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Is this the finest classic yacht of all time?

The finest classic yacht of all time? Stupid question of course, but fun to try to answer it. Here, from CB300, is our best classic ever

This article is taken from CB300. Subscribe here

Photo by Tim Wright. www.timwrightphotography.com

We’re sat around a table after lunch, small black coffee to hand, and the idea comes to mind that for our 300th issue (June 2013) we should feature the ultimate classic boat, writes Dan Houston . And of course the idea is a bit mad – ah, I admit it was mine; how can you take one boat, one design, from out of the pantheon of so much beauty and floating grace and say she’s the best? To those who love working boats it will be different to those whose predilection is for a small steamboat…

But while this issue celebrates the diversity of classic boats of all sizes and provenance we are going to say that for us, at this point in time, the 1909 Fife design Tuiga – well she’s got to be the all-time classic. The 15-M gaff cutter exudes a grace under sail that can take your breath away and her lines in harbour perform some kind of massage to the eyes; her lofty rig is all about the transference of power into speed; her deck furniture and the simplicity of fittings there – no winches – speak of the seamanship of a bygone era. In fact it’s the very simplicity of her look that draws you in. It seems to have a narrative quality as you stare and begin to work out how it would be to sail such a boat.

Of course many boats have these attributes; an Essex Smack will create similar feelings. But Tuiga is here not just for her superlative looks. She was one of the first boats to be restored to sail at a time when plastic yachting had all but taken over. She has stood, both sailing and in-harbour, as a bastion of living history that says it doesn’t all have to be of the modern age; she helped to create the breadth of the classic boating movement. There was a kind of collective gasp that went around the world when she came out of the yard at Fairlie Restorations on the Hamble in 1993. How could so much beauty be resurrected? She was perfect, she was strong and to prove it she soon had Eric Tabarly, scion of both the old and new worlds of sailing, attentively holding her tiller in places like Cannes and Monaco, racing her like a thoroughbred till metaphorically the veins were standing out… on pretty much everyone involved.

Gracing the Nioulargue I was a reader then and I kept that June ’93 issue, number 60 – it’s on the desk now 20 years later. She appeared in magazines from Yokohama to the Costa Brava, proclaiming to a wider audience of would-be aesthetes that something was afoot at places like those races around the Nioulargue Buoy of St Tropez. And of course soon photos of her were zinging brightly through the soft optic cables of the newly established internet and it all became a bit more democratic.

It’s also that very accessibility that brings Tuiga to the fore. After all she is one of four 15-Metres, along with The Lady Anne , Hispania and Mariska . Tuiga was restored by the visionary classic car and yacht enthusiast Albert Obrist. She was the first boat to be restored by the newly-founded Fairlie Restorations – but Obrist passed her to the Yacht Club de Monaco after two years and since 1995 she has been sailed by club members. This means that technically there has been easier access to her than other boats of her like and it’s hard to think of any boat which has been run like that and has had so much impact over such a long period. But of course we’ll run your letters – we welcome them!

Tuiga celebrated her centenary in 2009 with celebrations and felicitations, which included some paintings by Jack Vettriano and a lavish square book by Drs Daniel Charles and Wm Collier; John Leather (posthumously), and Ian Nicolson. In it Albert Obrist relates how he appreciates craftsmanship: “I still don’t know anything about sailing, but what I like is the beauty of an object,” says the Swiss bottle cap billionaire who sold his collection of 65 restored Ferraris to Bernie Ecclestone in the late 1990s.

Obrist had already restored Altair , the Wm Fife schooner credited as starting the classic yachting renaissance in the late 1980s, when he came across Tuiga , then advertised in Yachting World for a ‘quick’ sale, in Cyprus in 1989. By then she had a bermudan rig with a furling headsail; she had belonged to a Greek couple whose planned circumnavigation had stalled. The boat was tired. She already had a very long history, including time being owned by the yacht fittings designer JS Highfield in the 1920s, renamed as Dorina . Highfield used her to perfect his famous lever, for setting running backstays correctly, equipping just one side to compare its advantages on the older block-and-tackle system.

William Collier recalls meeting Albert Obrist after he had bought Tuiga . “He wanted me to meet Duncan Walker (now heading the newly founded Fairlie Restorations) but at that stage he was stormbound on the Portuguese coast!”

Extreme Cutter Tuiga was rebuilt at the newly-founded Fairlie Restorations by craftsmen from the Southampton Yacht Services team which had restored Altair. She is a “desperately important” boat according to Collier, who now runs GL Watson in Liverpool. “Albert Obrist thought she was the only 15 left in existence but we knew about Hispania and The Lady Anne – so that started the dream, which recently came true of re-establishing the 15-Metre class (CB283). For years she was the only big cutter around apart from Moonbeam III .

