Cabo Horns 35 boats join in an ocean race

The Cabo Horn 35 class, one of the most successful designs in our office’s career, after more than twenty years of existence keeps brimming over with alacrity. This September three of these boats will participate on the traditional three-hundred miles Recife to Fernando de Noronha Island Ocean Race. They are Stella Maris, owned by Roberto Kivitis Nogueira, from Alagoas, Brazil, Marcelo Balbo’s Thalassa, from Ilha Bela, State of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and the most famous member of the class, the legendary Utopia, now belonging to Manrico D’Alessandro, from Florianopolis, State of Santa Catarina, Brazil.

To crown the participation of boats from our design in this magic race to one of the most beautiful ocean islands in the South Atlantic, this year we will have no less than sixteen yachts in the competition, some of them authentic icons in the yachting regional scene, as is the case of Utopia (see in Cabo Horn 35 home page – club -  “Marco Cianfflone’s Utopia round the world trip”), and Amyr Klink’s  laureate fifty-foot polar yacht Paratti II, the first boat to sail single-handed non-stop around Antarctica, and to winter alone in that frozen continent, for those achievements being awarded the coveted Royal Cruising Club of England “Tillman’s Prize”, besides being commended with a Brazilian Mail stamp. “Paratii Between Two Poles” and “The Endless Sea”, the books he wrote relating those feats, were best-sellers published in various languages, having sold more than one million copies worldwide. We are still going to report about Paratii II and the other yachts from our design taking part in the race, but for the time being the three home-built Cabo Horns 35 are the boats we would like to praise in this article.

Paratii II will be competing in the 2010 Recife to Fernando de Noronha Race.

Many clients of ours tell us they nurture long time dreams of taking part in the Recife to Fernando de Noronha Race, perhaps this being the reason for the steady increase, year after year, in the number of our boats in the competition. Since the island is a national park with a fragile ecosystem, the maximum number of participants is limited to one-hundred sixty yachts from any nationality. So, having 10% of the fleet representing boats from our office is quite an impressive number.

Cabo Horn 35 interior layout. The most “off-road” of our cruising designs

The race being an event where what counts most is to be there, wining in each class simply represents an extra bonus. It becomes evident in the minds of participants that boats specifically designed for cruising offshore have a clear edge over “off-the-shelf” production yachts, which are mainly intended for club racing and weekend short-distance sailing. It is frequently commented in the verandahs that taking part in the Recife to Fernando de Noronha Race is a life-time accomplishment for production yacht owners, while it is a not to be missed annual event for those who own a proper offshore cruising boat. The race attractions are many, beginning with the warm welcome typical of the Brazilian way of life from the part of Cabanga Yacht Club, the sponsoring club, when a fortnight preceding the race there are live shows to be seen or parties to be enjoyed up to late evenings. The arrival in the lush and green paradise of Fernando de Noronha, where crews have at their disposal heaps of different social events and diving attractions to highlight their stay, having the prize-awarding party as the grand finale, is no less enjoyable.

Fernando de Noronha, being a national park, is yet unspoiled by heavy tourism    

Most probably this is the prevailing factor for the captains of our line of authentic cruising sailboats wanting to be there year after year. In this case owners find their boats the most adapted to live aboard and to endure the long round trip to reach Recife, added by the twice 300 miles run to reach the island and be back to the continent. Aboard a Cabo Horn 35 you don’t need to get stressed when you are on watch. With its pilot house boasting internal steering and excellent visibility 360° around, you can be on watch seating in the pilot chair, having only to stand up to reach the fridge for an ice-cold beer

The racing fleet stays anchored in the leeward side of the island close to the yacht harbour. This belvedere is one of the many the island has to offer to its visitors

The competitors of the class in this year’s event have in common their construction sagas. The three of them are amateur constructions accomplished with a very high level of workmanship, resulting in outstanding yachts. Being three boats from the same stock-plan, their owners might apply to obtain from the racing committee the status of class with exclusive prizes for them. At least this had been the rule in previous races.   

Stella Maris is a home-built Cabo Horn 35, constructed by her owner, Roberto Kivitis Nogueira, in Maceió, State of Alagoas, Northeast Brazil

Stella Maris was built  by her owner, Roberto Kivitis Nogueira, in a shed belonging to him, in Maceió, Alagoas. Roberto, had never built a boat before, never mentioning a fixed keel offshore yacht intended for a round the world trip.

As a start point in Roberto’s intentions is an Atlantic crossing by the roaring forties from Maceió, his home-town to Cape Town in South Africa (see the article about Stella Maris in the Cabo Horn 35 home page published by “The Alagoan Gazette: Roberto Nogueira builds a Cape Horn 35 for a round the world trip), being left to the long run the so cherished circumnavigation. Meanwhile, while his professional activities as a civil engineer don’t allow him the spare time for staying out for so long, he is being satisfied with his annual cruising schedule along the Brazilian coast, culminating with the entry in the Recife to Fernando de Noronha race. The boat is unquestionably very well prepared for any challenge in an ocean passage, and if the intended overseas voyage didn’t happen yet, at least his boat has already an impressive number of miles sailed since her launching in 2004. In one of the races to Fernando de Noronha our office had obtained the record of participants of boats from our design, and Stella Maris was one of them.

