EXTRAORDINARY BOATS

SPECIFICATION

LOA 20.4m 69ft 11in

LWL 14.7m 48ft 3in

Beam 4.60m 15ft 1in

Draught 2.4m-4.5m 7ft 10in-14ft 8in

Displacement 33 tonnes

Sail Area 177m² 1,905ft²

Recluta is a 69ft ketch built for renowned designer Germán Frers to lines drawn by his father some 80 years previously

The Frers dynasty is responsible for more than 1,300 yacht designs. Germán Frers, having last year celebrated his 80th birthday, remains one of the most prolific and sought after designers in the world. Yet when it came to building a ‘new’ yacht for himself, he turned to plans his father had drawn in 1942.

The decision to build was made almost on a whim. Germán was talking with old colleagues and friends, including Tito Szyka, a master boatbuilder – also now in his eighties – who has worked on Frers’ previous classic yacht restorations, as well as Heroina, a 75ft wooden sloop built in the 1990s to a Frers design.

“Actually the whole thing started with a political discussion,” Frers recalls. “We were talking about