Santa Barbara Maritime Museum Logbook

RANGER HAS REJOINED THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA FLEET OF THE CLASSIC YACHT ASSOCIATION

The Santa Barbara Maritime Museum (SBMM) is thrilled to announce that its flagship Ranger, which was one of the Classic Yacht Association’s (CYA) charter members, has now rejoined the association’s Southern California Fleet, which includes member boats from Santa Barbara to San Diego. CYA is “dedicated to the promotion, preservation, restoration and maintenance of fine, old power-driven craft.”

Ranger is a genuine, classic big-game fishing yacht, the first private fishing yacht built on the West Coast and the flagship of the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum. Donated by Jack Morehart, she became the Maritime Museum’s first exhibit. Built in 1917 by Fellows and Stewart in Wilmington, CA, she was made to the specifications of Jimmy Jump, a founding member of the Catalina Island Tuna Club. For many years, Ranger served as the flagship of the Tuna Club. Twenty-six trophy-winning fish were caught from Ranger; and two of its records still stand: the largest yellow fin tuna and the largest broad bill swordfish. Over the years, celebrities such as Humphrey Bogart, Zane Grey, John Wayne, and Errol Flynn fished from Ranger, and the vessel has been used for photo-shoots by Lands End and Kevin Costner.

In the early 1930s, Ranger was shipped to Hawaii via commercial steamship where she fished the waters for three years with great success. While in Hawaii, her interior living area was paneled in the beautiful Koa wood she still displays today. Ranger is 41 feet overall and has a full galley, dining table, and berthing for four. The comfortable cockpit featured two swivel fighting chairs with rod sockets. One of these chairs now sits in the Maritime Museum’s Ranger Exhibit, while the other is part of the Museum’s interactive Sport Fishing Exhibit. The wood mast and boom accommodate a stabilizing sail, and she still has the original anchor winch and her 1917 kerosene running lights.

Ranger’s beam (width) is 12 feet; draft is 4 feet, 5 inches; and she has a displacement of 35,000 pounds. Because of the high quality of her original design, construction and materials, she is still seaworthy. Today, one-inch teak planks fit over the original fir.

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