single masted yacht 5

Yachting World

• Digital Edition

M5 exclusive pictures: Ron Holland, an airplane and the largest ever sloop

• Alexandra Groom
• October 11, 2023

Exclusive pictures of M5, the largest single-mast sailing yacht in the world, getting ready for an ocean crossing with a seaplane on her stern.

The incredible M5 (ex-Mirabella V) is about to embark on a Pacific crossing, and seen here with her designer and naval architect Ron Holland.

Photo: Ron Holland

This 77.6-metre underwent an extensive two year refit at Pendennis in 2012 which saw three metres added to her stern, as well as the removal and re-stepping of her groundbreaking rig. This extra space has enabled her new owners to keep a private Carbon Cub sea plane on her stern.

Built at VT Shipbuilding and launched in 2003, she is the largest single-mast superyacht ever built, with an astonishing 90m mast. What was at the time considered to be a very daring yacht is now seen as one of the most iconic and recognised superyachts of the 21st Century.

She accommodates up to 14 guests across seven cabins and has 15 crew, as well as plenty of entertaining space not often seen on typical sailing yachts.

Originally published on SuperYachtWorld.com on April 16, 2015

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M5 (ex Mirabella V) restyled by Pendennis Shipyard

M5 's stern was remodeled at the  pendennis shipyard in falmouth, uk and completed her sail trials successful..

M5 was originally built in 2004 as Mirabella V . Until she is still the largest sloop with over 75 meters (length of the hull) and an almost 90 meters long mast.

Designed and manufactured by Carbo-Link with OYS making the fittings, the 34 new carbon fiber stays, and titanium fittings with built-in dynamic fiber optics have decreased the weight of the rig by 18 tons. The sail trials not only established the M5 ‘s potential speed but tested the new system and balance of the yacht under sail for the first time. During several hours on the water with challenging sea conditions, the remodeled boat performed well, reaching 17.7 knots in 18-23 knots of wind.

The project, due to be completed over the next month, has seen a collaboration between Pendennis and the original designer Ron Holland , to achieve the Owners idea of extending the stern by 3m which has created a new sleeker profile providing an impressive aft deck area. During the refit, Pendennis has completed extensive engineering works and the interiors have been redesigned by UK company Redman Whiteley Dixon .

M5 carries now a water plane on aft deck

Stepping the huge mast

Close to the wind when she was MIRABELLA V

Main Specifications of Sailing Yacht M5

SHARING IS CARING - THANK YOU!

Bmw 760li with nautor’s swan style, y7 tripp 70 // michael schmidt yachtbau, mm751 // malcom mckeon // m2atelier, chrisco // cnb, triiris // solar sails // aristotelis betsis, southern wind 105 sorvind // nauta design, oyster 115 // humphreys yacht design, 130′ classic sloop // reichel/pugh.

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Transportation History

Finding the unexpected in the everyday.

2003: The Launch of the World’s Largest Single-Masted Yacht

November 27, 2003

The yacht Mirabella V was launched at the VT shipbuilding company’s shipyard at Woolston in the city of Southampton in southeastern England. With a length of more than 245 feet (74.7 meters) and a height of 290 feet (88.5 meters), Mirabella V is the largest single-masted yacht (sloop) ever built.

The designer of Mirabella V was Ronald John Holland, a naval architect who has specialized in the design of large sailing yachts. Mirabella V was built by VT specifically for Joseph Vittoria, who served as chairman and CEO of the Avis car rental company from 1987 to 1997 and helped facilitate that company’s acquisition by Hospitality Franchise Systems, Inc. Vittoria had Mirabella V created as part of his fleet of charter yachts, and he named her after previous vessels that he owned. Vittoria had developed a love for sailing while growing up in Long Island and working as a “launch boy” at a yacht club in the village of Sea Cliff on the western region of that island.

Hundreds of people lined up along the banks of River Itchen to watch the launch of Mirabella V. After Vittoria’s wife Luciana christened Mirabella V with a bottle of champagne, a hydraulic ram helped push the yacht down the wooden slipways and into the water.

