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Historical:

In 1935, when the New York Yacht Club was looking for boats to replace the 1905 “Thirties” designed by N.G. Herreshoff, their requirements included blue water seaworthiness in addition to grace and quickness. Olin Stephens and the Nevins Yacht Yard met the challenge, beating out competing designs by Alden and Nicholas Potter (the CAL 32). Twenty boats were built, with Olin Stephens specifying oak frames (1 5/8″ on 8″ centers), heavy Philippine mahogany planking, and a low, solid deck house, all without sacrificing speed or beauty. Originally priced at $11,000, the New York 32’s have stood the test of time, with about two-thirds of the original fleet still sailing.

In Olin Stephen’s words “We set out to design a good cruiser/racer with good all-around form, guided by the lines of Dorade, Stormy Weather and Edlu, and emphasized seaworthiness rather than around-the-mark agility.”

Historical:

In 1927 Bob Prothero and Ernest McDonald opened the Prothero & McDonald Boat Company in a floating seaplane hangar, and Frank Prothero came aboard as shop foreman in 1930. In 1931 the brothers built for their own use the 42-foot schooner Allure, which they later sold to Johnny Weissmuller (1904-1984), an Olympic swimming Gold Medalist also known for playing Edgar Rice Burroughs’ ape man Tarzan in films of the 1930s and 1940s.

The Prothero & McDonald Boat Company was on the west side of Lake Union, at 2046 Westlake Drive W., where the Electric Boat Company is today: see the site from the air on Google Here

Tarzan, My Father” by Johnny Weissmuller, Jr

“Almost every weekend, he [Johnny] raced his Allure to Catalina Island against Humphrey Bogart in his Santana and Errol Flynn in his Sirocco. All three would bet on the outcome. On one of these excursions, after they had anchored at Catalina, Dad went aboard the Sirocco to collect money from Flynn, who had lost the race. Errol was drunk and belligerent. The Sirocco had a small, old-fashioned cannon mounted on her bow — the kind that had a fuse at the touchhole — and Flynn pointed this cannon at Johnny’s boat, took the cigar from his mouth, and lit the fuse, muttering, ‘I’ll sink you, you sumbitch!’ Johnny ran over and kicked the muzzle upwards (it was actually a tiny thing, mounted on a swivel, so he’s lucky he didn’t break his foot), and the two men stood there in awe as the cannonball shot straight up in the air and then descended vertically. It missed them by a scant few feet and dropped cleanly through the upper deck of the Sirocco. After a few seconds, Flynn burst into uproarious laughter. The cannonball was not the explosive kind, and the boat was rafted up, so there was no danger of her sinking, but even so it could have been a disaster.”

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

Owner/Guardian: (1931) Prothero & McDonald Boat Company
Owner/Guardian: (1935) – Johnny Weissmuller – renamed Allure to Santa Guadalupe, in honor of his wife Lupe. Divorced in 1939, changed vessel name SANTA GUADALUPE back to ALLURE, official number 231002.
Actor: Errol Flynn
Actor: John Wayne
Actor: Humphrey Bogart
Actor: David Niven
Owner/Guardian: Guy S. Folsom
Owner/Guardian: Adam Weissmuller

Historical

NY-1 Alera, built for the Alker brothers of Manhasset Bay, she was the first completed yacht in the series of eighteen NY30’s and left the roles of the NYYC in the early 1920’s.

MIT Museum – Many yachting historians consider the NYYC 30s to be the most successful one-design class of all time. Twelve of the 18 still exist and most are still sailing, including Alera.

The production speed of this class of 18 boats was astonishing. Alera was built in 35 days and each of the following 17 were completed in succeeding one week intervals. This speed was made possible by the HMCo system, evolved years earlier, of designing interchangeable parts that could fit on future boats, especially one-design boats. In this case, HMCo had three hulls being built over molds while other components, such as deckhouses, spars, hardware and sails, were being fabricated by other craftsmen.

Within ten years of their first one-design, HMCo had honed a system of design and construction that was approaching mass-production, in an industry dominated by custom work. This speedy construction is especially amazing when considering that HMCo was simultaneously building at least six other significantly larger vessels that were mostly custom designs. In a little over one year, about 300 workers completed 27 boats from 43′ to 111′.

A lost treasure until 2004, when she was rediscovered in Hamilton, Ontario, purchased and shipped to Samples Shipyard in Boothbay, Maine where her new owners completed a full restoration for the 2005 100th Anniversary Season.

