Little Compton residents Hilary Woodhouse and son Tom sat = on the deck of the Sakonnet Yacht Club waiting for a ride out to their Alden Sakonnet sloop for some late season racing. The Saturday’s race was one of the last in a season that marked the 65th anniversary since the fleet was wiped out by Hurricane Carol in 1954.

“What’s unique about these boats is the fact that they are only found in Sakonnet Harbor, nowhere else,” said Hilary Woodhouse.

“They were built primarily for the waters = here,” he said. “Our waters are unusual because we have the river, we have prevailing southerly swells and we have a southwest wind so it tends to be fairly uneven, if you will.”

There are currently 11 Alden Sakonnet One Designs: Honey Bee, Bachelor Button, Chiquita, Cutty Wow, Elisha, Old Bull, Whistler, Augusta, JAVA, and September Song.

The boats are as colorful as their names — the fleet includes boats painted yellow, blue, green, red and white. Their sails can be seen out past the breakwater for racing every summer Saturday.

Famous designer

The boats were designed by renowned offshore racing yacht designer John Alden, who summered in Little Compton. Alden created the club “one-design” Sakonnet specifically for the yacht club in 1938. He gave the boat a deep cockpit, oak ribs and mahogany planks.

“Alden liked to sail dry,”  Hilary Woodhouse said.

The fractional sloop featured a Marconi rig and heavy displacement hull with a deep 700 pound keel for stability.

Ten Alden Sakonnets were built by the Casey Boat Company in 1939 and the Sakonnet Yacht Club tradition was born. That is until Hurricane Carol destroyed the fleet on August 25, 1954.

Tidal wave

Carol, among the worst tropical cyclones to hit Rhode Island, came in with a fearsome storm surge.

Brad Wiley and his family retreated from their house on Warren’s Point that day to high ground at Walter Cluett’s house as a tidal wave swept the yacht club “off its pillars,” wrote Mr. Wiley in a recollection of the storm.

“Looking west toward the harbor, seeing a green wave break over the lighthouse, seeing Long Pond and Round Pond joined together with the ocean … Seeing waves breaking south of O'Conner's house and outside of and over Nobel Biding’s Rock,” he wrote.

Later that day, Wiley, then 13, and his dad went to see the damage.

“The yacht club was totally gone. Of the fleet of commercial, recreational and sailboats, 108 vessels according to Harbor Captain Harold Potter, there were only 12 still moored,” wrote Mr. Wiley.

Just three of the Sakonnet Aldens remained out of the ten. “The rest were gone.”

One boat (Blossom) ended up being taken to Mystic, said Tom Woodhouse, “And it’s still there in their museum.”

It didn’t take long for the resilient Sakonnet Aldens to make a comeback. Boat builder Harry Towne rebuilt ten of the Aldens that same winter in 1954, according to a club document compiled by Walter Cluett and other Alden owners.

Since then, the boats have had several owners and have been a family affair.

“Merrimans, Huntoons, Perkins, Colt, Hawes, Taylors, Fordyce, Brayton, and Marvells were the fleet’s mainstays. The most docile loving couples could launch into terrible tirades with the vilest of language during tense Alden races,” Mr. Woodhouse wrote.

Dick Rudick found Augusta uncovered and sitting in a field.

“Charlie Hall (the yacht club manager at the time) and I went to put her on a trailer, but the wood was so rotten that she literally came apart in our hands,” said Mr. Rudick “There was nothing salvageable but the iron keel and all of the bronze fittings from the hull and mast.”

So he had Augusta built by Jim Titus and his Newport crew from what little was left.

“They did a beautiful job. Very solid and elegant work.” Mr. Rudick said.

Now most of the boats are privately maintained and kept in pristine condition. Tom Woodhouse and two others own JAVA, the tenth Sakonnet Alden, the very boat that John Alden sailed himself — the JAVA name references the initials of John Alden and his wife, Virginia.

A fleet reunited

When Mara Lozier Shore came home after graduating from Georgetown law school in 1992, the Alden fleet that she had known most of her life was all but gone. Only Chiquita, Old Bull, and Cutty Wow were still sailing.

