More on KentOnline
More on KentOnline
A vintage super yacht has been spotted in a Kent harbour.
The luxury boat Te Vega, which served for the US Navy during the Second World War, is currently docked in Ramsgate.
The 47.5m sail schooner has a top speed of 11.4 knots and has undertaken a number of functions, including as a school, a patrol vessel and appearing in the film South Seas Adventure.
She has been lifted onto the dry dock in Ramsgate for maintenance work and will be back in the water in a couple of weeks.
New York architects Cox and Stevens were commissioned in 1928 by yachtsman Walter G Ladd to design a schooner to be built by Germaniawerft Krupp in Kiel, according to Te Vega's website.
Etak - which is Mr Ladd's wife's name spelt backwards - was launched in 1930 and was registered in New York. After Mr Ladd died in 1933, the yacht was renamed Vega.
She was acquired by the US Navy in 1942 and was renamed USS Juniata as a patrol vessel in the eastern Pacific. But she was decommissioned in 1945 after she was bought and was renamed Vega.
In 1954, she was remasted after being damaged during a storm off Tahiti three years earlier and renamed Te Vega.
The versatile yacht was used as a school and was sold to the family of Italian businessman Calisto Tanzi, who is the founder of food giant Parmalat.
Te Vega underwent a restoration from 1992 to 1997, when she regained luxury status.
She participated in the Mediterranean circuit before the Parmalat crisis. This erupted when it was revealed a €4 billion bank account held by a Cayman Islands unit did not exist and brought down the Tanzi family, forcing them to sell the yacht.
Te Vega was since bought by a new owner and continues to travel across the world.
