Philip L Rhodes 45 ft Bermudan Sloop 1954/2000

The Philip Rhodes sloop JOSEPHINE's sheer is elegant and her coach house wonderfully proportioned. The large cockpit - typical of many American yachts of the 1950s - is a very comfortable and spacious asset. Her rig and sail plan is well proportioned: simple for both short-handed cruising as well as efficient and hard racing with a fair aspect ratio. In comparison with English yachts of this era, JOSEPHINE has broader beam, making for a hull of considerable initial stability and offsetting the effect of the comparatively shallow draft - this also offers commodious accommodation for her length. JOSEPHINE - built as JANE DORE IV - underwent an extensive rebuild at the Gannon & Benjamin yard under her former owner, before returning to the Solent to cruise and race. Under current ownership her maintenance regime has been second to none in the best of hands. JOSEPHINE remains much loved, but her owner has switched to a wooden motor yacht for his grandchildren and is a motivated seller.

ANNUALLY OR BI-ANNUALLY
2007-Present
- Brought in undercover every winter in present ownership
- Routinely re-varnished 2 coats every year
- Topsides painted every other year
- Professional engine service every year

2007-2021
REFIT WORK, TRADITIONAL SHIPWRIGHT SERVICES, POOLE
2021
- Deck refastened and re-caulked
2014
- New transom
2011
- New boom
2008-2009
- Alterations to galley and chart table
- New standing rigging
2007
- New horn timber
- New main cabin coach roof
- All bright work stripped back to bare and re-varnished 10 coats

1999-2000
STRUCTURAL REFIT, GANNON & BENJAMIN, VINEYARD HAVEN , USA

PHILIP L. RHODES DESIGN NO. 618
H. HEIDTMANN YACHT & MOTORBOOTSWERFT YARD NO. 6260

In correspondence with the future owner of the last boat built to this rightly popular 1950s design, Philip Rhodes described it as simply a scaled down version of Richard Nye’s all conquering 53 ft yawl CARINA (II) of 1955. Therefore it’s easy to understand why owners of the six yachts built reported this vice free, easy going centreboarder to be very fast, comfortable, and seaworthy. Exactly the boat for repeat Rhodes client, stockbroker Hobart ‘Hobey’ Ford, of Rowayton, Connecticut, in particular for his beloved Bahamas cruising grounds.

Completed in 1954 as JANE DORE IV (named after Ford’s daughter) for this two times past Commodore (1933-1934; 1943-1944) of the Cruising Club of America, she is the second boat built to Rhodes design no. 618 and also the second ‘618’ built by the then 99-year-old Heidtmann family yard on the east bank of Hamburg’s Alster ‘lake’. In 1953 they’d launched the first of the class, OLSCHING (later SILVER STAR, NUTMEG and JUNO), for German-born, Beachwood, New Jersey-resident Magnus Zepelin, a retired Honduras grain merchant. And in 1952 Heidtmann had built the first, 47 ft, CARINA for Richard Nye, the winner of that year’s Bermuda Race and class runner up in the 1953 Fastnet Race.

Three more ‘618s’ were built by Abeking & Rasmussen 1955-1956 also for American owners, PIERA, RENOVA and UNDINA (the latter gaining a certain renown starring in ‘To The Baltic With Bob’, by Griff Rhys Jones), and the build of SCIMITAR began in Geelong Australia in 1956, but she was not launched until 1987 (it’s a long, incredible story). There were so many good reasons to commission a cruiser racer from Philip Rhodes at this time, and the German yards excelled in high quality, on time and price delivery at a very favourable exchange rate for American clients.

Immediately after completion, the teak planked JANE DORE IV was shipped from Hamburg to Long Island Sound, arriving just in time to start - almost un-trialled - the 1954 Newport-Bermuda Race. 400 miles into a so far light weather race, she was only 15 miles behind the Sparkman & Stephens 73 ft yawl BOLERO, but the wind picked up as did the bigger boat. After her first season there seem to be few records of JANE DORE IV racing, but Ford was well known as a committed and hospitable cruiser, and it is believed that he kept the boat for most of the rest of his life.

