Cerigo 12 B 1

Built to the International Second Rule (1920–1933)

Early Years in Belgium

Cerigo was built to the International Second Rule, most likely in the late 1920s, and first registered in Antwerp, Belgium. Her original owner, Leon Becker, campaigned her as a Bermudan cutter, representing one of the most progressive European 12 Metres of her time. Like many of her contemporaries, Cerigo combined classic craftsmanship with the new performance standards of the Second Rule era.

Canadian and British Ownership

By 1934, Cerigo had crossed the Atlantic to Dartmouth, Canada, under Dr. T. H. Ward, who installed an auxiliary engine the following year. Around 1937, she passed to Robert A. O’Brien, who reverted her to a pure sailing yacht, removing the engine before 1946. Under Schalburg & Co., she was re-rigged as a Bermudan sloop, a change continued by Ernst Schalburg through the early 1950s.

The Tindal and Thom Years

From 1951 to 1956, Cerigo was owned by Dr. Andrew Tindal, whose home ports alternated between Glasgow and Dartmouth. Remarkably, she still sailed without auxiliary power and had to be towed through the Crinan Canal when making passages to the Scottish west coast. During this time, she was frequently sailed by Professor Alexander Thom, the noted archaeo-astronomer whose research on megalithic stone circles proposed the “Megalithic Yard” as a unit of prehistoric measurement. Many of Thom’s observations of the western isles were said to have been made from Cerigo, including a seven-day passage from Brixham to the Clyde.

Return to Power and Transition South

In 1957, Cerigo’s next custodian, Mrs. Alex McGlasham, reinstalled an engine, and she was subsequently owned by Mr. & Mrs. McGlasham and John Maitland of Portsmouth and Dartmouth through the early 1960s. Her sailing life then shifted southward to La Rochelle, France, under Mme G. Le Saux Jouany and Julian Dame. By 1965, she was based in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, and appeared in Lloyd’s Register without an assigned name — soon after, she vanished from the listings entirely.

Caribbean Chapter and Final Loss

By the early 1970s, Cerigo lay moored at St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, under owners who had fallen into debt. A U.S. Marshal’s lien was placed on her, and during a prolonged lay-up she was gradually stripped of fittings. One missing item — a galley sink — proved fatal: the rubber hose left connected drooped below the waterline, allowing seawater to siphon in and sink her at anchor.

She was later raised and partially restored by Malcolm, Roy and Margaret Precious of Virgin Gorda, who put her back into charter service. In 1977, while moored in Virgin Gorda Yacht Harbour, an electrical fire spread rapidly from the paint locker. To save neighboring vessels, her lines were cut, and Cerigo drifted ablaze into the harbor entrance before finally sinking.

Legacy

Cerigo 12 B 1 remains one of the most traveled of the Second Rule 12 Metres, her life spanning Belgium, Canada, Scotland, France and the Caribbean. Through multiple rigs, restorations and owners, she embodied the endurance of classic yacht design and the romantic arc of 20th-century yachting — from European regattas to distant island harbors.