Laurent Giles Donella Class 45 ft Motor Sailer 1962 - Sold

If boats have a history, they also have a soul. CARAVELLE II is just one of those yachts that in passing you stop to look at. Her form is so elegant she is bound to attract attention. For those with a trained eye; her hull and deck speak for themselves - she could only be by Jack Laurent Giles. In pursuit of the ideal cruising yacht her designer developed a sailing hull with a more powerful auxiliary engine but in a style not normally associated with a motor sailer!

CARAVELLE II is unspoilt; benefitting from a long and loving father to son ownership as well as an ongoing relationship with the Carlini yard that built her. If yacht design is where science and art meet then this combination of Laurent Giles and an Italian yard such as Carlini or Sangermani can only serve to confirm it.

The designer of CARAVELLE II was indeed Laurent Giles, "Jack" to his friends. He was unique in the history of yachting - an Englishman and without contradiction, as revolutionary as only those who are part of a "conservative" culture know how to be ....... so par excellence an innovator. Some of his technical solutions were pure genius and he is also unique for the modern spirit that saw yachting immerse itself in a new era for both the serial and personal production of boats. One of the Laurent Giles specialities was the design of the motor sailor – of which CARAVELLE is of this genre. Today this definition might be considered demeaning to the sailing capability of a yacht but the ability of this British designer to design high performance and “comfortable” hulls is evident in the lines of this yacht.

CARAVELLE is one of the DONELLA Class - a series designed by Giles in 1958 in two versions; one with a cutter rig, defined by him as a yacht in the purest sense and the other the Ketch which is considered more a motor sailer. The water lines are fuller and the freeboard slightly higher than usual. This feature is due to the first owner who wanted more berths and the opportunity to go below deck from the stem to stern without a central cockpit forcing him to pass over the bridge of the boat. Another feature of the DONELLA Class boats is the lightness of the interior, thanks to large skylights and port lights. This was an innovation emphasised and well published in many magazines of the period to mark a real new direction in the design of yachts for pleasure. A final and significant element of these yachts was the care with which Laurent Giles settled the balance of the sail plan, which he considered so essential for serious sailing.

The story of CARAVELLE began in 1960 when a group of three businessmen from Rimini asked the Carlini shipyard to build a boat similar to the one that the same yard had launched the year before - a DONELLA Class yacht bearing the signature of Laurent Giles. With a few tweaks, including a more slender 20 cm bow and some design features of particular quality, CARAVELLE II was placed in the water two years later. Giles never knew, but good old Berto Carlini, together with the shipowners, followed the typical Italian and excitable spirit which in the 60’s gave way to the definition which is known today as "Rimini to drink".

The Carlini shipyard in Rimini it was founded shortly after the war by Roberto Carlini and to this day has placed some of the most beautiful Italian yachts in the water; all of wood. Carlini has been chosen by many ship owners as well as some of the best known and most prestigious designers, including Sparkman & Stephens, Sciarrelli, Frers, Vallicelli and of course Laurent Giles. Working in wood was his specialty in his unique construction of yachts. Today the yard tradition continues in the hands of his son Stefano and his capable workforce.

After a few years, the original owners sold her to a surgeon from Bologna and in then 1979 the boat was purchased by Iliano Annibali. A few years later he gave it to his son Alessandro, who is the current owner. Alessandro had spent several years in the United States and on his return was greeted by the news that the father was looking to sell CARAVELLE II. Alessandro declares "... I decided to buy it with a cheque for five million lire, which I gave my father, hoping that it would never be cashed. My father, however, was used to doing such things since his thoughts had always been that nothing in life is given to us for free and nothing comes easily. From that day CARAVELLE II has become one of my passions, "my first wife ...".

Over the years since then the owner has carried out many maintenance and repair works on the boat. The fact that this boat had been standing on the forecourt of the Carlini yard and his teachers was paramount to Annibali: Alessandro, the brother of the late Robert and co-founder of the site and Fabio and Marco Tosi who had also learned from the great school of Carlini, had all learned the craft so well that they founded the Naval Adriatic Shipyard.

After having a lot of work done her owner reckoned the boat needed some proper recognition of her authenticity and in 1988 he called the Laurent Giles office in Lymington to ask that the yacht receive official authentication in order to classify her properly as a DONELLA Class yacht - even if she was 20 inches longer. The Laurent Giles "commissioners" were brought to Sardinia and spent three full days aboard her there.

Everything was measured, from the principal features such as maximum beam and the waterline, to the smallest details such as the diameter and the thickness of the planking. The result was more than satisfactory; the yacht receiving an official certificate "certified No. 402-D Laurent Giles & Partners Ltd".

