“How is it possible for Chile to have lost its oceanic culture?” asks ocean conservationist Francisca Cortés Solari, as if baffled by her own question. Chile has 6,500 kilometres of Pacific Ocean coastline running the entire length of its western side, counts Rapa Nui (better known as Easter Island) at the most southeastern point of the Polynesian Triangle among its territories and once produced frigates to support its navy. It even had a superyacht builder in Iquique.
Chile, however, is not where most owners would choose to build a 26-metre motorsailer, but then again, Cortés Solari isn't most owners. The Chilean philanthropist has spent the past 20 years promoting her country's comprehensive and sustainable development through science, education, culture and conservation. And she wanted to build at home.
“Modernity has distanced us from our marine and seafaring traditions,” she says. “Even though it was more complex, I wanted to build something that imbues my country's architecture and spirit and is built in the traditional way of the Chonos.” The Chonos were nomadic southern seafarers who once inhabited Western Patagonia – hunter gatherers who built and travelled by a type of wooden canoe called a dalca.
“I had originally intended on building a wooden boat just as the Chonos used
