Eight of world's most stunning schooners to gather for Superyacht Cup

by The Superyacht Cup on 17 Jun 2016 To coincide with the 20th edition of the Superyacht Cup, a fleet of the largest and easily most gorgeous classic schooners will gather on the Bay of Palma, Wednesday the 22nd of June, in a scene so beautiful it will blow your mind. The three vintage schooners competing in this silver Superyacht Cup, Mariette, Germania Nova, and Naema, will be joined by several other large classic schooners, to take part in The Big Class Day Sail.

From approximately 13.30 to 15.30 this breathtakingly beautiful fleet of unique yachts will sail a course starting at Dic de l'Oest, via Isle de Sech, to the harbour wall in front of Palma's iconic Cathedral. This will be a rare opportunity to feast your eyes on this ravishing get-together, either from shore or from other vessels on the Bay. Our official Superyacht Cup photographer Claire Matches, and filming pro's RecBlau Audiovisuales, will be at the scene to captivate these stunners of a by-gone era, enabling us to enjoy and cherish mouth-watering momentoes for many years to come.

This display of a different breed of boats, famed for their grace and good looks and admired for their racing prowess, will make for a truly unique event and a once in a lifetime treat, both for classic sailing fans and lovers of things ridiculously beautiful.

The following yachts will be taking part:

The timelessly classy 54m Shenandoah is, hands down, one of the most famous and striking of all the classics afloat today. She was built in 1902, has survived two World Wars and has sailed the waters of the Pacific, the Antarctic and the North Atlantic to name a few. She has raced across oceans and circumnavigated the globe many times. Moreover, she is still in a condition which will enable her to go into the next century as gracefully as she sailed into this one.

The 55m Elena was built in 2009 by Factoria Naval de Marin as a meticulously re-built replica of the first Elena, drawn up by Nathanael Herreshoff in 1910, the so-called 'Wizard of Bristol'. The owner, Morton Plant, gave him a wonderful design brief: 'build me a schooner that can win!' Elena finished in front at most of her early races against the crème de la crème of the American schooner fleet. The new Elena slices through the water with the grace reminiscent of a former era and, as a regular racer, has claimed victories on both sides of the Atlantic.

The Herreshoff designed 55m Eleonora is an exact replica of the schooner Westward, arguably one of the most famous and best-performing racing schooners in the world. The ultra-fast schooner Westward claimed first against the likes of Britannia, Lulworth and Meteor II in racing events. Eleonora, steel hulled and wooden masted like her predecessor, was built at the Van der Graaf shipyard, and launched in 2000. Since then, she has triumphed in a number of regattas, like Antigua Sailing Week and Les Voiles de St Tropez. She has raced in the Solent in the Westward Cup and has competed in the Round the Island Race in 2012 with Sir Ben Ainslie co-helming.

The 60m traditional gaff-rigged schooner Germania Nova was built as a true replica of the classic 1908 racing schooner Germania, using the same hull lines, deck- and sail-plans as designed by the acclaimed Max Oertz. The orginal Germania was built to kick stern and with a top speed of 19 knots, in one year alone, came first in more than half of the races in which she competed. For the new Germania (although a worldly wise traveller) the Superyacht Cup will be her very first outing on a race course.

The 24m gaff schooner Kelpie of Falmouth was designed by Francis Sweisguth and built in Maine in 1929. She was completely restored in 2014 to look good and race hard, which she does! She placed fourth during the 2014 edition of the Pendennis Cup, pipping Mariette and Adix to the schooner class overall.

The 41m two-masted schooner Mariette of 1915 was also designed by Nathanael Herreshoff, the renowned designer responsible for a whole array of unbeatable America's Cup defenders. Although this seasoned sail yacht was built 100 years ago, she not only remains in fine form, but also still races at the top of her game. She scored premium slot at the 2012 Pendennis Cup, and claimed a respectable third place in last year's Transatlantic Race, ahead of all-carbon racers Rambler and Comanche.

One of the very few entirely original classic gaff cutter yachts remaining today is the lovely 35m Moonbeam IV, built by William Fife and Sons. She was launched in 1920 and went straight on to win the Kings' Cup in both 1920 and 1923. The famous French single-handed sailor, Eric Tabarly, described her as 'the most beautiful yacht ever built'. She has taken ev-ery-thing there is to win: the Vele d'Epoca, the Trophée Bailli de Suffren, Les Voiles d'Antibes, Calanques Classique, Cannes, St. Tropez, Barcelona and Mahon, as well as the PYTA (Prix du Yacht de Tradition l'Année) and, the Big Boats category of the Panerai Classic Yachts Challenge.

Completing this jaw-dropping scene will be the 39m schooner Naema. She is the largest Alfred Mylne design ever built and is a replica of the, at the time, extremely popular charter yacht Panda, built in 1938. Naema is, like Germania Nova, a first timer on the racing circuit and, no doubt, as eager to show off her racing prowess.