Meye
Meye (now Acacia III) has spent most of her life in Spain, but her origins lie in Scandinavia. She was designed by Finnish naval architect Gustaf Estlander and built by Abrahamsson & Son in Gothenburg, Sweden.
However, she was built to sail in Spain. Her first owner was Luis de Allende, who kept her in Bilbao in northern Spain. She was built at a time when this area of Spain had a flourishing Six Metre fleet, and she sailed there with around 20 other boats.
Records suggest that de Allende sailed her for the whole of the pre-war period, after which she was sold to a new owner in Barcelona in 1954. Many of the Six Metres from northern Spain seem to followed the same path, and she sailed there with a burgeoning southern Spanish fleet.
Her new owner, Camilo Cuyás Zaragoza, changed her name to Acacia III, a name which she carries to this day. It appears that Acacia sailed with the Barcelona fleet for as long as they were active. Her owner continued to sail her even after the fleet had all but disappeared, fitting an engine to her in the early 1960s.
In the early 1970s she made her way north again, this time to Castro Urdiales between Santander and Bilbao. At this point her story becomes vague, with the previous owners hearing news of her being badly damaged after hitting some rocks. They assumed that the boat had been lost for ever.
This was not so, however, and in the 1990s she was discovered and taken to the Astilleros Lagos shipyard where she waited for a new owner to restore her to her former glory. Here, she was spotted by her current owner who oversaw her restoration. She was re-launched in 2010, looking as good as the day she was built.
She is now an active member of the recently revived Spanish Six Metre fleet and races regularly throughout the season.
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