The Boat

s/v Alchemy sounding the depths to the entrance of The Exuma Land and Sea Park. Thanks to Delwyn Smith of s/v Mahalo, another Wauquiez, who took our photograph!

s/v Alchemy is a 1984, thirty-five foot Pretorien.  She is hull #166 designed by Holman & Pye and built by Chantier Henri Wauquiez.  Her lines are reminiscent of the IOR racing boats of the seventies and eighties. However her displacement ratio is well balanced and lends to a nicely behaved, but sprite sailing vessel.

Henri Wauquiez had extremely high standards which is apparent in the Pretorien’s huge keel bolts, a chain plate design that is glassed in and bolted below decks, and the fiberglass headliner that is integral to the rigidity of the overall cabin design.  She is built like a tank!

Her first name was s/v Mistral, then s/v Canard Azul, and now that she is ours she is s/v Alchemy.

Our first sailboat was a Westerly Fulmar.  I love English sailboats and the Pretorien has many qualities of well built English and French boats with the pizzazz of French finish.  Her hull, like the Westerly, was quality built to Lloyds standards.  She is strong, stout, and built to sail in heavy air and seas.

I was a racer prior to my now brief stint as a cruiser.  My first priority when we were searching for an ideal cruising sailboat was that it be a joy to sail and would get out of its own way in most conditions.  I was willing to forego creature comforts for performance if it was required.  When Chris found the Pretorien in his research all it took was a trip to see one and I knew this would be our second boat.  She doesn’t have a large aft cabin or expansive cabin of many other cruisers; but she is designed to be safe in challenging conditions and lumpy seaways.  She was built and designed to be a stout sailing vessel first, and comfortably livable second.  She answers our needs and priorities well.

After taking s/v Alchemy down the East Coast and to the Bahamas in the Winter of 2011/2012 we are even more enamored by the Pretorien’s good manners.  We had on average 15 to 25 knots the majority of our sails and she handled each passage just as well as the last.  While she was extremely responsive she was simultaneously quite stiff which made navigating channels and cuts with large seas, wind, and current manageable.

There were about 200 Pretoriens built between the years 1979-1986.  A very good review and more history of the Wauquiez Pretorien was written by John Kretschmer and posted in Sailing Magazine online here http://www.sailingmagazine.net/boats/6-used-boat-notebook/1030-wauquiez-pretorien-35

I am grateful to have found David Merlot who was a close friend and cohort of Henri Wauquiez.  After some correspondence with David via email Henri’s vision and dedication to building a sound sailing yacht was communicated first hand.  It is always astounding to me when we were sailing offshore how I felt a tie to Henri and his team who built and designed the Pretorien.   I am grateful to all those who embodied integrity into the Pretorien’s design and hull.

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