Type: Herreshoff Ketch
LOA: 82’6″ / 25.15m – LOD: 71’1″ / 21.66m – LWL: 59’11″ / 18.26m – Beam: 18’0″ / 5.48m – Draft: 10’10” / 3.30m – Design Number: 49 –Catalog No. 38.5 – Hull Number: 2663 – Designer: L.F. Herreshoff – Original Owner: Paul Hammond Oyster Bay, Long Island – Current Owner: Private -Year Built: 1931 – Built By: Abeking & Rasmussen – Hull Material: Mahogany/Teak, Steel-Framed Composite – Gross Displacement: 59 tons – Mast Height Above Deck: Main 82′ Mizzen 58′ – Sail Plan: View – Sail Area: 3,004 – Flag: Malta
Current Status:
After three years of searching throughout the world the status of Landfall is now known:
Historical:
Designed by L.F. Herreshoff, as an ocean going racing yacht and possible further development of the Buzzard Bay line. In 1931 Landfall was built secretly in Lemwerder, Germany by Abeking & Rasmussen for the famous Oyster Bay yachtsman, and Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club member Paul Hammond.
Landfall was originally designed as a magnificent 77′ double-ender, but to comply with the rating rule at the time she was altered from the original plans, by the cutting off the graceful stern by 5-feet (The missing length was compensated for by a bumpkin 30 inches long, to which was sheeted the mizzen), leaving Landfall with a transom hung rudder, 5-foot long tiller (extending to within 20 inches of the mizzen mast), with a total three separate steering systems for safety purposes.
Christopher Eliot Paine – “Landfall had a very interesting history during the mid-to-late 1930’s, when she was based in Europe, my grandfather (Richard Cushing Paine) cruised her in the Med, Adriatic, Aegean, and Baltic — her captain in those years was Mike Cumberlege, a masterful British mariner who was (clandestinely) also an officer in British Naval Intelligence – he secretly used the Landfall cruises to map harbors and observe German naval forces in the above areas. My father and grandfather left Landfall and Mike in Italy just days before the German invasion of Poland and the outbreak of WW 2. Landfall was in Marseille when the Germans invaded France, and at some point during she was sunk with other ships to provide an antisubmarine defense of the harbor. Capt. Cumberlege went on to become second in command of British partisan commando operations in the eastern Med, was betrayed to the Germans by Greek partisans while attempting (for a second time) to blow up the Corinth canal, imprisoned and tortured in multiple prison camps across the Reich before being executed just days before the end of the war. An incredible tale, in which Landfall played an early and important part, gathering intelligence.”
Unique Features:
- Owner’s Cabin – The twisted stairs resides on the aft bulkhead, which leads to a built in bunk with a root bunk above (a variation of a pipe berth) proving to be an excellent sea berth.
- Landfall’s Bowsprit – An internal full length track in which slid a fitting taking the jibstay and tack inboard, making the lowering of the jib a simple and safe procedure.
- Three separate steering systems for safety purposes. Besides this factor of safety Landfall’s alternate steering positions had the advantage of shifting the helman just where was best.
- Two open faced stoves resembling fireplaces
Know Racing History:
1931 Transatlantic Race – Finished 2nd to Dorade
Crew First Watch – Paul Hammond (Owner/Skipper) Uffa Fox (Sail Trimmer) John Quincy Adams (Sparks – Electrician) Waldo Howland (Engineer) John Hallowell (Sail Maker) Ben Ames (Navigator)
Crew Second Watch – Brian Waite (Mate) Kim Norton (2nd Mate) Lawrence Pool (Ship Surgeon) John W. Stedman (Bosun) Lawrence Grinnell (Assistant Navigator) Joe Fredricks (Cook)
Provenance (The Wall of Remembrance – The Owners, Crew & Notable Guest):
1989 – 2001 – Private (at the owners request)
1988 – 1989 – Mr. Jack Zimmer, Fort Lauderdale, FL
1978 – 1988 – Baron Max Engelhardt von Kienlin
1935 – 1940 – Richard Cushing Paine, Boston, Massachusetts
1931 – 1935 – Paul Hammond
