UPDATE, January, 2013: Rosemary Ruth has been sold. Thanks for looking.
Rosemary Ruth is a rugged, beautiful, classic-looking 40' (12.3metre) hard-chine steel schooner. Professionally built to very high standards by McConnell Marine to Tom Colvin's Yin Yang design, she was launched in 1981. She has been featured in the book Yacht Style, by Dan Spurr. She turns heads everywhere she goes.
I have owned Rosemary Ruth for three years. In that time, I completed a refit, and sailed her about 4,000 miles. I set the boat up for singlehanded sailing (which may not be obvious from the pictures, because a lot of people like sailing on Rosemary Ruth) and bluewater cruising.
A significant advantage of the gaff-rigged schooner is that the sails are broken up into smaller, more easily handled sizes. Handling a smaller sail is physically easier, an important point when the wind really kicks up. While the rig looks more complicated, in reality it makes single-handed sail handling easier, because the sail sizes are more manageable and you have more options to choose from. Sailing a gaff-rigged schooner is never dull, the wide variety of sail combinations allows a lot of room for experimenting.
We've done a lot of daysails, evening sails and weekends in and around New York harbor, year round. We've also sailed to Virginia and back three times (700 mile trips), participating each time in the annual Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race (Rosemary Ruth is not a racing boat, but schooner races are much more events than races).
The boat is complete as listed, and ready to go to sea, or to move aboard.
Delivery is available anywhere in the North Atlantic. Schooner sailing instructions are also available.
Rosemary Ruth is in great condition and is a really fun boat to sail and to hang out on.
I bought a bigger boat (another steel schooner), and can't afford two boats, so Rosemary Ruth is now looking for a new owner.
Asking price is $25,000, and I am definitely open to offers. Financing is available to qualified buyers.
Please contact me at the address below with any questions or if you would like to see the boat.
Specifications:
Length On Deck: 35' 10" (10.92m)
Waterline Length: 29' 5" (8.95m) Beam: 10' 4" (3.15m)
Draft: 5.5 feet (1.67m) Hull, deck and cabin
sides/ends: Welded steel, 10gauge (3.5mm) plate |
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Designer: Tom Colvin
Builder: McConnell Marine |
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Outboard rudder (steel), well protected by the pinked stern. |
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Sturdy, stainless steel (removable) tiller steering as well as traditional bronze/wood wheel steering (hydraulic). The wheel is nice because you can usually just walk away from it and it holds your course (pretty much). The tiller is nice when you want to feel the boat sailing. |
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| Deck has easily removable (bolted on) teak grating. The teak grating gives great traction, is comfortable to sit on, and beautiful to look at. |
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Room for several people on deck for daysailing. |
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Rig: Gaff Schooner Stays and Shrouds: 1x19
stainless Turnbuckles: open type,
chrome plated bronze Toggles: stainless Wire end fittings: Sta-Lok
Running Rigging: 3-strand, pre-stretched, New England Ropes polyester (Dacron), 7/16" and 1/2" diameter |
All sails set.
Ratlines for climbing aloft. |
Bowsprit (varnished spruce), with safety netting and non-skid. The bowsprit is a fun place to hang out while sailing in nice conditions. You can sit or like in the netting and get a great view of the bow cutting the water. Due to the way the jib is attached, there is no requirement to go out on the bowsprit to raise or lower sail. |
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Sails: All polyester (Dacron), in good or like-new condition.
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Stern view, all sails set. |
| Foresail has two sets
of reef points |
Sailing off dock on a March day under foresail alone. |
| Jib with one set of
reef points, wire luff. Sail was originally hanked to jibstay, has had hanks
removed (they are still aboard) and is set flying, so the jib is set and
lowered entirely from the foredeck...there is no need to go out on the bowsprit.
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Hoisting the jib as we sail off the dock.
