In the News

Ernest Hemingway’s wooden fishing boat Pilar is beached and on display upon the old tennis court at his former home in Cuba. But like his writing, which has never gone out of style, Hemingway’s custom Wheeler Playmate, with its sleek lines and classic looks, has timeless appeal.

For lovers of the writer Ernest Hemingway, there are few images more iconic than photographs of the mustachioed “Papa” aboard his beloved 38-foot Wheeler Yacht fishing boat Pilar.

If you wanted to buy a rugged, seaworthy motor cruiser in the mid-1930s, a Wheeler was a good choice. Howard E. Wheeler’s shipyard in Brooklyn, New York, had been in business since 1910, turning out everything from skiffs to larger power yachts.

For a film-double, details to help “get it right”

Ernest Hemingway’s boat was renown as a platform for the author’s fishing exploits, but she was in fact a “cabin cruiser” and a very capable one, with features that would be valued by the power cruisers of today.

It’s very likely that somewhere in Ernest Hemingway’s dozen suitcases were catalogs and circulars and fold-over mailings from Wheeler Shipyard, Inc., whose listed address was “Foot of Cropsey Avenue, Brooklyn, N.Y.”

Sometimes in life you have to make the leap, like boatbuilder Jim Moores, who followed his dream from the backwoods of Maine to Riviera Beach, Florida, where he now resotres classic yachts from America’s bygone era of yachting.

I can remember back to the 1930s, when a company named Wheeler offered 15 wooden sportfishermen from 22 to 47 feet, fast commuters and express cruisers.

To a true yacht enthusiast, few things are more beautiful than a vessel with sweeping lines, perfect proportions and a balance of style and function.