Philip Rhodes 43ft Bermudan Yawl 1956 - Sold

In his seminal 1966 work, The Proper Yacht, Arthur Beiser wrote, "... a Rhodes boat is sure to be able, handsome, and comfortable. But there are other architects of comparative skill, and what seems to me to be Rhodes’s unique talent is his way of infusing a special, distinctive, pleasing character into each of his creations. I have seen and admired a score of different cruising vessels of Rhodes design, and all of them draw the eye at once for the exact rightness of their looks." ALBA, one of the highly successful 'Rhodes 29s' has this "exact rightness" in spades, enchanting her six owners over six decades on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. She's also astonishingly authentic, and pleasingly - almost deceptively - fast. In fact, ALBA has it all.

PHILIP RHODES DESIGN No. 633
The phenomenal passage racing success of such a wholesome and good-looking yacht as Richard Nye’s seminal Philip Rhodes-designed 53ft centerboard yawl CARINA (II) of 1955 saw orders flowing into to the Rhodes office for something similar. One of the most successful CARINA (II) offspring - becoming known as the ‘Rhodes 29s’ - was a series of 42-43ft (29ft waterline) exquisite, full-keel and centerboard-keel yawls and sloops of which ALBA, a centerboard version built from the best materials of the time - teak, oak, spruce and bronze - by the master builders of Bremen, Germany, Abeking & Rasmussen, is arguably the finest of the lot and nowadays incredibly authentic.

Launched in 1956 as HONEY to the order of Mamaroneck, New York, yachtsman I. David Easton, a member of Larchmont Yacht Club, her early years involved cruising and occasional east coast USA distance races, including participation in the 1959 Annapolis - Newport.

At some point in the 1960s, HONEY was sold to colourful New York-based French restauranteur Andre Surmain. Perhaps she offered a place of peace away from the heady atmosphere of Lutèce, Manhatten’s go-to French restaurant; somewhere he could choose his friends. Certainly, her quality of build, finish and beauty would have been appreciated by a man with a collection of, at one count, 27 classic cars.

It is said that in 1973, on announcing one night at the restaurant that he’d sold-out to his chef and business partner, André Sotner, Surmain then sailed HONEY across the Atlantic to Mallorca and his new venture there at Puerto d'Andraitx, 'Foc i Fum', where the offer was: "French and Mallorquin food in an ambience of flowers under the stars".

During Surmain’s ownership her name changed to OJALÁ, though it is presently not clear if this happened while she was still in the USA, or perhaps on arriving in Spain. It's a wonderful Castilian Spanish word of Arabic origin that we might translate as "God willing".

From 1978, probably after Surmain moved to France and his new restaurant venture Relais a Mougins near Cannes, Spanish-based Swiss architect Marc Baillart took over the reins of custodianship and cruised the Mediterranean extensively. Through these first three ownerships, a trend was set of changing almost nothing and, still as OJALÁ, she remained in an astonishingly original state when she caught the eye of serial Italian classic boat collector Ugo Baravalle in 1989. Baravalle became captivated: "I found her in Seville, Spain. For the previous 10 years, she had been owned and sailed single-handedly by a Swiss yachtsman... She is beautiful, 98% of her was original, the cotton sails, her stove - even her flags."

She joined Baravalle's Circilo Nautico Italiano collection of classics at Portoferraio on the island of Elba, her name changing again to the present ALBA after his first daughter. Baravalle’s team of highly skilled boatbuilders and engineers gave ALBA her just deserts, and she made her Mediterranean classic regatta debut at Mahon, Menorca, in the 1991 edition of Trofeo Conde de Barcelona, coming equal first in class.

Now, since 2002 ALBA is in her second Spanish ownership by a Barcelona architect, Commodore of Real Club Náutico de Barcelona for over a decade, and from 2004 to 2008 the President of the organising authority for western Mediterranean classic regattas, CIM (International Committee of the Mediterranean). She regularly attends and places in the Mediterranean classic regattas, winning overall in the 2013 Copa del Rey de Barcos de Época - Vela Clásica Menorca regatta at Mahon.

