Friday, March 29

Brooklin Launches New Version of Hemingway’s Pilar

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The new Wheeler 38, a recreation of Ernest Hemingway’s famous Pilar, was just launched at the Brooklin Boat Yard in Maine, and now is cruising down to Key West with a top speed of 34 knots.

 The new boat is named Legend, and it was reverse engineered from the original Pilar by Bill Prince Yacht Design. It was built for the Wheeler Yacht Company at Brooklin with modern technology and creature comforts, including a Seakeeper gyro stabilizer. The original Pilar was built by the Wheeler Shipyard in Coney Island, New York, in 1933. Hemingway paid $7,495 for the boat and had it shipped to Miami, where he picked it up and cruised down to Key West.

Hemingway wrote about Pilar extensively, particularly in Islands in the Stream and then in The Old Man and the Sea, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953. After he died in 1961, the boat was kept at his finca near Havana, where I saw it about 20 years ago.

The new Wheeler is a cold-molded, mahogany replica that Prince designed from the original. It’s powered by twin 370-hp Yanmar diesels and cruises at 26 knots, and has a range of about 400 nm at 23 knots. It also has a lot of things that Hemingway never dreamed of, including touch-screen electronics, air conditioning, Sub-Zero refrigeration, a 32-inch Samsung TV, and ship’s systems that can be controlled by an iPhone.

Hemingway named the boat Pilar after a version of the first name of his second wife, Pauline Pfeiffer. It was powered by a single 75-hp Chrysler engine and topped out at 16 knots. In the picture at left, he’s with his fourth wife, Mary Welsh. /

Specs.: LOA: 39’4”; Beam: 12’0”; Draft: 3’5”; Disp.: 20,600 lbs.; Fuel: 250 gals.; Water: 85 gals.; Power: 2×370-hp Yanmar diesels. You can see a video of Legend, below; it was taken by OffCenterHarbor.com.

Read more: http://wheeleryachts.com  http://brooklinboatyard.com http://billprinceyachtdesign.com

There aren't many boats that can outrun @woodenboatphotographer photo-boat ABACO, but certainly not many that are 38-feet and several tons. This lovely new boat is LEGEND, the Wheeler 38 by @wheeleryachtcomnpany, designer Bill Prince and boat builder @BrooklinBoatYard.As our hair and cheeks were flapping aboard ABACO with her throttle topped out, and Benjamin Mendlowitz brings ABACO in tight to the stern quarter for just the right angle at the edge of the spray flying past, check out how the new replica of Hemingway’s renowned PILAR pulls away from us as those on board calmly chat and SIP COFFEE(!), and that @Seakeeper_inc gyroscopic stabilizer keeps their world perfectly smooth, level and so civilized.Off Center Harbor members will soon be getting a full video with an in depth tour of LEGEND with lead the lead boatbuilder on the project.#brooklinboatyard #woodenboat #classicboat #offcenterharbor #wheeleryachtcompany #hemingway #boatbuilding #motoryacht #pilar #powerboat #yachting #seakeeper #pilar #wheeler38

Posted by OffCenterHarbor.com on Monday, September 14, 2020

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