By Chris Knauss
Mariner Editor

  If you're looking for a unique boat, sure to catch everyone's eye, Annapolis Classic Watercraft is a good place to find one. The latest edition to the boat restoration projects going on at Bill Donahue's shop is a 1923 Consolidated Speedway Saloon Launch, known as the T/T Vedette, as in tender to Vedette.
  The Vedette (actually the Vedette II) was owned by Frederick W. Vanderbilt in the Golden Age of Yachting between World War I and II. It was one of four yachts owned by Vanderbilt during a period when wealthy industrialists and their families built large and opulently appointed yachts. The Vedette II, Vanderbilt's fourth yacht, was designed by Cox & Stevens and built by Bremeister and Wain in Copenhagen in 1924. The twin-screw diesel craft was 158 feet long with a 23-man crew and was used by Vanderbilt until his death in 1938.
  In the 1890s approximately nine-tenths of the wealth of the country was controlled by one-tenth of the population. It was an era of triumphant business enterprise when men of ambition and talent gathered the abundant fruits of America's burgeoning industrial might. It was a time when the income tax had been ruled unconstitutional; a time when the captains of industry and commerce could use their millions for pursuits and pastimes that made even the wonders of Aladdin pale.
  The 26-foot long saloon launch for the Vedette II was carried on her starboard davits. The sole use of the owner's launch was to transport the owner, his family and guests to and from shore (the crew had their own launch carried on the port side). The owner's launch was literally a seagoing limousine: the driver sat in an open cockpit forward, the passengers in an elegantly appointed cabin or "saloon" aft.
  Built by Consolidated Shipbuilding Corporation in Morris Heights, N.Y., T.T. Vedette was built of double-planked cedar over oak with a teak deck and cabin and was powered by a 30hp Consolidated Speedway gasoline engine. Eventually the launch wound up in the hands of a Maryland family who used it for many years as a pleasure craft at their summer home on the Magothy River. When Hurricane Agnes visited the Chesapeake in 1972 she was hauled up and placed on blocks. Since then she's been waiting for a new family to enjoy her fine lines and smooth ride.
  In 1999, Paul McCoy, of Severna Park, purchased the launch hoping to restore it for personal use.
"A brother who lives on the West Coast, I'm not sure how he happened upon it, he called me from the West Coast one day, we were talking about miscellaneous stuff, and he said, 'By the way, I saw a neat old boat on the beach up near Pasadena' and one thing led to another and I started looking around and asking questions," said Paul. "I ran across the guy who owned it at that time, George. We struck up a conversation and one thing led to another and I purchased it. I found out later it had been in his family almost 40 years. They kept it maintained and operable until 1972.
  "It was blocked up on land and there was no way to get a trailer to it. So I had to custom build myself a pretty heavy shipping cradle. I had to build it under the boat as it sat. It was blocked up on cinder blocks."
  A sales representative for Oceana, a wholesale distributor for the marine industry, McCoy knows boats.
"I've been in the boating industry many years myself. I just have a passion for old wooden boats and thought this one deserved to be kept up and restored. I intended to do it myself. I owned the boat I guess a total of 5 years and slowly over that period of time I finally came to the conclusion that I didn't have the resources, time, or proper amount of funding to do it justice. And I wanted to see it restored properly and I ultimately made the decision that the best thing to do was to sell it."
  Donahue learned about the launch's availability and the two came to a purchase agreement this past December. While the years have not been kind to her, T/T Vedette has survived relatively intact, totally original, and amazingly complete. The launch is an extremely rare, genuine survivor of the "Golden Age of Yachting," a true piece of yachting history owned and used by one of the 20th century's great yachting families. Her provenance has been well documented. For the classic boat enthusiast or someone looking for an uncommon boat, the T/T Vedette is one of the most unique vessels on the market today.
  "The plans are to do a high quality, total restoration. It's probably going to take us about 2,000 hours," says Donahue. "It will probably take us about a year. We're going to move it into the shop as soon as we have some space in the shop. Right now we've got a 26-foot Chris Craft cabin cruiser in here and a 24-foot launch. But it's going to be moved up here and put in the shop for a long-term restoration. The previous owner intended to restore but basically didn't have the facilities to do it, and we do.
  "We're doing it for the fun of it and quite candidly to establish our reputation as a first class restoration shop. This a very, very unusual boat. It's an historic boat. It's one of a kind."
  Annapolis Classic Watercraft is a place for people who love boats. It is a working boat shop specializing in the design, construction and renewal of classic power and sailboats. It's also a school where recreational boating enthusiasts can acquire hands-on marine skills and knowledge and utilize ACW's resources and facilities to pursue their own restoration projects.
  Donahue is a native Annapolitan and Chesapeake Bay boatman. Bill built his first boat at the age of 10 and has built and restored a dozen other vessels, large and small, sail and power, over the past 40 years as an amateur. In 2000 he chartered Annapolis Classic Watercraft LLC as a part-time business performing restorations for local clients. Jonathan Donahue, Bill's son, ably assists at ACW when he is not away studying mechanical engineering at Duke University.
  For more information call Annapolis Classic Watercraft at 866-263-9366, e-mail to ACW@uncommonboats.com or visit www.uncommonboats.com

The T.T. Vedette on blocks on the banks
of the Magothy.

                                            Photo by Chris Knauss
Bill Donahue and Bridget Barnhart at the shop
in Annapolis. 

A vintage photo of the T.T. Vedette.

It took a backhoe to get the T.T. Vedette
to solid pavement.