boatinternational.com • 06 2019part of Newport’s life thanks to its open-gate policy,
very unlike most big boatyards. The big boats there are
an added attraction for people who wander in for lunch
at Belle’s Café, named after daughter Isabella. During
sunny days, it’s hard to find a spot at the picnic tables
by the waterfront.
Aside from building their business, the Danas, who
married in 1978, raised four children (who now have
children of their own, making Charlie and Rose
grandparents eight times over). But none of it, business
or child rearing, could keep them from exploring
coastlines near and far, although it did change the type
of boat they had.
“The first boat I bought was 10 years old. It was in
1974 and it was a 56ft steel yawl that had been Northern
Light, so it had a very good heritage. We had that boat
for 10 years and it was when we had our second child
that we started to realize the complexities and high
maintenance of teak and brightwork. And we’ve gotten
much lower maintenance, much more rugged ever
since,” he says.
There were other boats, including a 76ft motor
yacht that would allow them to cruise with the children.
Charlie had something of a reckoning at the hospital
maternity ward when their son Eli was born, about
what they would need if they were to carry on cruising.
“I told her, ‘we’ve got to change boats,’” Charlie says.
“And Rose thought it was quite a dramatic thing to hear
right there in the hospital. I said: ‘It’s no longer going
to work, we’ve got to do it.’ We wanted to keep doing
the things we were doing because it meant the most
to us.” Although he raced for 15 years, he says: “I am
really not a racer, I love living on the water, I love being
on the water and I love cruising most of all.” The racing
genes, if there are such genes, were passed on to
son Nick, who has been part of several Volvo Ocean
Race crews.
Even with children, sailing remained a big part of
their family life. In 1990 came a 71ft ketch named
St Roque after an island in Rose’s family and built at
New England Boatworks. The Danas, who loved that
boat (a picture of it hangs on the wall of Contraband),
donated it to AMIkids, a Florida-based organization
with a vessel donation and marine education program
that helps disadvantaged children. It’s not unusual. The
Dana family is well known for gift giving. Donations
from the Charles A Dana Foundation, established by
Charlie’s grandfather, for instance, helped establish the
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, of which
Charlie is a trustee.KEEP IT SIMPLE
Charlie and Rose
took a conscious
decision “to keep
down the gizmos” on
Contraband, which is
clear from the
wheelhouse, salon
and center cockpit
pictured here“A PERSON BUILDING A BOAT HAS
THE DESIGNS ROLLING AROUND
IN THEIR HEAD FOR A LONG TIME”50