Sparkman & Stephens 56 ft Spirit of Tradition Sloop/Cutter 2007

ANNA is surely more than just 'Spirit of Tradition' - she is also 'Spirit of STORMY WEATHER', and that sets the bar very high indeed. Tasked by her commissioning and still present owner to come up with a modern take on their legendary Sparkman & Stephens design #27 - winner of the Transatlantic Race and The Fastnet in 1935 - led by the late Mitch Neff, and with Olin Stephens very much involved, ANNA is the fabulous result, built by Brooklin Boat Yard in 2007. She has subsequently been thoroughly enjoyed (who wouldn’t?!) as both a cruiser and a racer. ANNA’s fin and bulb keel, spade rudder underbody configuration, and carbon rig offer sparkling performance, while the understated, low profile elegance of her above waterline appearance pays due homage to the inspiration, and she is a real home from home down below. A unique opportunity.

“In 2004 we sold our family business and I began to work on ANNA. I already had a relationship with Olin Stephens and with Mitch Neff... and the three of us, along with Greg Matzat, set out to create a special boat that had the same lines as STORMY WEATHER, but wasn’t a sister ship.

“Olin was then living in Hanover, New Hampshire, which was only half an hour from my place... When I first walked into his apartment, I was amazed at the computer equipment he had and his expertise at running it. He was extremely helpful in getting me the performance that I was looking for in ANNA. Even though he was then in his 90s, he was still very vibrant and we made several trips together to Maine while ANNA was being built.

“When ANNA was launched, in 2007, we didn’t have a lot of time to sail her before the Eggemoggin Reach Regatta. I quickly put together a scratch crew of nice young sailors and we entered the race. There were about 100 wooden boats in all, including a handful of 76s, also built by Steve White and his team at Brooklin Boat Yard. Long story short, we easily outpointed the 76s, and everybody else too, and won that race outright, on uncorrected time and by a very large margin.

“We had ANNA in Newport once, alongside SONNY, another famous Sparkman & Stephens ‘best of the best’ ocean racers. She was patterned after Stormy Weather too, but rigged, like us, as a very tall sloop. I invited her to come out and race, but her captain declined, saying ‘Never bring a knife to a gunfight!’

“ANNA proved to be exceptionally fast and easy to handle as well as comfortable. I’ve single-handed her many times in some very foul weather and she’s always performed incredibly well. To this day, when I see her, I often think of something Olin used to say, that the easiest boats to look at seem to be the easiest to drive.

“We’ve sailed ANNA all over the Northeast from Rhode Island up to Nova Scotia. We never tire of the wonderful Maine coast, though, and finding new islands to explore. It will be hard to give her up.”

STORMY WEATHER won the 1935 Transatlantic Race from Newport, Rhode Island, to Bergen, Norway (by way of Sable Island, Greenland and Iceland), in 19 days. This was a grueling test of design, construction, seamanship and resolve, and no fluke either, for STORMY WEATHER went on to sweep that year’s Fastnet Race also. By 1954, her 20th anniversary, STORMY WEATHER had earned 12 overall wins, 15 class wins and five third-place finishes in 31 major ocean races, making her the most significant racing yacht of the 20th Century. Fifty years later, ANNA was commissioned to be a worthy inheritor of those genes, one that combined advancements in sailing-yacht design with the look and feel of a classic.

At her launching, in June 2007, Sparkman & Stephens President and Chief Naval Architect Greg Matzat said, “With some notable exceptions, ANNA is a scaled-up version of STORMY WEATHER. We’ve maintained most of the aesthetic elements of the older boat - her sheerline, her tumblehome, the shape of her house, the configuration of her cockpit, her overhangs and transom - and placed them on a modern, efficient underbody.”

ANNA’s hull is built of a cold-molded combination of mahogany, western red cedar and Port Orford cedar fastened with West System epoxy for traditional wooden-boat character but less weight. While Stormy Weather was a yawl, ANNA’s owner wanted a fractional sloop rig like the high-performance Star boats he’d learned to race as a boy. Other, more subtle modernizations abound: underneath, ANNA has a bulb fin keel with a spade rudder; her rudder, mast and boom are carbon-fiber; her hidden anchor is suspended from an arm that retracts into the foredeck. So that she could easily be crewed by a couple, ANNA’s sail-handling, maneuvering and anchoring systems were designed for simplicity and efficiency as well as reliability.

