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<TITLE>Good Home for Orphaned Luders</TITLE>
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<P><B><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">LOOKING FOR LUDERS</FONT></B>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">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.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">It occurred to me that some Luders might remain at places where fleets are no longer active.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.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">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!</FONT><B></B></P>
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