Santana,Bogies boat

Regardless of how many owners there have been or ever will be, Santana will always be known as "Bogie's" boat. In Stephen Bogart’s book, "In Search Of My Father," he writes, "While most people know that Bogie and Bacall had a great love affair, probably fewer know about my father’s other great love affair. It was with sailing. Specifically, it was with the Santana, a fifty-five-foot sailing yacht, which he had bought from Dick Powell and June Allyson. My father was not simply some movie star throwing money into a hole in the water. He was very serious about the boat and he was an excellent helmsman who earned the respect of the sailing fraternity, despite some well-entrenched prejudices they had about actors with boats. The sea was my father’s sanity. My father once answered a question about his devotion to sailing this way: "An actor needs something to stabilize his personality, something to nail down what he really is, not what he is currently pretending to be."

Bogart learned to sail as a child and once he had the good fortune to own his own boat he did it as often as possible. He sailed Santana between 35 and 45 weekends a year. Most of those weekends were stag, as Bogie felt that "the trouble with having dames on board is you can’t pee over the side." In addition







Nautical Man

Bogie and Bacall aboard Santana Bogies great off screen passion was sailing, and his pride and joy was his fifty-five-foot sailing yacht called Santana. Both a pleasure and a racing vessel, Bogie entertained friends and family aboard Santana and was also a respected racer, winning several high profile events.

Bogie on the Santana: "I don't use the boat to drink or chase dames on. I use it to get away from things. Hemingway said that the sea was the last free place in the world, and I respect and love it."

On the topic of Bogies love of the sea, and Santana, his wife Lauren Bacall had this to say:
"Bogie loved teaching me his love of the sea. It was one of his greatest joys when Steve was old enough to come on board. Bogie was fulfilled, completely satisfied when he was on the Santana. One look at his face and you could see the purity and the simplicity of the man I knew." "When Bogie laid eyes on the boat for the first time, he became lighthearted - singing, laughing. He did not want to part with her... If I ever had a woman to be jealous of, she was the Santana. Her sleek lines, the way she moved through the water... When Bogie bought that boat he was enslaved - happily so - and truly had everything he'd ever dreamed of."
When he established his own film production company he named it Santana Productions. For the scenes aboard a yacht in Key Largo the vessel was called Santana (although not Bogie's actual yacht). At his funeral his replica model of Santana stood beside the pulpit.

Since Bogie's death the yacht has had several owners and been toured around the world.

Santana Stats
55 ft 2 inches long
Mast Height 62 ft
Working Sail Area 1,569 sq ft
Displacement 50,000 lbs
Fuel 75 gallons
Water 66 gallons
Designed by Sparkman & Stephens, NYC
Built in 1935 by Willmington Boat Works