Spirit of Acorn . com
Creating a small keel yacht designed for the soul, not the ego
Skyline of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia from Spirit of Acorn
Research
Bob's article was very evocative, and contained a number of clues to obtaining more information about the Acorn. I contacted the St. Francis Yacht Club and they came up with extracts listing the active owners over a number of years. I couldn't find Jim DeWitt Jnr., until a response to a posting to the Rec Boat Building Newsgroup told me that Jim was now a Marine Artist, still in California. When I first contacted Jim, things sounded promising. He remembered his father building the first Acorn in the backyard of the family home in Oakland. He also thought he had a faded set of plans on the wall of his studio. Several attempts to mail these to me proved unsuccessful. Perhaps someone in Austria has them.
After a couple of months I decided on a new tack, contacting the various Bay Area Yacht Clubs that had been associated with Acorn owners. Didn't get anywhere for a while, then in a telephone call, one helpful lady recalled a couple of the names as "the old guys across the street". A phone call to them lead to Luke Lukavich in Monterey, well into his 80's, but apparently still with the best of the remaining boats, "Tunami"..
I'm sure Luke thought I was was mad when I contacted him, but the gods were guiding me, because Luke had a set of plans which he copied and mailed to Australia! While the plans didn't have a table of offsets, they were a good starting point.
Now to find a sympathetic Naval Architect. Again fortune shined on me, in the form of Ray Cole, Naval Architect, Engineer, Boat Builder, and thoroughly nice guy (photo below - still sailing and winning!). Ray is in his 70's and based Melbourne only a few kilometres away from me. Ray and I sounded each other out, and some initial sketches were done to allow an escape hatch ahead of the mast (as Spirit of Acorn was to have a diesel), and some extra freeboard (because the Acorn certainly didn't have much). (CLICK ON RAY'S PHOTO TO GO TO HIS WEB SITE)
Bob's article was very evocative, and contained a number of clues to obtaining more information about the Acorn. I contacted the St. Francis Yacht Club and they came up with extracts listing the active owners over a number of years. I couldn't find Jim DeWitt Jnr., until a response to a posting to the Rec Boat Building Newsgroup told me that Jim was now a Marine Artist, still in California. When I first contacted Jim, things sounded promising. He remembered his father building the first Acorn in the backyard of the family home in Oakland. He also thought he had a faded set of plans on the wall of his studio. Several attempts to mail these to me proved unsuccessful. Perhaps someone in Austria has them.
After a couple of months I decided on a new tack, contacting the various Bay Area Yacht Clubs that had been associated with Acorn owners. Didn't get anywhere for a while, then in a telephone call, one helpful lady recalled a couple of the names as "the old guys across the street". A phone call to them lead to Luke Lukavich in Monterey, well into his 80's, but apparently still with the best of the remaining boats, "Tunami"..
I'm sure Luke thought I was was mad when I contacted him, but the gods were guiding me, because Luke had a set of plans which he copied and mailed to Australia! While the plans didn't have a table of offsets, they were a good starting point.
Now to find a sympathetic Naval Architect. Again fortune shined on me, in the form of Ray Cole, Naval Architect, Engineer, Boat Builder, and thoroughly nice guy (photo below - still sailing and winning!). Ray is in his 70's and based Melbourne only a few kilometres away from me. Ray and I sounded each other out, and some initial sketches were done to allow an escape hatch ahead of the mast (as Spirit of Acorn was to have a diesel), and some extra freeboard (because the Acorn certainly didn't have much). (CLICK ON RAY'S PHOTO TO GO TO HIS WEB SITE)
Then my wife, Gina and I went off to the United States to drive from LA to San Francisco (where our son lives) with a detour to Monterey to meet Luke and Tunami, check some dimensions, and of course go for a sail. Luke (seen right in the marina with Tunami) is a delightful guy. Sails Tunami (no motor) out of the marina at Monterey by himself a couple of times a week. Luke has owned Tumani since he was in his 40's. Felt so well matched to the yacht that he never saw a reason to change to something else. If only the rest of us were so astute!
I took a number of dimensions from Tunami, some video while sailing in the kelp beds off Monterey (see below - 6 minutes long), and Gina took photos from the marina of Luke and I enjoying ourselves. I noted the "feel" of the yacht while sailing. The collected information came back with us to Australia for detailed discussion with Ray Cole as the design process continued.
(On a sad note, Luke passed away in Monterey on 26th April 2001. He suffered a massive stroke and collapsed
on his way to go sailing with his son. He was a wonderful gentleman, and an essential link in getting this Project
going. Our condolences to his family and friends).
I took a number of dimensions from Tunami, some video while sailing in the kelp beds off Monterey (see below - 6 minutes long), and Gina took photos from the marina of Luke and I enjoying ourselves. I noted the "feel" of the yacht while sailing. The collected information came back with us to Australia for detailed discussion with Ray Cole as the design process continued.
(On a sad note, Luke passed away in Monterey on 26th April 2001. He suffered a massive stroke and collapsed
on his way to go sailing with his son. He was a wonderful gentleman, and an essential link in getting this Project
going. Our condolences to his family and friends).
Contents and Photos (c) 2010-2015 Paul Stuart - Contact to extract or link
