Historical:

Spirit Yachts – At the request of her overseas buyer, the Spirit 111 was designed and built in-house by Spirit Yachts to be one of the most environmentally friendly sailing superyachts ever created. The sloop-rigged yacht is also the largest single-masted wooden yacht to be built in the UK since Shamrock V in the 1930s.

Spirit Yachts worked collaboratively with leading marine and automotive suppliers to deliver on the owner’s eco brief. A Torqeedo electric propulsion system using a 100kW motor propels the yacht silently for up to 40nm at eight knots from battery power alone. Whilst sailing, the propulsion system will regenerate the four BMW lithium battery banks by rotating the propeller shaft whilst the yacht is under sail. All power-consuming components have been carefully selected to be highly efficient and will use minimal energy without impacting performance or comfort.

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

• Guardian/Owner: (2019) – Private

Historical:

Owners Commments (2006) – Designed by Axel Nygren and built by Stockholm Boat Building, she is basically a 12 meter before the 12 meter rule became officially recognized around 1906. In 1927, she was shipped to San Francisco by Cyril Tobin and rated an M boat, homeported in Newport CA.

She has been owned by Jascha Heifetz, Dick Powell, Joseph Menkovitz, and Richard M Stockton, who had her refitted and re-rigged in the 1940s as a more “modern” yawl. Recently she has been owned by Archie and Margaret Williams, founders of the NW Cruising Club, who cruised her to Mexico and Hawaii, and Rick Galer of Friday Harbor who has raced her in the Swiftsure Race, (in which she has a colorful past!)

She came to Judd Tinius, shipwright and owner of Everett Marine Co-op, in 2002, and is currently undergoing a major refit/restoration: 10 new planks, resealed teak decks, new black iron frames, new mast and rigging, new butterfly hatches and deck fittings – originally mahogany and now teak, etc. Interior work, decks and refastening are also on the list.

We plan to put her out for race charter in the Caribbean and Europe. With recorded speeds of 16 knots, she should make an impression. Everett, WA

John Blaich comments – Corona del Mar resident who, about once a month, will write histories of interesting boats that graced Newport Harbor.

This traditional yawl was based in Newport Harbor from 1935 to 1938. She was owned by the famous violinist Jascha Heifetz, who moored the yacht fore and aft off his leased home near the Harbor entrance at 212 E. Balboa Blvd. Galatea was also kept in the mooring area off the Newport Harbor Yacht Club. Heifetz was a member of the Newport Harbor Yacht Club and the Catalina Island Yacht Club at Avalon.

Galatea was designed by A. Nyrgen and built in Stockholm, Sweden in 1899. Her dimensions are 68 feet overall, 44 feet length on the waterline, 12 feet, 5 inches in beam with a draft of 9 feet. She was steered with a long, beautifully-carved tiller. There was also extensive wood carving on the teak bulkheads below. Heifetz enjoyed the rhythm and quiet of sailing. He frequently sailed to Avalon, Catalina. There was a very large insurance policy on his fingers that did not allow him to pull on lines of make them fast. However, he frequently and enthusiastically helped with the rigging in a limited way.

In 1955, when Irvine Terrace in Corona Del Mar was subdivided, one of the streets was named after Heifetz’s yacht. In 1998, an oil painting of Galatea was presented to the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum and is shown periodically. The oil painting was created by muralist Richard W. DeRosset of San Diego. He is a very versatile marine artist and has done many commissions for private collectors, museums, and commercial clients. DeRosset has done three revious paintings of famous yachts for the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum.

Known Racing History:

2009 – Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta
2007 – Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta

