Starling Burgess/Abeking & Rasmussen 59 ft International 10-Metre 1927/1984

BRANTA was part of a phenomenon at birth, and she has remained so during a long life of year-round cruising and racing in Californian waters – remarkably in the ownership of the same caring family since 1958. Fourteen of these spectacular Starling Burgess-designed International Rule 10-Metres were delivered in just a few early 1927 months by Abeking & Rasmussen, shipped to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and from there sailed to their original new moorings on Long Island Sound. One of BRANTA’s crew for that delivery was 19-year-old Olin J. Stephens II, gaining his first ever experience of offshore sailing; the rest is of course history. Along with many fellow 10s, BRANTA found her way to the West Coast where their adventures became part of sailing legend there. BRANTA’s continue against the only other surviving one of the 14. These Starling Burgess 10-Metres offered more accommodation than usual, making BRANTA the perfect classic for longer periods spent elegantly afloat, while still no slouch on the racecourse.

Please contact our Licensed California Yacht Broker, Paul Buttrose on (+1) 954 294 6962 or email [email protected]

2022
- Topsides repaint with polyurethane

2021
- 3 x Garboard planks replaced each side

2017
- Mast off rig service
- All clevis pins replaced

2006
- New heavy duty stainless steel chainplates

1984
- Rebuild by Knight & Carver Shipyard, San Diego, California, USA
- Including almost total re-planking
- New marine ply and laid teak deck
- New deck beams

- BURGESS, RIGG & MORGAN, LTD., DESIGN NO. 4
- ABEKING & RASMUSSEN BUILD NO. 2261
- ORIGINAL CLASS SAIL NUMBER 10/ 7

The 1920s were far from "Roaring" in post First World War Germany. But in mid-decade, the Lemwerder, Bremen shipyard of Abeking & Rasmussen cleverly struck gold through a fruitful business relationship between Henry Rasmussen and American yacht designer W. Starling Burgess that would ensure a very full order book, assisted greatly by the then very favourable exchange rate from an American buyer's point of view.

Between 1927 and 1930, Abeking & Rasmussen built to Burgess, Rigg & Morgan designs for US clients:

1927
- 14 x One design International 10 Metres
1928
- 3 x Universal Rule M-Class (82 ft)
- 6 x One design International 12-Metres
- 11 x One design International 8-Metres
- 1 x Universal Rule R-Class
- 9 x One design sailing canoes
1929-1930
- 99 x Atlantic Class one designs

The German yard knew very well how to build the highest quality yachts (they still do): quickly, in numbers, and on time. Meanwhile the latest version of the mercurial Burgess’s many design office partnerships, New York City-based Burgess, Rigg and Morgan Ltd., was about to become one of the most successful. A key element was innovative and exceedingly well connected naval architect Jasper Morgan. His father Edwin D. Morgan, was recently retired as New York Yacht Club Commodore, and had been syndicate lead for Charlie Barr-skippered COLUMBIA's two successful defences of the America's Cup, against Thomas Lipton's SHAMROCK [I] (William Fife III) in 1899, and SHAMROCK II (G.L. Watson) in 1901. If Burgess wasn't already well enough connected, Morgan was bound to help secure valuable commissions.

It just so happened that the group of the Long Island Sound great and good who enjoyed round the cans and longer distance races in the aging, gaff-rigged Herreshoff designed New York 30s were were mulling over a replacement: something more modern with more comfort, especially headroom. By the late autumn of 1926 an order was placed with Abeking & Rasmussen for 14 identical International Rule 10-Metres, the first batch of eight to be loaded on 1st May 1927 to a freighter bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia. The yachts were to be unloaded there and sail to home via Cape Cod Canal, thereby avoiding the import duty that would have been due it they been craned onto the dock at New York.

