atalanta yacht review

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Fairey Atalanta

USED BOAT TEST: Every now and again, a designer comes along who truly breaks the mould. Sam Jefferson heads back to the future when he steps aboard a 1960 Fairey Atalanta, a boat that is so innovative, she still seems ahead of her time.

ACCOMMODATION Saloon Heading down below, there is plenty of evidence that Chris has been busy and the saloon has benefited from a bit of freshening up. The interior has none of the depressing décor that often dogs vessels of this era. The ambience is functional without feeling too spartan, while a recently fitted diesel Eberspacher heater ensures you’ll remain warm and snug below. The fact that the Atalanta has a centre cockpit means that the saloon isn’t huge, nevertheless, there is adequate room for four to sit there. Headroom is also pretty good for a boat of this size, coming in at about 1.7m (5’7”) aft. The original Atalanta saloon tables were clearly dreamt up in one of Uffa’s more wildly eccentric moments and folded out onto the sofas. Chris has replaced these with the more conventional central table, which still allows ample room to manoeuvre.

The interior is simple and uncluttered and wooden construction means that headlinings are thankfully not required. The area is dominated by the massive galvanised bulkhead, which supports the deck stepped mast, anchors the shrouds and the pivots for the two lifting boards. When under construction, the whole boat was hung off this single bulkhead and with its immense strength absorbing most of the stress points, the rest of the hull can be kept very light. There is something almost industrial about the saloon area and in some ways, the boat seems to bear a strong resemblance to one of Fairey’s famous aircraft rather than a cruising yacht.

Navigation area Heading down into the saloon from the cockpit, the navigation area is immediately to starboard, so it’s pretty handy if you need to dash down and work out where you’re going in a hurry. The table is another of Chris’s little additions and pulls out from an area directly underneath the cockpit, which also doubles up as a very snug quarter berth. Aft cabin The aft cabin has a very generous double berth, which is designed for athwartships sleeping. Headroom in the cabin is limited to around 0.65m (2’2”), but with the generously proportioned companionway hatch slid back, the cabin is easy to access and feels much more airy than you would expect. Chris also opted to put the heads at the forward end of the cabin, meaning that you have the, surely unique, feature of being able to helm the boat while using the toilet.

Forepeak The forepeak was traditionally where the heads were located. Following Chris’s reshuffle of the interior, however, this is now an empty space with a large stainless steel chain locker.

Galley Heading down the main companionway, the galley is situated directly to port and benefits from a very shiny new Taylors pressurised paraffin stove, which was fitted by Chris recently, but was also in Fairey’s original specifications for the Atalanta. A small sink with hand pumped water is located next to the cooker, but there isn’t a vast amount of room to prepare your food unless you use the nav table on the other side of the saloon.

ON DECK Cockpit Stepping out of the saloon, you find yourself in the hugely spacious cockpit area. You could comfortably seat eight in here and the high coamings mean you feel very safe and contained, while cockpit cushions for the two long, wide benches mean you are also extremely comfortable. Your eyes are immediately drawn to the unusual whipstaff steering arrangement. Just as on the old galleons, the whipstaff emerges vertically from the cockpit sole. It looks a bit odd, but it does free up valuable cockpit space. The Atalanta also benefits from an excellent cockpit tent, which can be utilised by raising the mainsheet traveller to create a really roomy enclosed space.

Deck space The curved sidedecks and cabin top make the foredeck a little bit tight on the Atalanta, while her smooth, uncluttered decks, mean there aren’t that many decent hand grips forward of the cabin top. Wandering forward to attach a fender, I was grateful that Chris had recently fitted some guardrails, which give you a little bit more security. One interesting feature is the circular hatch fitted far forward in the bows. Back in the dark days before roller furling jibs, you could handle the jib from the comfort of the forepeak, simply by lifting up the circular hatch. It’s also possible to prepare the anchor from the safety of the cabin. It’s a typical feature of a boat that was clearly put together with a great deal of thought and ingenuity. Abaft the cockpit you have a wide after deck, ideal for a spot of sunbathing. This can also provide adequate room to lash a small dinghy down.

Rig The aluminium mast is deck stepped and, at first glance, the rig looks ridiculously small for a 26-footer, until you remember her light displacement. She’s fractionally rigged with a wire main halyard that is handled by means of a small winch on the mast with a rather fiddly little handle that looks like it would disappear over the side at some crucial moment. The stainless steel shrouds are secured to chainplates bolted through the topsides, which give the boat a pleasingly old school look, while a whisker pole and spinnaker pole ensure the boat is fully equipped for downwind sailing.

Sails Jaunty had a fairly new (2007) set of Jeckells sails, which set very nicely. Chris had dispensed with the original hank on headsails in favour of roller reefing, while the main had a roller boom reefing system, which was easily operated from the cockpit, although it did threaten to brain you if you were on the aft deck. On hoisting the sails, you are struck by how small the sail area appears – the Atalanta is reputed to be able to carry full sail in a Force 8 and, at 270ft², it’s pretty modest, but a displacement of 2 tons, there isn’t much weight to push along.

UNDER WAY Under way We headed out of Chichester Harbour with about 15kn of wind, although this slackened off as the test went on. Considering we were in a boat that looked like a cross between an old school RNLI lifeboat and a submarine, I was very intrigued to see how she would perform.

Closehauled Pinning in the sails, she heeled to the breeze nicely and with about 15kn apparent wind on the nose, she pointed well enough and fairly scooted along at five knots or so. She was also very responsive to the whipstaff and actually felt more like a dinghy than a cruiser. Despite her relatively narrow beam, she felt fairly stiff and certainly didn’t heel excessively given her modest 25 per cent ballast ratio. The whipstaff steering was simple enough to control and took all of a minute to master, although there was a bit of weather helm during the gusts. She tracked well enough and there wasn’t a vast amount of leeway until the breeze slacked off. It was, however, important to ensure that you tacked her around relatively quickly to stop her stalling mid-tack. Doubtless the twin keels contributed to this problem and, although this issue may have been eased by raising the leeward keel, this would have involved a lot of raising and lowering as we tacked.

