About the Eleanor

Eleanor, a 1903 Raceabout designed by Clinton H. Crane (1873-1968), is believed to be  one of two surviving examples of this class of gaff-rigged racing sloops. Designed for Corinthian sailing, Raceabouts became a class in 1898. The class was established to satisfy  the need for boats that could be raced by amateurs, referred to as “Corinthian sailors,” and changed the sport of  sailboat racing from professional skippers sailing for money and fame to racing for the  pleasure of the sport. A 1927 bill of sale from yacht broker J. Linton Rigg (1900-1981), with offices in NY and  PA., reports selling Eleanor to the Livingston brothers Henry and Edmund and states she was built in 1903 by B.F. Wood on City Island. She’s been in the Hudson Valley ever since.

Eleanor also appears in earlier docu­men­tation:

• The January 1906 issue of The Rudder reports five  Raceabouts built for the Larchmont Yacht Club in 1905
• Lloyd’s Register of American Yachts in  1914 and again in 1917 lists “Ellanor,” formerly named Grilse II and Mystrall II, built by B.F. Wood  of City Island and owned by A. F. Bancroft, a founding member of the Philadelphia Corinthian Yacht Club.
• The May 31, 1913 issue of Forest and Stream lists Eleanor coming in second in  her class during the Philadelphia club’s opening regatta on May 24, 1913.
• Sail and Sweep magazine’s January 1905 issues (vol iv, no. 1) reports Larchmont Yacht Club’s members  ordering 3 new Raceabouts to be built on City Island by B.F. Wood from Crane’s design,  among them A. C Bostwick, Larchmont’s Vice Commodore, who named his Mystrall II.

In our century, Wooden Boat magazine’s September-October 2018 (#264) issue has an  article describing the complete restoration (and upgrade) of a 1901 Raceabout Kid, designed  by B.B. Crowninshield, identifying her as “the last known survivor of her class.” They weren’t aware of Eleanor, then in Hudson, NY undergoing restoration by our volunteer  organization, The Hudson River Historic Boat Restoration & Sailing Society (HRHBR&SS).

Eleanor began sailing on the Hudson in 1927 when the Livingstons took ownership and  she’s been here since. Edmund Livingston sold her to Philip Egan, a Hudson Valley apple  farmer, and graduate of the New York State Maritime Academy. Egan took ownership in 1952  and sailed her, without auxiliary power, until his death in 1998.

She was often the last boat  afloat and a Thanksgiving Day sail was his family tradition. In 1976, he established the Hudson  River Sailing Club to teach the art of sailing to children and anyone interested here in the  Hudson Valley. Eleanor participated in the 1976 NYC Harbor Fest and 5 other events in the  harbor over the next decade. She was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

After Egan’s death, his family sailed her for a few more seasons and then donated her to IYRS in Newport, RI, expecting she would be used to teach traditional boat building skills  and undergo a restoration, only to learn a decade later that she had been left to the elements  and her spars removed. They returned her to the Hudson Valley in December 2010, and the HRHBR&SS was formed in 2011 to restore and return her to the Hudson’s tidal waters. After a  marine survey and under the supervision of a local shipwright, a crew of skilled volunteers  worked for 10 years, and in August of 2020, now with an inboard Torqeedo electric motor, once  again Eleanor sailed out of Catskill Creek into the Hudson River.

Her hull, frames and planking are still mostly original and after crossing the finish line in second place at the Spinnenweber Cup Regatta at the Kingston Sailing Club in 2023, the  forestay casting separated from the stem, without further damage to the rigging or the hull. A  temporary repair and reinforcement enabled sailing for another season. But after a thorough  assessment at the end of last season, we learned there are more necessary structural repairs  and she is in a local warehouse, too cold for winter work. Our crew of volunteers is again working to return her to the water so we can continue to promote and teach sailing here in the  Hudson Valley, and participate in next year’s Tall Ships event in NY Harbor in celebration of the  250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence; our regis­tration has been submitted.

HRHBR&SS is a not-for-profit volunteer or­gan­ization of @ 125 members who  par­ti­cipate in various ways, from contributing to the expense of her maintenance and upkeep,  to those who are learning about and to sail traditional wooden boats and to navigate the tides  and currents of the Hudson River, to the stalwarts who do the work of maintaining her  throughout the year.While we have the human resources necessary to effect these repairs, we lack financial  resources.