Sad news from Venice, where the historic Trabaccolo trading vessel I went to write about for Classic Boat a few years ago has been swamped and damaged by a bad leak. The vessel was saved by the pumps of firefighters who came alongside Il Nuovo Trionfo where she was berthed near the Salute, at the entrance to the Grand Canal. Apparently the boat’s own pumps had failed, though the reasons for the leak in the first place are not clear. The water flooded the engine, and videos show it swilling around at the level of the saloon table top, submerging much equipment.
Firefighters alongside with pumps, St Marks Square in the distance
Il Nuovo Trionfo has now been pumped out and towed to a yard for repairs ashore, where she is now. The engine is being stripped down and parts of it soaked in fresh water in the hope that it can be repaired, and the damage is being assessed, according to Il Nuovo Trionfo’s Facebook group. I have lifted these photographs from Facebook, but there’s much more there, including videos (and Facebook translated the texts quite effectively into English).
Ashore safely
A Trabaccolo is a sail trading boat which evolved for the northern Adriatic with a flat bottom that can take the ground in the low tides of the lagoons, rather like a Thames barge. Il Nuovo Trionfo had been bought and restored by local enthusiasts, safeguarding a rare nautical treasure, one of very few left. An indication of the design’s seaworthiness is that one has been found in New Caledonia in the Pacific, to which it was sailed after conversion to a yacht, but abandoned after the owner had a heart attack.
The plan for Classic Boat was to write about the Trabaccolo project alongside another in the UK to revive the construction of Thames barges, and to compare and contrast the types of shallow-water trading boat.
I withdrew from the writing commission in the end because yet another huge problem was found with the Nuovo Trionfo – the tree-sized timber keelson running along inside the boat above the full length external keel was found to have a hidden rotten section, which put her out of action again and required another long round of expensive repairs.
The piece for the magazine would have ended up comparing a successful barge project (at the time) with a sad litany of setbacks on the Venetian restoration, making it seem an odd choice for comparison – perhaps rather negative and upsetting for the Venetians, who had gone to a lot of trouble to show me their project and whose successive misfortunes would be starkly obvious because of the inappropriate juxtaposition.
There were other good reasons for visiting Venice, anyway, so it was far from a wasted journey, especially since I met so many interesting Venetian boat enthusiasts and craftspeople. Like all restorations, the Nuovo Trionfo club was continually short of money from members and well wishers, and was having trouble raising finance from the Venice local government, which at the time was much more interested in building a replica of a 17th century fast postal galley, at great expense. I wish Il Nuovo Trionfo well.
In easier times, I’d now be packing for this year’s Transadriatica race from Venice to Novigrad and back, on Spiuma, Martin’s boat. At least Easyjet has offered me a refund on my ticket, having just formally cancelled the flight out next week.
Meanwhile, back home this month Cowes Harbour has given permission for yards to launch boats, but an owner is still not allowed to stay on board overnight. There is at least a day’s work to prepare for launching and another day sorting things out afterwards, so with hotels and AirB&Bs closed, the logistics are difficult. We won’t be doing anything for the moment, but will work out a plan.
The government seems to be hinting at another easing of lockdown soon which could make it simpler. The antics of the Prime Minister’s adviser Dominic Cummings in breaking lockdown and not apologising do anyway encorage everyone to think that it is fine to make your own judgments on what’s best to do in grey areas. The ‘don’t stay away from home’ rule does not mention boats, so we could, if we were feeling bloody minded, use the Cummings defence that it’s not specifically banned. (I may be wrong about that, since the RYA and most harbourmasters think it is banned, but there you go….).
tide by tide 