July 2014

A Century on the Sound

Cape Cod Life  /  July 2014 / , ,

Writer: Susan Dewey

A Century on the Sound

July 2014

Cape Cod Life  /  July 2014 / , ,

Writer: Susan Dewey

 

The 100th anniversary of Cape Cod’s classic Wianno Seniors will be celebrated this summer showcasing classic—and particularly American—Nantucket Sound memories.

Several original Seniors, included #5 Commy, which was owned by Frank Hagerman of Kansas, Missouri, whose daughter Abby was a famous female skipper. Also shown are portside, James Gaff Hinkle’s Fantasy, and #6 Snookums skippered by Wilton Crosby. Photos Courtesy Osterville Historical Society

“It was a 20-mile, downwind sail, and we were just going with it. We had invited some non-sailing friends, and we filled the boat until it couldn’t hold anymore and made the four-hour sail home to Hyannisport. We reached home and didn’t want to stop, so we sailed right up to Baxter’s Boathouse (in Hyannis Harbor), tied up there and kept the afternoon going for a few more hours. That was pretty hard to beat.”

Lucy Steere—whose father, Bruce, and uncle, David, were famous Senior racers from Harwichport’s Stone Horse Yacht Club—agrees, but notes that the Seniors can be a lot to handle when the wind is blowing hard across shallow Nantucket Sound.

“You can be out there on a bluebird day, when she’s going along smoothly in the water and everyone is comfortable, or you can be out there when it’s blowing 20-25 knots and that boat is sure going to challenge you,” says Steere.

Tim Fulham, chairman of the Wianno Senior Class Association and a lifelong sailor, says that despite the Seniors’ beauty and historic charm, the boats can throw different challenges at their skippers depending on the day, the weather— and the particular boat.

“The Seniors are remarkable seagoing boats and very well suited for the waters of Cape Cod,” says Fulham, “and the challenge of racing a Senior never goes away. But that kind of challenge is always an engaging part of a passion for things. Racing on a Senior is different every time.”

The Wianno Senior Class Association was created to connect the different fleets that grew up in the last century around yacht clubs in Osterville, Bass River, Harwichport, Hyannis and Hyannisport, and Edgartown. The association is planning a full schedule of activities this summer in celebration of the fleet’s 100th year. Fulham says a recent book, commissioned by the association, shares details of the boat’s long history and relates stories of the people who sailed her.

The Wianno Senior Story: A Century on Nantucket Sound was written by a Marblehead sailor, Stan Grayson, who also completed several other books and reports on sailing for WoodenBoat magazine. “The most gratifying thing for me is that I had a creative vision to do a narrative that celebrates the Wianno Seniors, but also ties together the threads of 100 years of individuals’ lives,” Grayson says in a June interview. “It was the people who made the project—and the history. It was fascinating to see what life was like on the Cape before the turn of the century to the 1920s, and I wanted to capture that information before it disappears. It kind of creates a bygone era that we will never see again, but that is preserved in the pages of the book.”

Grayson’s book is packed with 100 years’ worth of marvelous photographs and great stories, including those of perhaps the most famous Wianno Senior of all—the Victura —and those who sailed her.

Susan Dewey

Susan Dewey, former associate publisher and editor at Cape Cod Life Publications, lives in Centerville where she grows vegetables and flowers for Cape farmers' markets, designs perennial gardens for her son’s company, Dewey Gardens, and enjoys living on beautiful Cape Cod year round.