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

Owner/Guardian: (1904) – Alphonse H. Alker
Owner/Guardian: Private, Rockport, ME

Salvatore Salvia

Here’s an excellent video about Alera sailing in Maine.
https://youtu.be/IWJ8TzeQxhc
CSO will soon release a short video on NY30 Banzai, Sail No. 15.

Historical:

Bruce King Yacht Design Comments – Like WHITEFIN, ALEJANDRA is configured with two cockpits, the aft for steering and sailing, with the center cockpit primarily for lounging and dining. The companionway entrance is at the forward end of the center cockpit. Descending through a circular staircase, flanked with curved Cuban Mahogany raised panels, one arrives in the entrance lobby. Aft is a passageway to the staterooms. Forward through an arched vestibule, with double sliding doors, is the main salon. The main salon, with a fireplace as a focal point forward, is flanked with seating on either side. To port of this seating is the dining area. A long arched vestibule provides a feeling of open separation between the two areas. Forward is the galley, crew mess, two double crew cabins, and captain’s cabin.

Moving aft from the entrance lobby through a paneled hallway are three guest cabins, two to starboard and one to port. All guest cabins have suite heads and showers. Also to port is the entrance to the main engine room beneath the center cockpit, and the auxiliary equipment room beneath the pilot house. A short stairway leads to the pilot house where most navigation and radio equipment is located. From the pilot house a short stairway leads on deck while another leads down into the owner’s cabin.

All joiner work is beautifully executed by the builder, with extensive use of lightweight core materials where suitable. All design work for ALEJANDRA was performed by Bruce King Yacht Design. After extensive preliminary design, the naval architecture was generated in conjunction with the vast structural and systems engineering required on a project of this magnitude. The interior design was also carried out by Bruce King Yacht Design, from the complex overall arrangement to graceful joinery details and intricate hand carvings. The result is a homogeneous design throughout, with repeated design elements both above and below deck. This integrated approach, while more lengthy, avoids the design fragmentation that can occur when separate design firms are employed.

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

• Owner/Guardian: (1993-1996) – Private
• Owner/Guardian: (1996) – Ferruccio Fiorucci

Resources

Bruce King Yacht Design

Historical:

Alca was designed by Axel Nygren, built by August Plym and launched in 1896 at Stockholm Båtbyggeri AB, Liljeholmen. She was commissioned by Banking Director Martin Geber and designed to be light but strong. In addition, the requirement was that she be both comfortable and quick. The result was a beautiful and very fast boat that the first sailing summer seemed to win everything that went on to win in the Nordic countries. She won 9 of 11 races among the best boats of the time in the Nordic countries. Martin Geber was obviously a wealthy man. Among other things he owned Fågelbro Säteri (1903-1918) and after his death funds were donated to Geber’s convalescent home.

Restoration:

Alca has been in the Stockholm archipelago for almost all years. Jan Thulin did a thorough renovation when he bought her in the early 70’s and then did another thorough renovation at the end of his ownership. Then, among other things, the keel if completely with split lateral plane and the cockpit was rebuilt with, among other things. steering wheel. He registered her as SK95 in 1983.

When Thulin crashed, Lagerin / Lindbo took over and completed Thulin’s renovation and installed a 35 hp hydraulic-powered BMC engine. Lagerin / Lindbo realized that Alca needed a thorough renovation of eg. team and started this work but collapsed in the mid-90s.

Owners Comments:

When I bought Alca in February 2004 she had not sailed for eight years and was partly in pretty bad shape. Now the hull and furnishings have been renovated to basically original condition.

For the summer of 2016, the boat got a new fork rig (mast, boom, sail, point, nail bench etc).
In the summer of 2018, the old BMC engine gave up and was replaced in the autumn by a Vetus.

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

1896-1898 Bank Director Martin Geber Alca
1899-1907 Consult A Hoglund
1908-1912 Auditor Emil A Kusel
1913-1916 Bachelor of Laws Karl Håkansson
1917-1917 Captain CF af Klintberg Alma
1918-1920 Sperling Manon
1920-1927 S Gullström Wild Duck
1927-1928 Major Helge V Jung (future Supreme Commander )
1928-1962 Col Justus Holmgren
1962-1966 C Lorge Alca
1966-1969 st handelskompisar, Janhem?
1969-1970 Lennart (Jan O) Nylöf
1970-1986 Jan E Thulin
1987-2003 Anders and Stefan Lagerin and Fredrik Lindbo
2004- Gunnar Schrewelius