Fantome R18 Universal Rule R Class Sloop
Design No. 265 Burgess Swasey & Paine
Built by Anker & Jensen at Christiana Norway 1924

Henry Piersig originally purchased Fantome with three others in
1979. Purchasing the boat from the last remaining partner in 1999
he and his partner Vicki have spent the past nine years making many
improvements. The 7 boat R fleet in Toronto fell apart in the early
1990s so Fantome is now actively raced PHRF in both Club events and
international events on Lake Ontario. To our knowledge, she is the oldest
actively raced boat on Lake Ontario.

Originally named Opeechee II, Fantome R18 was designed by Burgess
Swasey & Paine and built by Anker Jensen in Christiania Norway in
1923/24 . She was built for W.C. Morrison who sailed her for a season or
two on Long Island Sound and Massachussetts Bay.
Built of single planked one inch Honduras Mahogony with oak frames on
nine inch centres, she is a lead mine with a displacement of 11,000 lbs -
8300 of them being ballast. In 1979 she was jacked up and cedar splined
and epoxied with West System inside and out.
Fantome still proudly sports a beautiful 50 foot 1 inch Sitka Spruce pear
shaped hollow mast with an internal main halyard built by Red Nimphius
(said to have been the finest spar craftsman of the central USA) in 1967 .
A light weather boat, she was sailed for many years out of the Chicago
Yacht Club and raced in the 1927 Mackinac Cup, placing second of 10
boats.
She is 40 feet long, with a 26' waterline 6 ‘ 9” maximum beam, and 18
inch freeboard. There is no room for a motor and she is sailed on and off
the dock