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Silène III

Silène III was launched in spring 1950 in Gamleby, Sweden. She was immediately put on a train and made her way to Lake Geneva in Switzerland. Her new owner was André Maus with Jack Duval as skipper.

The origin of the name Silène comes from small boxes whose covers were painted with joyful and frivolous figures like crested eagles, satyrs, goslings, horned hares, flying goats and other beautiful paintings. Their purpose was to make people laugh in the same way as Silènus, the tutor of Bacchus did. These boxes were mainly used to keep precious stones or fine perfumes like balm, ambergris or musk (F.Rabelais, 1534: Gargantua)

In Switzerland Silène III regularly raced alongside Ylliam, Borée, Véga, Bambi and May Be. She was a successful boat and Maus regularly came away with trophies from various regattas such as Semaine Voile, Regatta Léman, Championnat Suisse and others. She was regularly transported by train to the fashionable regattas in Marseilles and the Regates Royales de Cannes. In 1957 she notably lost her mast while competing for a new speed record in the Bol d’Or race.

In the early 1960s she was sold to Charles-Edouard Müller and renamed as Farfadet VI. Her success continued and in 1965 she won the Swiss Championship as well as numerous local regattas.

In 1967 she changed hands again, this time being sold to Michael Mora and renamed Bosco. Mora did not have as much success with her as her two previous owners, perhaps partly due to him adding a new mast which is thought was too heavy for her. He did, however, take her to various races, including the inaugural Six Metre World Championships in Sandhamn, Sweden, in 1975.

Her fourth owner, Florian Held, bought the boat in 1980, returning her to the name Silène. He replaced the heavy mast and then took her to the 1981 World Championships in Romanshorn, Switzerland. In 1983 Silène won the Régates Royales in Cannes. However, her owner felt that she was now ageing and found it difficult to compete with the newer boats, so in 1989 she was sold on again.

In the spring of 1989 Silène was loaded onto a truck and taken north to Basel. There she was put back in the water and her new owners, Kari Karlsson, Heikki Kirjanen, and Tapani Koskela, spent two weeks motoring through the inland waterways of Europe, eventually arriving in Lübeck in the north of Germany. From there she was finally sailed 800 miles northeast across the Baltic to Helsinki in Finland.

The following year, Silène’s owners celebrated her 40th birthday by sailing her to Sandhamn in Sweden for the Nordic Championships where she came 4th. Immediately after racing the owners set off at midnight to sail back to Helsinki, completing the passage in 30 hours.

In 1991 she was given some much needed attention including a new deck, several new planks and frames freshly painted beams and a new set of sails. The early 1990s saw a new crew and some changes in her shared ownership but she continued to race. She was taken to Sweden again, first in 1995 for the World Cup in Sandhamn, and again in 1996 for her designer Tore Holm’s centenary celebration.

In 2000 she had an anniversary of her own. Her 50th years was celebrated with a month-long tour of regattas, starting with her taking second place in the Helsinki Regatta at the beginning of July. They took a route through the archipelago and across the Sea of Åland finally arriving in Sandhamn. Soon they were ready to race in the Nordic Championships where they took silver. The crew organised a reception for the fleet with a buffet on the pier and a film show in the club house. The success of the year was sealed with a victory in the archipelago race from Helsinki to Svartbäck, and a bronze in the Nationals in August. The total score placed Silène 3rd in the national ranking of the year which was her best result ever since arriving in Finland.

Since then Silène has been a regular competitor in the Finnish Six Metre fleet. In 2009 she was given a new wooden mast after she suffered damage in the World Championships in Sandhamn in 2005 and has had much success.

Besides racing, Silène is also used as a cruising boat and her owners often invite inexperienced sailors to crew. She is also sailed on cruises up to a week long around the archipelago as a shared adventure for friends and family.

Information kindly supplied by Tapani Koskela.

Boat ID
1950SE01
Boat Names
Original name: Silène III Other names: Farfadet VI (name changed in 1963) Bosco (name changed in 1969) Silène (name changed in 1980) Last name recorded: Silène III (name changed in 2014)
Build Year
1950
Build Country
Sweden
Sail Numbers
First number recorded: Z41 (1951) Other numbers: L61 Last number reported: FIN61 (2011)
Designers
Tore Holm
Restored or rebuilt
Significant Dates
Boat Measurements
Rule Number
Website

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