Baruna

Baruna and Orient were so intertwined that I feel irristably compelled to follow up the last post with this one. In the hearts of many, the two yachts belong together. I was fortunate enough to sail on both of them in their later years, long past the famed duels.

Both were launched in 1938, both were designed by Sparkman & Stephens, both claimed illustrious racing careers on the east coast, both were sold to new owners in San Francisco in 1953, where they continued their duels and battles until each was sold to owners outside San Francisco; Orient in 1963 and Baruna in 1968. If that wasn’t enough to tie them together, the owners of the two boats (Tim Moseley, Orient and Jim Michael, Baruna) founded the Barient Winch Company in 1958 and introduced a revolutionary new line of sailboat winches to the sailing world. The name of the new company was a combination of the two boat names: BARuna and OrIENT. Moseley had developed the winches using Orient as his guinea pig, rather successfully. The company caught on fast and for many years Barient was the winch of choice for large racing yachts worldwide. The company has since been sold and put out of business by its new owners.

Photo of Baruna under sail on SF Bay, scanned from my SEA article. Photo by Diane Beeston. I apologize for the poor quality of these scans.

Baruna, a splendidly graceful 72-foot yawl, was considered by many to be the most beautiful S&S yacht ever built. In his history of Sparkman & Stephens, Francis Kinney described Baruna as "fast in light airs, fast in strong breezes, comfortable at sea and beautiful. . . . Every line was absolutely perfect. . . . She is so beautifully proportioned in her entirety, both hull and rig."

I met her in 1973 when she arrived in the Bay in sad condition, having been donated to the California State Maritime Academy Alumni Foundation. At the time, I was a photojournalist on San Francisco Bay sailing and had a monthly Northern California column in SEA magazine. Although my first introduction to the skipper was from personal interest and curiosity about the boat, I eventually featured Baruna’s story in the column and raised more than a little wrath from the person who had made the donation. I did not speak kindly of him in the article. I shall omit his name to avoid more wrath, but here is the gist of what I wrote at the time: during the time he owned her he had her stern removed and shortened by several feet, had painted her traditionally black hull white and painted red, white and blue stripes on her cabin top. At the time of her donation she was in Suva, in the Fiji Islands, and deteriorated to the point where it was unsafe to sail without considerable work, most of which was performed during a 14-day layover in Pago. She sailed under the Golden Gate on New Year’s Eve, 1972, over two months after leaving Suva.

By the time I met her, she looked more like Baruna. Her hull had been painted black once more, the striped cabin top had disappeared, all thanks to a dedicated group of volunteers. I became one of those volunteers, although I don’t remember any specific efforts other than using my column to generate donations of cash, services and labor. Barient, not surprisingly, overhauled all the winches at no cost.

From my vantage point on one of my outings on Baruna, scanned from my SEA article.

I had the good fortune to sail with the group on several occasions, and each was a treat to be savored. Oddly enough, the one specific memory I have of these occasions was sailing up the Oakland Estuary one day. A fellow passing by in a smaller sailboat yelled out “what kind of boat is that?” “It’s the Baruna,” I answered. “Oh.” he said. “A Baruna.” I’m afraid we all had a good laugh at his expense because of course she is not A Baruna, she is THE Baruna. There was and could ever only be one Baruna.

Like Orient, Baruna has gone through a series of owners since I knew her and, I understand, has also been reconditioned and is currently for sale. I closed my SEA article with the following paragraph, which still says it all about as well as I, at least, am capable of saying it:

“Recently, a typically noisy after-race gathering at the St. Francis YC watched Baruna sail in close to the club and tack out. As she approached, the crowd quieted to silence, and as she sailed away one old-timer seemed to speak for everyone present as he said, ‘It’s good to have her back where she belongs.’”