wheeler yachts history

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Wheeler Yachts

Brooklyn ny.

Most recent update: August 24, 2014.

The Wheeler Yacht Company was founded at the turn of the 19th century by Howard E. Wheeler, in Brooklyn NY. During WWI, like other yacht builders, the yard built sub chasers. When WWII came, the Brooklyn yard, which was at the foot of Cropsey Avenue, in Coney Island, was dedicated first to minesweepers and then to an astonishing series of 230 patrol craft for the Coast Guard. See the site from the air on Google here . The company also built a second yard at Whitestone NY, which has its own table here . After the war, the Brooklyn yard was closed and operations were consolidated at Whitestone.

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Wheeler Yachts

Wheeler Fibre Glass Boat Corp.

Subsidiary of the Wheeler Yacht Company

Clason Point, New York, New York

History by Andreas Jordahl Rhude

Wheeler FibreGlass Boat Corporation of the Bronx, New York was an attempt by Wheeler Shipyards/Wheeler Yacht to get into RFP in 1960. They were very short lived, maybe out of business by 1963.

Wheeler Yacht made beautiful wooden yachts such as Ernest Hemingway's Pilar.

They were involved with McCollum Industries who got controlling interests in Span America Boat Company and Red Wing Fiberglass Products, Inc. in 1961. The intent was to merge all three boat builders into one entity. As it turned out, it did not materialize.

Howard Wheeler operated the Wheeler Yacht Company with the assistance of his sons- Wesley, Eugene, and Robert. The company first entered into fiberglass boat-building in 1960 with a 25' sea skiff model (May 1, 1960 New York Times). Also in 1960, Wheeler Yacht Co. bought a boat importer located in Stamford, Connecticut- the Van Breems International Corp. , which imported yachts from the Netherlands under Arie Van Harwegen Van Breems. This company was to organized as a subsidiary of the Wheeler Fiber Glass Boat Corp. (November 6, 1960 New York Times). The new fiberglass models were a hit at the 1961 New York Boat Show with the 30' model selling for $15,000; the 26' model for $7,000. At this time, Wheeler had organized a dealer network and was selling wholesale only (January 21, 1961 New York Times).

Model Information

1961 Wheeler inboard boat models

1962 Wheeler inboard boat models

1957 Information

1957 Wheeler Yachts Article

1959 Information

1959 Wheeler Yachts Ad

1959 Wheeler Yachts Article

Wheeler Boats in Use

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Professional BoatBuilder Magazine

Legend relaunches wheeler brand.

By Aaron Porter , Dec 4, 2020

The newly launched Wheeler 38 (12m) Legend under way in Brooklin, Maine, is a dimensionally accurate modern interpretation of the 1934-vintage Pilar, the Wheeler Playmate Ernest Hemingway had customized to satisfy his sportfishing habit.

When we write about classic boats, successful yards, and legendary naval architects, it’s easy to overuse the word iconic. But in the recent revival of the Wheeler Yacht Company with its launching of an updated version of a very special 1934 Playmate model built this past year by Brooklin Boat Yard , the adjective accurately applies to nearly every defining element of the project.

Let’s start with Ernest Hemingway (iconic enough?), whose custom 38 ‘ (12m) Wheeler Playmate, Pilar , the new boat is modeled after. The father of a distinct modern American narrative style was also an early innovator of big-game fishing as a sport, and Pilar was by many accounts the first boat fitted with a helm station atop the pilothouse for the purpose of fishing. She was built with a longer cockpit than was standard, a 12 “ (305mm) cut-down of the topsides aft, and was later fitted with a fighting chair and a roller across the top of the transom to facilitate landing large fish. Like any good boat, Pilar was also a source of inspiration and escape for her famous owner, who fished her from Key West and later from his home in Cuba, where the original boat is installed today in a static onshore exhibit at the Ernest Hemingway Museum.

During the launching at Brooklin Boat Yard, Wes Wheeler, great-grandson of the original Wheeler company founder Howard Wheeler, announced the rebirth of the Wheeler Yacht Company.