And this is where 19-year-old Olin J. Stephens enters the story, because it was on the delivery of first owner George G. Milne's new BRANTA from Halifax to her home mooring at The American Yacht Club, Milton Point, Rye, NY, that that young Olin Stephens received his first taste of offshore yachting, and tuition in celestial navigation. BRANTA's navigator for the voyage, marine insurer Robert H. Moore was a close friend of Olin Stephens' father, Roderick (also on the crew list), and an important mentor to the budding genius.

The 10s were received with great interest, not least because they were the largest International Rule class yet seen in US waters, and stood out with their original rather un-American double headsail cutter arrangement rather than sloop rig. This, and their heavier than locally normal scantlings, solicited predictions of potential slowness, particularly in light winds; but did Starling Burgess ever design a slow boat? In fact they proved rather fast in light airs, especially downwind when their unusually large fore triangle could be filled to great effect, and in heavy weather they proved seaworthy and stable.

Unfortunately the Great Depression put paid to a continuing 10-Metre fleet on Long Island Sound. Regatta numbers dwindled from 1929, the boats became spread, and focus was lost. However banker and financier George Milne seems to have ridden out the storm perhaps more comfortably than others, and continued to successfully race her on handicap until the 1934 season.

Radiology / X-ray pioneer and entrepreneur James Picker of New Rochelle, NY, became BRANTA's second owner in 1935 and moored her at Marmaroneck, but this seems to have been a brief affair as by 1937 she'd been shipped west and was appearing in Los Angeles area regatta reports in the ownership of Don Ayers.

BRANTA was joined through the late 1930s, into the early 1940s, and post-war, by more of the Burgess-designed and other 10-Metres moving west, including SALLY (Burgess 10/12, ex TEAL, TOODES & REDHEAD), SIRIUS (John Anker 1933), HILARIA (Burgess 10/3, ex SYNTHETIC), COQUILLE and SANTA MARIA.

The heyday for a reasonable number of 10s racing in the same location may have been at Los Angeles Harbor from the very late 1930s until 'Pearl Harbor'. They would also meet in the longer distance races including various versions of round Catalina Island and back, and to Ensenada, Mexico. At the finish of one Ensenada Race only 6 minutes separated BRANTA from the 73 ft Philip Rhodes ocean racer ESCAPADE and the 82 ft M-Class PURSUIT. Another famous ocean racer BRANTA raced against in Califiornia post war was ROLAND VON BREMEN, designed by Henry Gruber, who had worked with Starling Burgess in the mid 1930s.

But of course the 10-Metre is also an eminently suitable family cruiser. One startling cruising yarn in BRANTA's long life was recounted in Newport Harbor Yacht Club's July 2008 journal 'Hard on the Wind' by then Commodore, Bruce R. D’Eliscu:

"Several years ago, while lying in Fisherman’s Cove [Catalina Island] during the 4th of July holiday aboard Drumbeat ...Don Ayres Jr. related this bit of history. In the summer of 1939, Don Ayres Sr., Mary Alice, and Nancy Ayres DeYoung aboard BRANTA made the all too familiar cruise to the Isthmus, only to encounter a devastating hurricane that made a direct hit on the mainland. Don Sr. rode out the hurricane solo aboard BRANTA at Fisherman’s Cove, now the USC Marine Institute Facility, while Mary Alice and Nancy took shelter in the Civil War Barracks at the Isthmus. A combination of great seamanship, multiple anchors, many lines, including some dead-end on shore, and some good luck made for a successful outcome for BRANTA. Don Sr. was actually very fortunate not to be at anchor in LA or Newport Beach. When Don Sr. returned unscathed to the mainland, he saw, with surprise, the destructive force of the hurricane and the devastation to the local fleets."

Among BRANTA's Californian owners have been:

c.1937 - early 1940s
Don Ayers, Los Angeles (& Newport Beach?)

1940s
Bill Robinson, San Diego

1940s - 1950s
Dr Don W. Barbour
Los Angeles (California YC)

1958 - Present
Present owning family

Eventually BRANTA and her sister SALLY have become the last surviving 10-Metres not just on the west Coast, but most probably in North America. They are both fit and well and much cared for, but the time has come for a new lover in BRANTA's long and interesting life.

