After he and his crew completed three classic Peterson-designed, coaster-type schooners (SILVER HEELS, NORTH STAR and SERENITY) at Camden Shipbuilding in the early part of the sixties, the yard closed, and Malcolm Brewer started building boats by himself across the harbor in a brand-new shop. SUSAN was the first yacht built there, started as a spec boat but ending up as Sue and Murray eterson’s personal schooner, launched in the fall of 1969.
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Karl Bischoff says:
BISH has finally launched. We put her on a custom four-wheeled i-beam cart, pulled out of shop with a forklift, picked up by special boat moving truck and launched in the Ship Canal in Seattle. Masts stepped, rigging spliced and parcel/served and installed. Nat Wilson sails ready to be installed soon. Motored up to Port Townsend to exhibit at the 2022 Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival. Very well received and met lots of nice folk.Thanks Bill and Nat for your help with this project.
Joseph Wl Haley III says:
This ‘Florida Cracker’ sailed on two northern built Schooners. The topsail schooner was built in Maine. She was in the Movies.The steal hulled 120 foot beauty was Nova Scotia built. Later in my flying career I lived in Maine for 6 years. I learned to love that way of life, the waters and the people. I am sorry that I never got to see SUSAN or meet her folk.
Karl Bischoff says:
Thanks Bill and Art for these wonderful articles. When I was first visiting SUSAN and Bill in the boatbarn, I asked Bill how he got this boat in such a tight spot so far from the water. He explained that it was using the same technology (other than the tractor/fork lift) as the Egyptians used to move stones for the pyramids. Well, now I am about to move and launch BISH and would love to hire some Egyptians. My property did not allow room for a door at the end of the shop, but in one of the side corners. So now we will need to get her on a sled to get out the door and then lifted via hydraulics onto the boat transport truck. But… most of the rigging is spliced on one end and some has been parcel/served. Final measurements will happen once spars are stepped. I am so happy and proud to be a part of the Peterson family of boats. I sure hope she floats ;-)
David Tew says:
Early in 1975 I entered Malcolm Brewer’s shop to meet the man. In prior years I’d been a sailing instructor at the Camden Yacht Club down the street where I admired his Friendship Sloop-inspired PATIENCE as he sailed her single-handedly in and around the harbor. My question that day was this: I was soon to be married and we wanted a boat to row. Would he build one for us? He was building a lovely series of dories in the loft of his shop overlooking the main floor. (The photo of Malcolm and Murray shows them leaning on the rail of the loft.) We talked while I admired one of the partially finished dories and was smitten. He agreed to let me know when one for us was finished and available. In the meantime there was one afloat in the harbor for Margaret and me to row. When ours was ready to be picked up we saw that he’d finished the cap rail with beautifully varnished, figured oak. That aspect was featured in a book of photographs taken at Mystic Seaport’s Wooden Boat Show later that year. We kept it for many years until we moved to the hills of Virginia. I wish we’d never let it go.
Maynard Bray says:
Hi Bill,
Lovely and complementary articles by Bill and Art. They brought back a lot of memories. At the time SUSAN was being launched, I was in the Navy also, finishing up my studies at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA. My new wife and I were able to fly back East for a short cruise on SUSAN before we were posted next to Bangkok. Cruising on SUSAN was everything one could have hope for, complimented with weather, wind and good family togetherness. That was the last time I saw my father onboard, a beautiful setting to remember him by. The other picture is the view Art would have seen in his first images of SUSAN. To his wonderful description I would only add was that my father a stickler for maintaining SUSAN in a shipshape fashion. She was never left with a line, sheet or sail stop out of place. Picture perfect at all times. Your brother, John.
Andy Bullock says:
What are the dimensions of the schooner?
Bill Peterson says:
Principal Dimensions:
LOA 28’6”
LWL 22’10”
Beam 9’
Draft 4’1”