Max Oertz 44 ft Bermudan Cutter 1925/2013

An unusually long waterline length for a classic 44 footer gains this enchanting Max Oertz canoe-sterned bermudan cutter the pace and space of a much larger yacht, offering accommodation in three cabins plus saloon. Oertz was a clever designer and MARIANNA’s recent owners have cared for her needs. Apart from carrying the design pedigree of the man tasked to design and build fast yachts for Kaiser Wilhelm, MARIANNA’s rig was re-designed in the mid-1950s by Jack Laurent Giles for ease of handling by shipyard apprentices in the sail training phase of her fascinating story. She remains today easy to sail by a couple and to race by family and friends.

2021
- New upholstery in saloon

2020
- Replacement of steering cables
- New planks under waterline port side
- New lockers in skippers’ cabin
- Water pressure system replaced
- Fuel tank gauges replaced
- All internal light bulbs replaced with LED

2019
- New ply sub deck; new teak deck
- New aft cockpit coaming
- New Raymarine AIS transponder
- New Fusion audio set
- Lazy jacks fitted for mainsail

2018
- New Johnson bilge pumps
- All navigation lights replaced with LED

2017
- New Harken mast track and cars for mainsail
- New Safeguard life raft
- Water tank gauges replaced

2015
- New mainsail sheet and Barton blocks
- New sail and hatch covers
- New sails (mainsail, genoa, staysail)

2014
- New marine PC, screen, navigation software
- New Philippi AC Switchboard
- New sole boards in all cabins and saloon
- A-grade Java teak glued to plywood
- Including hatches to all bilge compartments
- New sprayhood

2013
- New lead keel; new keel bolts
- Deadwood and 2 x bottom planks renewed
- New caulking
- Classic Sestrel Moore Compass restored
- New asymmetric spinnaker

2012
- Internal lead ballast removed
- New upholstery for bunk mattresses

2011
- 2 x additional new Dorade boxes
- 6 x Stainless steel Andersen cockpit winches fitted

2009
- New stainless steel sink & taps
- New teak veneers and cabinetry in galley
- Wemo 40 L coolbox
- New ENO Gascogne 2 x burners and oven cooker

2008
- Teak deck recaulked with Sikaflex
- New port & starboard portholes forecastle

2007
- New Engine
- Fuel tank dismantled and overhauled

1994-1996
Major restoration at Deganwy, Wales
- Original steel frames with two steamed timbers between removed
- Replaced with laminated oak frames
- Sternpost and aft deadwood replaced
- Planking repairs
- Hull refastened with copper rivets
- New galvanised floors, lengthened to bilge stringers; new bolts
- New teak laid deck on plywood substrate (replaced in 2019)
- Coachroof replicated: laminated ash beams, t&g redwood planks, fibreglass sheathed

MARIANNA’s history is well documented: from her track record of racing in Germany in the 1920s to her arrival in the UK in 1936; her career as a sail training vessel on the north east coast of England and east coast of Scotland; dotage years on the west coast of Scotland; her complete restoration in North Wales in the mid-1990s, and her many cruises and Classic Regattas in the North Sea and English Channel since then.

Designed by the Kaiser Wilhem's naval architect Max Oertz (1871-1929), whose canoe sterns were perhaps influenced by training in Scandinavia, and launched as MARIANNE, she was an advanced boat for her time, with spacious accommodation and originally an aerodynamically pre-bent mast.

After winning the North Sea Race and Kiel Week in the late 1920s, she was brought to England and given her present name by Colchester-based Royal Yacht Squadron member and founder of the Royal Artillery Yacht Club, Major Ralph Blewitt, DSO. MARIANNA became the family cruiser-racer. That family included his daughter, Mary Blewitt (1923-2000), who became an in demand ocean racing navigator, and wrote one of the most popular - and still in print - books on celestial navigation. Under her married name, Mary Pera, she was one of the the leading authorities on the yacht racing rules: an International Judge, Chairman of the IYRU (now World Sailing) Racing Rules Committee, and sometime Secretary of the Royal Ocean Racing Club.

In 1950 MARIANNA was purchased by the Sunderland shipbuilders Sir James Laing & Sons, and began a career as an apprentices sail training vessel on the north English and Scottish east coasts. Her rig, originally with a big mainsail and small jib, was re-designed to the present masthead cutter configuration by Laurent Giles in 1954.

