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Early Days: Summer Sailing on Cape Cod
I'm not sure why my parents elected to summer on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, rather than among the lakes and mountains of northern New Hampshire, which my father loved. I was born in Nashua, a mill town located in southern New Hampshire forty miles north of Boston. My father served as treasurer in the paper product company Nashua Corporation, founded by my grandfather whom I never met.
My parents found a cottage for sale in Cataumet, a village located at the head of Cape Cod's Buzzards Bay. The cottage was built in 1905, strictly for summer living, simple and rustic, cedar-shingled, with wide shaded porches overlooking the water. An intriguing little room with large windows on all sides, separate from the house, was a perfect spot for watching the sun set. Known as the Pilot House, it was perhaps the after-dinner retreat for the gentlemen and their cigars in earlier days. Situated on a bluff overlooking a private beach, the house was only a couple of hundred yards from Hospital Cove, a magical and secluded natural harbor. Over time, the house's rafters became festooned with pennants, which my brothers and I won in the Sunday afternoon races.
Skippering our Phil Rhodes designed Arrowhead sloop under the guidance of my older brother John, 1941.
Our cottage at Cataumet, Cape Cod.
Photo: Catherine Carter
I well remember those tedious, de rigueur family Sunday lunches, which seemed to go on forever. I would be watching the wind and the clock, fidgeting and fixated on getting out in our sailboat, ready for the afternoon race, my stomach in knots, a heavy meal the last thing I wanted.
A word about Buzzards Bay: the prevailing summer wind along the northeast coast of the U.S. comes from the southwest. Buzzards Bay is one of the few bodies of water in New England actually facing southwest. So when the land heats up at the head of the Bay, it increases the velocity of the wind coming from the southwest. One could almost set one's watch for when the sou'wester kicks in every afternoon. Any sailor leaving the protected waters of the Cape Cod Canal, and riding a favorable current into the Bay's rough water and strong wind, understands why the Buzzards Bay sou'wester enjoys such a reputation.
The reason the house was for sale was immediately obvious; the 1938 hurricane had devastated the New England coast. In Cataumet, an estimated ten or twelve feet of the bank had been washed away. I can remember vividly that when I was eleven, there was only one foot of bank remaining beyond the corner of the house. Not long thereafter, my father had the bank restored with riprap at the base.
The pennants represent 40 years of family racing. Photo: Catherine Carter
With such an ideal location for sailing, thoughts turned towards boats. My father, who was definitely not a sailor, asked a neighbor what kind of sailboat we should get. He was told: "Eh-verybody has a Herreshoff 12." My father didn't take kindly to the suggestion that the boat should be selected for social reasons and it certainly brought out his Yankee independent thinking. So in 1940, we acquired a Cape Cod Knockabout, an 18-foot centerboarder that we named ALBATROSS.
But my mother, clearly anticipating the classic problem of a twelve-year-old son dealing with boredom, sent me to camp in July 1940. Camp Kabeyun, located on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire, was selected. One of the appeals of the camp, I am sure, was that they offered sailing instruction with their two 18-foot Winabout sailboats, a class similar to the smaller Town Class. Maybe I would learn to sail.
Sitting furthest aft in the 18-foot Winabout.
I had a great time at the camp except for one thing. Every boy was expected to pass the dreaded cove test: swimming from one side of the cove to the other, a distance of 50 yards. Well, I was a scrawny kid, a real sinker, and I just couldn't do it. I obviously showed serious interest in sailing though, and at the end of camp, the sailing instructor, whom I idolized, said, "I think you're ready to solo." I couldn't believe it. It was a camp rule that no one could sail solo unless he passed the cove swim test, and here was the instructor ignoring the camp rule. Apparently he had enough confidence in my sailing ability to handle the Winabout alone. My vivid memory of that sail was how hard I had to think about everything. I certainly wasn't encumbered with the wearing of a life preserver. But my sense of accomplishment was palpable, and to have such a vote of confidence in my sailing ability meant the world to me.
I was a real bruiser at 12 years old.
The first boat I ever "built" was at Kabeyun. We shaped the hulls, cut out the metal for the keels, cast the lead ballast, made the sails, the works.
