Montauk was designed by William Gardner (along with sister boat Grebe) and built at the yard of B. F. Wood and Sons, New York. She was built for the New York banker W. W. Aldrich, and the lawyer Mr W. A. W. Stewart and was named for the area in Long Island, New York, (which in turn named for the Montaukett tribe). Stewart later owned the Gielow designed and Henry Nevins built Hawk which he sailed at the 1923 British American Cup.

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William Gardner had attended the Royal Naval College in London, UK and had subsequently worked for two years at boatyards along the Clyde in Scotland. It may be no surprise then that his designs were more closely comparable to the British Sixes, than the other Americans.

On 14 August 1961 L. Francis Herreshoff, in a letter to Robert D. Schultz, wrote: “Montauk was the small one [of the two Gardners] and of quite normal shape but low freeboard for a Metre boat. At that time freeboard was not as strong a minus factor in the rule that it was to become later. At any rate, Montauk was a small appearing boat in all respects.

“It also should be mentioned that both Montauk and Grebe had very capable professionals who kept them in good trim.” Indeed, W. W. Aldrich had been a junior lieutenant aboard the USS Niagara during the first world war.

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Montauk, along with Grebe, Jeanie and Sheila, were the first American Sixes built to the second International Rule, and the only American Sixes built in 1921. Trials were therefore not necessary for selection but served to give an idea of the potential of the boats. Grebe performed the best, winning most of the trial races, but Montauk showed her speed. During her first test she went up against Stewart’s other boat, a Victory boat called Soixante-Quinze. The New York Times reported on the 16th May 1921:

“In a light air during the morning the Victory yacht almost held its own, but when the breeze freshened in the afternoon the Montauk left the Soixante-Quinze almost as though it had been anchored.”

The races

Montauk was the second highest point scorer for America with 18 points after Grebe who finished well ahead on 37 points. Montauk retired in the first round of the first race due to damage to her rig in bad weather, but completed all of the remaining races. Her best finish was fourth.

What happened to Montauk?

Montauk returned to New York in 1921 following the British American Cup, where she unsuccessfully trialled the following year for the first British American Cup hosted by the Americans.

Montauk regularly changed ownership in New York in the following years. In 1926 she was owned by H. Curtis Hall, an electrical engineer and boat designer who designed an airborne life raft used by the US Navy. Inventor Eugene Atwood owned Montauk from 1928.  A charitable fund, set up by Atwood in 1922 to “aid deserving industrious young people who are making an honest effort to accomplish the best results in life” still exists today.

In 1962, abandoned and in very rough shape, she was purchased for $200 by the father of Tom Harnish. Tom has contributed his fond recollections.

“I was a Junior in high school at the time. I’d learned to sail on a volcanic lake in Guatemala years before. Turned a boat over in that lake and nearly burned our feet in the mud near the shore trying to get her righted.

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“[Some years after the British American Cup of 1921 in the UK] she was dropped in the cradle when they put her on the boat to bring her home from England. It hogged out the hull, and her racing days were over.

“Later someone put a deck house over the cockpit that gave her sitting head room. They put in two berths and place for an alcohol stove, a bucket, and an ice chest under the cockpit floor. No idea where she was at that time, I presume New England.

“Much later she ended up on the Chesapeake near Baltimore where Dad bought her. Seems the owner’s wife had had a baby and he drifted away from the boat, leaving it tied to a dock and ignored.

“We hauled her out, re-caulked the hull, and I learned to use a caulking iron. I discovered that there are some very awkward overhead angles. We sailed her while we re-canvassed and painted the deck, sanded and varnished the bright work, and ran out of money to replace the rotting cotton sails. We found a poorly fitting but very cheap Dacron main, and sailed her like that until I went off to college.

“Many, many memories, mostly good, a few scary. She made for a great way to grow up and learn independence. A high school buddy and I sailed her all over the Chesapeake from the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal to Norfolk. We were at the quay in Annapolis by the market, looking pretty scruffy thanks to several days onboard without a shower, and we convinced some Navy midshipmen we’d just sailed in from Guatemala.

“No fair using your engine!” he bellowed. “We don’t have one!” I yelled back.

“My favorite recollection was a time when someone on another boat, a Rainbow, yelled at us during an impromptu race (two-sailboats-same-direction type), “No fair using your engine!” he bellowed. “We don’t have one!” I yelled back. Even with baggy, much too small sails, Montauk was amazingly fast.

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“And with no power she taught me a lot about sailing, especially how to put her in a berth single-handed with a ripping wind across the slip. Have you noticed how the wind always comes up when you’re ready to put a boat to bed?”

Tom Harnish is a retired former computer scientist who fell in love with a financial consultant. Together they created the oldest and largest vintage airplane sightseeing business in the U.S.  They flew 1920s biplanes and WW2 warbirds because, Tom says, “Montauk planted a seed that grew into a passion for historic designs.”

Montauk was later donated to Mystic Seaport Museum, Connecticut but was in too poor condition to be restored.