JOHN G. ALDEN’s LAST SCHOONER

 

An original ALDEN


John Alden’s design 347 is a quintessential American yacht with roots descending from the great tradition of the “fast and able” New England fishing schooners. Looking at her lines she appears “stretched” with longer overhangs and maybe more “yacht-like” than the typical fishing schooner. She has a wholesome look to her hull, nothing extreme, all proportions are “just right” and in complete harmony. She will be an able performer off-shore, stiff and comfortable, and a delight to watch at anchor. With the pilothouse aft she is unquestionably an American schooner.


Design 347 was a preliminary design that was never built so when she was launched 94 years after her lines were drawn in 1927 she will be an Original Alden, not a replica, and in a way also be “John G. Alden’s Last Schooner” (designed in his office for himself and then built).  The agreement with John G. Alden Inc. for this project is an exclusive license to build design 347 which after all these years of being hidden away in the Alden archives will finally be born as a splendid Original Alden schooner. The preliminary design drawings for all of Aldens designs now exist in the MIT Museum’s Hart Collection in Boston, MA.



A PRELIMINARY design


Design 347 is a preliminary design that includes the final lines, two different rig and sail plans (a 2-masted and a 3-masted version), as well as a 3-masted accommodation plan. The 3-masted sail plan is by far the more spectacular design of the two. However, there were no detailed construction drawings ever produced for this design. For this reason some of the details in the implementation have to be inferred from other Alden designs from the same time period.


Niels Helleberg, who passed away in 2014, spend almost his whole career with Alden Design was instrumental in creating this design in the the spirit of the 1920s Alden steel schooners. A number of details and specifications from the final design 0284 of STARLING (launched in 1926), including the 530 mm frame spacing, have been used as a guide to finalize the 347 construction drawings faithfully in the spirit of John G. Alden.


Although the preliminary design that John Alden drew in 1927 indicated that she would be built in wood the final design is implemented in welded steel. The implementation in steel is consistent with the materials John Alden used for most of his larger schooners from the era. However, to honor the heritage of the preliminary line drawings the hull lines for the steel construction of Wolfhound have been retained from a hull built in wood including the box shaped stem, the rabbet line, and the recessed bulwarks normally only seen on wooden hulls. From a distance she will look like a wood construction.


Wolfhound was intended to be a very simple and straight forward yacht. John Alden wrote in the designers notes about the intended small crew and general approach; “A three masted schooner of this length is handled by a total crew of five men for coast wise work and seven when off-shore, including the cook. There is no reason why this boat should require more if fittings are kept simple and plain. Of course the cost of construction is reduced to a minimum.”  If there is a theme, or philosophy, for the Wolfhound project of 2012 and onwards it would be AUTHENTICITY and EXTREME SIMPLICITY in the spirit of John Alden’s general philosophy expressed in the designers comments.


The Wolfhound hull is built to Lloyds A-1 specifications with a Lloyds hull certificate, US flagged true to her origins. 



STARLING an Alden steel schooner from 1926


In 1926, one year before John Alden drew the lines of design 347, the 126’ 2-masted auxiliary schooner yacht STARLING was built in steel and launched. The Wolfhound project have benefited from having access to the full specifications of this vessel from the Alden archives. She had grand piano in her salon!





























John Alden Design 0284, STARLING, a 2-masted 126’ auxiliary schooner launched 1926 and built in steel.















Photo of STARLING when she was brand new in 1926.







John G. Alden

1927

0347

John G. Alden

Auxiliary schooner

U.S.



Wood

Welded Steel



153.8’ (47 m)

121.2’ (37 m)

  91.6’ (28 m)

  24.0’ (7.3 m)

  12.0’ (3.7 m)

182 tons (m) - half load

116 GT



  5,532 sq.ft    (514 m2) 

  7,534 sq.ft    (700 m2)

  2,260 sq.ft    (210 m2)

  2,131 sq.ft    (198 m2)

  1,614 sq.ft    (150 m2)

12,819 sq.ft  (1191 m2)



     20.3

John g. alden and his yachT designs


There is a very nice write-up on this design on page 151 and 152 in the book: John G. Alden and His Yacht Designs by Robert Carrick and Richard Hendersen. ISBN 0-87742-089-0  Published in 1983. The text on design 0347 is quoted below:


“One of the most impressive Alden designs, from the standpoint of beauty as well as size, is design number 347, a graceful three-masted schooner. Unlike the earlier three-master, Priscilla Alden, which was built to carry cargo, Number 347 was intended to be a yacht; thus, she has a much finer hull and luxurious accommodations. Her dimensions are 121 feet 2 inches, by 91 feet 6 inches, by 24 feet, by 12 feet 9 inches. In her profile and the shape of her sections, her Gloucester-fisherman ancestry is discernible. (Her lines plan, drawn by Clifford Swaine, appears to have been altered at some point by John Alden with his notorious soft lead pencil, possibly while rendering the verbalized concepts of a later, prospective client.)


