1936 Rhodes Bermuda Cutter

INTRODUCTION

KIRAWAN carried on over the years with various Hollywood celebrities, racing in the Pacific classics and eventually falling into serious disrepair. Thankfully, her current owner got wind of her pending demise and in 2017 he began a period of lengthy restoration by Joe Loughborough's team of experienced craftsmen at LMI. The owner had hoped to trace her previous routes, and he did just that with the 2022/2024 Newport Bermuda Races, finishing a respectable 5th in class and 24th overall in a fleet of 89 in the 2024 edition. She is now standing tall and ready for her next owner to enjoy one of the finest classic yachts available today.   

OWNER'S COMMENTS

ON THE 2022 NEWPORT - BERMUDA RACE “We were really thrilled by the way she handled, especially in the really heavy weather when there were big seas and winds gusting to 35 knots, you just knew you were in a classic ocean racing boat.” 

SUMMARY OF REFIT AND RESTORATION BY LMI, PORTSMOUTH, RI 2017 - 2019

• Lead ballast keel dropped  
• Wood keel, part stern post, and horn timber replaced  
• Ballast keel re-fastened with new keel bolts  
• Hull re-fastening, underbody re-caulking, topsides re-splining  
• New floors and bronze mast step  
• Deck removed, deck beams repaired/ replaced  
• New teak laid deck on cedar substrate  
• Deck hardware refurbished/ replaced  
• Restoration of trunk cabin and doghouse  
• Restored / replaced skylights and hatches  
• New cockpit with teak coamings  
• Created new companionway at doghouse  
• All new winches  
• New interior faithfully respects the original layout  
• Exceptions: Nav station (was lockers); low galley bulkheads; forecabin (Original interior had been removed many years earlier)  
• New spruce mast and boom; all new custom bronze hardware  
• All new standing and running rigging  
• All new mechanical, electric, electronic and plumbing systems  

CONSTRUCTION

• Mahogany planking on oak frame  
• Bronze floors, strapping and hanging knees  
• Lead ballast keel  
• Bronze keel bolts (2019)  
• Beamshelf with full length clamp  
• Teak laid deck on cedar (2019)  
• Teak superstructures  

DECK LAYOUT, EQUIPMENT AND GROUND TACKLE

GENERAL  

• Teak laid deck on cedar (2019)  
• Varnished teak covering boards  
• Low, varnished teak-capped bulwark - bronze stanchions and pulpit  
• Bronze deck hardware  

FROM AFT DECK  

• Flush ensign socket and traditional stern light at taffrail  
• Flush lazarette hatch in aft deck  
• Panama mooring fairlead port & starboard with cleats 
• Cowl vent 
• Harken bronze traveler car and track  

COCKPIT  

• Raised doghouse/hard dodger  
• Deep, large cockpit  
• Varnished teak coaming with natural teak capping  
• Natural teak port & starboard benches running forward into doghouse  
• Lockers under benches 
• Aft helm seating is continuation of deck  
• Bronze Edson helm pedestal with Danforth steering compass binnacle  
• Traditional ship's wheel  
• Yanmar engine panel  
• Autopilot controls  
• (2) Glazed panels port and starboard  
• (2) Bronze opening ports forward  
• Companionway to owner cabin (2019)  
• B&G Nav repeaters  
• Painted sheathed doghouse roof  
• Varnished teak grabrails port and starboard  

• Harken Bronze winches:  
• (2) Primary: 3-speed 60 ST  
• (2) Runners: 2-speed 46 ST  
• (2) Mainsheet: 2-speed 40 ST  

TRUNK CABIN  

• Teak uprights with (12) Bronze opening ports  
• Painted sheathed roof  
• Varnished teak grabrails port and starboard  
• Varnished teak dorade boxes with bronze cowls (over owner cabin, head, and galley) 
• Butterfly skylight hatches over owner cabin and saloon  
• Main companionway sliding hatch offset to starboard  
• Varnished teak hatch over galley with bronze portlight  

SIDE DECKS  

• Bronze headsail tracks port and starboard on rail  
• Bronze Panama mid-mooring fairleads and cleats 

FOREDECK  

• Varnished teak hatch over forward cabin with bronze portlight  
• Muir 24 V 1200 W anchor vertical windlass; chain gypsy & capstan  
• 60 lb / 27 kg CQR anchor  
• 100 ft / 30 m BBB 7/16 in anchor chain  
• 10 ft / 3 m BBB 7/16 in chain with100 ft / 30 m 5/8 in (3) strand rode  

