Description
About this ship and painting
Rendered in pen and ink, the gaff schooner Spike Africa crests a wave. Crewmen tackle sails to be furled and tied down as gusting winds pick up.
This schooner, well known in Southern California waters, had caught my eye – as well as and my pen and paper – many times.
I came to know Bob Sloan, Spike Africa’s builder and owner, after this stout, seaworthy wooden schooner was launched in Newport Beach in the early seventies. Bob, a well known and colorful figure in the eastern Pacific, named his vessel after his older and even more colorful friend, Spike Africa.
Bob’s gregarious and entertaining friend Spike (born Philip Marion Africa) was the self-proclaimed “President of the Pacific Ocean”. Spike had put himself in charge of the neglected Pacific – along with its sea serpents, mermaids, tides and currents.
Spike’s adventures included a legendary voyage with his wife, Red, to Tahiti aboard actor Sterling Hayden’s schooner, Wanderer. Hayden, while going through a divorce, defied a court order and took his four children on the voyage. The epic adventure was chronicled in the classic novel by Hayden called “The Wanderer”.
The schooner, Spike Africa, also has celebrity status. She graced the pages of Vogue and Time magazine as well as Land’s End catalogs. Hollywood credits include TV’s “Riptide” and the movie “Joe vs. the Volcano”. It was aboard this vessel that Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan sailed off into the sunset.
I was fortunate to sail aboard her several times while she was in California waters. She now cruises the San Juan Islands for charters in the Pacific Northwest.
Related works
See Scott Kennedy’s watercolor painting “South Coast Shipyard and Schooner Spike Africa”. Also, check out Scott’s pen and ink drawing “Anatomy of the Twin Brigantines” and another ink drawing titled “Alaska Eagle”.
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