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

Owner: (1899) – Gustaf Wiklander
Owner: Cyril Tobin, commodore St. Francis Yacht Club. Converted to a Marconi rigged yawl.
Owner: (1935-1938) – Jascha Heifitz, world renowned violinist, married silent motion picture actress Florence Vidor. Catalina Island Yacht Club member. Participated in the first annual Newport Harbor Race Week (1937). “I like California because the people do not stand on ceremonies like they do in the East.” Sails often to Catalina with his wife, from their Summer home in Balboa. Ten-day leisurely cruise to the Santa Cruz Islands to celebrate Mrs Heifetz birthday. Their guest included Miss Patricia Zeigfeld, Miss Susanne Vidor, and Warren Newsmark. Along for the cruise was George Johnson and guest onboard their vessel the 68-foot auxiliary schooner OCEAN WAIF.
Friends: Mr. and Mrs. Nick Potter
Friends: Mrs. R. Polk and Louis Briggs.
Friends: Mrs. Florence Wellington, John S. Wellington
Friends: W. Steve Irwin
Friends: Peter Rudolph
Friends: Pauline Polk
Friends: Patricia Zigfield
Friends: Warren Newmark
Owner: (1938) – Dick Powell – For his first anniversary to his wife Jane, Mr. Powell bought Heifitz yacht and renamed her Galatea. In return Jane bought her husband a sports roadster, with a custom built engine.
Friends: Humphrey Bogart
Friends: Cary Grant
Friends: Spencer Tracy
Owner: Joseph L. Mankiewicz, producer and director
Owner: Richard M Stockton
Owner: Archie and Margaret Williams, founders of the NW Cruising Club
Owner: (2002) Judd Tinius, shipwright and owner of Everett Marine Co-op.

Historical:

Fulmar (yard number 785) was designed and built by William Fife at Fairlie. Completed in September 1930, Fulmar was never raced by her commissioning owner who sold her to R B and J S Aspin for entry in the 1931 Seawanahaka Cup trials.

Known Racing History:

1934 – 1936 – Seawanahaka Cup winner

Restoration:

Fairlie Restorations – ” The hull was found to be in poor condition and following renewal of the wooden keel, the grown and steamed frames were also replaced. The bilge stringer and beam shelf needed only local repair whilst the whole hull was re-planked. This was fastened in the traditional way; copper riveted to the steamed frames and screwed to the others.”

“The deck was replaced in teak, and the fittings were replaced using patterns made from the remaining originals. No winches were fitted, and her deck layout is totally original.”

“With the intention of resuming her racing life, no engine was fitted and the rig was replaced following the original sail plan and specifications. Following her relaunch in 1995, she has been kept and raced in the Mediterranean, where she is a regular and successful competitor at the classic yacht regattas.”

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

Owner/Guardian: Hector Porter

Comments

Ken Davies – February 17, 2015

Fulmar and Amita were at the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club for many years. Fulmar was owned by Dr. Jack Balmer and Amita was owned by Stan Davies. both boats raced and were well maintained.

Liz Wright – February 24, 2015

My Father, Hector Porter owned this boat in the 1950’s and I remember her well. I own a wooden tender which my father made for Fulmar, which is now 65 years old. It is clinker built 10ft 6ins, of larch, with a small sail, called’ Little Girl.’ I am trying to renovate this boat but some of the timbers are beginning to rot at the stern and i feel it may defeat my limited skills. Any suggestions welcome.

Historical:

Bill Luders Frolic, designed by naval architect Bill Luders, is one of the first fleet of 12 matched 44 foot wooden yawls commissioned for the Naval Academy. After 25 years of hard service, they were replaced by 12 fiberglass Luders 44 foot yawls; designed with the same exterior lines as the original boats, but with an interior that accommodated an auxiliary engine and a navigation space with chart table.

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

Owner/Guardian: Naval Academy (Annapolis 44)
Captain: USNA David Winters
Owner/Guardian: (1987) U.S. Coast Guard Academy, renamed Kittiwake.
Owner/Guardian: (1994) Virgin Island Government to serve as sailing school on St. Croix (never opened)
Owner/Guardian: (2006) Joe McCants and Diane Given Hayes. Acquired the vessel after submitting the only bid after a bidder-less auction. Extensive restoration began October 2006, after years of neglect.
Owner/Guardian: Don Ward, winner of the Under 45′ Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta 2015.
Captain/Caretaker: Hans Lammers

Comments:

David Winters – A Midshipman’s Fond Memories – February 12, 2016

The Story of a First Date With My Wife To Be Aboard Frolic.

I was skipper for three years while a midshipman USNA.
This, by the way, is Debbie and Dave’s thirty-ninth year of marriage, which leads naturally to the question of how Dave did actually manage, long ago, to hook so snappy number as Debbie in the first place. We expect that most folks merely figure she had a weak moment.


But no, again NO! That is like concluding that the entire Big Bang merely happened in a moment’s accidental inattention from The Omnipotent. No, in this case, as in the case of the Big Bang, the emergence of Debbie and Dave as a couple required at a minimum, complete suspension of all natural laws of probability. Here’s how it happened.