That’s where Wes Wheeler, great-grandson of Wheeler Yachts founder Howard Wheeler, and Hemingway’s niece Hillary Hemingway took detailed measurements off the old hull in preparation for a planned movie about the author and sportsman’s friendship with his Cuban captain, Gregorio Fuentes. The movie hasn’t come to fruition yet, but the planning and detailed preparation spurred Wes Wheeler to have a dimensionally accurate replica of Pilar built, and simultaneously revive the Wheeler Yacht Company.

At the launching in Brooklin, Maine, last September, Wheeler delivered a brief history of the historic company from its founding as a storage yard in 1910 through multiple yard sites and incarnations: the busy years of both world wars when thousands of employees built submarine chasers, minesweepers, and tugs; the development of popular sedan cruisers and other pleasure boats; the final shuttering of the company in 1965 after building in excess of 3,500 vessels; and his own renewed interest in the Wheeler brand around 2004.

Bringing the family company back to life has “all been drawings and promises until now,” Wes Wheeler said, standing in front of the new Wheeler 38, Legend — the manifestation of the new start he envisaged for the Wheeler brand.

Legend’s hullform differs from the original Pilar by the addition of hard chines and the absence of a skeg. Design and engineering of the new boat was from Bill Prince Yacht Design.

While the new boat quotes the dimensions of the original Pilar almost perfectly, Legend looks anything but old. Constructed at Brooklin Boat Yard, the 38 is a virtuoso performance from a skilled crew led by Eric Stockinger. Her gloss black hull and varnished mahogany pilothouse and cockpit coaming were flawless for launching day. But those bottle-smooth topsides reveal the modern truth of her construction. While the hull is wood, it’s cold-molded wood-epoxy: multiple layers of mahogany plywood bonded with epoxy resin and vacuum-bagged over Douglas-fir stringers and frames. It’s far stiffer than the original Pilar ’s plank-on-frame construction of white cedar on Philippine mahogany. Naval architect Bill Prince said that’s appropriate for the new boat, which runs at 32 knots compared to the original’s 16 knots WOT.

Prince stepped into the job five years ago after naval architect Bruce Marek had replicated the hull lines and developed some scantlings for Wheeler based on records and measurements taken from the original Pilar (a fire in 1963 destroyed many of the company’s records and original drawings).

With twin 370-hp (278-kW) Yanmar diesels driving twin four-bladed props, Legend tops out at 32 knots with trim adjusted through dynamic interceptors.

Prince applied FEA to Marek’s scantlings, tweaked them, and, with higher speeds in mind, made some minor changes to the hull shape, adding hard chines and removing the skeg. Adding a bit of stability and planing ability, the chines are really just the continuation of the hull and bottom surfaces to meet at a sharp edge, Prince said. “The running surface isn’t much different.” But with twin 370-hp (278-kW) Yanmar diesels driving twin four-bladed props and trim adjusted through Zipwake dynamic interceptors, Legend ’s handling is unquestionably a departure from Pilar , which, according to Hemingway correspondence, was powered by a single 75-hp (56-kW) Chrysler. Prince and Stockinger both marveled at the capacity of the hull to accommodate the two big diesels, a generator, and extensive modern systems, including two 12,000-Btu air-conditioning units and a Seakeeper gyro stabilizer.

The appointments belowdecks are sumptuous compared to the spartan accommodations of a 1934 Wheeler. Prince said he had a design vision of a Hemingwayesque space with wood paneling, club chairs, a book, a cigar, and a glass of whiskey, and that’s the ambience the crew at Brooklin created. It’s tempting to call it iconic.

Brooklin Boat Yard, 44 Center Harbor Rd., Brooklin, ME 04616 USA, tel. 207–359–2236.

Bill Prince Yacht Design, 222 E. Main St., Suite 208, Port Washington, WI 53074 USA, tel. 262–822–4000.

—Aaron Porter

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Wheeler 55 Legacy Sedan

• By Dudley Dawson
• Updated: October 4, 2007

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. The most famous was Pilar, a 38-foot sportfisherman built for Ernest Hemingway in 1934 at a cost of $7,455. Hemingway’s adventures aboard inspired some of his best work. Pilar, though in desperate need of restoration, still sits in Cuba, Wheeler’s winged-W logo prominent on her bow.

