"MAH JONG"
Designed by Sparkman & Stephens

At this point, this amounts to idle curiosity, but have you heard anything more about this Mah Jong ? She was commissioned  from Cheoy Lee by my late uncle, Fowler Merle-Smith, with (I believe)  two friends. They sailed her 'two- thirds of the way around the world',  and there was at least one article in the National Geographic... Uncle  Mike (as he was known in the family) had also sailed with Irving and  Alexis Johnson on Yankee, in the voyages they also reported on in the  Geographic.

Probably almost ten years ago, Mah Jong was partially restored at a boat yard next (I think) to Robin Hood Marine up in Maine. I went to  visit her out of curiosity, not being in the market for a boat. And  then, just a year or so later, Uncle Mike's daughter (my cousin)  married a sailor from Sweden and they began talking of buying the boat  her father had sailed as a young man. Unfortunately, by then the  boatyard had closed and the trail had grown cold, and all I could find  out that she had been bought by a couple from California, as their  first boat, with grand plans to sail down the ICW to the Caribbean.  That was the last I've heard of her. She was a beautiful, custom-crafted yacht, with many hand-made details  (such as a dragon carved into the companion-way roof, and inlaid brass  characters in the saloon). I don't know whether this is typical of  Cheoy Lee, but rather assumed that as Mah Jong was reputedly at or near  the beginning of the yard's line of boats built for overseas  commissions, she might have been lavished with extra attention.
At any rate, we would love to know where she is, whether or not we're in a position to bring her back into the family, as it were. It seems  she might also have a role in Cheoy Lee history, so perhaps someone in  your brotherhood can track her down.
Thanks for the chance to tell a bit of a CL tale...

-- Gerrit Stover
Northampton, Massachusetts

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