‘Family means a lot to me and this boat brings back to life what my ancestors did.’ Wes Wheeler, New York born in 1956 and now a leading manager in the pharmaceutical industry is talking about the passion behind his latest entrepreneurial venture: to build and market a boat based on the Playmate 38, a very successful motorboat produced in the 1930s by the shipyard founded by Howard E Wheeler, one of Wes’ ancestors. Specifically, the boat in question is a modern reinterpretation of the legendary Pilar, the fishing boat bought in 1934 by Ernest Hemingway. The Pulitzer and Nobel Prize laureate was famously a great fishing enthusiast, and particularly active between Key West, the Bimini archipelago and Cuba.
A TRENDSETTER
Pilar was a particularly innovative boat. It is believed to have had the very first flybridge equipped with a wheelhouse and the first outriggers, features now standard on all such boats. Not only did Pilar outperform most of the peers, but in the 30 years the writer owned her, she survived four hurricanes, as much testimony to the solidity of build as to the courage and determination of her owner. Pilar was the first known boat capable of bringing a perfectly intact giant tuna to Bimini, thanks also to the fishing techniques introduced by the writer, which included the most rapid possible hoisting of fish on board, to stop predators eating the catch, a problem so tragically played out in Old Man and the Sea.
Denne historien er fra January 2021-utgaven av Classic Boat.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Denne historien er fra January 2021-utgaven av Classic Boat.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
The Need For Speed
Saving lives at sea has always been bound to the speed of rescue, from the first rowing boats to the 60-knot, all-weather motorboats of today
ROW YOUR BOAT
There has been a steady rise in recreational rowing over the past few years, and the choice can be bewildering. What’s the right boat for you?
Traditional Tool
JOINER’S NAME STAMP
Classic misuse of a word
Real classic ownership involves rot, rust and reward
SCUD MISSILE
Herreshoff’s newly-restored Bar Harbor 31 Scud lit up the classic racing scene in the Med in 2020 with a double win at Cannes and Saint-Tropez
BOSUN'S BAG
PRACTICAL TIPS FOR THE TRADITIONAL BOATER
DOUG LEEN - Tugboat man
Vietnam vet, park ranger, dentist, small-craft conservator and tugboat skipper.... meet Ranger Doug!
CHANCE TO SAVE AN Albert Strange yawl
Chances at Albert Strange ownership don’t come up often, and Sheila II is the quintessential Strange – and one with a great history, too
AFFORDABLE CLASSIC Salcombe Yawls
A friend and I once decided that walking might make a change from sailing. So we set forth to walk from Branscombe to Bigbury, a 100-mile stretch of the south-west coastal path marked by knackering climbs and knee-wrenching descents.
Cardiff, Wales - Save The Elena Maria Barbara!
A rare, 18th-century schooner replica, restored to the tune of around £1 million, could be abandoned if a buyer is not found soon.
