Sea Witch, Clipper

 Hugh Angelman designed Sea Witch in 1937. Stephen Carlson (owner of the American Marine built, Sea Quest), tells me that Dave Lee was Angelman's original collaborator on the design, but was apparently one of those invisible helping hands, and Charles Davies later became the acknowledged co-designer.
   Angelman built the original Sea Witch for himself in 1939 at his Wilmington Boat Works in Wilmington, California, and sailed her for a year and a half before selling her. According to Dorothy Douglas:
   "He found her to be comfortable at all times and with a fair turn of speed particularly on a reach. He failed to realize her fatal charm however, until he had sold her. Oh but the lucky fellow that he is, he built a duplicate, the Sea Rover, just able to launch before turning his ship yard over to work for the Navy. He said, 'Since I couldn't improve on her, I built a second Sea Witch.'" and Dorothy added, "We wonder if that could be possible."
   Apparently Haldane and Dorothy Douglas were the ones who bought the Sea Witch from Angelman (or WILBO), and Dorothy penned an article about Sea Witch in an early magazine article (quoted in previous paragraph), the clipping of which remains in my possession. Unfortunately, the article was clipped but the identity and date of the magazine was not preserved (circa early 1940s).
   The second Sea Witch, completed in 1941, was named Sea Rover and Angelman kept this one for many years. He and his wife, Leslie, made it their home in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
   As shown above, the Sea Witch initially had only a single bowsprit, but Angelman decided to go the extra mile with the Sea Rover and put a double bowsprit on her. The owners of Sea Witch had him refit it the same fashion, so the two boats became true twins. Dorothy Douglas' article included the above photo by W. C. Sawyer, as well as the famous shot of the Sea Rover and Sea Witch (right, below) side by side, with Hugh Angelman between – with Sea Witch newly fitted out with bowsprit and jibboom.
   That surprised a good many people, and sparked a great deal of interest in the design. It became a "class" in itself, and orders for more of the same started coming in. Additionally, Angelman and Davies sold several sets of plans to amateur boat builders.
   Including those first two Sea Witches, about thirty have been built over the years. A few more of this design were built at Wilmington Boat Works. The last Sea Witch built at "Wilbo" was the Golden Hind, in 1959. Some hull and keel design changes were made about this time (plans dated 1956), and most Sea Witches built afterwards, including the Golden Hind, have a reconfigured keel and forefoot.
   American Marine in Hong Kong built close to a dozen in 1960-61 – more than any other yard. Cheoy Lee, also of Hong Kong, built half a dozen or so. Others were built in Taiwan, Vietnam, Denmark, and an undetermined number have been built by amateurs, mostly in the United States.