A Man and His Dream = Utopia and Adventures
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The Man:
Fred Peterson, founder of Peterson Builders, Inc. of Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. 1983 marks the 50th anniversary of this successful shipyard, known internationally for high-quality commercial and military vessels in steel, aluminum, wood, and fiberglass.
The Dream:
His love and respect for the sea naturally fostered Fred's understanding and life-long involvement with boats; a key to PBI’s success. Not content with the mediocre, Fred believed a boat should not only be of the highest quality construction, but also possess beauty and the security of maximum seaworthiness. Fred’s dream was to build such a boat and sail her to ports around the world.
The UTOPIA:
Fulfilling his dream, Fred designed and built Utopia at PBI in 1946. She is a 65’ staysail schooner with wood topsides which provide aesthetic beauty as well as insulation properties, and a steel bottom for ultimate strength. Draft is 8’ with a beam of 18’. Auxiliary power is provided by two 353 GM twin screw diesels. Fully equipped with all necessities, she has freezer and storage capacity for more than a ton of provisions, and has more than adequate accommodations for 12 people to live onboard comfortably.
The Adventures:
Utopia has logged more than sixty thousand miles of enjoyment for her crew, with Fred piloting her on two world cruises. She has been raced in several Chicago-Mackinac races and has played the role of goodwill ambassador to thousands of people in her lifetime.
The UTOPIA was designed in 1945 by Fred J. Peterson and built in 1946 by Peterson Builders, Inc., to fulfill a long desire to create the best sailing vessel possible for world cruising and later to circumnavigate the globe. The UTOPIA was built for extreme safety to stand the ocean gales, the tropical sun and dampness of tropical rivers and jungles, as well as groundings, bound to happen sooner or later in uncharted rivers and South Seas coral reefs. Utopia's bottom is heavy steel, with double bottom, having tanks four feet deep to carry ten tons of fuel and five tons of drinking water. Refrigeration carries 2,000 pounds of frozen foods. Cooking and heating was by electricity. Sails are made of the heaviest nylon and Dacron to withstand storms, sun and dampness. UTOPIA was launched in 1946. Rigged and made ready to start her maiden sea voyage in July 1947, when she sailed thru the Great Lakes, St. Lawrence River into the North Atlantic, crossing to Europe via the Azores, Madeira, Lisbon, Tangiers, cruising two months in the Mediterranean, North Africa, Italy, France, Spain, the Balearic Islands, out thru Gibraltar, south along the Coast of Africa to the Canary Islands. Then across 3,000 miles in 19 days to Trinidad, then north stopping at Martinique, Santa Lucia, Antigua, St. Martins, St. Thomas, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Cayman Islands, Havana, Cuba, Miami, up the east coast of the United States to New York, then thru the Hudson River, Erie Canal, the Great Lakes and back to home port of Sturgeon Bay.
The UTOPIA, during the next eight years, sailed the waters of Green Bay and Lake Michigan and prepared for the great cruise around the world, sailing westward. In 1956 preparations were made. UTOPIA was loaded with every conceivable necessity, tools, material, food for more than one year, fuel for 3,000 miles, spare parts for two propelling engines, parts for two generators, spare sails. Almost anything that could happen on such a cruise was anticipated and preparations for repairs were aboard.
In November, 1956, UTOPIA left her berth at Peterson Builders Boat Yard and proceeded down the lake thru Chicago Drainage Canal, into the Illinois River to the Mississippi River at St. Louis, down the river to New Orleans. Then thru Lake Pontchartrain to Gulfport, out into the Gulf of Mexico and to St. Petersburg, Florida, the last port of call for UTOPIA in the U.S.A. for nearly three years. Food and fuel supply was filled and UTOPIA left for Dry Tortuga, Fort Jefferson, where the islands are typically South Seas, and fishing was wonderful. A week's stay and UTOPIA sailed for Havana, Cuba, later the Isle of Pines, Jamaica, Panama Canal, the Galapagos, Marquesas, Pukapuka, Tahiti, Moorea, Riaiatea, Bora-bora, Pago Pago, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, Yasawa, Vanikora, Rennel, Solomons, Trobriand, New Guinea, Indonesia, Bali, Singapore to Penang, Malaya, where UTOPIA was left with the harbor master there for three months while Skipper Peterson went around the world by plane, stopping at Sturgeon Bay for the Christmas Holidays.
UTOPIA's bottom was cleaned and painted for the fourth time and being half way now, March 5, 1959, started the home stretch. Seven months of intensive sailing, stopPing only for supplies and short rests of a few days in Ceylon, Aden, Suez, Port Said, Aegean Islands of Rhodes, Kos, Patmos, Crete then Piraeus, Athens, Messina, Naples, Isle of Capri, Corsica, Monaco, Marseilles, Barcelona, Palma, Alicanti, Gibraltar, Tangiers, Lisbon, Ponta Delgada, Sydney, N.S., Anacosta Isle, Gaspe Coast, Quebec, Montreal, the New St. Lawrence Seaway, into the Great Lakes and back to her home port in Sturgeon Bay; arriving here on October 22, 1959, thirty-five months after departure.
The cruise was made with an amateur crew, without personal accident or break-down of sails, spars, or machinery, without insurance claim or call for outside assistance except the Coast Guard in the St. Lawrence River gave a hand for an hour to get UTOPIA's center-board out of a mud bank. Utopia continues to sail the waters of Sturgeon Bay, Green Bay and Lake Michigan, which according to Skipper Fred Peterson, are among the finest cruising waters of the world.
Content provided by the Ellsworth and Carla Peterson Charitable Foundation