Cirrus
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The Fishers Island 31 Cirrus was built originally as a sloop for Henry Maxwell in the 1930s. The Fisher 31s were conceived by Sid Herreshoff as a racing class for the summer residents of the eponymous community in Long Island Sound. She has a full keel, is 43’ long and has a 10½’ beam.
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Cirrus was the frequent companion of Alan Bemis, a summer resident of Brooklin, Maine.
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Under Bemis’s watch, she received some interesting modifications, such as this engine box. Originally, the engine room stood the full cabin height; the rebuild effectively increased the size of the companionway.
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Cirrus got to keep her elegant full teak deck under Alan Bemis's ownership; later, it was covered in plywood.
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When Cirrus turned 50, Alan Bemis organized a race in Eggemoggin Reach with other Fishers Island 31s; here they are at Bemis’s wharf (Cirrus has the dark colored hull, at right).
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The race route ran down the Reach and back; there was too much fog out in Jericho Bay that day.
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Bemis invited Ed Maxwell and his son Wes—the son and grandson of the original owner—to join him onboard for the race (Ed Maxwell was a good friend of Maynard Bray’s; it was he who put the bug in Maynard’s ear about the yawl Aida, which the Bray family owned for decades).
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