Seiner Majestät Schiff (‘His Majesty’s Ship’) (SMS) Novara
Novara was named after the 19th century Austro-Hungarian Navy’s sailing frigate SMS Novara. SMS Novara is famous for sailing the globe on the Novara Science Expedition of 1857–1859. The global circumnavigation by Novara was the first large-scale scientific, around-the-world missions of the Austrian Imperial navy. Many of the artefacts collected on the journey are now in the Naturhistorisches Museum in Vienna. SMS Novara is also famous for carrying Archduke Maximilian and wife Carlota to Veracruz in May 1864 to reign as Emperor and Empress of Mexico.
Previous custodians
Thomas Walli (1997-2003)
Thomas Walli-Knofler from Tyrol-Austria is a businessman who decided to sell up, build an aluminum schooner and go sailing. Thomas chose world-reknowned naval architect Gerry Dijkstra. Thomas at first planned a standard aluminum mast, but on a regatta around Cowes in England he saw a free-standing rotating Aerorig for the first time. He decided he wanted to build the first Aerorig Schooner in the world.
In 1996 he set sail from Makkum in Friesland. He sailed Novara into the Arctic up to 81° North and back to Europe, the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, the USA. After 20,000 miles he sold Novara in 2003.
Thomas now has a new hobby www.raetiastone.com
Barton Waring (2003-2014)
Barton originally bought Novara with the intention of doing the Northwest Passage. However, soon after he closed the purchase a few heavy setbacks in his personal life intervened. By the time those were sorted and he could return to the task, a number of years had passed and he no longer was driven to that personal goal. Thankfully, Steve Brown took over and showed both himself and the boat quite well.
In the meantime, Barton used the boat as a family and friends cruising boat, spending many long weekends on the coast of Maine and taking month-long trips to Newfoundland in the summers.
Steve Brown (2014-2022)
Steve had already completed a 35,000nm circumnavigation with his wife Trish on board their previous boat “Curious” before he bought Novara. He had a bucket list that included the NorthWest Passage, Alaska, the Chilean Channels, Antarctica and South Georgia. The obvious way to join the dots was to complete a circumnavigation of the Americas, passing all four great capes along the way. Steve wanted an “icebreaker” and a serious high latitude cruising yacht and in Novara he found the perfect boat for his plans.
The five year, 33,000nm series of adventures on Novara included mountaineering expeditions in many of the places visited en-route winning Steve and his crew many accolades along the way.
On returning to Camden, Maine, where the adventure began he then brought Novara to Europe via a high north Atlantic transit from St John’s in Newfoundland. He and Trish then cruised the west coast of Scotland but began to search for the next owners of Novara who would continue to care for her and use her for the adventures for which she was designed.