The Harmony was built in Japan in 1950 by the Azuma Boat Company for George T. Folster, a New Englander whose ancestors had sailed the Pacific in the days of the great whaling ships, The craft was christened Watadori (Bird of Passage), and the theme set by the original name was reflected in the carving of a bird under the bowsprit, as well as in the hand-carved designs in the cabinetwork below decks. Starting from blueprints drawn up by an American yachtsman, the craft was built from materials from all over the world: the wood includes teak from Burma, mahogany from the Philippines, and camphor wood from Formosa; the sails were imported from England; and the brass fittings were made in Scotland.

The Harmony, with Marconi rigging, was not built for racing, but she is a fleet ship nonetheless. She was the first yacht ever to make a nonstop passage under canvas from Japan, a feat that was accomplished during a perilous forty-seven-day voyage, across five thousand miles of open sea, in the summer of 1952. On the voyage, she covered an average of a hundred miles a day; her best run was 158 miles for one day. Although the vessel has now put such long voyages behind her, previous owners have taken her on extensive cruises, and Wilson has sailed her to Catalina, northern California, and the Baja peninsula of Mexico.

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