Reaching After a beat out of Chichester, we reached across the harbour entrance with the breeze easing all the time and we started to pay the price for the Atalanta’s small sail plan. Nevertheless, her light displacement continued to push her along at a respectable 4kn or so.

Running There were some veiled threats from Chris that he was going to dig out the spinnaker, but the baking June heat ensured that we were sufficiently lethargic to leave it safely stowed in the locker. Instead we settled on the whisker pole and this pushed us along at about 3.5kn in about eight or so knots of wind. We raised the boards and enjoyed the pleasure of creeping over Chichester Bar while conventional yachts eyed us enviously.

Under engine Jaunty had recently been re-engined with a 12hp Mitsubishi Vetus diesel inboard. This pushed us along very rapidly at anything up to eight knots. Considering that it has a two bladed folding prop, you wonder how fast she would go with a more powerful prop.

The Fairey Atalanta is unquestionably one of the oddest boats I have ever looked over and her appearance is something you’ll either love or loathe. Yet despite her offbeat design, she was very comfortable and well behaved under sail or power and also surprisingly roomy for her size. A family of four could cruise her fairly comfortably and the boat gave you the impression that she’d been very carefully thought out. Her hot moulded mahogany construction has withstood the test of time very well with some owners claiming that it is more durable than glassfibre. Nevertheless, as with any wooden boat, you can expect there to be a bit of maintenance work. Apart from that, this is an incredibly versatile boat: you can tow her on a trailer, creep up the shallowest estuaries and still enjoy a good sail on a roomy, well thought out yacht, stamped with the indelible mark of true genius.

Fully Equipped LOA 26ft (7.9m) LWL 25ft (7.6m) Beam 7ft 8in (2.34m) Draught: Boards raised 1ft 8in (0.5m) Boards lowered 5ft 9in (1.75m) Displacement 4000lb Ballast 950lb Sail area 270ft² Berths 5 (+2 cockpit berths) Engine 12hp Mitsubishi Vetus Designer Uffa Fox

Historically significant design Decent sailing qualities coupled with shallow draught Roomy and comfortable

Quirky looks will be too much for some Slow to tack Higher maintenance than modern GRP boats

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Review of Atalanta

Basic specs..

Atalanta can enter most marinas as the draft is just about 1.70 - 1.80 meter (5.58 - 5.88 ft) dependent on the load. See immersion rate below.

The boat is typically equipped with a Volvo Penta diesel engine at 7.0 hp (5 kW).

Sailing characteristics

This section covers widely used rules of thumb to describe the sailing characteristics. Please note that even though the calculations are correct, the interpretation of the results might not be valid for extreme boats.

What is Capsize Screening Formula (CSF)?

The capsize screening value for Atalanta is 1.96, indicating that this boat could - if evaluated by this formula alone - be accepted to participate in ocean races.

The immersion rate is defined as the weight required to sink the boat a certain level. The immersion rate for Atalanta is about 167 kg/cm, alternatively 935 lbs/inch. Meaning: if you load 167 kg cargo on the boat then it will sink 1 cm. Alternatively, if you load 935 lbs cargo on the boat it will sink 1 inch.

Sailing statistics

This section is statistical comparison with similar boats of the same category. The basis of the following statistical computations is our unique database with more than 26,000 different boat types and 350,000 data points.

What is L/B (Length Beam Ratio)?

What is a Ballast Ratio?

SA/D (Sail Area Displacement ratio) Indicates how fast the boat is in light wind: - Cruising Boats have ratios 10-15 - Cruiser-Racers have ratios 16-20 - Racers have ratios above 20 - High-Performance Racers have ratios above 24 Sail-area/displacement ratio (SA/D ratio): 17.91

Maintenance

If you need to renew parts of your running rig and is not quite sure of the dimensions, you may find the estimates computed below useful.

This section is reserved boat owner's modifications, improvements, etc. Here you might find (or contribute with) inspiration for your boat.

Do you have changes/improvements you would like to share? Upload a photo and describe what you have done.

We are always looking for new photos. If you can contribute with photos for Atalanta it would be a great help.

If you have any comments to the review, improvement suggestions, or the like, feel free to contact us . Criticism helps us to improve.

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• September 24, 2009

Atlanta 28 - a safe introduction to cruising

Product Overview

Manufacturer:, price as reviewed:.

Atlanta Marine made a good living in the late 70s and early 80s revitalising the cast-offs of other companies, particularly Macwester. The Atlanta 28 (aka the Macwester 28) is typical of their range, which stretched from a sporty 22-footer to 32ft. Hull mouldings favoured bulk over sophistication and the interiors were similarly robust if uninspired. The 28 was, though, spacious for the age and had a practical five-berth family layout in two cabins. There was a quarterberth, decent galley and chart table, and enclosed heads. Headroom was reasonable. She sailed quite well, having a taller rig than the Macwester, but she was no racing boat. Atlanta also produced a number of kits and some of these are best avoided. Well-maintained factory models make safe introductions to cruising.

ATALANTA Gustav Junge

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A Summary of Sailing Yacht ATALANTA

The sailing yacht ATALANTA is a 36 metre 118 (ft) well sized wooden ship which was constructed by Gustav Junge and her design is by Gustav Junge. A well sized twin masted schooner ATALANTA is a particularily distinctive German made yacht which was launched to celebration in 1900. Accommodating 12 passengers and 5 crew members, sailing yacht ATALANTA was once called Cuxhaven. She could be described as a classic twin masted schooner. This graceful boat has been designed by a naval architect called Gustav Junge.

