Story & photos by Dave Hemenway
In the mid-1980s, I fell in love with a Cape Dory ten-foot sailing dinghy that just had to become the tender to my Dickerson 36 yawl Tenacity. They were simply a perfect match of traditional boats. My Cape Dory 10 was built in 1966 and needed to be restored – just like most of my boats. I modified her over the years and she has served our family very well as the tender to our various boats including Freedom, my Greenwich 24. She tows extremely well, rows like a dream, and sails reasonably.
Built almost six decades ago, the author’s Cape Dory 10 has served as an able tender for most of that time.
I have always been impressed by the sturdy construction, function and beauty of Cape Dory boats. My Greenwich 24 was the predecessor of the Cape Dory 25, which the Cape Dory Company made slightly longer and roomier. Cape Dory sold a couple thousand of these fine boats – one of their most popular models.
The Cape Dory Company established a Cape Dory owner’s association in the 1970s to enhance their brand by building a community of Cape Dory sailors. This worked very well both for the company and CD enthusiasts. The Cape Dory Sailboat Owner’s Association (CDSOA) is a national organization with fleets throughout the country. CDSOA’s largest fleet is in the Northeast, which is comprised of all states north of New Jersey, and has a couple hundred members scattered through the region.
The author doesn’t need to look hard for old boats in need of love. Apparently, they find him.
This association continued after the Cape Dory Company ceased production in the early 1990s and continues to this day. We are approaching our fifty-year anniversary as an association. While focused on Cape Dory boats – power and sail – we welcome all classic boating fans (including me, who only had a Cape Dory dinghy when elected Northeast fleet captain a couple years ago).
This year we had luncheons in Flanders, Connecticut and Dover, New Hampshire and two cruises, one around Narragansett Bay and another in midcoast Maine. One of the standard topics of conversation at these CDSOA gatherings is the love owners have for their Cape Dory Typhoons. The 19-foot Typhoon was designed by Carl Alberg who designed many Cape Dory sailboats and established the full-keel, robust design of many of their more popular models.
This is one of three Typhoons awaiting restoration at Cappy’s Boat Shop, and some of them will be for sale!
The Typhoon was Cape Dory’s first entry into the cruising sailboat market and it was one of their most successful models, with about two thousand built over a nearly twenty-year period. Sailors call them America’s smallest yachts. They are often sailed by older people who find them stable and seaworthy. All sailors enjoy them for their yachty appearance and keen sailing ability.
One evening I was browsing with my computer when I found a very inexpensive Typhoon with a trailer near my home. I contacted the owner and arranged to see the boat the next day. While the boat was a mess, all important parts were there and she came home with me to my shop. While this boat and trailer need significant work, it is all doable over the winter because they’ll fit into a bay of my shop.
The next time you see this example, she’ll have brilliant brightwork, gleaming topsides and a race-ready bottom…but no foliage.
In a correspondence to my fellow CDSOA Northeast fleet members, I mentioned that I’d acquired this neglected Typhoon and look forward to working on her and then sailing her, as she’s an ideal boat for an older singlehanded sailor. I found out that there are many neglected Typhoons that need to be rehomed. I was contacted by two other fleet members who asked me to take on their projects, so now I have three Typhoons. While they all need work, they are easily repaired because they’re small, simple, straightforward boats. Many of the necessary repairs are well documented in the CDSOA archives, which are available online at capedorysoa.org. This is a great resource for all Cape Dory owners.
One of the things I learned in the last couple months is there used to be more active communication between all Cape Dory owners, but especially between Typhoon owners. As fleet captain, I decided to do something about this. We’ve decided to have four regional meetings in the Northeast to discuss what we would like to do to improve communication and to discuss what events we would like to have next season including possible gatherings, cruises, racing, and other ways of enjoying each other’s company while learning from each other.
The first meeting will be hosted at the Centerboard Yacht Club in South Portland, Maine on Saturday, October 26 at 1:00 pm. The second meeting will be held in the Syracuse, New York area on Saturday, November 2. The third meeting will be held at Cappy’s Boat Shop – my home – in Montville, Connecticut on Saturday, November 9. And the final meeting will be at Rhode Island Yacht Club in the Providence, Rhode Island area in early November. All these events will be listed on the CDSOA website and on the three Facebook Cape Dory groups. I am excited about these efforts because they combine some of my most enjoyable activities – restoring and sailing good old boats that are too nice to be taken to the dump and discussing this work with others. ■
Dave Hemenway sails out of Thames Yacht Club in New London, CT. He’s been sailing and messing about in boats for his whole life. His primary cruising boat is a Dickerson 36 yawl that he’s maintained and improved for 35 years. When he’s not sailing – whether Force 5, Finn or cruiser – he’s likely to be found at Cappy’s Boat Shop where he reports to his dog, Cappy.
