[
{
"id": "spaulding-myron",
"name": "Myron Spaulding",
"sort": "Spaulding, Myron",
"sub": "Naval architect, boatbuilder and concert violinist — Sausalito",
"life": "1905 – 2000",
"place": "San Francisco, then Sausalito, California",
"start": 1930,
"regions": [
"sf-bay"
],
"eras": [
"between-wars",
"war-plywood",
"postwar"
],
"summary": "The central Bay Area figure: a designer, a builder, a champion racing helmsman and a professional violinist, whose Sausalito yard is now a living museum and the working heart of Bay wooden-boat preservation.",
"essay": [
"Spaulding is the figure through whom most of this atlas connects. He trained in naval architecture and boatbuilding at Polytechnic High School in San Francisco and, at the same time, in music — he played violin with the San Francisco Symphony until 1957, and largely taught himself the rest of yacht design after his schooling ended.",
"He was first famous as a sailor rather than a designer. In 1936 he skippered the Sparkman & Stephens yawl Dorade to victory in the Transpacific Yacht Race; he sailed six Transpacs in all, and was a class champion in Birds, Stars and Six-Metres. That combination — designer who races his own water — is the recurring pattern in the best Bay work.",
"He opened a naval architecture office in San Francisco before the war and spent the war years at Madden & Lewis in Sausalito, building subchasers. In 1951 he bought the waterfront property at 600 Gate Five Road and established Spaulding Boatworks, which is still there and still hauling wooden boats.",
"His own designs are a short, coherent list rather than a large one: the 20-foot Clipper, the Spaulding 33, and a run of custom sloops and yawls. He also pitched the design that became the Farallone Clipper to the Nunes brothers before the commission went to Stephens Brothers in Stockton — a single decision that links three of the Bay's most important yards.",
"When Spaulding died in 2000 and his widow Gladys shortly after, the yard passed into charitable trust and became the nonprofit Spaulding Marine Center. Since 2007 it has housed the Arques School of Traditional Boatbuilding. His design collection is archived at San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park."
],
"facts": [
[
"Trained",
"Polytechnic High School, San Francisco — naval architecture and boatbuilding"
],
[
"Second career",
"Violinist, San Francisco Symphony, until 1957"
],
[
"War service",
"Madden & Lewis, Sausalito — subchaser construction"
],
[
"Yard",
"Spaulding Boatworks, 600 Gate Five Road, Sausalito — purchased 1951"
],
[
"Racing",
"Won the 1936 Transpac in Dorade; six Transpacs; class champion in Birds, Stars and 6-Metres"
],
[
"Archive",
"San Francisco Maritime NHP; photographs at the Online Archive of California"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Clipper class",
"year": "—",
"note": "20-ft sloop, his first major design; sources give 63 or 80 built"
},
{
"name": "Nautigal",
"year": "1938",
"note": "38-ft sloop"
},
{
"name": "Suomi",
"year": "1947",
"note": "50-ft yawl"
},
{
"name": "Buoyant Girl",
"year": "1949",
"note": "custom sloop, 36 or 37 ft depending on source"
},
{
"name": "Chrysopyle",
"year": "1961",
"note": "45-ft yawl"
},
{
"name": "Spaulding 33",
"year": "—",
"note": "nine or more built"
},
{
"name": "Spaulding 28 'Arete'",
"year": "1958–2006",
"note": "begun by Spaulding, completed posthumously by the Center"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"sparkman-stephens"
],
"builders": [
"spaulding-boatworks",
"madden-lewis",
"nunes-brothers",
"stephens-brothers"
],
"classes": [
"farallone-clipper",
"bird"
],
"associations": [
"spaulding-marine-center",
"sf-maritime-nhp"
]
},
"flags": [
"Birth year given as 1905 (Wikipedia) and 1906 (Sausalito Historical Society). Death year given as 2000 by most sources; at least one says 2002 — that later date more likely refers to Gladys Spaulding's death and the founding of the trust."
