yacht Regatta and this year, at Les Voiles de Saint Tropez, she is joined by her fellow Fife builds Hallowe’en, Cambria and Sumurun.