Nicholas Potter N Class 62 ft Sloop 1938 - Sold

There is a reason Nick Potter's yacht designs are so special. Among his peers he had the best mentors possible: Starling Burgess, Nathaniel Herreshoff, L Francis Herreshoff, Frank Paine and Norman L. Skene. It's little wonder that his yachts are famously fast and stunningly beautiful, none more so than SERENADE: designed for arguably the greatest violinist of all time, Jascha Heifetz; with her exquisitely drawn-out canoe stern almost like a beautiful musical instrument. Such a striking, comfortable and practical yacht would always have been cherished, and under her most recent two ownerships SERENADE has received all the loving care an octogenarian demands. There may be a once in a lifetime opportunity to own such a special yacht. This is it.

2015-2016 MAJOR REFIT
GILBERT PASQUI, VILLEFRANCHE-SUR-MER, FRANCE
Including
- Major rig refit
- Re-splining
- Moving engine forward and introduction of V-drive
- Re-alignment of propeller shaft
- Sound insulation engine room/ owner's cabin

1999 - 2000 MAJOR RESTORATION
WILLIAM CANNELL BOATBUILDING, CAMDEN, MAINE
Removal of deck, all of the interior, and replacing every frame
Retaining and reinstating all original hardware, butternut interior panelling, spiral staircase, brass fireplace, Herreshoff windlass and compass binnacle

The following renewed:
- Solid teak deck
- Stem
- Stern stem
- All fastenings
- All frames
- Deck houses and hatches
- Hull planking (partial)
- Systems
- Engine
- Mast step with bronze mast partners

- Double planked mahogany over cedar
- Single-planked garboard
- Bronze screw fastened to all white oak frame
- Bronze strapped
- Yellow cedar ceiling planking
- Oak rudder
- Mahogany deck carpentry
- Coachroof Dynel sheathed over cedar
- Raw teak laid deck (2000)

SERENADE was commissioned by famous violinist Jascha Heifetz from his great friend Nick Potter as a comfortable and fast cruiser-racer rating N-Class under the Universal Rule, with the 1938 Transpac race from Los Angeles to Honolulu the goal. Alas the race was cancelled to prevent a conflict with that year's Newport (Rhode Island) to Bermuda Race, and Heifetz's performance schedule prevented entry for the 1939 edition. So SERENADE began life gently racing and cruising between Heifetz and his then wife the actress Florence Vidor's Frank Lloyd Wright-designed yachting station (also built in 1938) on Harbor Island, Newport Beach, and Catalina Island - along with a stellar Hollywood cast; often with her owners' good friends Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall.

As was often the case both sides of the Atlantic at this time (think William Fife's LATIFA and EVENLODE), SERENADE's elegantly stretched canoe stern owed quite a lot to a rating advantage, and the influence of L. Francis Herreshoff, but it's hard to think its beauty didn't also owe something to Heifetz's aesthetic eye.

Under the constant supervision of both designer and owner, she was thoroughly well built by Wilmington Boat Works - locally known as "Wilbo", and perhaps the only producer of beautiful things in a Los Angeles neighborhood otherwise known for its industries and oil wells. It was inevitable that she would be built there given Potter's close working arrangement with the yard.

In 1942, SERENADE was sold to property investor Charles Isaacs (who would marry Eva Gabor, sister of Zsa Zsa), replacing his previous Sparkman & Stephens schooner SANTANA, later owned by Bogart and Bacall. Under Isaac's ownership, SERENADE became something of a company introduction vehicle among the great and the good of Hollywood, and after his death from cancer in 1953 remained so until a short series of ownerships from 1967 to 1979 led to another famous name, Philippe Cousteau, one of Jacques' sons, who took SERENADE on several voyages to Isabella Island in the Galápagos and to Isla Mujeres in the Gulf of Mexico. After Cousteau's tragic 1979 death in a plane crash, SERENADE became a Caribbean charter yacht for Philip Evans Kamins. A late 1980s through 1990s period in Michigan under the ownership of Dave Topping included more charter work and a period as the platform for educating future boatbuilders.

