History
Atlantis is a 50' steel sloop designed by Kurt Oehlmann and built in 1957 in Hamburg by the German boat builder Heinrich Garbers (Click here for his story which is well worth a read). Built in the World War post-war era out of highest quality steel no longer required for the manufacture of U Boats, Atlantis is strong, sea kindly and very kind to the eye. Little is known of her very early life but having been beached and damaged by hurricane force winds in 1982, Atlantis was subsequently sympthetically restored and has been subsequently maintained using the highest quality materials complemented by outstanding traditional craftsmanship.
Recent adventures
Since then Atlantis has sailed across both Atlantic and Pacific Oceans with various stopovers in Mexico, Panama and Florida. She has subsequently spent time in the Baltic, a while based in Breskens on the Westerschelde in Holland, and more recently enjoyed leisurely cruising on the UK South Coast and within the English Channel. Atlantis' registered home port is Southampton but she spends much of her time on the River Tamar close to her owners' home in south-east Cornwall.
On 15th May 2013, Atlantis set sail from Plymouth for the Arctic. Sailing double handed, our travels included exploration of Svalbard, polar waters and the coastline of northwest Norway. Follow our journey in our online log. After returning to north-west Scotland, and then leaving the boat for just over a month at Ardfern Yacht Centre whilst work commitments 'got in the way', our Arctic journey was finally completed when Atlantis returned safely to Plymouth on the 22nd September 2013.
2014 ambitions were a little less adventurous. Dartmouth Midsummer Classics Regatta provided a highly enjoyable opportunity for a partial reunion of our 1989-90 Whitbread Round the World Race crew. Our 2015 itinerary focussed on making the most of the RYS Bicentenary celebrations commencing with participation in a highly enjoyable Members' Regatta in June. Atlantis then took her place in the unique Bicentenary Review of Members' yachts by HRH the Duke of Edinburgh and subsequently then participated in the Panerai British Classic Yacht Club Regatta. We then used Atlantis as a base for spectating the wonderful RYS Bicentennial International Regatta in the company of the J Class yachts and many other beautiful classics and modern racing machines. 2016 sadly provided few opportunities to venture far from home and in 2017 our main adventure was to participate again in the RYS Member's Regatta. In 2018 we re-visited and explored some new haunts in Southern Brittany as far south as Belle Isle (and back).
2019 saw us venture south. After participating in an indulgent west country rally along the south coast of Uk we set sail for the Med; initially to A Coruna to join the Royal Cruising Club Galicia Meet. From there, brief stops in Oporto, Lisbon and Gibraltar took us into the Mediterranean. Having got as far as Cartagena our plans were then somewhat curtailed by Covid. Nevertheless, 2020 and 2021 did allow us to explore the Balearics and as far north as Barcelona and east to Sardinia. In July 2021, we left the Mediterranean to head north along the Portuguese coast to Galicia from where our future plans will commence in due course.
The Future
Our future intent still has warmer climes in our sights. Ideally, we don't want to become too beholden to detailed plans so we are declaring our future aims as simply being 'to go with wind and whim'. One of the joys of exploring by sea is meeting and sailing with other people along the way. Since 2019 we've welcomed Hector (UK to Gibraltar), Gérard (Gibraltar to Cartagena), Sergi (Cartagena to Barcelona via the Balearics through much of summer 2020), Leo(nora) (Barcelona back to Cartagena), Hannah who boat-sat for us in Cartagena, Archie, Matt (who stayed onboard throughout our 2021 voyages from Cartagena to Galicia), Paul, Herne and Cristiana. Thank you to all who've helped us on our way. Each has been a delight to sail with and we have made lifelong friends. We hope we shall sail with you all again before too long.
