Wianno Senior Class
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New Boat Construction
No new fiberglass boats had been built since 1990, and without new boats, the class was not going to survive. […]
Tuning Guide and Racing Tips
Have tips or resources you have found helpful? Email us to add to this page. Tuning Workshop from 2014 Guides […]
Keel/Rudder Design
When first built in 1914, the Wianno One Design had a different keel/rudder arrangement compared to what is seen today. […]
Wianno Senior on Instagram
The Founding 14 – The Legacy of the Wianno Senior
In 1913, governed by Fritz P. Day, fourteen members of the Wianno Yacht Club, in Osterville, Massachusetts, commissioned the Crosby Yacht Yard to design and build a small fast yacht capable of sailing and racing in the choppy-shoal-ridden sailing grounds of Cape Cod’s South Shore.
Fourteen Wianno Seniors were built and delivered in the spring of 1914. Of the initial 14, three have survived and their specifications and whereabouts are as follows:
Wianno Senior Specifications: LOA: 25′ / 7.62m – LWL: 17.6′ / 5.36m – Beam: 8′ / 2.44m – Sail Area: 366 sq ft / 34 m2 – Draft Board Up: 5.5′ / 1.68m – Draft Board Down: 2.5′ / .76m – Displacement: 4,100 lbs / 1,860 kgs – Ballast: 1,200 lbs / 544 kgs – Designer: H. Manley Crosby – Builder: Crosby Yacht Building and Storage Co. (USA) – First Built: 1914 – Contract Cost: $600.00
Original 14:
1. “Fiddler” , 2. “Wendy” , 3. “Telemark” , 4. “A.P.H.” A.P. Halliday, 5. “Commy” , 6. “Snookums” , 7. “Patsy” , 8. “Sea Dog” , 9. “Marie” , 10. “Qui Vive” , 11. “Fantasy” James G. Hinkle, 12. “Whistle Wing” , 13. “Maxixe” , and 14. “Ethyl”
Existing 3:
Number 7 “Tirza” – Richard A & Mary Lotuff Feeney (Half Centerboard) Osterville Massachusetts. Number 10 “Sea Wings” – M. Christopher Mattoon & Ed Stockman (Half Centerboard) Dalton, Massachusetts. Number 11 “Fantasy” – is in the collections of Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic, Connecticut.
Two boat yards are still building Wianno Seniors. Crosby Yacht Yard, Inc. in Osterville, Massachusetts, and Shaw Yacht, Inc, in Thomaston, Maine. About 200 Wianno Seniors have been built. Hull numbers through 173 were wooden boats; subsequent boats are being built of fiberglass. Hull number 222 was launched in 2011 by Crosby Yacht. Several hull numbers were omitted in the sequence.
Hull Number 94:
In 1932 Hull number 94, was purchased by Joe and Rose Kennedy as a present for their son Jack’s fifteenth birthday. The “Victura” would become the Kennedy Family’s favorite boat. With a draft of 2.5 feet, with the centerboard up, the Wiannos could easily sail over most shoats, but still had to be sailed with caution around Nantucket Sounds shallowest spot Horseshoe Shoals at 6″
With a graceful low shear the Wianno Seniors were very “wet” boats. Racing the Wianno meant never finishing a race in dry clothes. Former Iowa Sen. John Culver, Harvard classmate of Wianno sailor Ted Kennedy, so eloquently and humorously describes his first sail over to Nantucket on “Victura” ( discussion on Wianno experience starts two and a half minutes into the video)
Osterville Historical Museum’s executive director Jennifer Williams commented during the Wianno classes 100th anniversary. The Wiannos were commissioned by some of the pillars of industry that made Osterville their summer home. The boat “leveled the playing field for sailing” and “changed the face of racing” on Nantucket Sound.
Victura , the beloved sailboat that taught the Kennedy’s about life, family, leadership and winning.
