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 Blithe Spirit, which means “good feeling/joyous occasion,” was recently moved to Jimmy's Model Shop on May 8th. Blithe Spirit is owned by Jimmy Frost and he will be restoring the magnificent yacht while passengers watch. Blithe Spirit was built in 1940 and is a long distance ocean racer. It was designed by Sparkman and Stevens who are one of Americas most famous designers having 8 Americans Cup Yachts to their credit.
There are 200 surviving yachts and tenders built by George Lawley & Son Corp. at South Boston and Neponset, Massachusetts between 1866 and 1945. Lawley built more than 1,100 yachts and 1,890 tenders, not including military contracts. The Mayflower, Puritan, Jubilee, Vanitie, Yankee and Whirlwind, all built by Lawley, figured prominently in Cup history. The surviving yachts and tenders, ranging in length from 8’ to 136’, were built from the plans of many famous designers including Edward Burgess, B.B. Crowninshield, Sparkman & Stephens, Frank Paine, Nathaniel and L. Francis Herreshoff,
Fred Lawley, John Alden and others. Drawings for most of the yachts are in the Hart Nautical Collections at MIT. The survivors are located in 23 states, 2 Canadian provinces, France, Germany and Fiji. A dozen Lawleys are in the collections of maritime museums, including Mystic, Mariners, Peabody, Maine, Independence, Museum of Yachting, IYRS,  and the Antique Boat Museum.
Jimmy will pick and train his own crew for Blithe Spirit. He will be training crew onboard a 38’ sloop from U. S. coast to Bermuda and including races in Antiqua (South Caribbean). Anyone having the “right stuff,” see Jimmy.
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