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THE STORY OF BAY BEA
Patrick E. Haggerty, the late founder and entrepreneurial president of Texas Instruments, was a passionate and fiercely competitive sailor. His determination to be at the top of the most challenging form of sailing, ocean racing, became his arena of expertise. To compete in this extremely demanding environment, a sailing vessel of uncompromising quality, strength and speed was required. In 1967, he would commission the building of the aluminum, SORC Ocean Racing yacht, Bay Bea.
The following are excepts from Mr. Haggerty's book, Salute to an Ocean Racer, which is both a history and a memento, gifted to the men who crewed her throughout her distinguished racing career.
"This is a story of a yacht, Bay Bea: “Bay” for Green Bay, where we have our summer home and on whose beautiful waters Bay Bea and her three predecessors of the same name have cruised and raced; “Bea” for my long-suffering and beloved wife for almost 35 years, Beatrice, who has on occasion accused me of naming them after her in partial compensation for usurping her rightful place in my affections.
And, indeed, this Bay Bea is a yacht to love: a beauty, fast on the wind and off-in light air, in medium air, and when it blows-built of welded aluminum, and immensely strong, docile, without a bad habit. Bay Bea was designed by Olin Stephens and built by Palmer Johnson of Sturgeon Bay.
The building itself was quite an accomplishment, since it was started about the first of October 1967, and Bay Bea was launched on January 12, 1968.
Her length over all is 49 feet; beam, just under 12 feet; and draft, 7 feet 4 inches. Her CCA weight was 32,000 pounds, and 17,500 pounds of it was lead.
There are those who think of Bay Bea as a stripped-out racing boat. In that we have no full bulkheads, no closed-in staterooms, and no bunks in the fore-peak, the observation has validity. But in another sense, Bay Bea is anything but a stripped-out boat. She was designed to go fast, to make long passages, to be driven in a seaway, and to have the convenience and comfort of the crew in mind at all times. We have a diesel engine located amidships and just as low down in the bilge as feasible to keep the center of gravity low, but still is readily accessible with floorboards up. We have lots of water and fuel, deep freeze and refrigeration, and the most comfortable bunks for long ocean races or passages I have ever seen on any yacht.
During the 1966 Transatlantic Race, on my previous Bay Bea, I came to the conclusion that it was idiotic, in any yacht designed to make long passages consistently, to spend so much of one’s time sleeping either on a bunk board or on the side of the hull. I decided that if I ever built a new one, it would have gimbaling bunks. That is exactly what we have on Bay Bea; six gimbaling bunks that are readily adjusted under way by the bunk’s occupant to compensate for heel, using a simple lightweight block and tackle such as those used as boom vangs on small boats.
The difference in comfort when one is at sea, particularly when the sea is rough, must be experienced to be believed. However skeptical Bay Bea’s crew may have been initially, they are now complete converts, and there is no one who has raced with us on Bay Bea on any kind of a long, rough passage who hasn’t gone away convinced that this kind of gimbaled bunk is an immense improvement for crew comfort."
In just a little more than four years of racing, Bay Bea has participated in 60 races, from the Great Lakes to the Gulf Coast, and from the Caribbean and South America to the Baltic and the Bay of Biscay. In those 60 races have been included a Transatlantic and the U.S. Onion Patch and Admiral’s Cup Competitions. Out of 60 races in the toughest kind of competition, and usually with a hundred or more yachts competing, she has been first overall 14 times, second overall 8 times, third overall 4 times, and in the top ten 46 times.
