Wooden Boat Show Organizer Randall von Wedel Finds ‘Grisette’ in Europe
While traveling in Europe, Master Mariners Wooden Boat Show organizer Randall von Wedel has a knack for discovering and visiting former Bay Area classics that have found a new home there. One of those is the cutter Grisette, which spent many years sailing on San Francisco Bay. Randall described her, saying, “You can’t imagine how excited I was to find Grisette in such good hands at such a fine boatyard after 30 years since I sailed on her as first mate (foredeck) on S.F. Bay 1991–1996.”
Randall included a few photos he took of her in the yard in Europe, and a couple of shots of her local sailing life.
Randall was able to visit Grisette while the 1904 English teak cutter was in the midst of a complete restoration. The restoration is taking place in the chantier du Guip shop in Brest, France. While viewing, Randall noted, “I was amazed to see how well the heavy teak planking has held up, now splined along every seam … amazing progress.”
“She was a highly admired classic sailing yacht on San Francisco Bay for decades (1980s, or earlier, to 1996). She raced actively in the Master Mariners Benevolent Association regattas (1991–96, skippered by lead owner Jim Van Dyke of Stockton, CA) and we participated in offshore races up to Drake’s Bay near Point Reyes.”
Randall reports she left the Bay Area when she was sold to a French artist who sailed her down to Costa Rica in 1996 for a retrofit that was never completed. Apparently, a group of investors paid to have the vessel shipped back to France in need of a new interior and other work. When she left Sausalito, her teak hull, deck and rig were in very good condition.
Jeremy Fisher Smith wrote, “Ah, now hurts my heartstrings.… I first came upon her at anchor in the cove at S.F.’s Aquatic Park, and was immediately infatuated. My attraction for her only grew when I rowed from shore and explored her inside and out. At the time, her local owner (whom I knew through other sailing channels) had donated her to the Sea Scouts, and knowing they fundraised by selling donated vessels, I immediately got in touch and made an impulsive offer of $10,000. I no longer recall how I thought I could come up with that kind of money at the time, but it didn’t matter, I was smitten. Sadly, they declined my offer and sometime later I heard they had sold her for … around what I’d offered. I still recall the details of her build: the planking scheme of her counter, those wrought iron hanging knees copper-riveted in place, all of them as fit as the day they were fastened (wait, we were taught not to mix metals, but that’s true iron, not steel!), and that classic rudder-stock/head/tiller treatment. If I remember correctly, she’d been re-rigged Bermudan with a second-hand mast.”
Jeremy added, “I’d been obsessively devouring the great reference works of Howard Chapelle, C.P. Kunhardt, W.P. Stevens, Wm. Atkin, John Gardner and the like, all through my 20s — so I was fully primed to meet Grisette when I did. I’d already cultured an eye for what she was, but never expected to find her archetypal form in our own front yard.”
Wood craftsperson Milly Biller chimed in, saying, “I have very fond memories of that beautiful boat — both sailing and working on her.”
Grisette is one of many classics whose long lives have included time on San Francisco Bay. They’re a beautiful addition to the Bay Area sailing scene but don’t always stay. Randall is also planning updates on former classics Pursuit and Wander Bird, which also spent many years on the Bay but are both now being restored by new owners in Europe.
I hope the chantier de Guip restores her to her original gaff cutter rig.
https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo/Gaff-cutter-Grisette.html?blackwhite=1&sortBy=relevant
I am SO happy to hear this ! Thank you for letting me know, Randall ! I raced and worked on that beautiful boat for a number of years when she was here in the Bay. I am also grateful to hear about Pursuit and Wanderbird. We can’t let these beautiful boats wither away and die. Many thanks for publishing this, John !
I was so thrilled to read this article. I was the 4th owner of Grisette. I found her in Ala Wai harbor in Waikiki Oahu in 1966. I had just sailed in from Acapulco on my 22 foot sloop Isle of Skye. Grisette was on T-Pier a 1/8 mile long wood pier that bisected the harbor about 3/4s of the way out a few slips away from Vivika (sp) and John Ford’s Aroner 90 foot ketch on the end. Grisette’s bow sprit hung over the pier and with a little ‘for sale’ sign going up and down with the tide (3 to 4 feet in Hawaii). My crew from our voyage from Acapulco got a job on attending to the deck seams of her pitch pine decks and reported to me the sale price was $12,000. I had $13,000 left from an inheritance from my grandmother. I was sure she would be worth much more in California, so I jumped. I did contact a surveyor. He came aboard and seemed to assess my financial situation and did a perfunctory inspection and declared her ‘quite good’ and didn’t charge me. I became her new owner. The seller Dick Terry had bought her from the second owner in 1958 in England where she was built in 1904. He replaced the gas engine with a diesel and made some other changes and set sail for the Caribbean. He and his wife, Tony, sailed to the Panama Canal and got a job there keeping Grisette in Gatoon Lake. He did extensive improvements (?) to her including moving the galley forward, altering the circular cockpit to a bench type, roller furling on the jib & mainsail, a non-hunting Wood Freeman auto pilot and more during their 3 or 4 years there. They then set sail for French Polynesia and Hawaii. After 2 aborted attempts to leave Hawaii (we were in a time bind to get my brother to his USGS posting) I finally took the time to get to know Grisette better with 2 trips to Kauai and recruited a crew and had a wonderful passage to Santa Cruz. I arrived with 34 cents in my pocket. I got a job right away to pay the $62 a month slip rent. I sold her 5 months later to Wilber Sproul and did make some money. A note about the name Grisette, if you look up the origin of the name you might find that it means in French ‘a lady of the night’. I was told by a friend who had spent a lot of time in Paris that originally in mid 1800’s Grisette referred to the young girls from the country side that came to Paris to work in the textile factories were nick named grisettes due to the fact that they universally clothed in grey. Also young Englishmen, at the time, commonly travelled to Paris to experience the liberal life styles it afforded and often had affairs with these young girls from the country. I suspect the original owner/builder of Grisette had just such an experience.