Splendour Yacht - Natalie Wood

[TopHattandTails]

With all the recent news about Natalie Wood's death, there have been a few photos of the boat that Wagner owned. Intrigued by its lines I was wondering if anyone had any additional info about it. It appears to be named Splendour, and reportedly a 1960 58' Bristol Boat made by the Allen Quimby Veneer Company out of Bristol, Maine. The boat is currently owned by Ron Nelson and is docked at Ala Wai Yacht harbor in Honolulu. He bought the boat in 1986. The boat was previously called Grateful Lady and Nelson changed the name back to Splendour. He has been restoring her to her original and recreating the Natalie Woods theme on the boat. There are a few shots of the exterior and interior here.

Interior: http://photos.tmz.com/galleries/insi...ab=most_recent

Exterior: http://photos.tmz.com/galleries/nata...ab=most_recent

Any other info on Bristol Boats?

[lumina]

Hi All,

A bunch more pictures on this site.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...=feeds-newsxml

[Canuck Dennis]

Strange layout, that so called stateroom opens out to the aft cockpit? and the bed is a hideaway ?

[mwert72655]

Ok, now the story makes sense. I never could figure out how she got from her cabin to the dingy with the guys sitting in the saloon, which was the story in the press (of course the press doesn't realize how weird the layout of that boat is.... they probably think they're all built like that...

But even the Yachtfisherman with the big aft cabin has no direct access to a dinghy, except through an escape hatch, which I knew Natalie would never have attempted. RJ should have bought a Hatteras!

[Avenger]

Oooh, oooh. An opportunity to drag out old morbid jokes!

Name two kinds of wood that don't float....

Petrified and ??????

[Ross Macdonald]

We were moored next to them a number of times back in the day in a cove called Emerald Bay on Catalina Island off of the coast of California. She was very reclusive, but Bob Wagner was very personable and had two young daughters that he took out dinghy cruising often. He even invited our two kids who were the same age to play with the girls. Really a down to earth guy. She would wave from the boat but never interacted with others in the cove. Looking at the pictures of Splendour now, she never looked that good back then. I never could figure out, with all of their money, why they bought this boat. Anyway, this latest news item brought back some memories....Ross

[TopHattandTails]

A post for a new HOF member researching Quimby Boat Company and the Splendour. Please reply to John directly or via this thread (I still find it interesting):

I am trying to get contact information for Ron Nelson.* I have quite a bit of historical information about the Bristol boats and would like to exchange information with him.* This boat was one of only two of this length built by the Quimby Company in the late 50's and early 60's.

John Freed
651-464-5390
foresteng@aol.com

[DaveC]

This is maybe a minor correction but the boat actually belonged to the Wood family, at least that's what I have discovered about this boat. I just may be wrong, RW could have bought this boat at any time. I suppose a search on the Title might tell the real truth but I'm pretty sure....

It's STILL for sale as of 3/9/18 for the ridiculously low price of $10,000....says the ghosts haunt the boat and that he had 3 Hawaiian Kahuna's bless the boat...IF you believe in that sort of thing...