From 1970 MARIANNA returned to private ownership at Sunderland, and from 1973 was owned on the Clyde and west coast of Scotland. Following substantial restoration in North Wales between 1994 and 1996, in 2000 MARIANNA was listed in Classic Boat’s 'Top 100'.

In current Belgian ownership since 2007 she has been maintained and thoroughly upgraded - including a new lead keel and new teak on plywood deck - while based in the Netherlands. In 2013 MARIANNA again featured in Classic Boat's 'Top 250', and she continues to attend classic rallies and regattas in the low countries and the English Channel.

- 1926 Kieler Woche - 2nd in class
- 1926 North Sea Week - 1st overall
- 1928 North Sea Week - 1st overall
- 1937 Channel Race - 9th overall
- 1945 Cowes-Dinard - Retired
- 2007 Classic Channel Race Dartmouth-St Malo - 2nd in class
- 2007 Classic Channel Regatta - 3rd in class
- 2007 Classic Harwich-Zierikzee Race - Line honours; 2nd in class
- 2007 Dutch Classic Yacht Regatta - 4th in class
- 2009 Classic Channel Regatta - 4th in class
- 2009 Dutch Classic Yacht Regatta - 4th in class
- 2011 Panerai British Classic Yacht Regatta - 14th in class
- 2011 Dutch Classic Yacht Regatta - 19th in class
- 2014 Brouwse Classic Regatta - 8th in class
- 2014 Flevorace - 5th in class
- 2014 Panerai British Classic Yacht Regatta - 4th in class
- 2015 Classic Channel Regatta - 10th in class
- 2015 Panerai British Classic Yacht Regatta - 9th in class
- 2017 Classic Channel Regatta - 8th in class
- 2019 Classic Channel Regatta - 7th in class
- 2021 International Continental Gaffers Race - Line honours

- 34 mm / 1 5/16 in Pitch pine planking
- Laminated oak frames; copper fastened (1996)
- Galvanised steel floors (1996)
- 6.3 tonnes lead ballast keel (2013)
- Stainless steel keel bolts (2013)
- Teak laid deck on epoxy bed - no screws (2019)
- Deck substrate of 2 x cross layers of marine plywood
- Laminated oak deckbeams
- Teak superstructures
- Coachroof: laminated ash beams, t&g redwood, fibreglassed (1996)

GENERAL
- Teak laid deck (2019)
- Varnished covering boards and toerail
- Painted rubbing strake
- Stainless steel stanchions/ guardrails with gates port and starboard
- Deck superstructure in varnished teak

FROM AFT
- Stainless steel pulpit
- Bronze ensign staff socket
- 2 x Bronze mooring cleats
- 2 x Mooring fairleads
- Rudder head for emergency steering by tiller

COCKPIT
- Well type; deck as seating
- Low level coamings
- Lower level seating
- Wide varnished margin boards
- Stainless steel leathered wheel steering
- Steering pedestal and brass binnacle
- Granny bar
- Engine controls
- Mainsheet track spilts cockpit
- Andersen self-tailing stainless steel sheet winches on plinths
- 2 x ST 28
- 2 x ST 40
- 2 x ST 56
- Short bridge deck

COACHROOF
- Sliding companionway hatch in garage
- Instrument repeaters over
- Andersen self-tailing stainless steel line winches
- 2 x ST 28
- Line clutches to port and starboard
- Varnished grabrails port and starboard
- Boathook stowage
- Liferaft stowage
- Butterfly skylight hatch over saloon
- 2 x Dorade boxes and cowls over saloon
- Control line leads port and starboard
- Mast position
- Cabin heater flue to starboard
- Dorade box and cowl to starboard over WC compartment
- Dorade box and cowl to port over WC passage cabin
- Horse for boomed staysail sheet

FOREDECK
- Large bronze mushroom vent
- Large Scandinavian style forehatch over fore cabin
- Port light
- Samson post
- 2 x Bronze mooring cleats
- 2 x Mooring fairleads
- Stainless steel stemhead fitting
- Nylon bow rollers to port and starboard

GROUND TACKLE
- Simpson-Lawrence Seawolf 520 12 V windlass
- 45 lb CQR anchor
- 60 m of 10 mm anchor chain

GENERAL:
- From companionway down 6 x steps to cabin sole
- Raw Java teak cabin sole
- Teak and American cherry veneer carpentry
- Off white painted deckhead
- Full length varnished deckhead grab handles port and starboard

NAVIGATION AREA TO STARBOARD
- Deep fiddled chart table
- Slatted, curved navigator's bench
- Navigation and communications displays
- Ship's isolator panel
- Light under deckhead

