1975 Wolter Huisman 1a Clase Ior

The Émeraude (emerald in French) is one of the most successful boats under the CIM (Comité International de la Méditerranée) racing rules. It was built in Holland by the Wolter Huisman shipyard, based on plans by Germán Frers. The previous year, the same shipyard had built the famous Pinta and Saudade of the same IOR First Class. Huisman has existed as a shipyard since the second half of the 19th century and in the 1960s and 1970s specialised in steel yachts before and aluminium yachts after. Between the 1970s and 1980s it built a long series of IOR formula yachts, many of them victorious, establishing itself as the world's leading shipyard. In the mid-1980s, Wolter Huisman suddenly changed his industrial policy and started building mega-yachts, for which his shipyard is still at the forefront of the world. The excellent quality of its ships, confirmed by decades of work, led the Queen of the Netherlands to award it the title of Royal on the occasion of its 100th anniversary, which is why the shipyard has been called Royal Huisman since 1984. Germán Frers designed the Émeraude on behalf of the Frenchman Jacques Dewailly, who called all his ships by this name and who would go on to build two other larger ships, still under Frers' design, but built at other shipyards in 1985 and 1990. Dewailly was no ordinary character: an energy industrialist, his boats were skippered by the likes of Marc Pajot and Dennis Conner and won many international regattas. Dewailly was also among the organisers of the French challenge for the America's Cup in 1992 and 1995, with the IACC, the last traditional monohulls to race for that regatta. Dewailly wanted an ocean-racing boat that also had a cosy interior, so he asked that right down to the mast, the interior be much more luxurious than any other boat in her class, which is why Émeraude has a more unique interior than is rare among the IOR First Class and is totally original. With his first Émeraude, the one that concerns us, Dewailly raced with the French Admiral's Cup team, which finished sixth in 1977 (with Spain in eighth place). Another Huisman also raced on that team: Jacques Finot's famous Révolution, which marked the beginning of wide sterns design. Dewailly also took part in the Sardinia Cup, then a very popular and full of participants regatta, and in the “Settimana delle Bocche” (Week of the Mouths" referring to the Bonifacio strait), the Mediterranean alter ego of the Admiral's Cup. In 1979, Émeraude won the Middle Sea Race, the very tough race around Sicily and Malta. In 1985, as we said, Dewailly had a second Émeraude built in Italy and sold the first one to the Italian Sergio Doni, another great sailor of the time, with his boats called Yena. Curiously, Doni bought Huisman's boat when Dewailly had the second Émeraude built at SAI Ambrosini, which had built the previous Yena in 1976! It is possible that it was the same shipyard that put them in touch for the deal. That Yena, a ¾ ton IOR, had participate