Hummingbird

History

Hummingbird was built in 1929 by George Kneass for himself. At this time she was called “Humming Bird” but sometime later this was shortened to just “Hummingbird” She has had at least 10 owners in her 95 year history. She has been abandoned and rebuilt several times. Geoff Ashton was the most recent person to do a major refit of Hummingbird just after he got her in 2000. He went on to win the 2004 Bird Class Championship. After Geoff parted ways with her, Stephen Flynn kept her alive and in good shape until he was forced to sell her in 2019. The following owner put more work into her but made some questionable decisions before putting her on Craigslist in January 2023. By the beginning of June 2023, the price was free. At this point I was worried that she would be broken up, and this piece of San Francisco maritime history would be lost forever. 

So, I decided to make an effort to keep her from going to the dumpster. Just one issue... I've never owned a boat before, let alone a 95 year old wooden one. Insurance companies don't like wooden boats, and like new owners who have never owned one even less. What to do? Luckily Greg Braswell was also looking at the boat, and ended up picking her up while I was out of town. I was pretty bummed to learn this and thought my chance of owning a classic wooden sailboat were gone. Then a very unlikely thing happened. Greg found me on Facebook and messaged me asking if I was still interested in the boat. I said yes and met him at the boat the following day not really knowing what to expect. As it turned out, our views were aligned and a partnership was agreed on. From the end of June through early November 2023, I thing we had Hummingbird out 25 times. Hummingbird was solid, but the color had to go, as did the sails.

Hummingbird came with a set of blue sails that looked great, but were cut incorrectly, and really didn't work that well. Jock MacLean arranged for us to get a set of used sails from Kookaburra. Martin Koffel was very generous in giving us his used set of Pineapple Sails. Unfortunatley Hummingbird was lacking any sail track on the boom. It took me months to track down some from Jeff Rutherford over in Richmond.

2024 started with my attempting to install the sail track on the boom. That was easier said than done as the last person to varnish the boom removed it from the boat, flipped it upside down so that the raised area where the track should fit, was down. Copious amounts of varnish were applied, and it all ran to where the track should sit. I spent hours making this area flat enough to install the track. I thought I was good to go, only to discover that the mast track was a different size from the boom track... Okay what to do here? A solution was found and things started rolling. On May 5, 2024 Hummingbird came out of the water for a makeover. The hull was in rough shape and looked like it had been peppered with golf balls and other hard objects for years. Some of those dents were very poorly filled and then painted. No sanding or fairing work done. I had my work cut out for me.

With the boat out on the hard at Spaulding Boat works, I got to work. Out came the long sanding boards and 60 hours of sanding later, the hull looked presentable. With the clock ticking, it was a mad thrash to get the boat painted, a few things corrected rigging wise, and the sails on before the running of the Master Mariners Regatta. Sure enough, we took the boat out for its first sail the Friday before the race. We took her out for her first sail looking much the way she did in 1929, and she was a different boat.

The following morning we set out for the start line and appeared looking like a new boat. Everyone was expecting her to have ugly paint and likely blue sails that were too small. Instead we showed up with a gleaming white hull, and white sails that were the proper size and shape. The boat was finally coming into her own. Off we went and we held pace with the fleet... that was until I gambled on trying for a direct shot to the next mark against a flood tide. Needless to say it didn't work. Still, we managed a very distant 3rd place. The trip home the following day was as fun as the race was. Curlew (Bird #2) also stayed the night and were heading home. We went under the Bay Bridge first, and put some distance on them. As we got further out into the main part of the bay, Curlew started reeling us in. They did eventually catch us, but couldn't get around us. Soon they had to peel off to head home.