],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Myron Spaulding — Spaulding Marine Center",
"u": "https://www.spauldingcenter.org/myron-spaulding"
},
{
"t": "Myron Spaulding, the Dean of Boat Builders — Sausalito Historical Society",
"u": "https://www.sausalitohistoricalsociety.com/2023-columns/2023/3/29/myron-spaulding-the-dean-of-boat-builders"
},
{
"t": "Myron Spaulding and Spaulding Boatworks photographs — Online Archive of California",
"u": "https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8jh3rzf"
},
{
"t": "Myron Spaulding — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myron_Spaulding"
}
]
},
{
"id": "nunes-ernest",
"name": "Ernest 'Ernie' Nunes",
"sort": "Nunes, Ernest",
"sub": "Designer of the Bear and the Mercury — Sausalito",
"life": "dates unverified",
"place": "Sausalito, California",
"start": 1929,
"regions": [
"sf-bay"
],
"eras": [
"between-wars",
"postwar"
],
"summary": "The design talent inside the Nunes Brothers yard, and the author of the two one-design classes that did more than any others to put ordinary people on San Francisco Bay in wooden boats.",
"facts": [
[
"Family",
"Of the Nunes boatbuilding family of Pico, Azores, by way of the Sacramento River and Sausalito"
],
[
"Bear class",
"Conceived 1929 with Marty Martinson; first keel laid 1931, first boat completed summer 1932"
],
[
"Mercury",
"Designed 1939 — among the first one-designs engineered specifically for plywood"
],
[
"Own shop",
"Opened a dedicated Mercury shop across the street from the family yard in 1946; closed 1962"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Bear class",
"year": "1929–32",
"note": "23-ft sloop; 69 hulls built 1932–1976; the largest one-design fleet on the Bay by the 1950s"
},
{
"name": "Mercury 18",
"year": "1939",
"note": "1,060 built across all builders by 1994"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [],
"builders": [
"nunes-brothers",
"wd-schock",
"moore-sailboats"
],
"classes": [
"bear",
"mercury-18"
],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [
"Birth and death dates not found in accessible sources. His exact relationship to the founding brothers Manuel and Antonio Nunes is described in sources only as family — confirm from Sausalito Historical Society archives before asserting it."
],
"sources": [
{
"t": "San Francisco Bay Bear Boats — class association",
"u": "https://bearboats.org/about/"
},
{
"t": "The Nunes Brothers Boat and Ways Co. — Sausalito Historical Society",
"u": "http://sausalitohistorical.squarespace.com/marin-scope-columns/2012/11/2/the-nunes-brothers-boat-and-ways-co-2.html"
},
{
"t": "Mercury 18 — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_18"
}
]
},
{
"id": "alden-john",
"name": "John G. Alden",
"sort": "Alden, John G.",
"sub": "Naval architect — Boston",
"life": "1884 – 1962",
"place": "Dorchester and Boston, Massachusetts",
"start": 1909,
"regions": [
"new-england",
"sf-bay"
],
"eras": [
"gilded-age",
"between-wars",
"postwar"
],
"summary": "The most widely copied American cruising designer of the interwar years, and — through design No. 157 — the drafting hand behind San Francisco Bay's oldest one-design class.",
"facts": [
[
"Office",
"Alden Design Office founded 1909; later John G. Alden, Inc.; he retired from active design c. 1955"
],
[
"Output",
"Over 1,000 designs"
],
[
"Signature type",
"The Malabar / 'Alden schooner' — grace and seaworthiness over rating-rule cleverness"
],
[
"Honour",
"National Sailing Hall of Fame, 2013"
],
[
"Bay connection",
"Alden design No. 157 became the Bird class, drawn by his associate Sam Crocker, dated 1 September 1921"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Malabar IV",
"year": "1923",
"note": "Bermuda Race winner"
},
{
"name": "Malabar VII",
