The Journey Begins

I am SYLPHE….. a 60 foot classic sailyacht. My father was André Mauric. He was the most prolific and best known of France’s 20th century yacht designers, who started in the 1920s with radical designs for racing yachts to the International Meter Rule. In 1939 he designed a real beauty ….. Sylphe. In those days […]

More History

But, back to my history, all of these boats have a history, after all. SYLPHE (originally ARIEL, later SYLPHE IV) was commissioned by Paul Blanchet, an owner who wanted a yacht to win races under the British RORC rating rule. His timing was not good – it was 1939 when Mauric started designing/building the yacht. […]

Still more history

In 1954 I was converted into a cruiser, with an engine, a galley, bunks, heads, etc. Since then I have been cruising the Med from east to west …and back. During the next 50 years or so, SYLPHE was sailed and raced in the Mediterranean. It seems she was well maintained, with Mauric himself always […]

Sylphe Today

Poetry on water … In 1999 her new Dutch owners sailed SYLPHE to Turkey and set about a 7-month total overhaul to make her more suitable for Mediterranean charter and live-aboard use. Although the interior had to be completely stripped out and rebuilt to provide more comfortable accommodation and headroom, the original hull timbers and […]

Ownership

SYLPHE, a 60-foot full longkeeler, has had eight owners in her life time. The last two owners each held on to her for 20+ years. That says something about the boat, about the possibilities, about her seaworthiness and about her comfort. She is big enough to spend prolonged periods of time on board. The last […]

Master & Commander

So, SYLPHE is capable of doing it all. she sailed around for the last 80 years; racing, cruising, at anchor, finding new horizons and destinations. Good and bad weather. She has proven it over and over again for eight decades. Been there, done it and seen it all…has been the owner’s slogan for the last […]

The Journey Continues

So, here it is: Sylphe, a rare, truly French built Classic Sailyacht. See here some visual impressions of Sylphe: original parts inside cruising and racing

Pedigree

Designer Andre Mauric Length deck 17,35 m Displacement 35mTonnes Builder Chantier de Pharao Marseille Length waterline 12,67 m Construction mahogony teak oak Date 1939 Beam 3,99 m Engine Yanmar 76 HP Length overall 18,25 m Draft 2,55 m Balast 13mTonnes lead