Schooner Atlantic renovated at Talsma

The famous three-masted schooner ‘Atlantic’, with which Captain Charlie Barr set the record for the Atlantic crossing in 1905, was rebuilt in 2010. The ship received a refit at Talsma in Franeker in recent months.

The sailing ship is still fairly new, but was in need of a maintenance job. “It is not that old,” explains Fonger Talsma of the shipyard, “but it did need a substantial paint job.”
That was most of Talsma’s work on the refit. Some smaller technical things were also done, such as a new generator and an updated interior.

Herreshoff skipper

The Atlantic is a replica of the 1903 ship. That set the record for the fastest crossing (in a monohull) from America to England two years later, and held it for almost 100 years. Charlie Barr, who commanded it, was already an award-winning captain by then. Born in 1864 in Gourock, Scotland, and working as a fisherman, he delivered the sailing yacht Clara to America as his older brother John’s crew. Clara’s racing success was so impressive that John was selected as skipper of the Scottish challenger Thistle in 1887, representing the Royal Clyde Yacht Club. There, the Barr brothers were introduced to Nathanael Herreshoff. Charlie Barr would continue to sail with Herreshoff designs for much of the rest of his professional sailing life.

Perfectly recreated

The Atlantic, by the way, is not a Herreshoff design, but was drawn by Charles Gardner.
After superyacht enthusiast Ed Kastelein rebuilt the Eleonora, the Atlantic became his latest challenge. With her length over deck of 56 metres, she is the largest classic racing schooner ever recreated. Ed Kastelein was determined to keep her as she was when she made history in 1905. Her original lines were recreated down to the smallest detail and her sail plan is identical to that during the 1905 Transatlantic Race, which made her immortal in yachting history.
“There are lots of beautiful sailing yachts in the world, but it is quite unique that there is a replica of this ship,” believes Talsma, “She is perfectly recreated, there is a huge history attached to it. For the enthusiast, this is wonderful to see.”

Classic rigging

The ship was for sale for € 12 million only last year, but it is reported that it recently changed hands for around € 20 million.
This week, the ship will go on a pontoon, as it is too deep to navigate the Van Harinxmakanaal by itself. The pontoon will be taken by tugs to Amsterdam, where the renovation will be completed at A’dam Yachtservices in Zaandam. There, the monumental rigging will be put back on. Captain Fosse Fortuin asked Sailmaster rigging expert Richard Tefsen, who knows a lot about classic rigging, to help.

Franeker connection

The ship is normally sailing at the French coast. There are plenty of yards there where the ship can be serviced, but Fosse Fortuin is from Franeker, and approached Talsma back in 2020 for the renovation. That did not go ahead then, but now that the ship has changed hands, it had to happen anyway.
Fosse Fortuin already sailed on very different ships, including the Wylde Swan and the Europa. In 2018, he started doing delivery’s with the classic two-masted Elena of London. When Ed Kastelein regained control of the Atlantic, after a period of bare-boat charter, he looked for a permanent captain for the ship. Through the Elena, he ended up with Fortuin, who has now been underway with the ship for another seven years.

World sailing

The ship usually sails in the Mediterranean, but the new owner has a much wider ambition. Its first voyage, starting in June, will take it to Norway. Only then will the ship head to the Mediterranean, where it will attend the Voiles de St Tropez. After that, it will cross over to the Caribbean. From there, the new owner wants to make a circumnavigation of the world, which will take several years. Fortuin: “When he came up with that plan, I did go ahead with the refurbishment, because for a few years of almost continuous sailing, the ship really needed it.”

Source: own newsgathering and Omroep Zilt.
Headline photo: ©Atlantic; more photos can be found on the Atlantic’s site.

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