Magnificent. The 1936 William Fife-designed Vanity was rarely the fastest 12 Metre on the water even in her original incarnation but she is surely among the most beautiful. To be fair to Fife, by now aged 79, her property developer owner John Payne stipulated a live aboard interior and her designer could reasonably point to this extra weight when she underperformed against her stripped-out peers
in England in that period. Three years later, in 1930, Burton also had a 36m motor yacht built as a support vessel for his regatta activities. This was Caletta, later restored and renamed Atlantide by her new owner, Tom Perkins, best known as the creator of the dramatic unstayed three-master Maltese Falcon. In 1934 Burton ordered his third 12,
this time from Alfred Mylne. This was Marina, named after the young wife of Prince George, Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark. In the very active regatta summer of
1935 Marina dominated the 12 Metre class and won almost every race in which she competed. Her speed was later only surpassed in England by Jenetta. Unfortunately 1939 was also the best
season of the almost unbeatable Vim, designed by Olin Stephens. Yet Jenettawas among the fastest 12s of her time – and that despite the fact that she could not be campaigned as intensively as her owner would have wished. The increasingly troubled times did not allow that and neither did Sir Burton’s advancing age. Jenetta’s subsequent story can only be
reconstructed in fragments, but in the 1950s she came to Vancouver and was rebuilt as a cruising yacht with a ketch rig. From 1985 she lay, neglected and rotting, at a jetty on Lake Pitt, where she eventually sank. A sad fate for a wonderful yacht, but thankfully not the end of the story. When Oliver Berking discovered and
salvaged her the rotten hull finally col- lapsed. But her essential parts were rescued
66 SEAHORSE
and transported to the yard in Flensburg. For almost 10 years the keel and parts of the hull of Jenetta decorated the yard area while she was reborn. Jenetta is a big and really fast 12 but had never had the opportunity to prove her real potential in her first life. Not surprisingly, her first encounter with old sparring partner Vim last summer was much anticipated. With her striking tartan hull paint there
was a lot of excitement for this brand new boat and her enthusiastic crew and her five owners. Only a week before her first regatta, the 12 Metre European Champi- onships no less, the boatbuilders from Robbe & Berking were still varnishing her mast and building the boom and spinnaker pole in the shed… and finishing off her interior with the boat already in the water. Having sailed for only a couple of days
before the event, in her first five races Jenetta scored a race win, three runner-up places and a third. Currently there are many world-class historic 12 Metres competing in the Baltic. But Jenetta is, for sure, already right up there with the best.
The east wing The 12 Metre remains one of the most inspirational of the large racing yachts even 30-plus years after the class last competed in the America’s Cup. However, while the classic 12 Metre racing in Newport, RI has gathered recent attention with the hosting of the class’s 2019 world championship, the largest fleet of active 12s is actually to be found more than 3,000 miles away to the east.
The Baltic has firmly established itself as
the world capital for racing Metre Class yachts in general and 12 Metres in particu- lar. The largest active fleet of classic pre-war 12 Metres in the world now meets regularly at a series of events in Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Norway. The annual highlight is the Robbe & Berking Sterling Cup in Flensburg where 12 Metres and other classic Metre classes come together each year. Last summer the Sterling Cup cele-
brated its 25th anniversary. A quarter of a century! The parties ashore were accord- ingly boisterous and the racing on the water more ambitious than ever. It is quite special to see such a large group of beauti- ful historic yachts racing at such a profes- sional level and most also with a knife between their teeth. The competition is intense and in 2019 the differences between the top boats were minimal. Who would have thought 25 years ago
that one day the beautiful historic 12 Metre class yachts would be racing here regularly in a still expanding fleet? It began with five 12s in 1997, but the fleet has now grown to 26 vintage 12s and an end to the growth of the class in the Baltic is not yet in sight. The latest highlight in this development,
for now, was the racing debut of the 12 Metre Jenetta at the 2019 Sterling Cup and the arrival of the S&S-designed Northern Light this February. Already more than two-thirds of all surviving vintage 12s are now sailing and racing in the Baltic. This is a remarkable renaissance of these power- ful and majestic yachts.
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