Racing 12 Metres in the Baltic, especially on the cold, grey and blustery waters of Kieler Förde, is a different proposition from cruising around in the medium breezes and flat waters of Newport, Rhode Island where the US 12 Metre fleet congregates. There is a much higher preponderance of older classic 12s than in Newport, where the bulk of the fleet hails from the latter years of the America’s Cup 12 Metre story
Surprise...
The yacht to fit the keel ‘Darling, I bought a wreck!’, I once wrote in the German Sunday newspaper Welt am Sonntag about the purchase of the 12 Metre yacht Sphinx and its subsequent restoration by the Flensburg yachtsman Oliver Berking and some of his friends. The Sphinx restoration proved significant – out of the success of that project the boatyard Robbe & Berking Classics was launched a little later in 2008. No sooner was Sphinx sailing again,
shiny in her new splendour, than the next old wreck arrived on the premises of the then still fledgling company: the remains of the Mylne-designed Jenetta which had sunk long ago in a Canadian lake. Another 12 Metre and also a very special one. Designed by Alfred Mylne and built in
Scotland in 1939, Jenetta was not only the longest 12 Metre ever built, but probably also at that time one of the fastest. Sadly she never really got the chance to prove her real potential. The outbreak of the Second
World War prevented this, as did the advancing age of her owner, Sir William Burton – whose life and racing career were recently chronicled in Seahorse issues 480 and 481 in the series The Greatest Sailor You’ve Never Heard Of. Jenetta was finally resurrected 10 years
after her remains were first salvaged from the bottom of a Vancouver lake where she had lain undisturbed for many years. If one were to include Sphinx, which
strictly speaking was restored before the official founding of the boatyard, this is already the third classic 12 Metre built by Robbe & Berking Classics. For in the 10 years between the two 12s the yard had created a few new-build classic 6 Metres, but also the 12 Metre Siesta – a completely new boat based on original 1939 plans, to the penultimate design which the great Norwegian designer Johan Anker com- pleted before his death. In contrast to Jenetta from the same year, the yacht Siesta had to wait a further 75 years before finally being brought to life in Flensburg. Three original classic 12 Metre yachts in
just 10 years. Completely restored or newly built, wooden of course. Especially in this millennium that is a unique feat. The Flensburg boatbuilders have thus acquired comprehensive expertise in the construction of these powerful racing yachts – even in 1939 the designers were for this reason already specifying composite construction, with wooden planks on steel frames. Of the original Jenetta only the lead keel and a few fittings could be reused. But
with that also comes the right to build a 12 Metre. Because, according to class rules, each 12 is unique and so you cannot just build an existing 12 again and register the duplicate in the class. Jenetta is design number 395 by Alfred
Mylne (1872-1951), whose company was founded in 1896 and still exists today and is thus considered the oldest still active yacht design office in the world. Prior to self- employment, Mylne worked in the design office of George Lennox Watson where he worked on the lines of the royal yacht Britannia, the famous racing cutter of the ‘Big Class’, that was first owned by the Prince of Wales, then later King Edward VII and then by his son, King George V. Jenetta was the fourth and final
12 Metre for Sir William Parker Burton, who made his fortune with sugar. This goes quite well together with tea, and so he first became a business partner then a friend of the tea king Sir Thomas Lipton. The two also shared a love for big racing yachts. Burton helmed Lipton’s Shamrock IV in the narrowly failed America’s Cup challenge of 1920, Lipton’s most success- ful Cup challenge, in which the defender Resolute finally defeated Shamrock IV by three victories to two. Burton then turned to the new 12 Metre
class. In 1924 he ordered his first 12, Noreska, from Johan Anker in Norway. In 1927 he had his second one designed and built, this time by William Fife. This was Lyruna which, together with Noreska, was the fastest of the six 12 Metres sailing
SEAHORSE 65
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122