The Build & Designing relating to Luxury Yacht ATALANTA

Gustav Junge was the naval architect involved in the technical vessel composition for ATALANTA. Gustav Junge is also associated with the yacht wider design collaboration for this boat. Created at Gustav Junge the vessel was built in Germany. She was successfully launched in Wewelsfleth in 1900 before being handed over to the owner. Her main hull was crafted from wooden. The sailing yacht main superstructure is fabricated extensively from wood. The measurement of the luxury yacht on deck is 24.63 (80.8 ft). With a width of 6.19 m or 20.3 ft ATALANTA has reasonable room. She has a reasonably deep draught of 3.2m (10.5ft).

S/Y ATALANTA Engines And Speed:

She is driven by a single screw propeller. Her total HP is 200 HP and her total Kilowatts are 147.

The Guest Accommodation Aboard Superyacht ATALANTA:

The good sized luxury yacht S/Y ATALANTA can sleep up to 12 passengers and 5 qualified crew.

A List of the Specifications of the ATALANTA:

Further Information On The Yacht

This sailing yacht has a wood deck.

ATALANTA Disclaimer:

The luxury yacht ATALANTA displayed on this page is merely informational and she is not necessarily available for yacht charter or for sale, nor is she represented or marketed in anyway by CharterWorld. This web page and the superyacht information contained herein is not contractual. All yacht specifications and informations are displayed in good faith but CharterWorld does not warrant or assume any legal liability or responsibility for the current accuracy, completeness, validity, or usefulness of any superyacht information and/or images displayed. All boat information is subject to change without prior notice and may not be current.

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This Luxury Hotel Has Its Own Yacht — Here's What It's Like Sailing On It

The visionary couple behind the beloved Tuscan boutique hotel Borgo San Pietro has introduced "Satori," a 137-foot sailing yacht.

Stuart Pearce/Courtesy of Borgo Lifestyle Group

This lifestyle luxury group is the gift that keeps on giving.

Shattering the glass ceiling with the highly talked about, award-winning 13th-century Tuscany boutique hotel Borgo Santo Pietro, the eponymous company now extends unrivaled charm and timeless design to Satori , the ultimate yacht experience.

A tender whisks me from the port in Athens, and we'll soon be approaching the yacht. From a short distance, I see the majestic Satori — or at least I hope I do. We start to slow for disembarkment, and the nautical blue starboard, vintage schooner shape, and vertical spars, standing majestic with the gods give her away. I do an internal backflip. It’s here, aboard this five-star luxury charter,  where I’ll spend the next few nights. 

Stacey Wreathall/Travel + Leisure

I’m greeted with flowing wine and hors d'oeuvres, and I don't know it yet, but for the next few days, every bite (and sip) I take will make my taste buds dance with the Mediterranean's brightest and most organically sourced flavors.

As my luggage is taken care of, I'm ushered towards the plush coffee lounge seating area where I meet Claus Thottrup, half of the duo behind the Borgo Santo Pietro Group of lifestyle companies. "C’est Magnifique" by Kay Starr hums in the background, and the rosé feels pleasing on the palate. Claus beams as he tells me passionately about Satori ’s air-conditioned wine cellar.

(Side note: You're invited to indulge in the wine services aboard the yacht, and with an admirable boutique collection of wines selected to complement the impressive meals on board, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a reason not to indulge. In fact, the cellar stocks biodynamic and sustainably produced wines sourced directly from Borgo Santo Pietro’s estate in Tuscany.)

Claus continues to tell me with pride all about the 12 years of dedication and commitment to creating excellent taste profiles. Before I know it, I’ve finished my rosé, and I'm being handed a glass of pinot noir, another Borgo classic that goes down all too well. 

Within an hour of my arrival, I slip into something more comfortable for sailing and began exploring.

At almost 137 feet in length, there’s ample opportunity for you to feel at home, and meandering through the space is easy. The teak flooring is smooth underfoot, and the flat floors make passing through each facet safe. With 376 square feet of indoor living space, encompassing a library, indoor dining area, and writing desk, you can take full advantage of the quiet moments. The best bit about this 'indoor' area is that you don’t feel like you're missing out on the sailing experience — the windows have been designed at sea level to bring expansive 360-degree views to you. In addition, the coffee deck at the stern lets you relax and be social with the wind in your hair. For complete privacy, the bow area offers an additional outdoor lounge. By night, it transforms into the most romantic cinema you’ve ever seen. 

With five luxury guest rooms including a main suite, Satori can accommodate up to 10 guests. On the other hand, with fewer guests, you can convert a cabin into a private spa facility with a steam room and treatments.

We dropped anchor in the most idyllic spots: Dokos, Hydra, Spetses, and Poros. Unlike other charters, this slimline sailing yacht can schmooze close to the turquoise rock pools and crystal-clear shallow depths. Our first stop was Agine, a picture-perfect lagoon for swimming, jet skis, and getting out the toys . Adrenaline lovers will have endless fun with the range of Seabobs, Kayaks, and Ringos.

An afternoon of frivolity can work up a serious appetite, and I soon learned that aboard Satori , feeling hungry is a good idea. No matter what time of the day, a meal is never just a plate of food; it's a labor of love, thought, and execution — and there's plenty to go around. Guests can expect to eat at the mid-deck dining table with open kitchen views and unobstructed destination scenes.  

Chefs are trained at Borgo Santo Pietro Saporium , the flagship Tuscany restaurant where authentic flavors and inventive cooking practices are the hallmarks of tantalizing cuisine. Needless to say, we were spoiled with inspired, flavourful dishes. My favorites were the lahmacun (a Middle Eastern flatbread), lobster risotto, and fresh tuna. For specifics, guests are encouraged to communicate preferences with the chef. 

Co-owners and designers Claus and Jeanette Thottrup made it their mission to capture a truly remarkable dining experience . As part of the Borgo Santo Pietro luxury lifestyle group, the culinary mission is one of great passion for the pair. With two Michelin-starred restaurants, a five-star boutique hotel, and unique guest experiences centered around food and wine, there’s no surprise that gourmet flavors are at the epicenter of a Satori voyage. 