ACCOMMODATION AND DOMESTIC EQUIPMENT

GENERAL  

• White painted bulkheads and deckhead  
• White painted hull ceilings with attractive vents  
• Stained mahogany carpentry  
• Raw teak sole  
• Original interior had been removed many years earlier 
• New interior faithfully respects the original layout  
• Exceptions are nav station (was lockers), lowered bulkheads saloon to galley  

FROM AFT OWNER CABIN  

• New companionway from doghouse (2019)  
• (4) Steps down over engine box  
• Large single berths to port & starboard  
• Lockers under and aft  
• Shelves outboard  
• Banquettes to port & starboard  
• Hanging lockers port and starboard  
• KIRAWAN half model  
• (4) Bronze opening ports  
• Butterfly skylight in deckhead  
• Deckhead lamp  
• (2) Danish brass reading lamps  
• (2) 24 V fans  
• Ship's clock and barometer  

PASSAGEWAY FORWARD 

• Main companionway (6) steps ladder to starboard  
• Navigation station to starboard  
• Head with shower compartment to port  

NAVIGATION STATION TO STARBOARD  

• Upholstered bench with stowage under  
• Large, forward-facing chart table with stowage and drawers under  
• B&G displays  
• VHF radio  
• Satcom handset  
• Bronze opening port  
• Deckhead lamp  

HEAD AND SHOWER COMPARTMENT TO PORT  

• Fore and aft sliding entrance door  
• Baby Blake manual toilet with wood lid  
• Mahogany countertop surface with inset sink bowl outboard, draining to sump  
• Period brass mixer tap and shower head  
• Lockers under and over  
• Raw teak shower grate, draining to sump  
• Bronze opening port 

SALOON  

• U-shaped settee to port  
• Fiddled sideboard port aft  
• Drawers under; glazed door locker over  
• Generous pilot berth outboard  
• Drop-leaf saloon table offset to port  
• Settee to starboard  
• Generous pilot berth outboard  
• (4) Bronze opening ports  
• Butterfly skylight in deckhead  
• Deckhead grabrails port and starboard  
• (2) Deckhead lamps  
• (2) Danish brass reading lamps  
• (2) 24 V fans  

FORWARD TO GALLEY  

• Hatch with portlight at deckhead to port  
• Force 10 (3)-burner propane stove with oven (2019)  
• Bronze opening port  
• Side deckhead lamp  
• Vintage style pewter U-shaped top surfaces  
• Stowage under and outboard  
• Pewter sink  
• Vintage brass mixer faucet 
• Whale Gulper sump pump to starboard  
• Fridge / Freezer units with mahogany fiddled top (2019)  
• Sea Frost BDXPAW 24 V Freeze; spillover to fridge  
• Lockers over (outboard)  
• Bronze opening port  
• Side deckhead lamp  

FORWARD CABIN  

• V-Berths with stowage under  
• Access forward to chain locker  

RIG AND SAILS

RIG  

• Hollow spruce mast (2019)  
• Spruce boom (2019)  
• Standing rigging all new (2019) 

SAILS BY NORTH  

• Mainsail NPC CROSS-CUT (2019)  
• Genoa 165% - NPC CROSS-CUT (2019)  
• Genoa 150% - NPC CROSS-CUT (2019)  
• Yankee (2019)  
• Staysail (2019)  
• Asymmetric A2 (2019)  
• Asymmetric A3, 2.13 oz (2019)  
• Storm trysail high viz, 10 oz (2020)  
• Storm jib high viz, 10 oz (2020)  

ELECTRICAL

• 24 V DC System  
• Blue Sea 360 breaker panel  
• SMS AGM House batteries (12) 12 V in series in parallel; 630 Ah  
• Dual 70 A Alternators with external regulators  
• Victron 24/3000/70 inverter/ charger  
• 30 amp shore power  
• Siren Marine bilge and battery monitor  

MECHANICAL

• Yanmar 4JH80 4 cylinder 80 hp turbo diesel (482 hours)  
• Fuel - 45 Gal/ 170 L Tank  
• Triple 'M' plastic tanks for fresh water  
• Main fresh water tank on bilge centerline - 28 US Gal / 106 L  
• Outboard wing tanks port and starboard - c40 US Gal / 151 each  
• Wing tanks gravity feed the main tank  
• Sureflo Aqua King II freshwater pump  
• Aqua Whisper Mini 24 V 10 Gal/h 38 L/h watermaker  
• Holding tank - 25 US Gal / 95 L - Y-valve for overboard, or holding with macerator  
• Grey water sump tank at head compartment with Rule pump  
• (2) 8 lb Propane tanks in dedicated cockpit lockers  
• Trident solenoid in propane system  

