wianno junior sailboat

Wianno junior

The wianno junior is a 16.5ft fractional sloop designed by h. manley crosby and built in wood since 1921., 80 units have been built..

The Wianno junior is a light sailboat which is a very high performer. It is stable / stiff and has a low righting capability if capsized. It is best suited as a day-boat.

Wianno junior for sale elsewhere on the web:

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Victura: The Kennedys, a Sailboat, and the Sea

Posted by James Williams | Book Reviews , Dogwatch , Reviews

With these words at a dinner for the America’s Cup crews in September 1962, President John F. Kennedy spoke, I believe, for all sailors. It is well known that he and his brothers were sailors, but the impact of this sport on the lives of the Kennedys has not really been explored before this fine book by James W. Graham. For readers who have read full-length biographies of Jack or of his brothers Bobby and Ted, much of the broad story of the Kennedy family will be familiar. But here the role that sailing played in their lives steps forward, front and center.

This is a wise book as well as a great read. As Graham observes early on, “Sailors learn more from mistakes and close calls than from successes.” The Kennedy brothers plainly benefited from this truth, and that process began early in their lives. The brothers were fortunate to live in Hyannis Port on Cape Cod, and Jack and his older brother, Joe Jr., bought the family’s first sailboat, Rose Elisabeth, in 1927. Their youthful days were filled with sailing, first mastering the 16-foot Wianno Junior. In 1932, the family bought a 25-foot Wianno Senior (built then and still by the Crosby Yacht Yard in Osterville, Massachusetts), which they named Victura (“about to conquer” in Latin) and which they raced regularly in one-design class regattas. The next boat to master was a Star, and Joe and Jack each acquired Stars during the 1930s. Bobby also sailed Stars in the 1950s, but the Wianno Senior remained their favorite sailboat.

Graham spends three chapters tracing Kennedys through World War II, the 1950s, and JFK’s presidency. Here sailing takes a back seat to the broader story of the Kennedys, but the sport’s importance to the family is never lost. Jack particularly embraced sailing and the sea into his psyche, and as with many of us who sail, he was drawn strongly to images of sailing and the sea in literature and art. They became for him, and also similarly for his younger brother Ted, expressions of himself. Jack brought sailing and seafaring imagery in to his political speeches and, like Franklin Delano Roosevelt (who once served as Secretary of the Navy), Jack brought a seafaring décor to the oval office.

For the Kennedys, sailing was the family sport (despite the focus of media on their family football scrimmages), which regardless of gender all could participate in equally. Eunice, Jack’s younger sister, was a very good sailor, and Ethel, Bobby’s wife, was an excellent sailor and particularly turned to sailing following Bobby’s death. Jack’s nephew, Patrick, perhaps summed it up best that the sea, both arbitrary and constant, “is evolving, and yet it is also predictive, the tides come in and out. What a great metaphor for life.”

Victura is a lovely book. You’ll learn a bit about the history of sailing as well as a lot about one of America’s first families. This is a book for sailors and for admirers of the Kennedys.

Victura: The Kennedys, a Sailboat, and the Sea by James W. Graham (Foreedge, Imprint of the University Press of New England, 2014, 265 pages, 28 illustrations)

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The Founding 14 – The Legacy of the Wianno Senior

In 1913, governed by Fritz P. Day, fourteen members of the Wianno Yacht Club, in Osterville, Massachusetts, commissioned the Crosby Yacht Yard to design and build a small fast yacht capable of sailing and racing in the choppy-shoal-ridden sailing grounds of Cape Cod’s South Shore.