James W. Graham’s new book — Victura: the Kennedys, a Sailboat, and the Sea — offers new insights into the dynamics and magic of the Kennedy family and their intense relationship with sailing and the sea. Many families sail together, but the Kennedys’ relationship with Victura , the 25-foot sloop purchased in 1932 shortly after the family’s move to Hyannis Port, stands apart.
In Victura , James W. Graham charts the progress of America’s signature twentieth century family dynasty, in a narrative both stunningly original and deeply gripping. This true tale of one small sailboat is an invaluable contribution to our understanding of the impressive story of the Kennedy’s.
References:
James W. Graham – Website – Author of Victura: the Kennedys, a Sailboat, and the Sea. – A communications and public affairs professional for a major-brand retailer, was a senior adviser to former Illinois Governor Jim Edgar and the Illinois House of Representatives. He races and cruises his sailboat Venturous out of Wilmette Harbor, north of Chicago.
Osterville Historical Museum – Executive Director Jennifer Williams
The Barnstable Patriot – Reporter Susan Vaughn
Photo Credit: Bob Schutz, July 30, 1961.
Photo/Video Credit: JFK Presidential Library and Museum
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Wianno Senior
In the Fall of 1913 a group of sailing enthusiasts on the south coast of Cape Cod (Massachusetts), all members of the Wianno Yacht Club, asked Manley Crosby, of the Crosby Boat Building Storage Company, Osterville, to build a small racing day-sailor, suitable for the difficult local conditions, characterised by strong winds and tidal currents and frequent unmarked sandy shallows. This is how the Wianno Senior “knockabout” came into being, named after the small village of Wianno, so called from the native American chief of the Iyanough tribe, from whom the area had been bought by the first settlers in 1664.
The Wianno Senior is 25 feet long and 8 feet wide, with an oak keel with cast iron ballast and a movable wooden centreboard. The first 14 were built by Crosby in the winter of 1913-14 and sold at the agreed figure of just over $600. Until the 1980s, the boats were built with oak frames and mahogany planking, deck and cockpit in cypress boards covered with waxed cloth and sitka spruce spars. In 1927 the rudder was lengthened and in 1928 running backstays were added to hoist a 269 square foot spinnaker with spinnaker pole which originally was more than 13 feet long, later reduced to 9 feet to be more practical.
The Wianno Senior met expectations from the very beginning, as can be seen from a 1915 review in The Rudder magazine: “In performance, the boats have fully come up to their requirements. They have shown themselves able, stiff and seaworthy, they take sound waves without plunging or “slapping”. In speed they have been an agreeable surprise, for in a series of Interclass races pitted against boats designed by Herreshoff and Lawley they stood up for themselves, winning in all sea and wind conditions.”
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- Sailboat Guide
Wianno Senior
Wianno Senior is a 25 ′ 0 ″ / 7.6 m monohull sailboat designed by H. Manley Crosby and built by Crosby Yacht Building and Storage Co. (USA) starting in 1913.
Rig and Sails
Auxilary power, accomodations, calculations.
The theoretical maximum speed that a displacement hull can move efficiently through the water is determined by it's waterline length and displacement. It may be unable to reach this speed if the boat is underpowered or heavily loaded, though it may exceed this speed given enough power. Read more.
Classic hull speed formula:
Hull Speed = 1.34 x √LWL
Max Speed/Length ratio = 8.26 ÷ Displacement/Length ratio .311 Hull Speed = Max Speed/Length ratio x √LWL
Sail Area / Displacement Ratio
A measure of the power of the sails relative to the weight of the boat. The higher the number, the higher the performance, but the harder the boat will be to handle. This ratio is a "non-dimensional" value that facilitates comparisons between boats of different types and sizes. Read more.
SA/D = SA ÷ (D ÷ 64) 2/3
- SA : Sail area in square feet, derived by adding the mainsail area to 100% of the foretriangle area (the lateral area above the deck between the mast and the forestay).
