by John J. Hale
Grandson of Clarence Gennett
“The Rainbow Fleet should sail this summer sixteen strong.” The year was 1922. Clarence Gennett, Vice-Commodore of the Nantucket Yacht Club was beginning to realize his dream. Gennett was one of three brothers who, with their father, Henry Gennett, owned the Starr Piano Company and its subsidiary, Gennett Records. The company laid the cornerstone for the recording of American jazz, blues, and country music.
During the early 1900s, Clarence Gennett and his brothers traveled with their mother each summer from Richmond, Indiana to Monument Beach. On several occasions they took the steamer over to Nantucket. Gennett fell in love with Nantucket, and in 1915 he purchased “Driftwood” on the harbor at Brant Point. Then one of the largest houses on-island, the imposing property on the harbor was comprised of three acres, stable, (the present “Boathouse”) bath house, dock with gazebo, tea house, washhouse/shop, grass tennis court, and small building for equipment.
Gennett had four children, three girls and a boy, Augusta, Martha Ann, (my mother) Eloise, and Clarence Jr. He was insistent they all learn to sail.
Commodore Breckinridge Long put his Vice-Commodore in charge of designing a suitable craft that would be very safe for children to learn to sail and race, while challenging adults. Gennett was the obvious choice for this assignment; he had grown to love sailing and had considerable experience with promotion from his family’s company. W.J Allen, a Nantucket boat designer and Clarence’s close friend, shared Gennett’s interest in sailing: he also loved the catboat. Gennett shared Allen’s love of the catboat, as it reminded him of time spent on Monument beach as a youth. He loved the general design in that it offered so much room for so small (in length) a boat.
Allen worked for the Port Jefferson Marine Railway, and was commissioned to draw up plans for a 16 foot Cape Cod Cat. The plans were approved on January 22, 1922 by the Commodore and Vice-Commodore—the first seven were delivered early that season. The specifications were: length 16 ft.; beam 7 ft. 9 in.; mast 18 ft. 2 in.; boom 20 ft. 3 in.; sail area 230 square feet.
Vice Commodore Gennett’s dream didn’t stop here. In 1922, the predominant small boat in Nantucket Harbor was the catboat. Gennett wanted something to set these boats apart from the other catboats of the time. He decided that each sail would take on a color of the rainbow, thus be easily identifiable when racing. He named the newly designed class The Nantucket Rainbow Fleet. Little did he know back in 1922 that he would leave the legacy of these multicolored crafts on postcards and posters, on the canvas of countless Nantucket artists, and even on tee-shirts sold to tourists and taken home as gifts. Little did he know that the picture of “Rainbows” rounding Brant Point would be the only image of Nantucket many people would ever have. The credit for all this is well-deserved by the Vice- Commodore.
In the winter of 1922 he made a record asking the members of the Yacht Club to buy one of these Rainbows. To my knowledge this is the first time an audio recording (phonograph) was used as an advertising vehicle. This was not as difficult as it might seem, given the year and the family business.
The first “Rainbows” delivered were: “Blue Devil” (H. Lang), “Flapper” (Clarence Gennett), “G.W.G.” (B.F.W. Russell), “Luan” (Ann Donald), “Margie” (Leeds Mitchell), “Moby Dick” (Everett Crosby), and “Nancy” (Henry Shaw). Their sail colors were respectively: blue, light yellow, green, tan, red, deep yellow, and old rose.
In 1923 the fleet was joined by three others, built by the Nantucket Boat Works. They were named “Dede” (H.W. Davis), “Surge” (J. Metcalf), and “Wolverine” (A. E. Smith). Their sails were orange, light blue, and coffee colored.
The “Rainbow” was designed primarily for sailing close to the wind, and did this very well. She did have a number of weaknesses. With a strong weather helm, she was difficult for an adult, let alone a child, to control. While running free, she had a pronounced tendency to root and plunge, and with a following sea one had to take care, lest her bow go under. I remember a story the family laughed about every time we got together: My mother had a sailing date with a young man and was trying very hard to make an impression. They took the “Flapper” (Gennett’s Rainbow) out for an afternoon sail. Mother wore a fashionable, albeit inappropriate outfit; a very white wool dress and white wool tennis sweater. It seems they had a fine time sailing down-harbor before a prevailing southwest wind. At some point they must have attempted a jibe and turned turtle. I guess the sight of my mother sitting atop the upturned bottom of the craft dressed in white wool must have indeed been memorable to her rescuers…none other than the Nantucket Coast Guard, over-equipped in a self-righting surfboat. Adding insult to injury, the red bottom paint from the “Flapper,” had spread itself all over Mother’s very fashionable outfit.
I can’t be sure what specifically went wrong during my mother’s cruise, but if all the aforementioned problems were not enough, there were constant troubles with board, rabbit, and keelson. Before launching in the summer, caulking problems usually made it frustratingly easy to look through her garboard planking to her keel.
My family loved the “Flapper” and all the children raced her during her years, including Gennett himself. On good days they all would climb aboard the little beamy craft and head out to second point or pull up on Coatue for a picnic lunch and lots of swimming. It was not unusual to catch an errant bluefish while trolling lazily outside the jetties.
Over the years the “Big Rainbows” as they came to be called, proved much too much trouble to maintain, and a bit inflexible to the many conditions Nantucket weather could muster. As Robert Minshall put it: although she had her defenders, her detractors outweighed and outnumbered them, and her death knell was sounded with the introduction of the “Beatle Cat” or “Baby Rainbow.”
Editor’s Note: This Sunday morning, August 17, spectators can watch the Nantucket Rainbow Fleet sail close to the shore at Brant Point. The “parade” begins around 9 am, but we recommend you arrive early.
