The Apollonia, a 64 foot steel hulled schooner, was designed by J Murray Watts and built in 1948 at the American Electric Welding Company in Baltimore MD. The original sail plan is for a gaff-rigged schooner, the schooners that commonly sailed our river over 150 years ago delivering goods. Built from ¼” steel plating, with a 15 foot beam and only drawing 6 feet of water- this rugged design is ideal for both freight work and carrying passengers. This gaff-rigged schooner is designed to be sailed by a small crew and will be inexpensive to maintain.    

  The Apollonia project started with a deal on Craigslist, a steel schooner was in a backyard in Woburn (a suburb north of Boston). We quickly put a deposit down on this boat. The catch was that the boat was not complete, and had not been moved in over 30 years. After a lot of work and research on moving such a boat we finally found someone who could help and move the boat to the nearest boatyard. This process alone took over 2 months, but by the end of August she arrived at Burr Bros Boatyard in Marion Mass. Sam committed most of his free time in September and October to working on getting her in good enough condition to make the trip back to Hudson.

 

Work completed thus far:

  • moving her over the road from Woburn MA to Marion MA
  • mounting and aligning the engine (a 1950's model 2 stroke Detroit 4-71)
  • building a complete fuel system
  • installing a complete raw water cooling system
  • freeing up stuck fuel injectors and tuning the fuel rack
  • designing and installing a wet marine exhaust
  • developing a zinc plan and installing anodes on the hull, shaft and rudder
  • installing and wiring bilge pumps, running lights, a fixed VHF radio and a laptop that runs chart plotting software
  • installing the propeller
  • sourcing an alternator and fabricating a mounting bracket
  • installing two 8D batteries
  • touch up paint work
  • making her water tight and much much more

All work was completed in preparation for the transit back to Hudson, a voyage we finally set out on October 26th, 2015, late in the afternoon. The engine ran flawlessly for 40 hours straight, we averaged nearly 8 knots and the boat (and crew) handled really well.

  • What: Full Keeled Steel Hulled Schooner
  • Year: 1946
  • Designer: J. Murray Watts
  • Builder: American Electric Welding Company, Baltimore MD
  • First Owner: Dr. Carl F Bock
  • Hull Plating: ¼” steel
  • Paint: Bar Rust 235
  • Sail Plan: Bald-headed Gaff-Rigged Schooner
  • LOD: 52'
  • LOA: 64'
  • Draft 6’
  • Beam: 15’
  • Height: 40' 6"
  • Displacement: 76,000 lbs
  • Engine: 1951 Detroit 4-71, 125 HP
  • Propeller: 2" shaft, 19" pitch, 29" diameter, RH
  • Trans: Twin Disc 506 with 2:1 ratio