Six boats built by Nick Kenyeres and Pepe Medina in the sixties and seventies are taking part in the Copa del Rey Repsol in Mahón

The story of Nick Kenyeres is the story of a visionary who saw his dreams go from flying through the air to sailing on the sea. He was able to make them all come true. It is not easy to match the career of this Hungarian who participated as an aviator in the Second World War, ended up a prisoner in a Russian concentration camp and, after spending time in the United Kingdom, Canada and France, evolved to become a reference in shipbuilding in Europe thanks to his Carabela Shipyards, based in the Catalan town of Sant Adrià de Besós.

Six of the boats built by Kenyeres, his partner Pepe Medina and the rest of the shipyard's team are taking part this year in Copa del Rey Repsol de Barcos de Época, organised by the Club Marítimo Mahón. The oldest of them is the Argos (1964) and the most modern, the Pella brothers' Galvana (1974), which at 16.73 metres is also the longest of the Carabela boats present in Menorca this year. The other boats bearing the builder's signature in the regatta are the Calima (1970), and Disparate, Sea Fever and Celeste di Mare, all three launched in 1971.

Carabela distinguished itself from the very first day by always building wooden boats, very light but extraordinarily strong. Kenyeres introduced innovations such as the WEST system, cold-laminated with epoxy resin, which gives the hull extreme lightness and strength, or the inverted construction, starting with the inside and then continuing on the outside of the boat. He was the visionary, the architect, and Pepe Medina, who joined the shipyard in 1962, a year after the birth of Carabela, the artisan cabinetmaker of Malaga origin who materialised each project down to the last detail. The dream lasted until 1984, two decades not exempt of adventures and vicissitudes, in which they built a total of 113 boats.

Kenyeres came from an aristocratic Hungarian family and took part as an aviator in the Second World War, where he won 19 victories before being shot down and imprisoned in a concentration camp by the Soviets. He managed to escape and eventually ended up in Spain working as an engineer's assistant in the 1950s. He then worked in France as a test pilot and travelled to Canada to finish his engineering studies. It was during those years, in the United States, that he met Boris Leonardi, editor of the nautical magazine The Rudder, who was the one who moved Kenyeres' dreams from the air to the sea. Little by little, boats began to occupy the Hungarian's life and on his return to Spain, he set up Astilleros Carabela in 1961.

Enrique Curt, owner of Sea Fever, which at 8.5 metres is the smallest Carabela taking part in Mahón this year, explains: "It is an honour to sail a boat built in Nick Kenyeres' shipyard. Sea Fever was my first boat, which I later sold and two and a half years ago I had the opportunity to get it back. Sea Fever is also the name I gave to the classic boat publication we created in 2018.

The Pella family recovered the Galvana in 2002 when fate seemed to indicate that the boat's story was over after it sank in Menorca, near Illa den Colom, after hitting some rocks. The boat has become one more member of the family, as the four brothers, Nacho, Borja, David and Álex, dedicated almost two years to recovering this magnificent Sparkman & Stephens-designed yacht, when almost everyone thought it was beyond salvation. The current skipper, Álex Pella, one of the leading figures in international offshore sailing, has known the boat since he was a child, when it was moored at the RCN Barcelona. "It is difficult to find better boats, both in terms of design and construction. The Carabela team was already very experienced and the structure, hull, finishes, distribution, everything is marvellous". On the construction of the Galvana Pella explains that "It's a four-layered, slatted boat. It's overbuilt. It is lighter and more rigid. When it pitches, it never vibrates, as happens with polyester boats". About Kenyeres, who he knew in his youth, Pella says that he was an incredible and endearing character: "What he achieved in sailing at the time, seems incredible to me with the means that existed in those years in Spain". The sailor recalls that a fire destroyed the facilities of a shipyard, which was not helped by the entry of fibreglass as a construction material.

Another Carabela that never misses the Copa del Rey de Mahón is Calima, which belongs to a group of shipowners led by Javier Pujol. This 13-metre Carabela has won the Menorcan competition on many occasions and competes in the Spirit of Tradition category. Pujol recalls that Kenyeres' first idea when he arrived in Spain was to make wooden catamarans to skate on the great northern lakes that freeze over in winter. "Then Mike Da Costa commissioned Kenyeres to make the first boat and introduced him to the English world of sailing; he began to develop North Sea 24 boats such as the Cascabel, Marmitako, Antares and Eolo. They made 25 boats, 6 or 7 of which stayed in Spain. They were sensational ships". Calima, Pujol specifies, was commissioned by Emilio Ybarra and Ignacio Hernanz. In principle, they were looking for a Swan 43, but they also wanted to win races, and they sent their project to Kenyeres. "For two or three years it was by far the best boat in the Spanish fleet," says Pujol, who acquired the boat in 1999 and subjected it to a complete refit: "I wanted a cruising boat, but on the maiden voyage from Barcelona to Menorca with Paco Bacquelaine and with no wind, we saw that it was going like a bullet and we decided to do our last Fastnet, in 2001. We won our group and came sixth overall. Pujol says that his good friend Nick Kenyeres was the one who transmitted the enthusiasm, "although as a businessman he was a bit of a disaster. He went bankrupt twice that I know of, but his own clients helped him to get back on his feet. He was one of the 4 or 5 shipyards approved by Sparkman & Stephens to build their ships throughout Europe and that, Pujol points out, "can only be achieved by doing things well".

The soul, the essence, of Kenyeres is probably still contemplating his magnificent sailing ships from the bottom of the sea, as it was there, in the Mediterranean, near the Catalan coast, that his ashes were laid to rest after his death. They were delivered to the waters from the Cariño, one of the vessels built by Astilleros Carabela.