January 2025 - Richard L. West, new owner for Totem, intends to campaign the boat from Stamford Yacht Club and will be on the line for the
2025 International 6 Metre World Championships at Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club in September.
Totem received all new mahogany planking and a new pine deck covered with canvas. She is now as elegant in her structure as she is on the water - slim, strong, sound and dry. Totem's new wood mast put her in the running for the Baum + Koenig Trophy at the 2009 World Cup in Newport, Rhode Island, 2011 in Helsinki and in 2017 at Vancouver. Totem has certainly been white in the past, and was known to be yellow while on Lake Ontario but her current black topsides and white bottom paint certainly pay tribute to the half hull model of Totem on the wall in the New York Yacht Club's model room. Could her black color be a statement in reaction to Nathaniel Hereshoff, who, when asked this question replied, "There are only 2 colors to paint a boat; either white or black, and only a fool would paint a boat black."
The images below show US 51 Totem, post launch, alongside US 53 Cherokee at Casey's Marina in Newport.
Cherokee and Totem at Casey's Marina in Newport, R.I.
Here is another account of Totem from a former owner, Andrew
Thomson:
"As I belong to the National Yacht Club , I have had the
opportunity to speak to some old timers who remember Totem being
yellow. Today she is traditional white in a west epoxy covering.
I was also told the inserted cockpit and cabin may be from a shark
done by George Cuthbertson of C&C Yachts around 75-80
. That may have helped her survive all these years. I purchased
her from John Livingston out of Belleville, where she was drydocked
for a few years. After a friend and I, with the help of a local
gentleman, got her ready for launch in June 2001, my father (John
Thomson) and I proceeded to sail her back to Toronto. Along the
way we ran aground in Presquisle Bay (afterward I found
out in French, presque means almost or nearly and isle is island)
at around 7 oclock at night. Consequently, we found we were
taking on about 10 gallons of water every 10-15 minutes . As Murphys
law would have it, the electric bilge had broke when we needed
it, the cell phone was dead, and we sailed to Cobourg on an extremely
unforgiving, dark and cold Lake Ontario. We finally arrived to
a familiar face my good friend Jim at 2:00am. The next day we
managed to take her to Wiggers Marine for repairs, where we picked
her up a week later, sailed to The National Yacht Club where we
recounted our story over an excellent tasting pint."