''Mariette ''is a classic two-masted

gaff Gaff may refer to: Ankle-worn devices * Spurs in variations of cockfighting * Climbing spikes used to ascend wood poles, such as utility poles Arts and entertainment * A character in the ''Blade Runner'' film franchise * Penny gaff, a 19th-ce ...

schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...

, designed and built by

Nathanael Greene Herreshoff Nathanael Greene Herreshoff (March 18, 1848 – June 2, 1938) was an American naval architect, mechanical engineer, and yacht design innovator. He produced a succession of undefeated America's Cup defenders between 1893 and 1920. Biography Herr ...

in 1915 for Harold S. Vanderbilt. She now sails out of

Antibes Antibes (, also , ; oc, label=Provençal dialect, Provençal, Antíbol) is a coastal city in the Alpes-Maritimes Departments of France, department of southeastern France, on the French Riviera, Côte d'Azur between Cannes and Nice. The town of ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, under the French flag.

Design

''Mariette'' was built as "Project 698" by

Nathanael Herreshoff Nathanael Greene Herreshoff (March 18, 1848 – June 2, 1938) was an American naval architect, mechanical engineer, and yacht design innovator. He produced a succession of undefeated America's Cup defenders between 1893 and 1920. Biography Herr ...

, at his

Bristol, Rhode Island Bristol is a town in Bristol County, Rhode Island, US as well as the historic county seat. The town is built on the traditional territories of the Pokanoket Wampanoag. It is a deep water seaport named after Bristol, England. The population of B ...

yard, for prominent yachtsman Harold S. Vanderbilt. She was part of a series of seven large schooners built between 1903 and 1905 by the Herreshoff shipyard. ''Mariette'' and her sister-ship ''Vagrant'' are the last of this series still in service. The ships are smaller versions of the earlier ''Eleonora'' and ''Westward'', also by Herreshoff.

History

Skipper Jacob F. Brown sailed on ''Mariette'' until 1927. She was then sold to Francis B. Crowninshield, from a family with a sailing tradition, whose first ship was ''Cleopatra’s Barge''. In homage to this ship, they renamed ''Mariette'' to ''Cleopatra’s Barge II''. The rigging was modified into a

Bermuda rig A Bermuda rig, Bermudian rig, or Marconi rig is a configuration of Mast (sailing), mast and rigging for a type of sailboat and is the typical configuration for most modern sailboats. This configuration was developed in Bermuda in the 1600s; the t ...

. Writer

James A. Michener James Albert Michener ( or ; February 3, 1907 – October 16, 1997) was an American writer. He wrote more than 40 books, most of which were long, fictional family sagas covering the lives of many generations in particular geographic locales and ...

was a regular guest aboard, and mentions the ship in his novel ''

Chesapeake Chesapeake often refers to: *Chesapeake people, a Native American tribe also known as the Chesepian * The Chesapeake, a.k.a. Chesapeake Bay *Delmarva Peninsula, also known as the Chesapeake Peninsula Chesapeake may also refer to: Populated plac ...

'' (1978). In 1939, ''Mariette'' was requisitioned for service with the

US Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, multi ...

and used for patrols. Crowninshield was given his ship back in 1946, in a state of disrepair, and sold her. In the following years, ''Mariette'' had several owners and various names. At some point, she was owned by Walter Boudreau under the name ''Janeen''. From 1979 to 1990, she belonged to

Andrea Rizzoli Andrea Rizzoli (Milan, September 16, 1914 - Nice, May 31, 1983) was an Italian entrepreneur, publisher and film producer. He was the son of Angelo Rizzoli, president of the publishing house RCS MediaGroup, the first Italian publishing group in the ...

, who had her restored at the Beconcini shipyard (''Cantieri Navali Beconcini'') in

La Spezia, Italy La Spezia (, or , ; in the local Spezzino dialect) is the capital city of the province of La Spezia and is located at the head of the Gulf of La Spezia in the southern part of the Liguria region of Italy. La Spezia is the second largest city ...

. In 1982, she was used as a charter in the Caribbean. In 1995, Thomas J. Perkins, from

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, purchased her and restored her original rigging. The same year, ''Mariette'' collided with the 6-metre ''Taos Brett IV'' during the Nioulargue race, killing one of the sailors. He sailed in various Mediterranean races until 2005. He then sold ''Mariette'' to a French skipper, base in

Notes and references

; References ; External links
Mariette - Site classic yacht info

Mariette of 1915

Mariette

Living legend: Inside the major refit of Herreshoff schooner Mariette of 1915
{{Portal, France, USA Ships built in Bristol, Rhode Island 1916 ships Ships of France Schooners Ship names