Entrepreneur, philanthropist, enthusiastic sailor, passionate automobile collector, and co-founder with his lovely wife Maggie, of the amazing Newport Car Museum in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, Gunther Buerman may be the coolest guy we know.
Finding sailing
“My interest in sailing started when I moved to Rochester, New York after graduating from Law school in 1968. I had an apartment across from the Rochester Yacht Club,” Gunther recalls. “I watched boats go in and out and eventually bought a Sunfish to keep at the beach on Lake Ontario. The first time I went out on an April day the wind was offshore, and I ran out for a couple miles not knowing I had to turn around and beat back. I ended up in the freezing water and another guy on a Sailfish finally helped talk me in.
“With my next boat, a Ranger 29, I started racing. I kept the boat at the Rochester Yacht Club, again not knowing anything about sailing except from the books I’d read. When I skippered in the Wednesday night series, I had no clue what the numbers on the committee boat’s course board meant. I was going one way, and everyone else the other way until I put some crew with experience aboard and really got a hang for it, enough to add Sunday races and even a long-distance race on Lake Ontario.
“That was in the mid-1970s when everyone sailed under the IOR rule. I really got the big boat racing bug, so I acquired a stock 3/4-tonner, then a custom Ron Holland 1/2-tonner in which we won the Canadian 1/2 Ton Championship three times.
“After that, I started skippering a J/24 because my crew on the 1/2-tonner said, ‘You should really learn how to sail one-design boats!’ So, I went back to basics, bought a fast J/24 and eventually won the Great Lakes J/24 Championship, the District Championship and took top ten in the North Americans and Mid-Winters in Florida several times. I met my wife Maggie (a Swede) when racing in the 1983 J/24 World Championship in Malmo, Sweden.
“When we were in England racing in the ‘84 J/24 Worlds, Bill Shore (then owner of Shore Sails) approached me about doing the SORC. I agreed, but only if we could do it in a Farr 40, and only if Kenny Read, who worked for Bill, would sail with us. We sourced a Kenwood Cup Farr 40 in New Zealand (ex-Geronimo) to do the circuit in. I was practicing law at that time, so we needed someone to go down and buy it. It ended up being (future 12 Metre skipper) Chris Dickson. Chris helped Kenny to set up the boat, which we renamed Total Eclipse, and I realized I was way over my head. Before our first race from Miami to Key West, I couldn’t sleep because I’d borrowed money to buy the boat. I thought, ‘If this boat’s slow, I’m toast!’
“In the Key West tune-up race for the SORC there were a lot of new custom 1-tonners that year; Buddy Melges was there, the McKee brothers…. As we started the race close-hauled, Bill Shore told me he’d forgotten to put the spreader patches on, so if I could sail heavy, he would walk up the mast to put them on. He climbed up without a harness, attached the patches and off we went. It wasn’t long before we realized that our boat was really fast, as we left the fleet behind! We won the Key West Race overall and went on to finish third overall in the SORC. I learned so much about distance racing from Bill Shore, from never put the boat on the wind in a distance race – because the wind will always change, always crack off and just go fast – to any problem on the boat can be fixed.
“After SORC I took a break from sailboat racing, instead attending my three children’s own sporting events. I enjoyed watching them race their Optimists and play baseball, softball and basketball. I spent countless hours next to swimming pools, and even more hours on the ski slopes watching them race in slalom, super G and downhill. I love sailboat racing, but watching my kids succeed in their sports has always been my favorite pastime.
“Maggie and I moved to Newport in 2010 and acquired a J/124 that we planned to use for leisurely wine-and-cheese cruises on Narragansett Bay. Well, we lasted for a full two trips and decided that cruising was just too slow and boring for us.
“Luckily, we met Bob Johnstone at a coffee shop, where he invited us to his home for a party. At the party, Andy MacGowan invited me to sail in the 12 Metre North Americans on USA 61. I had such a great time sailing with Andy that I decided to get back into sailboat racing. At a gas station I saw Brad Read and asked what he thought was the fastest 12 Metre available. He told me without a doubt New Zealand (KZ-3), one of the ‘Plastic Fantastics’ from the ‘87 America’s Cup. On Brad’s recommendation we purchased the boat and brought it back to its original livery.
“The most amazing thing I found about 12 Metre sailing is that there are tricks to learn in order to make the boat go fast, but the crew is most important. We had a wonderful crew of all Corinthian sailors (some of them ex-America’s Cup sailors), including Lexi Gahagen, Brad Read, Duncan Skinner, Charlie Enright, Mick Harvey, and Chris Fisher, to name a few.
“Twelves are the most beautiful boats on the water and so much fun to sail. We took great pride in redoing KZ-3 the way it was built and going back to original graphics. I asked Kenny and the North Sails people to only build tan or white sails, so it remained traditional looking. We won the NYYC Annual Regatta and the 12 Metre NAs five times, and finished second in the Worlds.
“At the same time, we owned the TP52 Hooligan and were sailing in a full schedule of other regattas. I also had accumulated a sizable number of classic cars and finally said to Maggie, ‘We’re racing these boats so much that I’ve got to sell our cars or do something with them.’”
