As of today, we are all owners of this 164-year-old boat: Sister

There is a mythical wooden auric cutter that as of today belongs to the Italian state, and thus to all of us. It is the oldest pleasure boat sailing in the Mediterranean . Consider that the first stern sails, which later evolved into the spinnaker, were tested aboard this boat. Have we intrigued you? Here is the beautiful story of Sis.

The story of Sorella, the oldest pleasure boat in the Mediterranean

After 164 years since it was launched Sorella, a wooden auric cutter built in 1858 by the English shipyard Dan Hatcher of Southampton, officially wears the stars and becomes part of the Italian Navy after being donated by Padua industrialist Renato Pirota, who was its proud owner for 30 years.

With an armament length of just 10.97 meters, became the oldest in-service unit in the fleet, followed by Viri, an 11.35-meter-long Skerry Cruiser launched in Finland in 1928 and the much better-known 101-meter-long training ship Amerigo Vespucci, launched in Castellamare di Stabia, in the province of Naples, in 1931.

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Sister, born from the pencil of “King Dan”

A ranking by the prestigious British magazine Classic Boat places Sister of 1858 fourth (after the Britannia, Tuiga and Rowdy) among the world’s most important boats. The boat, characterized by a mirrored stern and three-quarter deck, was made of pitch pine planking on oak frames by the Dan Hatcher shipyard (1817-1880), an ingenious designer and from the age of 21 valiant shipbuilder nicknamed “King Dan.”

It has a length of 27 feet according to British measurements(8.38 meters hull, 10.97 meters including rigging), a width of 2.74 meters, a draft of 1.50 meters and a weight of 4.5 tons. The sail rig a
gaff cutter
, spread over five sails (mainsail, mainsail, foresail, jib walled on the bowsprit and mainsail bird), is about 65 square meters.

On this boat the Spinnaker was “born.”

Some research points out that Sorella had been employed as an experimental gymnasium, by the brothers William and George Gordon, principals and first owners of the boat, for the study of the first rudimentary stern sails called spinks, then spinkers, spinnikers, and finally spinnaker, the famous sail adopted on almost every sailboat in the world. The intent was to make the cutter known by winning as many regattas as possible, thus stimulating competitors to use their sails.

Among the coats of arms of the clubs to which Sorella has been registered are the Royal Southern Yacht Club of Southampton, the Yacht Club Porto Rotondo, the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, the Yacht Club Adriaco and theAIVE (Associazione Italiana Vele d’Epoca), an association founded in 1982 with which Pirota continues to be associated. Although she does not appear in the records of the Royal Yacht Squadron because of her small tonnage, there are records of her prolonged stay in Cowes, Isle of Wight. Today, Sorella, which has a smaller almost-sister named Nellie, is also easily recognized at sea by the number 1858 on the sail.

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Sorella enters the very small club of the oldest wooden sailing vessels still in active service in the world, though it fails to snatch the record from the USS (United States Ship, United States Ship) Constitution, 62 meters, the 1797 American three-masted frigate that is still registered with the U.S. Navy and sailed on the occasion of its 200th anniversary.

Who is the donor of Sister Renato Pirota

The donation ceremony took place on June 21, 2022 at the Francesco Morosini Naval Military School in Venice in the presence of Renato Pirota. But who is the “philanthropist” Pirota?

Born in Milan in 1946 but a native of Padua, he graduated as a surveyor and settled in the family steel industry in Veneto. Already at the age of 18 he is sailing. It grows on the Cognac Grande Zot (namesake of the better-known schooner) and on the Jouet 33 Cribitta held in Chioggia. He fell in love with vintage boats in the 1980s: especially with the classic designs of Carlo Sciarrelli, whom he met in 1986 and with whom he had a 20-year friendship.

In 1987 he bought Moya, a 1910 English auric cutter of prawner-inspired construction, hulls used for shrimp fishing, and commissioned Sciarrelli to restore its luster (he would resell it in 2004). In 1989, he purchased Sorella, the oldest pleasure boat in the Mediterranean. In 2022 he donates it to the Italian Navy.

Pirota, a collector of vintage boats, is also the owner of Misty, a 24-meter motoryacht launched in 1969 in America by the Palmer Johnson shipyard in Sturgeon Bay.

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