wianno senior sailboat

The Founding 14 – The Legacy of the Wianno Senior

In 1913, governed by Fritz P. Day, fourteen members of the Wianno Yacht Club, in Osterville, Massachusetts, commissioned the Crosby Yacht Yard to design and build a small fast yacht capable of sailing and racing in the choppy-shoal-ridden sailing grounds of Cape Cod’s South Shore.

Fourteen Wianno Seniors were built and delivered in the spring of 1914. Of the initial 14, three have survived and their specifications and whereabouts are as follows:

Wianno Senior Specifications: LOA: 25′ / 7.62m – LWL: 17.6′ / 5.36m – Beam: 8′ / 2.44m – Sail Area: 366 sq ft / 34 m2 – Draft Board Up: 5.5′ / 1.68m – Draft Board Down: 2.5′ / .76m – Displacement: 4,100 lbs / 1,860 kgs – Ballast: 1,200 lbs / 544 kgs – Designer: H. Manley Crosby – Builder: Crosby Yacht Building and Storage Co. (USA) – First Built: 1914 – Contract Cost: $600.00

Original 14:

1. “Fiddler” , 2. “Wendy” , 3. “Telemark” , 4. “A.P.H.” A.P. Halliday, 5. “Commy” , 6. “Snookums” , 7. “Patsy” , 8. “Sea Dog” , 9. “Marie” , 10. “Qui Vive” , 11. “Fantasy” James G. Hinkle, 12. “Whistle Wing” , 13. “Maxixe” , and 14. “Ethyl”

Existing 3:

Number 7 “Tirza” – Richard A & Mary Lotuff Feeney (Half Centerboard) Osterville Massachusetts. Number 10 “Sea Wings” – M. Christopher Mattoon & Ed Stockman (Half Centerboard) Dalton, Massachusetts. Number 11 “Fantasy” – is in the collections of Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic, Connecticut.

Two boat yards are still building Wianno Seniors. Crosby Yacht Yard, Inc. in Osterville, Massachusetts, and Shaw Yacht, Inc, in Thomaston, Maine. About 200 Wianno Seniors have been built. Hull numbers through 173 were wooden boats; subsequent boats are being built of fiberglass. Hull number 222 was launched in 2011 by Crosby Yacht. Several hull numbers were omitted in the sequence.

Hull Number 94:

In 1932 Hull number 94, was purchased by Joe and Rose Kennedy as a  present for their son Jack’s fifteenth birthday. The “Victura” would become the Kennedy Family’s favorite boat. With a draft of 2.5 feet, with the centerboard up, the Wiannos could easily sail over most shoats, but still had to be sailed with caution around Nantucket Sounds shallowest spot Horseshoe Shoals at 6″

With a graceful low shear the Wianno Seniors were very “wet” boats. Racing the Wianno meant never finishing a race in dry clothes. Former Iowa Sen. John Culver, Harvard classmate of Wianno sailor Ted Kennedy, so eloquently and humorously describes his first sail over to Nantucket on “Victura” ( discussion on Wianno experience starts two and a half minutes into the video)

Osterville Historical Museum’s executive director Jennifer Williams commented during the Wianno classes 100th anniversary. The Wiannos were commissioned by some of the pillars of industry that made Osterville their summer home. The boat “leveled the playing field for sailing” and “changed the face of racing” on Nantucket Sound.

Victura , the beloved sailboat that taught the Kennedy’s about life, family, leadership and winning.

James W. Graham’s new book — Victura: the Kennedys, a Sailboat, and the Sea — offers new insights into the dynamics and magic of the Kennedy family and their intense relationship with sailing and the sea. Many families sail together, but the Kennedys’ relationship with Victura , the 25-foot sloop purchased in 1932 shortly after the family’s move to Hyannis Port, stands apart.

In Victura , James W. Graham charts the progress of America’s signature twentieth century family dynasty, in a narrative both stunningly original and deeply gripping. This true tale of one small sailboat is an invaluable contribution to our understanding of the impressive story of the Kennedy’s.

