Riviera Beach, Florida - A warm winter breeze stirred the air on February 11 as more than a hundred people witnessed the historic re-launching of the 1929 John Alden schooner Summerwind. Originally launched as Queen Tyi for a New York banker who soon lost her in the 1929 Wall Street crash, the yacht changed hands many times over the years, even serving as part of the Coastal Picket Patrol during World War II where she narrowly avoided the wrath of a depth charge off her stern.

Local schoolchildren looked on as the Moores Marine crew and Riviera Beach Yacht Center moved the 100-foot (LOA) yacht two hundred yards across the boatyard to their TravelLift well. Henry Pickersgill, the marine surveyor on the two-year project, called it “the most important launch in Palm Beach County in probably anybody’s memory.” The reasons? Partly the $8 million cost to restore and re-confi gure her as a racer, partly the history.

“The boat is an American legend,” Pickersgill said. The boat was found in a state of disrepair by J. Don Williamson, a Fort Worth, Texas oil and gas businessman who has been a devoted racing sailor and classic yacht aficionado for years. The yacht, named Sea Gypsy at the time, was in charter service in Mallorca, Spain. He bought her for “less than a million,” he said, but the restoration costs topped $8 million by launch day.

The restoration task fell to Moores Marine, the firm founded by Jim Moores and best known for their work on the exclusive fleet of vintage Trumpy yachts that ply the eastern seaboard of the United States. Selecting the right wood for the vessel’s plank-by-plank rebuild took time and a fair bit of travel. “I had a guy get us trees in the Appalachians,” Moores said. The hull is long-leaf yellow pine below the waterline and Douglas fir above.

Measuring 79 feet on deck, Summerwind has a new deckhouse, cockpit, spars, sails, winches, electronics, wiring, plumbing, galley and bowsprit. After a festive and proper Dom Pérignon-smashing christening by Mrs. Pat Williamson, the newly renamed Summerwind was gingerly lowered into the water, as captain Karl Joyner and others scrambled to check for leaks, of which there were none beyond the expected minor plank seam here and there.

The final phase of restoration will take about three weeks, said Capt. Joyner. Then the re-born yacht and her owner’s family will be ready for her first big trip to Antigua, for this year’s classic yacht regatta. Beyond that, the William sons intend to take Summerwind on the international classic yacht circuit. “I just think it’s gorgeous,” said Williamson. “And I hope it sails fast.”