Here's the Anacapa story as I know it;
The Anacapa was originally designed by Naval Architect Ted Carpentier, who also worked as an
engineer for
Hughes Aircraft and was a personal friend of the late Howard
Hughes. His recollections of his time with Hughes are featured in the best seller “Howard Hughes: the secret life”. Carpentier was either hired by or
sold the Anacapa design to San Pedro Boatwork’s owner John Leeper in 1963/64. San Pedro Boatworks built three Anacapa 40s, all
sloop rigged without bowsprits. The “Peer Guint”, the “Octavia”, and the “Viajera” were all of high quality, with
bronze ports and
Barient winches. Their layout was slightly different than later Anacapas, with their galleys starboard in the pilothouse and chart and dressing tables in the aft
cabin. All Anacapas carried the ubiquitous bathtub.
The Anacapa was designed to be comfortable with a good turn of speed. Built to early
Cruising Club of America
rule, she could compete with the likes of the
Cal 40, and one of the first Anacapas, the “Peer Guint” was mentioned in a
San Francisco Chronicle article in the late 60s when sailors complained of being beaten by “a three story boat”. Unfortunately, the
center cockpit Anacapa was quite expensive to build, and the original tooling alone nearly bankrupted the small boatyard. The boat had a base
price of nearly $40000 in the mid-60s, fairly expensive for its time. Feeling that the sailing public wasn’t quite ready for an ungainly pilothouse
motorsailer, San Pedro contracted Ted Carpentier to redesign the deck tooling to enhance the lines and curb production costs. Thus was born the Acapulco 40. Aft cockpited and prettier, San Pedro sold a few of both models, mostly as hull or hull and deck kits before ceasing production completely. As an endnote to the San Pedro Boatworks run, owner John Leeper used the last two molded hulls to construct his famous “RV Beta”
catamaran by adding a bridge deck and
steel framework to create a workboat for use in his later treasure hunting days. According to Bernard Reller, a crewman aboard the Beta during the early 70s, the boat had twin Osco 120 diesels, living quarters, a machine shop, and a large
winch which was designed to raise and launch a small manned submarine between Beta’s hulls. Leeper, a former Pan Am airline pilot and adventurer hunted treasure throughout the
Caribbean. He was involved in the famous Atocha De la Senora
salvage operation and was friends with salvor Mel
Fisher. The RV Beta was
lost off
Nassau in the
Bahamas after scraping a reef around 1999.
After the canceling of Anacapa / Acapulco construction, the molds for the hull and both decks were stored in
Islander Yachts Inc. yard in Irvine,
California. Mr. Gary Powell, a dealer for
Islander Yachts kit boat division “Yachtcraft” who usually sold hulls and decks from discontinued models, came across the plans for the Anacapa / Acapulco while visiting the yard one day. As soon as he spread them out he knew he wanted one, and asked the owners to lay up a hull and deck for him. They explained that the molds and designs weren’t theirs to sell. Powell offered to write a check right there and then, and three weeks later he had a hull and deck at his yard, ready to start construction. Powell lovingly crafted this boat, named Oriana, which was an Acapulco version with an aft
cockpit and a
cutter rig. Kit boat customers who visited the yard often fell in love with the Acapulco’s lines and inquired about its availability. Knowing a good thing when he saw one, Powell approached Islander about
buying the molds and was informed that the Challenger Yacht Corporation had recently purchased them. They were looking to fill a void in their lineup, and planned on constructing the Anacapa
center cockpit pilothouse version. The year was 1973 and Challenger marketed the boat as the Anacapa 42 (the extra two feet came from the newly added stainless
bowsprit which moved the center of effort forward and helped alleviate reported
weather helm).
Challenger owner Howard D. Stern introduced the boat at a base
price of $43950 plus “options”. Options such as
wheel steering ($3500) quickly brought up the price, and none of Challenger’s twelve Anacapa 42s left the Terminal Island,
California factory for under $80000. Currently (2008), the boats known to still exist are Charisma (formerly Trishen) ,a
ketch in
New Jersey, Bearhunter , a
ketch in
Alaska, and Kia
Orana and ,two sloops in California. After a short production run between 1973 and ’75, Challenger found the boats simply too expensive to manufacture and make a profit, discontinuing the model in 1975.
In 1976 Gary Powell approached owner Howard D. Stern with an offer to buy the tooling for hull and decks. Stern was aptly named, and I cannot find anyone save his daughter who had anything positive to say about him. A former
head of sales at Westsail, and a lawyer, Stern refused Powell’s offer. Powell didn’t give in easily though, and returned several weeks later after letting Stern stew with a slightly higher offer. A deal was struck, and Powell was the proud owner of some very well made molds. Forming Acapulco Yachts, Powell had no interest in building the center
cockpit Anacapa version, and had that deck
mold destroyed. He concentrated on the aft cockpit cutter,
shipping a total of 30 high quality hull and deck packages which were sold to home builders. All of the boats built by Gary Powell’s Acapulco Yacht Co. had the stainless
bowsprit and hand laid one piece hulls. Powell’s last boat, the Maluhia was completed and kept as his personal yacht.
Gary longed to go cruising, and a deal was struck with his business partner at the time; Powell would go cruising for a year aboard Maluhia, then return to allow his partner to
cruise. Powell moved aboard and crossed the Pacific to
Hawaii, cruising among the islands, but returned when his year was up to find his Acapulco Yacht Co. run aground by his inept partner. Powell was forced to close up shop, and both hull and deck molds were destroyed, bringing to a close the last chapter in the Anacapa / Acapulco story. As an end note, Gary Powell’s first yacht, Oriana, was purchased and circumnavigated by owners Ed Atkins and Bernie
Houston, with the tale recounted in their wonderful book “One wave at a time”.
We are in the midst of a 5 year complete 
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