"I doubt there was a better-known yachtsman on the Eastern Seaboard", wrote a biographer on Hobey Ford's death aged 72 in 1965 at his winter home on Man-O-War Cay, Abaco, Bahamas. "At rendezvous of the CCA or the New York Yacht Club, the sight of his green 45 ft JANE DORE IV entering the harbour invariably brought smiles and looks of appreciation from those who had preceded him. ‘Here comes Hobey! Come alongside, Hobey,’ they would shout. And if he joined your raft, you could be assured of some new yarns, with humor and geniality galore."

JANE DORE IV's subsequent ownership history is unfortunately not generally recorded until purchase at Greenport, New York in 1999 by future founder of the British Classic Yacht Club, Tim Blackman and his wife Josephine. After a structural refit at Gannon & Benjamin 1999-2000, she was shipped transatlantic to her new home port of Cowes in time to participate under the present name at the America’s Cup Jubilee Regatta, and become an active participant in the now vibrant classic regatta scene at the home of yachting.

Since 2008, in present ownership JOSEPHINE has been moored, and wintered under cover, at Poole, looked after and refitted as listed above in the expert hands of Traditional Shipwright Services; gently cruised, occasionally raced, and always admired.

©2024 Iain McAllister/ Sandeman Yacht Company Ltd.

- Carvel Burma teak planking
- White oak centre line and frames
- Burma teak solid deck (totally refastened 2021)
- Bronze fastenings
- Bronze centre board and trunk casing
- Conventional long keel displacement hull form with a lead ballast keel
- Rudder hung to the full depth of the vessel
- Burma teak superstructure and all deck joinery

FROM AFT

AFT DECK
- Varnished teak cap rail over transom and forward
- Chromed fairleads aft
- Panama eye fairleads set in bulwarks fwd
- All mooring cleats have stainless rub stripes set on the toe rail
- Chromed stanchions in bronze sockets port and starboard
- Stainless steel guardrails
- Large teak lazarette sheet and warp stowage vented by two dorades
- Main sheet block track

COCKPIT
- 2 x Barient chromed ST main sheet winches on teak blocks each side
- Convex helmsman’s seat
- Large cockpit with high coamings
- The side seats at the same level as the main decking
- Deep lockers on both sides
- Original teak spokes and bronze ships wheel
- 2 x Barient chromed secondary sheet winches on pedestals port and stbd
- Chromed compass binnacle and instrument console
- Engine controls
- Teak folding cockpit table set in binnacle forward
- Chromed cleats outboard
- Barient chromed ST primary sheet winches on pedestals port and stbd
- Winch handles in socket stowage fwd cockpit bulkhead
- Bridge deck

SIDE DECKS
- Wide side deck running forward
- Chromed headsail track and cars at rail port and starboard

TRUNK CABIN
- Trunk cabin with raised aft section
- Portlight and instrument readers on aft bulkhead sides
- Sliding hatch and wash board access on centreline
- Large windows to the sides
- Varnished hand rails each side of coach roof running forward
- Large teak gas bottle container fwd of raised section
- Lower section of trunk cabin fwd
- 2 x Dorade vents on boxes each side
- Chromed port and stbd lights outboard
- Large skylight hatch over saloon
- Mast position
- Hatch with light over forecabin

FOREDECK
- Boathook in chocks on deck stbd
- Clean foredeck, save for dorade vent on box
- Chromed mooring cleats below toe rail each side
- Large bronze mooring cleat on centreline

- Chromed fairleads on toe rail
- Panama eye fairleads below

GROUND TACKLE
- Chromed electric anchor windlass fwd
- 28 lb Galvanised CQR anchor with chain and warp on chocks to port