“And she’s an extreme cutter. We had to learn to sail her without winches [it takes the whole crew – often 16 people – to hoist her 2,066sqft (192m²) 397lb (180kg) mainsail] and people were astonished when they saw that; it really did have a huge impact. Then I think Eric Tabarly said she was his favourite boat and it went on.

“Another important aspect of Tuiga ’s restoration is that she is semi-composite and no-one was proposing restoring boats like that back then. She has a steel frame for every two out of American red elm. People thought we were mad, and suggested laminating in wooden frames but Obrist was a purist and so she had all new steel frames. And 20 years on she’s proved that it could be done and it was worth doing,” Collier adds.

Tuiga was the star of the 1993 Nioulargue race where she glid past the fine-lined Moonbeam III . And later with the YCM she has taken her message of classic purism further afield. “She’s been a wonderful ambassador for us,” says Bernard d’Alessandri, YCM’s manager, who often helms Tuiga in races.

“She combines a conservative image with something more dynamic and sporting which makes her a good choice for the club. And she’s not as expensive as a modern boat to run. We don’t change the sails every year, as with a modern boat – she doesn’t need new experimental keels… For maintenance she comes out of the water for a month every spring. And then we sail her every week from the end of April until after the St Tropez regatta in October.

“She has a permanent paid captain (Nicolas Rouit) and is sailed by members of the club who can commit some time, but she’s a dayboat for us – we don’t use her offshore or for cruising. But we can take her anywhere; four years ago she went to Rouen and Cowes; last year we shipped her out to Antigua Classics, just for the week of racing and then back, and of course we took her to Cowes for the America’s Cup Jubilee in 2001. That was one of my favourite experiences with her. To be among so many (208) fine classic boats was an incredible thing.”

The sheer, sheer beauty Unfortunately Tuiga is not going to the Clyde for the fourth quinquennial Fife Regatta this June. But organiser Alastair Houston, marine artist, and very likely a distant relation, has known her since her relaunch: “I think she has the most beautiful sheerline of any boat afloat,” he says, adding: “ White Heather II had that same look which is a sheerline with just that right amount of curve. Most Fife boats have it and it’s what makes them so special but Tuiga ’s is just a little more accentuated.

Also it’s allowed to hit you because she has just a toerail, there’s no bulwark in place to detract from the line of the deck meeting the hull planks. It’s the most vital ingredient and it makes her look almost organic. It’s what makes people stop and stare.

“They don’t know why the boat is having that effect, but I do and it’s all because of the perfect clean sheerline – that carries everything. And then you have the details, like the beautifully proportioned deckhouses on top of that and it creates the effect.”

Being lucky enough to have helmed another Fife 15-M – The Lady Anne at one of the Fife Regattas I think the memory will go with me into my box. The boat simply felt alive with energy, her deck seemed to carry a small hum, as though some fabulous propulsive machinery were at work down below, and she surged forward to any increase in wind pressure. One could sense the water sluicing past the rudder, deep below in the darkness of the Clyde and how a nuance of touch would send her head easily up to, or off, the wind.

Photo by James Robinson-Tyalor, c/o Panerai. http://www.jrtphoto.com

And Tuiga , from what people say, feels the same. For Bernard d’Alessandri the fact that she can now race with other 15-Ms has made a huge difference: “It’s like match racing and we don’t know who will be the winner because tactics are so important now,” he says. “For me racing the four 15s together at the Monaco Classics in 2011 was just an incredible situation. It was the first time anyone had seen anything like that in more than 100 years. With the relaunching of Hispania in 2010 and Mariska earlier there were four to race at Monaco Classics in 2011. For while The Lady Anne was restored in 1998/9 she was quickly banned from racing (in the Med) because she had carbon fibre laminated inside her hollow wooden mast (CB170).

The Lady Anne ’s carbon was blamed for giving her too much power, evidenced by how she sailed away from Tuiga in some races and she had to cut her rig down and reduce somewhat before she was allowed back into the fold, 10 years after cruising in the wilderness or racing at the Fife Regattas in 2003 and 2008. Most experts agree that of the three 15s Mariska is the least original: “She’s re-engineered into a Third Rule shape to be three tons lighter,” dismisses Duncan Walker. The Lady Anne is very original in terms of her lines but she is basically an all-new boat; Hispania had a new hull but her interior is probably the most original. And Tuiga is probably somewhere in between with some of her original interior but the layout being modified in her restoration.

