A Beauty's Second Launching

The reconstruction of Endeavour was completed in May 1989. What had taken five months and $165,000 to build in 1933 required five years and $10 million to rebuild 55 years later. Meyer blew a good part of her fortune, but she has no regrets. "I just wanted someone to restore a J, and the fact that it was me is less important than the fact that it's been done." Meyer's reward came last summer when Endeavour made her Newport debut in a much heralded three-race series against Shamrock V. (The restoration of Shamrock V, which is now owned by Newport's Museum of Yachting, was aided by a $1 million gift from Meyer.) Twelve hundred boats turned out to watch the return of the J's. Ted Turner, the 1977 America's Cup winner, and Jobson were the skippers, and a spot in either crew was so highly coveted that not one of the 71 who were invited sent regrets. Endeavour won the series 3-0, but the magic of what Meyer and her money and her obsession had wrought went beyond winning a race and beyond even the gratification of seeing a beautiful object preserved.

"The only analogy I can make," said an Endeavour crewman, Jerry Kirby, "is if I was a baseball player and wanted to play in an All-Star Game, that I could bring back Babe Ruth and Satchel Paige and we could all get together and have a game. It's like that."