Yacht designer Tom Fexas is of an age to share my remembrances, and his Midnight Lace yachts reflect his enthusiasm for such timeless designs. It was with much joy, then, that I learned of the reincarnation of Wheeler, and that Fexas is designing the first new model, a 55 Legacy Sedan. Wesley P. Wheeler, a pharmaceutical executive, is the president of the new Wheeler Yacht Company. He’s also the son of naval architect Wesley D. Wheeler and great-grandson of Howard Wheeler, who founded the original Wheeler in 1910 and oversaw the construction of some 3,500 hulls before he died in 1961 at 92.

Fexas’ design pays homage to the classics with teak decking and trim, but is far from a true reproduction. Though the exterior styling closely mimics earlier Wheelers, construction is solid fiberglass below the chine, with PVC foam core in the vacuum-bagged topsides and superstructure. All tankage is integral fiberglass. The new yacht’s proportions are consistent with those of any modern sportfisherman and provide creature comforts undreamed of by sportsmen of the 1930s.

Forward is the owner’s stateroom, complete with an island king berth, en suite head with shower and a hanging locker that spans nearly half the yacht’s beam. Two additional cabins share a second head, also with a shower, and the guest stateroom lies to starboard and is fitted with a queen. Across the passageway to port is a cabin fitted with upper and lower single berths. The staterooms and heads are fitted with overhead hatches for light and ventilation, and in the case of the owner’s stateroom, for emergency escape.

The arrangement of the saloon is an interesting departure from the norm and reflects a careful consideration of traffic patterns when fishing. The galley, a functional U-shaped arrangement, is located not forward in the deckhouse, but aft, just inside the cockpit door. Opposite it to starboard is a compact day head. This means that the blood and guts of fishing success will intrude as little as possible into the more finely finished portions of the yacht.

The galley is fitted with two large refrigerator drawers, closest to the cockpit door, and two freezer drawers adjacent to them on the aft bulkhead. This orientation, besides being convenient, increases the chances of the drawers staying closed when underway in heavy seas. A large single bowl sink, three-burner range, microwave and dishwasher are located on the forward island.

Opposite the galley, just forward of the day head, is a dinette that seats four, with five more seats curving around a smaller table. Additional seating for three is beneath the saloon TV, but during the evening, this sofa folds out into a double berth. If you’ve been keeping track, that’s beds for eight or ten.

The business end of the Wheeler has two in-deck fishboxes to either side of the cockpit chair. There’s a transom door to port with a hinged section of covering board for boating trophy fish or an optional swim platform for boarding tenders or water toys. Forward, flanking the door to the saloon, are a tackle center, a bait livewell, an optional barbecue, an ice machine and a sink.

On either side of the cockpit are molded steps to the sidedecks, which are wide enough to be functional and are protected by high railings that extend to the bow pulpit. Too many custom sportfishermen are being built without rails in an effort to make them appear sleeker. When vanity triumphs over safety, it’s time to rethink things, and Fexas obviously has, to the benefit of the Wheeler’s owner, guests and crew.

The open flying bridge has a full-width helm forward with two chairs, well protected by a high windshield. An L-settee is fitted to starboard. While this arrangement is traditional, it impedes the captain’s view of the cockpit; therefore a small auxiliary station with engine, gear and thruster controls is adjacent to the port ladder for fighting fish or stern-to docking.

Contacts: Wheeler Yacht Company, (949) 302-1087, www.wheeleryachts.com ; Tom Fexas Yacht Design, (772) 287-6558, www.tomfexas.com

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The spirit of Hemingway’s boat comes alive in a new build

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.

Wesley P. Wheeler, great-grandson of the founder of Wheeler Shipyard, Inc. which built Hemingway’s boat, has re-incorporated the family business in order to build a modern take on Pilar ; one that will keep its classic looks while featuring thoroughly modern technology. The first new Wheeler 38 is being built at Brooklin Boat Yard and is scheduled to be launched this June.

The Wheeler story begins in 1910, when Howard E. Wheeler established a boatyard in Brooklyn, New York, to provide maintenance and upkeep for gasoline-powered boats. Wheeler was charismatic, energetic, and a great salesman. Six years in, with the country involved in World War I, “Pop” Wheeler took a train to Washington, D.C., and returned with a government contract to build six 110-foot sub-chasers.

