2 Answers

I couldn't find the boat but I did find Frank Bannister the person and the character in a movie.  What did Frank Bannister do for a living ?  ... there are quite a few out there.

I bought Wandering Lassie from Bannister in, I believe, 1977. I brought her up to Sausalito, Ca., and into Pelican Harbor where I lived aboard her until 1981. I sold her to a man named, Bob (sorry, no last name) and he took her back down to L.A.

The boat was in just ok condition when I bought her and had some problems on the voyage north, but we made it eventually, with all new standing rigging, a new transmission, and within a month, a new rebuilt engine. Over the time I had her I put on new decks, removed a funky plywood doghouse, painted her all over, new sails and running backstays, new electronics and re-ballasted her for San Francisco Bay winds.

When I sold her to Bob, she needed a new transom and several new frames and planks, but everything else was sound. I've no idea where she is now or what condition she's in.

When I lived on her in Sausalito I had lots of people come by and say they recognized the boat and had seen her in places as far away as the Caribbean and even China. Something about the Yangtze River. Who knows? I still have a letter from Paul Grau, the builder, lamenting that she had been ruined when they cut down her main boom and bow sprit and eliminated her main top mast. She had started as a topsail gaff schooner (two masts BTW) and was transformed into a staysail schooner with two head sails, a fore staysail and a main staysail. I could single hand her when she was rebalasted and trimmed.

Please contact me if you have any more current information: