And the worm damage and termite damage was so extensive. "The bilge pump, all four bilge pumps, were running 24 hours a day to keep it floating. It was 1999 and Aphrodite was in dire shape. "He said, 'This is a piece of American yachting history and it needs to be saved, because in another year, it will be gone,'" Reynolds said. Locally known for his business acumen, philanthropy and preservation efforts, Royce recognized the value of saving Aphrodite. Reynolds said Royce initially was noncommittal, but the more he saw and heard about Aphrodite, he soon became smitten. That started a complicated process of working with the owner, surveying and assessing the boat, and researching its history. Recognizing the beauty of Aphrodite but not knowing the boat's storied history, Reynolds' friends alerted him and suggested that his new boss might be the only person to save it. Reynolds, who owned a boat painting and varnishing business in southeastern Connecticut, had just been hired by Royce to tend to and captain his boats. After that, the vessel went through a series of owners and eventually fell into a state of neglect, at least until the late 1990s, when friends of Reynolds saw it in Palm City, Fla. Selznick to produce "Gone With the Wind." Today, a photo of childhood star Shirley Temple onboard Aphrodite hangs in the ship's parlor she celebrated a birthday onboard.īy the 1960s, Whitney outgrew his use for Aphrodite and donated the boat to a program for inner-city youth that was held on Long Island. Reynolds said Aphrodite also would carry A-list Hollywood celebrities, like Spencer Tracy, Sir Laurence Olivier and Katharine Hepburn, because of their relationship with Jock Whitney, who backed Technicolor and convinced David O. Roosevelt was ferried on Aphrodite from his home in Hyde Park, N.Y., along the Hudson River, and other dignitaries were transported along the Eastern Seaboard. It was during this time that President Franklin D. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, Whitney offered the boat to the government for war service, and in 1942 it was commissioned as a Coast Guard auxiliary vessel. Whitney would be chauffeured to the boat and, once on board, he'd shave, dress and then have his coffee and read the newspaper on his quick voyage to Wall Street.įollowing the Dec. Mariners know the hum of Aphrodite's twin 1,000-horsepower Caterpillar C18 engines and recognize its distinctive silhouette on the horizon, even from a considerable distance.īuilt by the Purdy Boat Company in Port Washington, N.Y., and launched in May of 1937, this Aphrodite was the third in a series of five boats by the same name and originally was used as a commuter yacht by a Wall Street financier named John Hay "Jock" Whitney. "Chuck" Royce, is as well known in local waters as the ferries and fishing boats that regularly ply Long Island and Fishers Island sounds. She is the goddess of love after all."Īphrodite, the private yacht of Ocean House owner and developer Charles M. But she is really pretty easy-going, she's got a free spirit. "Who is she? What is she? She's like a Ferrari," he purrs in response. Kirk Reynolds hesitates just a fraction of a second when he's asked about Aphrodite, the 74-foot vessel that ties up every summer in Watch Hill Harbor and of which he is the captain.
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