Aboard: MARISKA

MARISKA was built to race. Launched in 1908, she was designed by William Fife III for the then-new International Rule’s 15-Meter class, the second of the type that Fife designed and the first to be built at the William Fife & Son yard in Fairlie, Scotland. She was composite-built, meaning she had wooden planking over steel frames. In her initial three seasons, her first owner, Arthur K. Stothert, raced her no fewer than 133 times, often placing first or second.

MARISKA has reclaimed her competitive heritage in recent classic-yacht-racing events, where she is once again in her element. I joined her during a race in 20 knots of wind at Régates Royales in Cannes, France, where she is a regular competitor. As that afternoon’s sail came to an end, Manon Bajart, the yacht’s co-captain and caretaker, said, “That was a great afternoon!” I could not have agreed more.

As with any long-lived yacht, she has had her ups and downs. During World War I, only eight years after her launching, her keel was melted down to be used for ammunition. In 1923, a Swedish owner, Carl Matthiessen, vice president of the Royal Swedish Yacht Club, bought her and campaigned her intensively for 20 years. Later, Olle Grafström, a jazz musician and painter, bought her, and his restoration altered the original deck layout by replacing an original skylight with a sliding hatch, which brought in air and light and allowed the installation of a piano in the saloon. She sank twice in the early 2000s due to a lack of maintenance. Over the years, her rig was converted to a gaff yawl, next a marconi yawl, and then a Bermudan ketch before returning to her original gaff-cutter configuration in 2007.

To read the rest of this article:

Click the button below to log into your Digital Issue Access account.

Read the Issue

No digital access? Subscribe or upgrade to a WoodenBoat Digital Subscription and finish reading this article as well as every article we have published for the past 50-years.

Subscribe Now