As HONEY, OJALÁ and ALBA, this enchantingly beautiful and fast yacht has always been a happy ship.

©2021 Iain McAllister/ Sandeman Yacht Company Ltd

- Hull: teak
- Keel: lead
- Superstructure: teak
- Deck: teak
- Masts & booms: original spruce
- Centreboard: bronze
- Interior: mahogany

Never rebuilt, but sometimes refitted, ALBA is one of the most authentic of classic yachts.

From aft at deck level
- Bronze fairleads for mooring lines on taffrail
- Bronze stern light
- Bronze stanchions on bronze bases supporting guardrails running forward each side
- Solid teak laid deck
- Raised lazarette hatch with bronze vent
- Bronze cleats each side
- Coaming around large cockpit; comfortable for cruising and racing
- Single spreader spruce mizzen mast stepped inside coaming
- 3 x Merriman winches (2 x halyard; 1 x sheet)
- Bronze track on toe rail
- Bronze mainsheet traveller and control on central bridge
- Lifting tiller
- Ash/ bronze mainsheet blocks
- Deep cockpit lockers
- Bronze engine throttle control
- Graymarine engine instrumentation on cockpit fwd bulkhead
- (An authentic touch from the original, now replaced Gray 34hp)
- Yanmar engine controls stbd locker
- Constellation steering compass on bridge deck
- Nevins primary winches on bronze pedestals each side; bronze cleat to stbd
- Nevins secondary winches on bronze pedestals and bronze cleats each side

On trunk cabin
- Bronze frame for cockpit dodger
- Merriman/ Abeking & Rasmussen centreboard winch
- Companionway hatch to stbd
Varnished dorade box to port with bronze vent
- Varnished teak handrails each side
- Varnished teak chocks for tender stowage
- Raised hatch over saloon
- Boat hook
- 2 x Dorade boxes; bronze vents and wingtip style nav lights on the boxes each side
- Pin rails at mast base
- 2 x Spreader Spruce main mast with 3 Merriman bronze winches
- Herreshoff kedge anchor on leather chocks
- Raised hatch over fore cabin

Foredeck
- Bronze electric capastan windlass;
- 70 m chain
- 2 x Bronze mooring cleats
- 2 x bronze fairleads
- 2 x Panama fairleads

- Companionway ladder 4 x steps down
- Galley to port
- Brushed stainless steel sink
- Salt and cold fresh water taps
- Heritage 3 burner gas hob and oven
- Plate racks and cutlery bearing ship's logo
- Athwartships locker for crockery
- Large fridges to stbd form base of chart table
- Lockers for VHF radio, isolator panel and flags

Saloon
- L shaped settee berth to port with single pilot berth outboard above
- Gimballed dining table on centreline
- Single settee berth stbd and pilot berth outboard above – converts to make a double berth
- 4 x Original bulkhead lights
- 5 x Deck head lights
- 2 x Paraffin lamps
- A&R style chart stowage in stbd deck head
- M Low Inc clock and barometer
- Ship’s bell

Passage forward
- Bathroom with original Blake WC
- Wash basin
- Lockers

Forward to owner's cabin
- V berths
- Stowage under

Forward to forepeak/ chain locker

RIG
- Original spruce masts & spars
- Original bronze winches (Nevins), and equipment

SAILS
Lightly used
- Mainsail
- Mizzen
- Genoa
- Spinnaker
- Mizzen staysail
Other sails
- Extensive inventory of older but serviceable sails for cruising

CANVASWORK
- Winter covers
- Covers for use when racing
- Awnings

- Yanmar 40 hp (2011)
- Major service 2018
- Electric installation refitted 2011
- 4 x 80 AMP Gel batteries (2017)
- Autohelm under deck
- Isolator panel in locker by charts table

- Raymarine ST60 wind and ST 60 Masterview
- Northstar Explorer 710 VHF radio with mayday selector
- Concealed in locker stbd

- Hydrostatic release EPIRB
- Liferaft for 6 people

- Abeking & Rasmussen boarding ladder

Sailing images: James Robinson Taylor