Sailing at Cataumet
The Buzzards Yacht Club, formed in 1930, ran a series of races in July and August, initially for the Herreshoff 12 1/2s. Then somewhere along the line, the Club added a handicap class, which permitted boats of different designs to race together. This was where brother John began his racing career in the summer of 1940, sailing our Knockabout. The competition included some very fine sailors.
I had just returned from Camp Kabeyun to sail in the August 1940 series. I recall the salt spray flying into my face as we slugged to windward. It was quite different from the placid freshwater of Lake Winnipesaukee at camp!
Little did we realize at the time that we would sail the ALBATROSS for only two seasons. Tom Kingman, a local boat builder, had started building a 21-foot sloop called the Arrowhead, and the best local sailors of the handicap class opted for the new boat. It seemed only logical for us to follow suit. I was too young to be involved in the family decision, but the determination to acquire an Arrowhead, which we named GREY GHOST, had a profound effect on my sailing career.
GREY GHOST in the lead.
The Arrowhead was designed by Phil Rhodes in 1936. Rhodes was to become one of the leading American yacht designers in the generation that followed Nathanael "Nat" Herreshoff, the preeminent American yacht designer of the era. Rhodes created a very graceful looking 21-foot daysailer whose elegance was enhanced by a tall mast. Her Achilles heel, however, was her tenderness in a stiff breeze. She was more suited for the lighter airs of Long Island Sound.
A Herreshoff 12 built in 1939, VIKING, located in Cataumet's harbor and still sailing today.
Photo: Dorothy Crossley, Courtesy of Cameron Bright
The Herreshoff 12 1/2, by contrast, was specifically designed to handle challenging Buzzards Bay conditions. In 1914, a group of summer residents from Monument Beach, a Buzzards Bay town near Cataumet, approached Nat Herreshoff, "the Wizard of Bristol", in Bristol, Rhode Island. They stipulated that they wanted a boat simple enough for their boys to learn to sail, and that would also return them safely home. The idea for the "Buzzards Bay Boys' Boat" was born.
Herreshoff designed a 16-foot, short-ended boat with a snubbed bow and transom stern sitting on a 12-foot 6-inch waterline. Following Nat's custom of naming boats by waterline length, the boat became the Herreshoff 12 1/2. Many sailors simply call it the Herreshoff 12 or just, the Twelve.
The boat's ample beam and large amount of lead in the keel (49% ballast/displacement ratio) made for a stiff boat. This stiffness was enhanced by a gaff rig with a lower center of effort than a Marconi (sloop) rig, which would have had a higher mast. In short, the boat was an ideal design for 'bringing the boys home' in the strong wind and steep chop of a Buzzards Bay sou'wester. The Herreshoff 12 design proved so popular that it celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2014.
In retrospect, I thank my lucky stars that I was to sail hours and hours in a tender boat like our Arrowhead, which demanded more skill in Buzzards Bay conditions. She forced me to learn many lessons in seamanship. She was not fail-safe like the Herreshoff 12.
I had already discovered through childhood games like shooting cards, playing marbles and tossing jack knives, that I had a strong innate competitive streak requiring skill rather than overt physical strength. I found that sailing fitted my personality extremely well as it required the development of skill and concentration rather than outright athleticism.
I was the youngest son of the youngest son going back four generations. My two older brothers, David and John, were followed by my sister, Anne, and myself. We boys went to boarding school, first to Eaglebrook School and then on to Phillips Academy, Andover. My two brothers were too old to be playmates but rather became mentors in their respective fields of interest. David was interested in art history, which eventually led to his work as a curator and director in museums. John, interested in sailing and later in gliding, took up architecture as a career.
Voyage to New Haven, Connecticut
When brother John was accepted as a student at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, he decided that he wanted to have GREY GHOST at Yale for weekend sailing on Long Island Sound. Although disappointed at the move, I was really excited to cruise from Cataumet down to New Haven in our 21-foot daysailer. But the planning was not so simple. America was at war! Restrictions on ship movements were introduced and, as we were to discover,...