By the time a wooden yacht reaches 60 it inevitably needs restoration and in 1998 passionate wooden boat restorer and owner Glenn Kim took on that mantle for SERENADE, and from May 1999 to July 2000 she went through open-heart surgery in Bill Cannell's beautiful American Boathouse at Camden, Maine, after which she was lightly used until purchase by her present owner, Paris-based art dealer Alain Moatti in 2014, and a big change of scenery to Mediterranean France.

During the ensuing seasons SERENADE's racing and speed potential were realised for possibly the first time, affirming 1967 America's Cup-winning skipper Bill Ficker's thoughts many years earlier: “She is a real sleeping beauty. That yacht is capable of winning regattas if someone committed some time and patience to her, in order to get the best out of her.”

OWNERSHIP HISTORY

1938 - 1941 Jascha Heifetz
1942 - 1967 Charles Isaacs
1967 - 1976 Robert Powers
1976 - 1976 Ragnar C Qval
1976 - 1979 Philippe Cousteau
1979 - 1984 Philip Evans Kamins
1985 - 1998 Dave Topping
1998 - 2014 Glenn Kim
2014 - Present Alain Moatti

©2021 Iain McAllister/ Sandeman Yacht Company Ltd

OVERVIEW
- Traditional raw laid teak deck (2000)
- All deck carpentry in mahogany (2000)
- Generous well-type cockpit with raised coaming
- 2 x Low level deck houses; painted Dynel roofs
- Modern sheet handling winches on main trunk cabin only
- Scuttle forehatch

FROM AFT
- Ensign staff socket
- Bronze mooring fairleads inset in toerails port and starboardd of aft stem
- Herreshoff Bronze mooring cleats port and starboard
- Bronze padeyes for mainsheet blocks
- Bronze padeyes for running backstays

COCKPIT
- Raised coaming
- Generously wide seating on deck
- Varnished mahogany lazarette hatch aft
- Helm seat
- Original Herreshoff steering pedestal and binnacle
- Traditional 6 x spoked ship's wheel
- Engine controls
- Bronze Wilbo winches port and starboard at helm for backstays

AFT LOW LEVEL DECKHOUSE
- Companionway to owner's cabin over bridgedeck
- Low level sliding hatch
- 2 x Lewmar 54 bronze self-tailing winches aft for spinnaker sheets
- 3 x Lewmar 58 bronze self-tailing winches forward for genoa and mainsheet
- Mainsheet padeyes
- Herreshoff bronze cleats
- 1 x Bronze opening port light aft
- 4 x traditional American rectangular lights in sides port and starboard
- 4 x Bronze opening port lights forward

FORWARD TO MAIN COMPANIONWAY TRUNK CABIN
- Offset to starboard
- Low level sliding hatch
- 1 x Bronze Wilbo winch for spinnaker

MAST POSITION

FORWARD TO FOREDECK
- Hatch with 2 x fixed bullseye prisms over galley
- Scuttle forehatch; glazed sides and washboard
- Alternative low level regatta forehatch
- Original bronze Herreshoff vertical windlass manual and electric (refurb. 2017)
- Removable bow roller
- Plumbing for deck wash hose
- Lewmar 16 bronze winch for genoa tack
- Herreshoff Bronze mooring cleats port and starboard
- Spade A140 18.5kg Aluminium bower anchor and chain
- Original fisherman anchor
- Secondary anchor and rode

FROM AFT

- Mahogany and ash carpentry
- Raw teak cabin sole
- All upholstery new 2016

OWNER's CABIN
- Companionway from cockpit bridge deck
- Double berth to starboard
- Single berth to port
- Athwartships chest of drawers forward bulkhead starboard
- 2 x Reading lights
- 1 x Deckhead light
- Ship's isolator panel
- Access to engine space and under sole tankage

STEP DOWN TO PASSAGE FORWARD
- Athwartships head/ shower compartment semi en-suite
- WC to port; wash hand basin to starboard; mixer tap
- Guest up and over cabin to starboard
- Drawers under and in sideboard
- Main head and compartment to port

WHEELED MAIN COMPANIONWAY STAIR TO STARBOARD
- Access from dedicated companionway trunk cabin
- Rectangular lights in trunk cabin light saloon
- Brass fireplace to port; flue runs inside head

