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Barbara is one of the first examples of easy sailing: a new way of designing yachts with a triangular sail pian and mizzen mast that allows a small crew
ls interesting to see the picture of 1923 that portrays Barbara sailing in the Solent with only 3 people on board. Among the people, we also find the designer, Charles Ernest Nicholsons.
Built in a light but hardy way, with teak and pitch pine timber on white oak frames, it has a Yawl Marconi/Bermudian sai/ pian.
Barbara was built in 1923 by the Camper & Nicholsons shipyard for Herbert T. Hines (1870-1957) a notable insurer of the Royal Exchange in London.
Hines, appointed insurer of the New Zealand lsurance Company, in June 1906 became chief insurer of the important Royal Exchange Assurance Company. During his life, he owned 3 yachts.
In 1926 the ownership was transferred to the Londoner Harold Francis Edwards. Edwards was a well-known sailor.
His grandson William, also an excellent competitor, has provided us some informations about his grandfather, who donateci two prizes to the Royal Thames Yacht Club in 1966, as challenge prizes for the first in two categories for the Round of the lsland Race, a traditional regatta of the lsle of Wight.
In 1928, the Baron Amaury de la Grange (1888-1953) bought the boat, registering it in Dunkirk and then in Cannes, France.
De la Grange was a notable politica! figure, husband of Emily Sloane, daughter of Henry T. Sloane, owner of the W and J Sloane mall in New York.
One event put Barbara’s story at the attention of the of press:
“During the fierce N. W gaie on Friday evening of the fast week the 20 ton aux. yawl Barbara, which, under the command of Captain Vandersande, was making a passage from Burseldon to Havre and had anchored in Ryde Roads owning to stress of weather, got into difficulties.
The yacht brought up off Ryde in the afternoon, and as the tide ebbed and the wind freshened, a second anchor was put out.
About an hour later the Barbara began to drag and, with the wind blowing at almost hurricane force, was swept onto the sands at Packpool. In response to distress signals, Bembridge motor lifeboat went to the aid of the yawl, which was on the Sandshead Bank, about 300 yards east of the Ryde Pierhead, but her assistance was not required. Barbara’s crew of three reached the Pierhead in their own boat. The lifeboat stood by unti/ the rising tide ref/oated the yaw/, which was taken into the shelter of Bembridge.
The Barbara, a yacht of 20 tons, was designed by Mr C. E. Nicholson and built by his firm at Gosport in 1923, and purchased a short time ago by Baron Aumary de Lagrange, of Paris.”
In 1930, Barbara bacarne a property of the Commander Jean Alexandre Melchior de Vogue (1898-1972), a member of the well-known French De Vogue family, owner of the castle and president of the Saint Louis Sucre industry. De Vogue kept the mooring in Cannes until the 1950s.
Since the 1960s, Barbara changed different owners, bringing significant changes to the structure of the boat.
The sail pian was reduced, like many other boats. The helm bacarne swivel, the bowsprit was replaced with a bathing platform, the mainmast boom was shortened and the stern’s bowsprit was eliminated.
In 1982 Barbara was the support boat for Sergio Ferrero Prince di Muresanu for his Guinness world record windsurfing cross of the Atlantic Ocean in 24 days.
In 1998, the boat, badly maintained, was entrusted to Astilleros Mediterraneo, in Malaga, known for the restoration of William Fife 11l’s 1906 auric cutter Eva.
In 2014 lt was decided to move Barbara to Viareggio, finishing the long philological refitting project, based on the originai drawings from 1923, with the goal of bringing Barbara back to the originai project.
Barbara has been entrusted to the Francesco Del Carlo shipyard for a philological refitting, led by a team of experts, with the support of Viareggio’s Historical Sails and the suggestions of the architect Antonio Dondoli.
Despite the loss of most of the originai drawings, due to the fire that broke out in the C & N archives in Gosport in 1941, some tables of Barbara’s originai plans were kept at the National Marittime Museum in Greenwich, allowing the super expert of historic boats Chicco Zaccagni with the vice-president VSV Commander Riccardo Valeriani and the Architect Gian Marco Ciboddo to carry out a complete philological restoration.
In 2016 Barbara’s philological restoration is the Francesco Rocchetti’s Master’s Degree thesis in Naval and Nautica! Design of the University of Genoa with supervision of professor Maria Carola Morozzo della Rocca.
In 2018, twenty years after her last navigation, and ninety-five years from its first sail, Barbara finally returned to sailing.
The return earned her the important Assonautica prize, given for her restoration at the Imperia Vintage Sails in 2018.
In 2019 Barbara won the AIVE cup (ltalian Association of Vintage Sails) of the Tyrrhenian Sea in the “Vintage Yachts” category.