Fourteen Wianno Seniors were built and delivered in the spring of 1914. Of the initial 14, three have survived and their specifications and whereabouts are as follows:

Wianno Senior Specifications: LOA: 25′ / 7.62m – LWL: 17.6′ / 5.36m – Beam: 8′ / 2.44m – Sail Area: 366 sq ft / 34 m2 – Draft Board Up: 5.5′ / 1.68m – Draft Board Down: 2.5′ / .76m – Displacement: 4,100 lbs / 1,860 kgs – Ballast: 1,200 lbs / 544 kgs – Designer: H. Manley Crosby – Builder: Crosby Yacht Building and Storage Co. (USA) – First Built: 1914 – Contract Cost: $600.00

Original 14:

1. “Fiddler” , 2. “Wendy” , 3. “Telemark” , 4. “A.P.H.” A.P. Halliday, 5. “Commy” , 6. “Snookums” , 7. “Patsy” , 8. “Sea Dog” , 9. “Marie” , 10. “Qui Vive” , 11. “Fantasy” James G. Hinkle, 12. “Whistle Wing” , 13. “Maxixe” , and 14. “Ethyl”

Existing 3:

Number 7 “Tirza” – Richard A & Mary Lotuff Feeney (Half Centerboard) Osterville Massachusetts. Number 10 “Sea Wings” – M. Christopher Mattoon & Ed Stockman (Half Centerboard) Dalton, Massachusetts. Number 11 “Fantasy” – is in the collections of Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic, Connecticut.

Two boat yards are still building Wianno Seniors. Crosby Yacht Yard, Inc. in Osterville, Massachusetts, and Shaw Yacht, Inc, in Thomaston, Maine. About 200 Wianno Seniors have been built. Hull numbers through 173 were wooden boats; subsequent boats are being built of fiberglass. Hull number 222 was launched in 2011 by Crosby Yacht. Several hull numbers were omitted in the sequence.

Hull Number 94:

In 1932 Hull number 94, was purchased by Joe and Rose Kennedy as a  present for their son Jack’s fifteenth birthday. The “Victura” would become the Kennedy Family’s favorite boat. With a draft of 2.5 feet, with the centerboard up, the Wiannos could easily sail over most shoats, but still had to be sailed with caution around Nantucket Sounds shallowest spot Horseshoe Shoals at 6″

With a graceful low shear the Wianno Seniors were very “wet” boats. Racing the Wianno meant never finishing a race in dry clothes. Former Iowa Sen. John Culver, Harvard classmate of Wianno sailor Ted Kennedy, so eloquently and humorously describes his first sail over to Nantucket on “Victura” ( discussion on Wianno experience starts two and a half minutes into the video)

Osterville Historical Museum’s executive director Jennifer Williams commented during the Wianno classes 100th anniversary. The Wiannos were commissioned by some of the pillars of industry that made Osterville their summer home. The boat “leveled the playing field for sailing” and “changed the face of racing” on Nantucket Sound.

Victura , the beloved sailboat that taught the Kennedy’s about life, family, leadership and winning.

James W. Graham’s new book — Victura: the Kennedys, a Sailboat, and the Sea — offers new insights into the dynamics and magic of the Kennedy family and their intense relationship with sailing and the sea. Many families sail together, but the Kennedys’ relationship with Victura , the 25-foot sloop purchased in 1932 shortly after the family’s move to Hyannis Port, stands apart.

In Victura , James W. Graham charts the progress of America’s signature twentieth century family dynasty, in a narrative both stunningly original and deeply gripping. This true tale of one small sailboat is an invaluable contribution to our understanding of the impressive story of the Kennedy’s.

References:

James W. Graham –  Website – Author of Victura: the Kennedys, a Sailboat, and the Sea. – A communications and public affairs professional for a major-brand retailer, was a senior adviser to former Illinois Governor Jim Edgar and the Illinois House of Representatives. He races and cruises his sailboat Venturous out of Wilmette Harbor, north of Chicago.

Osterville Historical Museum – Executive Director Jennifer Williams

The Barnstable Patriot – Reporter Susan Vaughn

Photo Credit: Bob Schutz, July 30, 1961.

Photo/Video Credit: JFK Presidential Library and Museum

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Restoring a 1923 Wianno Sloop

Wianno seniors – a brief pedigree  .

Since 1914, Wianno’s have had a reputation for rounding the mark and slicing past in a flash of brightwork, canvas and speed. Their ease of handling and seaworthiness made them popular both as racers and coastal voyagers. Fantasy #11 can be seen at Mystic Seaport Museum and Victura #94 – the boat purchased by Joseph P. Kennedy and sailed by his children and grandchildren – is on show at the John F Kennedy Memorial Library .

