Jeffrey Rutherford apprenticed in Maine at the North End Shipyard and before establishing his boat shop in Richmond, California, he worked as shipwright foreman at Pacific Dry Dock and as construction foreman at Pacific Fish Boat Co. building new-sawn frame fishing boats.

Jeffrey refined his skills over several years of working as a free-lance boat repairer dockside. His work has been featured in numerous publications, such as Classic Boat Magazine, Sailing Magazine, Latitude 38, and Restoration Quarterly, including a cover story in Wooden Boat Magazine #169.

The articles give an insight of the magnitude and historical significance of the projects and praise the quality and detail of the work. Jeffrey has been invited as guest speaker to talk about his work at the Classic Yacht Symposium co-sponsored by the Herreshoff Marine Museum and Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME) in Bristol, RI and has been an expert witness for yacht construction litigations over the years.

Interesting slideshow of Viveka under restoration.

Viveka, was designed by Frank C. Paine of Paine, Belknap & Skene and built by Fred Lawley in Quincy, Massachusetts, in 1929 and 1930. She was designed for J.P. Morgan who wanted a fast cruiser, putting special emphasis on speed. For this reason Frank Paine designed her to rate at the top class G, a 38 rating, and at the same time under the universal rules in the 12-meter class. Viveka can thus be considered one of the very few schooners that rated in the 12-meter class.

VIVEKA has sailed 1.5 times around the world with Merl Petersen at the helm. She was purchased from Merl by Sir Keith Mills who wants everything to be done to perfection so she was brought to Rutherford’s boat shop for a complete restoration.

The boat is double planked of cedar and mahogany on oak frames. She is designed with a deck length of 72’9”, Water line of 48’, a beam of 14’ and a draft of 9’1”