Boat review by NAVIS Magzine
Signe; A Song of Heart and History
Bruce King is an auteur of the yacht world. A visionary, a poet, and a man who believes in curating sheer beauty out on the water – Signe was perhaps his piece de resistance. Afterall, how many yachts have a song named after them by one of the world’s greatest rock and roll guitarists?
From the lilt of a line on the page to final delivery; Bruce King took five years to turn his sketches, visions and dreams of the 35m superyacht into the majestic sailing vessel she is today. There’s something immediately enchanting about a traditional style sailboat. They evoke the romance of renaissance sailing, all tall masts, polished wood and billowing whites against the blue. But few have the craft of Signe.
Originally delivered in 1990, Signe has very much managed to stay on the right side of history thanks to the highly specific brief from would be owners The Wellman’s that called for a design style that leaned towards an “eclectic” expression “ranging from traditional to contemporary with stops in between and ‘surprises’ in every room”.
An Emotional Epitaph
Following the dramatic release of Whitehawk and Whitefin, the other two yachts in the Bruce King line at this point in his career, Signe was a love-song of heart and history, a sublime link of future and past that didn’t fall into the danger-zone of being overly sentimental. Her exterior is a vision of gleaming epoxy planked mahogany, and her craft hints at a ‘celebration of wood’ before you even step inside. Signe boasted the largest ingot of led ballast after the yacht ‘Ranger’, a staggering 93,000 lbs. Her sweet lines are all classic ketch but on closer inspection there is swathes of modern imagining and innovative technology sewn into the seams. Take for example, her lead keel, multiple layers of glistening Achilles like bronze, chain-plates, and individually lathe-turned screws – these are the muscles that hold the wooden wonder of Signe together, in such a way that Bruce King’s artistry is apparent right down to the tiniest detail. Signe is an emotional epitaph, a song without words, as immortalized further by Clapton.
