Bon Temps — A Hundred Years Upon the Sea

The boat

A two-masted wooden gaff ketch, launched in Palma de Mallorca in 1926. A century later she is still sailing — the oldest recreational yacht built in Spain still under way in the Mediterranean.

Her secrets

The Bon Temps was born on 17 March 1926 in Palma de Mallorca, from the skilled hands of the mestre d'aixa (master shipwright) Pere Nicolau Mandilego. She was commissioned by José Ponsa Soca, a Catalan silk manufacturer who wanted a boat for cruising among the islands. She cost 20,000 pesetas, was registered with the Club de Regatas de Palma — today the Real Club Náutico de Palma — and in her early years bore the name María.

Her long biography runs through the history of Spain itself. In July 1936, anchored off Menorca, she was caught by the outbreak of the Civil War: as she tried to leave the port of Mahón bound for Mallorca, a Republican submarine intercepted her and forced her back. She remained moored throughout the conflict. In the post-war years, fuel rationing meant her engine was sealed for six years, and the Bon Temps sailed under canvas alone; to draw the most from her rig, the family lengthened the topmasts and the bowsprit.

In 1955 she was fitted out for cruising under a licence to carry forty passengers, though the venture never quite prospered. Six years later, in 1961, the Ballester shipyard in Palma undertook her first major restoration — a new engine and a teak deck fitted in Barcelona — and Rosend Riera Sala acquired a half share in the boat.

In 1982, under Isabel Gutiérrez, the Bon Temps changed seas altogether: she sailed from Palma to Santander, where she found a second life as a sail-training ship. Between 2001 and 2015, run by the Fundación Villas del Cantábrico and skippered by Captain Antonio Longarela, she took part in the Cutty Sark Tall Ships' Races and in the first editions of Santander's Festival del Mar; more than three thousand people sailed aboard her, and she was restored once again in 2004–2005.

In 2016 she came home: Santiago Godó Manent, great-grandson of her first owner José Ponsa Soca, brought her back to sail with his family, race, and support charitable causes — first from the Barceloneta and today from the Real Club Náutico de Barcelona. In 2020, an accidental fire while she lay moored at the Club Nàutic El Balís caused considerable damage, a hard blow for this century-old treasure. In 2026, repaired and afloat, the Bon Temps celebrates a hundred years upon the sea with a route of five regattas along the Spanish coast. She returns home, to the waters that first saw her launched.

Technical specifications – Bon Temps

• Name: Bon Temps

• Class: Vintage (gaff)

• Rig type: Gaff ketch

• Builder / Mestre d'aixa: Pere Nicolau Mandilego

• Shipyard: Palma de Mallorca

• Year built: 1926

• Hull length: 13 m

• Beam: 3.58 m

• Draught: 1.78 m

• Displacement: 13 t

• Sail area: 115 m²

• Mainmast: 14.5 m

• Engine: Kelvin 44 (1940)

• Sail number: ESP34

• First owner: José Ponsa Soca

• Current owner: Godó family (Santiago Godó Manent)

• Club: Real Club Náutico de Barcelona (RCNB)

Highlights

• The oldest recreational yacht built in Spain still sailing today

• A two-masted wooden gaff ketch, born in Mallorca in 1926

• A living witness to a century of history: Civil War, post-war years and successive restorations

• Recovered by the Godó family, descendants of her original owner

• Celebrating her Centenary (1926–2026) with a route of five regattas along the Spanish coast