I found Simba to be able, safe and challenging – as did the many friends who sailed her – and for me, learning to get about without the fallback of auxiliary power allowed me to develop patience and a sensitivity to wind and tide that served me superbly when I moved, a decade later, to a Rhodes Offshore 40.

By 1986, the Wianno Association members were considering a fiberglass version.  A few years earlier, Sparkman Stevens had hauled in five wooden Seniors at mid-season, weighing and electronically measuring each one.  Using that study to determine the ideal characteristics of a Senior, the vessel was re-created as a three-piece fiberglass hull, deck and interior.  The fiberglass Seniors look great and sail well, but as a veteran of the wooden sloop, I notice that the sound of the boat has changed.

Wooden sailboat restoration – love affair and learning curve

Simba, originally Hull 51*, was a leaking bucket when I bought her; years of hard racing on Nantucket Sound had put enough leaks in the bottom that just keeping her bailed would have exhausted a strong man and the cabin seemed only to filter out leaves.  She was valued at no more than her unpaid yard bills – $500, so when I’d paid off her dues, I had her carefully loaded onto an overland boat carrier and moved from Essex to East Haddam, CT.

Her new home was the back yard of the wood boat repair shop run by Robert K. Wilmes whom I hired to serve as consultant for her restoration. Included in his consulting fee were storage rights on his property and the use of his tools, so, in season, we would meet every Friday evening for dinner before, on Saturday morning, list in hand, he would indicate exactly what I would need to accomplish in the next two day’s labor. I would leave NY City center with sufficient time to make the 15:30 Amtrak Boston train arriving at Old Saybrook station at 18:04 and then would come 48 hours of patience, practice and learning because, at least for the first few months, it was less accomplish than re-do. Getting the cut right was a literally painstaking process – winching in the curve to the right fit caused a beam to break and the wood flew back to within three inches of my head – a fraction further and I’d have been dead.

Wianno Seniors were constructed from native white oak which was used for framing the stem, keel, deadwood, sternpost, knee and horn. Simba, whom I renamed Corsair, was carvel planked using 13/16-inch cypress. This was standard until 1932, but Wiannos from that date onward had planks of Honduras mahogany.  They all had 600 lbs. iron on the keel as external ballast.

Bob Wilmes directed me to start with the deck, deck beams, demo the cockpit, cockpit staving, so that I could inspect, repair or sister her frames, which were 1 1/2 inches square, spaced 9 inches on centers.  The original frames were dovetailed and wedged in the keel.

Then, under his tutelage, I moved onto deck beams – oak spaced 10 inches on centers – and added a watertight cockpit floor made of fir plywood 5/8-inch-thick, before fiberglassing the surface.  The cabin trunk was the steam bent white oak that had nearly cost me my life.

The new cabin deck was 3/8-inch marine plywood, canvas covered, glued and ironed, the same for the process of fixing the deck canvas, covered with white oak rub rails I had fashioned.  The hull itself was wooded – removing all paint and exposing the bungs.  Following their removal, I drew out as many of the galvanized fasteners as I could, replacing each with a new stainless steel one.

The hull above the waterline received a coat of Penetrol followed by a primer and then Interlux French Gray with white intrusion line. The decks, received three coats of buff. The outside bright work was given two sealers and eight coats of spar varnish.  Below the waterline, after the garboard and shudder planks had been replaced by Bob himself, she received one prime coat followed by two coats of antifouling green.

By the time she was ready to launch in June 1982, I was ready to move from the NY City Centre Joffrey Ballet and accepted a position at the Guthrie Theater. It was, as people say today, a no-brainer; a new wood Wianno Senior would cost me $40,000 and anyway, I had thousands of hours literally grained into the wood of the boat, so I negotiated her transport to Minnesota as part of my relocation costs.

