Irving Johnson

[Don Guillette]

Calif.Ted showed a picture of the Irving Johnson taking a shot at another boat.The name of my boat and every boat I've ever owned (even high speed jet boats) have been named YANKEE. Here's the background behind that name. When I was kid growing up on Narragansett Bay (RI)and way before TV I was an avid reader of National Geographic magazine. Irving Johson was a regular contributor to NG with sailing stories and pictures of his travels all over the world on his ship called YANKEE. Through the pictures in NG and a vivid imagination I saw my self on the deck of his boat as he went round the horn and wherever else he sailed. I was in the rigging and all over that boat in my head. I saved all those NG's and every once in a while I come upon them and I go back to my childhood again as I thumb through the pages just as I did long ago.The first boat I owned was a small dingy that my brother and I found washed up on the beach near our house after a hurricane. We rebuilt the bottom and gave it a nice coat of paint and when my brother asked me what should we name it I said YANKEE.With every boat I've owned I always think about a new name but I always go back to YANKEE.As a point of info - the Irving Johnson and another boat named for Irving wife (I forget her name)were built to duplicate their old boats in San Pedro, Ca. They were always looking for volunteers and a couple of times I volunteered. I did not do much other than act as a gopher but it was fun for me to be associated with the project. This time I actually did get to climb all over it.Also, they came close to losing one of those boats a couple of months ago when one of them ran aground near Ventura. Most of the crew of young sailors were washed over board and they had a devel of a time refloating it.

 

[Calif. Ted]

The other ship named for Mr. Johnson's wife

is the Exy Johnson, they are beautiful ships, 95' I believe, launched just a few years ago. I erred, the picture is the EXY at this year's tallship festival in September. The Irving is still in drydock after the grounding in Oxnard, shortly after that the Exy grounded at the Isthmus but was pulled off right away with no apparent damage. I've included an except from the Log article on the grounding. I'm sure you are familiar with the spot they refer to Don, I know I stay away from it.Exy Johnson ran aground at approximately 6:30 a.m. on Memorial Day with 35 passengers aboard, according to Los Angeles County Fire Department Lifeguard Division Capt. Kevin Marble. There were no injuries reported. Witnesses described the tallship more as being stuck than hard aground and never careened over.The vessel, which draws approximately 11 feet, went aground on the submerged, but charted, Isthmus Harbor Reef. The reef comprises two spots that occasionally snag boaters. Wash Rock is so named because it sometimes appears above the surface. One Fathom Reef is so named because it is 6 feet from the sea surface in places. Both spots are marked with navigational markers. “Wash Rock had a permanent marker pole installed about 10 years ago,” Marble said. “One Fathom Reef has a fixed pole on the high spot.”

 

[Don Guillette]

EXY

Calif.Ted: After I wrote the message the name came to me. Actually, my wife gave me the name and asked me how I could forget it.Ted, there is one thing that I wonder about these ships and that is who is skippering them!?!. Possably Oxnard can be explained but the Isthmus? My 13 year old grandaughter knows about that place.

 

[Calif. Ted]

Yeah, I couldn't figure the Isthmus either

Don, you know the markers, hard to miss and notoriously famous orally.In Oxnard it seems a little fuzzy, I've heard that one of the sandbars had built up and there was a "mechanical" failure either as a result or just at that time resulting in engine failure or steerage or both. Boat grounded, crew advised to abandon by rescue personnel on scene, shortly after boat was lifted and refloated with no-one aboard and re-grounded.One of my former dockmates had been in a Capts. cert. class with a skipper on the Oxnard boat (we're assuming this gentlemen was on board at the time) and he was pretty good. I wonder if they have to run short-handed in well trained crew positions ?

 

[rich cooper]

Irving Johnson's wife

I believe her name was Electra.I was a fan of the gentleman also.