The scaled-up hull provides maximum headroom while keeping the freeboard relatively low. With input from the owner and from Martha Coolidge Design, Sparkman & Stephens also updated the yacht’s interior. The galley, for instance, was moved aft for easier access from the cockpit and better socializing. There are deluxe accommodations for two couples plus pilot and transom bunks to port and starboard, for a total of eight berths. Extra care was taken with ANNA throughout. Before work began on the interior, for example, the owner had the yard build a full-size model of her out of particle board as a walk-though mock-up, so no adjustments would have to be made afterward. As a result, when she was launched, ANNA was the ‘most finished’ boat ever. ANNA commemorates the owner’s mother, a lady who lived to the age of 96.

- Cold-molded combination of:
- mahogany, western red cedar, and Port Orford cedar
- Traditional 'STORMY WEATHER' appearance above waterline
- Bulb fin keel and spade rudder underbody
- Carbon fiber rudder
- Teak laid deck over marine plywood/ epoxy
- Mahogany superstructures

GENERAL
- Teak laid deck
- Painted toerail/ bulwark
- Varnished mahogany capping and taffrail
- Painted covering boards
- Varnished mahogany superstructures
- All winches are electric

AFTER DECK
- Flush chromed ensign staff socket
- Backstay chainplate with hydraulics
- Raised lazarette hatch
- Dorade boxes to port & starboard; original pattern Dorade cowls
- Raised stainless steel Espar heating system exhaust
- Chromed panama mooring fairleads thru-bulwarks port & starboard

COCKPIT
- Varnished mahogany coamings
- Deck-level, white caulked laid teak seating incl short bridge deck
- Samson posts port & starboard aft
- A-frame steering pedestal with chromed binnacle
- Varnished ship's wheel
- Engine controls
- Raymarine plotter screen forward
Harken chromed self tailing winches outboard on blocks
- 2 x Primary
- 2 x Secondary
- 2 x For running backstays

CABIN TRUNK
- Varnished mahogany uprights and superstructures
- 6 x Bronze opening ports port & starboard
- White painted roof
- Sliding companionway hatch (w. garage) to owner cabin
- Dorade box to starboard aft
- Chromed Harken electric self-tailing mainsheet winch to port aft
- Sliding companionway hatch (w. garage) to starboard to lobby
- Dorade box to port; original pattern Dorade cowls
- Mainsheet padeye and lead block
- Grabrails port and starboard

SIDE DECKS
- Snatch cheek blocks port and starboard
- Running backstay leads port & starboard
- 2 x Headsail sheeting tracks and cars port & starboard
- Lemon squeezer deck prisms port and starboard

MID DECK
- Traditional butterfly skylight hatch over saloon
- Dorade boxes to port & starboard; original pattern Dorade cowls
- Stainless steel line protectors over
- 2 x Chromed panama mooring fairleads thru-bulwarks port & starboard
- 2 x Associated mooring cleats port & starboard
- Lemon squeezer deck prisms port and starboard

MAST POSITION
- Instrument displays at mast
- Chromed Harken electric self-tailing halyard/ line winches port & starboard
- Saloon stove heater flue fitting to port

FOREDECK
- 2 x Small modern hatches over WC Compartment and forward lobby
- 2 x Dorade boxes; original pattern Dorade cowls
- Stainless steel line protectors over
- Large modern forehatch
- Detachable inner forestay
- Spinnaker pole stowage chocks to port
- Chromed panama mooring fairleads port & starboard
- Associated mooring fairleads port and starboard
- Large flush hatch concealing fold out anchor launcher/ pulpit system

GROUND TACKLE
- 45 lb / 20 kg Plow anchor Hidden Fold out anchor pulpit system
- 20 ft / 6 m Chain; 200 ft / 60 m rode
- Windlass details TBA

