Early days
The first Six Metres listed in Spain in the Lloyd’s Register of Yachts appear in 1907. The very first to appear was Sogalinda III, which is listed alongside Sogalindas I and II (which are not Six Metres), all belonging to T. de Zubiria. All three boats were registered to Bilbao in the north of Spain.
Sogalinda III was built at Astilleros Nervion in Bilbao, meaning that she was not only the first Six Metre registered in Spain, but the first to be built there too. Her owner, Tomás de Zubiria was clearly an enthusiastic early adopter of the International Rule, and Sogalinda III was campaigned in the first One Ton Cup (then the “Coupe Internationale du Cercle de la Voile de Paris”) to be sailed in Six Metres at Meulan, Paris in June 1907.
This first International Cup was won by the German competitor, Onkel Adolf, but it secured Spain’s place on the early international Six Metre racing scene. The One Ton Cup was raced in Six Metres from 1907 through to 1962, with the exception of fours years from 1920 to 1923 when it switched temporarily to 6.5 Metres.
Conde Tomás de Zubiria was a successful businessman and politician – and one of the earliest Six Metre owners in Spain. © Public Domain
Zubiria himself was an interesting character, and perhaps indicative of the wealthy and well-connected owners that were to follow. Born in Bilbao in 1857, he went on to become a very successful businessman and politican. His business interests included steel and shipbuilding. Just a few years before Sogalinda II was built, he was leading one of the largest companies in Spain, Altos Hornos de Vizcaya, a steel and iron business. In 1907 he also founded the shipping company Compañía Marítima del Nervión. He was given the title 1st Count of Zubiria by King Alfonso XIII in 1907.
Sogalinda III, seen here sailing on the Seine in the first Coupe Internationale Du Cercle De La Voile in 1907. The image was published in the French magazine “Le Yacht” (see archive record BSCM.5.12).
While Sogalinda III was built in Spain, this certainly wasn’t the norm. In his 2017 book “Los Barcos de Alfonso XIII”, Luis Touron Figueroa explains that, because Spain came to sailing later than other countries, it lacked yacht building expertise at the beginning of the 20th century. He states “The first Spanish regatta boats were generally imported, almost always bought for very high prices”. It appears that in order to encourage home-gown boat building skills, a series of trophies were created which were awarded only to Spanish-built boats. It seems, however, that this strategy had limited success; in total only 19 Six Metres have ever been built in Spain with only two of those being built since 1931 – Stella in 2017 and Ginkgo Too in 2020.
Despite the lack of yachts being built in Spain, the number of Spanish Sixes steadily grew year by year, with the fleet being boosted with imports from elsewhere. In the space of only eight years, by 1915 there were 23 Six Metres registered there, 14 in the north of the country and nine in the south. In less than a decade the Six Metre class was firmly established in Spain; however, the peak of Spanish Six Metre sailing was still to come.