HOW DAVID MET DEBBIE (Army/Navy competition reduced to its essence)

One evening back in 1975, Dave was attending an oversized group Bible study in his Annapolis barracks (Bancroft Hall). An intoxicatingly flaming redheaded acquaintance of his (“Dee” Chandler) also attended that night, shuttling in from Washington DC, and she brought along her roommate, a raven maned beauty from the Walter Reed Army Institute of Nursing where they matriculated together. This black haired bomb shell was one Debbie Tipton. Dee, aware that Debbie and Dave shared similarly bull-headed and opinionated mind sets, foresaw significant entertainment possibilities in their introduction.
Her assessment was accurate.


“From the git-go,” Debbie Tipton was, or at least acted toward Dave like, QUOTE “a stuck up little twerp who already KNEW she was a knockout, thank you very much,” UNQUOTE. Immediately upon introduction, Debbie’s opening line was, “Why should I talk to YOU?”
Fair question.


The room was full of good looking guys amongst whom David was hardly a shining star. Yet being an Annapolis man, generally a sought after commodity, he was not pre-armed to deal with this sort of instantly hostile reception. While he was mentally frantically flailing about for a conversational grip or toe hold, his mouth took charge and responded before his brain had a chance to get involved. He said “Because you were born on my birthday.”

(NOTE: Folks, I have no idea why I said it. I had never heard of nor seen Debbie Tipton before that night. I realized my grave tactical error the moment it came out of my mouth. This game appeared doomed even before coin toss was complete. Yet I was irrevocably committed to playing it out to its quick, bitter and bloody end. We know what the next deadly question had to be.)

Debbie haughtily sniffed and promptly inquired, “Oh really and what date was that?”


Well bless her proverbial little heart.


Bluff called, and doggedly exercising his previously mentioned bull-headedness, our sailor mentally grabbed the dice cup, rattled them bones, and slammed it inverted on the bar, going for all or nothing.
Radiating the bravado that can be afforded only by the hopelessly damned, he looked Debbie dead in the eye and truthfully proclaimed his own birthdate, “February tenth.” A resounding silence instantly engulfed them. Debbie’s already mentally loaded response of derision evaporated like vapor from a dying steam whistle. Her mouth fell open. Witnessing this, Dave’s jaw also dropped, but he quickly snapped it back shut to mask his dizzying astonishment.


Still taken aback, Debbie, no doubt feeling stalked, sputtered, “How did YOU know THAT?” (For the incurably incredulous, the tenth of February was indeed Debbie’s birthdate.) History does not record David’s response. Any reply would have been sufficient, for no reply would have been believed, least of all the truth. So from there it was smooth sailing. David had an insurmountable advantage. Having recklessly wagered all on a chance of only one in a few hundred, he had emerged victorious. He could, with impunity, devise or claim any story or justification that he might chose.


In this at least, Luck was a lady that night even if Debbie was suspicious and grumpy. By the end of the evening Debbie had agreed to go sailing with the bold gambler she had just met, if for no other reason than to further investigate his apparently excessive knowledge of her personal details. They sailed to the eastern shore in the appointed weekend with a full crew aboard the Navy yawl Frolic, of which Dave had long been skipper. For the next thirty-six hours, this darlin’ little ship, her gentlemanly crew, the soft waves, cool breezes and moonlit night worked their magic.

What a bunch of pirates.

Before mooring back in home port, Dave had informed Debbie that he would be marrying her in due course. It is completely understandable that given his now solidly established record of clairvoyant insight, she had little choice but to accept this information as received truth. They were wed at Fort Leonard Wood in a remote little Army chapel a year and some months later. Yet Debbie to this day does not believe the truth of this tale. Who can blame her, really? After all, what are the odds?


The odds are that this blither has gone on long enough. Debbie and Dave have scored another year together when the medical odds makers said it could not happen. So they now kick back to enjoy their time in leisure and “…whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”

These things remind us of you, and that make us smile.
David and Debbie.

Jack Shirreffs – March 12, 2016

February 14th – Naval Academy Class of 59′ Jack Shirreffs –
Wonderful Story.

David Winters – March 10, 2016

I sometimes wonder how many other romances were born aboard this sweet ship. My bride and I now fly a seventy year old aircraft, namesake of our darlin’ yawl, Frolic.

Brad Williams – May 28, 2021

I have an “Official U.S. Navy Photograph” from Nov 1 1958 of the Frolic, that was in my late father-in-law’s collection.