GENERAL
- Design by S&S and Martha Coolidge Design, Rockland, Maine
- Berths for 6 (if forepeak is fitted out, for 8)
- Mahogany carpentry and white painted surfaces
- Douglas fir sole
- 2 x Companionways, to aft cabin and lobby

AFT COMPANIONWAY TO DOUBLE BERTH OWNER AFT CABIN
- Double berth to starboard
- Stowage under
- Bunkside chest of drawers with fiddled top
- Lockers/ hanging lockers to port
- 2 x Davey & Co frosted glass reading lights
- Brass anchor light
- 4 x Bronze opening ports
- 2 x Lemon squeezer deck prisms

DOOR FORWARD TO LOBBY
- Sideboard midships; drawer & locker; fiddled top
- Companionway ladder to starboard from cabin trunk

NAVIGATING STATION TO STARBOARD
- Lockers aft outboard
- Angled chart table; stowage under
- Chart reading light
- Navigator's upholstered seat
- Navigation displays
- Ship's isolator panel outboard
- Deckhead light

GALLEY TO PORT
- Force 10 gimballed propane cooker outboard
- 4 x Burners hob; oven
- Locker under
- Slim chest of drawers aft with fiddled top
- Lockers and crockery stowage shelves outboard
- Top loading Sea Frost fridge/ freezer in fiddled counter top forward
- Refrigeration is engine driven with shore-assist option
- Stainless steel sink
- Brass mixer tap and brass seawater hand pump
- Locker outboard
- 2 x Side deck head lights
- Bronze opening port

SALOON
- Traditional arrangement
- Settees to port & starboard
- Pilot berths outboard to port & starboard
- Lockers under accessed outboard of settee backrests
- Drop leaf table offset to port
- Sideboards port & starboard fwd with drawers, lockers & fiddled tops
- Leaded glass door lockers outboard port and starboard
- Antique propane cabin stove at port forward bulkhead
- Copper protection/ reflection at bulkhead

PASSAGE FORWARD OFFSET TO STARBOARD
- Sideboard to starboard lockers under
- Small stainless steel/ plexiglass hatch in deckhead

WC COMPARTMENT TO PORT
- Marine toilet with holding tank
- Shower
- Basin with mixer tap
- Heated Towel Racks
- Small stainless steel/ plexiglass hatch in deckhead

FOREPEAK
- Presently for sail stowage but scope to be a forecabin
- Hanging locker and chest of drawers to starboard
- Deckhead lights
- Large stainless steel/ plexiglass hatch in deckhead

RIG
- Fractional sloop rig
- Hall carbon Spars
- Navtec Nitronic Rod Rigging
- Navtec vang
- Harken winches

SAILS
Doyle D4 Vectran fore and aft sails
- Boom furling mainsail; full length battens; 3 x reefs
- #3 Headsail set up on the roller furler
- #1, #2, #3, & #4 Headsails
Downwind sails
- Symmetric spinnaker
- 2 x Light airs asymmetrics

CANVASWORK
- Spray dodger/ hood
- Boom cover
- Genoa bags

MECHANICAL
- Yanmar 4JH4-TE 75 hp Sail Drive (2007)
- Custom Chain and Cable Steering

ELECTRICAL
- Mastervolt Combi Charger/ Sine Wave Inverter

TANKAGE
Fuel:
- 1 x 100 Gal / 379 L
Fresh Water:
- 1 x 120 Gal / 454 L
- Spectra Ventura Watermaker
- Atlantic Marine Hot Water Heater
Holding:
- 1 x 20 Gal / 76 L

OTHER
- Espar D5LC Forced Hot Air Cabin Heating

NAVIGATION
- Ritchie Globemaster Compass
- Raymarine 80 GPS
- Raymarine Radar
- B&G Sailing Instruments
- B&G Depth Sounder
- Simrad AP25 with Teleflex hydraulic cylinder autopilot

COMMUNICATIONS
- Icom M-504 VHF
- KVH eTrac Mini-C satcom

- EPIRB
- Valise Life Raft
- Paul Luke 100+ lb storm anchor with heavy rode
- Storm Tri-sail and Stormsail #4

- Mooring warps
- Fenders

Sailing and on board images by Alison Langley