Sailing on the classics sailingboats Lucretia and Tanit

Lucretia

Tanit

He was baptized because of the respiratory disease suffered by the young girl Lucretia, daughter of the first ship-owner who commissioned the construction of the ship, after medical advice to breathe sea breeze. Years later, she toured the European seas under the guidance of a prestigious rector of Oxford University. Later it fell into the hands of a billionaire of Russian origin, until one day it was abandoned in a Portuguese shipyard. After a long and sad stay in that shipyard, a French family rehabilitated it in order to cross the Atlantic and devote themselves to sailing the Caribbean seas. After 12 years in his hands, he returned from the Caribbean to our waters tired, aged and with uncertain future prospects.

The promoters of Ostarte appreciated his great value and after nine months of hard work, Ostarte manages to restore and gives life, health and splendor to this jewel of maritime heritage, making it one of the oldest active ships in bay of Biscay.

The Tanit was constructed in Tunis in 1961 at the request of the adventurer and French writer Henry de Monfreid. Named after the Goddess of the Moon it was built without any formal plans, just some freehand drawings, following the instructions that Monfreid gave after having acquired the necessary knowledge over the course of his innumerable adventures along the coasts of the Red Sea, The Horn of Africa and the Arabian peninsula and off the coast of Yemen. The Tanit was his last boat before he passed away and he used it for trips of a more recreational nature than his previous craft, and for activities, among others, like pearl smuggling. It was used for the writer`s final sailing voyage, the most notable feat of which was rounding Cape Horn.

After the death of Monfreid, the Tanit travelled around the Mediterranean Sea with different owners, until at the end of the 90s it was donated, by Italy, to the French Association “Les amis de jeudi dimanche” founded by Michel Jauen, whose goal was to reinsert problem youths back into society through sailing.

In 2018 Ostarte Sailing sailed the Tanit for the first time off the coast of Brittany. Finally, in May 2019 it sailed to Pasaia with the aim of getting a complete refit and to give it a new lease of life. After months of hard work and much affection, the Tanit once again shone brightly, becoming what it had always been, an agile seafaring yacht that was ready to share in our passion for classic boats and traditional sailing.