Sail Number: P-57
Vessel Type: P-Class
Joyant Specifications:
LOA: 58’0″ / 17.67m – LWL: 35’0″ / 10.66m – Beam: 11’3″ / 3.42m – Draft: 7’4” / 2.23m – Hull Number: 709 – Designer: N.G. Herreshoff – Original Owner: William Hamlin Childs – Current Owner: Robert McNeil – Former name(s) Judy II -Year Launched: May 16th, 1911 – Built By: Herreshoff Manufacturing Co. – Hull Material: Oak on Cedar and Douglas fir planking – Gross Displacement: 33,728 lbs / 15,299 kg – Sail Area: 1,526 ft² / 141.8sq m²
Historical:
Designed by N.G. Herreshoff in 1911 for coffee shop chain owner William Hamlin Childs. After having been launched, Joyant proved unbeatable in the P-Class, forcing the classes brain trust to rewrite the rules in order to level the playing field. In the late twenties her rig was changed from gaff rig to marconi and an engine was installed. After this time period not much is known of her for the next 50 plus years, until her sinking in Portland, Maine in 1975. Upon her raising she slipped her slings and fell onto the rocky shore incurring considerable damage. Sitting in disrepair for the next couple of years, a local furniture maker bought for scrap, but found her to difficult to disassemble, so there she sat for nearly 22 years until restored by the Rutherford Boat shop in Richmond.
Restoration:
Rutherford’s Boat Shop Comments
1911 P-Class Nathaniel Herreshoff classic racing yacht. At 58’ on deck, she is the longest P-Class built. She was found buried in overgrowth poison ivy behind a barn in Cape Cod, Massachusetts after 20 years of neglect and abandonment. She had no ballast keel or hardware at the time, all of which had to be custom fabricated during the reconstruction. Since, she has successfully competed in the classic boat regattas in New England and the Mediterranean.
Provenance (The Wall of Remembrance – The Owners, Crew & Notable Guest):
- Owner/Guardian – (1911) – William Hamlin Childs
- Owner/Guardian – (1914) – H. Earle Kimball
- Owner/Guardian – (1916) – Clifford D. Mallory
- Owner/Guardian – Thomas B. McGovern Jr.
- Owner/Guardian – (1922) – W. H. Hackett
- Owner/Guardian – (1923) – Commodore Edward & Eugene Smith, Buffalo YC
- Owner/Guardian – (1927) – Howard F. “Skipper” Baxter, Spring Lake & Macatawa Bay YCs
- Owner/Guardian – (1933) – H. L. DeLisle, Chicago, IL
- Owner/Guardian – (1935) – Ossian Cook, Chicago, IL
- Owner/Guardian – (1947) – James H. Craig, Miami, FL
- Owner/Guardian – (1950) – Herbert Dunhill, Port Washington, NY
- Owner/Guardian – (1955) – Herbert G. Odza, Port Washington, NY
- Owner/Guardian – (1957) – Tom Wadlow (or Wadloe), New London/ Mystic, CT
- Owner/Guardian – Captain Al Krech, South Portland, Maine
- Owner/Guardian – Dick Kiusales & Steve Whittlesey, Cape Cod
- Owner/Guardian – Robert G. McNeil, Islesboro, ME