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With any boat, the three most important sources of information are the designer, the builder, and the original owner. Astoundingly, even though Island Eagle was built over 40 years ago, both the designer (Mr. Arthur DeFever) and the original owner (Mr. Joseph Coberly) were still alive when I bought the boat, and they have been most generous with their reminisces (sadly, Joe Coberly passed away in late 2006). Here is what we have learned so far about the history of Island Eagle:
The Designer: Arthur DeFever
Island Eagle was designed by Arthur (Art) DeFever, the well known San Diego Naval Architect. Mr. DeFever is still practicing naval architecture from his office in San Diego. For more detail on Mr. DeFever and his designs, click here.
The Builder: Del Boyce
Island Eagle was built by a man named Mr. Del Boyce. According to Art DeFever, Mr. Boyce was a skilled shipwright who decided to strike out on his own and build a boat. He rented some land on the San Diego waterfront, close to the water and a lot beside the "D & P Trucking Company". Mr. DeFever designed the hull and Mr. Boyce built it with intention of selling it as a commercial fishing boat. We've been unable to find any more information about Mr. Boyce, but if you know anything please don't hesitate to send us mail.
The Owner: Joe Coberly
Mr. Joseph (Joe) E. Coberly Jr. owned a Ford dealership in Los Angeles, which was started in 1916 by his grandfather and was the first Ford dealership west of the Mississippi river. Joe is a real "take-charge" kind of guy, whose first boat was a 52 foot schooner built to Murray Peterson's "Coaster II" design. He came to the conclusion that sailing was hard work, and that the fisherman knew a darn sight more about the type of boats that were needed along the California coast than the yachtsmen did.
Joe had some business dealings in Mexico, and in 1962 the road from Los Angeles to Tijuana ran right past the site where Del Boyce was building his fishing boat. Before long Joe was the owner of Island Eagle, the schooner was sold, and Art DeFever was engaged to draw up plans converting the fishing boat into a fully-equipped yacht. By the way, as an interesting coincidence, several of the drawings Art did were completed on Scott's day of birth -- February 17, 1963.
Island Eagle was launched in 1964. At the time Joe was still alive and living in Rancho Santa Fe, and was kind enough to provide a number of details to us regarding Island Eagle, as well as the photos shown here. Joe has passed away now, but in the last few years of his life he enjoyed looking through pictures of Island Eagle as she was being renovated.
Here's a picture taken in late 1962, showing the side decks, the trunk cabin walls, and the trucking company in the background:
The hull set up and ready for the cabin:
Initially the hull had quite a flat sheerline. Mr. Coberly wanted a sweeping sheer, so that was added on to the existing hull. Here one of Mr. Coberly's daughters stands at the bow and shows how height the new sheer will be:
The Early Years
Joe Coberly and his wife June had four daughters, and they often cruised to the Catalina islands. Here are some wonderful shots from those years:
Mr. David Harris
In his teens, Mr. Harris was a crewman for Mr. Coberly (he's the young guy in the madras shirt in the photos above). He was generous enough to share some of his memories with us. Click here for details.
Modifications
As initially designed and built, the boat had no pilothouse, and the only steering station was the exposed fly bridge (this was done at the request of Mr. Coberly). While this did lead to a very spacious salon, it was surely less than optimal in both hot and cold weather. To rectify this shortcoming, Art DeFever designed a pilothouse for the fly bridge area in 1969, and to the best of our knowledge it was added at that time, by then-owner Jorge Altimirano at the Mauricio yard in San Diego.
Owners
Over the years the boat we know as "Island Eagle" has had many names and owners. Here is what we been ale to gather so far:
Launched in 1964 as "Island Eagle", owned by Joseph Coberly Jr.
Renamed to "Sister Sue" 1n 1969, owned by Angus E. Richardson. This is a bit confusing, since Mr. Coberly says that he sold the boat to a Mr. Joe Pyne, then a very popular TV talk show host, and to add even more confusion the drawings for the new pilot house, done by Arthur DeFever in 1969, show the owner as a Mr. Jorge Altamirano. Update: I have spoken to Mr. Ed Richardson, a well-known yacht broker in Southern California, still in business at Chuck Hovey Yachts. He says that Jorge Altamirano was a Mexican citizen and as such was unable to own a yacht in US waters at the time. Ed was the owner of record, but Mr. Altamirano was the user of the vessel. Ed told me that Mr. Altamirano owned the yacht for about two years and then sold it to Mr. Joe Pyne. However, Joe Pyne died shortly thereafter from cancer,
which is probably when the Mauricios bought her.
Renamed to "Maria Louise" in 1970, owned by Tony Mauricio Jr. (the Mauricio family owned a San Diego boatyard).
Renamed "Miss Norway III" in 1970, owned by Rudolph Gestri.
Renamed back to "Island Eagle" in 1971, owned by Frank R. Bacon.
Renamed "Barb Anne" in 1977, owned by Tobar Inc., sold to Anthony Pardo in 1979.
Renamed to "Vaijero" in 1980, owned by Ken and John Edwards.
Update: I recieved a very nice letter from Ken Edwards in the summer of 2008. Here are some of the details:
Well, we (my brother Johnny and I) bought the boat from Tony Pardo (he called it the "Barbanne" after his wife) out of the San Rafael Yacht Club in 1980. We outfitted the boat for swordfishing-put a big crow's nest up in place of the small, standup one that the boat had when we bought it. Before that, though, the first thing to attend to were the teak decks. They were wet underneath and had to be completely pulled up and the boards re-cut and replaced-all done by a well-known Southern California shipwright, Dave Fuller. Originally, the teak deck above the "house" stuck over the sides of the house about 3" and there were safety lines hanging all around up there that people had sat on and over time had curled the teak upward near the edges. We eliminated those and cut the
teak back about 3/8' from the edge of the house. Much better. And even in those days, there was the issue of the pilothouse-we cut out a lot, patched and filled a lot.
We fished the boat for swordfish in the summers and took the plank off in the winter and went to Mexico about 3 times-once going as far as Acapulco. We usually stopped at the Cape, Mazatlan, and Puerta Vallarta along the way, anchoring along the Mexican Riviera and having good friends fly in to join us.
Well, we were still enjoying the boat up until 1992, when my brother was diagnosed with lung cancer. He died in June of 1993. My nephew and nieces and I sold the boat a few years later. We still get out and do a little coastal fishing now and then-my niece lives at Catalina and my nephew skippers a boat for a businessman.
Hope this answers a few questions about an 18 year period in the life of the Island Eagle (I think we were the longest continuous owners)
Renamed to "Highlander" in 1998, owned by Lena Mackenzie Lee.
Renamed back to "Island Eagle" in 2000, owned by Randy and Kellee Gibbons.
Bought by us in 2003.
Island Eagle In Print
Island Eagle was featured in Yachting magazine, May 1966, Page 83, with a full page review. Click here to see that review, as well as copies of various brokerage ads over the years.
Additional Information
We're always looking for additional information about Island Eagle and her builders, designer, and owners. If you have anything to add, please don't hesitate to send us mail.
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