Mariquita Book - mk2.5

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