{"id":15135,"date":"2018-07-16T18:25:10","date_gmt":"2018-07-16T22:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=15135"},"modified":"2018-07-16T18:25:10","modified_gmt":"2018-07-16T22:25:10","slug":"blast-from-the-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/blast-from-the-past\/","title":{"rendered":"Blast from the Past"},"content":{"rendered":"

July\/August 2018 | view this story as a .pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

The ambassador from Maine\u00a0<\/span>stuns the Puerto de Mah\u00f3n.<\/span><\/h3>\n

By Colin W. Sargent<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"JA-18-Ranger\"The fog slowly clears. An impossibly tall sloop emerges from the mist. It can\u2019t be the J Class Ranger<\/em>, adrift in time. She was scrapped in 1941. But here she is.<\/span><\/p>\n

Built in Skagen, Denmark, in 2003, the new Ranger<\/em>, a full-scale replica of the 1937 America\u2019s Cup winner, glides across the yacht universe like a starlet on a runway. We don\u2019t see the new Ranger<\/em> in Maine much because she\u2019s home-ported in Georgetown, Bahamas, with frequent voyages to glamor ports in the Mediterranean. As the summer of 2017 opened, she was racing in Bermuda with a crew from England, Scotland, and Ireland.<\/span><\/p>\n

She\u2019s fast, maybe the fastest of the new class of J-sloops that people with \u2018roaring plenitude\u2019 are creating to tack into the past. <\/span><\/p>\n

On first learning about the new Ranger<\/em>, I felt a lump in my throat. If only co-designer Olin J. Stephens (1908-2008) could have lived to see his incredible inspiration rise again from the drawing boards. Imagine Stephens looking up at the doppelg\u00e4nger of the super J that beat Thomas Sopwith\u2019s Endeavour II<\/em> to win the Cup. Imagine the 180-foot mast, the 64-foot boom.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe did see J5 [the new Ranger<\/em>] during construction, and he visited her again once it was commissioned,\u201d says J5\u2019s manager, Dan Jackson. \u201cOurs was the first new J-Class yacht to be built since the 1930s.\u201d Today, a J Class is built for around $16.5 million. Though both the first and the more recent Ranger <\/em>had steel hulls, the \u201ccarbon-fiber mast and rigging\u201d are improvements, and the salon is a good deal more comfortable, with custom mahogany furniture from Sardinia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last time she was in Maine was Summer 2017.\u201d As for when her next visit here will be: \u201cUnknown due to [the] recent passing of the owner,\u201d who died at 75 on April 16, 2018. <\/span><\/p>\n

W<\/span>hich begs the question, who was the mysterious owner? Who\u2019d have had the means to fall in love with a lost Maine yacht design to this degree? John Williams was nicknamed \u201cThe Apartment King\u201d of Atlanta, according to his obituary. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution<\/em> hailed him as a \u201cvisionary Atlanta developer who managed multi-billion dollar businesses in real estate\u201d and a \u201cminority owner of the Atlanta Falcons.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

What a jolt it would be if the new Ranger<\/em> were bought and brought back here to Maine.<\/p>\n

The original Ranger<\/em> cost $164,628.30 in 1937 (including one mast replacement). In 2016, the new Ranger<\/em> was up for sale for $7.9M, according to Boat International<\/em>. Today, she\u2019s listed by Northrop & Johnson in Newport, Rhode Island, for $6.9M\u2013priced for a quick summer sale. \u201cThere are only nine of these in the world,\u201d broker Ann Avery says of the J-Class sloops. \u201cHere, suddenly, is a boat with a crew and plans, and they\u2019ve all been canceled.\u201d Prospective U.S. buyers will need to make the trip to Palma de Mallorca in Spain to have a look at this incredible looker.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For more information on the new Ranger\u2019s <\/em>past races and events, visit the online story at www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/2018\/07\/blast-from-the-past-extras\/<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

July\/August 2018
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