In the News

During the spring of 1934 Ernest Hemingway arranged a loan from the editor of Esquire magazine and bought a boat from the Wheeler shipyard in Brooklyn.

“It’s probably the most famous fishing boat in the world.”

The reproduction bears a striking resemblance to the famous writer’s sportfishing boat, Pilar, but will have modern amenities.

The new Wheeler 38 is under construction at the Brooklin Boat Yard in Brooklin, Maine.

Ernest Hemingway’s wooden fishing boat Pilar is beached and on display upon the old tennis court at his former home in Cuba. But like his writing, which has never gone out of style, Hemingway’s custom Wheeler Playmate, with its sleek lines and classic looks, has timeless appeal.

For lovers of the writer Ernest Hemingway, there are few images more iconic than photographs of the mustachioed “Papa” aboard his beloved 38-foot Wheeler Yacht fishing boat Pilar.

If you wanted to buy a rugged, seaworthy motor cruiser in the mid-1930s, a Wheeler was a good choice. Howard E. Wheeler’s shipyard in Brooklyn, New York, had been in business since 1910, turning out everything from skiffs to larger power yachts.

For a film-double, details to help “get it right”

Ernest Hemingway’s boat was renown as a platform for the author’s fishing exploits, but she was in fact a “cabin cruiser” and a very capable one, with features that would be valued by the power cruisers of today.