Overamplifying the grace of Satori’s understated elegance and uncompromised comfort would ordinarily feel too much. But I catch a glimpse of myself in the glossy mahogany exterior, and amidst the deep diagonal layers of rich brown tones, I can see that Satori has gotten under my skin. Living up to her namesake meaning "instant enlightenment," I feel relaxed and at peace. Maybe it's the idea of traveling back in time?

This hand-carved wooden schooner gives all the vintage feels, as the inside decor illuminates the refined characteristics and prosperity of the 1920s and 1930s. The emphasis on clean lines, smooth round corners, and nature-inspired neutrals reflect a contemporary interpretation of Streamline Moderne . With orthopedic mattresses, sepia-tinted marble en-suite bathrooms, and technology-forward devices in every room, the old and new design elements merge unprecedentedly for a world-class sailing experience. I’m beginning to think that Satori’s unique narrative is what sailing dreams are made of.

The Genoa sail is out as we glide towards the island of Hydra. Island hopping and exploring untouched remnants of history are foremost on the itinerary. Of course, you can shape it to your liking, but for now, I felt like an Iconic star of the 1930s, taking in my first quintessential Greek experience.

A picturesque landscape that has seduced many with its stone mansions, brightly colored neighborhoods, and fairy-lit harbor is what you can expect from this island.  For us, getting lost in narrow alleys and visiting art museums is first on the agenda. Musing over the pleasant temperature came second. “This is shoulder season? It's perfect!” was the working title. Zero crowds and T-shirt weather make October in Greece a hot commodity — some might say it's the new July.  

Satori offers multiple sailing destinations, and guests can pick from a Mediterranean menu of beautiful places. Itineraries for Turkey, Croatia, Montenegro, Italy, France (Corsica) can be found here . Satori sails between June through October. Booking in advance is recommended to secure dates for that eagerly awaited romantic getaway or family adventure. 

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JAY GOULD'S YACHT LAUNCHED.; NAMED THE ATALANTA BY THE SPECULATOR'S DAUGHTER, MISS NELLIE GOULD.

PHILADELPHIA, April 7.--The launching of Jay Gould's yacht, the Atalanta, to-day excited more popular attention and drew a bigger crowd to Cramp's ship-yard than any other event that has occurred there since the last of the American Line steamers slid from the ways into the Delaware nearly 12 years ago. View Full Article in Timesmachine »

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July 1, 2024

When James Blake and Lil Yachty debuted as divisive wunderkinds, they earned feverish acclaim—and controversy—for the way they blurred the lines etched by their predecessors. Blake stormed dubstep’s dancefloor and rendered it a dusty confessional booth; Yachty looked at the hip-hop landscape he inherited, cursed its gods , and spent the beginning of his career at war with a generation. Not everything has changed: They’re still divisive, and they’re still doggedly trying new things. But they aren’t upstarts anymore; nor are their disruptive ideas breaking boundaries so much as reinforcing them. (So long, saxophones , and so long, rap .) A pair that once embodied youthful iconoclasm now often seem to see only as far as their next grievance. More and more, they sound like the gatekeepers who didn’t believe in them years ago.

Thus the defensive crossover spectacle of Bad Cameo , their new joint album. Few things announce themselves louder than a tag-team LP by a polarizing producer and an equally polarizing rapper-turned-rocker. But instead of provoking, this record largely takes the low-key road, like a terse postscript to a more transgressive past. It’s dreamy and occasionally danceable, steely electronica rubbing shoulders with a sharp, stadium-ready take on Yachty’s sing-rap sensibilities. The shoulder-rubbing is promising, but at a certain point, when the friction hasn’t progressed any further, the party starts to feel like a corporate lunch: Hey Post-Dubstep, have you met Post-Trap? I’ll leave you two alone to hit it off! Sometimes, they do. More often, Blake and Yachty are cozy in their respective corners, taking turns in the spotlight rather than sharing it. You get the sense that they’re trying to rekindle old magic—the wonders Blake worked with his glitchy soul-searching, the weightlessness Yachty proffered with his pitch-shifted lilts. These elements sound nice next to one another. They’d sound even better if they did more than just coexist.

When Yachty released “ Poland ,” his unlikely 2022 hit single, part of the draw was his quivering, liquid delivery: “It is a really fucking weird song,” Blake told him in a recent sit-down, revealing that it brought him to tears. He’s right to identify the weirdness as jolting—at least enough to channel raw emotion, or inspire it in others. But when they try to accomplish this on Bad Cameo , they sound maddeningly riskless. The title track registers like an attempt to run “Poland” through Blake’s chilly alt-pop processing and produce something equally apt for dorm rooms and sound baths. There’s a repeatable mantra, minimal frills that foreground the vocals, and an air of confession—only now, instead of spiking one another’s worlds, the crossover dilutes their respective strengths. “Did you ever love me?” Yachty begs, in full “Poland” voice, with Blake echoing his prayer in the background. You might recall a similar plea on the 2022 song (“Hope you love me, baby, I hope you mean it”). Where “Poland” producer F1lthy supplied Yachty with a jumpy, trap-infused hotbed, Blake’s canvas is restrictive, limiting the singer to a cramped crying closet both have outgrown. Solemn as it sounds, it’s hard to take very seriously.

Part of Bad Cameo ’s appeal is the promise of a novel palette: lean meeting lemon tea, hip-hop meeting post-dubstep, confessionalism meeting vanity. Sometimes, as on “Twice,” this works beautifully—a staggered four-on-the-floor beat might morph into something airier, a haggard Yachty and wistful Blake taking turns reveling in their respective terrains. Other times, in moments where you’d expect the contrast to unearth rich new flavors, there’s a dulling effect. “Save the Savior,” a crunchy ballad that sounds a bit like a screen-adapted Future therapy session, would absolutely crush in a ritzy, white-walled gallery. Play it a second time, this time with the pair’s capabilities in mind, and it starts feeling like it should go beyond those insular limits. Blake is coming off his most energetic and danceable record to date; Yachty is freshly removed from a risky, compelling—if controversial— psych-rock dispatch . Considering the boundary-breaking instincts each contributor brings to the table, Bad Cameo feels too safe, too familiar, to tell us anything we don’t already know.

