College, Lowestoft, after gaining qualifications in Marine Technology at Plymouth and Boat Design and Production at Falmouth. Although Vagabundo wasn’t Philippe’s friend’s yacht, the family discovered her history and realised what a beneficial mistake she had been! In the café Robbie reeled off particular jobs he undertook during the restoration. I had originally met Philippe and Robbie on one of the last few days of Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez, on the foredeck of Vagabundo, surrounded by his fellow marine graduates, and I’d experienced the heady sense of young team energy. Robbie’s infectious enthusiasm made him seem as if he might just untie the lines without us noticing and nip out for a match race or a sail in the dark! Far from the Irish Bar antics that the other young crews preferred, he was telling yarns as if he’d been at sea for years. The energy was still present as he described to me the work he carried out on Vagabundo once he’d transported her from Port Cogolin, near Saint-Tropez, to Southampton in December 2010, minus her rigging, but otherwise a seemingly perfect boat in need of a minor facelift and a few personal alterations to suit her new owner. She had been lying hidden and covered up in Port Cogolin for two years before the Fabres bought her. “On the surface, cosmetically she was just immaculate – she blossomed in our eyes, [but] on closer inspection the
sparkling interior hid the rot around the engine... After using every bluff in the book there was nothing to stop my friend (the determined surveyor) from bludgeoning his way through what was in my mind the perfect interior, with a power tool and no plot,” said Robbie.
PREVIOUS REBUILD From then on Robbie knew that Vagabundo’s ceilings (the hull linings) would have to come out. Luckily the planking and frames had not proved to be in a similar state of decay. Her previous owners Miguel and Sonia Carril, who acquired her from their father Justo del Carril in 1976, rebuilt her as new in 2003 under the watchful eye of designer German Frers himself. On completion they then took her cruising the Brazilian shore, reaching Rio and Bahia, and crossed the Atlantic to Argentario, Italy. They competed in the Panerai Argentario Sailing Week 2007 with Frers at the helm and came first overall in the 15m LOA classic division. But though in terms of sea miles she was being successfully cruised and used, this period took its toll on Vagabundo’s structural condition, exacerbated by the lack of ventilation when she was laid up in Port Cogolin. In addition, the angle at which the steering pulleys had been placed had caused movement in the cockpit sides and to the hull. Robbie fitted a stainless-steel structure to
Above: The predominantly white interior follows tradition; the boat is fitted out for comfortable cruising as well as racing
CLASSIC BOAT FEBRUARY 2012
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