Onthe Waterfront
Fairweather In A Hurricane
By H.E. Ross
In the first years of sailing I hauntedthe docks of any port that supported masts, especially the Sausalitowaterfront where two or three thousand boats were tied up, anchoredor moored. While making my rounds one late afternoon I passeda fine looking Murray Peterson Schooner named, Fairweather, andwas hailed by her lady skipper, Suttie Adams. She said they weregoing out on the Bay (San Francisco) and asked if I would be interestedin joining her crew.
I sailed aboard Fairweather twice afterthat before they took off on a cruise sort of South by West orEast (they were not sure). Suttie sailed with her three sons anda daughter.
A while later I happened to be thumbingthrough the first book I ever picked up on sailing, Sea Questby Charles A. Borden, and there was a picture of Fairweather andthe Adams family on the taff rail. Beneath the name of the vesselwere the initials of the home port, G.C.
Two years ago, while interviewing Sir JohnJenkenson about his father, Sir Anthony, and his discourse intosailing vessel construction with the Fosters, I came across theconstruction of a Murray Peterson designed schooner, Fairweather.Then, while researching in the CI Shipping Registry, I found Fairweatheragain as the second to the last sailing vessel built in the CaymanIslands. The G.C. stood for Grand Cayman.
Here is a Suttie Adams story about why shetrusted the Cayman-built, Fairweather with her family:
On 19 May 1962 Fairweather departed Waitemata,New Zealand for Noumea, New Caledonia. The seventh day out shespotted a small black cloud on a distant horizon. That night thewind and sea built up and by morning they were hove-to under stormcanvas alone. By 10AM, Fairweather put her rail under in a suddengust that tore the cleat of the stay's sheet away from the deck.
The glass fell and the wind increased. Suttie realised they werein for something big so she took down the storm trysail and carriedon under bare poles. While coming round to run downwind, Fairweathertook two cross-seas that crashed down on her burying the deckand cockpit under water. "She felt sluggish, wallowed heavily,heeled and finally came through with us up to our waists in water."But, Fairweather responded to the helm and they were able to holeher dead before the weather. They had streamed every line andwarp they had aboard to slow her down to a still too-fast fourknots.
With tops blowing off breaking crests andconfused seas, the speed of the wind was estimated at 90 to 100miles per hour.
On the second day of the hurricane force winds, Fairweather waslifted by a mountainous sea that put her perpendicular to thehorizon. But she did not pitch pole. Instead, she held courseand never lost weigh. In Suttie's own words, "While Fairweather,with her heavy spars, rigging and 29 net tons, is not as 'yachty'as the cruisers with lofty Bermudan rig and light displacementshe has proven again and again what she can do-slogging to windwardin wild blue water, ghosting in to a remote anchorage in lightairs or lying to in a gale. Never once has she failed to liftor respond to the wheel."
Suttie and family have rounded Cape Hornin Fairweather, built by the Fosters, under the supervision ofthe late Arnold Foster and the late Sir Anthony Jenkenson. BerkeleyFoster of Kaibo was one of the hands-on builders and is definitelyworth a few questions about Cayman Boats Limited that was startedin the Brac and finished her last sailing vessel in Jamaica in1951.
Send Feedback and Suggestions to
Cayman Maritime Heritage Foundation
PO Box 11023APO
www.caymanmaritimeheritage.org
Phone: 946-9452 Fax: 949-9653
herossea@hotmail.com
On the Waterfrontis sponsored by The Ritz-Carlon Grand Cayman: preserving Cayman'sHistory towards a bright future