The ship
and its history

1970s

The idea

Esteban Vicente Jiménez (Soria, Spain, 1953) was a professional canoeist with an ambitious dream: Building a big wooden ship robust enough to sail around the world.

Despite the lack of money and living 250 km away from the nearest coast, in 1979 Esteban began to design Atyla following traditional shipwright standards. A few months and hundreds of sketches later, his original design received approval from the naval architect PhD. Franciso Lasa Etxarri.

1980s

Construction & Launching

Esteban gathered a group of friends and volunteers to start building the vessel in the small town of Vinuesa (Soria). They started carving the interior pieces using wood from surrounding forests.

In 1982 the wooden pieces were brought to the coastal town of Lekeitio (Vizcaya), where they were going to build the hull and assemble everything together.

 By 1983, Esteban and his friends already had a plan for the ship: Circumnavigating the world following the Magellan-Elcano route and then, after the trip, using the vessel as a training ship. The idea was so impressive that in 1984 he received the Honourable Mention of the Rolex Awards for Enterprise.

Atyla was finally launched on May 15, 1984. The entire town of Lekeitio participated and media from all around the country talked about it.

Unfortunately, right after the launching, the sponsor of the circumnavigation pulled out, and this plan never became a reality. Esteban and his friends had to find a new plan and a source of funding.

In 1986 they set sail for the Caribbean to raise money by renting out the ship for tourist sailing trips. But the odds were against the troop and the ship was completely looted before crossing the Atlantic.

1990s

In the Canary Islands

Whilst moored in Lanzarote (Canary Islands) recovering from the robbery, the crew saw the potential of the tourism in that area.

They ended up staying in the port of Playa Blanca for 19 years leading a successful day-sailing-trip business.

2000s

Representing Cantabria

In 2005 the Government of Cantabria hired Atyla to represent the region. She was brought to Santander, where for six years she was used for all kinds of activities (sail training, day trips with schoolchildren and environmental awareness trips).

Once the contract with the Government of Cantabria ended, Esteban was almost 60 years old, and his nephew Rodrigo de la Serna Vicente (Madrid, 1989) decided to take over the Atyla to keep her sailing. In June 2013 they both moved the ship to the Mediterranean Sea.

At the end of that summer, Atyla took part in the Mediterranean Tall Ships Regatta 2013 organized by Sail Training International (STI). That event reminded young Captain Rodrigo of his uncle’s goal 30 years before and he decided to dedicate the ship to training activities.

Present Day

International adventures

In 2014, Atyla started offering adventure sailing trips where anyone could participate in the tasks on board.

Since then, the ship does every year an average of 22 trips, sailing 8500 nautical miles in 8 different countries and welcoming hundreds of participants from all around the world.

In 2016, Rodrigo started creating the charity “Atyla Ship Foundation”.

In 2017 Atyla crossed the Atlantic for the first time and visited 5 maritime festivals in Bermuda, USA & Canada.

Every year, the ship participates in an average of 9 maritime festivals, is seen by more than 1 million people and welcomes on board more than 50,000 visitors.

In these festivals, Atyla has been the ship, worldwide, that has won the “award to the most international crew” most often in the last years.

We are sure that one day we’ll finally complete Esteban’s dream, and we’ll circumnavigate the earth promoting life skills and sharing our passion for adventure.