©2024 Iain McAllister/ Sandeman Yacht Company Ltd.

- Mahogany on alternate galvanised steel and oak frames
- Galvanised fastenings to steel frames
- Galvanised plate and strap floors
- Heavy duty stainless steel chainplates (2006)
- 1 in / 25 mm Teak laid deck over marine plywood substrate (1984)
- Oak deck beams
- Mast step girder

SUMMARY
- Teak laid deck on marine plywood substrate
- White painted covering boards; raw teak toerail
- Stainless steel stanchions and guardrail
- Mahogany superstructures

AFT DECK
- Standing backstay chainplate
- Ensign staff socket
- 2 x Bronze mooring fairleads with anti-chafe strips
- U-bend ventilator
- Whip antenna
- Chromed central mooring cleat
- Chainplates and cheeck blocks for ruinning backstay tackles
- Sheaves for downwind sails
- Padeyes for 6:1 mainsheet tackle
- Raised lazarete hatch

SELF DRAINING COCKPIT
- Seats 8
- Coaming faired forward to companionway house; open aft
- Teak grating sole
- Benches port and starboard; lockers under
- Chromed Merriman #3 mainsheet winch
- 2 x - Bronze and teak 'Clyde' mainsheet cleats for mainsheet
- Hickory articulated tiller
- 2 x Barient #28 2-speed chromed primary winches
- 2 x Merriman #6 chromed secondary winches
- Mahogany folding table stowed in cockpit locker
- Sleeping conversion allows full width berth

COMPANIONWAY HOUSE
- Chromed Merriman winches port and starboard
- 2 x Bronze and teak 'Clyde' mainsheet cleats
- Sliding companionway hatch

SIDE DECKS
- Bronze and teak 'Clyde' cleats aft for runners port and starboard
- Tracks as covering board port and starboard for headsails

MID COMPANIONWAY AND SKYLIGHTS
- Sliding hatch
- Chocks over for deck boat

MAST POSITION
- Propane bottle box to starboard
- Deck prisms outboard

FOREDECK
- Short headsail ctracks
- Sliding plexiglass 12-Metre style forehatch
- U-bend deck vent
- Bronze inner forestay fitting
- Bronze mooring bollard
- Bronze running lights at toe rail port and starboard
- Custom fabricated stemhead plate for forestay and mooring/ anchor fairleads

GROUND TACKLE
- A demountable heavy roller affixes to bow
- Lightweight folding stainless steel “PBY” anchor for cruising
- 25 lb / 11 kg Danforth with hand tackle for bow-and-stern situations
- 80 lb / 36 kg Large storm anchor stowed forward
- 40 ft / 12 m of heavy chain and 300 ft/ 91 m of 1¼ in Nylon hawser permanently rigged

SUMMARY
- Fully rigged berths for 6 adults
- White painted and varnished mahogany trim finish
- White painted deckheads

AFT COMPANIONWAY FROM COCKPIT
- Down to owner cabin

OWNER CABIN
- Generous berths port and starboard
- Stowage under
- Mahogany slatted hull ceilings
- Shelves outboard port and strarboard
- Sideboard forward starboard (aft part of engine box) with mirror
- Ship's clock and barometer

WC COMPARTMENT TO PORT
- Vacuflush toilet with 40 Gal / 136 L holding tank

SALOON
- Mid companionway: 6 x steps over engine box
- Settee berths port and starboard
- Slatted seat backs
- Lockers and shelves outboard
- Original A&R drop leaf table sits 10
- Sideboard starboard forward; drawers under; crystal locker outboard
- Large hanging locker forward port
- Folding door to forward accommodation
- Mast position

FORWARD ACCOMMODATION
Galley to starboard
- Gimballed propane stove/oven; deck mounted tank and safety switches
- Stowage under
- Stainless steel inset sink
- Pressure water fed faucet
- Large work surface; stowage under
- Plate and utensil racks under beam shelf
- Original swing stool
- Deck prisms port and starboard
- Double berth forward