A brief history from Andrew Segar (E-mail received 9/30/09)
"When he wasn't steering Texas Instruments in the board room, Pat Haggerty could be found racing yachts on the Great Lakes of the Midwest, using Palmer Johnson's yard to service and moor his boats. A fierce competitor, Haggerty sailed to win. In pursuit of his passion for building the fastest yacht afloat, he purchased Palmer Johnson from five local businessmen in 1961. He brought in James Fahey, a naval architect and yacht broker, and son-in-law Mike Kelsey to run his new venture in Sturgeon Bay. Shortly thereafter, Bill Parsons, a young CPA just finishing a tour with the Navy and returning to his father's accounting firm, was assigned the Palmer Johnson account. Kelsey and Parsons became fast friends and ultimately partners in 1968. The Aluminum Age The Texas industrialist's deep pockets and sharp business acumen enabled Kelsey and Fahey to pioneer a new construction technologies. While the rest of the boat building world was getting comfortable with fiberglass construction, or sticking stubbornly with wood, Palmer Johnson moved on to a new material: welded aluminum. A hull constructed from aluminum has roughly 10 times the impact-absorbing capacity while weighing 67 percent less than an equivalent strength tensile steel hull. This ideal strength-to-weight ratio would prove its mettle again and again on the race course. Bay Bea, the first racing yacht designed for owner Pat Haggerty, breezed past its competitors in the rough-and-tumble world of offshore ocean racing. Orders for similar boats began to flow in, allowing Palmer Johnson to continue growing and building a reputation Kelsey likens to making a Stradivarius in an age of mass-produced guitars. Off To The Races By the end of the 1960s, the company had earned an international reputation for its fast and durable aluminum sailing yachts, particularly among the racing set. Palmer Johnson's string of world-class winners included the 62-foot Tenacious, 79-foot Kialoa III, 62-foot Congere, and a succession of boats such as Scaramouche and Aura, some of which still hold records in the Fast-net, Sydney-Hobart, Bermuda, China Sea and numerous other regattas. Aura, launched in 1971, took on the world and won Yachting's second World Ocean Racing Championship. Among the custom boats built by Palmer Johnson during this decade were Kahili, winner of both Mackinacs in 1972; Tenacious, winner of nearly everything in sight under Ted Turner's command; Blizzard and Aries, which sailed on the British and U.S. Admiral's Cup teams respectively; and the precedent-setting fraternal twins Yankee Girl and Charisma, two of the most stylish and most successful IOR yachts ever built. Throughout the 1970s and 80s, the racing sailboat scene became increasingly esoteric, with frequent design and rule changes leading to "single-season throw-aways". While the boats of this era were becoming faster, they were also becoming less comfortable. As a result, interest in long-distance offshore racing declined sharply in favor of buoy racing. "These kinds of boats did not fit with our 80-year ocean-proven ethic," Kelsey recalls. "We decided that the product focus could change, but not the philosophy behind the boat building." A CHRONOLOGY OF BAY BEA'S OWNERS AND NAME CHANGES
(from a letter dated 12/9/09, signed Mike Cahan)
1967 Patrick Haggerty Bay Bea (likely Bay Bea II). Built at Palmer Johnson, Sturgeon Bay WI. Designed by German Frers employed by Sparkman & Stephens. 1970's Wells Coggeshell Cogg-nizant
1979 Dr. John Hoffman (Fullerton CA) ran / dragged aground off Texas coast. Damage to port side plates and frames.
1981 Donated to Orange Community College, Riverside, CA., Collage System Huckelberry Apple.
?? Mike Cahan (Olympia WA ) Name changed back to Bay Bea. Stable mate was Scaramouche, Olympia.
1988 Dave and Jane Graves Bay Bea. Astoria, WA. Faired hull.
?? Unknown owners Bay Bea. decided to add an aluminum pilot house.
2003 Dale Munson Bay Bea. Logan Utah.
2009 Donated to New Horizons Maritime Center (non-profit) Bay Bea. ACCOLADES “She was a fabulous ride, always in control, great upwind and just a sweetheart of a boat." Mike Cahan. Owner.
“These boats were very early IOR boats and extremely handsome, fast and seaworthy as was intended by Olin Stephens before the rule cheaters got to work and produced boats that looked like floating Viagra pills (whatever they are )." Peter Heiberg. Owner, Scaramouche, sister ship.
“I am proud to advise that I was the boat captain for quite some while on her (Bay Bea) starting out in Sturgeon Bay at Palmer Johnson’s and ending my term after the Miami-Nassau race. Pat Haggerty remained a very close friend of mine and I admired him immensely as, with all his wealth, he was one of the most humble and fair men that I have ever had the privilege to work with." Craig Middleton, Captain. South Africa.
“As she was the first boat I got involved in in a serious way she brings back good memories and I remember her as a very seaworthy and pleasant boat to sail on." Hans Sluiman, race crew. Holland.
“I saw it (Bay Bea) a couple of times at the PJ yard in Sturgeon Bay. We tied up next to it in the family 4KSB for a few days on our summer cruises. My dad would make a big deal out of it to us kids and it is the only racing boat I remember from those days…Looks like it is still the same red it was back then." Vouz etes ici
“She was actually one of several boats built to the same lines including Scaramouche, Falcon and Aura which went on to represent the US in the Admirals Cup and became the first to win the World Ocean Racing Championship." A3A
“I sailed on many ocean racers, some of the best in their day, in many oceans for 30+ years. I have ALWAYS said of ALL of them, the 49’ SS Bay Bea was the best to sail. Responsive, delicate to fine tuning yet able to perform equally in any weather and always able to win if we didn't’t mess up. But the truth was she was built to win on the Great Lakes, SORC, Admirals Cup and others. She won on every lake and ocean she competed on." Mike Haggerty. Son of Patrick Haggerty.
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