John Kramer – Chesapeake 20 Pioneer
Dies
It is with a saddened heart that I report that longtime
Annapolis resident and C 20 racing pioneer, John Kramer, 88, died on January
17, 2009 at his home in Naples, Fl. He
will be interred at Arlington Cemetery probably sometime in April.
John’s father, Andrew, and three sons launched today’s
round-bottom Chesapeake 20 class.
Luckily, I have spoken to John many times in recent months, keeping him
up-to-date on Stormy, his beloved 20,
and our C 20 events. John and his wife, Jeanne,
have sent me many photos and clippings of Chesapeake 20s including one in front
of the old Annapolis Yacht Club in the early 1940s. All of these materials are in our archives at
www.chesapeake20.org.
Brief History of the Kramers and C-20s.
John, Neal and Vincent Kramer were early Chesapeake 20
pioneers. Their father, Andrew A. Kramer
was president of Annapolis Bank and Trust.
In 1939, he approached Captain
Dick Hartge, and asked him to come to his bank, and to “get serious” about
building Chesapeake 20s. Andrew provided
him with a check to built 20 Chesapeake 20s costing $650 each. We have the original Hartge 20 brochure of
these “production” 20s (built four at a time), the 1940 Chesapeake 20 plans/drawings,
and the cost and material list on our website.
Andrew Kramer bought and owned Sea Witch II (a chine 20) who he bought from Albert Ball, and Myray (another chine 20), from Ralph
Young – named for himself and his wife. In the winter of 1939, son John Kramer went to
the big Hartge shed where Captain Dick was building the 20s and John said that
he could pick out his boat from 10 or 15 Chesapeake 20s that were in various
stages of construction. He selected Stormy and told Captain Dick how he
wanted her to be painted: a light blue deck, red boot top and black hull. He especially did not want a drawer in the
stern which most classic wooden 20s have.
Sea Witch II is currently in
Reedville, Va. and believed to be the only surviving chine bottom Chesapeake 20. Stormy,
now owned by me, is the first Chesapeake 20 registered with the Maryland
Inventory of Historic Properties and is on the WRSC grounds.
John Kramer’s brother, Vincent, who raced Sea Witch II, died after WWII in an F-80
crash in Germany. His brother, Neal, raced
Serenade, which is now owned by his daughter, Sally Sachse
and also stored and raced by her at WRSC.
The Kramer brothers raced under sail numbers, “00” and “000”
since it was the trend to have identical and matching numbers back to back. John Kramer also said that in the early
1930s, sail numbers were assigned at regattas and pinned to the cotton sails.
John was a very successful racer. He won the CBYRA High Point Season
championships in 1957, 1968 and 1969. He
was not awarded the trophy in 1957 because he was not a member of a recognized Chesapeake Bay yacht club while an Air Force officer stationed at Andrews Air Base.
John Kramer built an exact model of Stormy (2 ½” to the foot) which is now owned by the Chesapeake 20
Association. I am arranging to put it on display at the Annapolis Maritime
Museum. You will be able to enjoy it at our Nationals in Annapolis this June. It is spectacular. Joe Atwell, his crew since they were teenagers,
obtained the model for us. It was originally a radio controlled boat, and
certainly of museum quality.
Ted Weihe
Dear Ted,
I, too was very sorry to hear of John Kramer's death. John and my
father were friends from back in the 1960s when he was stationed in
Harrisburg, PA. The two of them kept in touch ever since, though
somewhat infrequently at times, especially with Kramers moving cross
country a few times in the last few years.
Some of my best memories are of times spent at the Kramer home in
Annapolis. Back when John was building the scale model of Stormy, I
remember him showing us the boat's bow fitting and how he basically cut
it by hand from solid brass. At that time, I'd never seen the building
of a planked hull before, and John showed me how to divide up the
length of the frames and take off the proper shape for planks that will
lay out properly.
I also remember watching the model sail in Spa creek and how
amazed I was that he'd sail it in that water with the open cockpit -- a
rare thing for an radio control boat. Those photos are from the spot
where we used to sail our R/C boats at the foot of Revel street in
Annapolis -- I have a couple of pictures of us and our R/C boats that I
took from the same place in the early '70s, one including John and his
Half Meter boat if I recall correctly.
Alan Stein
