Sail Number:
Vessel Type: Bermudian Yawl
Mah Jong Specifications:
LOA: 52’2″ / 15.91m – LWL: 37’0″ / 11.27m – Beam: 11’8″ / 3.59m – Draft: 7’6” / 2.28m – Design Number: 1261 – Designer: Sparkman & Stephens – Original Owner: – Current Owner: – Year Built: 1957 – Built By: Cheoy Lee Shipyard, Hong Kong – Hull Material: Wood – Gross Displacement: 38,100 lbs – Ballast: Outside 14,500 lbs – Inside 500 lbs – Sail Area: 1,253 sq ft
Historical:
Mah Jong was named by Mr. Freeman after the Cantonese game of chance, because “since our whole adventure is a big gamble, we felt it appropriate.”
Designed by Sparkman & Stevens and built at the Cheoy Lee Shipyard in Hong Kong. Mah Jong was the collective dream of three American college friends who pooled their resources, selected one of the top yacht designers of the time, choose the most cost effective shipyard with access to some of the finest ship building material in the world, Burmese teak.
Mah Jong took just six months to build at a cost of $30,000 US dollars. Her shakedown trip was a 10-month, 15,000-mile cruise from Hong Kong, via the Suez Canal, Greek Isles and beyond. Her voyage was well documented in the 1957 issue of National Geographic. If that wasn’t enough adventure she then entered the 1958 Newport Bermuda Race, finishing in the middle of the pack with countless stories to last a lifetime.
Fast forward after a thorough restoration by Gannon & Benjamin Marine Railway Mah Jong is available for charter: Website
Provenance (The Wall of Remembrance – The Owners, Crew & Notable Guest):
Owner: (1957) – Hovee Freeman, Providence, Rhode Island – Mike Merle-Smith, Oyster Bay, New York – Gilbert M. Grosvenor, Washington, D.C (president of the National Geographic Society)
Owner: Pat Ilderton