In Minnesota, I changed Corsair to Kirby paint, after consulting with the restoration team at Mystic Seaport .  They advised me to move away from paints that contained modern acrylics as these would harden the wood. Acrylic-free surfaces definitely made prepping the topsides much easier each spring.  Another advantage of moving to Minnesota was that some of the many talented craftsmen in the Guthrie scene shop were available to hire for boat work on the side.  The Wianno’s new tiller, fashioned as a copy of the original, was the result of one such collaboration.

Boat restoration – a bug you can catch

  There was another unexpected outcome to the Minnesota move. Boats are one of those places that great friendships spontaneously and naturally develop, and it gives me great pleasure to recall teaching my boss, Ed Martenson, to sail.  He caught the bug, has restored two boats of his own, and we’ve crewed on each other’s boats for over a quarter of a century.

The history of Hull 51

  I sold Corsair following the 75th Anniversary of the Fleet at Osterville in 1989, where she won Best Prize for Restoration. But she wasn’t done with me. One evening I found myself wondering how many fiberglass Seniors had actually been built? Going through the Wianno Senior Class Association ‘s members list by hull number and comparing that information with a page from the 75th Anniversary book revealed who had owned a Senior in 1935.  I discovered that, at that time, Hull 51 was named King Tut and owned by Lawarson Riggs Jr of Woods Hole.   A Google search later I had turned up a letter from his law office written, as Treasurer of the Woods Hole Institute, to the Rockefeller Foundation.  Riggs was born in St. Louis, where I went to college at Washington University.  He attended Columbia Law School and lived at 70 W 11th. When I was a similar age, I lived at 20 E 8th. His law focus was Estate and Tax, an area I follow intently as a career fund raiser. The parallels intrigued me.

In 1989, Victor M Tyler purchased Corsair through my boat broker and renamed her Hilda. Several months later I received a registered package containing her name board and brass letters along with a note asking if Corsair had ever been moored off of Bracketts Point?  I called him to confirm – George and Sally Pillsbury had indeed been gracious enough to invite me to place a mushroom anchor off their property.  His response was a deep sigh; he had visited his cousin Ella Pillsbury who lived right next door and Corsair was part of a boat class he had long known.

Vic died on October 3, 2017. Vic was born on October 10, 1928 in New Haven, Connecticut, the son of Morris and Eugenie C. Tyler. Vic attended Milton Academy, graduated from Phillips Academy Andover (1947) and Yale College (1951), where he majored in physics and philosophy. He served as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force, and was stationed in Iceland. Vic earned a SB in electrical engineering at M.I.T. (1955) and a Master of Engineering at Yale (1958). After working at EG&G throughout the 1960’s, Vic and five colleagues started their own company, Concord Computing Corporation, in 1970. Vic loved music, opera, woodworking and farming, genealogy and history, the ocean and travel with his family. Hilda remains in the Tyler family and sails out of Chatham, MA.

1923 – a year that has come to dominate my life

With Corsair gone, my awareness of 1923 slipped from sight, but it was simply waiting under the surface. When I retired to Tampa, Florida, I purchased a bungalow and cottage built in … 1923. It took me a year of restoration to achieve the 1920s ambience I wanted for the properties and when I’d finished, I named them Erehwon Retreat – vacation rental properties in Tampa that are lovingly crafted reminders of the glories of the Roaring Twenties.

* For those who love the genealogy of boats as well as people, Hull #51’s name history is: 1. King Tut 2. Golden Fleece 3. Simba 4. Corsair 5. Hilda

Wianno Senior

The classic Wianno Senior is a gaff-rigged sloop designed and built by Crosby Yacht since the early 1900s. Crosby was commissioned by a group of local sailors to create a class of sailboats uniquely designed for the local waters and sufficient for convenient one-design racing.

Her full keel and deep draft adjustable centerboard are perfect for the shoal-ridden sailing grounds common on the Southside of Cape Cod. Her graceful overhanging stern and gently curved bow harken back to a time when designers used their eye instead of computers for perfect shapes.

The large cockpit is perfect for daysailing with friends and family. Under deck provides a sitting headroom with two full-length integral bunks. There is ample space for sails and gear storage. To keep with the times, maintain construction economies and promote the life of the Wianno Senior class, the transition to fiberglass was begun in the 1980s. All visible wood components on a wooden Wianno Senior are wood on the new fiberglass Wianno Senior being built today. Through this effort, the character, appearance, and tradition of the Wianno Senior continues into the new century.

