The Equator Capital Group provides funding to preserve and maintain assets that are significant to the history of the United States. Equator is currently targeting historically significant antique vessels and is a unique source of capital to fund the maintenance, operations, and restoration of yachts, commercial vessels and decommissioned Naval ships that might otherwise fall into disrepair, be dismantled or removed from U.S. waters.
The Equator Collection’s current maritime investments include:
Presidential Yacht Sequoia
The Sequoia is a 104-foot classic wooden fantail motor yacht designed by John Trumpy and built in 1925 by the Mathis Yacht Building Co. in Camden, NJ. Having served eight sitting U.S. president (from Herbert Hoover to Gerald Ford), the Sequoia is perhaps the most significant piece of U.S. Presidential memorabilia in private hands.
Equator purchased Sequoia during October 2016 and is committed to restoring and preserving the Sequoia so that future generations will be able to enjoy the storied past of this magnificent vessel. On October 22, 2019, Sequoia arrived in Belfast Maine where her restoration will be managed by French & Webb. Once restored, Sequoia will be used as venue to promote conservation and particularly ocean conservation causes.
Tenovus
During 2013, Equator purchased Tenovus, a 31-foot “Seven Seas” yawl built for Joseph P. Kennedy by Boston Yacht Sales Inc in 1931. Mr. Kennedy had the vessel built for his sons, Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. and John F. Kennedy, the future President of the United States, and named the boat for his then 10-person family. After his youngest son, Edward Kennedy, was born on February 22, 1932, Mr. Kennedy named the next family boat Onemore.
On September 4, 1931, Richard J. Sears took the iconic portrait of the 10 person Kennedy family in front of their Hyannisport home. On that same day, Sears photographed Joe and John Kennedy aboard Tenovus rescuing the family dog, Buddy, after he jumped overboard. This was also the same day that the then 6 year old Robert F. Kennedy was rescued by his older brothers after he jumped from Tenovus and almost drowned attempting to swim to shore, in order to impress his family. Recalling the episode while in the White House, President Kennedy said about his brother, then-Attorney General, “It showed either a lot of guts or no sense at all, depending on how you looked at it”.
Racing for the Osterville Yacht Club, the two Kennedy boys were the youngest crew and the Tenovus the smallest boat in the very first running of the prestigious 230-mile offshore Vineyard Race in July 1932. Only 8 of the 23 entrants finished due to a horrendous storm which beached the Tenovus but miraculously only did minor damage. The Kennedy family sold Tenovus during May of 1934.
The company that built Tenovus, Boston Yacht Sales Inc., was founded and owned by Ashley D. Adams, who won the Navy Cross as a submarine-chaser during Word War-I. Adams built a total of 20 Seven Seas sailing yachts between 1930 and 1934. These include both Tenovus and the 45-foot schooner Amberjack II, which then-President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his son, James, sailed for two summers up the New England coast to the Roosevelt family compound on Campobello Island.