At the time, the yard had yet to build a boat longer than 21 feet. But the company filled the sub-chaser order on time and on budget, which led to a new contract for four minesweepers, along with a number of Army and Navy tugboats. Wheeler Shipyard, at the foot of Cropsey Avenue on Coney Island Creek, was on the map.

Boatyard action slowed after the war, but family action proceeded apace. Eventually Howard Wheeler had five sons. They all graduated from Erasmus Hall High School, and went immediately to work in the yard. A fire leveled everything in 1921. But by 1928 the family-run operation had rebuilt and was producing more than 50 pleasure boats a year. Despite the market crash, the Wheelers produced 75 boats in 1930, and by 1939, had sold 225 boats, all around 38 feet long, according to Wesley Wheeler. Wheeler Shipyard had no dealerships. They sold at the annual New York Boat Show, through sales brochures and magazine advertisements, and by word of mouth.

Ernest Hemingway entered the picture in the spring of 1934. He had been passionate about fishing since he was three years old, was crazy about boats, and had an advance in his pocket for a book about big-game hunting in Africa. While on safari, he had a Wheeler Shipyard brochure in his suitcase. Soon after returning to the United States, after meetings with his publishers at Charles Scribner and the newly launched Esquire magazine in New York City, he escaped to Brooklyn, where he met Wesley L. Wheeler, one of the five sons and designer of the 38-foot Wheeler Playmates. Hemingway placed an order for a boat, to be named Pilar, a nickname for his second wife, Pauline.

Wheeler was the official designer, but Hemingway asked for changes and practical features that would change sportfishing boats forevermore. His chief requirement was for the sheerline to be dropped about a foot surrounding the aft portion of the cockpit. The purpose was to turn Pilar into an efficient fishing machine, but one could argue that it also made her lovely and unique. Hemingway also insisted that the 75-horsepower Chrysler Crown be augmented by a small 40-horse Lycoming trolling engine. He had a roller installed across the top of the transom to make it easier to haul aboard trophy catches. Later, after fishing on the boat for two seasons, he contrived a second maneuvering station on top of the cockpit roof—an early stab at the concept of a flying bridge.

The Wheeler company hit its stride during World War II, expanding into larger facilities at a separate shipyard in Whitestone, Long Island, New York. At this point the name was changed to Wheeler Shipbuilding Corp. and the company had a workforce of 6,000 people, its own marching band, and even a radio station. The company produced 230 military ships up to 165 feet in length. After the war, they acquired another shipyard on Clason Point in the Bronx, renamed themselves the Wheeler Yacht Company, and continued to build pleasure yachts through the early 1960s. Eventually, competition from mass-market providers like Chris-Craft, the advent of fiberglass, and a fire at the Bronx yard led to the demise of the company. The Wheeler family moved on to other pursuits.

Then about 15 years ago, Wesley P. Wheeler, great-grandson of company founder Howard E., was alerted by a sailing buddy to an article in Sea Magazine by a motorboat designer named Tom Fexas. The article harked back to Wheeler yachts as a prime example of what boats ought to look like, and did not ignore that the boats had been fairly priced.

Wesley Wheeler, who had long dreamed of reviving the Wheeler name in motoryacht construction, phoned Fexas and inquired if he’d be interested in collaborating on a brand new classic-looking Wheeler. He envisioned something with modern speed, but reminiscent of a 1960s-era, 55-foot Wheeler Playmate tri-cabin cruiser. Fexas designed a boat, and the hull was tank-tested, but the project was eventually dropped.

Eventually Wheeler helped the film crew locate a smaller 1933 Wheeler Playmate to use as a stand-in for Pilar in the film. That boat was restored and modified to reflect Pilar ’s lines by Moore’s Marine in Beaufort, South Carolina. Wheeler was on board for her maiden run.

“The boat performed splendidly, although a bit squirrely with so much more speed and power. I was left totally awed and totally convinced that myself and my Dad, while he still could, ought to hit the drawing boards with a modern version of Pilar ,” Wheeler said.

Before they could get very far on the project, however, Wesley Wheeler Sr. passed away, and Wesley P. was hard at work as a CEO in the pharmaceutical industry. So he hired naval architect Bruce Marek of South Carolina to draw up a new hull with some minor reshaping for more power and weight aft, and an epoxy and ply construction.

