12-M yacht Baranquila

With reference to Robert Henry de Haer’s letter in your June edition, there is a colour photograph of Baranquila in Beauty of Sail by Frank & Keith Beken (first published by George G Harrap & Co in 1964). The photograph shows her running under a spinnaker with the vivid image of a bull’s head and there is some accompanying information. At that time she was used mainly for cruising.

She was built in 1930 and designed by “the master” GA Estlander. The dimensions of the yacht are given together with the comment that not one line of her hull is less than perfection, and that she is a classic case of “age does not weary nor the years condemn”. Her name is spelt as “Barranquila”. The legend went that she had been found by the owner and his wife “in the harbour of a Mediterranean island and (they) bought her well and brought her back to a famous English yard for a ‘slap-up’ refit”. I hope this helps. Adrian Clemens, Truro, Cornwall