Tore Holm International 8-Metre 1939 - Sold

The most important of Tore Holm’s designs were to the International Rule, and ATHENA ex ILDERIM might be case in point. With her stunning all-varnished hull, and designer’s signature rounded and faired to deck cabin top, she beat many of the fastest 8s in the Mediterranean immediately before the Second World War. ATHENA has regularly raced internationally on the 8-Metre circuit and has benefited from an impressive maintenance regime in her last two ownerships. If ever there was an International 8mR you might want to cruise as well as race – ATHENA might well be the boat – perhaps more weatherly than some in her fleet and with an alloy rig in her inventory.

Having bought the boat in the autumn of 2006, our first racing season was 2007. In that year, we took her to the Clyde to take part in the Centennial World Cup. She later competed at World Cup regattas at Hyeres (2009), Cowes (2012), La Trinite (2014), Hanko (2017) and Cowes, again, in 2019. Fortunes varied, but with an amateur ethos in the crew we have thoroughly enjoyed sailing this beautiful boat against the best in the World. She has also taken part in the Panerai Classic series in the Solent for the last ten years.

ATHENA has been sailing and racing pretty well continuously ever since she was built, but she has nevertheless had two major refits. The first of these was in her home country of Sweden over the period 1985-1989, and the second was shortly after arriving in the UK in 2002. Since then she has been boat-yard maintained, initially by the Metre Shed at Universal Boatyard, Hamble, and latterly by Lallows at Cowes. Both these yards have highly professional and experienced wooden boat building personnel, and she has spent every winter out of the water and under cover.

ATHENA was designed and built as ILDERIM in 1939 to 3rd International Rule for Swedish banker Marcus Wallenberg Jr at Tore Holm's Gamleby yard, Sweden. Wallenburg had been disappointed in his attempt at the 1936 Olympic title: sailing the previous ILDERIM, a politically influenced decision had found him relegated from the Gold Medal position to fourth. Wallenburg subsequently challenged the Germans and Italians for The Coppa d’Italia, the European championship for the 8-Metre class, at Genoa in 1937 and 1938, winning on the second occasion and taking the cup home to Sweden. For the 1939 defence, he commissioned this ILDERIM, again from the board and yard of Tore Holm. She too was successful and won the last challenge for the Cup before the Second World War, beating, among others, such renowned 8mRs as PINUCCIA, SIRA, and GERMANIA III.

In her design, the ever innovative and competitive Holm exploited a then loophole in the rule by raising the deck height at the mast. The initial design actually had no coach house as we know it - simply an extension aft of the raised deck. But in consultation with the IYRU this radical departure from the norm was toned down to the very attractive as-built and instantly recognizable configuration. Her forward crew also find it very comfortable when heeled!

Wallenberg named all his boats ILDERIM: a Turkish word which can be translated as “Thunderbolt”. He retained the name when he sold this one to one of his employees in 1945, and after the war he built other ILDERIMS. She later had a variety of names in her native Sweden including SILVERVINGEN, again ILDERIM, AMIGA and under the ownership of her last Swedish owner, Ingmar Bergman's photographer Bengt Wanselius, AMORITA.

On being brought to the UK in 2002 by Avia Willment she became AMOREVITA, undergoing a major refit at Casse Tete, Hamble Point. When the present owners acquired her in 2006, it was decided to revert to a more classical name, and since the ILDERIM of 1936 had recovered that name, the new name ATHENA was chosen. This reflects the legend that ATHENA was the daughter of Zeus in Greek mythology. Zeus, who owned the Thunderbolt, gave it to his daughter to assist her in conquering the Athenians.

At the Metre Regatta in the Solent in 2007, ATHENA found herself on the same racecourse as PINUCCIA for the first time since 1939, and the result was the same. She forms part of the “Neptune” group of boats within the 8mR class. The Neptune Cup is awarded annually to yachts sailing with rigging and equipment which would have been available when they were built. Ironically, she was the first boat in her class to be built with a full metal rig – in this case steel, which is now barred under the Neptune Cup rules for classic boats, which require wooden rigs.

Athena has competed at World Championships in 2007, 2009, 2012, 2014, 2017 and 2019, travelling all over Europe to do so.

- Part composite
- Carvel mahogany planking
- Pitch pine garboards (1985)
- Galvanised steel frames
- 2 x Oak timbers between each steel pair
- Sawn oak deck beams in way of mast
- Stainless steel ring frame in way of mast
- Composite teak on plywood deck
- Mahogany covering board and king plank

Note on the pitch pine garboard planks:
Pitch pine has greater resistance to freezing than mahogany, a valuable characteristic in brackish Scandinavian waters.