Roberto Kivitis  Nogueira (with white cap) receiving from Roberto Barros the commemorative plaque for being one of the twelve skippers of boats designed by the office on that race. With the studio change of address to Perth, Western Australia, unfortunately this year the new record can’t be commemorated as deserved

To toast the achievement B & G Yacht Design, then Roberto Barros Yacht Design, offered a lunch party at the town of Recife for all crewmembers of our fleet, when was offered to each of the twelve captains a commemorative plaque of the event, Roberto Kivitis Nogueira being one of the skippers honoured. This season the new record can not be commemorated accordingly, since there will be no representative of the office in Recife, but what really counts is the fact that Stella Maris is in Bristol shape, ready for accomplishing any new challenge.  

Thalassa is a Cabo Horn 35 extremelly well built by two totally inexperienced amateurs, Álvaro Brant de Carvalho and his father, João Brant de Carvalho, in the workshop of their farm in the interior of the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Thalassa is a good example of boats belonging to the Cabo Horn 35 class. She is so well built and well finished that “Revista Náutica”, the most important Brazilian yacht magazine, just published an article about her. Marcelo Balbo, the new owner, is so much infatuated with his boat that he made a site/blog just to tell in detail every step about her wanderings (see in our links page – Cabo Horn 35 Thalassa).

         Thalassa’s saloon matches the coziness of varnished wood with white upholstery

We are going to follow his blog with special interest, since it is expected from any Cabo Horn 35owner to get itchy feet as he discovers the pleasures of sailing offshore aboard one of these boats.

Utopia is the best known Cabo Horn 35. In her currículum is included a round the world trip and the fact that she survived a fierce hurricane in Saint Martin and a devastating tsunami in Pucket, Thailand.

What is flying around about the Cabo Horn Utopia is that she is the boat with seven lives. Her full story is a thrilling book of stunning adventures. She was built by Fausto Pignaton, an amateur who made his living making surfboards in a workshop in Guarapari, a small town in the Brazilian east shore. Soon after being launched her owner departed bound for the West Indies, even though he had no previous experience in sailing offshore. Since he was sailing in a very limited budget, he had to do some charter work to be able to keep the cost of his trip under control. After spending a whole season successfully sailing among the Windward Islands, with the approach of the hurricane season he picked the lagoon inside the island of Saint Martin as the haven where he would stay. It happens that, in spite of that island having been spared of any major tropical cyclones in previous years, that time it was hit by the fiercest hurricane ever, the infamous Louis. In a fleet of more than nine hundred yachts, eighty survived, even though no one unscathed, being his boat one of the less affected. What made the difference was Fausto’s courage, refusing to leave his boat, going against a warning issued by the authorities for crews not staying aboard. When he saw a catamaran flying upside-down not far from Utopia’s mast top, in seeing a huge steel yacht coming adrift in his boat direction, he let the anchor rod go and from then on assisted the boat to go aground in a mangrove patch. This measure saved his boat and probably his life too. To perform the maneuver he left the relatively comfortable shelter of the pilot-house wearing a pair of shorts, but had to recede, since the shorts’ cloth inflated like a balloon, obliging him to quickly undress, proceeding forwards entirely naked, wielding a boat-hook in one of his hands, as if he was old Neptune himself, emerging from the deep.

When the hurricane abated, Fausto had only minor scratches to fix in his boat, mainly the tip of the rudder. In two weeks the boat was ship-shape, ready for the intended return trip to Brazil.

This he had done single-handed, sailing non-stop from Saint-Martin to Fernando de Noronha, most of the time close-hauled, making the whole passage in twenty-one days. Back in his country, Fausto soon became a celebrity, being invited for T.V. interviews and having his saga being published by the most important local yachting magazines. His boat became object of desire, and in a blink it fell in the hands of another owner, the helicopter pilot Marco Cianflonne.

Marco, an adventurer by heart, wanted this Cabo Horn 35 to accomplish a round the world trip single handed, and this was what he managed to do in great style. If a cat has seven lives, we don’t know to say how many this fantastic boat has. During his round the world voyage, Marco hit a rock at full speed in Indonesia, was caught in the terrible tsunami that devastated Thailand, had been attacked by whales in the South Atlantic and arrived in his country unscathed. The report about this trip you can read in the Cabo Horn 35 home-page, CLUB, an extract from an article he wrote for an important magazine. In 2010 Utopia is as good as new, even though she can still show the signs of the mishaps she had endured. Now, in the hands of a third owner, Manrico D’Alessandro, she is ready for taking part in the Recife to Fernando de Noronha, 2010 edition and beyond.

Utopia anchored in the lagoon of a South Pacific island.

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