Ron Neilson took a commission to restore a model of the 1885 America’s Cup yacht Puritan. Nearly five feet long, built at 1/2 inch to the foot (1:24). It arrived filthy. An auction listing pointed to Massachusetts. The builder’s name was already gone. Neilson puts it in the early-to-mid twentieth century, not a kit.
The restored model was donated to the Corinthian Yacht Club Historical Society in Essington, Pennsylvania. That is as far as we can take the story here.
Forbes owned her. Crocker raced her.
The real yacht was designed by Edward Burgess, built by George Lawley & Son in South Boston, and launched May 26, 1885. She had the depth of a cutter and the beam and power of a sloop: 94 feet overall, 22 feet 7 inches in the beam, 7,982 square feet of sail. John Malcolm Forbes owned her. Aubrey Crocker was the racing captain. She beat Priscilla in the trials, then Genesta two races to none. She was the first of three Burgess boats to defend for the New York Yacht Club — Mayflower in 1886, Volunteer in 1887. Later she was rigged as a schooner and spent twenty years on the New England coast. In 1906 she was sold to Portuguese owners for the Cape Verde Islands trade.
Neilson still looked at the H.E. Boucher 1931 1:48 kit. This model was not that kit. Boucher, founded in 1905, is the shop a lot of us met as a way into the hobby. Authentic kits sit in collections including the Addison Gallery. The company closed in 1943.
A hundred swabs, then the shrouds
The hull was only mildly soiled. The deck, top-hamper, sails, and rigging were not. Neilson tested 95 percent isopropyl and Windex first, then went at the grime with more than a hundred swabs. A mahogany deck varnish came up through the gray. Brasso took the wheel, binnacle, cleats, and winches. The client would not let the sails come off, so they were cleaned in place. The serious repair was the port-side shrouds.
The cleaning, the brass, and that shroud repair are in the July/August issue. We are not reprinting them.
Ron Neilson’s “Restoring the Sailing Yacht Puritan” is in Ships in Scale Vol. 29 No. 4. Print + digital is $44.95 a year in the US.