Mariquita Book - mk2.5
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1919 – 1958 THE LONG FAREWELL<br />
<strong>Mariquita</strong> returned to Great Britain after the war but her time as a top flight racing yacht was over.<br />
George V, ‘the Sailor King’, brought back the iconic yacht Britannia and a new Big Class eclipsed the<br />
19-Metres. Although <strong>Mariquita</strong> raced against her old rivals Octavia and Norada under reduced rigs it<br />
was in the handicap classes. It was the beginning of the end. It’s said that a crew is a ship’s lifeblood. Over<br />
the years <strong>Mariquita</strong>’s captains and crew were drawn from the creeks of Essex and Suffolk, from villages<br />
like Rowhedge, Wyvenhoe and Brightlingsea. Captains such as Edward Sycamore and Robert Wringe<br />
were local men who had learnt their craft on the fishing boats of the east coast before graduating to yacht<br />
racing. It was perhaps a sad irony that <strong>Mariquita</strong> returned to this area to end her sailing days in 1938.<br />
Mersea Hard<br />
West Mersea Maritime Museum<br />
1959 – 1991 IN THE WILDERNESS<br />
By the early 1970s all the other 19-Metres had disappeared, but <strong>Mariquita</strong> through a combination of<br />
luck together with the love and application of a series of owners managed to survive in her favourable<br />
mud berth in East Anglia. However, after 30 years sitting in the ooze at Pin Mill time was running<br />
out for this former thoroughbred. Fortunately the combined efforts of William Collier, Albert Obrist,<br />
Duncan Walker, not to mention the skill and experience of salvage expert Harry Spence, heralded a new<br />
chapter in <strong>Mariquita</strong>’s journey. In the summer of 1991 <strong>Mariquita</strong> was re-floated on a high spring tide<br />
and dragged clear of the mud. She was then delivered to Fairlie Restorations on the Hamble where she<br />
waited for her restoration. It took 10 years before the work started.<br />
She was brought to West Mersea by Arthur Hempstead whose firm undertook the decommissioning.<br />
Her fine mast was chopped away above the deck, her keel bolts let go and 40 tonnes of lead cut into<br />
scrap on the Mersea Hard. After a spell in Tollesbury in Essex the hulk of the once beautiful yacht was<br />
towed to Woodbridge on the River Deben where she served as a house boat for a decade. <strong>Mariquita</strong> was<br />
then moved to Pin Mill on the River Orwell in 1958. This was expected to be her final resting place.<br />
One by one all the 19-Metres had turned their bows inland to expire in the mud – to decay and vanish.<br />
<strong>Mariquita</strong> in Pin Mill<br />
G L Watson<br />
2004 – 2012 MARIQUITA RETURNS<br />
West Mersea<br />
West Mersea Maritime Museum<br />
While Fairlie Restorations were busy restoring yachts such as Tuiga, Kentra and The Lady Anne the hulk<br />
of <strong>Mariquita</strong> loomed over the yard. She was large but the challenge of restoring her was even larger.<br />
Nobody had ever dared to restore, as close as possible to her original state, a large racing gaff cutter.<br />
Undaunted the restoration begun and after three long years <strong>Mariquita</strong> finally appeared from the shed at<br />
Fairlie Restorations in the spring of 2004. This was a landmark restoration, one of the finest that Fairlie<br />
had ever undertaken. <strong>Mariquita</strong> looked as good as new.<br />
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