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Are You Familiar with “R” Boats?

Reader John Dukat posed this question, and sent us more pictures of old-timey sailboats on San Francisco Bay:

“I don’t know much about R boats, but I found a few images, I believe, in an old issue of Yachtsman at the Nautical Library at Fort Mason. R boats seem large, narrow and well canvassed.”

Classic-looking, sepia-toned sailboats spar, with Mt. Tam in the background.
© 2022 Courtesy John Dukat
R you having any memories of these beautiful boats? Drop us a line below.
© 2022 Courtesy John Dukat
 
Sailing

14 Comments

  1. Robert Rogers 3 years ago

    My Great Grandfather commissioned the first marconi R-boat on the West Coast; ALOHA; in the early 1920’s. The Master Mariners M-II division races for the ALOHA Trophy to this day. The trophy was won be my Great Grandfather, skippered by my Grandfather with my father in the crew. As far as I know ALOHA is still sailing in the Pacific Northwest. A picture of ALOHA hangs in my living room.

  2. Kimball Livingston 3 years ago

    I’m not going to write a treatise, but there was a stint between the wars when Rs were as important to West Coast racing as Six Metres.

  3. Matthew Sessions 3 years ago

    The R Class boats are still an active fleet of six boats that race at The Cleveland YC (my childhood home club). Think there may still be a fleet in Toronto as well.
    On a sporty night race on Lake Erie back in the late 1970’s, one swamped, then sank, when smacked by a Midwest nighttime storm. One teenage crew allegedly went down with the boat but managed to free himself from the rigging and miraculously swam to the surface to the relief of the rest of the team. A flashlight floated to the surface which gave them a chance to signal their distress. All souls survived but the boat was never found (despite going down in less than 60′ of water).

  4. Colin Emsley 2 years ago

    My parents owned the R boat “Ace” originally a San Francisco boat but we had it in SoCal. People used to laugh as I dressed in full foul weather gear in July, then they saw what foredeck on a submarine was like and stopped laughing. She was a great sailing boat but I’m convinced she never went over a wave in all her days.

  5. Andy Kopetzky 2 years ago

    My wife’s grandfather Alvin Frank skippered an R boat named Angela. Angela was a John Alden design built at Wilmington Boat Works (“Wilbo”) and won the Thomas Lipton Cup in San Diego three times. She was R boat #9 and I believe she was launched in 1923. I have pictures to submit if that function is available. I am searching for more history on these boats. Pirate was still up in the Pacific Northwest last time I checked.

    • John Arndt 2 years ago

      Send your photos to [email protected] – we’d love to share them.

  6. Bruce Rogers 2 years ago

    My father, Jack Rogers owned and sailed the R-boat Rascal in SF Bay in the late 30s. Sold it at the start of WW II. New owner ran it aground shortly thereafter. It had a very distinctive mast that was curved at the top to lower the center of effort. I picked out the mast in a harbor in Sausalito in the 70s, the boat much the worse for wear. He had trophies, so I imagine he won some races.

    • Robert Rogers 2 years ago

      Jack; not sure when your family owned RASCAL but one of the St Francis YC perpetual trophies sailed for by the under 40′ Marconi vessels in the Jessica Cup in the fall is the Rascal Cup. Not sure of the date on it but I think is around 1927. Beautiful silver cup about a foot tall.

    • Bruce Rogers 2 years ago

      Thanks for the response. I don’t know when he purchased the Rascal or if he was the original owner. I read in what I think was the minutes of the first meeting of the St. Francis club after the War. They mentioned the reemergence of the R-boat fleet and that the Rascal would soon be joining the fleet. I assume that was because after it running aground early in the War that it was not restored until after the War. I can’t find that minutes anymore and if you can, and would forward it, that would be very appreciated. Bruce

    • Andy Kopetzky 2 years ago

      Thanks for the info! It’s becoming more and more difficult to gather information on these boats. According to the R boat site Rascal was designed by Lester Stone and probably built at the Stone Boatyard.

  7. Bruce Rogers 2 years ago

    Andy: I would appreciate it if you could forward to me how to reach the R-boat site. I have not found it yet.
    Thanks, Bruce Rogers

    • John Arndt 2 years ago

      Bruce – here’s the class address: https://r-class.org/

    • Andy Kopetzky 2 years ago

      I found that checking some of the individual boats supplies further information: designer, location, etc.

  8. Steve Wolfe 5 months ago

    I sailed/raced on Diana R-8 out of National Yacht Club in the 70s. Initially only 2 active racing Rs, us and Nayada R-20 owned by the Reimanns but as the Reimann sons matured, they acquired their own Rs so we had a bit of a fleet for a while. We joined up with the Rs at Sodus Bay and in Cleveland for some great team races. Check out the article in the November 1975 issue of Yachting(I am the piper mentioned in the story). They were wonderful classic boats, fun to race but demanding attention. The last I heard of Diana, one of the Reimann offspring had bought her and totally rebuilt her to her original look (There was a website about it (2010ish as I recall) but since disappeared Diana would be 100 yrs old by now.

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