- D : Displacement in pounds.
Ballast / Displacement Ratio
A measure of the stability of a boat's hull that suggests how well a monohull will stand up to its sails. The ballast displacement ratio indicates how much of the weight of a boat is placed for maximum stability against capsizing and is an indicator of stiffness and resistance to capsize.
Ballast / Displacement * 100
Displacement / Length Ratio
A measure of the weight of the boat relative to it's length at the waterline. The higher a boat’s D/L ratio, the more easily it will carry a load and the more comfortable its motion will be. The lower a boat's ratio is, the less power it takes to drive the boat to its nominal hull speed or beyond. Read more.
D/L = (D ÷ 2240) ÷ (0.01 x LWL)³
- D: Displacement of the boat in pounds.
- LWL: Waterline length in feet
Comfort Ratio
This ratio assess how quickly and abruptly a boat’s hull reacts to waves in a significant seaway, these being the elements of a boat’s motion most likely to cause seasickness. Read more.
Comfort ratio = D ÷ (.65 x (.7 LWL + .3 LOA) x Beam 1.33 )
- D: Displacement of the boat in pounds
- LOA: Length overall in feet
- Beam: Width of boat at the widest point in feet
Capsize Screening Formula
This formula attempts to indicate whether a given boat might be too wide and light to readily right itself after being overturned in extreme conditions. Read more.
CSV = Beam ÷ ³√(D / 64)
The WIANNO SENIOR Knockabout was designed as a one-design day sailer for summer residents of Wianno, Cape Cod, and has remained the principal one-design class of the Wianno Yacht Club. Additional fleets were subsequently organized at the Hyannis, Hyannis Port, Bass River and Stone Horse Yacht Clubs. The original builder was the Crosby Yacht Building and Storage Co. in Osterville Mass, Cape Cod. The boat has remained a popular and competitive class on Nantucket Sound. Since 1914, about 180 boats have been built. Recent boats are of Fiberglass. About 140 still exist today.
Most recent builder: E. M. Crosby Boatworks 48 Lombard Ave. West Barnstable, MA
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Wianno Senior
Class contact information.
Click below
Class Email
Class Website
One-Design Class Type: Keelboat
Was this boat built to be sailed by youth or adults? Both
Approximately how many class members do you have? 200
Photo Credit:Ben Mendlowitz
Photo Credit: Ben Mendlowiitz
Photo Credit: Ben Mendlowitz
About Wianno Senior
The Wianno Senior is a 25-foot gaff-rigged sloop that is raced and sailed principally in Nantucket Sound, although the Senior can be found in waters between Maine and Maryland, as well as in Italy. Racing fleets compete out of yacht clubs in Osterville, Hyannis/Hyannis Port, and Bass River. Racing is organized during these clubs from mid-June to Labor Day, and the class championship is raced during three weekends in July where we typically have more than 20 boats competing. Many members of the class enjoy the Wianno Senior for day sailing as well as racing, as the centerboard design permit the boat to safely navigate the shallow waters of the Cape.
Boats Produced: Over 225 have been produced.
Class boat builder(s):
E.M. Crosby Boatworks – https://www.emcrosbyboatworks.com/ Crosby Yacht – https://www.crosbyyacht.com/ Wianno Senior Italia – http://www.wiannosenioritalia.com/en
Approximately how many boats are in the USA/North America? 100
Where is your One-Design class typically sailed in the USA? List regions of the country:
Cape Cod, MA (Osterville, Hyannis/Hyannis Port, and Bass River)
Does this class have a spinnaker or gennaker? Yes
How many people sail as a crew including the helm? 4
Ideal combined weight of range of crew: 600
Boat Designed in 1914
Length (feet/inches): 25′
Beam: 8′
Weight of rigged boat without sails: 4,100 lbs.
Draft: 2’6″ and 5’6″ with centerboard down
Mast Height: 26′
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