''Brilliant'' is a

schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...

located at

Mystic Seaport Mystic Seaport Museum or Mystic Seaport: The Museum of America and the Sea in Mystic, Connecticut is the largest maritime museum in the United States. It is notable for its collection of sailing ships and boats and for the re-creation of the craf ...

Mystic, Connecticut Mystic is a village and census-designated place (CDP) in Groton, Connecticut, Groton and Stonington, Connecticut, United States. Historically, Mystic was a significant Connecticut seaport with more than 600 ships built over 135 years starting in ...

, United States. ''Brilliant'' was built in 1932 on

City Island, Bronx City Island is a neighborhood in the northeastern Bronx in New York City, located on an island of the same name approximately long by wide. City Island is located at the extreme western end of Long Island Sound, south of Pelham Bay and east o ...

, by Henry B. Nevins Yard to a design by Olin Stephens of

Sparkman & Stephens Sparkman & Stephens is a naval architecture and yacht brokerage firm with offices in Newport, Rhode Island and Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, USA. The firm performs design and engineering of new and existing vessels for pleasure, commercial, and milita ...

for Walter Barnum. ''Brilliant'' was built as an ocean racing yacht, and on her maiden voyage crossed the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

in just over 15 days, 1 hour and 23 minutes, a record for a sailing yacht of her size. ''Brilliant'' ran from Nantucket Lightship to Bishop Rock Light, England. According to the

blog, ''Brilliant'' was designed to a "rigorous" standard. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the schooner was acquired by the

U.S. Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mul ...

and used to patrol the

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

coast for enemy submarines. During this time, two machine guns were mounted on ''Brilliant''s deck. After the war, ''Brilliant'' was purchased by the accomplished sailor

Briggs Cunningham Briggs Swift Cunningham II (January 19, 1907 – July 2, 2003) was an American entrepreneur and sportsman. He is best known for skippering the yacht ''Columbia'' to victory in the 1958 America's Cup race, and for his efforts as a driver, team o ...

, who attempted to increase her speed by outfitting her with a larger rig. The new rig consisted of taller masts, a self-tacking forestaysail, but maintained the gaff rig. During this time, Cunningham also invented what became known as the

cunningham Cunningham is a surname of Scottish origin, see Clan Cunningham. Notable people sharing this surname A–C *Aaron Cunningham (born 1986), American baseball player *Abe Cunningham, American drummer * Adrian Cunningham (born 1960), Australian ...

, a tie-down for the tack (the lower, forward corner of the mainsail) that allows the sail to maintain a more efficient shape. This makes ''Brilliant'' the first boat to have the device, now standard on racing boats of all sizes. Despite his modifications, Cunningham was unable to significantly improve the ''Brilliant''s speed and he donated her to

in 1953. The seaport once again changed her rig. They maintained the larger rig that Cunningham installed but changed the gaff mainsail to a Bermuda/Marconi rigged main. This is said to have happened to make sailing her easier under her new mission. Mystic Seaport now uses her as an offshore classroom and features her as part of their collection of watercraft. This use was a requirement of Cunningham's gift to Mystic Seaport.

References

Schooners of the United States Museum ships in Mystic, Connecticut 1932 ships Individual sailing vessels Ships built in City Island, Bronx {{ship-stub

See also

References