Good old boat

Back in the day, boats were built to last and the main requirement was that she had to be seaworthy. Now, most shipyards (with few exceptions, of course) build boats that have to be cheap, light, fast, pretty and have accommodation for a lot of people. Build quality and seaworthiness unfortunately belong to the past and are now synonyms for good old boats.

HIR 3 is definitely a good old boat 🙂 The hull is made of thick solid laminate that shows no signs of osmosis, has a lead keel connected to the hull with twelve stainless steel plates and a full skeg to protect the rudder. She has an oversized 15-meter keel stepped mast with backstay, running backstays, baby stay and double spreaders that end up on a stainless steel plate on two bulkheads connected to a 2.5 ton keel made of lead with added antimony for stiffness. There are eight oversized winches (on a 34 foot boat!), two large travelers on each side for the genoa and one on the coachroof for the mainsail. All the bulkheads and main frames in the interior as well as her tiller are made of solid teak. In the galley and in the salon there are boxes for plates, glasses, cups and bottles, and one special for a bottle of Jack Daniels:)

She was build to last and she proved bulletproof too:)

History

Famous  Croatian skipper, Mladen Šutej bought the boat in 1979 from an Italian shipyard…

The boat was named ‘HIR 3’ (Caprice). The history of the name dates back to his grandfather who started to build his first boat at the age of 65 and when people asked him why, he simply replied… it is my caprice. The first Mladen’s boat was ‘Hir 2’, and logically, this one was named ‘HIR 3’.

Based on his experience, he wanted to buy a 10-meter sailing yacht to cross the Atlantic, so she had to be quality build, have a full skeg, wide hull, lead keel and solid mast and rigging. Mladen bought a CAT 34 from a small Italian shipyard named after the owners (Carlo Alberto Tibreio) as a bare hull with mast and deck equipment. One interesting fact. Interior is made of expensive teak, but the wood came from an old stand on which one boat from Italy was delivered to the port of Rijeka. The boat was finished in marina Punat in 1980 after spent 2000 working hours.

The boat then went across the Atlantic to the Caribbean, then to Florida and back across the Atlantic to Craoatia.

Next voyage of HIR 3 was around the World via Cape Horn which makes this a truly legendary boat…

35 episodes of a documentary film ‘Sails around the World’ were filmed and shown on Croatian national television.

Mladen Šutej published two books about ocean sailing on board ‘HIR 3’ – ‘Atlantic Challenge’ and ‘Sailing around Cape Horn’.

She was badly damaged with holes on the hull near the waterline during occupation of marina Dubrovnik, but Mladen Šutej managed to save and restore her.

The boat was then sold and moved to Vrsar in Istria, but later she was forgotten and neglected…

Technical Specifications:

LOA: 10.34 m

Beam: 3.30 m

Draft: 1.80 m

Displacement: 5.300 kg

Ballast: 2.500 kg

Mast: 15 m

Engine: Lombardini 25 HP