Issue 60 describes Tuiga ’s restoration and history from when she was built in six months by Fife’s Fairlie yard, number 569, for the Duque de Medinaceli of Santander to race against the King of Spain’s Hispania .

One aspect of the 15-Ms that seems to gain everyone’s respect is how few crew – typically eight – crewed the yachts in their heyday. Even today with upwards of 16 experienced hands on deck, things can get pretty hairy once the wind is up. Dr Patrice Clerc makes this point in the centenary book, citing how a gybe with Eric Tabarly at the helm led to the mainsheet trimmer crewman, none other than Prince Albert, Monaco’s monarch, losing the skin off the palms of his hands as the mainsheet broke free and tore out off his grip while sailing at the Cannes Film Festival. “ Tuiga is a wild bronco who can’t be fooled,” he quips. Yes and she’s fabulous, utterly fabulous.

Dan Houston

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Telegraph.co.uk

ADVERTISING

William Fife III TUIGA

Sail Number: D3

Type: 15m IR

LOA: 92’0″ / 27.35m – LOD: 74′ 0″ / 22.55m – LWL: 49′ 0″ / 15.65m – Beam: 14′ 1″ / 4.15m – Draft: 9′ 10″ / 2.95m – Hull Number: 569 – Hull Material: Composite Steel / Steamed Frames – Designer: William Fife III – Built by: Fife, Fairlie, Scotland – Original Owner: 17th Duke of Medinacel – Current Owner: Yacht Club de Monaco – Year Built: 1909 – Rig: Gaff Cutter – Sail Area: 4,428 sq ft – Flag: Monaco (MC) – Club: YCM (Yacht Club de Monaco)

Historical:

The Yacht Club de Monaco’s comments: https://www.yacht-club-monaco.mc

“For a long time I had wanted our Club to have a prestigious vessel that would be a demonstration of the faith and esteem in which we hold our maritime heritage and classic yachting. So, when I discovered Tuiga in the harbour in Cannes and the opportunity arose to purchase her in 1995, I was very happy to seize it. One could not have found a more beautiful or motivational boat to give our younger as well as older sailors a taste for classic yachting. Tuiga is a very enjoyable boat to helm but sailing her is a sport in itself.”

Tuiga’s long life began in 1909 when she slipped into the cold Scottish waters at the boat builder William Fife’s yard. She had been commissioned by the Duke of Medinaceli, a close friend of the King of Spain, Alfonso XIII. William Fife designed Tuiga as a twin to the Fife-built Hispania, so that the two 15M IR vessels could race together on an equal footing. From a distance, the two sister-yachts were indeed difficult to distinguish. It took just six months to build Tuiga who somehow always managed to come second, just behind the Royal Yacht Hispania. Given the similarity in design and construction, rumour had it that the good Duke preferred to rein in Tuiga for fear of creating the embarrassing situation of having beaten his friend and sovereign King Alfonso XIII.

After several years being totally restored at the Fairlie Restorations boatyard in England, supervised by Duncan Walker, Tuiga is today the Yacht Club de Monaco’s flagship.

As well as competing in the Mediterranean classic yacht regattas, she was in Benodet to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Pen Duick, and took part in the Universal Exhibition in Lisbon in 1998. She also participated in the America’s Cup Jubilee regatta on the Isle of Wight in August 2001 and called into Valencia in 2007 to participate in the festivities for the 32nd America’s Cup.

In 2008, having joined the Armada on the River Seine, she then took top honours at Cowes Classic Week despite not having sailed in the Solent since the America’s Cup Jubilee in 2001. For this 15M IR, it was a great honour to be moored in front of the famous Royal Yacht Squadron, a prestigious venue which has written some of the finest pages in the history of yachting.

Such intense activity demonstrates just how committed the YCM members who crew on Tuiga are to the yachting tradition. Their interest has never wavered, like that of their President HSH Prince Albert II who often takes the helm, as have Eric Tabarly, Paul Cayard and Dennis Conner. It is this enthusiasm which led to “Spirit of Tuiga”, a club which unites all those in Monaco who are passionate about yachts.

Provenance (The Wall of Remembrance – The Owners, Notable Guest, and Reunion Information):

Owner/Guardian: (1909) – Duke of Medinacel Owner/Guardian: (1920s) – Warwick Brookes, renamed Betty IV (1995) – The Yacht Club de Monaco Captain: (2019) – Pierre Castraghi