RIG
- Bermudan cutter rig designed by Bill Lapworth, early 1950s
- Primary headsails at ¾ headstay
- Painted spruce mast; internal electrics
- Deck lights
- Stainless steel standing rigging
- Running rigging: Spectra and Kevlar cored Dacron
- Assorted Barient and Merriman mast winches
- 2/1 Wire reel 2-speed main halyard winch
- Barient winches on mast for jib and spinnaker halyards and other falls
- Heavy duty gooseneck
- Boom is low and extra strong
- rigged to handle large headsails, including spinnaker sheets, from its end
- bail and #3 winches mounted near its forward end
- same winches operate the boom-vang snap-shackles to the aft shroud chain plates
- Boom vang snap-shackles to the aft shroud chain plates
- Aluminium spinnaker pole rigged for dip pole gybing
- A Reaching strut is rigged for close reaching
- Rigging for a masthead drifter that sheets to boom end

SAILS
- Mainsail 7 oz Dacron (Baxter & Cisero, refurb. Ullman 2018)
- Genoa 150% 5 oz Dacron (Elliot Sails)
- Blade jib 100% 5 oz Dacron (Elliot Sails)
- ¾ Rig spinnaker ¾ oz Nylon
- Masthead spinnaker ½ oz Nylon 3000 sq ft / 279 sq m
- Masthead reacher ¾ oz Nylon
- Misc small sails/ jibs

CANVASWORK
- Full length 'tent style' covers
- Mainsail cover
- Cockpit sun awning (folds up and stows easily when under way)
- Cockpit cushions
- Cover for deck boat

MECHANICAL
- Yanmar 3MQ30 3-cyl 38 hp diesel (1984)
- Estimated engine hours: 300
- 19 in Martec 2-blade folding propeller
- Cruising range @ 7 kts @ 1.5 Gal/ 5.7 L/ hr: 168 nm, 250 nm at 6 kts

ELECTRICAL
- 2 x GelCel auto charge service battery
- 1 x GelCel auto charge engine start battery
- Battery charging by:
- Engine alternator
- Honda propane/ gasoline generator with stern box
- 2 x 220 V AC inputs, fore and aft
- Refrigeration: AC/DC 8 cu ft freezer/cooler commercial unit

TANKAGE
Fuel
- 36 Gal / 136 L aluminium tank
Potable water
- 40 gallon and 30 gallon tanks
- Pressure system to galley and head
Black water
- 40 Gal / 136 L holding tank

NAVIGATION
- White 6 in steering compass
- 2 x Thomas ship's clocks
- 2 x Thomas barometers
- Slide rules

COMMUNICATIONS
- Horizon Standard non-DCS VHF radio

- Fire extinguishers to code
- Bilge pumping - TBA
- Lifebuoy
- 30 x Lifejackets
- Propane electronic cut off

- Auto bilge pump (2023)
- Deck boat: 'SouthCoast' 10 ft 6 in sailing dingy
- All sailing gear included, oars, and boat will accept a small outboard
- Launches easily with main winch
- Rides nicely from a boat pole while at anchor
- Boat pole stows easily for cruising and unrigs easily to clear for racing
- Sapele Mahogany rebuilt swim ladder; attaches port or starboard
- Has two firm steps below the waterline
- Comfortable to get in and out of the water, even with flippers
- Anchor light: original German kerosene lantern
- A stainless steel BBQ grill attaches to an aft stanchion for cruising
- Bosun's Chair
Port cockpit rope locker
- Sail hardware and cockpit cushions stow under cockpit seats
- Snatch Blocks
- Turning blocks
- Spinnaker pole slides
- Winch handles
- Buckets
- All running rigging
Starboard storage locker
- Seat cushions
- 30 x Life jackets
- Ship’s Ensign
- SS anchor
Lazarette area
- Docklines and fenders stowage

Stephen Jost (sailing and on board, except 30-32)