References:

James W. Graham –  Website – Author of Victura: the Kennedys, a Sailboat, and the Sea. – A communications and public affairs professional for a major-brand retailer, was a senior adviser to former Illinois Governor Jim Edgar and the Illinois House of Representatives. He races and cruises his sailboat Venturous out of Wilmette Harbor, north of Chicago.

Osterville Historical Museum – Executive Director Jennifer Williams

The Barnstable Patriot – Reporter Susan Vaughn

Photo Credit: Bob Schutz, July 30, 1961.

Photo/Video Credit: JFK Presidential Library and Museum

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• Sailboat Guide

Wianno Senior

Wianno Senior is a 25 ′ 0 ″ / 7.6 m monohull sailboat designed by H. Manley Crosby and built by Crosby Yacht Building and Storage Co. (USA) starting in 1913.

Rig and Sails

Auxilary power, accomodations, calculations.

The theoretical maximum speed that a displacement hull can move efficiently through the water is determined by it's waterline length and displacement. It may be unable to reach this speed if the boat is underpowered or heavily loaded, though it may exceed this speed given enough power. Read more.

Classic hull speed formula:

Hull Speed = 1.34 x √LWL

Max Speed/Length ratio = 8.26 ÷ Displacement/Length ratio .311 Hull Speed = Max Speed/Length ratio x √LWL

Sail Area / Displacement Ratio

A measure of the power of the sails relative to the weight of the boat. The higher the number, the higher the performance, but the harder the boat will be to handle. This ratio is a "non-dimensional" value that facilitates comparisons between boats of different types and sizes. Read more.

SA/D = SA ÷ (D ÷ 64) 2/3

• SA : Sail area in square feet, derived by adding the mainsail area to 100% of the foretriangle area (the lateral area above the deck between the mast and the forestay).
• D : Displacement in pounds.

Ballast / Displacement Ratio

A measure of the stability of a boat's hull that suggests how well a monohull will stand up to its sails. The ballast displacement ratio indicates how much of the weight of a boat is placed for maximum stability against capsizing and is an indicator of stiffness and resistance to capsize.

Ballast / Displacement * 100

Displacement / Length Ratio

A measure of the weight of the boat relative to it's length at the waterline. The higher a boat’s D/L ratio, the more easily it will carry a load and the more comfortable its motion will be. The lower a boat's ratio is, the less power it takes to drive the boat to its nominal hull speed or beyond. Read more.

D/L = (D ÷ 2240) ÷ (0.01 x LWL)³

• D: Displacement of the boat in pounds.
• LWL: Waterline length in feet

Comfort Ratio

This ratio assess how quickly and abruptly a boat’s hull reacts to waves in a significant seaway, these being the elements of a boat’s motion most likely to cause seasickness. Read more.

Comfort ratio = D ÷ (.65 x (.7 LWL + .3 LOA) x Beam 1.33 )

• D: Displacement of the boat in pounds
• LOA: Length overall in feet
• Beam: Width of boat at the widest point in feet

Capsize Screening Formula

This formula attempts to indicate whether a given boat might be too wide and light to readily right itself after being overturned in extreme conditions. Read more.

CSV = Beam ÷ ³√(D / 64)

The WIANNO SENIOR Knockabout was designed as a one-design day sailer for summer residents of Wianno, Cape Cod, and has remained the principal one-design class of the Wianno Yacht Club. Additional fleets were subsequently organized at the Hyannis, Hyannis Port, Bass River and Stone Horse Yacht Clubs. The original builder was the Crosby Yacht Building and Storage Co. in Osterville Mass, Cape Cod. The boat has remained a popular and competitive class on Nantucket Sound. Since 1914, about 180 boats have been built. Recent boats are of Fiberglass. About 140 still exist today.

Most recent builder: E. M. Crosby Boatworks 48 Lombard Ave. West Barnstable, MA

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Wianno Senior

In the Fall of 1913 a group of sailing enthusiasts on the south coast of Cape Cod (Massachusetts), all members of the Wianno Yacht Club, asked Manley Crosby, of the Crosby Boat Building Storage Company, Osterville, to build a small racing day-sailor, suitable for the difficult local conditions, characterised by strong winds and tidal currents and frequent unmarked sandy shallows. This is how the Wianno Senior “knockabout” came into being, named after the small village of Wianno, so called from the native American chief of the Iyanough tribe, from whom the area had been bought by the first settlers in 1664.