Marek did some work and then suggested that Bill Prince, a naval architect in Port Washington, Wisconsin, who specializes in retro designs, finish up the design details. When the time came to choose a builder capable of manufacturing the cold-molded hull, Steve White and Brooklin Boat Yard won the contract.

Work on the new boat at Brooklin Boat Yard began last year. The new Wheeler 38 is being custom outfitted for Wheeler and his family. But he also has re-incorporated the Wheeler Yacht Company and hopes to market variations of the model.

The new boat is retro-engineered to look nearly identical to Hemingway’s Pilar , with all the modern conveniences hidden from sight. Eric Stockinger, the project’s lead man at BBY, said he has enjoyed hunting for period hardware, instrument panels, and fittings to enhance the authenticity of the near-replica. The search is on, he said, for a big searchlight, a feature Hemingway repeatedly heralded. Instead of cleats at the transom corners, there will be staunch wooden bitts. But in order to suit modern preference, everything that was bronze in the original boat has been switched to polished stainless steel.

The hull is cold-molded with mahogany plywood over Douglas fir frames and stringers, and mahogany diagonal veneers in the topsides. Elongated Doug fir engine bed logs run the length of the bottom. Greater engine power had caused the movie-prop Pilar to be a little “squirrely” at speed. Although seemingly antithetical, all of the several designers and Wesley Wheeler, himself a marine engineer, agreed that this hull would likely be more yaw-stable without having any skeg, and that’s how she’s being configured.

Twin turbo electronically controlled Yanmar diesels of 370 horsepower will give the boat a top speed approaching 30 knots, according to company specs. Less drag without a skeg will make her a little bit faster still.

There’s a 13kW Onan generator under the cockpit for air conditioning, induction stove, microwave, refrigeration, and other conveniences, including a Seakeeper gyro-stabilizer. The Wheelers aren’t a game-fishing family, so there won’t be a big roller across top of the transom. Hemingway’s famous Thompson submachine gun will be also be absent from the modern incarnation, I’m told.

The boat has teak decks sprung to the plank sheer. And of course, a radome, although there’s much discussion about how to make this modern device as inconspicuous as practical. The hull is painted black. Hemingway considered this essential as he romanticized about rum-running on moonless nights, and actually snuck up on Nazi subs, or at least tried to, during the World War, off the north coast of Cuba.

Below decks, the Wheeler 38 will have a double berth forward and two fat leather armchairs in the salon area. The head is quite large, although lacking an isolated shower stall.

Wesley Wheeler has enjoyed the process of working with Brooklin Boat Yard. “I was fascinated by the speed of construction, by the quality they got from vacuum-bagging, and by the way the yard’s own design team (Will Sturdy and his wife Kelly Sturdy—both yacht designers) provided on-site working drawings,” said Wheeler; “a lot like my grandfather and his four brothers at the foot of Cropsey Avenue, eight decades ago.”

The new Wheeler 38 will be on display on the Maine Boat & Home Show, Aug. 7-9, 2020 on the Rockland waterfront. Between Hemingway fans and boat nuts like me, I predict the dock will be awash with admirers. 

Contributing Author Art Paine is a boat designer, fine artist, freelance writer, aesthete, and photographer who lives in Bernard, Maine.

LOA:  39'4" LWL:  38'9" Beam:  12' Draft:  3'5" Displ:   20,600 lbs. Max speed: 26 knots (est) Range at cruising speed: 400 nm (est) Power: 2 x Yanmar 8LV370 Diesel engines

BUILDERS Wheeler Yacht Company Chapel Hill, NC  www.wheeleryachts.com

Brooklin Boat Yard Brooklin, ME www.brooklinboatyard..com

REVERSE ENGINEERING Bill Prince Yacht Design Port Washington, WI www.billprinceyachtdesign.com

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Ernest Hemingway Made This 38-Foot Fishing Boat Famous. Now It’s Being Rebuilt.

The reproduction bears a striking resemblance to the famous writer's sportfishing boat, pilar, but will have modern amenities., j. george gorant, j. george gorant's most recent stories.

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In 2012, Hilary Hemingway found herself crawling around the engine compartment of a boat docked outside Havana. “I’d been in many Hemingway homes,” she says, referring to her famous uncle, Ernest, “but I’d never been on Pilar . It was amazing access.”

