''Stormy Weather'' is a ocean-racing

yawl A yawl is a type of boat. The term has several meanings. It can apply to the rig (or sailplan), to the hull type or to the use which the vessel is put. As a rig, a yawl is a two masted, fore and aft rigged sailing vessel with the mizzen mast p ...

that was designed by

Olin Stephens Olin James Stephens II (April 13, 1908 – September 13, 2008) was an American yacht designer. Stephens was born in New York City, but spent his summers with his brother Rod, learning to sail on the New England coast. He also attended the Massa ...

when he was only twenty-five, and launched from the Henry B. Nevins yard in New York on 14 May 1934. She was named after the

song A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetitio ...

of the same name, written by

Harold Arlen Harold Arlen (born Hyman Arluck; February 15, 1905 – April 23, 1986) was an American composer of popular music, who composed over 500 songs, a number of which have become known worldwide. In addition to composing the songs for the 1939 film ...

and

Ted Koehler Ted L. Koehler (July 14, 1894 – January 17, 1973) was an American lyricist. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1972. Life and career Koehler was born in 1894 in Washington, D.C. He started out as a photo-engraver, but w ...

. Her first owner, Philip LeBoutillier, was President of the Best & Co. department store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Apocryphally, he first heard the song sung by

Lena Horne Lena Mary Calhoun Horne (June 30, 1917 – May 9, 2010) was an American dancer, actress, singer, and civil rights activist. Horne's career spanned more than seventy years, appearing in film, television, and theatre. Horne joined the chorus of th ...

, while he was dining at The Montauk Manor resort on Long Island in 1933, and promptly chose the name for his new boat. In 1935 she won both the Newport-Bergen Transatlantic race and the

Fastnet race The Fastnet Race is a biennial offshore yacht race organised by the Royal Ocean Racing Club of the United Kingdom with the assistance of the Royal Yacht Squadron in Cowes and the City of Cherbourg in France. The race is named after the Fastnet ...

. She later won the Miami-Nassau race on five occasions, every year from 1937 to 1941, under the ownership of Bob Johnson until 1939, and thereafter of Bill Labrot. She has raced continuously to the present day, now competing in the Panerai Classic Yacht series in the Mediterranean. An evolution from his equally famous ''Dorade'' (1929), ''Stormy Weather'',

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 ...

design #27, was often named by Olin Stephens as one of his favorite designs. The most obvious part of this evolution was an increase in beam of some twenty per cent, due to the introduction of a "narrow beam penalty" in the 1934

Cruising Club of America The Cruising Club of America (CCA) is an international organization of cruisers whose objects are to promote cruising and racing by amateurs, to encourage the development of suitable types of cruising craft, to stimulate interest in seamanship, navi ...

handicap rules.

later created many successful variants of the same basic design, such as the sloop ''Sonny'', and the larger and smaller yawls ''Bolero'' and ''Loki''. ''Stormy Weather'' has crossed the Atlantic thirty six times, and undergone two major restorations, one in the Caribbean the early 1980s, and most recently at the Cantiere Navale dell' Argentario in 2000–2001. In 1995, ''Stormy Weather'' was still competitive enough to place sixth overall in the Fastnet race, the sixtieth anniversary of her victory. Stormy Weather raced again in the Fastnet in 2015 to celebrate the eightieth anniversary of her victory. On this occasion she placed eleventh overall and fourth in her class. The boat was completely restored in 2001 at the shipyard of Argentario, in

Porto Santo Stefano Porto Santo Stefano () is a seaport town on the west coast of Italy, in the municipality of Monte Argentario, in the Province of Grosseto, Tuscany. It is the municipal seat of Monte Argentario and one of the two major towns that form the township ...

, Italy. Olin Stephens last raced on ''Stormy Weather'' at Argentario, in 2007, when he was 98 years old.

Notes

References

* Stephens, Olin J. ''All this and Sailing, Too''. Mystic Seaport Museum, 1999. . * Stephens, Olin J. ''Lines : A Half-Century of Yacht Design by Sparkman & Stephens, 1930-1980''. David R. Godine, 2002. .

External links

Stormy Weather: website

Stormy Weather: photos

Website: Sparkman & Stephens Inc. (S&S)
{{Fastnet Race winning yachts Yawls Individual sailing vessels 1930s sailing yachts Sailboat type designs by Olin Stephens Sailboat type designs by Sparkman and Stephens Sailing yachts of the United States Sailing yachts built in the United States Fastnet Race yachts