CC Hull Number 40644 State Registration WN 2966 LH VHF Call Sign WUT 4323
Waite Ownership
Commodore Virgil ("Butch") Waite, owner from 1946 until 1952. He named the boat after his daughters Dory and Ann. A national power squadron officer, Virgil was a chemical engineer, and holds the patent for nickel plating.
This is the earliest known photo of Maranee, here under the name Doryann II. Commodore Waite is leading the Opening Day Parade at Vermilion Yacht Club on Memorial Day, 1946. He has just taken possession of the boat and is flying the VYC burgee from the jackstaff, but has not yet painted out the large wartime license numbers on the hullsides. A group of Navy cadets is aboard, and can be seen waving out the open windows while their commanding officer stands at parade rest on the sundeck.
Doryann II is seen getting fuel at the Vermilion Yacht Club dock in the summer of 1946. Although she is only six years old, she already sports the obvious addition of a windshield above the aft sun deck. Note that the government numbers indicated on the hull card, 41 M 588, have been carefully repainted in the smaller postwar size.
In the years that the Waites owned her, Doryann II cruised extensively each summer, reaching destinations as far away as the Erie Canal, Georgian Bay, the St. Lawrence River, and Mackinac Island. Here Doryann II approaches a set of locks on the Oswego Canal in 1946.
At the fuel dock in Cheboygan, Michigan in the summer of 1947. Virgil painted the decks "yacht white" after his first summer aboard.
Doryann II shown fully outfitted for a Waite family cruise, taking on fuel at an Esso fuel dock at Southampton in 1948.
Moored at "Little Tub" in Tobermory, Ontario in 1948.
A logbook page from July 20, 1949, chronicling Doryann II's cruise that day from Algonac to Detroit. Virgil's detailed logs contained weather conditions, exact time abeam, fuel use, mileage, vessels met and waypoints.
Doryann II pauses at Amherstburg, Ontario at the mouth of the Detroit River in 1949.
Doryann II shown berthed at Ontario's McIntosh Fishing Camp on the French River in the summer of 1949.
Doryann II moored at Big Tub, near Tobermory, Ontario in the summer of 1949.
Same Windows, Different Bridges: In these photos, Doryann II approaches the Blue Water Bridge at Port Huron, Michigan and Maranee approaches the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, South Puget Sound, Washington; moments in time some 70 years apart, on opposite sides of the country.