Designe Cesare Sangermani Sr
Builder Cantieri Sangermani
Date 1957
Length overall 74 ft 6 in / 22.7 m
Length deck 72 ft 10 in / 22.2 m
Length waterline 53 ft 2 in / 16.2 m
Beam 14 ft 9 in / 4.5 m
Draft 8 ft 6 in / 2.6 m
Displacement 32.6 Tonnes
Construction Mahogany on oak, elm, acacia & pitch pine
Engine IVECO 8460 SM19
Location Italy
Price EUR 890,000
From the 1940s into the early 1990s, together with a band of impeccable artisans, the Sangermani family at Lavagna near Genoa was responsible for a stream of excellence in boat designing and building of the highest quality imaginable. At launching, SAHIB was the second largest yacht they’d built, and may reasonably be considered the cruiser-racer prototype for the 1965 Fastnet Race winner and record holder GITANA IV. Rescued from an ignominious fate and restored magnificently under present ownership, SAHIB is a dream ship in every sense: ready for stylish adventures with family and friends.
HISTORY
Cantiere Sangermani Yard No. 94
"I am not capable of making boats only for money... I build boats with my heart. I dream of them at night. I stroke them… like a poet does his verse. To me, every boat is like a work of art. It can't leave my shipyard until it is perfect" - Cesare Sangermani, 1974
To require rescue from close to oblivion is a rare fate for a Sangermani; just the name is enough to stir the imagination as, for example, Stradivari might. It certainly wouldn't have been imagined in 1956 when Guido and Silvio Pellerano commissioned Cesare Sangermani Senior to design this superb 73ft RORC Class I cruiser-racer ketch. When launched at Lavagna, east of Genoa, in the spring of 1957, SAHIB became the second largest yacht designed and built there under the direction of Cesare and Piero Sangermani. Many more would follow.
A later owner was Amalia "Maly" Levi Da Zara Falck, wife of Giovanni Falck, second son of the founder of the huge Italian steelmakers. Amalia lived at the beautiful Montelattaia estate near Grosetto, Tuscany, and sailing tours would have been in the waters of the Tyrrhenian Sea from SAHIB's home port further north, Marina di Carrara. Her son Giorgio Falck was a Sangermani client: a prolific and adventurous yacht owner, and veteran of three Whitbread Round the World races in GUAIA (1973-74), ROLLY GO (Sangermani, 1981-82) and GATORADE (ex NZI Enterprise, 1989-90).
In 2015, SAHIB, with her unmistakable "three dots" (Morse code "S" for Sangermani) cove line decoration proving her provenance, was found in a distressed state at the port of Agropoli, south of Naples, and the rescue process described elsewhere here commenced. If ever a yacht deserved it, it was this Sangermani gem.
Click here for full information at Sandeman Yacht Company
Photo: Francesco Rastrelli