That’s when the Buermans decided, why not a Car Museum? “We donated Hooligan to the Naval Academy, and I still own KZ-3, but I’m not sailing her anymore because she’s classified as a Grand Prix (winged keel) 12 Metre and there are no other Grand Prix 12s out there to sail against.”
A transition to land
In 2017, the Buermans opened the Newport Car Museum in an expansive red building at 1947 West Main Road. In the eight years since, the original collection of 65 cars has grown to over 100, and the Newport Car Museum is now the largest exhibit of rare and exotic automobiles in New England.
“Maggie and I went to as many car museums as possible, including such greats as the Petersen Automotive Museum in California, Revs Institute in Florida, and Larz Anderson in Massachusetts. We wanted to see what others were doing as far as displays and making inanimate objects come alive. At many, the cars hid behind velvet ropes and you couldn’t look inside, so we worked with Sparks of Philadelphia (the company involved with designing Revs and Ralph Lauren’s private car museum) to make ours more of an art museum with special touches such as historical videos, directional sound, theatrical lighting, platforms and turntables.”
How did Gunther Buerman’s passion for cars begin?
“My love for cars came when I was a young boy. While listening to Yankees games on the radio I’d pull out National Geographics, go to the car ads and put wax paper over them and draw the cars. I remember specifically a Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing; incidentally, we’ll be unveiling one this summer as a new addition to the Museum.
“When I was a lawyer, my uncle died and left me a Mustang. I fixed it up, sold it, bought a Porsche, and off I went as a collector. Before that, my first real car was a DeSoto Adventurer. I drove it to my construction job as a young man. So, we also have an Adventurer on display as a tribute to those days.”
Highlights of the collection include two stunning re-creations of iconic racing cars. One replicates the Mercedes-Benz 300SLR driven by Stirling Moss to victory in the 1955 Mille Miglia, setting an elapsed time record for the 992-mile, lethally dangerous Italian road race that will never be broken. The second car is the incomparable Porsche 917.
“In 1970 I was at Watkins Glen, two years into being a lawyer,” Gunther continues. “In those days you could visit the pits during the races, and Porsche had a spare 917 there that they wanted to sell for $17,000. I called my banker and asked to borrow the money to buy it. He had some questions: ‘Is it a big car?’ ‘No, it’s a coupe.’ ‘Is it a family car?’ ‘No, only one person.’ ‘Can you drive it every day?’ ‘It’s a race car, are you crazy?’ He wouldn’t loan me the money so I drove away, lamenting the fact that I couldn’t buy that 917. One of Jerry Seinfeld’s cars, 917 #20 (previously owned and driven by Steve McQueen in the movie Le Mans), recently went to auction at Mecum. Seinfeld turned down a bid of $25 million for it!
“Since I’ve always loved 917s, I found a company who was importing exact re-creations from South Africa. We had ours wrapped in the same livery as McQueen’s was in the movie (and Seinfield’s is now), and it is a showstopper at the Museum.”
The Museum celebrates cars from the mid-1950s to today’s hottest designs, although an 1886 Benz Patent-Motorwagen greets you as you enter, with a great video on motoring pioneer Bertha Benz, adventurous wife of inventor Karl Benz. Seven galleries showcase Ford/Shelbys, Corvettes, World Cars, Fin Cars, Mopars, American Muscle, and Porsches. In the Fin Car Gallery, you can relax on the Bocca Sofa (representing Marilyn Monroe’s pouty red lips) or the Joe Chair (inspired by Yankees centerfielder DiMaggio’s glove) and view a large portrait of Norma Jean and Joltin’ Joe.
“I’ve always been enamored with Mid-20th Century Modern furniture by Danish and Swedish designers, and eventually I got hooked on collecting pieces by famous names such as Eames, Jacobsen, and Wegner. Those pieces now serve as places for visitors to rest or contemplate the art of the car while in the Museum. All of our cars are displayed at one time, representing eight decades of modern industrial design. The Gift Shop, which is Maggie’s baby, is like the eighth gallery, people say.”
Maggie and Gunther can often be found mixing with Museum visitors.
“Our original objective for starting the Newport Car Museum was to put smiles on peoples’ faces, and I think we do a good job of that. We meet people from all walks of life, all backgrounds, all countries. Everyone’s had a car at the center of one of their life stories, and everyone can use a break from the outside world where they can walk down memory lane, share stories, or seek out new knowledge on a certain car. Kids, teenagers, mothers, fathers and grandparents all have different takeaways.”
During the summer months, the Newport Car Museum averages over 2,000 visitors a week, an impressive measure of the attraction’s success. “This year, we’re unveiling more additions and focusing on growing our reputation as one of the most relevant automobile museums in the country,” Gunther enthuses. “Some people have said we are the Petersen Museum of the East, and one visitor, who’d visited car museums all over the world, said he thought it’s more like the Petersen is the Newport Car Museum of the West, so we must be doing something right!” ■
