The restoration of Aphrodite

I don’t often write about motor yachts but Aphrodite is a bit special.

Aphrodite is a 74′ Long Island motor commuter yacht originally built in 1937 to ferry the industrialist, Jock Whitney from his home in Manhasset to Wall Street.  Beats the bloody train any day.

In addition to shuttling Whitney to New York, she was host to many of the gliteratti of the day, including Lawrence Olivier, Spencer Tracy – even a birthday party for Shirley Temple. During WW2 she was loaned out the Coast Guard Auxiliary.

In the 1960s she was donated to charity and was then passed from owner to owner and despite best efforts by her owners she fell into a state of dilapidation, almost beyond repair.  Fortunately, in 2003 she was handed over to Brooklin Boatyard who took the incredible task of restoring her to her past glory.

It was more of a reconstruction and her current owner thinks of her as a replica rather than a restoration. The process took 45,000 hours, painstakingly , taking her part, digitally cataloging every element of the boat, re-making every piece, including re-building her original white oak frames and replanking her in copper-riveted Philippines mahogany.

The only original pieces are some of the brass fittings like the window winders.

She was re-launched  in 2005 and is now kept by her new owner in Long island Sound.

Read on below for a more detailed and see some superb pictures of the reconstruction process. A joy for any boat nerd like me .

APHRODITE was built by the Purdy Boat Company and launched in May of
1937 for Wall Street financier and later Ambassador to the Court of St.
James, John Hay (Jock) Whitney of Manhasset, Long Island.

Best described as a “Commuter Yacht”, this elegant and sleek
74-footer would each morning whisk Mr. Whitney from his large two-story
boat house westward down Long Island Sound and thru the East River to
his Wall Street office. During the 45 minute commute Mr. Whitney would
go up to the forward cockpit and read the Herald Tribune to catch up on
the day’s news.

APHRODITE’S guest list over the years reads like a “Who’s Who” in
the worlds of government, business and entertainment with such
luminaries as Fred Astaire, Sir Laurence Olivier, Spencer Tracy,
Katherine Hepburn, Henry Ford II, FDR advisor Harry Hopkins and Nelson
Rockefeller aboard for summer day cruises down Long Island Sound.
APHRODITE also once served as the site for a birthday party for Shirley
Temple.

The day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Mr. Whitney offered
APHRODITE to the government for war service and she was commissioned in
April 1942 as a Coast Guard auxiliary vessel (CGR-557). The boat spent
most of its war-time career ferrying dignitaries up and down the
Atlantic coast and transporting President Roosevelt to and from his
home at Hyde Park on the Hudson River.

In the early 1960’s Mr. Whitney no longer needed a boat of
APHRODITE’S size and so donated the boat to Anthony Drexel Duke and
Boy’s Harbor, a summer program for disadvantaged inner-city youth which
operated on Mr. Duke’s estate at East Hampton, Long Island.

In the late 1960’s or early 1970’s APHRODITE was renamed MOONFIRE
and under this name she went through a series of owners under which her
condition quickly deteriorated to the point where she was parked ashore
with weeds sprouting around her neglected hull.

Around 1977 Mr. John Pannell started a marine repair business
(Harbor View Marine) on the site of the old Purdy Boat Company where
APHRODITE was originally built. In 1983 Mr. Pannell was approached by a
gentleman from New Jersey who told him he had just bought an old boat,
would he be interested in a restoration project and added “she’s got
MOONFIRE on the transom but I think she’s APHRODITE”!!!! The boat was
launched and towed back to her original birth place where she was then
hauled and restoration work begun.

The unexpected death of the man from New Jersey shortly after work
was begun brought the restoration efforts to a temporary halt. Work
began again in earnest when John Pannell accepted ownership of
APHRODITE from the heirs as payment for work in progress.

After relaunching in 1984, APHRODITE could be seen traveling up and
down the East Coast and in attendance at many classic boat events where
she garnered many a prize.

In the fall of 2000 John Pannell sold APHRODITE to her present
owner, a true classic boat enthusiast. Despite Pannell’s loving
attention to the boat, the new owner found that he could not stop the
clock and retain the boats past glory. In the late fall of 2003
APHRODITE was delivered to Brooklin Boat Yard where a complete
restoration of the boat is planned to bring her back to her original
appearance and to bring her ship’s systems up to today’s standards.

APHRODITE’S REBIRTH

The “Aphrodite” was a complete restoration using the original boat
as a template from which to create what would become the reborn
“Aphrodite”.

The first stage of this project was to extensively catalog all
aspects of the boat for later reference. Once this historical
documentation was completed, forms were placed into the boat to retain
her hull shape. Next the job of disassembly began in earnest with the
removal of the deck, superstructure, bulkheads, all interior
accommodations and ship’s systems leaving only the hull in place.

Reconstruction began with the replacement of the original backbone,
stem, floors and the reframing of the intricate curves of “Aphrodite’s”
signature torpedo stern. Next on the list was the removal of the
original hull planking and the fastening of temporary ribbands to the
original frames. After all planking was removed, new white oak frames
were fabricated and steam bent into position and the original frames
were removed.

On September 2, 2004 the final original frame (last wood of the
original boat) was removed marking the transition from old to new.

Once the all important structural framing work was completed the
hull was then replanked as originally built with double-planked,
copper-riveted Philippine Mahogany. With a new hull in place the work
of engine and systems installation went forward along with the
reconstruction of the interior accommodations spaces, new deck
construction and the crafting of Aphrodite’s distinctive cabin and
superstructure.

On a crisp clear October day in 2005, with a huge crowd made up of
Aphrodite’s owner’s, the crew of Brooklin Boat Yard and families and
friends from both sides of the project on hand to wish her well,
Aphrodite slipped into the waters of Center Harbor Maine to begin her
new life.