GALLEY TO PORT
- ENO Gimballed 2-burner gas hob with oven
- Wemo 40 L cool box
- 2 x Athwartships stainless steel sinks
- Stowage outboard and under
- Mixer tap
- Manual seawater pump
- Opening port
- Grab pillar

FORWARD TO SALOON
- Port U-settees; converts to a single berth
- Stowage lockers and shelves outboard
- Stowage behind and below settees
- Drop leaf table extends for up to 8 guests
- Starboard fore and aft settee
- Stowage lockers and shelves outboard
- Stowage behind and below settees
- Dickinson Newport solid fuel stove forward starboard bulkhead
- Fiddles and tiled at bulkhead
- Butterfly skylight hatch in deckhead
- 2 x Davey brass and frosted glass reading lamps port and starboard
- 2 x Gimballed oil lamps

FORWARD TO PASSAGE CABIN
- 2 x Single bunk berths to starboard
- Lee cloths
- 2 x Reading lights

WC/ SHOWER COMPARTMENT TO PORT
- Jabsco manual toilet with Baby Blake-like seat
- (Spare Baby Blake toilet)
- Ceramic basin
- Shower space with curtain

WET GEAR LOCKER TO PORT
- Heating

FORE/ OWNER CABIN
- Large double berth
- 5 x Lockers
- Sideboard
- Bronze hull port lights port and starboard
- 2 x Reading lamps

RETURN AFT - DOORS TO PORT AND STARBOARD OF COMPANIONWAY

'SKIPPER's' CABIN STARBOARD QUARTER
- 'Friendly' double berth
- Open stowage under
- Sideboard; locker under
- Bronze opening port

LARGE BOSUN's STORE PORT QUARTER AFT OF GALLEY
- Fiddled shelves
- Hooks

RIG
- Design by Laurent Giles (1954)
- Hollow spruce 2 x spreader mast
- 3 x Lewmar halyard winches
- Whisker pole track
- Spruce boom
- Aluminium whisker pole

SAILS
- Hagoort 43.38 sq mm fully-battened mainsail on Harken cars (2016)
- Hagoort 61.32 sq m roller furling genoa (2016)
- Hagoort boomed staysail with 2 x battens (2016)
- 2 x 133 sq m Asymmetric spinnakers

CANVASWORK
- Sprayhood
- Mainsail boom cover
- Boomed staysail cover
- Skylight cover
- Forehatch cover
- Windlass Cover

MECHANICAL
- Lombardini 60 hp diesel (2007)
- Greased stuffing box
- Central aperture, fixed 3-blade propeller

ELECTRICAL
- Mastervolt 10 A charger
- Victron 12 V 220 V inverter
- 220 V Sockets
- 2 x 70 Ah Domestic batteries
- 1 x 70 Ah Engine battery
- Philippi switch panel; volt
- LED Navigation lights
- LED Interior lights

WATER SYSTEM AND TANKAGE
- Pressure hot and cold water system
- Hot water via engine heat exchanger
- Stainless steel fuel tank 100 L / 22 Gal
- Stainless steel water tank 180 L / 40 Gal
- Flexible grey water tank 50 L / 11 Gal

HEATING
- Dickenson Newport solid fuel stove in saloon
- Diesle heater (not fitted)

NAVIGATION
- Sestrel Moore steering compass on steering column
- Raymarine ST50 Depth; speed; wind; close hauled wind meter
- Raymarine ST50 Repeater
- Raymarine ST 60 Pilot control
- Raymarine 400G Autopilot; computer & gyro compass
- Raymarine 700 AIS linked to nav system
- Furuno GP-32 GPS
- Furuno NX-300 Navtex
- Marine PC; separate screen; wireless mouse; keyboard
- Stenec WinGPS Voyager nav software
- Wempe clock, barometer, hygrometer, thermometer

COMMUNICATIONS
- IOCOM 59 built-in VHF
- Raymarine 101E Hand held VHF
- NASA HF2SW SSB Transceiver (not installed)
- Fusion MS RA55 radio
- Bluetooth; built-in Fusion speakers in saloon

- Safeguard 4-person canister liferaft (last serviced May 2022)
- Manual bilge pump 60 L/ minute
- 12 V Electric auto bilge pump
- 12 V Electric manual switch pump
- Lifebuoy with light
- Tiller emergency steering

- 3 m Inflatable tender (new)
- 5 hp 4-Stroke outboard motor