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june/july 2018cruisingworld.comAnna’s brief called for ease of sailhandling (hence a self-tacking jib) and performance in a very
traditional package, one that harks back to the Fife era of grand wooden masterpieces.BY MARK PILLSBURYEditor’s Log
W
et snow fell as I drove
north from Boston on
Interstate 95 and
crossed the New Hampshire line
on my way to Thomaston, Maine. It
was April 2, and I wondered briefl y
if Mother Nature had for some
reason extended her April foolery
by a day. I was headed, after all, to
a boat-launch party, which surely
should have heralded the arrival of
spring. Right?
Maine winters are long, and
it’s been my observation that the
natives get mighty restless by the
time mud season comes along. So
I wasn’t all that surprised to come
up the hill to fi nd the parking lots
at Lyman-Morse already fi lled with
pickups and cars, and more pulling
in. The snow had ceased just north
of Portland, and though the sun was
peeking out between the clouds
here on the Midcoast, it did little to ward off the cold, brisk
breeze blowing down the St. George River.
No one seemed to pay it much heed though. At the foot of
the hill, by the water, a crowd was gathering, and everyone’s
attention was on the belle of the ball, the stunning white hull
of the Stephens Waring-designed Anna, waiting patiently in the
Travelift slings for her fi rst sip of salt water.
At precisely 1400, the sloop’s owner, who’d prefer to have
attention focused on the boat rather than himself, stepped
front and center to say he’d waited 18 years for this moment
and didn’t intend to stall things any longer. With that,
his wife smartly cracked a bottle of Champagne on the bow,
and onlookers — as well as the Travelift’s engine — roared
with approval.
Anna is a 65-foot Spirit of Tradition-style sloop with lines to
melt your heart. Above the water, her overhangs, curved cockpit
coamings and varnished teak doghouse are spectacular-looking;
below the boot stripe, a bulb fi n keel and high-aspect
rudder promise a stiff and spirited ride once the 100-foot
triple-spreader Southern Spars carbon-fi ber mast and furling
boom are stepped and the rig is tuned.
Paul Waring, one half of the Stephens Waring design team,
said Anna’s brief called for ease of sailhandling (hence a self-
tacking jib) and performance in a very traditional package, one
that harks back to the Fife era of grand wooden masterpieces.
Though it has accommodations for six below for overnight
passages, the boat’s primary purpose is daysailing, with just
occasional longer hops along the East Coast.Anna is cold-molded, her frame
and planking built with Douglas fi r
and cedar. But while her bones and
good looks may pay tribute to the
days of wooden boats, the designers
and builder took every advantage of
composite engineering, CAD soft-
ware and CNC precision cutting
tools, said Drew Lyman, presi-
dent of Lyman-Morse. To compress
production time into two years,
while the hull was being framed,
planked and laminated, two inte-
rior modules were built alongside
on the shop fl oor. The portside unit
included an aft crew cabin, guest
cabin and guest head. The galley
and master shower and head were
built in the starboard one. The
master cabin — including a lovely
queen-size berth complete with
carved head- and footboards — was
fashioned in smaller modules, then
all were installed before the teak deck was laid. Lyman said fab-
ricators even used a 3D printer for the fi rst time to mold four
small pieces of the elaborate interior joinery — a hint of things
to come for other new and refi t projects at the company’s long-
time facility in Thomaston and at its Wayfarer Marine yard just
up the road in Camden.
Waring said that he and partner Robert Stephens
began working with the owner on a much bigger yacht, an
80- something-foot cruiser, back in 2001. Over the ensuing years,
his ideas changed, their concepts evolved and fi nally, about four
years ago, they settled on plans for Anna. The yacht’s interior was
designed by Martha Coolidge, of Rockland, Maine.
Construction began in 2016. To get the layout just right,
Lyman-Morse fi rst built a full-scale mock-up of the boat, which
let Coolidge and the owners walk through different layouts and
fi ne-tune the details. The results are breathtaking, from the
butterfl y hatches overhead to the carved newel posts aside the
two sets of steps down into the doghouse and cabin.
Once afl oat, a crew of technicians clamored aboard. When
all was ready, L y man stood at the pulpitlike helm, fi red up the
Steyr diesel, and Anna backed straight as an arrow out of the
slip and spun around broadside, as if strutting her stuff for all
to see. A cannon fi red a salute, and then she motored slowly to
a dock just upriver.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the owner standing
next to me, saying nothing, savoring the moment, and on a chilly
Maine afternoon, no doubt imagining taking the helm as Anna
skips along on a summer sea breeze.ANNA’S Time
PHOTO COURTESY OF LYMAN-MORSE/ALISON LANGLEYWith a lovely sheer, stem and transom, and raised
house, Anna’s bound to turn heads.