Aquarii is a limited-production, semi-custom finished Red Admiral 36 fiberglass sloop with a diesel auxiliary. She was designed in 1978 by Holman & Pye and built as GRP mouldings by Halmatic Ltd, then fitted out by Rank Marine, Port Hamble Yard, and McGruers in 1979 for performance cruising and IOR racing.
Although an excellent cruiser, she is of the older IOR-era design. The completely teak interior has many cupboards and storage spaces, yet still gives a warm feeling. She has the expected little things here and there that she has rightly earned over the years and thousands of miles of sailing.
Construction
Hull and rudder were laid up by Halmatic in England, with two 2” × 8” × 6’ stringers glassed to the hull for attaching the chainplates and for additional hull reinforcement. There is heavy reinforcement in the keel and mast step areas, with glassed-in frames and 2” × 4” fiberglass-covered foam frames throughout the hull interior.
The keel is lead with 2% antimony and is attached with bolts tapped into the keel for removal and inspection, to Lloyd’s specifications. The deck and cabin top are a combination of solid fiberglass, balsa sandwich construction, and marine-grade plywood pads in high-stress areas (winches, tracks, cockpit locker lids). The hull–deck joint is bolted together, with the underside of the joint fiberglassed.
The underwater hull has undergone osmosis treatment twice in her life. The first time was in 2000, when all undercoats and previous epoxy coatings were removed and seven layers of IJmopox De IJssel were applied.
In 2015, the entire bottom was sanded again to bare laminate. The yacht was then left to dry in the open air for 12 months. After inspection, International declared the hull “99% dry” and suitable for the application of a professional anti-osmosis system. In a conditioned space, the underwater hull was then treated with seven layers of Gelshield 2000 from International Yacht Paint.
As of 2026, this system is still considered to be 100% satisfactory.