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It was 1928: Babe Ruth
led the American League in home runs, Amelia Earhart flew across the Atlantic,
and a fellow named David Goodrich plunked down $15,000 to have Frank Pembroke
Huckins build him a 42-foot yacht. The Minim would be Hull No.
1 at Huckins Yacht, soon followed by a bigger Huckins that Goodrich dubbed
The Maxim.
Seventy-five years later,
a Jupiter, Florida, man named Maldwin Drummond is carrying on not only
the legacy started by Goodrich, who was his grandmother’s uncle,
but that of the builder itself. Drummond recently bought a 1962 Huckins—the
only 56-foot Huckins Corinthian model ever built—and refitted her
as if “I had gone to Mr. Huckins and ordered a boat, how he would
have done it.”
Drummond ripped out
Formica and replaced it with teak. He mounted the red and yellow burgee
of his grandfather, Marshall Fields III. (Yes, that Marshall Fields.)
He did “a lot of little tweaking to strip away what had been done
over 40 years, to make it more of a gentleman’s motoryacht, which
is what it was built to be.”
The morning I joined
Corisande VII in Manhattan, she had just pulled into North Cove
Marina after her post-refit cruise of The Great Loop, which encompasses
a circumnavigation of the eastern United States using the ICW, Mississippi
River, and Great Lakes. I had to walk past Ground Zero to meet her, and
workmen and murals were a strong presence. The boat’s proud bow pointed
toward New York Harbor. Sunshine bounced off the Statue of Liberty’s
torch.
I couldn’t wait
to step aboard and have the pleasure of appreciating Corisande VII
the way Drummond does—not just because of her beauty but because
of the beautiful history she represents.
Drummond, who previously
owned a 29-foot Fountain and a 35-foot Contender, bought the Huckins in
July 2002 after celebrating his 45th birthday. He intended to refit her
eventually, but first set off for Maine to enjoy participating in the
New York Yacht Club’s annual cruise.
As his captain, Ken
Bracewell, tells it, the boat got a dinged prop, putting them back a day.
They lost more time in the Chesapeake thanks to clogged fuel injectors.
Then around Ocean City, New Jersey, Corisande VII popped a fuel
line. They missed the yacht club cruise and decided to head back for a
Huckins rendezvous in Jacksonville, Florida. On the way a cable attached
itself to a prop.
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Part
2: Into the Abyss > Page 1, 2,
3
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