"Active" Vessels

Here is a list of boats in their current (confirmed) incarnations. A boat qualifies as "confirmed" if pictures, a message, or a writeup exists from within the past year or so. Obviously names can change at any time, especially with so many of these boats currently for sale. Hull numbers, where known, are indicated in ()'s.

1. Wings (1)
2. Conquest (6) [ex. Whiplash]
3. Mojoe (9) [ex. Jam, Jammin']
4. Lone Star (10)
5. Fruition (16)

6. Fame (25)
7. Samiko (26)
8. Counterpoint
9. Red Baron [ex. Titan 3]
10. Peregrine
11. Scarlett O'Hara
12. Roller Coaster
13. Houn Dawg
14. Running With Scissors [ex. Pied Piper, Traveller, Terminator]
15. Corsair
16. Quadriga [ex. Chaparral]
17. Blitz [ex. Vagary]
18. Panta Rhei [ex. Schuttevaer]
19. Ra Carat Crude [ex. Louisiana Crude, Michigan Crude]
20. Dancing Bear
21. Frumious Bandersnatch
22. War Eagle
23. Acadia (ex. True North, Acadia)
24. Fast Company (ex. Aphonecious)

Unconfirmed, but possibly current...

25. Air Waves
26. Midnight Sun
27. Salt Shaker

Acadia Advertisement on eBay

An original copy of a Serendipity Yachts advertisement for Acadia from Yachting magazine is up for grabs on eBay

In addition, there is also a Yachting article on the 1980 SORC available from the same seller:



Happy Bidding!

S43 Line Drawings

Came across some line drawings on a recent Web-mining expedition. Might be great printed on a t-shirt!

Serendipity IMS Certifications

USSailing was kind enough to provide us with a list of Serendipity IMS certifications from their database. Thanks goes to the Offshore Office for their assistance!

Certification Number, Yacht Name, Sail Number, Year

16637, AIR WAVES, 8937, 1986

15983, CHESAPEAKE, 15555, 1990

16922, COEUR DE LION, 15104, 1995

15981, CONQUEST, 26776, 1989

15870, CORSAIR, 8954, 1994

16619, FAST COMPANY, 43456, 1993

16915, FRUITION, 30707, 1984

16219, LOUISIANA CRUDE, 30404, 1997

16537, MOJOE, 15133, 2008 (ORR Rating)

16517, QUADRIGA, 30353, 1995

16553, TERMINATOR, 30810, 1996

17871, TIANA CARISSA, 69122, 2000

16193, TOSCANA, 6120, 1991

15807, TRUE NORTH, 23734, 1999

Acadia In The (Old) News

A 1980 Sports Illustrated article about Acadia (view full story):

"Two years ago, in his first Acadia, [Burt Keenan] took third place in fleet in the Southern Ocean Racing Conference . Last year he was second. This year, in his new Acadia , he placed first in a strange, albeit convincing, style. He did not win any of the six races that make up the SORC circuit, but by the end of the first two, the 138-mile Boca Grande race and the 359-mile St. Petersburg to Ft. Lauderdale , in which he placed 12th and second, respectively—he led and was never headed. By the time the fleet reached Nassau , with five races done, Keenan's Acadia led her nearest rival, Tatoosh, by 37.5 points, and only two other boats out of 72 had even a slim mathematical chance of beating her. Taking 16th place in the short (27-mile) final race, Keenan finished No. 1 by a margin of 22.5 points."

Unsolved Mysteries

Anyone having information that can shed light on the following vessels, feel free to post a comment:

* La Pantera, sail no. 59670, Finn Nielsen, 1999-2001, British Columbia area. Not a full Serendipity but an original Peterson 42 that sailed the 1979 Fasnet as La Pantera became Sunset (Terry B owner) became Chimera (Cliff L owner). No interior back then, steered by a tiller. Fun boat to sail as crew. I suspect a person could spend $100K making the boat sail to its rating today.


* And I believe the boat "Wolf Pack" was a Serendipity that I saw at the 1984 Kenwood Cup. Correction on Wolf Pack. I saw the boat in the 86 Kenwood Cup not 84. Still not sure if was a Serendipity.

