Doktor Faust. So they saved a mythical boat from oblivion

“I was desperately looking for an IOR-era boat, and I wanted it in aluminum. What can you do, it was a fixation. It was 7 a.m. on a day in early 2020, I take a trip to subito.it and see it. ‘Aluminum IOR boat,’ the ad read. By 7:31 a.m. I had contacted the owner, at 7:45 a.m., sight unseen, I made the transfer for the purchase“.

Thus was Doktor Faust reborn

Words of Cesare Filograna, who rescued a mythical boat from oblivion: Doktor Faust, Peterson 42 (12.71 x 3.97 m) from 1982, lying at the Olbia shipyards. A dusty shell with its fin disassembled, standing still for 20 years. Filograna brought the boat to Puglia, his homeland, where Doktor Faust came to life again after two years of painstaking and, as we will tell you, not easy work.

Filograna, owner of a Dufour 34 (“But I’m not a great racer, I admit it!“) decided to entrust the restoration of the boat, a project of IOR (and America’s Cup) wizard Doug Peterson, to Maurizio Cossutti.

Many people know the Cossutti Yacht Design studio for its winning designs in the ORC racing world (various Italia Yachts models, Arya 415, NM 43, M45…), the hundreds of optimizations on successful hulls, or for production boats for a large shipyard such as Bavaria (for which the studio, whose partner is Alessandro Ganz, designed the entire “C-Line” range).

But Cossutti is also a keen admirer of the IOR era (“I started racing in these boats“, the Friulian designer tells us) and the refitting he has surgically attended to in recent years testify to this: such as that of the Swan 44 Pride, the boat that in 1981 was the challenger of the first edition of the Nioulargue, which later became Les Voiles de Saint Tropez, that of the half-tonner Cagliostro that will soon touch the water or the Swan 38 Mascalzone Latino. But let’s not digress.

Cossutti’s “challenge”

Not an easy task for the albeit experienced Cossutti to bring Doktor Faust back to life, respecting Doug Peterson’s original 1978 design. The boat, a twin of the successful (and more famous) Karina Von Forell, was built in 1982 on a commission from surgeon Faraco (it later passed into the hands of his son Ernesto Faraco) in one of the best yards at the time for aluminum construction. The legendary SAI Ambrosini in Passignano sul Trasimeno, Umbria, founded by Milanese aeronautical engineer Angelo Ambrosini, where no less than three Peterson 42s came to life: first the aforementioned Karina Von Forell, then the Doktor Faust and Orangebay.

“The restoration work was long and complex,” explains Cossutti, who is echoed by Filograna: “It involved getting your hands on pieces machined and designed by great aluminum experts. First of all, we didn’t have to do any damage“. Once the boat was brought to Puglia, it began its “tour” of the shipyards: to the blacksmith for modifications on the aluminum hull (some crucial, as Cossutti will tell us shortly), to the carpenter’s shop for the interior, painting in another shed.

Goodbye skeg

“The first, radical intervention was done on the keel,” Cossutti explains. “We decided to eliminate the skeg (the extension/protection at the stern of the keel of boats that have a rudder mounted on the centerline, ed.) and replace it with a more modern suspended carbon rudder made by Apulia Composites .

Removing the skeg is a difficult task in itself, let alone doing it in an aluminum hull, where it was necessary to reshape the internal structures, move the propeller foot, and re-do the alignments. Of course, we kept the tiller rudder. As for the original trapezoidal keel, we acted conservatively“.

Deck, rigging, sail plan

Next, the deck:“To make the boat more modern and easily manageable, we ‘deforested’ the deckby simplifying the deck plan (look at the design below to understand the simplification operation, ed.) and deferring rigging in the cockpit and setting up barber for jibs. The result is a real “flush deck”“.

Major changes also came in rigging and sail plan. “We, together with Ciccio Manzoli who had made a profile for the boat in the past, modified the mast. The rig changed from masthead to fractional and we quartered the spreaders to eliminate the flyers (And moved the moorings aft. Again, this was a good job!).”

Doktor Faust sails and is very fast

Now the boat sails, finally, in its new light blue livery. The floor again goes to Cesare Filograna:“Reviving Doktor Faust was an immense expenditure of energy and cost (by the way, thanks to my friend Giuseppe Solidoro, an indispensable right-hand man) .

But it was worth it. The boat was a piece of sailing history that deserved to be recovered, no ifs or buts. A boat born and designed for racing, which had to return to the race courses at any cost. To fight-and win-against projects they now call cruiser-racer, hybrids. Because come to think of it, it’s like a Formula 1 car from the 1980s (the Doktor Faust) competing with today’s sports cars. He can definitely have his say!”

Continues Filograna:“The upwind boat is going strong, atupwinds despite the IOR design, with the maximum beam amidships and the narrow stern it does not dance, thanks to Maurizio’s optimization work and the new rudder blade. As long as we sail displacement, she is irrepressible: after 20 years of being stationary, on her first regatta, with readjusted makeshift sails (which we were provided from the Comet 50 Verve) and no gennaker, at the first windward mark we shot second in the real. I also hosted Ernesto Faraco on board, who gave me all the trophies won by the boat over the years. It was beautiful.”

Welcome back Doktor Faust!

If you want to follow all the updates on the boat and its adventures, there is a dedicated Facebook page.

Eugenio Ruocco

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