Maynard Bray
SIREN, a sister to RAGAMUFFIN, is one of the much-admired Sparkman & Stephens–designed New York 32s that has been fully restored. She is hull No. 20, owned by Peter Cassidy, who is the contact for queries about RAGAMUFFIN.
Of the 20 identical New York 32s ordered for the 1936 season, this one never left the shop that year. She was finally launched in 1937, but even before the launching her first owner had decided to sell. He did so in the fall, resulting in a name change from NEPSI to the under-the-circumstances-appropriate name of RAGAMUFFIN. She’s had that name ever since, despite many new owners and home ports on the East, Gulf, and West Coasts. The name fits her now more than ever, because she’s virtually derelict.
Restoring her, to me, just doesn’t make sense. She’s not a one-of-a-kind, and as current owner Toby Rodes put it when he agreed to rescue her from the chainsaw, “the iron rot was so evident that a survey was not needed.” He promised to store the boat with the hope of getting to a restoration down the road. Thus, what’s left of her has benefited from inside storage for the past 16 years in Blue Hill, Maine.