Old Boats

This is the 55 foot (15 meter) Sparkman & Stephens yawl Kestrel, once a famous ocean racer, built about 1950. I saw her on the ways at Martha's Vineyard Shipyard and pulled over for the picture. I stopped in the yard office to ask about her and immediately got the close attention of a yacht broker. My distinct impression is that no reasonable offer would be refused.

What happens to old yachts? The wooden ones do better than glass boats. Not every wooden boat can end up in the collection of Mystic Seaport, but is it so bad to end one's days as a rotting planter, or in a decaying cradle in a grassy boat yard, soon to return to the soil from whence one came?