Returning to this year’s Marblehead to Halifax race is Jesse Terry’s Abigail, a 1956 wood 39’ ketch designed by John Alden and built by Seth Persson right after Finisterre, which won the Newport to Bermuda race three times.
Jesse bought Abigail nine years ago up in Maine, “She was built in the neighboring town to where I grew up in Connecticut so it felt like I was bringing her home”, he said. “Although she is a ketch, her hull is derived from the fishing schooner and more specifically Alden’s personal yacht Malabar XII. Alden and one of his Malabars last won the Newport to Bermuda Race in 1932, a race that also included Olin Stephens on Dorade, so it seemed like the 2022 Bermuda race might be a good ocean race to try again” Jesse said.
The next few years were spent preparing the boat for offshore cruising. Over the first winter, three men replaced 4,000 old screws fastening the hull together. Then they focused on the rigging and got new sails that optimized the two-masted rig. “We worked on the teak decks and replacing thru-hulls and plumbing. We added some modern gear like electronics, new winches, and better blocks and tested the new gear by participating in Classic Yacht races up and down the New England Coast.” he said.
In the 2022 Newport to Bermuda race Abigail came fourth in class, far exceeding Jesse’s expectations, especially as Stan and Sally Honey’s Illusion, the overall winner, was in the same class.
“We really wanted to do some cruising in the fjords of Newfoundland the following year so we participated in the Marblehead to Halifax race in 2023 but we had a hard time with the light, upwind weather. Like a number of other participants, we did not finish in the allotted time and ended up with a Brazil Rock Score”. Abigail did manage a good Samaritan at Sea exercise as they came across the Tartan Pinnacle with a disabled engine and towed her 20nm into Halifax.
Jesse, who has sailed all his life, grew up in Essex Ct, and his family always had boats. He has had wooden boats for the past fifteen years and describes it as a year-round activity “You get fulfillment cruising in the summer and then working on the boat in the winter!”.
Jesse is hoping for better, more off wind conditions, for this year’s race and his 12-ton boat. “We had such a great experience in Marblehead last time, it’s such a delightful and historic yachting center and it was great to enjoy the hospitality of Halifax at the other end”, he added. “This is the type of racing that Abigail should be doing, it’s what she was built for.” Some 68 years later, she is clearly still game for the challenge.