53' Crocker Schooner (1931) - MAHDEE

The 1931 Schooner Mahdee was designed by naval architect Samuel Sturgis Crocker (March 29, 1890 – November 24, 1964). and built by G.F Lawson and Son boatyard in Dorchester, Massachusetts, for Alexander White Moffat, known as “Sandy” to friends and “Skipper” to family. He was, at the time of Mahdee’s launch, Commodore of the Cruising Club of America as well as the Boston Yacht Club. Much has been written about Mahdee: several articles by Moffat in Yachting magazine; she is in Roger C Taylor’s book entitled Good Boats, and more recently Bjorn Rudolph Arp’s Great American Schooner Yachts.

Moffat described Mahdee’s design and performance in the February 1932 issue of Yachting magazine. His article is titled ‘Mahdee: The First Small Electric Drive Auxillary.’

Mr. Moffat stated in his article about Mahdee that “the cooperation between owner, architect, and builder together, with plenty of time to decide the details, was bound to produce a well-designed, well-built ship.” They adhered to the mottos which Mr. Moffat believed anyone building a boat should swear faithfully to follow:

The best is none too good; the most expensive is generally the cheapest in the end; and

if you are going to sea and going in safety you’ve got to be particular.

According to the 1930 US census, at the time Mahdee was designed and built, Sandy was married with four children: daughters Marian (15), Frances (13), and Faith (10); and son Alexander W (5). The Mahdee was to be an intermittent family dwelling for the Moffats. Sandy was an experienced captain who expected to sail Mahdee single-handed and had her designed with this in mind. He expected to take her out under power alone with some frequency and still wanted her to be quiet-thus came the desire for her quiet electric drive.

She’s had an exciting life. After spending much of the 1930s with the Moffats–she was sold, renamed Pandora, and then served the Navy in WWII along the eastern seaboard, she also spent some time wandering between New England and the Caribbean in the ’50s, was christened Privateer by owner Peter Paul Luce in 1953 and came through the Panama Canal with owners Mac and Roswitha MacIntosh in a winter season whirlwind in 1963 to end up with a series of west coast families enjoying her fully–one owner, David Allen of Belvedere, CA, taking her on the 1967 TransPac race with a huge family aboard, sailing her throughout the San Francisco Bay in the 1960s, and then she spent a decade venturing up and down the coast from Port Townsend as far south as Central America and back with her 70’s era owner, Robert Goss.

Renamed back to her original Mahdee, the ’80s and ’90s saw her in repose in a slip in San Diego enjoyed by a retired Navy man, Tom McHugh, and his large liveaboard family. When we purchased her in late 2006 and began her restoration, we were very happy to have the opportunity to bring her back to her ocean-going sailing days. And now we enjoy sailing her on the west coast of North America.