2022. Rondetto. The incredible barge that won’t die

Welcome to the special section “GdV 5th Years.” We are introducing you, day by day, An article from the archives of the Journal of Sailing, starting in 1975. A word of advice, get in the habit of starting your day with the most exciting sailing stories-it will be like being on a boat even if you are ashore.

Swallow: The incredible story of the barge that won’t die

Taken from the 2022 Journal of Sailing, Year 48, No. 02, April, pp. 68-73.

No one would have bet on this seven-footer, launched in 1965 from a ’42 design. Yet it has become a sailing legend. It is the Rondetto the first boat with which an Italian sailor, Erik Pascoli, crossed the Atlantic in 1969. And it lives on to this day.

leggi anche

2022. The second time of Vespucci’s impossible feat

No one would have bet on this seven-footer, launched in 1965 on a 1942 design. Yet he became a sailing legend. The Rondetto was the first boat with which an Italian sailor crossed the Atlantic in ’69. In its history it has made five crossings (including an Ostar), was beached in Brazil in ’86, sank in the Rapallo swell in 2018, and has returned to new life thanks to the passion of its latest owner, who is a great sailor.

“But it is the Washer original?” So asked a passerby in 2021, amazed to witness the return to the sea of that little sailboat with the familiar name. “Yes, it is indeed.” The answer from Michele Ivaldi, the passionate Milanese sailor who restored it, confirmed the rebirth of one of the smallest and most important boats that helped write pages of Italian sailing history. Rondetto is a Bermudian sloop made of Honduran mahogany planking on oak framework 7.60 meters long (6.90 meters at the waterline), launched in 1965 by the J.G. Parnham & Sons shipyard in Emsworth, in the English county of Hampshire. The design was based on that of the Nordic Folkboat, the small Swedish cabin cruiser created in 1942 to the design of Jac Iversen and Tord Sundén, later released in more than 3,500 examples worldwide. In contrast to the Folkboat, Rondetto has caulked planking instead of clinker planking, and at the design stage her waterlines were modified by Englishman John Illingworth (also designer of the 1956 Navy’s Sangermani Artica II) to cope better with ocean waves and to be able to race in the Junior Offshore Group between England, France and Spain. The first owner of Rondetto was Lieutenant David Gay, commander of the Royal Yacht Bloodhound.

Rondetto. Erik Pascoli’s feat

In 1968, Turin sailor Erik Pascoli (1942-2013) was looking for a small yacht to cross the Atlantic solo, the first Italian to attempt the challenge. After searching for it in Italy and France, he traveled to England and on December 20 purchased the Rondetto. On April 3, 1969, he left for the West Indies and took 47 days to reach Dominica, a feat recounted in the book “From Portsmouth to Portsmouth. With Rondetto across the Atlantic” published by Mursia in 1971. After the crossing Erik lived in the Caribbean for two years on board. Tired of life in the tropics and eager to return to Europe to seek new sailing comparisons, in January 1971 he decided to bring back Rondetto to the Mediterranean on the Azores route from west to east. The mid-winter sailing, from Pointe-à-Pitre to Almeria in Spain, lasted 53 days. The new feat earned him the D’Albertis Trophy from the Italian Yacht Club and the City of San Remo Award from the San Remo Yacht Club. In 1972, after transferring Rondetto via truck from Mentone to Plymouth, Pascoli participated off the leaderboard in the O.S.T.A.R., the solo Atlantic crossing to Newport R.I. in which they also raced the three-masted monster Vendredi 13 and the Pen Duick IV, Eric Tabarly ‘s former boat with compatriot Alain Colas aboard. Rondetto took 48 days, including a “forced” 9-day stop in Nova Scotia due to an abscess. According to the Royal Western Yacht Club ‘s calculations, he would place second in equal compensated time among monohulls. After this third Atlantic he left New York for Genoa aboard the liner Michelangelo, with Rondetto in the hold. After assuming command of Tauranga, with which he participated in the first Whitbread Around The World Race, publisher Alberto Rizzoli entrusted Pascoli with the Big Boat Mariette, one of seven large steel schooners built by American Herreshoff between 1903 and 1915, the year of launching of Mariette.

