Names, owners, and locations
- As of early 2009, by count, the 20 classmates had at least 85 names and 158 owners. A family ownership of however many generations was counted only once.
- Three have kept their names through change of owners — #2 with four different owners/families, #7 (last to launch of the twenty) with thirteen different owners and #18 with fifteen different owners.
- All of the boats began, as NYYC members, sailing on LI Sound in 1936.
- By 1947, one had been lost in a yard fire, eight were still on LIS (three with their first owners), three were each in Detroit and the Chesapeake, two at Mentor Harbor (OH), and one each in MA, TX and FL.
- Four of the original owners (#s 11, 12, 13, and 17) became NYYC members in March 1936 as the first of the boats were being built.
- Two owners each owned two of the class — first owner of #1 who later owned #9, later one owner of #13 later owned #12. Within families, the son of the first owner of #18, later owned #10 and the son of an owner of #10, later owned #1.
- The longest first owner was that of #14, who was also the only one of the first owners of the NY32s to have also been a first owner of a NY30 in 1905.
- Hull 14 is also the only one to have sailed on Lake Champlain and to have been in smuggling; she was siezed in Chesapeake Bay as an accomplice in drug running.
- There was almost an aluminum NY32 constructed in 1981 — S&S would rework design (estimated cost $8000 vs $20,000 for new design materials) and Palmer Johnson would build (estimated cost $200,000 – $350,000) — cost became prohibitive at the time for the interested individual (then owner of #5).
- Half of the class have sailed and raced in the Great Lakes at one time (#s 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 10, 11, 15, 16 and 18). Eleven have sailed in Maine waters (#s 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 9, 13, 15, 17, 18 and 20).
- Construction of cold-molded hull #21 began in The Netherlands in 2004. The builder/owner would sail with family or race with friends on the North Sea after launching in 2010. She is now with her second owner and still in Holland.
Racing Careers
- Twelve of the 20 have done a collected total of 42 Bermuda Races, the latest in 2012. Of that group five have done three or more races to Bermuda. One, #3, raced three times with a sloop rig and six times with a yawl rig, while #13 and #17 each raced seven times as sloops. Eight have raced in either the Port Huron (Bayview) or Chicago Mackinac Races or both. Four have done some of the SORC races.
- Three — #s 1, 7 & 13 — have sailed in the Pacific Ocean. Two of these have passed through the Panama Canal — #1 from west to east and #7 both directions from Texas to the Galapagos Islands and back.
- Two — #12 & 13 — have sailed across the Atlantic Ocean with #13 also sailing back to Chesapeake Bay. In a pre-starting maneuver for a match race in the Chesapeake collided, with one losing her mast. Luckily no one was injured.
- In major long distance races, two (#17 & 13) won their class in the Bermuda Race ten years apart. Another (#1) won the Newport -Annapolis Race [it switched directions for 1957] in two succeeding events. One (#18) won her class in the Chicago Mackinac Race (1947). Another (#2) has been overall and class winner in three Port Huron Mackinac Races (1943, ’45 & ’59). Three others (#5 -1944; #6-1962; #15 -1971) have won their class and were overall winner in one Port Huron Mackinac Race. Number 4 won 1960 Miami-Nassau Race with a new masthead rig and, with a different owner, won the first (1969) Trans-Superior Race.
- Three have attended college under donation programs — two (#s 3 & 19) went to the USMMA, Kings Point, NY, later made it to Italy and raced each other there. One (#7) attended the University of Southern California.
Fame & Misfortune
- Three have survived fires (#6, 16 and 18), although one (#8) did not during mid- 1940s.
- Two have been ‘cover girls’ — #1 for Sports Illustrated in September 6, 1954 and #5 for Sailing in August 1977.
- One has appeared in a movie (for TV) — #5– in “Woman named Jackie” in 1991, while at least two have appeared in perfume ads.
- As part of the NYYC’s 175th Anniversary celebration, July 15-20, 2019, the 32s enjoyed their own class start. The last time the sisters raced as a NYYC class was during the 1948 Annual Cruise. That year there were six (#s 3 , 9, 12, 13, 15 and 17) counted as members and three of them (#s 3, 15 and 17) raced each other.
April 2019 (compiled by Debbie Rogers)