Adopting the nickname of his third wife, Pauline, Pilar was Papa Hemingway’s custom 38-foot Wheeler Playmate, which the author and Nobel Prize winner shuttled between Key West, Bimini and Cuba as he helped pioneer big-game fishing. Hemingway had many adventures on Pilar : hunting for German U-boats, conducting environmental research for the American Museum of Natural History and shooting himself in the leg while trying to land a shark.

Wheeler Yacht Company

With Hilary Hemingway that day was Wes Wheeler, whose great-grandfather founded the Wheeler Shipbuilding Corp. in 1910. Wheeler and Hemingway had met a few years earlier, after she and actor Andy Garcia cowrote a script about her uncle and Gregorio Fuentes, his longtime captain. Wheeler helped restore a 34-foot Playmate that was intended to play Pilar on-screen, and the experience ignited his desire to revive the Wheeler Shipbuilding company, which produced more than 3,500 boats before closing in 1966.

This September, a new Pilar , reengineered from the measurements Wheeler and Hemingway took that day in Cuba, will mark the rise of the Wheeler Yacht Company. Built at Brooklin Boat Yard in Brooklin, Me., the reproduction will look like a motor yacht from the 1930s but with modern amenities, including iPad control, a touchscreen nav system, A/C and a stabilizer.

The new cold-molded mahogany exterior will match its namesake in looks above the waterline, but since its twin 370 hp Yanmars will push it to 25 knots—the original made about half that—the running surface is flatter, with sharper chines. “The shape of the forefoot and midsections are not much different,” says naval architect Bill Prince. “Any other changes are subtle.” The price, depending on options, will run about $1.5 million.

Wheeler hopes for strong interest in the Wheeler 38. After all, as Hilary Hemingway puts it, “It’s probably the most famous fishing boat in the world.”

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The Most Famous Fishing Boat of All Time is Coming to Life.

Hemingway's pilar was a wheeler.

They say Ernest Hemingway caught his first fish at three, and never got over it. When Ernest Hemingway was ready to order his first and only fishing yacht at the age of 35, he trusted only Wheeler Shipyards to build it. Papa demanded a quality in craftsmanship that only Wheeler could deliver. Hemingway’s Pilar not only out-fished and out-performed all of the other fishing yachts of the time, but in the thirty years Hemingway owned her, she had survived four hurricanes by riding them out at sea. It was testament to the ship’s strength and the captain’s courage. The most famous fishing boat of all time is coming back to life. Introducing the ‘new’ Wheeler-Pilar 38. You can own her and be a part of history.

"Wheeler Yacht Company Logo"

Fame and fish: the legend of pilar.

Hemingway was a founding father of sport fishing and was inducted into the International Game Fish Association Hall of Fame. He was an early adopter of outriggers and the flybridge, and was the first ever to bring a giant tuna to Bimini’s docks undamaged by sharks. His immense fame drove him to seek both solitude and adventure far from prying eyes. He fought fish with passion, perhaps as a metaphor for much of his life.

Ernest Hemingway's original purchase order for his Wheeler 38 Playmate

The tradition returns.

For 50 years, the Wheeler Family – father and five sons – built yachts of the highest quality. From 1910 through two world wars and well into peacetime, Wheeler built over 3,200 pleasure boats and more than 800 military craft which earned them 8 Navy ‘E’ awards for service to the United States. The Wheelers built their boats with only the finest materials available at the time. They were hand crafted and built to last. It was this reputation for quality that drew Hemingway to Wheeler in 1934. This famous boat and its legacy have inspired the Wheelers to introduce an exact copy of the original Wheeler Playmate which Hemingway loved so much. It will have the classic look of the original, but will conform to today’s ABS and US Coast Guard standards with modern equipment. And of course, it will be built to last.

Reverse engineered using the most modern methods.

Old-school meets high-tech.

Every inch of the new Pilar has been reverse-engineered to the highest standards, employing sophisticated techniques used in the development of the world’s finest custom yachts.

It is now possible to own a piece of history, and learn firsthand why Papa loved his boat so much.

About Bill Prince Yacht Design

Bill Prince began honing his yacht design skills aboard small boats on the St. Croix National Scenic Waterway and the Great Lakes. His passion for capable boats and emerging design talent led him to the acclaimed Milwaukee School of Engineering, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering, encompassing the fundamentals of structural engineering, power transfer and marine engineering.

