Original, fast and agile, this exceptional boat was conceived around 1926 by swimmers from a Barcelona club who wanted a vessel capable of taking them out to swim offshore, through the beach breakers, far from the already polluted waters near the shore. Some swimmers believed that, by giving the hull a particular shape, it was possible to do without rudders by altering the boat’s trim and thus the relationship between the centre of the sail and the centre of the centreboard. The tack is spectacular: the helmsman moves in front of the mast, pushing the bows down until the Patin heels over longitudinally by about thirty degrees and crosses into the wind. To gybe, the helmsman moves back until the boat is running full beam down. All that is needed then is to put your foot in the water on the side you wish to gybe to. This asymmetrical braking manoeuvre causes the yacht to pivot!

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