Do you remember the historic 40-meter nineteenth-century ketch Black Swan, which was rotting away at the Valdettaro shipyards in La Spezia after its owner, Amadeo Matacena, a former Forza Italia deputy, had fled to Dubai to escape from the legal troubles involving him (definitively convicted of external complicity in mafia association)?
The stunning Camper&Nicholson signature hull seemed to be lost but instead, thanks to a French shipowner, it has come back to life, finally taking to the water in the waters of La Spezia.
THE STORY OF BLACK SWAN
Born as an auric yawl, later to become a ketch during the first two decades of the twentieth century, it has been dry for many years as a result of precisely that long litigation. The condition of the hull needed an owner with a big heart and passion to take on what has been a lengthy restoration: a major refit that included an inspection of the condition of the entire hull with replacement of part of the planking, rebuilding of the keel and all systems.
The last refitting was in 2000 and had been completed to a design by Studio Faggioni by the Beconcini shipyards in La Spezia: it had undergone a renovation to the entire deck structure, engines and all technical, electrical and hydraulic equipment.