The bulk of Bad Cameo ’s novelty arrives, instead, in songcraft. To Blake’s credit, he’s a master of seeing tracks as living things, subject to as much growth and meandering as the masterminds who make them. Familiar as they may feel, the most striking songs on this project keep some powder dry, sprawling into realms far beyond their starting places. Midway through “Midnight,” when Yachty and Blake’s harmonized refrain gives way to a beat switch and the drums fall out from beneath their voices, it sounds like they’re prostrate before something powerful. “Woo” begins with an echoey grand piano over a trap beat, no new addition to the annals of introspective hip-hop. But by the chorus, it seems like it’s all falling apart: The drum pattern sputters, and a sly ghost chord gradually infiltrates Blake’s somber progression, culminating in a single jolt of dissonance. You wish there were more room for such uncompromising mischief.

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AOA For Sale

Want to buy a fairey atalanta.

Below is a list of Fairey Marine yachts for Sale. The AOA can provide a lot of background information to these boats and the designs.

Boat to sell?

If you have a boat for sale and are logged in to the website you can use the form at the bottom of this page to build and submit an advert. Or if you prefer contact the Webmaster using the ‘Contact Us’ form (see footer) to have a page built for you

AOA Parts for Sale

The AOA have bought or salvaged parts to support owners in maintaining and restoring their Atalantas.

User Items For Sale/Wanted

Registered website users can use the Forum to post items ‘For Sale’ and ‘Wanted’. Search in the Forum.

Boats For Sale

FULMAR Trailer sailer For Sale £3750

A182 Skimmer – Restoration Project (Virginia Beach, US)

F3 Dunsheen Restoration Project

F2 Steel Deal for sale in the US $2,000 USD

A31/8 Trio of Playford – Restoration project in the US

Create a ‘boat for sale’ advert, previously sold boats (for reference).

A68 Curlew Atalanta For Sale

A15 Artemis II – Unique and in fine condition – £4000 ono SOLD

A184, Aquilo II, £5,500

Fairey Marine Pixie Tender For Sale – SOLD

Atalanta 26 For Sale – A161 Amber Ellen, £Offers

A124 Helene For Sale – £6500 incl.trailer SOLD

A148 Johara for sale £3,000 – SOLD

A65 Joann For Sale – £4000 incl. unique trailer SOLD

F14 Noggin for sale £5,950 SOLD

A90 Mourne Goblin – Offers around £5000 SOLD

A144 CYN For Sale – offers

Atalanta 26 for sale – a161 amber ellen sold.

A92 Sea Major – Sound with galvanised trailer – £995 ono SOLD

Hullabaloo for sale SOLD

Atalanta 26: A179 Emma Duck – SOLD

A162 Solone For Sale – £5,000 SOLD

A95 For Sale £4,500 – SOLD

F53 Pilgrim for sale SOLD

A104 For Sale SOLD

A144 Cyn for Sale SOLD

A137 Baby Seal is for sale SOLD

A102 atalanta mary is for sale sold.

A159 Lindora for Sale – Plymouth SOLD

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Confessions of a Cover Band: Yacht Rock Revue croons the hits you love to hate

"I never would've guessed I'd be doing what I'm doing now. The 23-year-old me would punch me in the face."

One night in 2012, a man in a Ronald Reagan mask paused beneath a stop sign in the Old Fourth Ward. Armed with a stencil and a can of white spray paint, he transformed the sign into a tribute to a 1978 hit by a mostly forgotten Canadian pop crooner named Gino Vannelli: “I just wanna STOP & tell you what I feel about you, babe.”

“I Just Wanna Stop” is the kind of song whose words most Americans over 40 know despite never consciously choosing to listen to it. After peaking at no. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1978, the tune never quite disappeared, becoming the aural equivalent of a recurring wart. The song found a second life—an endless one, as it turns out—in the musical nether region where the smooth, soft-rock hits of yesteryear remain in heavy rotation. Yes, that’s “Africa” you’re hearing in the dentist’s office. And “What a Fool Believes” in line at CVS. And that faint melody burrowing into your brain while on hold for the next available customer service agent? That’s “Steal Away.” Songs like these, disparaged by critics in their time then jokingly christened “yacht rock” by a comedy web series in 2005, are now the soundtrack to American tedium.

They’ve also become the source of a very good—if conflicted—living for the man who defaced the stop sign: Nick Niespodziani, the singer, guitarist, and de facto leader of the wildly popular cover band Yacht Rock Revue , which tours the country, headlines 1,000-plus capacity venues, and occasionally even plays with the original artists behind these hits.

At the time of the Vannelli vandalism, Yacht Rock Revue had begun to graduate from a local curiosity to a national one. Niespodziani’s sister videotaped the incident and posted it on YouTube. They then printed T-shirts of the sign and, when Vannelli performed at the Variety Playhouse, they got one to him.

On a gray Monday afternoon not long ago, Niespodziani was standing at this crossroads, looking at the sign, trying to explain the motivation behind the prank. “We had this idea, so we videotaped,” he said. “It was definitely guerrilla marketing.” Also, he was pretty drunk.

The episode seems to capture something ineffable about Yacht Rock Revue—part fandom, part joke, part self-promotion, each element infused with irony. When YRR takes the stage at Venkman’s, an Old Fourth Ward restaurant and nightclub co-owned by Niespodziani and bandmate Pete Olson, the band is fully in character, complete with gaudy shirts and sunglasses. They crack jokes about each other’s moms and theatrically highlight multi-instrumentalist Dave Freeman’s one-note triangle solo during America’s “You Can Do Magic.”