“The event was historic in more ways than one,” reported Yachting World magazine. “Not only is Mirabella V the largest sloop in the world but it is the last vessel ever to be launched at VT’s Woolston yard, which has been sold and will shortly be demolished.” Phil Rood, VT’s press officer, told Yachting World that more than 600 ships had been launched at that location during the company’s 100-year existence. Rood also noted, “It seems fitting that the last vessel to go down the ways is the biggest of her type. It’s an historic moment.” Mirabella V remained a part of Vittoria’s fleet until 2013, when she was acquired by a new owner and renamed M5.

For more information on M5 (formerly Mirabella V), please check out   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirabella_V

Additional information on this yacht’s 2003 launch is available at https://www.yachtingworld.com/mirabella-v/historic-launch-of-worlds-largest-sloop-mirabella-v-38969

Photo Credit: ArnoWinter (Creative Commons)

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Cool San Diego Sights!

Colorful photos of San Diego places and events.

World’s largest single-masted yacht returns!

The world’s largest single-masted yacht has returned to San Diego!

The M5 , originally called the Mirabella V, is now docked on the Embarcadero near the Maritime Museum of San Diego. You can find it directly across from the County Administration Building.

I spotted the towering mast while walking nearby, so I had to go take a look. That mind-blowing mast, over 290 feet high, is visible from many streets downtown!

I first saw the M5 in San Diego eight years ago behind the convention center and blogged about it here . Read that old blog post (including its comments) to learn more about this incredible sailboat.

It took these photographs this morning. It’s hard to depict the staggering size of this sloop-rigged super yacht. Suffice it to say, the mast rises higher than many downtown San Diego buildings!

You can see the mast from the other side of the County Administration Building in the next photo. (The exterior of the historic building is being painted.)

The first weekend of October I noticed the M5 had moved to a spot behind the San Diego Convention Center–where I first saw it eight years ago…

Yes, it’s enormous!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter !

You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!

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Richard Schulte

Downtown San Diego has been my home for many years. My online activities reflect my love for writing, blogging, walking and photography. View all posts by Richard Schulte

One thought on “World’s largest single-masted yacht returns!”

I love my hometown of San Diego! I lived in an old Victorian at 5th & A St as a child, but was raised 4 blocks from the beach in Imperial Beach. The photo shot from behind the county building gives a great perspective of the height of that impressive mast!! I love to sail so I can only imagine being on that boat! Thanks!!

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• The 10 Largest Sailing Yachts In The World - Bought With A D

The 10 Largest Sailing Yachts In The World - Bought with a diamond

5. phocea – 246 feet – launched 1976.

Built by Toulon Naval Dockyard. Designed by Michel Bigoin. Constructed of steel and aluminium. Maximum speed 18 knots.

Up to 2004, Phocea was the largest sailing yacht in the world. She was built as a four-masted schooner, for single-handed yachtsman Alain Colas, who named her Club Mediterranean and had an eye on beating the single-handed transatlantic record in the famous OSTAR race. The vessel, however, was plagued with halyard problems. Colas had to pull into Nova Scotia for repairs and although he was 330 miles in the lead, he was penalized 58 hours for accepting help, enabling Eric Tabarly to win the race for the second time.

The boat’s racing career was short lived and she was soon converted into a luxury charter boat as a playground of the rich and famous. In 1982 she was bought by Bernard Tapie, a colourful French entrepreneur, who refitted her for his private use and renamed her Phocea. He was delighted with the luxury and speed of his purchase and managed to clock up an impressive 30 knots under sail on one of his transatlantic voyages.

