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Provenance (The Wall of Remembrance – The Owners, Crew & Notable Guest):

Owner/Guardian: (1931-1934) – Sir. William P. Burton, Ipswich
Owner/Guardian: (1935-1947) – Robert J. Dunlop (Clyde Cruising Club Commodore) re-rigged to bermuda yawl
Owner/Guardian: (1948-1954) – E. S. Chance

Historical:

Designed by John G. Alden and built alongside her often confused sistership Heart’s Desire by T.H. Soule of South Freeport Maine. Venus was first commissioned in 1925 as Picaroon.

Lifelong labor of love to keep her sailing

Bill Broughton’s passion was his beloved Alden schooner “Venus”. He loved being aboard her whether sailing or in port. He purchased her in 1954 and has owned her for 53 years. He enjoyed sharing his Venus with family and friends over the years sailing on beautiful Pensacola Bay and sharing his delightful boathouse on Bayou Chico. He helped to create many special sailing memories for family and friends.

Bill has been a member of the Pensacola Yacht Club since 1954. He looked forward to meeting his friends for lunch Tuesday through Friday at the “round table”. He was voted an Honorary Member in 2001 and carried the honor with pride. He was chairman of the PYC Heritage Room helping to collect a lasting history of his much-loved club.

Provenance (The Wall of Remembrance – The Owners, Crew & Notable Guest):

Owner/Guardian: (1954-2007) William J. Broughton, Jr – Pensacola Yacht Club .
First Mate: Charlie Brooks
Racing Crew: Tom and Dick Pace
Owner/Guardian: John Williams

Historical:

Velsheda was named after the owners three daughters, Velma, Sheila and Daphne. She was not designed to compete for the America’s Cup but she often raced against “Endeavour”, “Shamrock” and “Britannia”, between 1933 – 1936.

Designed by Charles Nicholson and built by Camper & Nicholson in 1933 for Mr W.L. Stephenson, Owner of Woolworth chain of shops, she was built in 1933 at Gosport. She was Nicholson’s second design for a J Class and Stephenson’s second big yacht.

In her heyday in the 1930s Velsheda only sailed for just 3 seasons. She then spent almost 50 years stuck in the mud, and quietly rotting, until her astonishing rescue in the early 1980s by Terry Brabant (a scrap dealer with extraordinary vision). At the time not a single J-class yacht remained in seaworthy order and the class faced extinction.

Rebuild:

‘Velsheda’ was purchased in 1996 as a bare hull lying at mooring in Portsmouth Harbour, and was taken to Southampton Yacht Services, on the River Itchen where a two year comprehensive rebuild was completed to bring her back into immaculate racing condition. She was fitted with the tallest one piece carbon mast in the world and a comprehensive suit of racing sails were produced, developed from wind tunnel testing at Southampton University. She was re-launched in November 1997. Dykstra Naval Architects were employed for the refit and also of other J Class yachts in the current racing field, including “Shamrock V”, “Endeavour” and “Ranger”.

Provenance (The Wall of Remembrance – The Owners, Crew & Notable Guest):

Owner/Guardian: – W.L. Stephenson

Historical:

The Class Symbol is an “L” Inside a Circle.

In 1917 William Gardner designed VARUNA, the Larchmont Yacht Club’s flagship, She was built for, the Commodore of the club, James B. Ford of Rye, New York. VARUNA was the first American designed yacht fitted out with the innovative and controversial Marconi rig. VARUNA was skippered by Butler Whiting and she proved conclusively, for the first time, that the Marconi rig was the fastest. The Marconi rigs came out in force at the close of World War I, and owe their success and use to ISTRIA and Larchmont O VARUNA.

Edmond Fish was instrumental in getting the Larchmont Yacht Club to form and build this one-design class boat which was designed by William Gardner to the Universal Rule. Six boats were initially ordered by the Larchmont Yacht Club, but 4 were launched and tried out first in the Spring of 1917.

All boats were built by Wood & McClure (Woods), and were favorably commented on by those who have seen them sail. But as it was the Larchmont Yacht Club had suspended all of its open regattas in 1917.

1. 215427 GEORGIA- Charles Lane Poor (author of “Men Against the Rule”) – Gaff Rig – LO/1
2. xxxxxx VARUNA – James B. Ford of Rye, NY (Former Commodore of Larchmont Y C) – Marconi Rig – LO/2
3. 215428 NIMBUS – E. P. Alker and sailed by Edmund Fish in the Summer races – Gaff Rig – LO/3
4. 215496 GRAY DAWN – Philip H. Johnson (of Philadelphia) – Gaff Rig – LO/4
5. 215497 MAISIE – A. Brian Alley – Gaff Rig – LO/5
6. xxxxxx BETTY – Harold L. Foss – Gaff Rig – LO/6

One of the original 6 boats built was still not commissioned after 2 years and was seeking a purchaser in 1919, possibly due to World War I lasting until 11 November 1918

Varuna carried around 270 sq ft more sail area than the P class racers. More area in proportion to their displacement the Os should be relatively faster. With finer more graceful lines than the NY 40s, but with less sail area, still should be relatively faster than the 40s as well.

Provenance (The Wall of Remembrance – The Owners, Crew & Notable Guest):

Owner/Guardian: (1917) James B. Ford of Rye, NY (Former Commodore of Larchmont Y C)
Captain: Butler Whiting, proved conclusively that the Marconi rig was the fastest.

Historical:

Yankee One Design– Burgess had just designed his 3rd America’s Cup champion in 1937 when his entry won the YOD Class design contest. This contest was ostensibly to create the ultimate sailboat for yacht club fleet racing.

But at its heart the YOD design contest was a passionate “build-local” campaign. The world was four years into the Great Depression and New England sailors wanted to give New England boat yards the work of building their yacht club racing fleets.

The sailors behind the YOD class had been dismayed that a recently formed racing class, the 33′ International One Design (IOD), had rules stipulating that every one of its hulls must be built in Norway. The first fleet of 25 Norwegian built IODs were delivered to the NYC Yacht Club in December of 1936, and the YOD Association announced its design contest soon after. They promoted it with a flurry of media coverage and three prestigious America’s Cup yacht designers as judges: Starling Burgess, L. Francis Herreshoff, and Frank Paine.

Then in a bold behind the scenes move, organizers also secretly hired one of the judges, W. Starling Burgess, to enter the contest. His final, edited blueprints for were accepted by the YOD committee and sent to the boat builder before the contest deadline had even passed and the other entries had been turned in.

Yes, the YOD design contest was rigged, and the organizers were bitterly criticized in private. But Burgess’ involvement was so well hushed it was all but forgotten over the next 74 years.

No formulas or rules were required for this design, which was a novelty for that era. Starling Burgess was free to create a masterpiece in the Yankee One Design class, and he gave everyday sailors a racing boat with the light touch and responsiveness of an America’s Cup yacht.

Provenance (The Wall of Remembrance – The Owners, Crew & Notable Guest):