[L16-usa] Good Home for Orphaned Luders

[Sturgis Haskins]

LOOKING FOR LUDERS

There seems to be continued interest in adding more Luders to our Mount
Desert Island, Maine fleet. Following the demise of the class in Mississippi
, we purchased most of those boats. We do not wish to raid existing fleets -
that is to say, Chicago and New Orleans. However, we need to find a few more
boats, especially fiberglass ones.  A glass Luders is due this week from
California to be held in reserve for a potential owner in the newly revived
Frenchman's Bay fleet. Luders owners in our  two local fleets are working
cooperatively to add to our numbers.

It occurred to me that some Luders might remain at places where fleets are
no longer active. This would include Greenwich, CT, Oklahoma, Sodus on the
Great Lakes, etc.  Does anyone have contacts at any of these places where a
query might be directed? Any assist would be appreciated.

And on other fronts..  In anticipation of the  proposed 2007 Invitationals I
have begun a wee bit of research into our local Luders history. A member of
the Northeast Harbor Fleet (yacht club)  met me at their closed club house
so I could peek at old records stored in the tiny attic. This was not
entirely fruitful as early many records seem to be missing. It was
interesting to read in a March 1946 minute book that the Luders Company had
agreed to add three more Luders to their initial order of 20 at the same
price as the first boats.  As I understand it, the NEH Fleet official had
negotiated a $1,000 cost per Luders. My guide this chilly morning really
made my day. She recalled crewing on the new International One-Designs their
first season here in 1938. The old cotton single-luff spinnakers proved
daunting, she reported. Her family bought a new Luders in 1946 which they
raced into the mid-1970s. (It is now in the Frenchman's Bay fleet - 30 years
in the same family there.)  As frequently happens, I have discovered, it is
the unexpected that is sometimes best remembered. The same 1946 minutes
noted that Beatrix Farrand, the noted landscape architect, had sent a bill
marked "No need to pay" for her consultation regarding the newly donated
land (a club house was poised to rise later that year). The niece of
novelist Edith Wharton, Farrand's family had summered in nearby Bar Harbor
since c1879. Two of her best surviving commissions included Dumbarton Oaks,
in Washington, D.C. and the Rockefeller gardens in Seal Harbor, a few miles
away here. This has nothing whatever to do with Luders, but given the
paucity of research success today, it was interesting information to
discover. Next summer, under warmer conditions, I will return for a longer
snoop. Two large boxes marked "Old Trophies"  piqued my interest, too. One
question I forgot to ask my key- person; was she had the helm of her  family
Luders when it rammed Nelson Rockefeller's International OD and sank it?
Surely, that would be a memorable account!
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