San Francisco "Pumpkin Seed" Sloop?

[BrianM]

I was in Tiburon last Saturday, and saw this sloop.
http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b9db06b3127ccec76349852c0400000040O00FZsWrly3Yg9 vPhw/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b9db06b3127ccec7634d412cc200000040O00FZsWrly3Yg9 vPhw/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b9db06b3127ccec762290f0cf200000040O00FZsWrly3Yg9 vPhw/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b9db06b3127ccec76212c44cbc00000040O00FZsWrly3Yg9 vPhw/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b9db06b3127ccec7622b7a0c8600000040O00FZsWrly3Yg9 vPhw/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/
It looks an aweful lot like "Polaris" now owned by the Spaulding Center:

http://blog.spauldingcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/dsc_7751_1000.jpg


Does anybody know the story of this Pumkinseed "San Francisco Sloop"?

[botebum]

It does look very similar but the stern is all wrong.

Doug

[oakman]

Very Beautiful!! Man, look at the main sheet blocks! What a stern, very interesting design. . .

so you gonna do it?

O

[banjoman]

Neat looking boat. Any idea what the story is?

[Rigadog]

I believe that's the Freda. Used to see her when I lived out there. She looks a bit sadder than I recall.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/20/Freda_rb2.jpg (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/20/Freda_rb2.jpg)
No higher resolution available.

[Rigadog]

Nope, that isn't the "Freda". Freda has a clipper bow.

[BrianM]

I know for a fact this boat is not Freda, as the photo which was posted shows Freda getting restored in the Spaulding Center. Also, the stern is radically different. I'm fairly certain that this "Pumpkinseed" sloop (named for the metaphorical similarity of a floating seed, especially near the stern). I can't put my finger on what book I've seen them in, but this hull shape, and especially the cabintop, are very characteristic of sloops built in and near San Francisco in the late 1800's.

[Bob Cleek]

She is, in fact, "Islander," built, IIRC, in 1905 or 1915 for the then mayor of Palo Alto. I raced on her in the Master Mariners Regatta back in, oh, maybe 1973 or 1974. I don't remember the builder offhand. She doesn't look like she'd deteriorated much since then! LOL

She is indeed a "punkin' seed" and is, or was, pretty much original below. I haven't been aboard her since the early seventies. I'd have to look up who owned her back then. I can't even remember his name, but I'd expect the fellow is gone now, as he was probably well into his sixties thirty-five years ago.

As I recall, she's "sheathed" in ferrocement. You don't want to go there!

[BrianM]

I'd love to see what her lines look like, is this something I'll only find in the Maritime Museum archives?

[Jay Greer]

There is a chance that the boat was built by Nunes Bros. of Sausilito or The Lester Stone Boat Wks. in Alameda. The stern is also similar to boats designed and built in Canso Nova Scotia in the 1800's. Matt Walsh of Garbutt and Walsh Boat Builders on Terminal Island CA. also built boats with sterns such as seen on this example.
Jay