S/Y ALCYON 1871

S/Y ALCYON 1871

Year: 1871
Type of boat: Époque Aurique (CIM)
Country: France
Length (LOD): 8 m
Architect: Gilles Vaton

Acyon is a faithful replica of  a Marseille houari (gunter rig), a typical Mediterranean boat, which for 20 years from 1871 monopolised the podiums along the Côte from Marseille to Monaco, winning her owner four times what she had cost (prizes being in gold francs at the time), despite many trips to the yard due to continually optimising performance and breakages incurred while racing. An extreme boat that Provencal Gilles Martin-Raget, whose status as official photographer for the America’s Cup does not stop him coining the right phrase, called her “the boat which exaggerates” on her first outing under sail. Indeed who would not be amazed by this skimming “dish” (as opposed to the very narrow English plank-on-edge designs of the period) with her 10.5m boom and 7m bowsprit that has to be raised against the mast when she returns to port. None of her type has survived and her raitng became lost in the mists of time with the arrival of International Rules (IR). This reconstruction was decided by Edith Frilet, great grand-daughter of Marseille trader Emilien Rocca, son of the Genovese owner Jean-Baptiste Rocca, husband of Isabelle Fabre, daughter of the famous Marseille owner. Emilien Rocca and a group of friends founded the Société Nautique de Marseille in 1887 and at the helm of Alcyon won the club’s first regatta. Alcyon 1871 raced again for the first time at Monaco Classic Week-La Belle Classe 2013.