The Wianno Senior is 25 feet long and 8 feet wide, with an oak keel with cast iron ballast and a movable wooden centreboard. The first 14 were built by Crosby in the winter of 1913-14 and sold at the agreed figure of just over $600. Until the 1980s, the boats were built with oak frames and mahogany planking, deck and cockpit in cypress boards covered with waxed cloth and sitka spruce spars. In 1927 the rudder was lengthened and in 1928 running backstays were added to hoist a 269 square foot spinnaker with spinnaker pole which originally was more than 13 feet long, later reduced to 9 feet to be more practical.

The Wianno Senior met expectations from the very beginning, as can be seen from a 1915 review in The Rudder magazine: “In performance, the boats have fully come up to their requirements. They have shown themselves able, stiff and seaworthy, they take sound waves without plunging or “slapping”. In speed they have been an agreeable surprise, for in a series of Interclass races pitted against boats designed by Herreshoff and Lawley they stood up for themselves, winning in all sea and wind conditions.”

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Wianno Senior

Class contact information.

Click below

Class Email

Class Website

One-Design Class Type: Keelboat

Was this boat built to be sailed by youth or adults? Both

Approximately how many class members do you have? 200

Photo Credit:Ben Mendlowitz

Photo Credit: Ben Mendlowiitz

Photo Credit: Ben Mendlowitz

About Wianno Senior

The Wianno Senior is a 25-foot gaff-rigged sloop that is raced and sailed principally in Nantucket Sound, although the Senior can be found in waters between Maine and Maryland, as well as in Italy. Racing fleets compete out of yacht clubs in Osterville, Hyannis/Hyannis Port, and Bass River. Racing is organized during these clubs from mid-June to Labor Day, and the class championship is raced during three weekends in July where we typically have more than 20 boats competing. Many members of the class enjoy the Wianno Senior for day sailing as well as racing, as the centerboard design permit the boat to safely navigate the shallow waters of the Cape.

Boats Produced: Over 225 have been produced.

Class boat builder(s):

E.M. Crosby Boatworks – https://www.emcrosbyboatworks.com/ Crosby Yacht – https://www.crosbyyacht.com/ Wianno Senior Italia – http://www.wiannosenioritalia.com/en

Approximately how many boats are in the USA/North America? 100

Where is your One-Design class typically sailed in the USA? List regions of the country:

Cape Cod, MA (Osterville, Hyannis/Hyannis Port, and Bass River)

Does this class have a spinnaker or gennaker? Yes

How many people sail as a crew including the helm?  4

Ideal combined weight of range of crew:  600

Boat Designed in  1914

Length (feet/inches): 25′

Beam: 8′

Weight of rigged boat without sails: 4,100 lbs.

Draft: 2’6″ and 5’6″ with centerboard down

Mast Height: 26′

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Wianno Senior

The Wianno Senior Knockabout has been racing on Nantucket Sound since the summer of 1914. The boat was designed as a day sailor for summer residents of Wianno and has remained the principal one-design class of the Wianno Yacht Club since the first summer. Generations of families on Cape Cod have been racing Seniors off the coast of Cape Cod in Nantucket Sound. For more information on the history of the Wianno Senior, please visit www.wiannosenior.org.

In December 2003, a fire at a local boatyard destroyed about 100 boats, including 21 Wianno Seniors, nine of which were from our fleet. In spite of this tragedy, the 2005 Wianno Senior local racing fleet is as strong as ever. After a big push to build and refurbish boats in 2004-2005, there were nearly a dozen Wianno Seniors available to race in Wianno for the 2005 summer season. The Wianno Yacht Club organizes races for Wianno Seniors from June 14 through August 30. While the Wianno Yacht Club does not own any Seniors, several families in the area race Seniors, and also enjoy sailing Seniors recreationally.

Additional fleets were subsequently organized at the Hyannis, Hyannis Port, Bass River and Stone Horse Yacht Clubs. The Stone Horse Yacht Club fleet has been inactive in recent years. In addition to sponsoring regular races during the summer months for their members, the four active Clubs sponsor interclub regattas held on two weekends each year which, together with the Edgartown yacht Club Regatta, currently comprise the Scudder Cup Series of races.