In 1997 she changed hands again when she caught the eye of a Lebanese business woman, Mouna Ayoub, the former wife of Saudi billionaire Nasser Al-Rashid. The purchase price was five and a half million euros and it is rumored that the expensive refit was partly covered by the sale of her record breaking 112 carat diamond “The Mouna”. The major interior and exterior upgrading was carried out by British naval architect Butch Dalrymple-Smith and in 1999 she won the ShowBoats award for the best refit. While she retains her unmistakable beauty she has gained spectacular living and accommodation areas with beautiful wood paneling, exquisite furniture and tasteful decorations as well as gymnasium, sauna and beauty facilities. She can accommodate up to 12 guests in 6 beautiful cabins as well as 15 crew.

In 2010 Phocea was purchased by a group of private investors and was available for charter, if you happened to have a spare 200.00 euros for one week’s sailing.

4. Mirabella V– 247 feet – launched 2004

Built by Vosper Thorneycroft Shipbuilding, Southampton, UK. Designed by Ron Holland Design. Constructed of GRP. Maximum speed 13 knots.

In its day the sloop Mirabella V was one of the most advanced sailing yachts afloat as well as the largest single-masted yacht ever constructed. She was built for Joe Vittoria, an American yachtsman, (known for his smaller Mirabella sloops which were built in Thailand) and she worked as a private, luxury, charter vessel accommodating 14 passengers in a luxurious master suite and 6 double cabins. Her estimated cost was over US$50 million. The carbon-fibre mast, 88.3m high, was the world’s tallest when she was built and carried 3,717 square metres of sail.

She was sold in 2012, refitted by the Pendennis Shipyard, with a new interior and a stern extension of 3.2 metres and renamed M5.

The original owner’s specifications called for a vessel that would combine speed with the kind of luxury only previously associated with motoryachts. As well as the exceptional performance, he needed the yacht to be able to use the harbour at Palm Beach, Florida, which required a lifting keel to reduce draft. The composite structure gave her three main advantages over the more usual steel or aluminium; speedy construction, reduced maintenance and improved thermal and acoustic insulation. Her huge mast was possible thanks to modern technology with improved reliability of larger sails and spars and simplified handling. Even so it was a challenge to find ropes strong enough to pull the sails in.

Her extraordinary size can best be imagined by some comparisons:-

• She is more than twice the length of the massive J-class yachts.
• A double-decker bus could drive inside the hull without protruding out of the top.
• Her mast extends above the waterline to almost the height of Nelson’s Column.
• She is longer than Nelson’s flagship HMS Victory.
• With her keel fully lowered her draft is a few inches more than the ocean liner QE2.
• She is wider than a Royal Navy Type 42 destroyer.
• She cannot pass under any bridge which she can navigate to.

Without doubt – a record breaker of her time!

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Author - Dee White

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One of the world's largest sailing yachts arrives on Vancouver Island

One of the largest sailing yachts in the world cruised into a small Vancouver Island community this week, drawing a constant stream of onlookers to the Mill Bay Marina.

At 78 metres long and nearly 90 metres tall, the sloop M5 is hard to miss.

According to Boat International magazine, the Cayman-flagged vessel is the largest single-masted sailing yacht in the world.

The M5 sailed into the Saanich Inlet marina on Sunday, with a floatplane housed on its rear deck.

Built in 2004 by U.K. shipyard Vosper Thornycroft at an estimated US$50 million, the vessel is owned by Texas oil billionaire Rod Lewis, according to Boat International.

Marina staff say the vessel is due to depart on Friday.

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• MaineBoats Blog

World's largest sloop sails the Maine coast

Thursday, september 13th 2018.

A sailboat reputed to be the largest single-masted yacht in the world was spotted recently cruising along the Maine coast, making stops in Portland and off Camden, where it was too big to fit into the harbor.

The 277-foot boat was designed by Ron Holland and built in 2004 in England at the Vosper Thornycroft yard for Joseph Vittoria, the former chairman and CEO of the Avis Rental Car Company. He named it Mirabella V (it has since beeen renamed M5) and chartered it out for $420,000 a week, according to an interview Vittoria gave to the Greenwich (Ct) Times in 2010.

Vittoria sold the boat in 2012, and according to the website Superyacht Fan, the new owner was Texas-based oil and gas billionaire Rodney Lewis.

