JANLEYTYPE
Pacific
Cruising classLOA
46ft 3in (14.1m)LWL
32ft (9.8m)
BEAM
9ft 5in (2.9m)DRAUGHT
6ft 4in (1.9m)BUILT
1948DESIGNER
George
Kettenburg Jr26 CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2019JANLEY
sails – needed for inter-fleet competition. He wanted to
offer a larger, more comfortable vessel that could also
be used for cruising.
Keeping with their new mode of constructing upside
down before rotating for completion, the first Pacific
Cruising Class, known as the PCC, was launched in- Measuring 44ft 10in, displacing only 18,500
pounds, it was fast, light, but to George Jr’s eye too
stumpy. They built a new, sleeker one, 46ft 3in,
20,000lbs, with a base price of $16,500. Eulalie was
the first of 25 PCCs built in the Kettenburg yard.
On the race course they earned the moniker,
Greyhounds of the Sea. PCCs won races on the west
coast including the Channel Islands Race, the Farallon
Islands Race, British Columbia’s Swiftsure and the
legendary 2,225-mile Transpac. Two travelled east by
truck eventually competing in the Newport-Bermuda
Race and one made it to the UK for the Fastnet.
Janley was hull number 14. Launched in 1948, she
joined the fleet of the SDYC bearing PCC standards;
9ft 6in beam, decked with canvas over marine ply;
a spacious cockpit with two ‘grandfather’ chairs; room
to sleep four; a galley with un-rationed elbow room
and a complete set of plastic dishes.
Through many decades, Janley survived various
owners, a few name changes and a truck ride to the
east coast. She received a major fix-up after dismasting
at Newport’s Opera Cup, then, like many a lost soul,
meandered to Florida to live out her days. That’s where
Cameron Fraser found her in 2012.
The first order of business was transporting Janley
as deck cargo to the USVI. Once in St Thomas and
floating, Fraser flew in with crew, a life-raft, dinghy,
safety gear, then ran to the store for provisions. “We
checked to see how much water she was taking on at
the dock,” he said. “The pump was running three to
four times an hour, pumping several litres each time.”
They set off in fair weather which, of course, turned
into a blow. “We were three days and nights coming to
windward. There was a big sea running and the boat
started to work.” When they finally reached Antigua,
Fraser knew just what to do. He commissioned
Woodstock Boatbuilders to make the boat right again.
Project Manager, Jim Child, described his first glimpse
of the PCC. “We came up in a dinghy. She looked lovely
from the water, but I was pretty horrified when I looked
in the bilge – years of leaking, not looking after it, things
sistered up.” It was exceedingly clear where the job
should begin.
The garboard and the first six planks were removed
to get a good look at what was going on. Fraser recalled:
“If one was bad, we laminated a new one with sapele- we did that with all the frames up to just forward
of the mast.”
The project began in a shed on the north end of
Antigua and when enough rot was out, they trucked the
boat to the south end of the island and wedged it into
Woodstock’s yard. “In the beginning, we didn’t know
the extent of it,” said Child. Ultimately, over 1.5 years,
Janley received new floors and floor bolts, new transom,
rudder, stem head, boom, cockpit combings, cockpit
floor and all seams were splined. “The interior’s been a
process,” he said. “Some new – some original.” The list
of what was solid was brief. “The keel was pretty good.
And the mast,” he added with a smile. “Nicely done!”
One more truck ride to the shed for paint, polish and
a new suit of ivory coloured sails and she hit the water,
just in time for Antigua’s 2016 Classic Yacht Regatta.
“We just wanted to go out and take part,” Fraser
explained modestly. “But the races got better and better.”
On the first day, with a crew he describes as
enthusiastic amateurs, “We took off so fast, we didn’t
Kettenburg Boat Works went on to design and build a string of
K-Boats ranging in size from 38 to 50 feet. They opened several
marine gear stores and took their first foray into fibreglass with
the Sweet Sixteen – a production of 500 runabouts. Years later,
competition forced them into fibreglass but it was impossible forPaul Kettenburg to sacrifice quality for price and in 1968, the yard
was sold to a large corporation. The name Kettenburg and many of
their boats live on, thanks to a group of dedicated owners. Sixteen
of the 25 PCCs still sail; dozens of PCs have been revived and each
year the SDYC continues to host the Kettenburg Classic Regatta.Kettenburg Boat works, San Diego, California