Coca (AM570) Length: 41 cm Height: 42 cm Scale: 1:60

The carrack, or Spanish coca, is a type of ship built in the XV century and it was widely used as merchant ship. It generally featured two castles, one at stem and one at stern, in order to defend the load from pirate attacks. From the top placed on the long mast, sailors could easily monitor the sea.

This ship had a unique appearance with its mast almost as long as the hull and with the round and large hold.The caravel Santa Maria of Cristopher Columbus derives from this type of vessel. The well known Coca of Matar= built as a votive offering, has been analyzed in the study of the evolution of the merchant Navy.

This model is not a toy. The kit from Amati featured a double-planked hull on a new style of laser-cut MDF frames that includes slotted longitudinal frames to give the hull more rigidity and improved alignment. Together with its simple rig and planking, this appears to live up to Amati’s labeling of it as an “Easy to Build” model. While that may be true, it still appears to make a lovely model. At 1/60-scale, the completed model is just over 16″ long and 16.5″ tall.

In addition, the kit includes a nice 16-page fully color-illustrated instruction book. While the instructions are written in Italian, a separate pamphlet includes all the text in English.