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The Wheeler Yacht Company was founded at the turn of the 19th century by Howard E. Wheeler, in Brooklyn NY.  During WWI, like other yacht builders, the yard built sub chasers.  When WWII came, the Brooklyn yard, which was at the foot of Cropsey Avenue, in Coney Island, was dedicated first to minesweepers and then to an astonishing series of 230 patrol craft for the Coast Guard.  See the site from the air on Google here .  The company also built a second yard at Whitestone NY, which has its own table here .  After the war, the Brooklyn yard was closed and operations were consolidated at Whitestone.

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Wheeler Yacht Company LLC Announces Launch Of Its First 55′ Luxury Yacht

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Wheeler Yacht Company LLC is proud to unveil the latest addition to its esteemed fleet: the new Wheeler 55. This exquisite, cold-molded wooden vessel, meticulously handcrafted at the renowned Brooklin Boat Yard, merges classic elegance with cutting-edge technology to redefine luxury yachting.

The new Wheeler 55 is a timeless tribute to the golden age of yachting. Inspired by both the iconic 1931 Wheeler “Playmate” model and its contemporary, the 38’ Wheeler “Legend,” Wheeler’s yachts are steeped in maritime history. It was aboard his beloved 38’ named “Pilar” that Ernest Hemingway wrote “The Old Man and the Sea,” hunted for U-boats during World War II and revolutionized sport fishing. The Wheeler 55 combines the adventurous spirit of these earlier eras with today’s most sought-after, state-of-the-art features and unparalleled craftsmanship.

“Every detail of the Wheeler 55 has been exquisitely crafted using superior materials to create a one-of-a-kind yacht that stands out in any marina,” said Wes Wheeler, President, Wheeler Yacht Company. “It’s been a labor of love to bring the new Wheeler 55 to life, and we’re proud to offer a yacht with unmatched elegance, luxury and innovation.”

The Wheeler 55 is a handcrafted, cold-molded construction using all African mahogany, with Douglas fir structural elements and teak decks. Every detail reflects Wheeler’s commitment to quality and tradition.

Powered by 850 HP i6 MAN engines, with the option to upgrade to MAN V8-1000 engines, and twin straight shaft propellers, the yacht will cruise at 25 knots. Features like the synchronized joystick controls with bow and stern thrusters ensure easy docking, while the Seakeeper gyro stabilizer and Zipwake systems provide a smooth and stable ride. Sea trials of the first custom-built 55’ will take place on or around July 25 on the Eggemoggin Reach in Brooklin, Maine, with renowned photographer Billy Black capturing still photos and drone videos of its debut.

The yacht offers three luxurious sleeping cabins, three heads with showers, a spacious salon with a large sunroof and an expansive pilothouse. An aft promenade deck and a large swim platform with a transom door enhance relaxation and recreation. The vessel’s 1,000-pound-capacity rooftop crane and optional 12’ tender make it versatile for a wide range of activities.

The yacht’s two galleys come equipped with a refrigerator and freezer, a wine cooler, an ice maker, a cooktop, a microwave and an espresso station, with an optional oven and dishwasher. A washer/dryer unit ensures convenience on extended voyages.

For ultimate comfort, the yacht includes a seven-zone central air conditioning system and a central stereo system. Navigational aids include a Garmin chart plotter and navionics, while the Starlink satellite Wi-Fi system ensures connectivity anywhere. The yacht is backed up by a 21.5KW ONAN generator, guaranteeing reliable performance.

About Wheeler Yacht Company LLC

Wheeler Yacht Company LLC has a 55-year history, from 1910 to 1965, of building nearly 4,000 boats including 800 vessels for both World Wars and pleasure yachting, like Ernest Heminway’s “Pilar.”

The Wheeler Yacht Company is dedicated to producing handcrafted luxury yachts that combine timeless design with cutting-edge technology. Built at the prestigious Brooklin Boat Yard in Brooklin, Maine, our yachts are a testament to American craftsmanship and maritime heritage.

For media inquiries, exclusive interview requests during sea trials or more information about the event, contact Wes Wheeler: [email protected] 919-606-5575

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