In Fall 1913, a group of sailing enthusiasts on the southern coast of Cape Cod (Massachusetts), all members of the Wianno Yacht Club, asked Manley Crosby, of Crosby Boat Building Storage Company, Osterville, to build a small racing daysailer, suitable for the difficult local conditions, characterized by strong winds and tidal currents and frequent unmarked sandy shallows. This is how the Wianno Senior “Knockabout” came into being, named after the small village of Wianno, so called from the native American chief of the Iyanough tribe from whom the area had been bought by the first settlers in 1664.
In Fall 1913, a group of sailing enthusiasts on the southern coast of Cape Cod (Massachusetts), all members of the Wianno Yacht Club, asked Manley Crosby, of Crosby Boat Building Storage Company, Osterville, to build a small racing daysailer, suitable for the difficult local conditions, characterized by strong winds and tidal currents and frequent unmarked sandy shallows. This is how the Wianno Senior “Knockabout” came into being, named after the small village of Wianno, so called from the native American chief of the Iyanough tribe from whom the area had been bought by the first settlers in 1664.
The Wianno Senior met expectations from the very beginning, as shown by a 1915 review in the specialized journal, The Rudder: “In performance, the new boats have fully come up to their requirements. They have shown themselves able, stiff and seaworthy, they mind their helms like obedient children and take sound waves without plunging or “slapping”. In speed they have been an agreeable surprise, for in a series of Interclass races pitted against boats designed by Herreshoff and Lawley they they were able to hold their own, except in the very lightest of winds."
This gaff rigged sloop became the boat on which, for almost a century, generations of New England families raced every summer weekend in the waters of Nantucket Sound, off the southern shores of Cape Cod: the most famous was certainly the Kennedy family
In the early 1930s, despite the Great Depression, the fleet had more than 60 boats. In 1946, with over 100 boats in circulation, a Class Committee was founded to ensure uniformity in construction and promote racing.
This let the Wianno Class race successfully without changes until the Spring of 1976 when the last three wooden Wianno Seniors were launched and the old Crosby shipyard was sold.
This gaff rigged sloop became the boat on which, for almost a century, generations of New England families raced every summer weekend in the waters of Nantucket Sound, off the southern shores of Cape Cod: the most famous was certainly the Kennedy family
In the early 1930s, despite the Great Depression, the fleet had more than 60 boats. In 1946, with over 100 boats in circulation, a Class Committee was founded to ensure uniformity in construction and promote racing.
This let the Wianno Class race successfully without changes until the Spring of 1976 when the last three wooden Wianno Seniors were launched and the old Crosby shipyard was sold.
This gaff rigged sloop became the boat on which, for almost a century, generations of New England families raced every summer weekend in the waters of Nantucket Sound, off the southern shores of Cape Cod: the most famous was certainly the Kennedy family
In the early 1930s, despite the Great Depression, the fleet had more than 60 boats. In 1946, with over 100 boats in circulation, a Class Committee was founded to ensure uniformity in construction and promote racing.
This let the Wianno Class race successfully without changes until the Spring of 1976 when the last three wooden Wianno Seniors were launched and the old Crosby shipyard was sold.