HAVSORNEN
Above, L-R:
designer Tore
Holm in
foreground; press
cuttings from
1937 tell of the
Gotland Runt
victory that
made her name;
first owner
Holger Nilsson
with his Packard
motor carI
t’s a windy day in 1936 and three friends are out
sailing an Anker 10-Metre yacht in the Åland
archipelago between Sweden and Finland. The
gusts between the islands here can be strong,
nothing that your average Anker 10-M couldn’t
handle, but today the boat’s owner is unhappy.
Holger Nilsson, aged 55, is a personable character who
runs one of Sweden’s biggest companies. With him is
good friend and business colleague Sven Salén, a
medallist at the Berlin Olympic games and one of
Sweden’s best-known sailors. The third member of the
party is Tore Holm, talented yacht designer, introspective
nice guy and also an Olympic sailor. Quite a trio, and a
group of people who’d have enjoyed having a good-
natured dig at the Norwegian living legend of Johan
Anker if his 1919 design was proving a little tender in
the gusts. After an afternoon of lurching to leeward,
finally, in frustration, in jest, as a mild-mannered
challenge to his friend, Nilsson roars above the wind:
“Good God Tore, can you design me a yacht that can
take a little blow like this?”
Holm, aged 41 at the time, is on form. He’s sailed his
own designs to victory in the Olympics. Around 10 per
cent of the yachts in the Royal Swedish YC were by
Holm. Many were Skerry Cruisers, many were Metre
boats. Perhaps around this time, in 1936, running
around in his head is the design for J-Class yacht Svea, a
yacht that was finally built and launched last year. Out in
the Åland islands, the leeward rail bubbling with foam,
Holm holds on tight and looks to windward as an
answer to his friend Nilsson’s challenge begins to take
shape in his mind.
Eighty years later off Saint-Tropez, and a gleaming
wooden yacht is being helmed by a guy with wrap-
around shades and long blond hair. “Bonne pression,
bonne pression!” comes the call from our French
trimmer as he spies black ripples ahead. “Pressure
coming,” says Robbie Fabre quietly to himself at the
helm. The gust hits and Havsörnen’s 52ft hull gives a
barely perceptible nod, before accelerating forward and
someone with an eye on the instruments yells: “9 knots!”
Out on the rail, we exchange grins. Tore Holm’s sea
eagle is flying.
Havsörnen made her first appearance under new
ownership at Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez 2016. She hadbeen bought by Philippe Fabre, a classic boat enthusiast
whose behind-the-scenes support had been the stimulus
for projects far and wide. He’d made his entry into the
Med circuit on Freya, a 2003 Bill Dixon spirit-of-tradition
rocketship that won enough Panerai watches for the
entire crew. But sitting on her rail, his customary position
as he let the young guns man the boat, he often had his
eyes on the vintage classic fleet. Owning a yacht like
Havsörnen had been a long-held dream. Moored on the
stone quay at Saint-Tropez in 2016, she received
admiring glances and those who knew the Med circuit of
old were glad to see her back in action. But Philippe
knew she needed a little love and attention.
After the regatta, work began in nearby Port
Grimaud, overseen by Philippe’s son Robbie, a
boatbuilder who trained at IBTC Lowestoft and won a
2011 Classic Boat Award for his restoration of his own
yacht, Vagabundo II. With him was a young French
team of shipwrights, riggers and sailmakers.
At the time, Philippe wrote in an email to Classic
Boat: “Havsörnen will have a sensible local refit over the
winter with a small team of superbly skilled craftsmen,
all of them crew on Havsörnen. My son Robbie will be
in charge of all the woodwork. Sylvain, the skipper, will
be in charge of the rigging (that’s his speciality) and all
machinery and other equipment. Adrien (tactician) has
just opened his Quantum sail loft in Cogolin and is my
appointed sailmaker (just look at Freya’s record of wins
and you’ll understand). Werner, the tall Belgian muscle
man at the foot of the mast, is an incredibly talented
painter (he has done the wood effect paint on Freya’s
mast) and will be in charge of gold-leaf cove lines and
carvings. Gregg (no 1) has built the new rudder for Freya
and is a fabulous composite material specialist, he can do
varnish like no one else. And the list goes on.”
Philippe was a passionate supporter of young sailing
talent and loved nothing more than giving the next
generation an opportunity. “My angle with Havsörnen is
the same as on Freya,” he wrote. “Young professionals
skilled in water/sail-related activities who love the sport
but can’t afford it. They are unpaid but in charge. I am
on the sideline and whenever there is a top podium finish
they keep the prize. I suppose sometime in 2017,
Havsörnen will splash back in the water and we will
have the first big regatta in the season.”