After 39 years of faithful service she was due for a refit; one of the very first IOR boats signed by S&S, her lines were drawn by the young German Frers. Sagittarius is the sister ship of the second ‘Morning cloud’ owned by the late Sir Edward Heath, former Prime Minister. The Italian, Giorgio Carriero had Sagittarius built in late 1971 at the Cantiere Carlini in Rimini on the Adriatic Sea.
S&S - SAGITTARIUS
Built to a very high standard , Sagittarius is constructed of mahogany planking on locust frames and teak deck glued on plywood over hemlock beams. The fittings and hardware were top of the line for her time.
Sagit spent her first season in 1972 with her first owner racing in the Mediterranean. She was then trucked to the Channel where the Italians placed 1st in Class 2 in the 1973 Channel Race during the Admiral’s Cup series. Sagit was once again shipped back to the Med.
In September 1973, our father, Andre Laffitte purchased Sagit. The family, as crew campaigned her in all major Med regattas with great success. In addition to her heavy campaigning, Sagit provided the family with over ten years of long range cruising from her home port in Golfe Juan to Greece and Turkey and back to the Cote D’Azur.
During the summer of 2009, an agreement was reached to have Stephano Carlini, son and now proprietor of the original yard where Sagit was built conduct the refit. Sagit was truly on her way home to where she was born. Mr. Carlini was delighted to have the boat return as she was the first and only model he ever built at the age of 14.
The work was scheduled to begin in November 2009. Sagit was delivered to San Remo after the last race of the season. She was then trucked across Italy to Rimini. The work began immediately by a careful survey of how the boat would be put back together as it originally was, as close as possible. Many pictures were taken and printed before the removal of any fittings, which were labeled with a number, side and direction.
She was then stripped of her deck down to the laminated beams. The cockpit whose plywood was somewhat in bad shape due to the various alterations modifications and piercing along the years, was completely rebuit step by step so as not to lose the original shapes, proportions and positions.
The only structural piece which urgently needed a replacement was the strong laminated beam supporting the mainsheet track. The accomodations were left nearly unchanged except a new Yanmar 3JH4 engine, an engine cover better insulated and a new head were replaced.