Mariquita - the immortal sailing classic

living history

Mariquita was built back in the "golden days of yachting" - 1911. The 38-meter yacht is still on the move and is a fragment of that very era of classic yachts. Marine designer and architect William Fife III was responsible for the design of the yacht. 

At the shipyard W. Fife and Son, Mariquita was built under the number 595. From the very beginning, the new yacht was created for only a few seasons of intense regattas. No one thought about what future the new creation of the shipyard would have.

To date, Mariquita is the last surviving yacht of the 19 metre class. In addition, the yacht belongs to the so-called. "big class". In this class, she remains one of only four surviving yachts. Other 23-meter "Astra" (1928), "Cambria" (1928), "Candida" (1929).

Until the Second World War, the yacht passed from hand to hand, retaining its former elegance and beauty. However, the war made its own adjustments - Mariquita was sold to a company that specialized in building floating houses. As soon as the yacht fell into the hands of the representatives of the company, the rigging and sails, the mast, the keel ballast were almost immediately removed from it and laid up. Mariquita spent the next 40 years on a clay jetty.

Mariquita reconstruction

In 1991, the yacht was found in poor condition, but she was still underway. In 2004, the British company Fairlie Restorations took up the restoration and reconstruction of the boat. Some elements of the hull required repair or replacement. 

The main problem was the destruction of the steel parts of the skeleton of the yacht, the lack of a keel and wooden trim. However, the steel and wood of the boat served their minimum several orders of magnitude longer than planned. There have been no major alterations to the hull since the construction, that is, 93 years.

After the reconstruction, Mariquita again went to sea. Her glorious racing history received a new round - the yacht took part in many regattas. Among the most famous were Monaco Classic Week, Regates Royales Cannes and Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez. In 2014, she took home the Big Boat Panerai Trophy.

Mariquita control features 

Mariquita has a displacement of 78 tons. The maximum speed of the sailing yacht is 12.5 knots. Unlike modern boats, the Mariquita's helm is quite heavy.

Mariquita has 580 m2 of sails. In total, the yacht carries a set of seven sails. Thanks to the fine tuning of each sail, as well as the racing profile of the hull, the yacht is excellent on the water in any weather and handles well.

The bulwark on the boat is very low, there are no handrails. This makes traveling on the Mariquita more extreme than on many modern yachts. The yacht is a typical representative of the sailing racing boats of the early 20th century, with all the consequences - beautiful design, excellent driving performance and appropriate crew safety conditions. 

Specifications

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04.07.2023