Mah Jong, A Gamble Worth Taking

Mah Jong at the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta © Tim Wright / www.photoaction.com

The 1957 Sparkman & Stephens 52ft yawl Mah Jong arrived in Nelson's Dockyard for 2026 Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta looking immaculate. She is the sort of yacht that makes people stop and stare. Racing in the Classic Class, she brings elegance, pedigree and a backstory so colourful and amazing.

Mah Jong's story begins in the 1950s, when three young American graduates decided that a conventional start to adulthood was not really for them. Instead of settling for something sensible, they pooled their money and approached the great Olin Stephens to design them a yacht for a voyage around the world.

Mah Jong's present-day guardian Pat Ilderton takes up the story in Nelson's Dockyard, Antigua after the first day racing at Antigua Classics.

"One of the graduates was the grandson of Alexander Graham Bell," said Ilderton. "He and two of his mates got together, and they did not have a lot of money. They went to Olin Stephens and said, what can you give me for a deal to build a boat?" Ilderton believes that the connection with the great inventor, along with the obvious spirit of the three young men, may well have helped persuade Stephens to take on the project. Rather than dismiss them, Stephens reworked an earlier design, producing a yacht very similar to one he had drawn a few years before called Bacharach.

That detail matters, because Bacharach was itself named after a gambling game. The young owners loved poker, and their new yacht would also carry the name of a game of chance. "That is one of the reasons why Mah Jong was named Mah Jong," said Ilderton. "They all played poker together. They all loved gambling." It was, in other words, a yacht born from a wager, designed for adventure by young men with more nerve than money, which is usually how the best stories begin.

Launched in Hong Kong in 1957 by Cheoy Lee Shipyard, Mah Jong was built in Burmese teak and endowed with the kind of easy grace that makes modern boats look as if they are trying a little too hard. Down below, she is rich with hand crafted detail and old world charm. Soon after launch she set off on a 15,000 mile voyage from Hong Kong through the Philippines, through the Suez Canal and into the Mediterranean, because a yacht like this was clearly never destined for a quiet existence.

When Ilderton came across her many years later, he was not operating from some grand, perfectly formed vision. In fact, one of the most appealing things about his account is how honestly he admits that he was making it up as he went along. He had been in England with Ross Gannon of Gannon and Benjamin, looking at another boat entirely, when talk in a pub turned to an old Sparkman and Stephens yacht lying in the Virgin Islands. A visit followed. The sales pitch, by Ilderton's own cheerful account, was less than flawless. "We had quite an interesting showing," he said. "A sort of balls up, kind of showing." Things broke. Excuses were made. The whole presentation was a bit untidy. But then they got her out sailing.

"I do remember the helm in my hands and the sails set and that just said - this boat feels really good," said Ilderton. That was enough. Not because Ilderton had every detail mapped out, but almost because he did not. "I had very little forethought in where I was going, and I think that helped me," he said. "Being clueless" may not sound like the foundation of a major restoration project, but in this case it seems to have worked rather well.

What followed was not so much a refit as a resurrection. Mah Jong underwent a major rebuild at Gannon and Benjamin on Martha's Vineyard, brought back with such care and beauty that the project won the 2018 Classic Boat Award for Best Restoration Over 40 Feet. The restoration returned her not just to life, but to splendour. Yet for Ilderton, the yacht has never been only about the wood, the lines or the prize-giving. "For me, the boat has always been about the people," he said.

Mah Jong at the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta - photo © Tim Wright / www.photoaction.com

Over the years, people have approached Ilderton with photographs and stories of fathers, uncles and grandfathers who once sailed aboard Mah Jong. He has met those connected to her earliest adventures, including a man from the original voyage and the widow of one of the early sailors. "The boat has always been about the people from the very first," he said. "People I have met initially, and people I have met along the journey, both in the build out, as well as certainly the people I have met sailing her."

That is true of the present day as well. Mah Jong is not some precious object rolled out for admiration and then hidden away. She is sailed properly, cruised properly, lived aboard properly. "She is not a day sailor," said Ilderton. "It is a boat you sail." He says that with the satisfaction of a man who knows the difference. She is comfortable, capable and designed for real life afloat, which somehow only adds to her glamour.

It also explains why Antigua suits her so well. For Ilderton, the classics world is full of people who care not just about sailing, but about something broader and more civilised. "They care about decency and style," he said. That might be the neatest description of Mah Jong herself. She is elegant, yes, but also warm hearted, adventurous and entirely free of self importance. She has crossed oceans, collected generations of admirers, and carried her stories lightly.

Some yachts have history. Mah Jong has history, humour and a pulse. She began as a long shot backed by three young men with modest funds and a taste for risk. Thanks to their nerve, Olin Stephens' generosity, and a long line of devoted custodians, she is still here, still turning heads, and still making the rest of us look a little too cautious.