[Deckies Feet]

Does anyone have any History or good info on the 50 m 1982 Benetti Blue Gold? She's a big yacht and seems to be pioneering as I can't think of many 50+ meter SY in the early 80's, yet there seems very little information on her?

[AMG]

In the "Benetti Shipyard Story" it is told she was ordered by an American in 1980 and the captain, Marino Canova was following the construction and remained as skipper until 1986 when the boat was sold to a Dutch yachtsman.

The twin Cat 3412:s of 580 hp gave here a max speed of 13,5 knots and the sail area was 800 sqm. Designer is Laurent Giles.

[revdcs]

According to an online spotting site - she was last seen on 11/21/2008 in Viaduct Harbour, Auckland, New Zealand.

[Deckies Feet]

Info I can find is she spent a lot of time in the south pacific and was also based in Dubai for a while. Sold a few years ago and is currently in Holland.

It seems strange that a 50 Meter yacht from the early 80’s when 50 meters was big! Looks like she is the prototype for many Perini Navi that followed but is not credit with anything. Have heard that Bennetti were not proud of her but that could be quays side gossip!!

[Sailing Sofia]

I was working on this yacht in 1997. At that time her name ws still White Gull and she was owned by a Dutch. I joined her i Caribbean and before that she had been based in southern France for quite some time without doing much sailing. As I remember it the owner had bought her to make a world cruice which he completed during a few years time and thereafter he did not do much sailing with it. After the season in Caribbean we took here to Ijmuiden (just outside Amsterdam i Holland) where we spent some time in a marina that was not at all intended for a yacht of that size. The captain did a good job taking her in and out of the marina, but we always hit a lightpost or something on the docks since it simply was not room enough fo us in there... We also spent some time in Rotterdam on a shipyard (a naval shipyard for some reason, the only neighbourghs we had were submarines). I also remember that the owner had the yacht lenghtend a few meters in the stern to make room for his Riva on the aft deck. The Riva was however replaced by a RIB when I were there. The yacht was never chartered in that ownership. Soon after I left they made a trip up to Norway (shame that I missed that one...). Not long after I think she was sold, and I read somewhere that it was the original owner that bought her back. Anyway, at that time she was re-painted blue and re-named "Blue Gold" (she was white from the beginning). I did not do that much sailing on her, but I remember that it was a huge number of sails to unfurl. I think actually that she was originally built with traditional "non-furling" sails. It must have required a number of extra crew to handle those sails manually... I guess it was the second owner that upgraded to hydrualic furling systems.