“This music isn’t easy to perform,” Olson says. Yacht rock songs tend to be filled with complicated chord changes. All seven band members are accomplished musicians, and Niespodziani, who trained for a spell as an opera singer, is a rangy vocalist, capable of gliding through the high notes in Hall & Oates’s “Rich Girl,” Michael McDonald’s gruff tenor in “I Keep Forgetting,” and Dolly Parton’s amiable twang in “Islands in the Stream,” without seeming to strain. He, Olson, and drummer Mark Cobb first played together in Y-O-U, a band they formed at Indiana University in the late ’90s. They found scant support for original music there, so they relocated to Atlanta in 2002.

Photograph by Mike Colletta

Y-O-U built a buzz in Atlanta, thanks to Niespodziani’s catchy, Beatles-esque songs and the group’s playful gimmicks. They performed, straight-faced, as Three Dog Stevens, a sad-sack trio playing what they called “sandal-rock” (a made-up, synth-heavy genre defined by its purveyors’ predilection for wearing sandals with socks); they covered Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” entirely on keyboards while dressed as the Royal Tenenbaums; they created a YouTube mockumentary series about a competitive jump-roping team. “Comedy has always been part of what we do,” Niespodziani said. “We were doing anything to get noticed because we felt we had good songs but just couldn’t break through with them.”

“I said, ‘That sounds like hell on Earth.’ He was like, ‘But you’re going to make a lot of money.’ So we did it.”

In 2008, Y-O-U was booked every Thursday at the 10 High club in Virginia-Highland. They’d stage “Rock Fights,” playing dueling sets of covers by artists like Bob Seger, John Mellencamp, and INXS, or rejigger Y-O-U songs as soul rave-ups with horns and backing singers, or do a standup comedy night. Yacht Rock Revue was just another of these goofs: Put on silly clothes, and play songs everybody knows but nobody really likes—or claims not to. It was Cobb and guitarist Mark Dannells who came up with the idea. Dannells thought about calling it “A.M. Gold” but Cobb had recently seen a viral web series called Yacht Rock and felt like the term would resonate. Niespodziani went along because his friends needed his vocals. Two band members wore wigs to that first show, and, at one point, Niespodziani stripped off his shirt. People loved it. The club’s booker invited them back the next Thursday. The gig sold out. He asked them to do it every Thursday.

“I said, ‘That sounds like hell on Earth,’” Niespodziani recalls. “He was like, ‘But you’re going to make a lot of money.’ So we did it.”

Most cover bands are awful. But because they play well-known songs, they often secure regular, paying gigs that bands playing original music can’t. Even for the good ones, there’s a ceiling. Few ever perform further than 20 miles from wherever they played their first gig. What’s more, performing other people’s music for a living carries a degree of shame. Cobb has heard the mutterings about Yacht Rock Revue: “Why are these guys playing covers? They could write their own songs. They don’t need to hide behind a gimmick.”

Most of the guys in Yacht Rock Revue—which also includes bassist/vocalist Greg Lee and keyboardist/vocalist Mark Bencuya—had already spent half a lifetime dragging gear into dank basement bars to play for a few bucks and even fewer people. They did this in an era when the music business was cratering. The rise of the internet taught a generation of consumers that music is free, devaluing the dream to which musicians dedicate their lives.

When Yacht Rock Revue started in 2008, Dannells was nearly 40. “It’s not like the world is beating down the door of 40-year-old rock stars,” he says. Today, Yacht Rock is a business, owing its success partially to the corners of the business that haven’t collapsed: live music and merchandising. Besides their public shows, Yacht Rock Revue plays a steady stream of well-paying corporate gigs. They also sell lots of captain’s hats, T-shirts, and other swag. The success of the franchise means it’s been more than five years since any of them had a day job. Niespodziani and Olson created a company, Please Rock , that provides the bandmembers and their families with health insurance, 401Ks, and all the other trappings of comfortable, upper-middle-class stability few musicians ever achieve. All this grants bandmembers some real creative freedoms. “I just released a whole record of orchestral music,” Dannells says. “I don’t care if it sells. I just do it for enjoyment.”

Niespodziani shuttered Y-O-U years ago but still writes elegant power-pop songs for his other band, Indianapolis Jones . But the difference between his two bands’ profiles is stark. Troy Bieser, who has been working on a documentary about Yacht Rock Revue, says he’s seen this in the juxtaposition of the footage he’s compiled. “I’ve seen Nick going through the journey of being thankful for the success but it also feeling ill-fitting,” Bieser says. “That existential dilemma has followed him.”

Niespodziani knows whenever Yacht Rock plays anywhere, that’s a slot a band like Indianapolis Jones can’t get. “We’re a big part of the problem,” he says. As a 39-year-old father of one, who’s worked hard to get what he has, he isn’t about to give it up, but he’s also honest about the compromises he’s made and doesn’t hide from the question that is a natural byproduct of his own success: When a joke becomes your life, how do you keep your life from becoming a joke?

“I never would’ve guessed I’d be doing what I’m doing now,” he says. “The 23-year-old me would punch me in the face and leave me for dead.”

Yacht rock was mostly made in the late ’70s and early ’80s, but the genre wasn’t named until 2005 when JD Ryznar, a writer and actor, created the Yacht Rock web series with a few friends. The video shorts imagined the origins of songs like the Doobie Brothers’ “What a Fool Believes,” Toto’s “Rosanna,” and Steely Dan’s “FM.” The music, Ryznar says, was well-crafted, like a yacht, and recurring nautical imagery in songs like Christopher Cross’s “Sailing” or on Loggins and Messina’s album Full Sail made the term fit. According to Ryznar, true yacht rock has jazz and R&B influences, is usually produced in California, and frequently involves a rotating group of interconnected studio musicians. The term was never intended to be a pejorative—“we never thought it was silly music,” Ryznar says—but the web series is most definitely comedy, and feelings about the music itself tend to be buried under layers of hipster irony, warm nostalgia, and veiled contempt. Yacht rock songs are finely constructed: They’ve got indelible pop hooks, but they’re decidedly professional, not ragged and cool like punk or early hip-hop, which were canonized among the music of that era.