Sailing off the dock. Jib is not all the way up yet. Note reef points. Picture was taken before I got jib sheet blocks set up as they are now. Now the jib clew is shackled to the boom, which is sheeted to the deck (and led aft to the cockpit). |
Storm jib (like new condition), made by Jasper & Bailey (for Rosemary Ruth), very heavy-duty, designed for sustained winds to 50knots. There is also an ORC-type
storm jib (not shown). Storm trysail (like
new condition), made by Jasper & Bailey, very heavy-duty, designed for
sustained winds to 50 knots. |
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| The versatile foresail...small enough to be very easily handled, rugged enough for use in a gale. This is the first sail up and the last one down. |  |
| Although it's the largest sail on the boat, the mainsail can still be raised by one person. |  |
| Main Gaff Topsail, with
tack downhaul marked for single-handed raising and lowering. |
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Fisherman, with lines marked for single-handed raising & lowering. Fisherman is a great sail in light air, much easier to handle than a spinnaker. Unlike many schooners, on Rosemary Ruth, the fisherman can be tacked (or jibed) easily (because there is no spring stay to obstruct it). |
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| Aft Cabin, looking forward |  |
| The chart table and navigation equipment is in the aft cabin, so the on-watch person can make whatever noise they need to (ie use the VHF) without disturbing the off-watch, who sleep in the forward cabin when underway. At anchor or at the dock, the aft cabin berth slides out to become a double bed. This mattress is stuffed with a combination of regular foam and memory foam and is very comfortable. |  
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Engine: Reliable Volvo-Penta MD3B, 36HP diesel, electric start, dual fuel-filters/water-separators
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Engine room, starboard side, looking aft to aft cabin.and looking forward to fwd cabin. Black hoses are engine cooling (thin) and exhaust (thicker). Light grey hoses are water tank fills. The two vertical white poles are 316 stainless standpipes, where seawater comes into the boat. Underneath them (not shown) are grates that can be removed for cleaning (on the bottom of the hull). All the seawater inlets come off these standpipes. |
Great anchoring system includes Windlass: Muir Hercules, two-speed chain & rope manual windlass. There are also two
stainless steel chain hooks welded to the top of the bulwarks, for retrieving
the anchor without the windlass, which is how I usually do it. |
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| Anchors: 2 x 45lb (20kg)
genuine CQR anchors, on hefty rollers on bowsprit platform. |
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Primary Rode: 220'
(67m) 3/8" BBB chain (in chain locker) plus up to 600' 5/8" 3-strand polyester
(Dacron) rope on a spool in forepeak. |
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Secondary Rode: about
80' 3/8" chain and about 150' 3/4" nylon rope stowed belowdecks, just
forward of chain locker. Extra chain: about
180' of 3/8" BBB chain, currently stored in an SS tank in forepeak. I
intended to cut this into two lengths of chain, and stow it in the bilge,
but it could be left as one piece, either where it is, or moved elsewhere.
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| Anchor light, inflatable
anchor ball. |
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| There is a dinghy anchor also. | |
6man Viking SOLAS-grade
valise liferaft, manufactured Sept/2007. Box for this liferaft is under
construction ondeck. |
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Boathooks, one aluminum, one of wood that is long, strong, floats and doubles as a sounding pole. |
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Semi-rigid solar panel attached to forecabin top. Flexible Uni-Solar panel tied to aft cabintop. |
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Bronze opening ports with bronze screens. |
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Two Dorade-type ventilators incorporated into deckboxes. Engine room ventilation incorporated into two other deckboxes. Galley has a self-powered exhaust vent on deck over stove. |
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AirHead composting toilet (no thruhull fittings, doesn't smell). |
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Dickinson Chesapeake drip-pot diesel heater, with 3 gallon daytank. |
Hillerange 3 burner kerosene (paraffin) stove with oven. Fuel tank is in engine room. |
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Two built-in iceboxes,
insulated with 4" of insulation.
Lockers with cane wicking for ventilation. |
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Galley footpump for freshwater. Ametek drinking water filter with many spare cartridges. Galley footpump for saltwater. |
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Area around stove covered with SS plate for safety. Rack for four Thermoses--these get used extensively on overnight sails and cold-weather sails. |
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There are two good berths and two settees that can be used as berths in the forward cabin. The aft cabin has a single berth that slides out to become a double berth. Cushions and leecloths on all berths. |
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Extensive storage lockers, well ventilated. |
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Forward part of the forward cabin, showing heater, hanging lockers and forepeak.. |
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Table is easily removed |
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A curtain is hung from the rails of the shelf to provide privacy when using the toilet. |
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Two water tanks, builtin, under forecabin sole. Total capacity about 100 gallons (380 l). Access for cleaning by removing teak/holly plywood sole, then unbolting steel top plates over tanks. |
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| Two fuel tanks, builtin, in engine room, 90 gallons (340 l) total. Large cleaning/inspection plates on top of tanks. | 
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| LED running lights LED and fluorescent interior lights LED compass light |
| Two group-27 Delco Voyager
deep-cycle batteries, well-protected in plywood battery boxes. Additional
two battery boxes so there can be a total of 4 group 27 batteries. |
| Engine has an alternator,
not sure of the size. |
| Garmin GPS 152 built-in
GPS with external antenna. |
| Furuno NX 300 NAVTEX
receiver |
| Raymarine Radar/Chartplotter,
connected to GPS, with Heads-up display, mini-ARPA collision avoidance,
guard zones, power-saving modes, chart overlays. |
| Radar reflector (Davis)
hung in rigging. |
| Uniden UM525 VHF radio
with fog signals, DSC, loudhailer functionality. |
| Professional Mariner
20/25 110VAC builtin battery charger |
| Isolation Transformer for shore power |
| 1200 watt 110VAC inverter |
Rosemary Ruth painting by Kristiana Parn
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(left
to right) docking line coiled, chain from secondary rode, chain from primary
rode. The grey hose is the vent for the Air Head toilet. The 600' spool
of 3-strand polyester rope is to starboard of the wooden mast. 
