Charles E. Nicholson 48 ft International 8-Metre 1930/2022

VISION was conceived by Charles E. Nicholson and built by Camper & Nicholsons with the unarguable potential to be a winner, in particular at that time of the ‘Canada’s Cup’. She somehow took a little time to prove it, but over the past 40 years VISION has been perhaps the all-time most successful International 8-Metre (8mR) – eight-time winner of the coveted Sira Cup, the World Championship for pre-1960 boats. Purchased in 2021 by a gifted, competitive, and successful Italian racing yachtsman with the aim of again winning the Sira Cup, a restoration and optimisation process begun in previous ownership was completed with aplomb at Imperia by Sibma Navale Italiana. Her owner reported, “We have restored VISION back to exactly as she was when built in 1930. She is very fast...”. At the 2024 World Championship in Scotland she won everything a classic 8-Metre can including the Sira Cup, Neptune Trophy, and Coppa d'Italia. Gather a good team, step the mast, and she’ll do it again.

- A provisional presentation for a new listing
- Updated specification to follow

"After a short break [from top-level International Dragon racing] of a couple of years due to a busy job and family, I wanted to get back into racing again and was looking for a wooden Dragon. Andrea Quaranta told me to have a look at a boat in France. That was the half-restored VISION and I was immediately hooked. I bought her and moved the boat to his yard. We had a tight schedule but managed to get her in the water on time. We only had a few weeks to prepare for the [2022] World Cup but that was balanced by the level of sailors I had on board. All of them are top quality and some I even raced with in Fremantle on [the 12mR] ITALIA when I participated in the America's Cup Louis Vuitton series in 1987. We have restored VISION back to exactly as she was when built in 1930. She is very fast..."

[As told to classic yachting journalist - and the manufacturer of VISION's The Classic Winch Company custom Neptune Rule winches - Ron Valent, Classic Boat, April 2023]

2021-2022 BY SIBMA NAVALE ITALIANA, DOLCEDA, IMPERIA, ITALY
- (Mario and Andrea Quaranta)
- Highly Recommended, Classic Boat Awards 2023 Restored Vessel > 40 ft
- Completion of the restoration started at PASQUI, Villefranche, 2010s
- Structural elements, cockpit design, and supervision by Nicolas Fauroux
- New marine plywood and vacuum bagged leak laid veneer deck
- All new cockpit
- All new interior
- All new Toplicht deck fittings
- All new rigging by Gottifredi Maffioli
- All new electronics by Sailmon
- All new sails by North (Guido Cavalazzi)
- All new winches by The Classic Winch Company

2010s BY PASQUI, VILLEFRANCHE-SUR-MER, FRANCE
- Keel-up hull rebuild
- Original counter reinstated during complete re-planking
- Naval architecture and supervision by Jacques Fauroux

2024 WORLD CUP - RHU, SCOTLAND
1st Sira Cup
1st Neptune Trophy
1st Coppa d'Italia
1st Generation Trophy
3rd Overall World Cup

2023 WORLD CUP - GENOA, ITALY
2nd Sira Cup
2nd Neptune Trophy
5th Overall in World Cup

2023 VELE d'EPOCA di IMPERIA, ITALY
1st 8-Metre Class

2022 WORLD CUP - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
6th Sira Cup
2nd Neptune Trophy
7th Overall in World Cup

2002 WORLD CUP - HELSINKI, FINLAND (as VISION OF SEBAGO)
2nd Sira Cup
9th Overall in World Cup

2000 WORLD CUP - PORTO SANTO STEFANO, ITALY
1st Sira Cup
6th Overall in World Cup

1998 WORLD CUP - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1st Sira Cup

1995 WORLD CUP - MEDEMBLIK, HOLLAND
1st Sira Cup

1994 WORLD CUP - CANNES, FRANCE
1st Sira Cup

1985 WORLD CUP - ROCHESTER, USA
1st Sira Cup

1984 WORLD CUP - TORONTO, CANADA
1st Sira Cup

1983 WORLD CUP - HANKØ, NORWAY
1st Sira Cup - Glenn Foster helming
2nd World Cup

1982 WORLD CUP - VISBY, SWEDEN

CAMPER & NICHOLSONS YARD NO. 380
- Launched Monday 28th April 1930
- Christened by Mrs Joy McCann
- wife of Royal Canadian YC syndicate member W. Sidney McCann

Not only might VISION be the all-time most successful International 8-Metre (8mR) – eight-time winner of the Sira Cup, the World Championship for pre-1960 boats – but she is also probably the 8-Metre that has crossed the Atlantic most times, albeit not under sail.

VISION’s first east-west crossing was during May-June 1930, appropriately from Canada Docks, Rotherhithe, London on the deck of a Canada Steamship Lines freighter. She had been built in just over three months by Camper & Nicholsons; one of three identical Charles E. Nicholson designs launched by their Gosport yard in 1930 to supply a burgeoning between-the-wars international demand for these beautifully proportioned, high-performance racing yachts. Also under construction only a few yards away at Gosport that winter of 1929-1930 was Sir Thomas Lipton’s J-Class America’s Cup Challenger SHAMROCK V.

VISION was on her way to Toronto where a very well funded, multi-member Royal Canadian Yacht Club (RCYC) syndicate led by Commodore George H. Gooderham had commissioned three 8s for a sail-off to decide which boat would challenge Rochester Yacht Club in a revival of the Canada v. USA 'Canada’s Cup' match racing challenge; sometimes described as "the Holy Grail of fresh water". Gooderham also hoped this would prove a launching pad to truly establish the Metre classes on the Great Lakes. At least in that he was successful.

