Sailbydate
Super Anarchist
- Thread starter
- #16,901
Very pretty.
Coolboats to admire
- Thread starter Sailbydate
- Start date
William H. Hand designed some beautiful, big, fast sailboats in his day. My privledge to have had this one in my care for a brief moment in time. Built in 1940. 63’ OD, 72’ LOA, 12’ beam, 9’ draft. 15:tons. 371 GMC main engine.
Solid spruce spars. cutter rigged ketch. , 12kts in a breeze. Sailed like a witch.
Photo was when under contract to the U.S. Forest Service in Prince William Sound, Cordova, Alaska for the summer, circa 1821-ish.
We raced a 1500 hp modern design 60’ fiberglass long liner the length of Resurrection bay one day, heading into port. 12 mile long deeply indented Alaskan fjord. At one point, the halibut skipper put the hammer down and ran full throttle to keep up with us - while we were under plain sail. Took exactly 60 minutes to go 12 miles down the Bay from the headlands to where we rounded up outside the breakwater. We beat him. Hahaha. Proud moment.
Sold the boat two years latter and have been looking for her ever since.
alas, this is the only photo that survived…
Solid spruce spars. cutter rigged ketch. , 12kts in a breeze. Sailed like a witch.
Photo was when under contract to the U.S. Forest Service in Prince William Sound, Cordova, Alaska for the summer, circa 1821-ish.
We raced a 1500 hp modern design 60’ fiberglass long liner the length of Resurrection bay one day, heading into port. 12 mile long deeply indented Alaskan fjord. At one point, the halibut skipper put the hammer down and ran full throttle to keep up with us - while we were under plain sail. Took exactly 60 minutes to go 12 miles down the Bay from the headlands to where we rounded up outside the breakwater. We beat him. Hahaha. Proud moment.
Sold the boat two years latter and have been looking for her ever since.
alas, this is the only photo that survived…
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rstone
Member
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Ex Harry Tabard
Think the cabin might fit me well.
Cruisin Loser
Super Anarchist
You're not saying...
I just tried to do a search on the boat, and ran across someone else asking about it in a 2013 forum. Trying to figure out if more than one person had a specific interest in it, and if it had ever showed up.
A lot of William Hand's designs look similar to me, so I was curious about what might distinguish this one.
I also have an interest in classic boats that have disappeared in recent years. Even met a guy on this forum who had scavanged distinctive Lawley deck hardware from the wreck of my old wooden yawl after she sank and broke up off Fishers Island during a race about 20 years ago.
It really is a small world, you know...
yes, I did enquire several times over the years - tried to find out where she went and what happeNed in the end.. never did discover any info - which is strange given how much impact this boat made everywhere she went…
the boat had an interesting history , early on, in WW2, it was requisitioned by the US Navy and used as an anti submarine patrol boat - supposedly with depth charges on the deck and a couple of.50 Cal machine guns deck mounted. Went to Hawaii and sailed back to southern cal by a previous owner. By late 1980’s she was an old boat, getting tired, but still structurally sound.
the masts were 70’ above the deck and all solid, varnished spruce spars. Rigging mostly all galvanized parcel and served, with wire loops braided in all the ends. Very traditional in the absolute best professional mariner sense. Teak deck in the cockpit was actual teak decking - not some pansy 1/2” veneer- 3x4 teak planks…!
anyway, a very distinctive sailboat for the times…
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Cruisin Loser
Super Anarchist
I thought perhaps this was going to segue into a tale from your circumnavigation about the gentleman at the bar in Bangkok, and how he was acquainted with the frisky younger sister of the Viscount St. Pissingwire, who suffered an embarrassing injury whilst fox hunting......
But I was wrong.
Now that you mention it.....I thought perhaps this was going to segue into a tale from your circumnavigation about the gentleman at the bar in Bangkok, and how he was acquainted with the frisky younger sister of the Viscount St. Pissingwire, who suffered an embarrassing injury whilst fox hunting......
But I was wrong.
Sailbydate
Super Anarchist
- Thread starter
- #16,910
Tom Cunliffe introduces this custom beauty, designed by, Nigel Irens.
Jim in Halifax
Super Anarchist
The nesting dinghy with bottom paint matching the top of the deck house is a nice touch.
chester
Super Anarchist
- 6,788
- 1,707
see? That's real humility, you never tell a tall tale until someone brings it up!!!
Steam Flyer
Sophisticated Yet Humble
Now that you mention it.....I thought perhaps this was going to segue into a tale from your circumnavigation about the gentleman at the bar in Bangkok, and how he was acquainted with the frisky younger sister of the Viscount St. Pissingwire, who suffered an embarrassing injury whilst fox hunting......
But I was wrong.
Hmm... I'm getting too jaded. I was expecting it would turn out to be one of those tales of a moonlight stroll and some broken arms.
Kris Cringle
Super Anarchist
- 3,447
- 3,129
Iain McAllister, a UK yacht historian and broker has been calling attention to McGruer yachts.
Not many on this side of the Atlantic but we have a few here. INISMARA was designed to a 'rule'. These McGruer boats all have a pleasing angular resemblance.
Not many on this side of the Atlantic but we have a few here. INISMARA was designed to a 'rule'. These McGruer boats all have a pleasing angular resemblance.
That boat appears to be designed to the 8m CR rule. It takes the fundamental parameters of the 8mR, but tweaks them to result in what is nominally a more dual-purpose boat.
I can't vouch for the particular details of the rule, but the result was a boat that was fairly similar type-wise to my old Universal Rule Q class, albeit with slightly better accommodations.
Friends of mine had one back in the 1970s that I believe was a Tore Holm design, named King Haakon. Decent boat that sailed well, albeit with less accommodation than a more "modern" boat of similar overall length built to the CCA Rule of the same period.
These types of boats were fairly popular in Scandinavia.
SloopJonB
Super Anarchist
You need to be specific about which McGruer you are referring to.
These were designed by a McGruer.
These were designed by a McGruer.
Bristol-Cruiser
Super Anarchist
I did a keelboat course on a (McGruer) Grampian 23 on Georgian Bay 50 odd years ago. The boat was the plug used to make the mould for production. It was a tank with hull thickness at least an inch. Fortunately we had lots of wind for the course which was taught by a junior McGruer, son or nephew of the designer/builder.
Jim in Halifax
Super Anarchist
Yup, those old Grampians were built like tanks. A friend purchased a Grampian 26 hull that had the deck blown off in (I think) a propane explosion. He rebuilt it with a teak on ply deck, a low cabin with a sort of Maurice Griffiths-style dog house. The new rig was gaff cutter with tanbark sails. It looked pretty sweet almost no one guessed it was a Grampian. Sailed OK too.
Cruisin Loser
Super Anarchist
Wait, that was a real thread, wasn't it?
I was thinking more along the lines of The Grand Budapest Hotel.
You do meet a lot of interesting characters out there cruising. The great thing is that if you don't like the neighbors, you can up-anchor and go somewhere else.
And for the record, it was at the bar at Raffles in Singapore, sipping a gin sling, not in Bangkok...
