Satanita

Satanita
Rig Class.Cutter, then Yawl
Builder:Built in Southampton to a Soper design
Year built:1893
General characteristics
Ton:400 tons TM
LOA:127.1 feet between perpendiculars
Beam:23.7 feet
Draught:12.4 feet


Satanita was built in 1893, a vintage year which also saw Valkyrie II and Britannia coming into being on Clydeside.  These three, together with Calluna and the older Iverna formed the Big Five of that year.

Although she was beaten by both the Watson designs (Britannia first by 3 seconds from Valkyrie in the Royal Thames Nore to Dover match) she gave promise of performance to come by covering the 13.75 miles from the Tongue Lightship to North Sandhead in just over an hour.  It seems to have been her destiny to be a wayward vessel, and she was soon modified by cutting three feet of her mast and shipping extra lead.  This improved her performance but, on the Clyde, she was shortly to be involved in misfortune when her gaff tangled in Valkyrie's topmast shrouds, and in a later race she burst her bobstay and broke her bowsprit.

She was a hard breeze boat and her speed with her sheets freed was remarkable.  In the Cowes  Town Cup of that year she sailed the 48 mile course in 3 hours 40 minutes and 50 seconds - 13 knots - but in truth this design of Soper's was not the equal of Watson's Britannia.

For the start of 1894 her sail area was increased, perhaps to put her on terms with her rival.  But this was the year of the fatal incident with Valkyrie II on the Clyde.  The race was for amateur helmsmen and a good strong wind was blowing.  Satanita was standing up the Holy Loch on starboard and Valkyrie was coming into the line on port.  The anchorage was crowded with yachts and from this jungle a small boat suddenly appeared across Satanita's bow.  Her helmsman bore away to avoid this craft only to find the target doing the same thing.  Satanita was then luffed to avoid the intruder and then her helm was put up to avoid Valkyrie.  She failed to respond in time - not really surprising with 100 feet on the waterline travelling at speed.  She took Valkyrie head on just abaft the mast and cut her down to the waterline.  Valkyrie staggered against the steam yacht Hebe and a crewman who tried to scramble aboard the steamer was fatally injured.  She then fell foul of the steam yacht Vanduara and her topmast came down.  After drifting clear she sank bow first in 14 fathoms.

Satanita subsequently had her sail area reduced and finished the season with six prizes against Britannia's thirty one.

In 1897 she was bought by Sir Maurice Fitzgerald, a noted horse racing man, and performed successfully on the Riviera.

In the autumn of 1898 she made a passage in front of a north east gale from Land's End to Valencia (Ireland), a distance of nearly 300 miles, in exactly 20 hours - just short of 15 knots average.  It was in that year she was altered from cutter to yawl.

The last record of Satanita racing was in 1906, rigged as a yawl with 10,300 sq ft of canvas - her Linear Rating then being 101.54 - when at Cowes she won both the King's Cup and the German Emperor's Cup - so after thirteen years she was still a formidable yacht.

In 1909 she was sold to an Italian.

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