- Carvel Iroko planking specially sourced extending the entire length of the hull

To see the video of CARAVELLE sailing please click here

From aft
- Passarelle over high bulwarks over transom extending forward both sides
- Chromed fairleads at each quarter on cap rail
- Chromed stanchions and teak handrails with gates running fwd to deck house
- Chromed deck mooring cleats each side
- Teak planked lazarette hatch
- Chromed mushroom vent
- Aft cabin superstructure canvas coach roof
- Chromed metal boom crutch supports with brackets on aft bulkhead each side
- Main sheet track and blocks aft
- Raised hatch on roof
- Deck house open aft over cockpit with windows to sides and screen fwd
- Wooden handrails give way to wire guard rails running forward each side
- Hand rails on roof each side
- Barton chromed foresail sheet winches on pedestals outboard; one each side
- Doorway aft to owners cabin
- Helm wheel to stbd fwd
- Engine controls and instruments to stbd
- Doorway access to forward accommodation on centre line
- Single spreader mast fwd of deck house chromed halyard winch
- Chromed dorade vents each side
- Hand rails running fwd each side
- Inflatable 4 person dinghy stowed on trunk cabin fwd (Suzuki 8 HP 2 stroke outboard)
- Opening hatch in coach roof
- Anchor windlass on foredeck
- Tubular steel pulpit
- Sampson post
- CQR anchor and 80 m chain
- Ammiraglia spare anchor
- Chromed fairleads each side
- Anchor rollers at bow

- Access from deck house doorway forward on centreline and companionway steps down

Galley to port
- Stainless steel sink, mixer tap and hand pump in worktop aft - rearranged from original GA
- Lockers outboard and shelves fwd
- Drawer under
- Steel gas 2 burner hob
- Fridge with 24 and 24 V compressor under aft
- Opening port and vent over

Head compartment to stbd
- Manual WC and wash basin
- Lockers and drawers
- Opening port over

Saloon forward
- 2 x Settee berths; bech to port and U shaped dinette to stbd
- Demountable table on pedestal stbd
- Shelves above and outboard
- Port lights to sides over

Forecabin accessed by doorway on centreline
- Vee single berths each side making a twin
- Stowage under
- Chain locker fwd

Coming aft through deck house and companionway steps down

Owners cabin aft
- 2 x Single berths; one each side; open lockers outboard
- Lockers and dressing table on centreline aft, mirror above
- Period lights aft set above each side
- Port lights in coach roof each side
- En suite head with shower, electric WC and ceramic wash basin differs from original GA
- Steps up to deck house

Sloop; not cutter rigged as the other DONELLA yachts
- Stainless steel standing rigging
- Roller reefing forestay

Sails all Nylon not new but in GC
- 1 x Medium jib
- 2 x Small jibs
- 2 x Main sail
- Main sail cover bearing the boat’s name

- Carraro 60 HP Diesel engine recently overhauled
- Consumes 6.5 l / hour at 1.300 rpm and 7 knots without sail; 8.5 knots at 1,500 rpm and main
- Engine alternator
- Battery charger
- New Ariston water heater
- Electrical system renewed in 2010 to nautical standards
- 2 x 180 Ah domestic batteries series or parallel
- 2 x 180 Ah engine start batteries series or parallel
- Steel 77 gallon 350 litre fuel tank
- 3 x Steel fresh water tanks total 132 gallons / 600 litres
- 2 x 2.5 Kg gas bottles

- New Satellite ICOM VHF with GPS
- Satellite Hummingbird GPS
- Cetrek autopilot
- Raymarine Mark wind

- Life ring aft
- Arimar life raft < 10 pax in canister serviced March 2017 on deck fwd of trunk cabin
- 1 x Auto electric float bilge pump
- 1 x Electric bilge pump
- 1 x Manual bilge pump

In 2011 the boat needed a thorough refit. As the Carlini shipyards were all full the owner decided to entrust the restoration work to the site of Morri & Para; another yard in Rimini and who are also very skilled woodworkers. The principal works included:
- Dismantling of the bridge and its infrastructure
- Cover entirely remade and reconstituted in three layers of glued plywood
- All fixed to the beams and then placed on the new teak battens
- The gunwales replaced
- The mahogany deckhouse and skylights re-treated with flatting
- Cockpit was also completely rebuilt
- All port lights, previously stuck the deckhouse sides, now framed with stainless steel collars
- Vessel re launched in May 2012

In 2014 CARAVELLE II was taken to the Leonardo Fois shipyard in Olbia for a major structural intervention. Both father and sons are fully qualified shipwrights and have specialised for many years in the construction and restoration of wooden boats. Father Fois had previously built large wooden vessels equipped for the transportation of lobsters.

During the winter of 2014 all the interior joinery was taken out in order to access the old, worn out and corroded galvanised iron floors. They were replaced with new stainless steel floors. In addition the iroko hull planking was substantially re fastened with thousands of new rivets. Hundreds of steel passer-pins were used for the frames and floor plates. The hull was re caulked using the traditional method of oakum soaked in pitch and heated “bagno maria” style in a pot - exactly how they had constructed the old lobster boats. This fundamental restoration work was necessary for the continuing safety and hull strength the yacht after so many years of sailing.

In 2017 maintenance included
- Hull completely repainted
- Mahogany deck superstructure re varnished with 3 coats
- Mast scraped down to bare wood and 10 coats of Veneziani varnish applied
- Engine water cooling system
- Anchor windlass