GENERAL
- Entry by sliding hatch in raised doghouse section of the main cabin
- Companionway steps down over the engine casing
- Teak interior joinery and trim with a teak and holly cabin sole
- Contrasting white painted T&G bulkheads and deck head
- Large windows either side of doghouse section
- Cabinets either side up on aft bulkheads for binos, hand tools etc
- Electrics panel behind steps
- Doors either side aft give access to the engine compartment
- Lobby on centreline, a useful link between the cockpit and saloon
- Seating each side (quarter berths outboard and aft)
- Half bulkheads forward

GALLEY AND CHART TABLE FORWARD
- Stainless steel sink and draining board
- Pressure and manual pump mixer tap
- H5 Heritage Luke 3 burner hob and oven - as was the original to port
- Lockers above outboard and below for plates, utensils, provisions etc
- Large fridge / cool box to starboard
- Top surface doubles as the chart table with chart stowage
- Navigation instruments outboard
- Semi bulkheads to accommodation forward

SALOON
- 4 x Chromed opening ports high in trunk
- Grab rails along each side
- 2 x Settee berths; one each side; stowage under and behind
- 2 x Pilot berths up and outboard
- Large drop leaf dining table offset to port
- Access in cabin sole to the bilge space and tanks below
- Main bulkhead forward by mast to port
- Doorway to forward accommodation (modified circa 2000)

WC COMPARTMENT
- Accessed by two cabin doors enabling en suite to fore cabin
- Original manual WC with wooden seat and lid
- 50s-style china corner wash basin and chromed taps
- Shower with mixer tap
- Locker outboard to port and mirror on fwd bulhead
- Teak grating sole
- Hanging locker to stbd

FORECABIN
- Enlarged by moving head aft in 2000 modification to owner cabin
- Large berth offset to port
- Hatch in deck head hatch for ventilation
- Outlet from the Webasto heating system
- Access forward to chain locker

AFT THROUGH SALOON
- 2 x Generous quarter berths running aft outboard; one each side

RIG
- Sloop rig with forestay options
- Painted aluminium mast with chromed bronze fittings
- Sitka spruce boom (2011) with original bronze fittings
- All stainless steel standing rigging (2009)
- Spinnaker pole stowed on deck port side fwd

SAILS
By Sanders Sails (2009)
- Mainsail (slab reefing
- Roller Genoa
- Spinnaker
Older Sails
- Racing mainsail (Thomas Clark Inc)
- Cruising mainsail (Thomas Clark Inc)
- No. 1 genoa (Thomas Clark Inc)
- No. 1 working jib (Thomas Clark Inc)
- No. 2 working jib (Ratsey & Lapthorn 2002/03)
- Cruising spinnaker (Crusader 2001)
- Cross cut spinnaker (Solent Sails 2005/06)

CANVASWORK
- Sprayhood (2004)
- Mainsail cover (2004)
- Helm wheel and winch covers (2004)
- Cockpit cushions (2004)

MECHANICAL
- Yanmar 47 hp diesel engine (1999)
- 2-Blade bronze fixed blades propeller in aperture

ELECTRICAL
- 12 V Engine start battery
- 2 x 12 V Domestic batteries
- Alternator
- Shore power

TANKAGE
- Stainless steel fuel tank with level gauge
- 2 x Copper / brass fresh water tanks with level gauges
- Hot Water to galley and WC compartment via engine calorifier
- Plus 240 V immersion option giving hot water to galley and heads
- 2 x 7 Kg Gas bottles

OTHER
- Webasto cabin heating system
- Clarion CD player with cockpit speakers

NAVIGATION
- Steering compass at binnacle
- Tacktick MR 100-2 2 x repeaters
- Tacktick MR 100-2 1 x dedicated wind direction repeater
- Standard Horizon CP 1801 GPS for binnacle
- Standard Horizon CP 500 GPS at chart table
- Raymarine Auto pilot control system

COMMUNICATIONS
- ICOM M505 VHF

OTHER
- Clarion CD player with cockpit speakers

- Chromed signal horn
- Plastimo 4-person life raft
- Life horseshoe with sling and Danbuoy
- Fire extinguishers
- Gas alarm
- Electric bilge pump
- Manual bilge pump