His­tory of the Yacht SINA­TRA THE VOICE

This type of yacht was built by the Burger Boat Com­pany in the 1950’s in Manitowoc,Wisconsin USA.The designer of the yacht was the com­pany Spark­man & Stephens, and only four of this type of yacht were built, the last for the singer Kenny Rogers.

The yacht SINA­TRA THE VOICE was built in 1956 for Vic­tor McCormick an Attor­ney from Green Bay in Wis­con­sin, who inher­ited a for­tune from a mater­nal uncle based on the sale of a com­pany that ulti­mately became Proc­tor & Gam­ble. Vic­tor was unmar­ried, and the yacht was orig­i­nally called by him TIMMY RASCH after his god­son. The yacht was moored at the Green Bay Yacht­ing Club Marina in Green Bay and used on Lake Michi­gan. Vic­tor was a major phil­an­thropist, donat­ing US$2,500,000 to the Uni­ver­sity of Wis­con­sin, as well as US$1,000,000 to St. Nor­bert Col­lege in Wis­con­sin (who sub­se­quently named Vic­tor McCormick Hall in his hon­our). Vic­tor was also on the Exec­u­tive Com­mit­tee of the Green Bay Pack­ers foot­ball organization.

In 1959, he sold the yacht to Beale Poste (and his wife Flo­rence) an Ohio indus­tri­al­ist from Granville. Beale owned a num­ber of com­pa­nies, includ­ing the Colum­bus Bolt Works. Beale used the yacht on Lake Michi­gan until 1967 when it was moved to North Palm Beach Marina in Palm Beach County Florida, and it’s name changed to HEIDI III. Beale was also a major phil­an­thropist, donat­ing nearly US$100,000 to Prince­ton Uni­ver­sity to build the Beale E Poste Health Fit­ness Cen­tre. Beale Poste also pur­chased in 1956 the famous Casa Marina Hotel in Key West Florida used by many of the rich and famous, includ­ing Humphrey Bog­art. It was via Bog­art that Beale and Flo­rence Poste met Frank Sina­tra (Bog­art and Sina­tra were both lead­ing mem­bers of the famous Rat Pack), and ulti­mately the Poste’s offered use of the yacht to Frank when­ever he wished. It is under­stood that Frank used the yacht very pri­vately on a num­ber of occa­sions between 1968 and 1974 in West Palm Beach Florida.

Beale Poste died in 1972 and his wife Flo­rence in 1974, and the yacht was willed to James Alexan­der Dodge, the 30 year old son of the socialite Nina Neal Dodge who’s grand­fa­ther John Neal founded the Maxwell House cof­fee com­pany. James Alexan­der Dodge was the Cap­tain of the yacht for Flo­rence Poste, and after only 6 months, the yacht was sold by the young man for US$40,000 to James Wal­lace Tutt Jr.

James Wal­lace Tutt Jr. was a wealthy busi­ness­man from Mobile in Alabama who owned the Hen­der­son Baker Lum­ber Com­pany, and ran a tow­ing busi­ness on the Tennessee-​Tombigbee Water­way. Wal­lace changed the name of the yacht to KING TUT, and since he was involved in the com­mer­cial boat sec­tor, use of the yacht changed from a plea­sure ves­sel to more of a com­mer­cial nature.

In 1977 Wal­lace sold the yacht to the Florida Ocean Sci­ences Insti­tute, Inc (who changed the name of the yacht to CARE­FREE II), and there­after the yacht was used for a period of nearly 15 years as a research ves­sel into marine envi­ron­ments by a suc­ces­sion of enti­ties, includ­ing Revadee Marine Cor­po­ra­tion (who changed the name of the yacht to REVADEE), Marine Research Ser­vices, Inc and Sea Mate Marine, Inc.

In the late 1980’s, the yacht was moved to Kona Kai Marina in San Diego Cal­i­for­nia, and it’s name changed to ANOTHER TOY II. The yacht was restored back to a plea­sure ves­sel, and char­tered to film stars such as Kirk Dou­glas, and roy­alty such as Saudi princes, amongst others.

In 1992, the yacht was acquired by Sign of the Times Lim­ited for US$450,000 and shipped on top of a con­tainer ship to Hong Kong, where it was used as house boat by an expa­tri­ate lawyer at the marina of The Clear­wa­ter Bay Golf & Coun­try Club. In 1999, the yacht was shipped again on top of a con­tainer ship to Southamp­ton in the United King­dom, and moored at Ocean Quay Marina. The yacht was exten­sively restored between 2000 and 2003, and its name changed to NOS­TAL­GIA X.

By 2012, the yacht was located in Lon­don, its name finally changed to SINA­TRA THE VOICE in hon­our of Frank Sina­tra, and now owned by mul­ti­ple own­ers each hav­ing a share in Sign of the Times Limited.