Lana is a Biscayne Bay 14 designed by Nathanael Green Herreshoff in 1925. She is a Suicide class sailboat designed for shoal waters. N.G. Herreshoff was a naval architect, mechanical engineer and yacht designer who produced undefeated America's Cup defenders between 1893 and 1920. His designs are graceful, scientifically engineered and speedy. Those of the 2,000-plus designs by Herreshoff that survive, such as Lana’s, are sought by connoisseurs of classic yachts.
Lana lives up to the Herreshoff reputation. She is a delight to sail, well behaved, suprisingly quick and yar, and beautiful! She is great here on the Cheaspeake Bay and tributaries, slipping gracefully between the barrier islands, looking for a secluded beach for a picnic.
In 2017, Lana was built in Williamsburg by a master carpenter, the head of marine activity at Jamestown Colony and was number two in command of Pride of Baltimore.
After we acquired her 2023, we gave her a new coat of paint and had her name done in gold leaf. Latell Sailmakers in Deltaville washed and went over the sails. We keep her inside in the off season and on a boat lift the rest of the time.
Although she has a full cover on the lift, out of prudence we added garboard drains. Being that the only ones available that could be operated from inboard are huge, we hand-crafted them. The stem-head fitting for the forestay was suffering from metal fatigue, so we made a new one of naval brass, 464.
It seems she had not been sailed very much, so there were adjustments needed to make sailing more comfortable. We adapted the tiller to hinge up, which is much easier on old folk, and made a custom tiller extension. The jib club was not included when we bought the boat, so we downloaded the original Herreshoff plans from MIT and made one from a nice piece of fir. With a new sheet and Davey & Co lignum vitae bullseye fairleads with bronze eye straps, the self-tacking jib is working beautifully. The main sheet was difficult to handle, especially from the port gunnel due to a bad lead. We added a fairlead block to ease the sheet properly into the cam cleat. That, another block for additional purchase, and a new lighter mainsheet has made the main much more manageable. We try to maintain her elegant provenance but have resorted to the occasional 316 stainless steel and polyester line here and there.
Lana was designed to be sculled but the holes for the rowlocks had been cut, abandoned and filled, so we cleaned out the fill and installed new bronze rowlocks on the transom and bought a nice long oar. The tiller extension holds the rudder straight while you scull.
She is ready for you to come aboard and enjoy making a lot of carefully built weight move beautifully!