SBMM’s flagship Ranger, is a classic big-game fishing yacht – the first private fishing yacht built on the West Coast and the oldest boat in the Santa Barbara Harbor. Donated by Jack Morehart, she became the museum’s first large exhibit.
Ranger was built at Fellows and Stewart, Inc. in San Pedro, California, a shipyard which was founded in 1896 by Joe Fellows, Victor Stewart, and naval architect Joseph Pugh. Her basic plumb-stemmed fantail design was inspired by boats used by the US Forest Service rangers to patrol the Chugash and Tongass National Forests.
Built and launched in 1917, she was made to the specifications of Jimmy Jump, commodore of the Catalina Island Tuna Club. Other classic yachts built by the yard include Rudolph Valentino’s yacht Charade (Valentino was also a member of the Tuna Club) and Stan Laurel’s Ida May, both built in 1926.
For many years, Ranger served as the flagship of the Catalina Island Tuna Club. The Tuna Club was formed by a group of sport fishing enthusiasts to establish a competition based on the size and variety of fish caught on various strengths of line and type of lure. Twenty-six trophy-winning fish were caught from Ranger. Two of the light tackle records still stand – the largest tuna and the largest broadbill swordfish. Over the years, celebrities such as Humphrey Bogart, Zane Grey, John Wayne, and Errol Flynn fished from Ranger and, more recently, the vessel has been used for photoshoots by Lands’ End and Kevin Costner.
Ranger has a full galley, and her living area is composed of four bunks with a table for four between the two aft bunks. Kerosene lanterns provided the original interior lighting; today she uses a 12-volt electric system, but she still has the original anchor winch and her 1917 kerosene running lights.
The comfortable cockpit originally featured two swivel fighting chairs with rod sockets. One of these chairs is now part of SBMM’s interactive Sport Fishing Exhibit.
With a length of 41 feet, Ranger’s overall beam (width) is 12 feet. Her draft is 4 feet, 5 inches and she has a displacement of 35,000 pounds. The wood mast and boom accommodate a stabilizing sail, which helped the boat to resist the pull of the largest game fish. Because of the high quality of her original design, construction, and materials, she is still seaworthy and continues to take passengers on tours of the harbor and Santa Barbara Channel. Originally built of two-inch by three-inch steamed oak ribs placed on 12-inch centers, her original cedar planking was fastened to the oak ribs with iron nails. She was also covered in one-inch teak planks that fit over the original fir. In the 1980s, Ranger’s then owner Jack Morehart spent many years restoring her including coating the hull with ferro-cement to protect the wooden core. In 1988, Morehart took the newly restored Ranger to Avalon for the 90th anniversary of the Tuna Club; and in 1997, he donated the boat to the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum.