Category: Latest Classic Yacht News

Historical:

Hayseed was designed by William Gardner who was Herreshoff’s great rival and the designer of the schooner Atlantic, which held the transatlantic record until it was broken by Eric Taberly in 1980 on the Trimaran: Paul Ricard. Hayseed was built for a syndicate from the Great Lakes by Wood and McClure in City Island NY, launched in 1912, and christened Michicago.

Hayseed’s first mission was to compete for the Manhasset Bay Challenge Cup as Michicago. The Manhasset Bay Challenge Cup is the oldest yachting trophy competed for annually in the United States. Only the famous America’s Cup and the Brooklyn Cup precede it, and they are competed for at longer intervals. Since 1902, the Challenge Cup has been won by 26 different clubs from Chicago, to Marblehead, to Bermuda. Hayseed IV won the cup shortly after her launching in 1912 and defended it in 1913. As a bit of trivia, CYC’s Seneca also won this cup in 1908.

After a short time, she was bought by oil tycoon Herbert L Bowden and rechristened Hayseed IV and moved to Marblehead MA. Bowden was fiercely competitive. He was in the habit of buying the boats that beat him and renaming them Hayseed. There were nine of them in all. We are aware of only two others that may still be in existence.

Shortly Hayseed IV changed hands yet another time. In 1922 she was bought by C. M. (Cliff) Jack of Halifax Nova Scotia. She promptly won two of the most prestigious cups in Atlantic Canada, the Coronation Cup and the Prince of Wales Cup. This epoch ended with a blood money match race for “pink slips” between Hayseed IV and Windward (another Gardner designed P). The event was a best of seven series which she won in the last race by less than a minute. Having won it all, Cliff Jack lost interest and abandoned her on Freda’s beach just south of the Chester Yacht Club.

In 1924 she was bought by Mrs. Charles S. Wurts as a gift to her sons Stewart and John. She again won all the prestigious cups in Chester and Halifax including the Prince of Wales trophy. During WW2 she was laid up and afterwards was no longer competitive although actively sailed by General Wurts and his sons John W Wurts Jr and Clarence (Bink) Z Wurts along with many great friends and extended family. Her peers were: The High Tide, The Linett, The White Heather, the various Chester “C”s: Eclipse, Ripple, Ohop, Sajoda, Whim, Mistral, The Benjamin A, etc.

In 1974 at the ripe young age of 54 years old, she was acquired by Albert Walker of Halifax. He campaigned her seriously, eventually giving her a major face-lift: modern rig, synthetic sails and all the go-fast gadgets one can imagine. Once again she won it all but was eventually relegated in the late 1980s to the “hard” at the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron.

In 1998 she was rediscovered by (Chris)Topher Wurts, the great grandson of Mrs. Charles S Wurts, who convinced the Wurts Family to form a syndicate (made up of family members and Mr. Sifford Pearre to buy her back. Again she resumed her winning ways, and won, among others, the Prince of Wales in 2000 and various Chester Race Weeks.

Quite uniquely, her name appears on a myriad of cups multiple times, over multiple decades and generations, under multiple ownerships.

Today she reigns as the oldest active Chester and Halifax based member of the Chester Classic Fleet.

Known Racing History:

1922-24 – Canadian Cup, Coronation Cup and the Prince of Wales Cup
1919 – Lipton Cup Winner
1919 – Quincy Challenge Cup Winner
1919 – Corinthian Club Championships Winner
1919 – Corinthian Mid-Summer Series Cup Winner
1913 – Manhasset Bay Challenge Cup Winner
1912 – Manhasset Bay Challenge Cup Winner

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

Owner: (1998) – (Chris)Topher Wurts, the great grandson of Mrs. Charles S Wurts. Formed Wurts Family Syndicate with Mr. Sifford Pearre
Owner: (1974) – Albert Walker, Halifax
Owner: (1924) – Mrs. Charles S. Wurts, gift to her sons Stewart and John
Owner: (1922) – C. M. (Cliff) Jack. Halifax Nova Scotia
Owner: (XXXX) – Herbert L Bowden, Marblehead MA (rechristened Hayseed IV)
Owner: (1912) – Great Lakes Syndicate – Christened Michicago

Historical:

Her name ” Havsormen” means “Sea Eagle”

Sandeman comments www.sandemanyachtcompany.co.uk

HAVSÖRNEN’s story, it is said, begins during a late 1930s afternoon sail aboard a Johan Anker-designed International Rule 10-Metre in the Swedish skærgårde: the myriad of small rocky islands among sounds that make sailing there so entrancing. There was a nice breeze and, as is such a vessel’s want, she was well heeled with the lee rail awash. The 10-Metre’s afterguard were Swedish yachting “royalty”, and her owner, paper industrialist Holger Nilsson, apparently began dreaming of a yacht with more stability but no less power. Handily, yacht designer and expert helmsman Tore Holm was one of that afterguard, along with another fine helmsman, Sven Salen, the inventor of the Genoa foresail. Holm was tasked by Nilsson with designing and building a more comfortable yacht. The result we now know as HAVSÖRNEN, but was launched as CITONA – and Salen raced her in the following season’s (1937) prestigious Round Gotland race, and won, of course.

That’s the story… The reality is most surely that they knew exactly what they were doing and that she was specifically conceived to win Round Gotland; after all, these were people who left little to chance.

The rating rule then increasingly being used for Baltic long distance races, and originally in 1928 for the Cruising Club of America’s Bermuda Race, the ‘Bermuda Rule’, encouraged wholesome, beamy, hard-bilged offshore racer cruisers through the 1930’s to 1960s; latterly known as the CCA Rule – and Holm worked it to the maximum. HAVSÖRNEN is such a strikingly beautiful yacht to most eyes nowadays, so it may be surprising to learn that her debut engendered much comment about her looks, so noticeably different were they to the more traditional and ubiquitous low-freeboard Skerry Cruisers and International Rule metric class boats so well known in Swedish waters.

Restored:

1991-93 Per Norberg, Stockholm/SE

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

Owner: (1937-1940) – Holger A.E. Nilsson (name CITONA)
Owner: (1940-1943) – Sten E. Holgersson
Owner: (1943-1951) – K.E. Hedborg (renamed MIRA II)
Owner: (1951-1968) – Nils Nessim, Matt Nessim (renamed SIESTA)
Owner: (1970-1974) – Anders “Aje” G Philipson (renamed PHIESTA)
Owner: (1974-1982) – Lövstedt family
Owner: (1982-1999) – Peter & Tony Carlen (renamed HAVSÖRNEN)
Owner: (1999-2016) – Charles Langereis, Holland
Owner: (2016) – Philippe Fabre, France

Comments

Carl Holgersson – November 29, 2020

Hello!
Nice to see that my grandfather’s (Holger Nilsson)Citona still is going strong.
Best regards,
Carl

Historical:

Hathor is one of only six surviving Norfolk pleasure wherries to be found on the Norfolk Broads. Like two of the other surviving wherries, Maud and Solace, she was built by D. S. Halls of Reedham. Hathor has been listed on the register of National Historic Ships in the United Kingdom since 1996 and is part of the National Historic Fleet.

HATHOR was a pleasure wherry launched in July 1905 by Daniel S Hall, of Reedham, for Ethel and Helen Colman, two of the four daughters of Jeremiah Colman, who had established the mustard producer Colman’s of Norwich in 1814. Their brother Alan had suffered from tuberculosis and, after other efforts to restore his health had failed, had embarked on a Nile cruise aboard the HATHOR, a dabaheah, one of the traditional sailing craft of Egypt. Sadly he died in February 1897 at Luxor, surrounded by his father and sisters. When, on 8 October 1904, the sisters commissioned a new wherry they decided to name it after this vessel. Hathor (pronounced heart-or) was an Egyptian goddess of love and joy, of the sky and of the west – the abode of the dead.

The new HATHOR’s interior was designed by the prominent architect Edward T Boardman, the husband of Florence, one of the four Colman daughters. The elaborate design was based on Egyptian heiroglyphics and mythology using drawings produced by Boardman’s partner Graham Cotman, who sketched them from originals at the British Museum. Lotus flowers of teak were inlaid in dyed sycamore to decorate the saloon while Egyptian animals and symbols adorn the doors. A unique Arts and Crafts oil lamp featuring serpents’ heads hangs from the saloon ceiling.

Hathor’s hull is of oak with deal decks and a pitch pine mast. The cost of the wherry not including interior partitions and fitting out was £595; to this was added the £1057 spent on internal woodwork and £407 for other fitting out. As the wherry was launched into the river two pigeons were released by Florence’s daughter Miss Joan Boardman, aged 3 ½, as an emblem of good luck, following the tradition of the Japanese. Her brother Christopher, aged 2, had first unfurled the flag on the craft. The craft was fitted out with cabins to sleep six, in addition to the skipper and steward, and made her maiden voyage on 2 August 1905.

The Colman and Boardman families sailed HATHOR on the Broads during the summer seasons until 1953. In 1954 she was sold to Claud Hamilton, who wrote Hamilton’s Navigation Guide to the Broads. In the late 1950s the wherry was sold to Martham Boatbuilding and Development Company and was hired out as a houseboat to holiday-makers, only being sailed at the beginning and end of each season. From 1974 to 1985 she sat, de-rigged without a mast, at Martham.

In November 1985 HATHOR was bought in a dilapidated state by Peter Bower and Barney Matthews of Wherry Yacht Charter for restoration at Wroxham, to join OLIVE and NORADA in their fleet there. 21 oak frames were replaced in whole or part, as was 60ft of oak planking, and much of the interior decoration was restored to its former glory. In July 1987 she sailed again for the first time in many years, and was employed by the Wherry Yacht Charter Charitable Trust in charter work until 2009 when she was laid up to await a new restoration programme undercover at Barton House, Wroxham, a new purpose-built facility.

Restored and relaunched in May 2015, HATHOR has been used since 2016 for educational work at How Hill (Environmental Study Centre) during May, June and July, in addition to charters

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

• Guardian/Owner: – (1905-1954) – Ethel and Helen Colman
• Writer: – H. Rider Haggard
• Composer: Henry J. Wood
• Guardian/Owner: (1954-1964) – Claud Hamilton (Hamiltons Guide’)
• Guardian/Owner: (1964-1985) – Martham Boat Building Company
• (1985-current) – Wherry Yacht Charter Charitable Trust (http://www.wherryyachtcharter.org/)

Resources

Wherry Yacht Charter Charitable Trust.
National Historic Ships UK.
Anthony Nelson, pp153, Edition 2, 1993 Bowers, Peter J A,
Norfolk Wherries.

Historical:

Designed by the famous Swedish designer Tore Holm, and constructed in Gamleby, Sweden under the original name of Hasvornen II (Mar’s Eagle) for the Olympian navigator Sven Salen.

Nominated a member of honor of Belle Classe Yacht Club of Monaco in October, 2006.

Known Racing History:

1992 – Trofeo Almirante Conde de Barcelona Overall Winner
1994 – Trofeo Almirante Conde de Barcelona Overall Winner
1998 – Vele d’epoca Regatta of Imperia
2006 – Les Voiles de Saint Tropez
2007 – Menorca V Classic Sailing Boats Cup Panerai Epoca

Known Restoration History:

1990 – 1992 – Naval Ifach Constructions of the Mediterranean (Shipyards Belliure)

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

Owner/Guardian: (1938) Sven Salen

Historical:

Designed by McCurdy & Rhodes and built by Harvey Gamage, South Bristol, Maine in 1973 to resemble 19th century trading schooners.

Ocean Passages, LLC was formed in 2015 to offer world-class sailing education in Cuba’s marine environment, which is currently undergoing historic change. After a million-dollar overhaul of the wooden schooner Harvey Gamage — Ocean Passages now offers a full program of Cuba voyages for gap students.

Having worked with the United Nations and U.S. State Department on multiple Caribbean and transatlantic public diplomacy missions, Ocean Passages creates unique sailing adventures designed to constructively engage with the people of Cuba as they face unprecedented economic, cultural and environmental transformation.

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

Owner: Phineas Sprague, Ocean Passages, LLC
Owner: Ocean Classroom Foundation
Guest:

Comments

Kathie Robertson – September 15, 2018

I was on the Harvey Gamage in the late 90’s for science classes out of Bar Harbor and loved it. What is the status of HG? Will the boat stay in Cuba or sail other destinations? Will the HG be used for educational classes or just crewed positions? Thanks