Rose Wilder

Rose Wilder (originally christened Sandpiper) was designed by Sparkman & Stephens and built to the highest standard in 1968 by Cantieri Sangermani in Lavagna, Italy – about the highest pedigree a mid-20th Century sailboat can have. The original owner, Dean Brown, was a member of the Santa Barbara Yacht Club and maintained the boat in superlative racing condition for 27 years.

Three boats were made to this S&S design, but Rose Wilder is the only one built in Italy, and the only one traditionally built of wood. The underbody is a swept fin keel with a large skeg-hung rudder. An unusual feature of the boat is a bronze sub-frame, onto which the mast is stepped, and the keel and shrouds are attached. This relieves the wooden planking of the rigging loads athwart which tend to work and weaken a conventional hull. She is truly a one-of-a-kind sailing vessel.

Now serving as a daysailer and weekender, the boat is now fitted with such modern improvements as a roller furling boom (originally spec’d in 1968 – but they didn’t work then!), roller furling jib, three bladed feathering prop, hot water heater and shower, black water holding tank, thrusters in both bow and stern, auto-pilot, updated electronics, and an arrangement to convert the forward stateroom’s two single berths into a king size area berth for two. 

Rose Wilder is named for the astonishing woman many will remember as the little girl in “Little House on the Prairie,” who grew up to be Rose Wilder Lane, a journalist, editor, novelist, philanthropist, political theorist, and world traveler. Although an outspoken and oft published anti-racist and feminist long before it was mainstream, she is best remembered as the author of “The Discovery of Freedom” and a founder of the modern American “libertarian movement.” Rose Wilder Lane championed the individual liberty and free enterprise that makes the construction and maintenance of wooden boats possible for ordinary folks.