For the first Yacht Rock Revue gig, much of the set list came from a compilation CD that Cobb had burned titled The Dentist’s Office Mix. It included songs like Player’s “Baby Come Back,” Ambrosia’s “The Biggest Part of Me,” and Rupert Holmes’s “Escape (The Piña Colada Song).” “I’d put it on at parties and just see what the reactions would be,” Cobb says. “It was a weird, guilty pleasure.”

Niespodziani’s initial feelings about the music were uncomplicated. “I wasn’t a fan,” he says. “I was really into music that made people feel something, that had some grit and humanity to it. The ethos I thought was important in rock ’n’ roll was rebellious fun crossed with a heart-on-your-sleeve kind of thing. Yacht rock doesn’t do any of that. It doesn’t rebel.” He found a lot of yacht rock to be technical, clinical, and sterile. “Sophisticated for the sake of being sophisticated.”

Onstage, Niespodziani is the picture of unapproachable retro cool. Tall, with shaggy hair and an angular face, he hides behind large, dark sunglasses and frequently surrenders a thin half-smile. In other words, he personifies the classic, arrogant, coked-up, late-’70s rock frontman. In person, he gives off nearly the opposite impression. Over coffee, he’s thoughtful, earnest, and self-deprecating. His sharp facial features are accentuated by wide-lensed prescription glasses, and, having traded the polyester shirts he favors onstage for a camouflage green hoodie, the vibe Niespodziani exudes is hardcore music geek. Olson, who has known Niespodziani since they were in fourth grade in Columbus, Indiana, says when they met, “Nick was the nerdy kid who was good at math and jump-roping.”

Photograph by Emily Butler

Yacht Rock Revue, for Niespodziani, is a part he plays: “I’m almost more an actor than a musician.” He and his bandmates spend hours prowling vintage stores looking for the retro leisure wear that they don onstage—and then a not inconsiderable amount of money getting those old clothes tailored to fit. “It’s a war of attrition,” he says. “You find something that might work, and then it’s itchy or it smells or holes develop because the shirt is older than I am. You have to be shopping at all times.” They once did a gig in street clothes, but it felt wrong. “Polyester,” he says, “is our armor.”

Sometimes that armor hasn’t been enough for Niespodziani. During the band’s first few years, they played weekly at the 10 High. “I would drink a lot and almost sabotage myself, sometimes onstage, and make fun of it,” he says. “People would ask me about the band, and I’d talk down about it and act like I was too cool. I didn’t lash out at people, but it was strange to get well-known for something that didn’t make me feel good about myself. I’d get drunk onstage to deal with it.”

His bandmates certainly noticed, but, for the most part, they let their friend work through it. “He’s been the moodiest about it,” Cobb says. “He just hates Rupert Holmes’s ‘Escape (The Piña Colada Song).’ Hates it. But he knows it goes over well.” So when Niespodziani’s got to play it, he’ll often deadpan an introduction comparing Holmes to da Vinci and Picasso. “By talking about how great it is, it helps me shed that song’s terribleness.”

Niespodziani believes the ironic distance he puts between the guy he is onstage and the guy drinking coffee at Ponce City Market is fundamental to the band’s success. “Because we thought—or at least I thought—I was too cool to be doing this, everything has keyed off what the audience reacts to, whether it’s the clothes we wear, the sidestep dance we do, whatever. The audience has been the head of the snake. We’ve just been following it.” It helps that with more than 500 songs in their repertoire, the band doesn ’ t burn out too badly on any tune. “The only song we have to play is ‘Africa.’” The 1982 hit by Toto, by a band made up of talented but largely anonymous studio musicians, has become something of an Internet meme itself, with multiple think pieces devoted to untangling its allure. “Part of it may be the audacity of the synthesizer sound,” Niespodziani says. “They’re just so cheesy. The chords are fairly complex and pretty unexpected. The way it goes to the minor key in the chorus is kind of a cognitive disconnect. And when you listen to the words, it’s not really about anything. Maybe that’s why it’s so quintessentially yacht rock. It’s not so much what the words are saying, it’s how they make you feel, this combination of pure joy crossed with reminiscing.”

Despite his ambivalence about the music, Niespodziani is first among equals within the band. He sings lead on more songs than anyone else, and it’s his judgment they trust when adding songs to their catalog. He has a system: “Generally, the more a song annoys me, the more likely it makes sorority girls want to eat each other’s brains. Also, almost every song would be an encore for the band we’re covering. So, those are the basics: Does it annoy me? Are girls going to like it? Would it be an encore for the band we’re covering?”

“I’m almost more an actor than a musician.”

Others in the band are more unabashed about the music. “I’ve always loved all this stuff,” says Lee, the bassist. “You have to love it before you can play with it in that comedy sense and do it right.” This ability to walk that line between having fun with the music and making fun of the music has won over many of the original artists. When the band first reached out to guys like Dupree, Gary Wright (“Dream Weaver”), and Player’s Peter Beckett, some artists disdained the term “yacht rock” and feared being treated as a joke. Dupree was an early convert and evangelized about the band to his peers, touting their musicianship and enthusiasm. He says those who eventually performed with Yacht Rock Revue were “staggered that they were playing in front of 4,000 people who knew every word to their songs.”

The genre’s rise as a cultural touchstone—Jimmy Fallon has been a big booster, inviting Dupree, Cross, McDonald, and others to perform on TV, and there’s now a SiriusXM station devoted to it—has benefited these artists. Their Spotify and YouTube streaming numbers have risen noticeably. “It’s made a big impact financially,” Dupree says. “Even the skeptics have seen the power of it.”

For a while, the band had a bit of a good-natured Twitter beef with the creators of the Yacht Rock web series. Ryznar admits he initially felt like the band had hijacked his idea, but now his only real gripe is Yacht Rock Revue’s liberal definition of yacht rock. “Half their set is incredible yacht rock,” Ryznar says. “The other half, they play way too much Eagles, America, and Fleetwood Mac. Those aren’t yacht rock bands.”

