This 21 metre masterpiece designed by Robert Clark and masterfully built in 1963, is a magnificent Ocean Racer that was able to win a Transatlantic race in the early 90s with an elderly owner and a non-professional crew, without sacrificing great comfort.
Providing course stability, a rare seaworthiness, a simple sail plan and excellent deck equipment, FIRE BIRD is also a wonderful yacht for quiet use by a family wishing to enjoy the ample sunbathing areas on deck, the very comfortable cockpit and her comfortable interior.
Her hull is built in Burma teak and her sides in mahogany. Her teak deck, professionally built in 2009, has a life of decades ahead of it.
FIRE BIRD, built under the supervision of Lloyds in Class 100 A1, it is one of the best classic yachts of its size available today and is in an excellent state of maintenance. Italian flag, Rina 2025. Base port Imperia.
HISTORY
We agree wholeheartedly with what Barney Sandeman, who had previously studied this beautiful boat well, wrote: even by modern standards, FIRE BIRD defies the custom that classic yachts do not have enough interior space and accommodation to meet modern-day comfort requirements.
FIRE BIRD is a project that goes way back. It was in 1937 when Charles Nicholson designed and built in his Southampton yard a marvellous Ocean Racer, a 68' Marconi cutter designed for regattas, but very elegant in her interiors, an evolution of Bloodhound, Foxhound and Stiarna, among the most powerful boats of the period. She was called Firebird X, now known internationally as Oiseaux de Feu. Twenty-five years later, in 1962, the former owner of Firebird X, J.E. Green, ordered Robert Clark to revisit Nicholson's design, retaining the same deck length, modifying the distribution of volumes to achieve greater habitability and comfort compared to a masterpiece of the 30s and, if possible, increasing performance. A great challenge for a designer! The boat was called FIRE BIRD, yawl-rigged, beautiful, powerful. Yachting World described the project as "a reinterpretation of the earlier yacht in modern times", maintaining the balance and harmony of the forms while increasing the width by more than 50 cm and increasing the volume by almost 10 cubic metres with less draught. A work of art, engineering and naval architecture.
A refined classic boat, built in teak like the best boats of the 30s, which with great comfort won a transatlantic regatta in the 90s.
By the mid-1930s, the great old men of world yacht design - William Fife III, Charles Nicholson, Nat Herreshoff - were giving way to the young: Olin Stephens, Jack Laurent Giles, Robert Clark; and Mystery II, Favona and Ortac, Clark's revolutionary designs left their mark on design history, such as Stephens' Dorade, Giles' Maid of Malham... The hallmark of Clark's designs, as John Leather wrote in a commentary, was the combination of speed and seaworthiness with good livability and grace of form.
His talent and his serious work of study and design among those who accompanied the history of yachting from the harmony of the 20's and 30's to the uneasiness of the post-war period, as Andrea Cappai very aptly writes in his book on Clark "The Invisible Crew", revolutionised the relationship between space, form and function to develop the boat for everyone, but also the technological machine to race around the world or the refined yacht for the elite.
In 1988, when Robert Clark died, The Times published an obituary in which the great designer was described as 'a sailor himself' who sailed all his life with his invisible crew of balance, passion and grace, qualities that Clark transferred to his boats, which are a great pleasure to sail.
CONSTRUCTION AND ACCOMODATION
Carvel teak planks bottom and African mahogany topsides planking; bronze fastening
- Laminated oak frames; 2/3 intermediate oak timbers between
- 2009 Teak laid deck on marine plywood
ACCOMODATION
3 double cabins, crew cabin, 3 bathrooms, saloon, galley, doghouse.
Doghouse
- Navigation station with instruments detailed in Nav section
- Perkins engine instrumentation
- Full size chart table to port
- Pilot’s seat aft
- Locker stowage by companionway
- Large quarter berth with drawers under to stbd,
- Shelves in aft bulkhead stbd
- Forward to saloon
Saloon
- L shaped seating to port around dining table
- Stowage lockers and book shelves each side
- Settee to stbd
- Drinks cabinet stbd
- Wide skilight
Owner's en suite cabin to port
- 2 Up and over berths
- Vanity dressing table/ desk with mirror, light and drawers
- Porcelain wash basin with hot and cold taps
- Hanging locker wardrobe and other locker and drawer stowage
- Butterfly skylight in deck head
- En suite bathroom: Tecma auto WC, porcelain wash basin with hot and cold taps, stowage lockers, shower and teak grating sole, butterfly skylight hatch
Guest cabin to stbd
- 2 x up and over berths
- Vanity dressing table / desk with drawers, mirror and light
- Hanging locker
- Porcelain wash basin with hot and cold taps
- Butterfly skylight hatch and prisms lights in deck head
Guest Bathroom to stbd: Tecma auto WC, porcelain wash basin with hot and cold taps. stowage lockers, shower and teak grating sole, butterfly skylight hatch
2nd Guest cabin to stbd
- 2 Berths
- Drawers
- Hanging locker
- Washbasin with hot and cold taps
- Vanity mirror and light
- Small banquette seat
- Butterfly skylight hatch and prism light in deck head
Door adjacent in corridor access to port
Galley forward to port
- Large fridge freezer
- Stainless steel sink, hot and cold mixer tap
- Drawers and lockers below worktop and outboard above
- Alpes inox 3 burner hob and oven
- Butterfly skylight and 2 lights in deck head
Access forward
Focsle
- 2 upper level cot berths +1 bunk bed
- Stowage in lockers and under benches each side
- Anchor chain locker and hawse to deck fwd
- Butterfly skylight in deck head
- Ladder to booby hatch on foredeck
- En suite bathroom: WC, wash basin with hot and cold taps
- Shower
- Grating sole
- Butterfly skylight in deck head
EQUIPMENT
On deck
- New teak deck 2009
- Flush hatches each side for lazarette access to generator and secondary anchor
- Bathing ladders
- Life raft
- Varnished and raw teak pasarelle
- PNP Duerr Torkmaster windlass with 2 capstans and 2 drums
- Large plough anchor at bow, two spare anchors
- Chain housed in special box with direct discharge into the sea
Sails and Rigging
- Mizzen, mainsail, boomed staysail, hanked genoa / yankee
- New Furling Genoa 2022
- Both masts original Spotlight alluminum in perfect state
- Wood main and mizzen booms
- Wood boom for staysail
- Laurent Giles levers each side for mainmast running backstays
- Laurent Giles levers each side to mizzen running backstay
Mechanical. Electrical and Tankage
- Perkins M135 130hp Diesel motor
- New Generator 2024 4.5KW
- Electric systems 24/220 V
- Batteries n. 6 2023
- Watermaker 100 lt/hr
- New Inox Fresh water tanks 900 lt 2024
- Fuel tank inox 600 lt
- Holding tank inox 180 lt
- Black water tank 2024
- New air conditioning 2023
Navigation, Communication and Electronics
- Raymarine C120 plotter
- Raytheon Raypilot 650
- Raytheon Nav 398 GPS Loran
- Raymarine ST60, Autohelm, wind, CH wind, speed and depth
- Furuno Weatherfax
- Furuno radar
- ICOM IC-M401 VHF
- SSB Rx/Tx
- TV antenna system, WiFi.
- Brassbound ships clock
- Smiths thermometer
- Smith Hygrometer
- Schatz brass clock and barometer
Equipment
- Winter tarpaulin protecting the entire hull
- Sundeck awning, side covers for the planking and hoods for the skylights
- Rigid-keel dinghy with four-stroke outboard engine