She seems fairly narrow, and it was intended that all ballast be carried in- side, but stability is gained through the low rig and her length and large size (the larger the boat, the less proportional beam needed for a given amount of stability). In commenting on the rig, John Alden wrote: "The advantages of the three-masted rig for deep sea work are many. The area of the spanker is only about 60 percent of the main- sail of a two-master of the same hull design, and the weight of the boom and gaff are correspondingly lighter. There are, of course, many other advantages, and I would plan to have a small stationary gasoline engine on deck to hoist the sails and anchors, as all coasters do." This schooner is able to accommodate a number of guests in comfort, for there are no fewer than four double staterooms and three bathrooms abaft amid- ships. Farther forward is a huge saloon, a galley, and ample crew's quarters that even include an officers' mess.


Alden wrote that a coasting schooner of this is handled by five men for coastwise work seven, including the cook, when offshore, and he saw no reason why his three-master should need more crew than that. There is a semi-sunken deckhouse aft and farther forward an engine room housing a 100 h.p. Winton diesel engine. It is too bad that this vessel was never built. Alden company records list John Alden as her owner, so probably she was to be built on speculation. Although the designer, throughout his career, had great success with building boats that had not been commissioned and then soon finding buyers, he may have lost his nerve with the large three-master.”







  





                                              WOLFHOUND DATA

Vessel Data

Designer:

Naval architect:

Designed year:

Design No.

1927 Client:

Type:

Flag:                 


Construction

Preliminary:       

Final:       


Dimensions

L.O.A.

L.O.D.:        

L.W.L.:           

Beam:                    

Draft:                     

Displacement:

Gross tonnage:      


Sail Area

Five lowers:         

All 9 upwind sails:

Main Gollywobbler:

Fore Gollywobbler:

Yankee:   

Unfurled:


SA/Disp Ratio

(100% fore triangle):         


DESIGN & BUILD:


Builder:

Project management:                        

Interior design:                                

Naval architecture & over-all consultant:    

Structural design:                              

Hull construction: 

Systems outfitting:                                    

Interior builder:                               

Deck structures:

Bronze Castings:

Spar builder:

Sails & Blocks:

Standing Rigging:                                

                            


SPECIFICATIONS:


Principal dimensions:

Displacement:

Hull material:

Spar construction & materials:

Lower masts

Topmast, gaffs, and booms

Bow sprit

Standing rigging:



Classification:

Fuel:          

Fresh water:          

Black water:         

Max speed under engine:          

Hull speed:

Max Speed under sail:

Motor Range @ 8.0 kn:        

Motor Range @10.0 kn:



FLAG & REGISTRATION:




MAIN EQUIPMENT LIST:


Main engine:      

Propeller

Marine gear:       

Bow thruster:

Generators:                           

Windlass:       

Anchors:       

Deck winches:      

Water maker:       

AirConditioning:

Heating:    

Engine room ventilation:       

Sanitation:        

Nav. Electronics:       

Nav. Instruments:



Communications:

       




Opus Five Limited, Dutch office

Opus Five Limited

Opus Five Limited & Andre ten Broeke

Niels Helleberg, NHYD, Salem, MA

Paul Wester, WNA, Eindhoven, Netherlands

Graafship

D.H. Technics

Andre’ ten Broeke, Boatbuilder

Absolute & EdM Vedder

Absolute

SRF Shipbuilding

UB Sails

mdegrrot





Per the original design (original lines)

Per the original design (182 metric tons)

Welded steel, Lloyds Grade A

Hollow laminated wood construction

Siberian Larch

Douglas Fir

Sitka Spruce (solid)

Galvanized shrouds & stainless headstays (Lloyds scantlings)



Hull designed, built, and certified to Lloyds A1

17,800 liters

  3,200 liters

  3,200 liters

    11.4 kn

    12.8 kn

    14.0 kn

  5,000 nm (estimated)

  4,000 nm



USA (USVI) - Home Port: Charlotte Amalie

USCG “Documented Vessel” (DV)





Volvo D13-MH (FE),1800 RPM, 500 HP, continuous use rating

Hundested, VPP 4-bladed, 1.4m Dia,

ZF Marine W350-1 (3.96:1), continuous use rating

Hundested, FT3

2 x Northern Lights 864W3, 50 Hz, 240VAC, 3-ph, 20kW

Absolute Wolfhound Windlass, Serial No. 1

2 x 300 Kg traditional, 2 x 250 meter 20.5 mm stud link

Harken 980 & 74 BBB bronze winches

Spectra Farallon 2800 gpd (50Hz, 400VAC, 3-phase)

Technicold by Northern Lights, 120,000 BTU

Kabola

Delta-T System

Tecma Silence Plus

Garmin Chart Plotters, Simrad Class “A” AIS

Compass (Danforth Skylight Constellation)

Sextant (Cassens & Plath - Horizon Ultra)

Chronometer (Surplus - Russian Submarine Model)

Simrad VHF with DSC, Iridium phones, Kockums Sypetyphoon TA 75-265 Air horn

HARDI BIAOU an Alden steel schooner from 1928


The May 1928 issue of Yachting Magazine reports on the launch of another steel schooner, HARDI BIAOU, designed by John Alden. She is slightly smaller than Wolfhound  at 110’ LOD but has the same well proportioned and wholesome look to her.

PURITAN an Alden steel schooner from 1930


Finally we have PURITAN, designed in 1928 and built in 1931, still exist and is well maintained and lovingly cared for by her current owner for the last 25 years. PURITAN is smaller than Wolfhound with a LOD of 103’ (31.50 m).

700 m2