Mariska

Launched in 1908, this gaff cutter is part of the quartet of 15-Metre Class yachts designed by William Fife currently sailing in the Mediterranean, alongside Hispania, Tuiga and The Lady Anne.

Mariska was the second 15-Metre Class yacht to be designed and built by William Fife, one year after the launch of Shinna in 1907. She was commissioned by A.K. Stothert, one of the most prominent figures in yachting in this era, who had been collecting racing yachts and notching up victories ever since 1894.

The English racing season lasted from the end of May to the end of September. In 1908, after modest beginnings at Port Victoria on the Thames, Mariska was one of two 15-Metre Class yachts taken to Scotland at the end of June to race on the Clyde. Carrying 400 square feet of canvas more than the 52-foot Britomart, she won easily in light airs. On 28 and 29 July, she was found racing in Le Havre, where she completed the 21 miles of the first race in 2 hours, 34 minutes, and 55 seconds. The next day saw her bowing down before Shinna. It was a spectacle of great beauty, as the two 15-Metre Class yachts had chosen to carry the same canvas as the 23-Metre yachts: mainsail, sharply angled topsail and small flying jib.  Mariska won the Le Havre regatta with a first and a second place.

At the start of March 1908 Philippe de Vilmorin, a seed merchant and Commodore of the Cannes Regatta Association, christened his Anémone II, the 15-Metre Class yacht designed for him by the French naval architect C.M. Chevreux. The same year King Alfonso XIII of Spain took delivery of Hispania, designed by Fife but built in Spain by the Carraso yard in Karpard, while the King’s friend the Duke of Medinacelli acquired her sister ship Tuiga. The 15-Metre Class yachts were all the rage in Spain. Encarnita, designed by the French naval architect Guédon, was also launched, while Shinna was sold into Spanish hands by J.R. Payne, for whom Fife was already building Vanity.