The wonderful thing about classic yachts is that each is unique. This makes finding the one for you particularly exciting, needing much searching and looking at ones that don’t quite suit, rather than collecting brochures.​

 

Their uniqueness and beauty is beguiling and inspires new owners to take on projects from which any sane person would shy away – which is a good job – otherwise there would be no classic yachts by now.

 

My wife Josephine and I had narrowed down our expectations for our new boat. For Jo, size mattered, looking for comfort aboard, easy passage making, cabin space for family and friends to join us in the Med, and most of all a deck saloon to look out at the sunny mountains rather than being buried below decks. For me, she needed to be manageable for us so she had to be a ketch or a yawl. I had limited funds, so a bit of a project, but not a rebuild.

 

We went to see a couple of possibles, one in Sardinia the other Liguria. I made a low offer on the Sardinian one as she was very rough, but the purchase didn’t proceed. Shortly afterwards I received an email from another Italian broker who had heard about this, with three suggestions we should look at. One of these was Kaléa, moored at Civitavechia up the coast from Rome. She seemed to have it all: lovely deck saloon, four separate twin cabins, each with WC and shower, comfortable family-sized cockpit, ideal rig for us and an extensive list of mod cons, including dishwasher, washing machine, fridges and freezers, air con, water maker, generators, heating and so on – and apparently just in need of re-varnishing the bright work!

 

I had seen this look on my wife’s face in 1999 when she stepped aboard the 1954 Philip Rhodes 45’ sloop Jane Dore IV in Long Island which we then bought – so I knew Kaléa was the one. Kaléa is very impressive, from her spacious aft deck for evening drinks and dining to her sweeping 150mm wide capping rails with wood stanchions beneath at every metre and the guard rail stanchions passing through; lovely big opening ports, long teak passerelle, an Italian yacht designed and built for Med life.

 

Purchase agreed, the Italian owner Andrea Di Lazzaro took me for a sail, and in 8 knots of breeze she crept up to 6 knots on the wind, with very old sails and a 75cm diameter fixed 3 bladed prop which continued to turn noisily, so I knew she would sail well with these items addressed.

 

Will Stirling flew out to Rome and conducted a full survey. We knew there was rot in the topsides due to water ingress around the chain plates and various other things not working, or past their sell by dates, and it was daunting to see all this and more written down, but I clung hopefully to Will's description:

 

“Kaléa is a large and attractive sailing vessel that has been substantially built”.

 

It was very apparent that in 1963/4, Italian naval architect and engineer Bruno Veronese, in collaboration with the famous Italian shipyard Cantieri Di Pisa, had built a beautiful, powerful cruising yacht of great quality and charisma. What her new owner may lack in financial substance he would more than make up for with vision, skill and a determination to return Kaléa to her former glory and a driving ambition to end up owning a really lovely and quite big yacht. This would be a substantial undertaking. So I bit my knuckles and pressed on with the purchase.

 

Read the full article about Kaléa's rescue and restoration here.