[Alan Bemis—home movies] Reel 27

Date1945 – 1947

AbstractDonor notes: "Back 1947 Several breaks in film - 9/86 1) BBB Co Cruise -Not much of this) July 1947 2) Seabee taking off + [illegible] to Chapie + Becky 3) Cruise to St Johns Aug 4-16, - 1947 The Eddie Nash Cruise - Khamsin + Halcyon Part removed CCA film 3/27/59" The yacht Cirrus is a Fisher Island Sound 31 class sloop , sail number 11 with a distinctive red hull. She was built at Herreshoff Manufacturing Company, Bristol, RI, in 1930 (originally named Kelpie) and bought by Alan Bemis in 1934 or 1935. There were 14 boats in the class. LOA 44 ft. In 1954, Bemis converted Cirrus to a yawl rig. Bemis owned Cirrus for more than 50 years, sailing her almost exclusively in Maine and Canadian waters. A sister ship "Torch" (sail number 7) is on display at the Herreshoff Marine Museum, Bristol, RI. Various shots on board Cirrus. In one we see a sailor taking pictures or film from the dinghy towed behind, and the dinghy is pulled in by crewmen on Cirrus, in another, POV from the stern of Cirrus underway on a rough day. Views of Seabee taking off and landing in the waters near High Head, the Bemis summer home in Brooklin, ME. This is the plane that replaced the Bemis Fairchild 24 after World War II. Views of the plane beached on the shore, and Alan helps Chapie out of the plane after she hands him their infant daughter Becky, born March 17, 1947. Views of workman using engine and pulley to pull the plane up the ramp and into a hangar on the shore. B&W footage of cruise to St. John, New Brunswick, August 1947. Views of four boats gammed together, views from Cirrus of the coastline along the way, shots of various people on board, including Alan Bemis at the tiller, seaplane taking off in the distance, and a race of small boats along the coast.