Specifications: LOA 25’0″ LWL 17’6″ BEAM 8’0″ DRAFT 2’6″

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Wianno Senior

Class contact information.

Click below

Class Email

Class Website

One-Design Class Type: Keelboat

Was this boat built to be sailed by youth or adults? Both

Approximately how many class members do you have? 200

Photo Credit:Ben Mendlowitz

Photo Credit: Ben Mendlowiitz

Photo Credit: Ben Mendlowitz

About Wianno Senior

The Wianno Senior is a 25-foot gaff-rigged sloop that is raced and sailed principally in Nantucket Sound, although the Senior can be found in waters between Maine and Maryland, as well as in Italy. Racing fleets compete out of yacht clubs in Osterville, Hyannis/Hyannis Port, and Bass River. Racing is organized during these clubs from mid-June to Labor Day, and the class championship is raced during three weekends in July where we typically have more than 20 boats competing. Many members of the class enjoy the Wianno Senior for day sailing as well as racing, as the centerboard design permit the boat to safely navigate the shallow waters of the Cape.

Boats Produced: Over 225 have been produced.

Class boat builder(s):

E.M. Crosby Boatworks – https://www.emcrosbyboatworks.com/ Crosby Yacht – https://www.crosbyyacht.com/ Wianno Senior Italia – http://www.wiannosenioritalia.com/en

Approximately how many boats are in the USA/North America? 100

Where is your One-Design class typically sailed in the USA? List regions of the country:

Cape Cod, MA (Osterville, Hyannis/Hyannis Port, and Bass River)

Does this class have a spinnaker or gennaker? Yes

How many people sail as a crew including the helm?  4

Ideal combined weight of range of crew:  600

Boat Designed in  1914

Length (feet/inches): 25′

Beam: 8′

Weight of rigged boat without sails: 4,100 lbs.

Draft: 2’6″ and 5’6″ with centerboard down

Mast Height: 26′

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• Sailboat Guide

1948 29' Crosby Wianno Senior

• Description

Seller's Description

Wianno Senior built by Crosby in 1948. These classic wooden boats are still raced in Cape Cod (JFK raced them too), but this was modified from the original 25’. In about 2007 the boat had its stern extended into a beautiful overhang. An outboard motor well was added. The original transom remains forward of the extension.

The deck was redone in teak and a bow spirit and a hatch were added.

Two big winches were added along with a self tacking cutter rig jib with a job boom.

The mahogany hull was covered in fiberglass. Currently the deck needs work especially in the forward portion.

The hull is probably good, but the mast may needs repair. The lines of this boat are hard to match.

The trailer pictured is available for an additional $900. It has 4 new tires.

Rig and Sails

Auxilary power, accomodations, calculations.

The theoretical maximum speed that a displacement hull can move efficiently through the water is determined by it's waterline length and displacement. It may be unable to reach this speed if the boat is underpowered or heavily loaded, though it may exceed this speed given enough power. Read more.

Classic hull speed formula:

Hull Speed = 1.34 x √LWL

Max Speed/Length ratio = 8.26 ÷ Displacement/Length ratio .311 Hull Speed = Max Speed/Length ratio x √LWL

Sail Area / Displacement Ratio

A measure of the power of the sails relative to the weight of the boat. The higher the number, the higher the performance, but the harder the boat will be to handle. This ratio is a "non-dimensional" value that facilitates comparisons between boats of different types and sizes. Read more.

SA/D = SA ÷ (D ÷ 64) 2/3

• SA : Sail area in square feet, derived by adding the mainsail area to 100% of the foretriangle area (the lateral area above the deck between the mast and the forestay).
• D : Displacement in pounds.

Ballast / Displacement Ratio

A measure of the stability of a boat's hull that suggests how well a monohull will stand up to its sails. The ballast displacement ratio indicates how much of the weight of a boat is placed for maximum stability against capsizing and is an indicator of stiffness and resistance to capsize.