* "The next year [1982]...Dreyfus (the builder) brought on 'Your Cheatin Heart' with Kolius and had a bad circuit. "



* one currently for sale in Sao Paulo Brazil [2007]

* Coeur de Lion of Detroit, for sale in Chicago in mid to late 90's, on 2001 IMS list. Was owned (and built for) Dr. Neal Wilson, and was raced out of Bayview Yacht Club. I did the Bayview Port Huron-to-Mackinac in 1993 and 1994 on the boat. Many of the locals nicknamed the boat, "Cord O'Wood". Great boat...


* Fast Company on the 2001 IMS list, M Edward Skinner III Anne Arundel County MD Built 1981


* I believe there was one named 'Oz' that sailed in MDR in the early '80s.

* another called Driller. both Winnebago models

* There was also one called SPECTRUM in San Diego owned by Bob Collins, and another called ELECTRA, also in SD, owned by Dr. Al Simon.

* ENESEAY (Sail# R67), a Peterson 43 owned by John Duffin in Australia

* BRA 2113 TEMBO GUACU PETERSON 43 1979 CLUB

* Meu-Lar III, Chile

Ruby Rose Richard A Gaines King County WA, Built 1983

* Pretty sure that Bill Buchan's "Sachem" is a Serendipity hull --- has a nice coach roof house, not full flush deck. Great boat and really fun to sail with a great group in Seattle. Still owned by Buchan family, still named "Sachem" (American Indian term for chief I think) - wheel boat and really done well. [update: Sachem is a Peterson 44 -- not a Serendipity]

* Ed (James?) McDowell used to have a graphic like this on the bow of his Serendipity-43 "Illusion"

Serendipity Marketing: Brag Sheet

Here's a scan of the brag sheet from the original marketing information published by Serendipity Yachts.

Serendipity Marketing: Blueprints

A collection of blueprints from the original Serendipity Yachts marketing brochure:

Serendipity Marketing: Welcome Letter

We recently received some scans of the orginal marketing literature published by Serendipity. Here is the letter that came with the brochure:

From the SI Vault

A great article from Sports Illustrated, March 09, 1981 (Volume 54, Issue 11) (click link for full article):

========================
Animal House Goes To Sea
This year's SORC winners are the guys from the Crude, whose antics are rude
by Coles Phinizy

"There was a time long ago when the object of the Southern Ocean Racing Conference was simple: It was an excuse for salty chums to gather and try to win trophies and drink each other under the table. Today the quest is more complex. The six-race series is now the proving ground on which boats rating between 30 and 39.9 feet try for berths on the U.S. team that will compete in Great Britain's Admiral's Cup series in August. It's also the place where skippers of craft great and small especially love to beat Dennis Conner, the hyperserious super-sailor from San Diego who has won fleet honors in three of the last six SORCs.

At the end of the series last week the men of Louisiana Crude, a rated 32.6-footer out of New Orleans, hadn't won a single race, but in the process of cultivating cirrhosis of the liver they did win the overall fleet title and selection to the Admiral's Cup team—and they beat Conner to boot. But because of serious illnesses in their families, Dick Jennings of Chicago and Tom Dreyfus of New Orleans, co-owners of Louisiana Crude, declined the Admiral's Cup berth and sold their boat, a setback softened for Dreyfus, who reckoned it was better to have crewed on Crude and beaten Conner than never to have sailed at all."

Need Sails?

SailRite lists sail dimensions on their site for a variety of boats, including the Serendipity 43

SDY43 Half-models available

Came across a couple companies out there who list the Serendipity 43 in their inventory of half-models:



Visit the site




Visit the site

Doug Peterson

Doug Peterson
A talent for designing speed
Apr 24, 2002
Sailing World Magazine

In the mid-'70s, Peterson's designs dominated offshore racing events, with a string of high-profile IOR boats such as Ganbare, Gumboots, Imp, Eclipse, Yena, Rubin, Ragamuffin, and Moonshine.

He also designed several other stock racers such as the Contessa 35 and the NY 40. Peterson later entered the America's Cup circle as a key member of the winning '92 America3 and '95 Team New Zealand design teams. In 2000, Peterson designed the winning Louis Vuitton Cup boat for Prada. Looking to repeat, he again designed Prada's two boats for the 2003 America's Cup.


Visit the Wikipedia page for Doug Peterson, the designer of the Serendipity 43

Tommy Dreyfus

A blog article by Fred Roswold (Wings) about the late Tommy Dreyfus

1984 SORC Report

Some scans of a 1984 SORC race report. Page 2 lists Pied Piper, Michigan Crude, and Celerite as competitors (along with Tommy Dreyfus' Detente -- lots of drama there).