Fast and Gorgeous
Lucie is the last 6-Metre designed by Clinton Crane in 1930, and arguably his best. Lucie was built to the International 6 Metre Rule: Second Metre Rule. She was built in the Nevin’s Yard on City Island in New York in 1931, for the noted sportsman Briggs Cunningham, and named after his first wife, Lucie Bedford Cunningham Warren. Lucie was named to three successive British-American Cup teams, her last in 1936. She is the only Crane design to stay in major competition after WWII. In addition to campaigning Lucie, Briggs Cunningham also won both the Prince Edward VII Gold Cup, the so-called “Bermuda Gold Cup”, and the Scandinavian Gold Cup in 1937 with US 72 Lulu. Among his many other feats, Mr Cunningham also won the America’s Cup in 1958 on the 12-Metre Columbia.
Lucie christening at the IYRS dockShe often beat newer designs on the Great Lakes in the 50s, such as US 81 Goose and US 87 Maybe VII, while named Stork. An interesting anecdote about her comes from Barbara Castle Poole von Schilcher: “The Stork was originally the Lucie, but the first year my grandfather (Wilmot Vail ‘Rooney’ Castle) had her, 1940, all of the guys who crewed in the forward cockpit became fathers, so he renamed her Stork … I was the first of those forward cockpit babies.”
Lucie Bedford Cunningham Warren -- the first wife of Lucie's original owner Briggs Cunningham, for whom he named his six-metre boat -- died July 16 at age 104. She was the granddaughter of Edward T. Bedford, a co-founder and director of the Stanford Oil Company. Her father, Frederick T. Bedford, was also a successful businessman. The Bedford family had a long history of philanthropy in Westport, Connecticut, having donated real estate and development funds to build the YMCA, fire stations, elementary and middle schools, athletic fields and parks, and the former state police barracks.