Ballast / Displacement * 100

Displacement / Length Ratio

A measure of the weight of the boat relative to it's length at the waterline. The higher a boat’s D/L ratio, the more easily it will carry a load and the more comfortable its motion will be. The lower a boat's ratio is, the less power it takes to drive the boat to its nominal hull speed or beyond. Read more.

D/L = (D ÷ 2240) ÷ (0.01 x LWL)³

• D: Displacement of the boat in pounds.
• LWL: Waterline length in feet

Comfort Ratio

This ratio assess how quickly and abruptly a boat’s hull reacts to waves in a significant seaway, these being the elements of a boat’s motion most likely to cause seasickness. Read more.

Comfort ratio = D ÷ (.65 x (.7 LWL + .3 LOA) x Beam 1.33 )

• D: Displacement of the boat in pounds
• LOA: Length overall in feet
• Beam: Width of boat at the widest point in feet

Capsize Screening Formula

This formula attempts to indicate whether a given boat might be too wide and light to readily right itself after being overturned in extreme conditions. Read more.

CSV = Beam ÷ ³√(D / 64)

The WIANNO SENIOR Knockabout was designed as a one-design day sailer for summer residents of Wianno, Cape Cod, and has remained the principal one-design class of the Wianno Yacht Club. Additional fleets were subsequently organized at the Hyannis, Hyannis Port, Bass River and Stone Horse Yacht Clubs. The original builder was the Crosby Yacht Building and Storage Co. in Osterville Mass, Cape Cod. The boat has remained a popular and competitive class on Nantucket Sound. Since 1914, about 180 boats have been built. Recent boats are of Fiberglass. About 140 still exist today.

Most recent builder: E. M. Crosby Boatworks 48 Lombard Ave. West Barnstable, MA

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Wianno Senior Class

Season Calendar

2024 doyle sails fleet order, doyle sails is offering discounts for early orders. order by 12-01 for a 20% fleet discount. as a reminder, please see scudder cup rule 6(c) for sail purchase info., join the class association, help support the class, shop wianno senior gear, latest news.

New Boat Construction

No new fiberglass boats had been built since 1990, and without new boats, the class was not going to survive. […]

Tuning Guide and Racing Tips

Have tips or resources you have found helpful? Email us to add to this page. Tuning Workshop from 2014  Guides […]

Keel/Rudder Design

When first built in 1914, the Wianno One Design had a different keel/rudder arrangement compared to what is seen today. […]

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JSP ON SALE NOW

2024's Junior Sailing Program is now on-sale here

Published 6:00pm on 8 Mar 2024

The C420 New England Championship Returns to WYC!!

Click here for the event website including the freshly posted NOR

Published 3:48pm on 7 Feb 2024

JFK and Victura

President John F. Kennedy’s beloved sailboat Victura (Latin for “about to conquer”) is a 25-foot Wianno Senior sloop purchased in 1932 as a 15th birthday gift from his parents. It is on the Victura that he taught his wife Jackie to sail and also where the Kennedy family enjoyed their love of sailing on Cape Cod.

John F. Kennedy was an avid sailor, having won many sailing events – including the Nantucket Sound Star Class Championship Cup in 1936, and the MacMillan Cup and East Coast Collegiate Championships in 1938 (with his brother Joe). He enjoyed many boats throughout his life, including a 92-foot wooden presidential yacht that served five presidents and the same yacht that he renamed the Honey Fitz after his maternal grandfather. However, it was the Victura that was JFK’s cherished boat and the very boat that he sketched on many of his documents in meetings during his presidency.

The Victura was struck by lightning in 1936 and rescued from ruin by John F. Kennedy as he dragged it onto a beach during a 1944 hurricane. The Victura also escaped ruin in December 2003 when a fire swept through Crosby Yacht Yard in Osterville, Massachusetts.

Boat LOA: 26 Feet Boat Width: 8 Feet Boat Weight: 3500 lb Boat Material: Wood Boat Builder: Crosby Yacht Yard in Osterville, MA Boat Launched: 1932 Look for a model of the Victura during your visit to the John F. Kennedy Hyannis Museum!