Only a glance at ALTAMAR’s stripped-out hull, and you’ll see that getting her fixed up and sailing again will be a major job—so major that one might question why in the world anyone would undertake such a project. In truth, ALTAMAR’s needs are not that different from most 75-year-old boats; it’s just that here they’re more apparent. She needs new transverse framing (steam-bent frames, floor timbers, and deckbeams), along with a new deck, interior, and rig.
VARLET, a pedigreed launch that’s been with the same family since her 1930 launching, is available to a new owner with the means, knowledge, and appreciation to keep her going. Although VARLET has been upgraded with a new engine in 2004 and the systems that go with it (including a fuel tank), and has had a bit of structural work done, we expect more will be needed to put this 83-year-old craft in show condition, if that's to be a goal of the new owner.
VIDA MIA (the name she has always carried) was originally built for W.V.B. Campbell of Pebble Beach, California, and registered in San Francisco. Of the 14 yachts that Stephens Bros. in Stockton built in 1929, she was the largest and considered sufficiently noteworthy for Pacific Motor Boat to feature her in its December issue, concluding, “VIDA MIA is unquestionably one of the finest medium size Diesel cruisers of this year.”
If you’re looking for a boat to live aboard in near luxury, they don’t come much better than this! Carl Lane had her built as PENOBSCOT (Penobscot Boat Works, 1966) to be a floating retirement home while he and his wife seasonally shuttled the Intracoastal Waterway between Maine and Florida. She’s set up for two, with sleeping quarters forward, a raised pilothouse amidships, and a full-width, so-called main lounge (think of it as a parlor) aft. This space really is grand, with big windows, a settee, dining table, desk, and a galley that’s tucked away forward on the port side.
I’m fairly certain that this lovely little schooner is Chapelle’s Corsair design that was featured in How to Build 20 Boats No. 9 (Fawcett Publications, 1948) and described there in detail by J.A. Emmett, who constructed the first one. Other Corsairs followed, including HEART’S DESIRE and my friend Patrick Dole’s HENRY RUSK. Chapelle used the fishing schooners of Gloucester as his inspiration and in my opinion did a bang-up job with this scaled-down version of his.
JEANNE has been acquired by David Stimson of Maine (Sept. 2012).
JEANNE is a scaled-down Concordia 25 and is cute as a button. With a three-window trunk cabin, a bowsprit and boomkin, a self-bailing cockpit and bridge deck, and an inboard engine, she’s a real little ship. And below deck, she has a pair of those wonderfully comfortable fold-down Concordia berths in the main cabin as well as a single pipe berth forward. Her galley is aft, partly under the bridge deck, and extends side-to-side, the full width of the boat. She even has standing headroom where it counts.
Michael Pease of Pease Boat Works and Railway in Chatham, Massachusetts, reported in September 2012 that POCAHONTAS, the 31′ Yankee One-Design sloop featured in Save a Classic (WB No. 227), has been brought to his yard "for a several year restoration for the new owner. You know her story......thanks to your feature of her in the Save a Classic he bought her from the [Deltaville] museum in Virginia." Check the Pease website for updates http://www.peaseboatworks.com.
We had yachts exactly like ESCAPADE in mind when we created Save a Classic. She fits the profile perfectly: a grand and famous creation now ... in jeopardy.
Designed by Phil Rhodes of Cox & Stephens and built by Luders Marine in 1938 for ocean racing as well as cruising, this yawl has sailed on both coasts as well as on the Great Lakes and in Europe. She's competed in all the major races and with the very best yachts of the era like BOLERO and TICONDEROGA—and surely deserves a proper restoration.
ERIC represents a rare opportunity to save a pure cruising vessel of interesting pedigree. Her lines were scaled down and adapted by William Atkin from the famous Colin Archer–designed Redningskoites—the sailing lifesaving vessels of Norway. Appearing in numerous articles and in the book Of Yachts and Men, written by her designer, ERIC was, in 1925, the first widely publicized design to bring Scandinavian influence to American yacht design at a time when small yachts were first tackling ambitious offshore voyages.
Without a closer inspection, it’s hard to say how much of this boat can be saved, but a cursory look at her topside planking and seam battens show them to be okay. Her bottom is probably otherwise. Rusting steel bolts in her frame intersections, backbone, and chines have caused the usual damage, so some of those timbers will need repair or renewal. But the work is straightforward, and the pieces are easily accessed. The boat’s simple construction makes her restoration a possibility for many who’d feel intimidated by a more sophisticated craft.
