Lot 118: Jamie Medlin (b.1970)

Jamie Medlin (b.1970)
Tuiga reaching into St. Tropez on Wednesday's race of Les Voiles de St. Tropez, 2005
signed 'Jamie Medlin' (lower right)
oil on canvas
24 x 14 in. (61 x 35.5 cm.)

Tuiga, a magnificent wooden cutter, was built by William Fife in his yard at Fairlie, Ayrshire, in 1909, as an exact copy of Hispania, the yacht he himself had designed for H.M. Alphonso XIII, the King of Spain, earlier the same year. Ordered by the Duke of Medinacelli, a close friend of the Spanish monarch, as a running mate for Hispania, Tuiga was registered at 50 tons gross (28.7 net) and measured 63 feet in length with a 13 foot beam. Rated at 15 metres, she carried 4,460 square feet of canvas under full sail and, whilst in Spanish ownership, was kept at Santander. Sold to J.M.H. Lindvig of Christiania (Norway) in 1920, her new owner renamed her Betty (IV) and so began a lifetime of changing names and owners through which she somehow survived to the present day. Finally reverting to her original name, Tuiga, she is now amongst that celebrated band of thoroughbreds which still adorn the international racing circuit despite their remarkable age.