Yankee sailing on San Francisco Bay with Alcatraz and the Bay Bridge in the background

Yankee on San Francisco Bay, with Alcatraz Island and the Bay Bridge beyond. Photo: Will Campbell, Yankee Archive.

120 years on San Francisco Bay · 1906–2026

The history of Yankee

From the Great Earthquake to the present day: the complete story of a schooner, a city, and the families who kept her sailing.

Among the wooden yachts still sailing on San Francisco Bay, few can match the history of the gaff schooner Yankee, widely regarded as one of the oldest surviving wooden racing yachts on the Bay. Built in 1906 at the Stone Boat Yard near the Presidio, she was shaken from her building cradle by the great earthquake that leveled much of the city — and she has been sailing ever since.

The Yankee burgee, a pennant bearing a Y — The *Yankee* burgee, as rendered from archive references.

3 private owners StFYC flagship ×7 U.S. Navy — 1942 Hollywood ×2 Ship’s log 1937–1998

Across twelve decades Yankee has known only three private owners, served in the United States Navy, appeared in Hollywood films, raced in nearly every classic regatta the Bay has to offer, and been the flagship of the St. Francis Yacht Club seven times. Her story is inseparable from the story of San Francisco’s waterfront, and from the families who gave her their care.

The chain of stewardship is short and remarkable: David Abecassis, who commissioned her and raced her hard for a single brilliant season; Charles Miller, the Bohemian yachtsman who sailed her to Catalina winter after winter and gave her the schooner rig; and the Ford family, who kept her from a schoolboy’s discovery in the mid-1920s until stewardship passed to the nonprofit societies that hold her today. Few working yachts anywhere can trace their care so cleanly, hand to hand, across a century.

She is sailed with “wenches, not winches.”
As the Yankee hands like to say — Chapter XI

What follows is a history drawn from the primary documents preserved in the Yankee Archive: the ship’s own logbook, kept from 1937 to 1998; newspaper clippings; oral accounts; written histories; and the records of the West Coast Seafaring Society, supplemented by published histories of San Francisco Bay yachting and independent research.

Sail plan of Yankee dated January 1906 showing her original gaff sloop rig — As drawn: the gaff sloop of January 1906. Drawing by Lester Stone, son of W. F. Stone; digitally cleaned, 2026.

Sail plan of Yankee in her schooner rig, as she sails today — As she sails: the schooner rig Charles Miller gave her in the 1910s. Yankee Archive.

Twelve decades, at a glance

1905Frank Stone draws her, to win on the Bay

1906Shaken from her cradle April 18; launched weeks later; first race won

1907Wins the first ocean race out of the Golden Gate

1910sCharles Miller gives her the schooner rig

1915Division win at the Panama-Pacific Exposition regatta

c. 1925“I’ve found our boat.” The Fords arrive

1942Painted gray — Navy patrol off the Golden Gate

1999–2001Eighteen-month restoration at KKMI

2015Master Mariners champion in her second century

2026The Foundation; the restoration restarts in Sausalito

The city she comes from

01 — The waterfront

San Francisco built her. At the turn of the century the shore bristled with working piers, and yards like Frank Stone’s at Harbor View launched everything from racing yachts to five-masted schooners. Yankee came off those ways in 1906, and the waterfront that launched her is the one this Foundation works to keep alive.

02 — The fire

The city shook her from her cradle on the morning of April 18, 1906, then burned for days around the yard. She fell to the shore, survived without serious damage, and was launched weeks later into a city rebuilding itself, winning her first race before the year was out.

03 — The fair

Nine years on, the city filled the tidal flats where her builder’s yard had stood and raised a world’s fair on them. When the Panama-Pacific International Exposition opened in 1915, Yankee raced past fairgrounds built on the very ground she came from — and won her division.

The San Francisco waterfront north of the Ferry Building, 1906, with piers and ships — The working waterfront: piers north of the Ferry Building, 1906. National Archives.

Crowds on Sacramento Street watch the fire after the April 18, 1906 earthquake — April 18, 1906: Sacramento Street watches the city burn. Photo: Arnold Genthe, Library of Congress.

The Tower of Jewels over the Avenue of Palms at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition — The Tower of Jewels over the Avenue of Palms, Panama-Pacific International Exposition, 1915.

The chapters

Chapter I The Builder: William Frank Stone The Stone Boat Yard Three generations of boatbuilders, from the Gold Rush to the new millennium, and the yard that built Yankee. Chapter II Birth & Baptism by Earthquake 1905–1906 Commissioned by David Abecassis, shaken from her cradle on April 18, 1906, launched in the same hour that reshaped San Francisco. Chapter III The Abecassis Years 1906–1907 Racing glory under Carl Westerfeld: the McDonough Cups, the inaugural Farallones Race, and a brief, brilliant first chapter. Chapter IV Captain Charles Miller 1907–c. 1925 Bohemian yachtsman, Catalina voyager, and the man who converted Yankee from sloop to schooner. Chapter V The Ford Family 1925–1942 “I’ve found our boat!” — five generations begin, from a schoolboy’s discovery to the St. Francis Yacht Club. Chapter VI War Service 1942–1943 Painted gray, patrolling outside the Gate: flagship even in wartime, and author of the most famous radio message never sent. Chapter VII The Postwar Decades 1945–1995 Commodores and legends: “Yankee Weather,” Bobby Ayres aloft, the Bicentennial Regatta, Cronkite on the Stag Cruise, and Loma Prieta. Chapter VIII The Great Restoration 1996–2001 The Yankee LLC, an eighteen-month haul-out at KKMI, and a remarkable community effort. Chapter IX Racing in the New Century 2001–2018 The Billiken Trophy, the “Home Depot Racing” gaff, the all-women crew, and seven flagship years. Chapter X Hollywood Cameos 1923 & 1962 From a King Vidor silent film to sharing the screen with Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick. Chapter XI Sailing Yankee The vessel herself What it means to sail a big gaff schooner without mechanical assistance: 1,475 square feet of canvas and no winches. The Logbook The Captain’s Log 1937–1998 A leather-bound regatta trophy became a sixty-one-year record of races, cruises, pranks, and farewells, with the family’s photographs throughout. Chapter XII The Transition 2012–2025 The end of a ninety-year berth, the West Coast Seafaring Society, a pandemic interruption, and the call for new stewards. Chapter XIII The Course Forward 2025–2026 The Golden Gate Wooden Boat Foundation: a new generation steps forward to complete the work and return Yankee to the water. Chapter XIV Yankee’s Place in History 1906–present The longest continuously family-owned yacht on the Bay: born in the earthquake, served in a war, and now beginning her next chapter. Reference Appendices & Sources Ownership · Specifications · Sources Ownership timeline, the seven flagship years, key specifications, and the full bibliography of primary and published sources.

The crews spoke a language of their own; the lexicon keeps it, and the quiz checks your fluency.

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