The band makes no apologies. As Niespodziani puts it, “Yacht rock is what we say it is now.” That’s not just bravado. Yacht Rock Revue trademarked the term “yacht rock” for live performances, so other acts can’t use it without permission. The maneuver helped snuff out competition from other cover bands but occasionally puts them in conflict with some of the genre’s originators. When Cross’s manager tried to assemble a “Yacht Rock” tour featuring Cross, Orleans, and Firefall, it ran afoul of the trademark.

“We said, ‘If you want to call it Yacht Rock, we’ve got to be the [backing] band,’” Olson says. That compromise collapsed when Cross’s manager “wanted a piece of the trademark and of all our earnings over three years.” Yacht Rock Revue sent a cease-and-desist letter instead.

The band’s set list is anchored in the classic late ’70s, early ’80s yacht-rock era but can stretch to include songs as old as the late ’60s or as recent as the early ’90s. Of course, there’s a balance to be struck: If they go too far afield, they risk becoming just another cover band, but there are other considerations to take into account, too. As Cobb explains, “Nothing about Whitney Houston is in the genre, but when we play ‘I Wanna Dance with Somebody,’ the chicks go crazy, everybody orders another round, the bar sells out of Tito’s and Red Bull, and they’re like, ‘When can you come back? You broke alcohol records.’”

The band’s audiences have evolved over time. The earliest shows were heavy on hipsters and fellow musicians. Then, those fans brought their parents. At a Buckhead Theatre gig in March, the crowd leaned toward balding guys in button-down shirts and platinum-blond women wearing expensive-looking jewelry. Niespodziani once called yacht rock “the music of the overprivileged,” which was a joke, but also not. Getting older, wealthier fans out to shows is an impressive accomplishment most artists would envy, but it has changed something fundamental about Yacht Rock’s appeal. “When we started, it was people elbowing each other, laughing at this music,” Niespodziani says. “Now, there’s no irony.”

On a night off during a Vegas stand in 2015, the entire band went to see Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band perform at the Pearl Theater in the Palms Casino. Starr began doing these tours in 1989, fronting a band of aging rockers like Gary Wright, Steve Lukather (Toto), and Gregg Rolie (Santana, Journey), whose names and faces you might not recognize but whose songs you certainly would. Just past the midway point in the show at the Pearl, Lukather stepped to the mic, and Starr began beating out a familiar rhythm on the drums. As Lukather picked out the first few notes on the guitar and the synths pumped out the insistent melody, the song was instantly recognizable: “Africa.” In the theater balcony, Cobb recalls looking across at Niespodziani and seeing something change in his friend. “I just watched Nick’s face and, all of a sudden, it was as if this weight lifted off him.”

The Beatles had always been Niespodziani’s favorite band. “Now, I’m watching Ringo Starr, and he has to play fucking ‘Africa’ every night, too,” Niespodziani says. “He was in the Beatles! That was a life-changing moment for me.” Starr and his band were touching many of the same nerves in the audience at the Pearl Theater that Yacht Rock Revue touches all the time. “When we started Yacht Rock, I didn’t like the music we were playing. I didn’t like myself for being in a cover band. I had some dark times. It’s been a journey for me to get okay with it. That was a pretty key moment. Once you get to a certain point in the music business, everybody’s hustling. I’m not going to look down my nose at anybody for doing anything that makes it possible to feed their family by singing songs.”

Seeing Starr go yacht rock was a significant step that’s made enjoying Yacht Rock Revue’s triumphs a little easier. For years, Olson and Niespodziani waited for interest in yacht rock—and their band—to fade. Opening Venkman’s was a hedge against that. But Yacht Rock Revue’s stock continues to rise. Their touring business has grown 375 percent since 2014. “It’s not a fad,” Niespodziani says. “This is going to be our biggest year by far.” They play increasingly larger venues and have recently started booking dates overseas, including this summer in London.

The question is, where else can they take this, literally and figuratively? Back in 2013, the band quietly released a five-song EP: four original songs and a cover of—what else?—“Africa.” They used to occasionally drop an original tune into their shows, sometimes announcing it as a “Hall & Oates B-side.” The crowds were amenable, kind of. “It’s hard when they know every word to every song,” Niespodziani says. “They don’t come for discovery; they come for familiarity.” That’s a truism any band who has ever had a hit knows all too well. The essential appeal of Yacht Rock Revue—and yacht rock—is a combination of nostalgia and escape, a yearning for the simpler, easier time these songs evoke. Yet Niespodziani has been wondering lately if it’s possible to pivot fans to his own songs, either with Yacht Rock Revue or Indianapolis Jones.

“That’s still my dream,” he says, “to have one song that matters to somebody the way ‘Steal Away’ matters to people. No matter what else I do in life, if I don’t ever get over that bar, part of me will feel like I failed at the one thing I wanted. I don’t know if I can ever let go of that. I don’t know if I’m ready to face that darkness.”

In 2013, during a commencement speech at Syracuse University, the author George Saunders told graduates, “Success is like a mountain that keeps growing as you hike up it.” Niespodziani brought this quote up to me while we were having coffee. He knows his life is nothing to complain about. He lives a rarefied existence where he gets paid a lot of money to play music. But clearly, the mountain grows in front of him, and the hike up isn’t always easy. He’s still prone to self-deprecating asides about his band, he still kinda envies the Robbie Duprees of the world—but, hey, he doesn’t need to get drunk onstage anymore, and he doesn’t lose sleep wondering if he’s a force for good or evil in the world. That stop sign at the crossroads in the Old Fourth Ward isn’t an omen or a cautionary tale. It’s simply a funny story that makes people smile. He’s just working on becoming one of them.

“The way I really made peace with it is, it occurred to me that everywhere we went, everyone was so happy to see me,” he says. “These people, it’s the highlight of their week to come sing along with these tunes. If your job is making people happy, that’s a pretty good calling.” He leans back in his chair and smiles. “My job is to make it okay for everybody else to have fun. That’s kind of cool.” He gets quiet for a moment and shrugs.

This article appears in our  July 2018 issue .

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