M5’s mast is almost 300 feet tall and the boat has a beam of over 49 feet. The boat has a lifting keel and draws 33.5 feet with it down and 12.5 feet with it up. The sail area is a whopping 25,670 square feet with just the main and a working jib. Vittoria told the Greenwich Times that the boat was capable of sailing at 20 knots in a stiff breeze, but other reports place the top speed at 12 knots. According to BoatInternational.com, M5 is the largest single-masted sailing yacht in the world.

The vessel has a master suite and six additional cabins, and requires a crew of more than a dozen. It has room to carry Lasers, jet skis, and a 29-foot tender to carry passengers to and from the shore.

When M5 anchored off Camden, its mast could be seen towering over Curtis Island. Schooners sailing past looked like small rowboats in comparison to the massive yacht. According to the marine tracking app MarinTraffic.com, the vessel sailed to Portland from Newport, Rhode Island, to Boothbay and then to Camden.

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World’s two tallest masts of sailing yacht Salute and superyacht M5 serviced by Marine Results

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Written by Chelsea Smith

Marine Results, an international rigging and structural inspection company has just carried out service work on the masts of sailing yacht M5 and superyacht Salute – two of the world’s tallest masts.  Marine Results inspected the rig of fast cruising sloop Salute which has the world’s tallest aluminium mast at a towering 75 metres.  But even that measurement was dwarfed by the next project on the schedule, that of the giant 89 metres high rig belonging to the 75m yacht M5 (ex Mirabella) .  Sailing yacht M5 is not only the world’s largest sailing sloop but she has the world’s tallest carbon rig.

Marine Results personnel work on the gigantic M5 sailing yacht mast.

“We have worked extensively with both yachts since they were launched,” comments Jon Morris of Marine Results. “Following completion of the two most recent projects we reflected that we had just carried out work on the world’s two largest rigs in their particular construction category.  We are pretty proud of that achievement and the way that it illustrates our capabilities.”

In the case of the 56m Perini Navi yacht Salute, Marine Results carried out an extensive inspection after the team un-stepped the rig at the Perini Navi yard in La Spezia, where she was originally built.  Marine Results then worked with Perini’s mast division to complete the inspection on the mast and rigging systems. Marine Results specialises in a range of non-destructive testing (NDT) techniques to check for concealed stressing and damage.

The second of the two record breakers, the M5 yacht had her mast pulled out as part of a substantial one-year refit at Pendennis Shipyard in Cornwall.  Marine Results was called in to unstep the rig prior to an extensive modification programme which is expected to last until the end of 2012.

“Unstepping the rig was no small job,” said Morris. “The rig weighs a colossal 46 tonnes. To give you an idea of the size of the job, when we removed the boom vang, this alone was 9.5 metres long and weighed 900 kg.

“One of our strengths is our ability to deploy our teams around the world to carry out service work on dozens of the world’s most advanced racing and cruising superyachts,” concludes Jon Morris.  Marine Results is based in Hamble, England and La Ciotat, France .

Please contact CharterWorld - the luxury yacht charter specialist - for more on superyacht news item "World’s two tallest masts of sailing yacht Salute and superyacht M5 serviced by Marine Results".

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Sailing yacht M5 (ex Mirabella V) leaves Pendennis after comprehensive refit

Successful sea trials for Ron Holland-designed mega yacht M5

Sailing yacht M5’s 89m mast re-stepped at Pendennis by Marine Results

Refit of the 75m superyacht M5 (ex Mirabella V) at Pendennis well underway

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Contemporary motor sailing yacht REPOSADO has been delivered and is now available for charter throughout Croatia

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76m superyacht CORAL OCEAN offering charter special in the West Mediterranean

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World’s largest single-masted sailing yacht visits Penobscot Bay

CAMDEN — M5, reportedly the largest single-masted sailing yacht in existence, spent the weekend awing visitors to Camden Harbor with its impressive size and trappings of luxury. 

