Y29 Westward Ho

WESTWARD HO sailed her first years in the 1940s and ’50s on Buzzard’s Bay, part of the large fleet at the Beverly Yacht Club in Marion, Massachusetts. David Stone of Marion and Boston recalls racing against the WESTWARD HO and many other Yankees there. Imagine ten or twelve Yankees crossing the starting line as the gun goes off. What a sight that must have been!

Westward Ho’s History, as told by owner Dan Page

WESTWARD HO was in South Freeport, Maine, in 1960 when our neighbor, Bill Hazelett, flew my father and his friend and neighbor, Cy Ferland, over to look at it. My parents and the Ferlands bought her and had her trucked to her new home in Malletts Bay on Lake Champlain. Our family has sailed her there for half a century ever since.

My earliest memory of the boat is watching it slide down the ways into the lake at Malletts Bay Marina. Launching a boat was far more work than with today’s nimble travel lift. Yard owner Jake Deforge and his capable employee Neil rolled the boat and its cradle on telephone pole rollers to the marine railway. They would then let her loose to roll down the ways until she hit the water with a splash. My mother says that we usually gathered to watch and cheer.

Seams open from the long, dry winter, she would usually need a day or more to swell up and stop most of the leaking. My mother remembers that the topsides in the early years were completely smooth and didn’t show a seam. The boat, like us all, shows some wrinkles and her years now, but is still a pretty sight and joy to sail.

Eight Page and Ferland kids grew up two miles of dirt road from the boat at the Malletts Bay Boat Club, and spent much of the summer sailing the WESTWARD HO, as well as Flying Juniors, Sprites, Flying Scots, Stars, Lightnings, Lasers, J-24s, J29s and anything else that needed a crew or fill-in skipper. The club has an active racing program and has hosted numerous North American and World championships.

In the 1960s, five Yankees sailed and raced on Lake Champlain out of MBBC and the Lake Champlain Yacht Club in Shelburne, Vermont: Y18 Mademoiselle (renamed Ms), Y25 Havoc , Y29 Westward Ho, Y31 Royal Savage/Venture and Molly Stark. Two more Yankees, including Honey, later arrived. Mademoiselle and Venture were well sailed by Jack Shearer and Fred Allen and won many races.

My teenage friends and I raced Westward Ho in the early 1970s, including the occasional overnight race, but more modern designs had arrived and the Yankee’s halcyon racing days were over. Her CCA rating had to give time to every boat in the fleet under 40 feet including the One-Tons. Her current PHRF rating of 201 is much better.

We mostly putter around the bay these days, but it would be fun to get her bottom race-smooth, invest in a new set of sails, and campaign her once again!
– Daniel Page
June, 2011

Darling Boatworks rebuilt Westward Ho’s cockpit in the winter of 2012.
New slatted seats and sole were made of teak. Sole planks were laid straight and aft and the seat planks are curved to match the hull shape, with a generous shelf with fiddle outboard under the side decks. The job also included bulkhead, frame and floor renewal in the cockpit area. Several butt blocks were removed and reinstalled or replaced. A few frames in the cabin were also replaced.