The Washer changes hands

Meanwhile in 1980 Rondetto was sold to Bruno Pietrangeli, cousin of tennis champion Nicola, and in 1982 Cantiere Beconcini of La Spezia carried out a series of works including refitting the deckhouse, laying a new teak deck and greening the planking of the living work. With Pietrangeli the boat crossed the Atlantic for a fourth time, from Tenerife to Martinique in 30 days, and a fifth time in 1986, from Gibraltar to Fortaleza in Brazil, 3,300 miles in 41 days. But a few miles off the Brazilian coast, the lone Pietrangeli suffered food poisoning and ended up “on the dunnage,” leaving the windward helm to steer Rondetto. By sheer luck the boat avoided going to the rocks and was beached near Fortaleza. Shipped to Italy via cargo it was repaired by Beconcini. The next owner was Piero Biaggini from Lerici, class of 1938, pioneer of the Mini 6.50 class. With him Rondetto sailed in the Mediterranean for 20 years, mostly between the Tuscan Archipelago and Corsica.

Rondetto. The Ivaldi era

Then in 2014 the boat was purchased by Michele Ivaldi from Milan , with a sailing background aboard the Optimist, Europa, Laser, 470, Minitonner dinghies, the IOR Guia of Giorgio Falck, the Mistral class windsurfers and in Division II (he was Swiss champion), the J22 and J24. His resume also includes an Atlantic crossing in 2009 in crewed ARC regatta. Passionate about vintage boats, he was owner of the gaff cutter Star 1907, still sailing on Lake Maggiore, which in the past could bear the White Ensign, the British flag reserved for yachts of the Royal Navy and Royal Yacht Squadron. Today Ivaldi lives between Italy and Ireland, where he frequents the traditional West Cork boat scene and cultivates a passion for breeding hunting dogs. His noble bearing, elegance, and very British sideburns, reminiscent of Sandokan‘s sworn enemy James Brooke, make him a pleasant character with whom to chat about the sea. With him Rondetto sails between Liguria and Sardinia, where in 2015 he moved the boat strictly solo. Since May 2018 the sloop has been based at the Carlo Riva harbor in Rapallo and used for relaxing outings and trolling. But nothing foreshadows the sad fate to which it is heading.

leggi anche

BS Nautic, a team of professionals at your disposal

Washer, wreck No. 1

On October 29, 2018, a violent storm surge hits the harbor, and at 02:38 on October 30, Ivaldi receives a blood-chilling message: “Boats all lost.” What unfolds in the morning is a catastrophic sight, with the harbor breakwater washed away and most of the boats literally swallowed by the water. No one has access and private searches are not allowed. Where did the Washer? Michele ‘s theory is that she sank where he left her, at berth I-91, moored with her bow on the dock and her stern braving the waves that destroyed the breakwater. But endless bureaucracy slows everything down. Only on Nov. 25 does he receive a plan of the wreckage. Rondetto is listed as “Wreck No. 1” and is located where Ivaldi thought. This must be done quickly. After three scheduled and canceled recoveries, finally on Dec. 22 the boat is ballooned by divers, towed under the travel lift and returned to land.

Rondetto. Reborn from the mud

On board mud is everywhere, the mast is bent, the sails are torn, the mainsails uprooted and bent, the deck is full of holes, the pulpits crumpled. If it were not Rondetto, perhaps it would be worth disposing of. For several months Ivaldi spends every weekend dismantling, cleaning, washing, and fixing. Then in June 2019 comes the move to Pisa to Carol Petek and Nikola Kaljevic’s Maritime Safety Advice, former builders of Sira, a wooden replica of Giles’ Vertue launched in 2018. Among the endless work completed was the replacement of 8 warpheads and 4 beams, the repair of a dozen planking boards, and the reconstruction of the port cockpit paramare, teak scallops, and rudder blade. The equipment, mainly Lewmar Emsworth, was sought and bought back second-hand in England and Ireland. Lapidary was Ivaldi’s assessment of Carol and Nikola: “They didn’t do anything wrong, I didn’t have to have any work redone twice, if anything they redid it themselves because they weren’t satisfied with it.” For the mast, they relied on the Velscaf of well-known navigator Franco ‘Ciccio’ Manzoli, winner of the 2005 O.S.T.A.R. and Ivaldi’s crossing partner in the 2009 crossing, while the sails were redone by another solo sailor, Roberto Westermann, third place at the 2009 O.S.T.A.R.

A piece of Italian boating history

In October 2021 Rondetto, more beautiful than ever, made her sea debut at the sixteenth edition of the Raduno Vele Storiche Viareggio, where she was awarded a special prize. Last March, in Rome, her story enchanted the audience of shipowners and presidents of the most important Italian yacht clubs who attended the presentation of the annual calendar dedicated to vintage sail racing. And there Ivaldi realized that he had become the proud owner of a piece of Italian yachting history.

by Paolo Maccione

• Check out all the articles from the GdV archive in this section