history

A nautical restoration job for the ages reached a milestone Sunday with the launch of the 1841 whaleship Charles W. Morgan at Mystic Seaport in Connecticut.

Looking for something to do? Check out two interesting events coming soon, one aboard the ex-Presidential yacht Potomac in California and one in the Florida Keys celebrating vintage transportation.

During World War II, the U.S. Coast Guard asked these yachtsmen and fishermen to “arm” their civilian vessels and guard the East Coast against German U-boats. The threat and the danger were high, but somehow this story has been lost to the annals of history.

This week, learn more about a new build from Palmer Johnson, a refit from RMK and a look back at the Pride of Baltimore in a limited edition watch from Ulysse Nardin.

Riva is celebrating its 170-year legacy with a beautiful look back at the lives these boats have touched and the impact they've had both on the industry and the culture over that time. Below is an excerpt from the commemorative book the company released this year.

This is no myth. The next Riva to set the tone for years to come will be a 27-knot, 122-foot aluminum planing yacht, and it will be built in Ancona, Italy, at the CRN shipyard.

To celebrate its first decade of business in Poland, Sunreef found and President, Frenchman Francis Lapp, invited Lech Wałęsa, Poland’s former president, to help promote Polish shipbuilding know–how and in particular, Sunreef Yachts.

On April 15, 2013, Doyle New York will auction a piece of marine history from the yachts of William K. Vanderbilt II, including an 18-karat gold cocktail tray and 12 Tiffany & Co. 18-karat gold cordial glasses. The serving tray bears the name of Willie K’s beloved Alva, and the cordial glasses boats the monikers of both Ara, launched in 1924, and Alva.

How would you like to say you fished with Hemingway? If you head down to the Bimini Big Game Club Resort & Marina February 21 to 23, you might get your chance. John Hemingway, grandson of world-renown author and avid fisherman Ernest Hemingway, will take part in the Wahoo Smackdown II Tournament.

It was the classic boats, including the restored presidential yacht Honey Fitz that attracted us to the 2012 Ocean Reef Club Vintage Weekend. But Classic Weekend is also about planes and cars and they contribute their fair share to this exciting event, which takes visitors back in time.

The first AIM Marine Group Editor’s Choice Lifetime Achievement Award went to Annette Bénéteau-Roux, an elegant, petite woman who has steered the Beneteau Group through thick and thin since 1964. Roux came to Fort Lauderdale to accept her Lifetime Achievement Award.

On the occasion of the 2012 Yacht Valley Press Tour organized by HISWA, the Dutch yachting industry association, we had the opportunity to visit De Voogt Naval Architects, a firm whose history is closely bound to that of superyacht builder Feadship.

The 1937 mahogany commuter yacht Posh left more than one visitor awestruck when she pulled alongside the docks at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show. She is part of what may be the most famous triumvirate in the history of boating—three exceptional boats designed by John Hacker and built in the late 1930s by Huskins Boat Works of Bay City, Mich.: WeeJoe II, Tempo and Thunderbird.

Visitors to the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show, especially yearly visitors, can become almost jaded by the splendor of the yachts on display, so when something manages to grab attention away from the latest superyacht launch, it’s worth noting. That’s what happened this year with the 1937 mahogany commuter yacht Posh.

We’re edging closer to the end of the year, but before we celebrate the beginning of 2013, there are a few notable events to make sure you don’t miss. One of them is Ocean Reef’s long-standing Vintage Weekend in the Florida Keys. Hosted at the Ocean Reef Club from November 29 to December 2, this event showcases classic yachts, aircraft and automobiles.

At the Monaco Yacht Show in September, Thomas Mercer revisited its history. In conjunction with Andrew Winch Design, the 130-year-old company launched the stunning Thomas Mercer “Classis” clock. Classis (Latin for fleet) makes reference to the history of navigation’s most important voyages of discovery.

Vintage Weekend, a long-standing tradition at the Florida Key’s Ocean Reef Club, returns November 29 to December 2, 2012. Each year the event showcase fine classic yachts, aircraft and automobiles. The 18th edition of the Vintage Weekend’s headliner is likely to be a famous former presidential yacht, the Honey Fitz.

Recently, we had the privilege of seatrialing writer Ernest Hemingway’s 38-foot Wheeler Playmate fishing boat Pilar with Jim Moores, founder and president of wooden boat restoration firm Moores Marine. Well, it felt like it, anyway. In reality, we were aboard Elhanor, a 34-foot Playmate built by Wheeler Shipbuilding in Brooklyn, NY, the same year Pilar was built—1933.

According to newspaper reports, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen was hoping to score a medal of his own after the Games by loaning his superyacht, Octopus, to the British Royal Navy to help retrieve the bell of HMS Hood, a battlecruiser sunk by the German battleship Bismarck in the early days of World War II.

Few public figures had the charisma and audacity of the late Aristotle Onassis, the Greek shipping magnate who converted a warship into the yacht Christina. Inseparable from his ocean-going palace, Onassis lived aboard for decades, reveling in a life of partying and pleasure that by turns made him hated, envied and admired while attracting the global celebrity set of the era to his jewel of the seas, now reborn as Christina O.

Writer Herman Melville once called it “an elbow of sand” and the native Wampanoag Indians named it “the Faraway land” (or Nantucket). Both names fit this 14-mile-long and 3.5-mile-wide island 30 miles off the Massachusetts coast. A recent addition to the island’s genteel way of life is the family-friendly Westmoor Club and its flagship Belle.