"year": "1926",
"note": "Bermuda Race winner"
},
{
"name": "Bird class (design No. 157)",
"year": "1921",
"note": "for a San Francisco Bay committee; drawn by Sam Crocker"
},
{
"name": "La Goleta",
"year": "1927",
"note": "schooner, Fastnet finisher"
},
{
"name": "Malabar X",
"year": "1932",
"note": "Bermuda Race winner"
},
{
"name": "When and If",
"year": "1939",
"note": "schooner built for General George Patton"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"crocker-sam",
"burgess-starling"
],
"builders": [
"stone-boat-yard",
"madden-lewis"
],
"classes": [
"bird"
],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [],
"sources": [
{
"t": "John Alden (naval architect) — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Alden_(naval_architect)"
},
{
"t": "Alden Collection finding aid — MIT Museum",
"u": "https://mit-museum-cms-files--production.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/Alden_Finding_Aid_2024.pdf"
},
{
"t": "Nothing Sails Like an Old Bird — Full Fathom Collections",
"u": "http://fullfathomcollections.blogspot.com/2013/01/nothing-sails-like-old-bird.html"
}
]
},
{
"id": "crocker-sam",
"name": "Samuel S. Crocker",
"sort": "Crocker, Samuel S.",
"sub": "Draftsman in the Alden office, later independent — Massachusetts",
"life": "dates unverified",
"place": "Massachusetts",
"start": 1921,
"regions": [
"new-england",
"sf-bay"
],
"eras": [
"between-wars"
],
"summary": "The Alden associate who actually drew the Bird class in 1921. He appears in this atlas chiefly for that, but the case is a useful reminder that a famous office's name on a design often conceals the hand that drew it.",
"facts": [
[
"Role",
"Associate in John G. Alden's office; drafted Alden design No. 157, dated 1 September 1921"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Bird class",
"year": "1921",
"note": "drawn in the Alden office to a brief from a San Francisco Bay committee"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"alden-john",
"brewer-fred"
],
"builders": [],
"classes": [
"bird"
],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [
"Only Crocker's role in the Bird design is sourced here. His independent career is real but was not researched in this pass — treat this entry as a stub."
],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Nothing Sails Like an Old Bird — Full Fathom Collections",
"u": "http://fullfathomcollections.blogspot.com/2013/01/nothing-sails-like-old-bird.html"
},
{
"t": "Bird (SF Bay) — Sailboatdata",
"u": "https://sailboatdata.com/sailboat/bird-sf-bay/"
}
]
},
{
"id": "brewer-fred",
"name": "Fred C. Brewer",
"sort": "Brewer, Fred C.",
"sub": "Naval architect — Sausalito",
"life": "dates unverified",
"place": "Sausalito, California",
"start": 1921,
"regions": [
"sf-bay"
],
"eras": [
"between-wars"
],
"summary": "A Sausalito naval architect who, with shipwright J. Herbert Madden Sr. and P.I.Y.A. representative Clifford A. Smith, framed the requirement that became the Bird class — an affordable racing cruiser that could take Bay chop.",
"facts": [
[
"Role",
"Part of the Bay committee whose sketch brief Alden's office refined into design No. 157"
],
[
"Attribution",
"Sailboatdata credits the Bird design to 'Fred C. Brewer / Alden Associates'"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Bird class (concept)",
"year": "1921",
"note": "with Madden and Smith; formalised by the Alden office"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"alden-john",
"crocker-sam"
],
"builders": [
"madden-lewis"
],
"classes": [
"bird"
],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [
"How much of the Bird belongs to Brewer's committee and how much to Alden's office is genuinely disputed between sources. This atlas does not resolve it."