At approximately 277 feet in length, M5 has been photographed alongside some of Camden’s beloved windjammers — and while they are not small boats by most standards, they appear dwarfed by the size of M5. 

The Portland Press Herald reported that the M5 was docked at DiMillo’s Marina in Portland Thursday, September 6, after traveling from Newport, Rhode Island. The report did not reveal the destination of the boat or who was on board. 

The M5 was originally called Mirabella V and was commissioned by Joseph Vittoria, CEO of rental car giant Avis, according to the Press Herald report. 

According to a May 2012 report from Fortune Magazine , Vittoria sold the vessel in June 2011 to gas and oil magnate Rod Lewis for a reported $25 million. Lewis renamed the boat around the time of the sale.

The same report notes that the boat cannot pass under the Golden Gate Bridge due to the height of its mast. 

The boat was built in England and originally launched in 2004. A retrofit completed in 2013 saw its overall length extended, according to multiple reports.

A 2010 Greenwich Time  story describes the Mirabella V as Vittoria owned and envisioned it: "I wanted the challenge, to build (a yacht) that would perform as well as power boats," Vittoria told Greenwich Time .

The report shares details of the boat including lavish amenities and extras including jet skis, kayaks and assorted toys to enjoy on the water. Additionally, the vessel boasts multiple pools, a gymnasium and a 29-foot Hinckley Picnic Boat which serves as its tender.

According to reports , the boat can accommodate up to a dozen guests and requires a crew of more than that to operate. At present, it is reportedly primarily used for luxury charters. 

For more information about visiting ships check out marinetraffic.com 

Reach Jenna Lookner at [email protected]

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Choose Smart for Happy Sailing!

Sloop – One of the Most Common Single Masted Sailing Boats

October 19, 2017 By Daniel Mihai Popescu Leave a Comment

The sloop is a sailing boat with a single mast and a fore-and-aft rig. It has only one head-sail: if a boat has two or more head-sails, it is named cutter, not sloop, and its mast may be set further aft than on a sloop. In Dutch they call it “sloep” , and in French it’s called “chaloupe” . The most common rig of modern sailboats is the Bermuda-rigged sloop. Typically, a modern sloop carries a mainsail on a boom aft of the mast, with a single loose-footed head-sail (a jib or a genoa jib) forward of the mast.

A sloop in Newport – photo by Don Ramey Logan

The Difference Between the Sloop and the Cutter

I have to start first with the “rig” term. As a noun, besides being a machinery designed for a special purpose, a rig is also the distinctive shape, number and arrangement of sails and masts of a ship. The sloop is considered the simplest and most popular rig today. The mast has to be placed one third forward and two thirds aft on a boat. If it is placed closer to the middle of the boat, this particular rig defines a cutter, which is very easy to be confounded. As already mentioned, the cutter has more than one head-sail.

The modern yachting sloop is known as the Bermuda sloop, due to its Bermuda rig, which is the optimal rig for upwind sailing; consequently sloops are popular with sport sailors and yachtsmen, and for racing. The rig is simple in its basic form, yet when tuned properly, it is maneuverable and fast. The main disadvantage is the relatively large size of the sails, especially on larger vessels. It is also less successful sailing downwind.

The Bermuda sloop is a type of fore-and-aft rigged sailing vessel developed on the island of Bermuda in the 17th century. In this sense, the term is applied to small ships, rather than boats. In its purest form, it is single-masted, although ships with such rigging were built with as many as three masts. Its original form had gaff rig, but evolved to use what is now known as Bermuda rig, making it the basis of nearly all modern sailing yachts.

This article was more than inspired from Wikipedia, but it’s less confusing.

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Copyright © 2017 The Yacht Owner – Sloop – One of the Most Common Single Masted Sailing Boats

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About Daniel Mihai Popescu

Daniel Mihai Popescu is a ship engineer with background in sea transportation, real estate, yacht brokerage, construction, entrepreneurship. Avid reader, traveled the world, explorer of the human nature. Never stopped learning, now I create and manage Wordpress based sites . • Twitter • Facebook • LinkedIn • Instagram • Pinterest • Goodreads • Medium •

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The Different Types of Sailboats

If you’re a sailboat fanatic like me, all types of sailboats will attract your attention. Some more so than others admittedly, but all will have something about them that catches your eye.

