Extraordinary boats: Baruna’s seven-year restoration

In their Extraordinary Boats series, Yachting World profiles the 1938 S&S yawl Baruna that was relaunched in late 2023 by owner Tara Getty after a seven-and-a-half-year restoration to return her to as close to original as possible.

Designed by Olin Stephens in 1938, at 72ft LOA Baruna was at the top of the size limit permitted by the Cruising Club of America (CCA) to race offshore. The year of its launch, Baruna took part in and won the biennial 635-mile Newport Bermuda offshore race, creating a storm of publicity on both sides of the Atlantic. Olin was the navigator, and Baruna got in eight hours ahead of the next boat.

Seven years previously Olin and his brother, Rod, with their crew had won the 1931 Transatlantic Race, as well as that year’s Fastnet Race in their revolutionary new 52ft (15.8m) yawl Dorade. Olin was then just 23, and America was so pleased with him, his crew and his design that they got a ticker tape parade in New York on their return. – Full boats