Stradivarius Sails Again!

Stradivarius was the name of the International 14 that Bill Moss and I campaigned in 1980 and 1981. It was an McCutcheon built (Isle of Wight) beautifully cold molded in mahogony, a Kirby IV design that Bill bought from West Coast hot shot Steve Toschi, who, if I remember correctly, won a POW in her. US 960 was her number and she was a good craft and, as she had done for all her crews, treated Bill and I well.

I got a call from fellow old 14'er Tom Price that he and Doug Lupe (Stradivarius's current owner) were going to bring her to the light of day after  being garaged for twenty five or so years and race her in a pursuit race for Classic Wooden boats sponsored  by the National Sailing Hall of Fame. Mid-day on a Saturday I was off Trident Point on the U.S. Naval Academy grounds with one of my not-so-fancy cameras to record for posterity the re-splashing of a once top of the line International 14 and now definitely a Classic. Stradivarius sports a full battened main which became class legal in 1982, 1983 time frame but still has the single trapeze and the symmetrical spinnaker which Bill and I raced with.

Tom and Doug were able to win the Dayboat division but not without some tense moments with the 1860's reproduction Sandbagger at the finish.

Three photos of Tom and Doug in the "Strad". The craft in the background of the first photo is the Herreshoff 25 which was competing in the Cruising division.

---

Stradivarius sailing in the summer of Covid-19.


Coincidentally, that same weekend, Bill invited me and former I-14 World Champion John Gallagher (and wives, girlfriends) over to dinner on Friday night and on Saturday morning, I ran into Jim Biles, who owns the other Classic 14 in Annapolis, another McCutcheon 14, in front of West Marine where we chatted for 15 or so minutes.