Patience, the story of the 1931 Fastnet-winning cutter

TAG Heuer VELAFestival’s fleet of CULT boats is enriched by Patience, a true gem, a Bermudian cutter built in 1931 by Camper&Nicholson shipyards in Gosport to a design by Charles Nicholson. This hull of 24 meters returned to the water in 2007 after a five-year restoration by owner Antonio Falchetti first at the Classic Yacht Darsena shipyard in Viareggio and then at the Francesco del Carlo shipyard, also in Viareggio (the hull belonged to a Dutch shipowner who had already begun a restoration). Original to the hull with its warpheads, keel, lead ballast, planking, and few beams “but with such simple, seductive lines that it was a shame not to save them,” as Stefano Faggioni, of the eponymous La Spezia-based yacht design firm that oversaw the restoration project, put it.

Patience’s history includes a line honors win at the 1931 Fastnet (seventh on corrected time), the Channel Race in the 35-60 foot class in 1932, and sailings between Panama and the Seychelles in the 1970s and 1980s. Architects of the caliber of Uffa Fox and Carlo Sciarelli have spoken enthusiastically about the Bermudian cutter. The former in 1934 called it “an excellent example of a seagoing yacht, endowed with marked speeding qualities,” while the Trieste designer, in his best seller Lo Yacht, praised its simple, powerful lines as well as its overall very English appearance “A traditional beauty revised according to more modern standards, but being careful not to overdo it,” he wrote.

The restoration was a 360-degree reconstruction, starting with the removal of the thin copper plates that covered the living work. Then everything else. “For the restoration,” says Stefano Faggioni, “we relied on some old photos from Beken of Cowes and the original Camper&Nicholson project number 392, dated 1930.” The study redesigns the masting, the sail plan, the deck plan, the interior. details. Sixty percent of the original teak planking and half of the warps are recovered. Flunked the bow-thruster forward, too modern. Inevitable, however, are five electric winches, without self-tailing and with a bronze bell to better camouflage them, where all shipboard maneuvers will be channeled. English shipwright Peter Radclyffe is in charge of the most important laories, coordinating all the activities of some 20 workers.

TECHNICAL DATA.
Year launched: 1931
Shipyard: Camper&Nicholson
Project: Charles Nicholson
Length out of the arm: 24 m
Width: 4.6 m
Draught: 3 m
Displacement: 45 t
Weapon: cutter Marconi
Sail area: 230 square meters
Cabins: four doubles
Restoration: 2003-2007 Viareggio (Classic Yacht Darsena and Del Carlo)