FROM AFT
- 2 x Bronze mooring fairleads
- Ensign staff socket
- Stainless steel mooring eye

Pairs of throughdeck fairleads for:
- Spinnaker sheets (with stainless steel sheave access panels)
- Running backstays
- Mainsheet horse (athwartships)

- Traditional bronze rudder head
- Oak tiller with tiller extension
- Slatted helm seats port and starboard quarters of cockpit coaming

COCKPIT
- Double cockpit of large dimensions
- Drains to bilge, thus good depth for the occupants
- Laid teak on plywood sole
- Raised mahogany coaming attractively styled
- Helm and main sheet trimmer cockpit aft
- Athwartships bench aft
- Stainless steel helm footrest
- Engine controls under side decks
- Athwartships bridge deck
- 2 x Lewmar self-tailing runner winches
- 1 x Lewmar self-tailing mainsheet winch
- Ash-cheeked mainsheet block
- Wood traditional cleat
- Sheet tail bags under, and under sidedecks
- Bench steps port & starboard of companionway
- Additional cockpit seating stored off boat

DECK GEAR
- All metal deck gear in bronze
- Blocks are ash, or ash-faced

SIDEDECKS
- Bronze foresail sheet tracks and turning blocks
- Bronze traditional cleats port & starboard
- Bronze nun's cape fairlead port & starboard
- SVJ Bronze primary winch port & starboard
- Stainless steel shroud channels

COACHROOF - All mahogany
- SVJ Bronze spi sheet winch P & Stbd of companionway
- Mahogany sliding companionway hatch
- Mahogany washboards
- Forward sliding skylight hatch

FOREDECK
- Raised camber forward of coachroof
- Rolled deck edge forward
- Raw teak spinnaker pole stowage chocks
- Raw teak "grabrails" port and starboard
- Large forward sliding mahogany forehatch with bullseye prism
- Stainless steel mooring eye
- Bronze mooring fairleads port & starboard
- Bronze stemhead protection cap

NOTE ON WINCHES

Self-tailing winches are not permitted under Neptune Cup rules, so she is equipped with replacement winch heads which can be interchanged with the self-tailers.

GROUND TACKLE
- CQR pattern anchor to class regulations, with a suitable warp.

Down 2 x steps to main cabin
- Main cabin headroom > 6 ft/ 1.83m
- Sideboards port & starboard with fiddles and ample stowage under
- Port sideboard swerves as chart table
- Electric panel, electronic instruments and VHF radio over port sideboard
- Grabrails port & starboard at coachroof sides
- 2 x Full length settee bunks in the main cabin
- 1 x Lewmar self-tailing halyard winch and clutches on pedestal forward
- Mahogany panelled bulkheads forward port and starboard
- WC Compartment to port
- Baby Blake marine toilet (presently stored ashore)
- Small washbasin and flexible fresh-water tank fwd to port
- Brass hand pump for washbasin
- Theo Rye designed stainless steel stiffening structure at chain plates
- Large forepeak for sail and gear stowage
- V-berth forward
- Spirit stove (presently stored ashore)
- Stove can be used at starboard sideboard, and at cockpit table

2 x Complete rigs - sails interchangeable

SPRUCE with bronze fittings
- To Neptune Cup requirements by Lavazza (2003)
- Stainless steel wire standing rigging

METAL
- Rolled Duralumin - very strong for cruising
- Stainless steel rod rigging

SAILS

Mainsails (Dacron):
- One-Sails (2017)
- Europe Sails (2003)
- Cruising main (older)

Genoas (Dacron):
- No 1 Medium, Ratsey & Lapthorn (2014)
- No 1 Heavy, Europe Sails (2003)
- No 1 Light (c2003)
- No 2 Medium, One-Sails (2017)
- No 2 Heavy, Europe Sails (c2003)
- No 3 Heavy "Solent Jib", Europe Sails (2003)

Spinnakers:
- Main downwind One-Sails (2017)
- Reacher, Ratsey Lapthorn (age tbc - in good condition)

- Assorted older sails

COVERS
- Mainsail (tan canvas)
- Full boat cover (tan canvas)
- Transport boat cover (padded, waterproof)
- Transport mast cover

- Custom Theo Rye designed removable propulsion
- BETA 3 cyl 25 hp Diesel (access aft of companionway ladder)
- Designed to be easily removable
- Feathering -bladed Maxprop type propeller offset to port
- Full drive train easily removable

Owners' comment:
"The engine drives a propeller offset to port, in an installation designed by Theo Rye and fitted in 2007. The entire engine and its systems can be removed very quickly, and the shaft and screw (feathering) can be removed with a short lift in the same length of time that it takes to wash off the bottom. Her Metre certificate is based on the “engine out” configuration, but her IRC certificate is based on “engine in.”

- 1 x Marine engine battery
- 1 x Marine house battery
- Charging via shore power or engine
- Battery voltage indicator

- Diesel tank capacity > 25 litres

Raymarine wireless instrumentation
- Connected to a Simrad chart plotter
- Mast and cockpit displays
- Log
- Depth sounder
- Wind
- NMEA connection
- Compass

- ICOM VHF

- 2 x Automatic bilge pumps
- Life-ring
- Throwing line
- Flares and life jackets in accordance with racing and class requirements

- Transportation mast support