Vera Lee II: Seventy-Five Years, Two Families, One Elco

Amazingly, Vera Lee II is only a two-owner boat, and she remained in the same family for over 75 years. Her first owner was Larry McDowell Sr., who literally bought Vera Lee II off the showroom floor in Los Angeles on 30 May 1940.

Editor’s note: Vera Lee II is an Elco, from the Electric Launch Company, the builder whose launches and cruisers were owned by John Jacob Astor and Thomas Edison, among many others. Charles Lindbergh took his bride Anne Morrow on their 1929 honeymoon aboard a specially modified 38-foot Elco cruiser.

The first owner

Larry was a radio celebrity, former Director of the Long Beach Marine Department and one of the early founders and Commodore of the Long Beach Yacht Club. Larry McDowell Sr. and Vera Lee II (named after his wife, Vera) were also charter members of the Classic Yacht Association. When Larry passed away in 1997, he was buried at sea from Vera Lee II.

Larry picked out his favorite mooring spot at Cherry Cove, and the family still has it today.

Larry’s daughter, Helen Windham, was raised on the boat and watched over it after her father passed away. She and her husband, Bob Windham, faithfully restored the boat and continued to preserve this family heirloom until 2014.

New owners: the Williams family

In 2014, Carol Williams purchased Vera Lee II. Carol is a member of the Classic Yacht Association, and Vera Lee II is the only one of the original 13 charter yachts that is still a member of the CYA.

Carol, Woody and Bill Williams fully restored Vera Lee II in a restoration project that lasted more than a year. It was truly a labor of love: worked on, researched, supervised, organized and watched over carefully by Woody, a lifelong boat enthusiast, along with Bill, Carol and their friends.

A lesson learned

In the beginning, it started out rough. None of the wood grain was showing through like it had originally; the paint looked opaque and muddy. We were not happy with this initial job, so our first staining job was a lesson learned, one of many more to come.

After our early problems, we moved Vera Lee II over to the Long Beach Marina Shipyard, hiring many individuals and experts to help. The shipyard’s owner, Jerry Tretter, had a grandfather and father who were close friends of Larry McDowell and of Helen Windham. Jerry knew Vera Lee II’s history well and proved to be a great resource in our quest for the very best restoration possible. The shipyard manager, Tony Wasson, worked with Carol, Woody and Bill on the journey ahead.

What a wonderful place, our Long Beach Marina Shipyard!

Down to bare mahogany

Joaquin Plancarte and Raymond “Mr. Perfect” Cervantes from the shipyard took over the staining and varnishing, under Woody’s watchful eye. The exterior was stripped down to bare mahogany and bleached to look uniform. Along the way, rotted wood was cut out and inlaid with new mahogany.

We took on the job of completely refinishing Vera Lee II with a custom mix of Z-Spar stain and more than 12 coats of Crystal varnish by Detco. Bill kept everyone jumping with his daily visits and his excitement to get it done!

We carried the wood restoration into the interior with the same stain and varnish combination. The salon received 12 coats of varnish; the V-berth was in better shape and needed only 3.

The hull

Joe Connors took on the restoration of the topsides, cabin top and flybridge. With over 30 years of experience, Joe is one of the most respected yacht restorers at the Long Beach Shipyard. He was great! Three coats went on Vera Lee II’s sides: a high-build epoxy primer, a finish primer and Alexseal Cloud White.

The hull was sanded down to bare wood. We paid the seams with seam compound to anticipate the wood’s movement once back in the water. Fortunately, Vera Lee II was well built, and her structure had barely moved over the years. Three coats of Z-Spar Pro Blue went on the hull, the first mixed with 50 percent thinner to let the paint penetrate the wood.

Details, details

The transom was splined and inlaid with new mahogany. Jim Kuhn hand-carved and painted the name and hailing-port boards in 22.5-carat gold, and the board was steam-bent to match the contour of the transom.

We had a beautiful new teak deck built, in a classic design with a natural finish. Thanks to Helen’s hard work maintaining Vera Lee II, the old deck was sound: we filled its voids with epoxy to make a solid platform and laid the new teak on top of the original mahogany.

Original hardware, like the window covers, vents and Elco gauge panels, was chromed and now looks like new. Ken Fogg of Anchor Marine Canvas designed new shades, covers, curtains and seating for both the exterior and interior. (“Ken can do everything!”) Bill said we needed a taller aft-deck cover for the tall men of the family, so we redesigned it. Finally, we can stand up!

Under the floorboards

Before Gary Prestigard, boat mechanic extraordinaire, got to work, Vera Lee II’s engine would not start. The fuel injection pump was contaminated with rust and dirt, and there was no oil on the dipstick even though there was oil in the bilge. The engine came out of the boat: the corroded oil pan was replaced, the heads went to the machine shop for a valve job, and the exhaust elbow, salt- and fresh-water pumps, thermostat and muffler were all replaced. New fuel lines went in, and it was tuned up and ready to go.

We replaced the entire electrical system, from the bilge pumps to the cabin lights; nothing was spared. The old cabin floor planks had no integrity and would bend and creak, so Tony redesigned the space with new floorboards and solid teak, glued down with epoxy.

It took four haul-outs in all (“Again?” “Here we go again!” and finally “Last but not least”) for painting, the underwater lights, two frozen engine valves and the zinc bolt, and finally a full survey by marine surveyor Jim Wallace. Tony and Pepe reinforced the hull with more than 500 screws to make it perfect.

Time to set sail

Carol, Woody and Bill took a first trial run with Tony. Woody watched over a rundown of the newly rebuilt engine and electrical system and made sure everything ran smoothly during the ride.

Helen Windham stopped by to help put the final touches on the renovation with her expert eye.

After a year-long renovation, Vera Lee II is back to her original beauty.