Sail Number: 412
Type: Schooner, Full Keel
Ex, Queen Tyi, Sea Gypsey, Sea Gypsy
LOA: 78’5″ / 23.90m – LWL: 61’9″ / 18.82m – Beam: 18’4″ / 5.59m – Draft: 10’2” / 3.10m – Design Number: 412 – Designer: John G. Alden – Original Owner: Arthur Crisp, New York, NY. – Original Name: Queen Tyi – Current Owner: USNA – Year Launched: 1929 – Built By: C.A. Morse, & Son (now Lyman-Morse) – Hull Material: Wood – Gross Displacement: 179,200 / 81,284 – Sail Area: 2618
Historical:
The Schooner Summerwind was launched as the Queen Tyi in 1929 from the yard of C.A. Morse (now Lyman-Morse) of Thomaston, Maine. Designed by the John G. Alden Company of Boston, Massachusetts (design no. 412), considered by many to be one of the top design firms of this type of craft, she was built for Arthur Crisp, a Wall Street banker who lost the vessel in the Market Crash of 1929.
Renamed Sea Gypsy, she was to become a well known schooner yacht, racing and cruising the waters of New England and serving her country during the Second World War as part of the Coastal Picket Patrol with her designation CGR-1989. As the noted historian Samuel Eliot Morison wrote, “( these vessels) had the arduous task of patrolling areas around Nantucket Shoals, west to Shinnecock and down to 40 degrees North…They kept at sea for a week of more and took everything that old man Neptune uncorked.”
Renamed Summerwind after the famous song written by Heinz Meierpart and performed in 1966 by Frank Sinatra, she was instrumental in the development of the classic yachting movement that began in the late 1960’s as older vessels were joined by newly built replicas as evident in a 1967 New York Times article with the by-line “Block Island waters to drip with nostalgia June 28 as schooners compete” about a gathering of schooners as part of the Storm Trysail club’s recently created Block Island Race Week. By the 1980’s she was chartering in the Mediterranean and her classic gaff rig was converted to that of a staysail schooner.
She had several refits during her career as a charter vessel, but her lifespan was nearing its end when she was purchased in Spain in 2006 and transported to Palm Beach Florida where a massive restoration was undertaken. Almost entirely replanked; every structural element was evaluated and either restored or replaced and her engineering systems redesigned. Her sailing rig was again updated, this time to make her a champion racer on the extremely popular classic racing circuit. The efforts of this tremendous two year undertaking were rewarded when she took first place in her class at the 2009 Newport Bucket. Renamed Summer Wind, she is a classic vessel in new condition ready to embark upon a new career.
After being relaunched in 2009, she was donated to the United States Merchant Marine Academy. Her charter to the Academy lasted three years. The craft was used extensively for sail training of midshipmen in various events: racing events, local navigation training, overnight and offshore voyages and indoctrination training of first-year midshipmen.
In most every way Summerwind is a museum piece, the finest example of a classic schooner. However, she is also, in all probability, the “newest” 1929 vessel afloat due not only to her extensive rebuild and modernization of equipment from 2006-2009, but also to continuing meticulous care and upgrades, including replacement of the entire rig (both masts and booms) in carbon fiber by Jim Grundy.
SummerWind was then donated by James Grundy of Oxford, Md., in 2015. At the Academy she will be used by the Varsity Offshore Sailing Team and by the Off Shore Training Squadron during summer training blocks. SummerWind can hold 12 midshipmen along with a skipper and an executive officer vice the Navy 44’s which hold eight midshipmen, a skipper, and an XO.
Provenance (The Wall of Remembrance – The Owners, Crew & Notable Guest):
Owner/Guardian: (1929) – Arthur Crisp, New York, NY.
Owner/Guardian: (1946) – C.R. Vose, – St. Petersburg Habana Race to Havana, record run 35 hours, 50 minutes, 25 seconds
Crew: G.E. Brooks
Owner/Guardian: (1969,1976) – John P. Cunningham, Riverdale Yacht Club (third) Commodore, Bronx, N.Y
Owner/Guardian: (2006-2009) – J. Don Williamson, Texas oilman. Major 8 – 10 million dollar restoration Moores Marine, WPB, FL
Captain: Karl Joyner
Owner/Guardian: (2009-2013) – Merchant Marine Academy, Kings Point, New York – Academy’s flagship and ambassador – US SAILING’s Safety-at-Sea Committee has awarded an Arthur B. Hanson Rescue Medal to the crew of United States Merchant Marine Academy’s (USMMA) sail training vessel Summerwind for a rescue made off the coast of Maine
Summerwind Crew-
Jonathan Kabak- Master
CDR Chris Gasiorek, USMS KP’95 – Sailing Master
Brian Giorgio, KP ’08 – Engineer
Michael Dybvik KP ’10 Mate
Charles Floyd-Jones KP ’10 – Mate
Pat Showell KP ’09 – Mate
Tiffany Smythe – Volunteer Coach
M/N Misty Harris KP ‘ 12
M/N Karen Gilkey KP ’12
M/N Ben Reavis KP ’12
M/N Chris Leach KP’ 12
M/N James Pilliod KP ’13
M/N Eric Madsen KP ’13
M/N Jared Reeves KP’13
M’N Jeff Musselman KP’12
M/N Tim Higgins KP’ 12
M/N Amos London KP ’12
Owner/Guardian: (2013-2015) – James Grundy – New carbon fiber mast and booms
Captain: Karl Joyner
Owner/Guardian: (2015-Current) Naval Academy Sailing Foundation, Annapolis, MD (Every boat it receives is actively sailed, raced or both by the U.S. Naval Academy under a no-cost donative Bareboat Charter.)
Comments
Richard Browne – December 26, 2018
I believe I worked on this vessel in the summer of 1966, sailing out of Long Island. Do you have the name of the owner at that time ? He was in advertising. Thank you,Richard Browne
July 31, 2022
I crewed on her in 1972. The owner was Jack Cunningham. Sailing master was Ken Porter.
Brant – November 1, 2022
Do you recall crewing with Rand Becht from Hawaii?