VARUNA

● Name: VARUNA

● Rig : 12 MR GAFF CUTTER

● Year: 1909

● Designer: A.RICHARDSON

● Builder: PHILIP & SON-DARTMOUTH -UK

● Location: NW ITALY

● LOA: 21.50

● LOD: 18.31 m

● LWL: 13.20 m

● BMax: 3.80 m

● Depth: 2.70 m

● Displacement: 28 T

● Engine: VM 100 HP

● Equipments: Engine VM 100BHP year 2002 Tender + Jhonson year 2002 Gen set 6,5Kw year 2002 AC/DC Newmar

Autopilot Simrad year 2004 Desalinator 90Lt/h year 2003 Boiler,Freezer,refrigerator GPS Geonav 10 Colour year 2002

Log&Wind B&G Hydra year 2002 Ecosounder B&G year 2003 Tel Sat Motorola,VHF year 2002 Stereo + Ant TV year

2002 Sails Gaff Sail 104,57 sq.m.year 2003 Gaff top Sail 24,12 sq.m.year 2003 Jib top Sail 24,03 sq.m.year 2003 Jib

20,54 sq.m.year 2003 Working Jib 18,47 sq.m.year 2003 Drifter 45,00 sq.m.year 2003 Gennaker 130,00 sq.m.year 2003

● Costruction and Accomodations: THE CONSTRUCTION : Best teak on oak construction provided by one of the very

best shipyard in England of the 1900. Bronze fastening.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE RESTORATION : In May

2000 VARUNA’s hull was completely emptied; the lower planking was taken to pieces to examine the condition of keel

and frame. All the connecting pivots were removed and the strongback in sweet iron, were recovered to be used again

after having been coated with zinc. The keel, which was practically sunk in a casting of polyester resin, was cleared out

with enormous work. Moreover the stern-post and about fifteen frames had to be replaced; instead the planking, except for

the nails, was almost in perfect state. Then the helm’s blade had to be reconstructed, while an accurate ultrasonic

examination established the condition of the bronze pivots which connect the ballast to the keel. On the bridge, once taken

to pieces for restoration all the original iron fittings, had replaced the beams and reconstructed the deck with two layers of

teak 22 mm-thick, identical to the original. And of the same wood was also the railcap with the border in ash wood. The

doghouse placed to protect the entrance stairs, was still in good condition, as well as the skilight to which had to be

remade glasses, protections and paints. A new engine, VM 100 HP , was installed up in oblique line with side exit of the

propeller as it used to be done in that period for adding steam to sail. Architect Giorgetti, responsible for the philology of

the restoration, designed the interiors according to the original designs recovered from the British Museum; so the warm

cherry—tree, precious furnishings of the period of the bathrooms, of the cabins and of the cockpit match with that

minimum of confort in terms of instrumentations and fittings for sailing in every season and in maximum of security,

without having to renounce the unique atmosphere of an old 12 m.The masting was undertaken by the french Gilbert

Pasqui in his VilleFranche shipyard, by fitting and shaping at best, according to his experience and the construction

designs of Franco Giorgetti, the long thick board of Pitch Pine and Silver Spruce in order to obtain the complicated but

undeniably aesthetic structure for gaff rigged sails.

● Description: Varuna, ex White Heather, is one of the very first yachts built under the international metre rules as a 12MR

She was launched in 1909 in Dartmouth ,being built by Philip&Son under drawings of A. Richardson. The lines and shape

of Varuna were said to be somehow inspired to the exceptional beauty of Britannia,the famous yacht of George V, king of

Great Britain ,and for many years  when sailing in the Solent waters, Varuna was called “The little Britannia” Built of the

best Rangoon Teak on English grown oak frames ,she is one of the more fascinating  classic racing yachts of her size.

After a very careful restoration at Cantieri di Imperia,Italy between 2000-2003 she took part to many classic yachts races

in Mediterranean sea and her lovely and graceful shape is  one of the nicest of the classic yacht meetings. Her insides are

sober and elegant .

● Asking Price: SOLD

● History: At the beginning of the last century the rapid evolution of yachting brought a pretty chaotic situation in regard to

rating to apply to the regatta. Practically every club of some certain importance had his own regulations prejudicing in this

way the international status of the competition. To put an end to this situation, a conference, which took place in London

in 1906 amongst all the States involved, established a unique regulation: the International rating, which came into effect a

couple of years later and subdivided into different metric classes: 4m, 6m, 8m, 12m, 15m, 23m, where those

measurements were not related to the lenght of the hull, but were the result of the rating. When A.Richardson in 1907 see

himself up to work for designing WHITE HEATHER, this was VARUNA’s original name, he probably had the need to

create a hull which was adequate to that formula for the 12 meters class, but also the desire to designs something which,

even in smaller proportion, was the most possible similar to the beloved BRITANNIA, GEORGE V’s royal yacht. Philip

& Son shipyard in Dartmouth had the task of handle the precious Birman teak utilized for this construction. For this

reason, the legend has told that a chosen cargo of the exotic timber was imported at the beginning of the 800’s by a Lord

ancestor of the shipowner. The wood was store to grow old in one of the many peat-bogs which surrounded the English

coasts while waiting for the right utilization. The war destroyed the shipyard archives therefore not much is known about

the construction of VARUNA. Succesive witnesses say she was used for training other 12 meters and also engaged in long

cruises in the Baltic sea and along the Scottish coasts. The international rating foresaw for his major different levels, from

8m and above, the living space with a minimum of comfort, as the gentleman who participated in regattas in the Solent

was arriving there under sail on board of his “twelve” . The 30’s brought a change from the splendid gaff rigged to the

handier Marconi, the installment of the engine and the new name: VARUNA. Recalls the English lady descendant of the

first proprietor and she too shipowner of the boat until the 70's, how in Cowes, where VARUNA was cruising frequently,

the 12 meters was nicknamed “Little Britannia” due to his resemblance with the royal yacht. Quite different instead was

the appearance of the boat in the last thirty years of the century, marked. by a long— term neglects on the shining

Caribbean coasts or at the bottom of Mediterranean ports, by poor maintenance and botched pieces of work; the

beginning, in a word, of a sad, last route that leads the old boats to the definitive mooring. But evidently, perhaps due to

the personal interest of the Indian divinity, Varuna, in charge of the waters and of the seas and also of the multiple

acquaintances in the crowded Hinduist pantheon, quite a different karma was written about VARUNA’s faith, so to

awaken a morning in May 2000 under the roof of the Imperia shipyard surrounded by the most loving cares of Mario

Quaranta and his carpenters.

© Enrico Zaccagni www.zaboats.it