Sparkman & Stephens 57 ft Sloop 1941 - Project - Vendu

Any Sparkman & Stephens design featured in Olin J Stephens' seminal design retrospective book “Lines” may be considered special. GESTURE - winner of the first Newport-Bermuda Race sailed after the second world war - is certainly so. Even for an Olin Stephens design she’s incredibly good looking, and is a proven race winner. Her relatively recent history has resulted in her becoming a project yacht, but what a project she will be! Mostly original features and relatively unaltered state contribute to fabulous authenticity. Combining that with her pre-1949 build date strongly suggests a potent performer on classic regatta circuits whilst her spacious accommodations will offer great comfort afloat.

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These details are provisional and may be amended

We believe GESTURE’s hull to be sound, and - although we’re cautious about claiming she’s going to be an easy boat to restore - the quality of original build and the opinion of a well known boatbuilder who has looked closely suggests that this might not be a keel-up restoration.

Together with her equally illustrious cousin BARUNA, the 57 ft sloop GESTURE - commissioned by Howard Fuller of the Fuller Brush Company - was described by Olin J Stephens in his autobiography as one of “the two most handsome boats that came out of our office”. Moreover he went on to say that yachts built by Quincy Adams were “among the handsomest of their time”.

GESTURE is fast too: sailing against famous names including BARUNA, HIGHLAND LIGHT, ESCAPADE, LATIFA and BRILLIANT, she won the first post-war Bermuda Race in 1946 after the period of slumber enforced by her launching into the year the USA joined the second world war - 1941. During Fuller’s ownership she became not only one of the internationally best known ocean racers of her day (fourth in Class I, 1953 Fastnet Race; missing out winning the RORC’s prestigious Britannia Trophy by three seconds on corrected time), but also one of the most modern: she is believed to be the first ocean racing yacht to be fitted with an extruded aluminium mast, made - possibly by Fuller Brush Company - from Alcoa Aluminum in the 1940s.

- Double planked: mahogany over cedar on bent white oak frames and white oak backbone
- Monel ring frames in way of mast
- Teak deck (new c2006)

- Raised toerail with teak capping rail
- Running lights recessed into toerail
- Bronze stanchions and bases
- Well type self-draining cockpit with teak coamings and aft hatches
- Wheel pedestal
- Original rudder head in place; original tiller is aboard
- Mix of Barient and Merriman sheet winches – most in storage
- Teak pass-through deckhouse with painted fabric roof finish
- Coffee grinder winch position forward of deckhouse (in storage)
- 2 x teak skylights with bronze glazing frames
- Teak forehatch
- 4 x teak Dorade boxes
- Bronze deck fittings, most believed original, incl. custom headsail/ spinnaker sheet sheaves
- Bronze genoa track
- Bronze framed deck prisms
- Sampson post
- Bronze Panama fairleads forward

- Accommodation for 6 / 8 in three spaces
- All bright finished carpentry is teak
- Companionway to deckhouse leads to chart table with bunks to port and starboard
- Sideboard and electric panel to starboard
- Forward to starboard offset passage: hanging lockers to starboard; wc compartment to port
- Saloon with 'L' shaped settee to port; settee to starboard with sideboard forward
- Pilot berths outboard with stowage under
- Lockers forward of pilot berths
- Various drawers in aft port bulkhead
- Gimballed table; skylight over
- Forward to athwartships galley in way of mast
- Cooker and sink to port; cool boxes to starboard; stowage outboard
- Forward to forecabin with double bunk; folding sink to port
- Access to chain locker forward

- Aluminium mast believed first extruded aluminium mast ever made. Provenance TBA
- Aluminium boom

- Volvo Penta 4 cylinder engine TBA
- Monel tanks, unknown capacity