Sparkman & Stephens 44 ft Yawl 1949 - Sold

We often enthuse about this period from Sparkman & Stephens combining the classic beauty of a vintage yacht with the performance that such yachts from the bloodline of DORADE proved outstanding for many years to come thereafter. LAUGHING GULL has had only three owners and much of her original detail remains intact.

Sparkman & Stephens 1948 design # 844 was for Percy Chubb II, a wealthy insurance broker and Commodore of the New York Yacht Club in 1948. Given a free hand, Olin Stephens did however have to cater for Chubb’s near 7 ft height with appropriate standing headroom below. Built by Jakobson of Oyster Bay, NY she was launched early in 1949. Articles on her construction and specifications appeared in “Yachting Monthly” and “The Rudder” in the same year.

Rutger ten Broeke, her current owner is an author and journalist, writing for nautical magazines like Wooden Boat and Boatman and a member of the board of editors and co-author of the International Encyclopaedia of Yacht Designers. In an interview for the Dutch Magazine ‘Spiegel der Zeilvaart’ in 1995, Mr. Stephens, when Rutger asked him if he remembered the design of Laughing Gull, said: ‘Yes, certainly, Mr Chubb was a good friend and client and LAUGHING GULL was his second commission’. RtB: ‘Do you remember anything specific about the design?’ O.S: ‘I gave her stronger overhangs than usual’. RtB: ‘why?’ O.S: ‘I found her more beautiful that way, and I have always believed that a beautiful boat is a fast boat’.

LAUGHING GULL has had three owners. Rutger ten Broeke, her most recent, has had her for 22 years, during which time she underwent a thorough repair and maintenance program. Details of this are in the relevant section below.

Even though LAUGHING GULL’s successive owners never raced her, she has proved to be a fast, sea kindly ship and during her current ownership has guided him and his crew through some rough patches, among others a hurricane force storm in the Skagerrak in the summer of 1996 en route to the Risor wooden boat festival - nevertheless making it to the festival when many other ostensibly stronger boats did not get there.

- Carvel Mexican mahogany planking over white oak frames
- Frames bronze strapped in way of sharp bends
- Oak back bone, floors and other scantlings
- Bronze Keel bolts
- Silicon bronze screw and bolt re fastened (completely in 94 / 95)
- Lead ballast
- Bronze mast step
- Douglas fir plywood deck, covered with fine roving and epoxy
- Connections between the ply sheets are all 1:8 scarph joined
- Mahogany deck trim, cap rail, coamings, dorades, foot rails, lazarrette hatch; all renewed, stained and varnished
- Between decks and laminated covering boards is a (visible and decorative) ebony spline
- Teak cockpit seats and sole with varnished mahogany trim
- All paint and varnish is Awl Grip and Stoppani

The interior refurbishment with white panelling and beautiful cherry trim has some finishing works in progress to be completed. Meanwhile the chart table, galley work surface, engine box cover, coamings, pilot berth and other berths, top cupboard in the head are all of solid varnished cherry. With 6 ft 6 ½ inch / 2m headroom throughout there is now accommodation sufficient for 6 with the general arrangement from the lazarette aft:
- Large deep self draining cockpit with lockers below lifting seats both sides
- Forward of cockpit over bridge deck, sliding hatch in coachroof
- Companionway steps down over engine housing
- Galley to port with - ENO stainless steel 2 burner gas stove with oven
- One and a half bowl stainless steel sink and bronze fresh water tap – foot pump
- Lockers and other stowage aft, below and outboard
- Waeco well insulated built in cool box installed 2006
- Lighting over
- Chart table with stowage and instruments to starboard, pilot seat and quarter berth aft
- Concordia lifting settee berths port and starboard; stowage below
- Pilot berth outboard to port, stowage out board starboard
- Heads compartment with manual pump WC, basin, bronze tap and stowage to port
- Dorway in bulkhead to V berths fwd with stowage lockers below

Sitka spruce masts stripped bare in 1999, wrapped in heavy roving, covered with epoxy and spray painted white with Awl Grip thus to protect from the fierce sun when sailed extensively in the Carribbean. Yearly moisture measurements have indicated a problem free system, making the masts very strong and low maintenance.
- Sitka spruce, clear varnished club and booms
- All stainless standing rigging renewed in the 90s
- Ash cheeked blocks and tackles newly made, Epifanes varnished on Merriman hardware
- All sails are of Dacron with narrow lanes and younger than 10 years
- 7/8 rig includes a self tailing clubfooted tan jib
- Small tan genoa
- Large white genoa
- Mizzen
- White mainsail
- Tan trysail
- Tan storm jib

- All deck hardware; winches, windlass, post, cleats, fairleads and clamps Merriman bronze
- Monel pulpit and stanchions
- Alloy hatches over for cabin and saloon cabin in coach roof
- Lifting tiller
- Main sheet track and horse
- 1x Danforth 15 Kg anchor
- 1 x Herreshoff 15 Kg anchor
- 60 m x 10mm galvanised new chain
- Avon inflatable dingy with a 2 hp o/b (both older but serviceable)
- 2 x Dorade vents
- Demountable fume stack
- Gas bin in lazarette above deck

- Yanmar 3QM30, 100% compression, recently tested
- Oil free, galvanised, deep drip pan.
- Hurth gearbox, 116 stainless drive shaft with new Exalto water lubricated system
- Maxprop, recently replaced.
- 2 x Service 12 V batteries
- 1 engine start 12 V battery
- Phoenix Victron charger / transformer
- Separation diodes
- Instrument, fuse / switch panels
- Modern electrical equipment recently installed
- Mechanical deck wash pump / auxiliary, high power bilge pump
- 1 x Electric pump on automatic switch (PAR)
- 1 x Edson, high volume manual cat’s head bilge pump
- All freshwater pumps are manual
- PAR ITT WC with wooden seat
- Stainless steel c 100 litre fuel tank
- 1 x stainless steel 1 x Monel fresh water tanks total approx 200 litres

- Kelvin White compass
- Sestrel compass
- Simrad Roberts / Whitlock auto pilot with quadrant directly on rudder shaft
- Simrad log / echosounder, wind
- Furuno GPS
- Furuno Navtex
- Icom VHF
- JRC Radar
- Debeg SSB (nostalgic, but still functional and aesthetic)
- Sony radio / CD player

- 8 pers life raft, last serviced 2004

During the 90s LAUGHING GULL underwent a thorough maintenance and upgrading programme under her knowledgeable owner. Works included:
- Complete refastening with silicon bronze screws and bolts below the waterline
- Some keel bolts pulled and checked, found perfect and put back in
- Most butt joints replaced by 1:8 scarph joints
- Gunwales, covering boards and sheer strakes replaced
- New covering boards laminated of 6 cm mahogany strips, the full length of the hull
- 2 laminated iroko floors with extra bronze screws placed abaft the mast step
- New # 316 stainless steel water and fuel tanks installed
- Engine support upgraded and reinforced
- An entirely new cockpit constructed
- Interior accommodation, originally for 4, redesigned (with approval by OS)
- Engine room also reconstructed to render the engine more accessible

An extensive report of all work and time spent was made in two manuscript books with data, drawings and photographs. The books are available for inspection but unlike all other documents, certificates and manuals, they are not included in the sale. They may be photocopied at the buyer’s expense.