If you’re not a fanatic (not yet, that is) but just an interested observer, then the first thing you’ll notice about a sailboat will be how many masts it has and the configuration of its sails - in other words, its 'rig'.

This observation alone will enable you to identify the five main types of sailboats — sloops, cutters, ketches, yawls and schooners - all of which are described here.

But apart from the various rig types, you can describe types of sailboats from a different viewpoint - sailing dinghies, dayboats, motorsailors, monohulls, catamarans and trimarans. 

Let's make a start with the various rig types...

A single-masted sailboat with just two sails — a foresail (aka headsail or jib) and a mainsail — is a sloop, the purest type of sailboat.

The sloop rig can also be described as a Bermuda rig, Bermudian rig or Marconi rig.

Read more about sloops...

Examples of Sloops

If a sloop has an additional sail between the headsail and the mainsail, then it's no longer a sloop - it's a cutter.

Some cutters - like the one shown here - have the foresail set forward on a bowsprit, with the inner forestay permanently rigged to the stemhead where the foresail otherwise would be, or to a central chainplate further aft on the foredeck.

Read more about cutters...

Examples of Cutters

The following boats may look like cutters with their double headsails, but they're not cutters at all...

To find out why, click here...

A ketch is a two-masted sailboat, a main mast forward and a shorter mizzen mast aft.

But not all two-masted sailboats are ketches — they might be yawls (see below).

A ketch may also sport a staysail, with or without a bowsprit, in which case it would be known as a cutter-rigged or staysail ketch.

Read more about ketches...

Examples of Ketches

Note that the Ocean 71 and the Irwin 52 are cutter-rigged, and are traditionally referred to as Staysail Ketches .

Cat Ketches

Cat-ketches are recognised by the lack of any standing rigging to support their pair of unstayed masts.

And yes, if the after mast is taller than the foremast then it's called a cat- schooner sailboat.

Read more about cat-ketches...

Yawls have their origins as old-time sail fishing boats, where the small mizzen sail was trimmed to keep the vessel steady when hauling the nets.

Much like a ketch, the difference being that the yawl has the mizzen mast positioned aft of the rudder post whereas the ketch has its mizzen mast ahead of the rudder post.

You’ll not be surprised to learn that a yawl with a staysail is known as cutter-rigged yawl.

A schooner is a two-or-more masted sailboat, in which the aft-most mast - the mainmast - is the same height or taller than the foremast.

The one shown here is gaff cutter rigged, with a topsail set on the mainmast.

Many sailors agree that of all the different types of sailboats, a schooner under full sail is one of the most beautiful sights afloat.

Gaffed-rigged sailboats, or 'gaffers', have their mainsail supported by a spar - the 'gaff' - which is hauled up mast by a separate halyard.

Often these types of sailboats are rigged with a topsail, as shown here and in the gaff schooner above, which really adds some grunt in light airs.

All this comes at a price of course, both in terms of material cost and weight aloft, which is why very few modern yachts are fitted with gaff rigs these days.

All artwork on this page is by Andrew Simpson

Examples of the Various Types of Sailboats...

Other Types of Sailboats

The seven sailboat rig variations shown here are the most popular types of modern cruising boat rigs, but there are other rig versions which were once found on commercial, fishing, and naval sailing vessels.

They include:

• Full square-rigged sailing vessels
• Barkentines
• Brigantines

And you can see examples of them here ...

In this article I've said that ketches, yawls and schooners with two headsails can be called cutter rigged. This is a commonly used description but strictly speaking, there's only one rig that can accurately be called a cutter - and that's a single-masted sailboat with two headsails. My thanks to 'Old Salt' for drawing my attention to this!

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