Boat Name: Goose

Sail: US 81

Year Built: 1938

Designer: Sparkman & Stephens

Builder: Nevins, City Island, New York
Website: http://www.gooseus81.com/

Owner: Peter Hofmann

History: Designed and built for Dr. George Nichols. Goose was recently profiled in the S&S biography, "Best of the Best - The Yacht Designs of Sparkman & Stephens." She is arguably the single most famous and victorious 6 meter in the world. 4 time winner of the Scandinavian Gold Cup; 1938, 1939, 1947, 1948. Winner of the Seawanhaka Cup in 1957 and many other international races. In her first international regatta, the1938 British-American Team Race, Goose led the Americans to victory. In her glory years, she was considered 'unbeatable' by many. Goose was the first design extensively tank tested by S&S, and represented a breakthrough in meter boats whose immediate influence can be seen in the 12 meter Vim, the 8 meter Iskareen, and in future winning Sparkman & Stephens 6, 8 and 12 meters such as Llanoria, Iroquois, Columbia, and Constellation. Goose did have her embarrassments, however. In 1938 at the King Edward VII "Bermuda Gold Cup" she lost badly to an older design, K3 Achilles, then later the same year she inexplicably lost the Seawanhaka Cup to K55 Circe, a boat Goose trounced in the earlier British-American Team Race. After many years of hard campaigning in the US and Europe, she was rebuilt in the Luders yard in 1957 with 4 layers of mahogany strips to replace the original planking. It is said S&S would not give Luders the lines for the boat, because he was a competing designer, so before proceeding, yard workers lifted the lines from her tired hull and rebuilt from there. After the rebuild, Sparkman & Stephens acquiesced, the rebuilt Goose was compared to the original line drawings and found to be within a 1/16" in every dimension. She competed many times on Lake Ontario in the 50's and 60's, often sparring with boats from Toronto, like KC 25 Buzzy III and KC 9 Bibis. She eventually made her way from Jerry Castle in Rochester to Steve Chadwick in Seattle, a 6 meter hotbed, in the 60s. In 1969, in the Summer of Love, after winning the qualifying regatta in Seattle, Goose represented the St. Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco for the inaugural Australian-American Challenge against John Taylor's new S&S design, Toogooloowoo IV. The bottom photo below shows Goose being loaded on the trailer headed for San Francisco. One of the anecdotes of this race series concerns a dockside conversation between a young, gimlet-eyed Scott Rohrer (sailing on Goose, with a 3 to 1 lead in the series) and Olin Stephens, who flew out from New York to witness the series. Shaking Mr Stephens' hand, Scott said, "You can't feel too bad about this. Either way, an S&S boat wins the Cup." Mr Stephens was said to have replied, obviously chagrined, "Yes, but one would like to see more progress than that in 30 years of yacht design". In an intensely fought series, the old Goose finally prevaled in the 7th race. In the first 6 Meter World Cup, held in Seattle in the summer of 1973, Goose placed 4th of 20 entries. Goose was also the recent winner of the King Olav Cup, and the Lake Union Gold Cup.

 

The three photos below appear courtesy of Barbara Castle Poole von Schilcher

 

Goose, as she arrived in Rochester, NY in 1961.

 

Goose, 1961.

 

Wilmot Vail 'Jerry' Castle at the helm, 1961.

 

Goose getting loaded on the truck to San Francisco in 1969 for the

first Australian American Challenge.

 

 

 

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