Nicholas Potter 46 ft California 32 1937/2007

Built for Pacific Coast yachting, the California 32 has the reputation of being a formidable racer and a comfortable cruiser - designed by Nicholas S. Potter, AKA the "Herreshoff of the West". Eight of these sloops were built between the mid 1930s and the mid 1960s.

The California 32 was often a cover girl in the US West Coast yachting press. CHOLITA, ALTAMAR, TEMPEST, ESCAPADE and AMORITA were built before World War II. They were succeeded post war by ATORRANTE and ANDALE – then finally PEGASO in 1965.

The first seven California 32s won 14 out of 16 “Sir Thomas Lipton Cups” from 1948 to 1964 and subsequently dominated most other West Coast races.

AMORITA has been sympathetically restored and successfully raced on the classic Med circuit with wins at Puig Vela Classica Barcelona in 2008 and 2015. So far ahead of her 1930s timeline, this is a design that can be easily raced by a family crew and also cruised as her designer intended. She is in our view one of very few yachts from this period that appears to be sailing at 10 knots tied to the dock! Fast and furious to sail, it is only if you study all her original detail and gorgeous simplicity along with her purity of line that the game is given away: vintage yacht designed before World War II.

Sometimes owners want to move on and having made this decision they will now consider all realistic offers.

AMORITA is the last of five boats of this design built for the founder members of the California 32 One Design Class, founded and run under the supervision of the designer and the first owners. The boats were all launched on the same day in spring 1937. Built using a construction method developed by Herreshoff, they were built upside down over a mould, then turned right side up for completion with tremendous savings and greatly improved construction. This was the first time on the US Pacific Coast that a major class had been so constructed.

AMORITA was first owned by Bruce Beardsley of Newport RI. Subsequently her ownerships appear to have shuttled between the North American East and West coasts. Nevertheless until the 60s the California 32s raced in many important events on the Pacific coast with excellent results in races such as the Acapulco Channel Race, Transpac, and Seattle’s Tri-Island. In both 1959 and 1960 AMORITA won the Californian Lipton Cup.

Brought to Italy in 2005 from San Francisco, AMORITA was restored by Cantiere Navale dell’Argentario in Porto Santo Stefano for the present owner and launched in June 2007. AMORITA won the Mediterranean Panerai Trophy in 2007 and came in second in 2008. She also won the Puig Vela Classica Barcelona that same year, and again in 2015.

- Carvel Oregon pine planking
- Teak keel, horn timbers, stem, deck and rudders
- 1 1/8th inch Oregon pine planking
- White oak frames and deck beams
- Lead ballast
- Bronze fastenings

- Aft owner’s cabin via the bridge deck hatch also provides excellent ventilation
- Varnished deck head and raw teak cabin sole
- Mix of white painted bulkheads and varnished trunk cabin side trim, opening port
- Very large double berth with option to convert to 2 x singles
- Excellent access via aft bulkhead to cockpit, below and lazarette
- 2 x Deck head lights
- Access to engine under berth
- Hanging locker stbd, shelving to port
- Stowage lockers
- Head to port with manual WC and wash basin with bronze manual tap, accessible to all
- Access fwd to Saloon with Companionway steps also from sliding hatch stbd above
- 2 x Settee berths; one each side, book cases / shelving above and outboard
- 2 x Bronze deck head lights
- Lockers and cupboards each side from sole and above outboard fwd of berths to bulkhead
- Galley with stainless steel sink, cold fresh water tap only to port
- Large US pattern top loading fridge to stbd
- 2 x Chrome deck head lights
- Hatch in deck head over
- Fwd to foc’sle
- Sheet stowage
- Space for cot berths

Sloop rig
- Varnished Sitka spruce mast and boom with all bronze fittings
- Varnished spinnaker pole
- 2 x Barient 16 bronze halyard winches
- 1 x Merriman bronze No 2 winch
- 2 x Merriman bronze winches on boom for reefing pennants
- Standing rigging: Stainless steel Dyform (2007)
- Running rigging: Dyneema (2007)

Sails; all in good condition
- 2 x Racing mainsail
- Cruising mainsail
- Light genoa
- Medium genoa
- No 3 genoa
- Asymmetric A1
- Asymmetric A2
- Asymmetric A3
- Spinnaker

- Varnished cover board and toe rail
- Bronze fairleads on taff rail
- Bronze stanchion bases and stanchions - currently kept off the boat
- Adjustable back stay with Tufnol block

- Bronze stanchions
- Hatchway to lazarette; almost flush with deck abaft cockpit
- Original tiller steering
- Cockpit at deck level with simple coamings extend to trunk cabin
- 2 x Barient 20 bronze two speed primary winches mounted just outside coamings
- 2 x Barient 22 bronze two speed secondary winches fwd by bridge deckhead
- Bridge deck and deck extension inside cockpit stbd coaming forward to companionway
- Flush hatch in bridge deck to access aft cabin
- Running back stay fixed to rail by mid cockpit position
- 1 x Barient 15 bronze winch for main sheet on coach roof
- Varnished hatch over aft cabin in coach roof
- Varnished hand rails along each side of coach roof
- Sliding companionway hatch in coach roof offset to stbd, characteristic of this design
- All bronze deck fittings
- Bronze “widow’s bonnet” fore sail sheet fairleads in side deck
- Bronze running lights on trunk cabin sides
- 2 x Hatches fwd end of trunk cabin over galley and foc’sle
- 2 x Bronze mooring cleats P&S on foredeck
- 2 x Bronze fairleads at bow

- Volvo Penta D240 40 HP
- Folding 2 blade propellor
- Electrical installation 12 V Electric circuit (2007)
- Isolator panel housed in port lock fwd saloon
- 3 x Optima 55 Ah domestic batteries
- 1 x Optima 50 Ah engine start battery
- 2 x Stainless steel 24 gallon / 110 l water tanks total 48 gallons
- Fuel tanks 2 x 12 gallon / 55 l total 24 gallons
- Grey water tank c 7 gallons / 30 litres

- Simrad RS 81 VHF housed in port locker saloon fwd
- B&G Hydra two displays + Navionics navigation plotter
- Orion magnetic compass set in fwd bulkhead of aft cabin
- Original ship’s clock and barometer in saloon

- 8 x Life jackets
- 1 x Eurovinyl 6 person life raft
- 2 x Electric bilge pumps
- 2 x Manual bilge pumps