1963 Robert Clark Yawl

This 21 metre masterpiece designed by Robert Clark and masterfully built in 1963, is a magnificent Ocean Racer that was able to win a Transatlantic race in the early 90s with an elderly owner and a non-professional crew, without sacrificing great comfort. Providing course stability, a rare seaworthiness, a simple sail plan and excellent deck equipment, FIRE BIRD is also a wonderful yacht for quiet use by a family wishing to enjoy the ample sunbathing areas on deck, the very comfortable cockpit and her comfortable interior. Her hull is built in Burma teak and her sides in mahogany. Her teak deck, professionally built in 2009, has a life of decades ahead of it. FIRE BIRD, built under the supervision of Lloyds in Class 100 A1, it is one of the best classic yachts of its size available today and is in an excellent state of maintenance. Italian flag, Rina 2025. Base port Imperia. We agree wholeheartedly with what Barney Sandeman, who had previously studied this beautiful boat well, wrote: even by modern standards, FIRE BIRD defies the custom that classic yachts do not have enough interior space and accommodation to meet modern-day comfort requirements. FIRE BIRD is a project that goes way back. It was in 1937 when Charles Nicholson designed and built in his Southampton yard a marvellous Ocean Racer, a 68' Marconi cutter designed for regattas, but very elegant in her interiors, an evolution of Bloodhound, Foxhound and Stiarna, among the most powerful boats of the period. She was called Firebird X, now known internationally as Oiseaux de Feu. Twenty-five years later, in 1962, the former owner of Firebird X, J.E. Green, ordered Robert Clark to revisit Nicholson's design, retaining the same deck length, modifying the distribution of volumes to achieve greater habitability and comfort compared to a masterpiece of the 30s and, if possible, increasing performance. A great challenge for a designer! The boat was called FIRE BIRD, yawl-rigged, beautiful, powerful. Yachting World described the project as "a reinterpretation of the earlier yacht in modern times", maintaining the balance and harmony of the forms while increasing the width by more than 50 cm and increasing the volume by almost 10 cubic metres with less draught. A work of art, engineering and naval architecture. A refined classic boat, built in teak like the best boats of the 30s, which with great comfort won a transatlantic regatta in the 90s. By the mid-1930s, the great old men of world yacht design - William Fife III, Charles Nicholson, Nat Herreshoff - were giving way to the young: Olin Stephens, Jack Laurent Giles, Robert Clark; and Mystery II, Favona and Ortac, Clark's revolutionary designs left their mark on design history, such as Stephens' Dorade, Giles' Maid of Malham... The hallmark of Clark's designs, as John Leather wrote in a commentary, was the combination of speed and seaworthiness with good livability and grace of form. His talent and his serious work of study and design am