A small piece of Camelot is up for sale

[Stinky The Clown]

JFK's 'floating white house' the 62' yawl rigged yacht Manitou is up for sale for (an honestly pretty meager, given what it is) $1.3 million.

She's being shown at the Annapolis Boat Show, not very many miles at all from where she was originally built.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/10/12/kennedy_floating_white_house_carefully_restored_is_up_for_sale/

[TahitiNut]

1. One of my contacts with "history" was that I sailed on the Manitou BEFORE JFK got it.

As a cadet at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy from June 1961 to May 1963, I had the chance to sail aboard the Manitou in the Thames River before it was taken to Naragannssett Bay for JFK's use. It was one of a couple of larger sailboats (compared to dinghys and lazers) cadets had for weekend sailing.

[Stinky The Clown]

2. I didn't know you were a Coastie!

My wife grew up in New London, right next to the academy. Her Dad was a prof at Conn College.

[TahitiNut]

3. I knew that neighborhood well. I trod the way to and from Conn College often ...

... up Mohegan Avenue and onto the CC campus roads, dodging the Yalies in their sports cars. (I think they had a competition on how many cadets they could off.) We had many the "mixer" of the Conn College coeds and Coastie cadets. I also spent some time in the Aboretum. :evilgrin:


That area was far more 'quaint' in the early 60s than it is today. It stunned me to see all the built up areas and bigger highways and interstates. I-95 wasn't even there when I was there, as far as I recall. New London was a fairly quiet little town and we could walk into town on the weekend and get a soda at a REAL soda shop. (Or find the liquor stores we knew would sell to cadets.) I was somewhat sad to see how urbanized it all became.

[Sparkly]

7. OmiGOD -- a Coastie!!!

I grew up right on the campus of the college, on Mohegan Avenue.

As kids we sat on the lawn and yelled at the Coasties as they jogged by. We came up with the withering taunt, "Coasties eat Post Toasties!" (One day one of them yelled back, "No we don't, we eat Captain Crunch!" We were stumped for a good comeback to that.)

:rofl:

[TahitiNut]

11. I heard that so often that I use it myself occasionally ... even now. "Bathtub sailors." "Swabs."

When I went there (1961-63), I don't think there was a "Captain Crunch," though. :silly:
I think it was "Ensign Crunch" back then. :dunce:


I do remember the joke we used to tell about Conn College ...

Ensign: "Conn College?? The only women that went to Conn College were whores and football players."
Captain: "(Ahem!) My wife went to Conn College!!"
Ensign: "Oh? What position did she play, sir??"

:rofl:

[Sparkly]

13. Haha!!

I never heard that joke. I do remember the "college girls" (as I called them) being called "Connies." Some of our babysitters went to the mixers with Coasties and/or dated some, which my sisters and I found thoroughly disgusting! (Ew, icky boys -- and with short hair!)

In the years you're talking about, we lived in half of a two-apartment house on Mohegan Ave. that was torn down for the Coast Guard Academy's expansion. Were you there when that construction was going on?

How often have you been back to New London?

[TahitiNut]

14. The add-on to the barracks (Chase Hall) was being completed when I arrived, but ...

... the construction that expanded the grounds to the north along Mohegan Avenue (and the Thames) hadn't started. I've only been back a couple of times ... the most 'recently' about 15-20 years ago.

It's kind a weird for me. Cadets that don't finish ("wash-outs") aren't typically embraced. I left at the end of my 2nd year when I 'discovered' I didn't really know how to (and wasn't comfortable with) hazing and giving orders. At that age, I found (to my shock) that I wasn't much of an authoritarian ... and DEFINITELY not a 'military type.' It was a difficult 'discovery' to make ... having just assumed that career path for so long.

Going back and seeing females (OMFG!!) as cadets was tough for me. I'd never really thought about it when I was there ... it was "the way things were" that all cadets were male. I'd just assumed women became officers in the USCG by different paths - college, etc. The various hazing 'rituals' conducted in the barracks definitely WERE NOT 'coed' activities. Don't get me wrong ... I'm 100% in favor of equal access ... it's just hard to imagine how differently cadet life would be.

When I was there, the entire Corps of Cadets was about 650 guys. My entering 'swab summer' class was about 250 ... of whom less than 125 would graduate. I was ranked #12 in the entering class ... academic/aptitude ranking. The year I took the entrance exams, I was told that about 25,000 guys took it all over the U.S. Entrance to the Academy was solely by competitive examination - two full days worth at proctored locations around the country. The Cadet Corps is a bit larger, now, as I understand.


Some of the girls who came to the mixers were seniors at local high schools. As I recall, most were QUITE affluent ... many with chauffeur-driven cars bringing them and picking them up at the North Gate. (Cadets were forbidden to drive or own a car.)

[ddeclue]

4. Is this the boat where Kerry had some pics taken of him with Kennedy? n/t

[Ichingcarpenter]

5. A bargain for a 62' wooden boat in mint condition

It will sell for at least $20 million

Look how clear the deck is for sailing and its a Yawl my favorite sailing boat.!

[Stinky The Clown]

6. She's got great lineage .... a Sparkman.

Built on Maryland's Eastern Shore by the actual hands of actual craftsmen in the late 1940s.

That's a wooden boat lover's dream.

[Ichingcarpenter]

9. I worked on wooden boats building cabinets

I finally learned how to use a story stick.

Now they use computers.

A 62' could easily be a world sailer.
yikes, at that price it would be a steal.

A wooden boat is a hole in the ocean financially
and a unending mistress that needs your money and time.

[TahitiNut]

12. She was an absolute classic of the Sparkman & Stephens line ... a true beauty.

Back in my day (early 60s), S&S was the top of the line in hull design. She was the favorite for the officer faculty and sailing team members ... and weekend sails for the upper class. Lovely teak decks and oak ribs and finishing. (The decks on the Eagle were teak, too ... over steel.) Beautiful brass and kept in top condition when she was at the Academy.

[Hekate]

8. Somewhere Katherine Hepburn is whispering, "She was yar."

Sail on.

Hekate

[AlCzervik]

10. that's about 1.3 mil out of my price range. Very spuffy though.

[hootinholler]

15. That would be a great ketch. n/t