Ms. Shore has been a member of the Sakonnet Yacht Club her whole life and a member of the Aldens since age 6 when her dad, Peter Lozier, bought Elisha with her uncle, Robert von der Lippe in 1974. Peter reframed the boat and remade the rudder.

“We always did most of the work ourselves,” said Ms. Shore.

Ms. Shore wasn’t allowed to race Elisha until she finished the race program at age 14.

“When I was allowed to race, I felt very grown up and trusted,” she said. When she came back from college she raced Elisha with her dad and Hilary Woodhouse for many years. Joining her later were her two sons, Will and Ben, and daughter, Lily.

Sometimes there were overnight campouts. “It was heaven being out on the harbor,” Ms. Shore said.

“Since coming back, I have made it my life’s work to get the fleet back together,” Ms. Shore said. “We are just stewards, hopefully the boats will outlast all of us.”

“Bachelor Button was given to me by the Shiffer family,” said Ms. Shore. “I just hung on to it until I found Bart Littlefield and Carly Hoyt. I took them out to sail on my Alden, Elisha, and charmed them as well as I could.”

It worked. The gentlemen took on the wooden boat together.

“They’ve had 20 plus years of fun on that boat with their families,” said Ms. Shore.

She did the same with Augusta. The boat was resting in a field on Burchard Avenue, “rotted beyond recognition,” Ms. Shore said.

She got Bobby Car to pick it up in his backhoe and move to her father’s hay field where it sat for a few more years until she convinced Dick Rudick to take it on as a project.

“Charlie Hall (the yacht club manager at the time) and I went to put her on a trailer, but the wood was so rotted that she literally came apart in our hands,” said Mr. Rudick “There was nothing salvageable but the iron keel and the bronze fittings from the hull and mast,” he said.

So Mr. Rudick had Augusta rebuilt by Jim Titus and his Newport crew from what little was left.

“They did a beautiful job. Very solid and elegant work,” Mr. Rudick said.

Ms. Shore acquired Honey Bee in 2010 from the Huntoon family who had brought it to Maine.

“They offered it to me if I could come and get it in a week or they’d sell it to Wooden Boat Magazine,” Ms. Shore said.

She rebuilt it and placed it with the Moore and Truslow families.

Blossom was in sitting inthe warehouse of the Mystic Seaport Museum. In March of 2018, it returned to Little Compton in the hands of the Chandor and Fordyce families.

“They’ve been restoring the boat and it looks fantastic,” Ms. Shore said.

September Song was placed with the Garrison family; Whistler is now cared for by the yacht club.

Chiquita

Dolf Haffenreffer grew up in Little Compton, spending summer days sailing at the yacht club. When he was 27, he was approached by Roswell “Rod” Perkins to be his partner in the Sakonnet Alden, Chiquita.

When David Goodrich (his old sailing partner) died, Rod was looking for a young partner — I stepped up,” Mr. Haffenreffer said. “My dad and I are partners in the boat now. We had her completely rebuilt two years ago. I usually sail with my dad and brother, which is really fun.”

Rod Perkins still sailed with the Haffenreffers, even after Chiquita was sold. 

“The last time he came racing, he was in his late 80s, I noticed that he was a little wet while waiting on the dock, only to learn that he had jumped in the water and scrubbed the hull with a sponge,” said Mr. Haffenreffer. “Rod apologized for not getting the very bottom of the keel. He also brought a ‘pee jar’ with him, since he had trouble going overboard.”

“Rod was so competitive that day. He was knocking my knee with his fist as we sailed the last leg upwind in first place. Rod was dead set on us protecting our lead. We actually won that day of racing. Just Rod and I onboard. It was one of my favorite days on the water,” Mr. Haffenreffer said.

“He was so proud when we got back to the dock. I believe that was the last day that he sailed Chiquita and likely his last race on any sailboat. It was just perfect and so special. I’ll never forget it.”

 To come racing or sailing, or learn more about these beautiful boats, contact Mara Shore at mjlshore@gmail.com.