The other potential Challengers were: QUEST, designed by William Fife Junior (III), framed up by his Fairlie, Scotland yard, then dismantled and shipped in felt lined boxes to Toronto for building by the Oakville Yachtbuilding Company; and NORSEMAN, drawn by William J Roué – famous for designing the fishing schooner BLUENOSE – and built at the RCYC’s own yard.

In trials at Rochester, QUEST was chosen for the 1930 Canada’s Cup match and subsequently defeated over five races by Rochester Yacht Club’s THISBE, a Clinton H. Crane design built by Henry B. Nevins of City Island, New York. VISION remained Toronto-based, contributing to what became, and remains, arguably the most consistently active of worldwide 8-Metre Class fleets; patiently waiting for her time to come – as her pedigree suggested it always could.

By the late 1970s, VISION had become almost a bona-fide cruiser-racer – very well fitted out below and with the then fashionable, post-INTREPID (S&S 12mR) ‘retroussé’ counter. In 1978 she was purchased by RCYC members Robin & Nicki Clarke and given a major refit/ restoration intended to make her a competitive 8-Metre in the days before the 12-Metre AUSTRALIA IIs winged keel changed everything. It became a highly successful and popular family affair involving multiple Atlantic (ship) crossings in European World Cup years, and the start of her remarkable Sira Cup record listed above.

In 1993, after sixty years as a North American, VISION returned to Europe in the ownership of Frenchman Eric Mallet, sailing from Arcachon near Bordeaux. She continued her winning ways, winning the Sira Cup in 1994, 1995, 1998, 2000, and 2002.

Then, in the late 2000s, via 8-Metre aficionado Avia Willment, Metre boat restorer Brian Pope, and classic yacht manager Paulo Giorgetti, VISION entered her first Italian ownership with Mattia Conte, and Pasqui’s yard at Villefranch-sur-Mer, France, for the start of a major restoration process that would eventually be finished near Imperia Italy by Mario and Andrea Quaranta’s Sibma Navale Italiana for her second and present Italian owner.

Just as originally conceived in 1930, the 2021-2022 award winning restoration completion was always with the aim of keeping VISION a winner – and so it has worked out.

VISION Owners
- 1930 George H. Gooderham/ RCYC Syndicate
- 1930 George H. Gooderham, Toronto, Canada
- 1930 Robert George Osborne Thomson, Toronto, Canada
- 1940 Wilfred L. Ballantine, Ontario, Canada
- 1953 Walter Williamson "Bill" Inrig, Toronto, Canada
- 1975 John Turnall Chisholm, Burlington, Ontario, Canada
- 1979 Robin & Vicki Clarke, Toronto, Canada
- 1992 Eric Mallet, Arcachon, France
- 2009 Mattia Conte, Italy
- 2021 Present ownership, Italy

©2026 Iain McAllister/ Sandeman Yacht Company Ltd.

Originally built under Lloyd's supervision to ✠16R Classification
- In class with Lloyds until 1961
- Mahogany planking
- Oak longitudinal structure
- Laminated hardwood frames
- Intermediate steamed oak timbers
- Douglas fir beam shelves
- Partial bilge stringers
- Laminated floors and localised stiffening
- Lead ballast keel
- Marine plywood and vacuum bagged leak laid veneer deck
- Mahogany king planks and covering boards
- Mahogany/ Mahogany marine plywood superstructures

GENERAL
- Teak laid deck on marine plywood substrate
- Varnished mahogany covering boards, king planks, superstructures
- All bronze deck fittings

FROM AFT

AFT AND SIDE DECKS
- Ensign socket
- 2 x Mooring fairleads
- Mooring cleat on centreline
- Ash and bronze mainsheet blocks
- Wilmex sheave block (mainsheet)
- 2 x Ash & bronze blocks port & starboard (runners)
- 2 x Ash & bronze blocks port & starboard (spinnaker)
- Raw teak helm seats port & starboard
- 2 x Wilmex sheave blocks port & starboard (genoa)
Classic Winch Company winches
- 2 x Port & starboard (runners)
- 2 x Port & starboard (main)
- 2 x Port & starboard (genoa)
- 6 x Associated Tufnol cleats
- 4 x Tufnol and bronze blocks
- Genoa tracks and cars at port and starboard covering boards
- 2 x Padeyes at covering boards port & starboard

COCKPIT
- Raised coaming with raw teak cap
- Tiller
- Raw teak slatted sole
- Canvas stowage pockets
- Teak mounts for instruments port & starboard

MAST POSITION

FOREDECK
- Forehatch
- Mooring cleat on centreline
- Mooring fairleads port & starboard

- Typically simple 8-Metre interior
- Mahogany carpentry
- Raw teak sole
- Sideboards port & starboard
- Settee berths port & starboard
- Wood console with bronze self-tailing main halyard winch
- Open fo’c’sle for sails and gear stowage
- Raw teak partial sole

RIG
- Neptune Trophy compliant spruce mast and boom
- 2 x Spruce spinnaker poles
- Standing rigging by Gottifredi Maffioli (2022)

SAILS
- Dacron by North (Guido Cavalazzi)
- Mainsail
- Genoa
- Polyester spinnaker
- Other sails TBC

CANVASWORK
- TBC

- All new electronics by Sailmon

- TBC

- Fenders
- Mooring lines
- Cradle (TBC)

In captions