Anahita is a Bristol 35 designed by Oswald Berckemeyer (www.berckemeyer-yacht.de). Oswald was well known in South Africa as the designer of the Flamenca (picture) and the Miura. Many South Africans sailed around the world in Miuras and you still find these little boats in the Cape Town area. Over the course our project, Oswald became a friend who we own a lot. Without him, our dream would probably ended in a failed self-build project. He opened the doors for us in South Africa. Unfortunately, Oswald never saw the completion of our boat.

The design of the Bristol 35 combines a nice retro-look with a modern under-water hull and quite a radical rig. The combination of an aluminium shelf with epoxy-saturated plywood is also rather unusual. For a 35 footer, the boat is very spacious. With its long waterline, the large beam and a displacement of 8 tons it should probably be compared to a 38 or 39 footer. Contrary to the current drawings at Berckemeyer Yacht Design, Anahita has a fix keel (draught 1.8m). In general, though, we followed Oswald's drawings except for a few touches that gave the boat an even classier look. For example, we had the off-the-shelve hatches replaced by a traditional skylight and we put big cowl wents on the cabin roof. We're sure, Oswald would have liked the result.