NAVIGATION AND COMMUNICATIONS

NAVIGATION  

• B&G Hydra pack  
• B&G H5000 + Triton displays  
• Airmar transducer  
• (2) B&G Boat speed sensors with gravity switch  
• B&G Zeus 12 in Multi-Function display in nav station  
• B&G Zeus 9 in Multi-Function display at helm  
• B&G Halo 20+ radar  
• B&G H5000 Autopilot controller  
• Raymarine Type 2 autopilot linear drive  
• Simrad V3100 Class B AIS with splitter  

COMMUNICATIONS  

• Icom M400BB VHF Radio  
• (2) Icom HM 195B Command mic (at nav station and helm)  
• KVH TracPhone Fleet One satcom  

SAFETY

• MOM 8-S Man Overboard Module  
• Life sling  
• Superior Life Saving 10-Person life raft  
• Whale Gulper Grouper auxiliary bilge pump  
• (2) Whale Gusher Titan manual bilge pumps  
• Siren Marine bilge and battery monitor  
• Rule 2000 HD bilge pump  

A BRIEF HISTORY OF KIRAWAN

PHILIP L. RHODES DESIGN NO. 399 LAUNCHED 23 MAY 1936  

New York stockbroker Robert P. Baruch can’t have enjoyed being second last over the finish line in the 1934 Bermuda race, his 56 ft William Hand-designed schooner ZINGARA arriving two days behind the leading boats. Baruch, however - a very able small boat racing helmsman - had time on his side; he was only 25.  

By the 1936 Bermuda race he’d become a partner in his family’s Wall Street brokerage house, H. Hentz & Co., was now married, and had only just taken delivery of this very fine yacht with all the potency to do much, much better. KIRAWAN was untried - launched only a month before the Bermuda Race start - though her designer Philip Rhodes well knew what she was capable of. But surely only in his wildest dreams could he have imagined beating Olin Stephens’s STORMY WEATHER boat for boat in a 635-mile slog to windward with gusts of up to 45 knots – and winning the race overall.  

The two years from 1934 to 1936 had also been happy ones for Rhodes, finding post-Great Depression stability working with Cox & King, yet with a free hand to develop his own portfolio. KIRAWAN’s Bermuda Race win brought international recognition for Rhodes, and at 41 took his career to another level. KIRAWAN’s renown was also assured, and her doghouse/ hard dodger became much copied, in particular by Sparkman & Stephens.  

But what then became of this first KIRAWAN? Pre-World War II is less known because she mostly cruised, renamed SILVANA. Reports vary, but at some late 1940s to early 1950s point she arrived on the West Coast and reverted to her original name. An early owner there is believed to have been Hollywood actress Terry Moore whose long-term relationship with Howard Hughes became the stuff of legend.  

KIRAWAN spent at least four decades sailing the Pacific, mostly out of Marina del Rey, competing in the Transpac twice in the mid-1950s and the 1964 Los Angeles - Tahiti Race. In the ownership of film producer Sandy Horowitz from c.1993, she enjoyed a major refit and was trucked back east to Newport, Rhode Island, for the 2000 Bermuda Race, which she finished but revealed further issues to be addressed. A subsequent restoration attempt failed and KIRAWAN ended up in a very bad state until purchased by her present owner and savior in 2017. 

Completing her major restoration at Joe Loughborough’s Portsmouth, Rhode Island, LMI yard, in the midst of the pandemic, undoubtedly slowed the rejuvenated KIRAWAN’s re-exposure to the classic yachting world, but she remains a beautiful, practical and potent classic cruiser racer, doing exactly what she did straight out of the box in 1936.   

TIMELINE - 1936 23 May - launch  

• 1936 June - Newport to Bermuda Race (Winner)  
• 1937 June - New London to Gibson Island Race  
• 1949? To West Coast USA  
• 19?? Terry Moore (Hollywood actress)  
• 1950s C.P. “Boo” Paschall  
• 1955 Participated in the Transpac Race  
• 1957 Participated in the Transpac Race  
• 1960s Grant Hoag  
• 1964 Los Angeles to Tahiti Race – 3rd to RASCAL and TICONDEROGA  
• 1960s Tony Dow – Actor known for playing Wally in ‘Leave it to Beaver’  
• Early 1970s Hy Jaspol, Marina del Rey - 5 years of refits 
• c.1975 Harry Cohen, Marina del Rey  
• 1993 Sandy Horowitz (film producer)  
• 2000 Newport to Bermuda Race  
• 2000 Participated in Operation Sail 2000, Newport, RI  
• 2022 Newport to Bermuda Race  
• 2023 Marblehead to Halifax Ocean Race  
• 2024 Newport to Bermuda Race (5th in class, 24th overall) 

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