The story of Captain Scaletto, or How the sailboat of a dream crashed on the rocks of bureaucracy

In Crimea, not far from Sudak, there is Bugaz Bay. There on the shore you can see the wreckage of a 17th century British battleship. No, these are not echoes of the glorious maritime history of the peninsula, but the skeleton of a copy of the ship created by Victor Scaletto. This man sold all his property to make his dream come true. For many years, work was in full swing in the bay, but in February 2023, the battleship began to be dismantled into parts and taken to a landfill.

Interior designer, Muscovite Victor Scaletto vacationed in the Dominican Republic in 2012. There he saw a large sailboat in the sea, a copy of an ancient ship, and was inspired by the idea of building the same one. Victor was quite successful in his business, but he always believed that he was not doing his own thing. And then a goal appeared ahead that completely changed his life.

Oddly enough, as a child, Victor never wanted to become either a sailor or a pirate. He was not interested in novels about sea adventures, which boys love so much. The romance of wanderings caught up with him much later, at an age when all ordinary people give up dreams and live only in boring realities.

Victor Scaletto knew nothing about building wooden sailboats. Therefore, having returned to Moscow, I sat down to books and drawings. The science turned out to be not the simplest, and its study took two long years. After this, the sea romantic spent a long time choosing the ship of which he would create a copy. The prototype of his brainchild was the galleon Sovereign of the Seas, launched in England in 1634.

The scale of the sailing ship is impressive even now, and in the 17th century it was the largest in the two hemispheres. Judge for yourself, the ship, which was 70 meters long and 50 meters wide, was equipped with 126 cannons on three battery decks. To complete this grandiose project, King Charles I literally emptied the British treasury.

It is not surprising that Victor Scaletto also had to fork out money. The designer, who was already a former designer, sold his business in the capital, his apartment and all his property, and he settled in a hut on the shore of Bugaz Bay in Crimea. He also considered such options as Peru, Chile and Haiti. But he still decided that it would be easier for him where they spoke their native language and there were people with a similar mentality nearby.

We managed to obtain permission from the local authorities quickly, although it was oral and not confirmed by any documents. The construction of the battleship was approved by the mayor of Sudak. Later, Victor realized that it was the lack of official paper that played a cruel joke on him. But everyone around was so welcoming and friendly!

Despite the temptation to build a battleship out of wood, Victor nevertheless decided to use a more affordable and durable material - glass concrete. He prepared the drawings himself, but it soon became clear that his design experience was not enough for this. I had to ask for help from designers and architects who helped finalize the project.

In 2014, work began in Bugaz Bay. Scaletto hired hired workers for the construction. But it soon turned out that this was a mistake. The quality of their work was low, which led to serious problems. In 2015, the bay was covered by a serious storm and a ship standing on the shore was broken by the waves.

“If you want to do it well, do it yourself,” said Victor and decided to make do on his own. He started all over again and from 2016 to 2023 he built the battleship with his own hands. He used hired workers only occasionally, for heavy construction work: welding and concreting. The master wove the frame of the ship himself from fiberglass reinforcement, reinforcing the base with metal and concrete.

For the exterior cladding, Scaletto used wood. But these were not ordinary boards, but second-hand material. With its help, Victor wanted to get the effect of an old, seasoned sailboat. He specially aged metal parts, covering them with a noble greenish patina or imitation rust.

Captain Scaletto, and that’s what the locals called Victor, lived right next to his brainchild, in a hut. In his free time, he gave tours of the ship for tourists, dressed as a pirate. This brought in a small, but not extra income. People came from afar to see the colorful captain and his ship.

The British battleship "Lord of the Seas" faithfully served the British crown for 35 years. Then it was written off, and the sailing ship remained in the port for another 20 years until it burned down during a fire in 1696. Victor Scaletto was able to build only a 30 percent copy of the battleship. At the end of 2022, the Sudak authorities decided that the ship was not an art object, but a “capital structure.” And since the owner did not receive any permits, they decided to demolish it.

To destroy the ship of Captain Scaletto’s dreams, 4 million 518 thousand 715 rubles and 19 kopecks were allocated from the budget. At the beginning of 2023, workers came to Bugaz Bay. They began systematically, 8 hours a day, to smash the “Lord of the Seas” with sledgehammers and crowbars. Parts of the ship are dumped onto dump trucks and removed.

Victor managed to save some parts of his ship. He has not lost heart and is not going to give up his dream. Captain Scaletto chose a new place for construction - the city of Kazan. Now he is going to do everything officially, so as not to risk his brainchild. All that remains is to wish him good luck and hope that “Lord of the Seas” will be completed and will delight his captain and his guests.

But Guedelon Castle, which is being built using the technologies of the Middle Ages in France, will soon be completed. This is a unique archaeological and engineering project that has been going on for decades.