At the start of the Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland race in Plymouth, on 29 May, few people would have bet that the little wooden boat Mea, a 1959 Vertue 25 designed by Jack Laurent Giles, would manage to complete the 1,900 miles of the race course. After all, Mea was the smallest and oldest boat ever to enter the race, having obtained a wild card from the race organisers as she was below the minimum length requirement. And her skipper Matteo Richiardi had no previous experience of ocean racing. Indeed, plagued by calms, adverse headwinds, and electrical failures, it seemed that Mea was bound to join the many other boats that had to retire from the race. Yet, on 5 July, 37 days after that late May Sunday morning, she crossed the finish line, last but certainly not least, having gained victory on corrected time. We caught up with Matteo post race.
Matteo, what were you looking from this race?
“Above all, I wanted to test myself and my boat, and bring’) and Peter Woolass (‘George, Stelda and I’), the circumnavigation of Peter and Jill Hamilton (‘The restless wind’), the Cape Horn rounding by father and son David and Daniel Hays (‘My Old Man and the Sea’), not to speak about the many passages and voyages that have remained undocumented, including the maiden voyage of my own boat,, from Hong Kong to the UK, in 1959-1962. The last timesaw the Ocean was in 1987-1988, with an Atlantic tour under her fourth owner, the Suede Anders Lindgren. I wanted to bring her out of the semi-retirement that is the destiny of many classic boats, and I wanted her to bring me to the Ocean."
