Sólmara 

Junk Rigged

Designed by Robert Tucker, best known for the Corribee, the Coromandel shares the same bilge-keeled hull but features modified topsides and a purpose-built junk rig. These tough little cruisers have proven their capability, with some making impressive voyages, including a double Atlantic crossing and a passage to the Azores. 

Built by Newbridge Boats in Dorset, Sólmara was one of the earliest UK production junk-rigged yachts. Her early years remain a mystery, but her recorded history begins in Gloucestershire in 2011. A year later, she broke free of her mooring in Swanage, Dorset, and suffered severe damage after becoming trapped under a bridge. 

In 2013, she was towed to Greece, where she underwent a full professional restoration before spending time sailing the Mediterranean. She later returned to the UK, where an innovative New Zealander fitted her with solar panels, an electric motor, and a Chinese sculling oar (yuloh) to explore the upper Thames and inland waterways.  After the Covid pandemic curtailed those adventures, she changed hands again but was left neglected on the Thames. In the autumn of 2024, her current owner rescued her, hauled her out, and transported her to Falmouth in Cornwall. Now, for the second time in her life, Sólmara is rising again—reborn to be the boat she was always meant to be: a strong, capable little cruiser, ready to take on the open sea once more..