Max Crosby Regatta

George P. Edmonds Jr. Memorial Trophy

Wianno Regatta (Scudder Cup)

Wianno Yacht Club Ocean Race

Club Series Races – Listed on Club Calendar on dates with start times. First gun always at 1:45pm

Last updated 9:12am on 1 July 2024

WIANNO SENIOR ITALIA

The Wianno Senior is a 25 foot gaff rigged sloop built since 1914 on the Southern shores of Cape Cod (Massachusetts). Designed for the difficult waters of Nantucket Sound, a stretch of sea characterized by strong winds and tidal currents and frequent unmarked sandy shallows. Wianno Senior with her elegant lines, centerboard, low freeboard, wide stern and ample cockpit is still a boat of great fascination on which whole generations of sailors have raced and continue to race.

Hull construction

LOA (Lenght Overall)

Displacement

Manley Crosby

Wood (until 1976)

Fiberglass (since 1982)

Wood (Sitka Spruce)

0.75 / 1.83 m

WIANNO SENIOR

The hull is built in solid fiberglass on a female mold, using biaxial tissue and polyester/vinylester resins.​

The deck is in Airex fiberglass sandwich.

Deck coamings, cockpit floor and other finishes in solid teak.

Mast, boom, gaff and spinnaker pole in solid sitka spruce.

Deck fittings in bronze according to original Merriman Bros. 1898 models.

It is possible to tow the boat on road with a trailer.

Electric or Diesel engine available.

The boats produced in Italy are CE certified in class A, category C.

Wianno Senior Class

About the Association

Purposes.  The Association is a non-profit corporation which promotes the interests of the Wianno Senior One Design Class. The Association develops one-design rules, assembles and maintains historical information about the Class, and publishes and distributes information about the Class to its members and the public. The Association is qualified as a tax-exempt organization under Section 510(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

Membership.   Membership in the Association is open to anyone interested in the Class upon the payment of annual dues of $10. Voting at meetings of the Association is restricted to one vote for each Wianno Senior enrolled in the Association, regardless of the number of owners or crew members associated with such yacht who are members of the Association. The affairs of the Class Association are managed by a Board of Governors currently consisting of nine members. Governors serve three-year terms, with one-third of the Governors being up for election each year. A more detailed description of membership and government matters is set fourth in the Constitution and By-laws included in the handbook.

SMSA Wianno Senior Class Committee.  The Board of Governors of the Class Association also comprises the Wianno Senior Class Committee of the Southern Massachusetts Sailing Association (SMSA). The Class Committee serves two important functions: (1) to promote Wianno Senior racing by approving one-design rules governing Wianno Senior hulls, rigs and sails: and (2) to determine the winners of Class championship trophies based upon the results of inter-club regattas response by SMSA member Clubs. The Class Committee does not sponsor any races or participate in their management.

Subcommittee on Rules and Measurements.   The Class Committee has established a Subcommittee on Rules and Measurements, which meets regularly to discuss questions and issues regarding the Class measurements and the Scudder Cup Series Rules and makes recommendations to the Class Committee for amendments to be adopted by the Class Committee. Meetings of the Subcommittee are open to any member of the Class Association. To find out the date of the next meeting or to request that an item be placed on the agenda at the next meeting, interested persons should contact the Chairman of the Subcommittee.

History of the Class Committee and the Association.   The Wianno Senior Class Committee has existed under the auspices of SMSA since 1946. The Class Committee was a self-perpetuating body which served the Class well for almost 40 years, seeing it through its period of greatest growth during the years from 1962 to the mid-1970s. In 1985, members of the Committee felt that a more formal organization which would provide for the election of the Class Committee by members of the fleet, would benefit the Class by encouraging broader participation of owners and other interested persons in its affairs. The Class Association was formally organized in response to this concern on July 12, 1985, and its first annual meeting of members has held on August 9, 1985, at the Wianno Yacht Club. The Association now has over 200 members, including the owners of more than 60 Wianno Seniors. The Association was incorporated as a non-profit corporation under Massachusetts law on March 9, 1989. The Class Association is a tax-exempt organization and contributions are tax-deductible.

Annual Meeting.  The Annual Meeting of the Association is held each summer on a Saturday evening following the conclusion of the Scudder Cup Series. At the Annual Meeting, awards for inter-club races are presented and plans for the coming season are discussed. The meetings serve as the principal occasions for friends of the Class to meet each other off the race course and for those interested in joining the Class to meet owners and crew members.

Fiberglass Wianno Senior.   David D. Steere, the late Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Association, spearheaded the effort from 1985 to 1987 to develop and finance a fiberglass version of the Wianno Senior Knockabout. The design and engineering of the new boat (by Sparkman & Stephens) and the manufacturing of the necessary tooling for its construction were financed by donations from more than 150 friends of the Wianno Senior Class to the Osterville Historical Society’s Wianno Senior Preservation Fund. In 2003 the Historical Society sold to the Class Association the molds and design information necessary for the manufacture of fiberglass boats. The fiberglass boats have the same sailing characteristics and appearance as the wooden Wianno Seniors.

Class History.  The Wianno Senior Knockabout has been racing on Nantucket Sound since the summer of 1914. The boat was designed as a day sailor for summer residents of WIanno and has remained the principal one-design class of the Wianno Yacht Club since the first summer. Additional fleets were subsequently organized at the Hyannis, Hyannis Port, Bass River and Stone Horse Yacht Clubs. The Stone Horse Yacht Club fleet has been inactive in recent years. In addition to sponsoring regular races during the summer months for their members, the four active Clubs sponsor inter-club regattas held on two weekends each year which, together with the Edgartown Yacht Club Regatta, currently comprise the Scudder Cup Series of races.

Board of Governors

Wianno Senior

The classic Wianno Senior is a gaff-rigged sloop designed and built by Crosby Yacht since the early 1900s. Crosby was commissioned by a group of local sailors to create a class of sailboats uniquely designed for the local waters and sufficient for convenient one-design racing.

Her full keel and deep draft adjustable centerboard are perfect for the shoal-ridden sailing grounds common on the Southside of Cape Cod. Her graceful overhanging stern and gently curved bow harken back to a time when designers used their eye instead of computers for perfect shapes.

The large cockpit is perfect for daysailing with friends and family. Under deck provides a sitting headroom with two full-length integral bunks. There is ample space for sails and gear storage. To keep with the times, maintain construction economies and promote the life of the Wianno Senior class, the transition to fiberglass was begun in the 1980s. All visible wood components on a wooden Wianno Senior are wood on the new fiberglass Wianno Senior being built today. Through this effort, the character, appearance, and tradition of the Wianno Senior continues into the new century.

Specifications: LOA 25’0″ LWL 17’6″ BEAM 8’0″ DRAFT 2’6″

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JFK and Victura

President John F. Kennedy’s beloved sailboat Victura (Latin for “about to conquer”) is a 25-foot Wianno Senior sloop purchased in 1932 as a 15th birthday gift from his parents. It is on the Victura that he taught his wife Jackie to sail and also where the Kennedy family enjoyed their love of sailing on Cape Cod.

John F. Kennedy was an avid sailor, having won many sailing events – including the Nantucket Sound Star Class Championship Cup in 1936, and the MacMillan Cup and East Coast Collegiate Championships in 1938 (with his brother Joe). He enjoyed many boats throughout his life, including a 92-foot wooden presidential yacht that served five presidents and the same yacht that he renamed the Honey Fitz after his maternal grandfather. However, it was the Victura that was JFK’s cherished boat and the very boat that he sketched on many of his documents in meetings during his presidency.

The Victura was struck by lightning in 1936 and rescued from ruin by John F. Kennedy as he dragged it onto a beach during a 1944 hurricane. The Victura also escaped ruin in December 2003 when a fire swept through Crosby Yacht Yard in Osterville, Massachusetts.

Boat LOA: 26 Feet Boat Width: 8 Feet Boat Weight: 3500 lb Boat Material: Wood Boat Builder: Crosby Yacht Yard in Osterville, MA Boat Launched: 1932 Look for a model of the Victura during your visit to the John F. Kennedy Hyannis Museum!