FORWARD TO SALOON
- Full width; "L" settee to starboard
- Gimballed drop-leaf table with cutlery drawer offset to starboard
- Pilot berth outboard of port settee
- Sideboard with drawers and lockers port forward
- Stowage under and outboard incl bookshelves
- Deckhead and bulkhead shaded lights

SPLIT STABLE DOOR FORWARD TO GALLEY
- Ventilating forward opening hatch to forececk
- Work surfaces port and starboard
- Stowage under and over under sidedecks
- Inset double stainless steel sink to port; mixer tap
- Athwartships Paul Luke gimballed cooked port forward
- 3 x Burner hob
- Oven
- Custom stainless steel icebox
- Fridge
- Bulkhead shaded and deckhead lights

OFFSET TO PORT PASSAGE TO FOREPEAK
- Crew head to port
- Stowage lockers
- Stowage for sails and lines
- Crew double V bunk forward

RIG
- 7/8, 2 x Spreader sloop rig
- Hollow sitka spruce mast by Færing Designs Spars, Michigan (1985)
- 2 x Lewmar 50 bronze halyard winches
- 2 x Lewmar 40 bronze halyard winches
- 1 x Lewmar 16 bronze winch for Cunningham
- Standing and running backstays
- Spruce boom and spinnaker pole
- Original dinghy boom with light
- Full mast and spars refit by Gerard Pasui, Villefranche-sur-Mer (2016-2017)
- Blocks by Dryade (2016)
- Standing and running rigging by Escale Rigging (2015-2018)

SAILS
North Sails
- Mainsail (2018)
- Mainsail (2016)
- ORC jib
- Storm jib
- Storm sail
- Genoa light (2017)
- Genoa light (2016)
- Genoa mid (2017)
- Genoa mid (2016)
- Genoa heavy (2016)
- Solent jib (2016)
- Spinnaker (2018)
- Spinnaker (2017)
- 3 x Spinnakers (2016)

Doyle Sails
- Mainsail
- Solent jib
- Jib
- Spinnaker

CANVASWORK
- Covers for all houses and hatches
- Cockpit table cover
- Anchor windlass cover
- Jib boom cover
- Covers for gangway, swim ladder, tender and outboard motor
- 2 x Sun awnings
- Covers for accommodation upholstery and berths

MECHANICAL
- Yanmar 4JH3THE 96hp (1999)
- Hydraulic drive (2016)
- Shaft just offset to stbd of new skeg in lieu of upper rudder blade surface
- MaxProp Classic 3 x bladed feathering propeller (2016)
- Herreshoff steering gear (major overhaul 2016)

ELECTRICAL
- 230 V Shore power system
- 12V lighting & starting system
- Victron Multiplus 12 V 3000/120 Amp battery charger
- Victron multi control
- Battery monitor BMV 6025
- 2 x 180 Ah AGM house batteries
- 1 x Varta G3 95 Ah engine start battery
- 1 x Zenith 1201120 AGM Windlass battery

TANKAGE
- Hot water tank/ heater (2015)
- 1 x Fuel tank 250 L
- 1 z Fuel tank 400 L
- Fresh water tanks: 2 x 40, 1 x 20 total 100 gallons
- Tank gauges
- Fibreglass holding tank

- Kelvin White steering compass in original Herreshoff bronze binnacle
- B&G H 2000 (4 FFD) Instrumentation; repeaters at cockpit and mast
- Simrad AP20 autopilot
- Icom IC-M323G VHF DSC Radio
- AIS
- Acer PC with Adrena navigation software
- Wifi: Ship Modul Marine Electronics Miniplex-3Wi-N2K NMEA 0183/2000 Multiplexer

- Sea-Safe KHYF-8 8-person life raft (2016)
- 16 x Automatic lifejackets (2015)
- FM 20 Engine room fire suppression

- Cockpit table
- Foldable mahogany bathing ladder (2016)
- Passerelle (2015)
- Nautiraid Coracle 250 folding tender
- Torquedo 1003 Travel electric outboard (2015)
- Cockpit sole mats
- Mooring warps
- Fenders

- Accommodation photos by Gilles Martin-Raget
- Recent sailing photos by James Robinson Taylor