],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Nothing Sails Like an Old Bird — Full Fathom Collections",
"u": "http://fullfathomcollections.blogspot.com/2013/01/nothing-sails-like-old-bird.html"
},
{
"t": "Bird (SF Bay) — Sailboatdata",
"u": "https://sailboatdata.com/sailboat/bird-sf-bay/"
}
]
},
{
"id": "sparkman-stephens",
"name": "Sparkman & Stephens",
"sort": "Sparkman & Stephens",
"sub": "Naval architects and brokers — New York",
"life": "founded 1929, still operating",
"place": "New York, New York",
"start": 1929,
"regions": [
"new-england",
"sf-bay"
],
"eras": [
"between-wars",
"war-plywood",
"postwar",
"fiberglass"
],
"summary": "The dominant American design office of the twentieth century, whose yawl Dorade — the boat that made its reputation — was sailed to a Transpac win by a Sausalito boatbuilder.",
"facts": [
[
"Founded",
"28 October 1929, by Drake Sparkman, James Sparkman, James Murray, Olin J. Stephens II and Roderick Stephens Jr."
],
[
"Olin Stephens",
"1908–2008; apprenticed under Philip Rhodes; roughly 2,200 designs"
],
[
"Rod Stephens",
"1909–1995; chief rigger and inspector; designed the DUKW and Ford GPA amphibian hulls; Presidential Medal of Freedom"
],
[
"America's Cup",
"Six of the seven American 12-Metre defenders, 1958–1980"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Dorade",
"year": "1929",
"note": "52-ft yawl; won the 1931 Transatlantic and Fastnet; won the 1936 Transpac under Myron Spaulding"
},
{
"name": "Stormy Weather",
"year": "1934",
"note": "yawl"
},
{
"name": "Ranger",
"year": "1937",
"note": "J-Class, with W. Starling Burgess"
},
{
"name": "Intrepid",
"year": "1967",
"note": "America's Cup defender"
},
{
"name": "Swan 36",
"year": "1967",
"note": "design No. 1710; over 100 built"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"spaulding-myron",
"rhodes-philip",
"burgess-starling"
],
"builders": [
"stephens-brothers"
],
"classes": [
"farallone-clipper"
],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [
"One of the two Farallone Clipper class histories credits the design to Sparkman & Stephens; the other credits Donald Abbott. See the class entry."
],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Sparkman & Stephens — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparkman_%26_Stephens"
},
{
"t": "Olin Stephens — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olin_Stephens"
},
{
"t": "Sparkman & Stephens organisation record — MIT Museum",
"u": "https://mitmuseum.mit.edu/collections/organization/100"
}
]
},
{
"id": "herreshoff-ng",
"name": "Nathanael Greene Herreshoff",
"sort": "Herreshoff, Nathanael Greene",
"sub": "'Captain Nat' — Bristol, Rhode Island",
"life": "1848 – 1938",
"place": "Bristol, Rhode Island",
"start": 1878,
"regions": [
"new-england"
],
"eras": [
"gilded-age",
"between-wars"
],
"summary": "The engineer who turned yacht design into a science, built every winning America's Cup defender from 1893 to 1920, and devised the Universal Rule that governed the Big Class.",
"facts": [
[
"Firm",
"Herreshoff Manufacturing Company, founded 1878 with his blind brother John Brown Herreshoff"
],
[
"Method",
"Tank-tested hull forms, light steel framing, bronze and aluminium fittings — engineering rather than eye"
],
[
"Rule-making",
"Devised the Universal Rule, 1902"
],
[
"Museum",
"Herreshoff Marine Museum, Bristol, founded 1971"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Amaryllis",
"year": "1876",
"note": "catamaran"
},
{
"name": "Vigilant / Defender / Columbia / Reliance",
"year": "1893–1903",
"note": "America's Cup defenders; Reliance carried 16,000 sq ft of sail"
},
{
"name": "Herreshoff 12½",
"year": "1914",
"note": "still actively raced"
},
{
"name": "Herreshoff S-Class",
"year": "1919",
"note": "built to 1941"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"herreshoff-lf",
"burgess-edward"
],
"builders": [
"herreshoff-mfg"
],
"classes": [
"j-class"
],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [
"Boats are often listed simply as 'Herreshoff'. That name covers at least two distinct designers — Nathanael and his son L. Francis — and also HMCo-built boats designed by others. Do not assume which is meant without checking the individual boat's documentation."
],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Nathanael Greene Herreshoff — Herreshoff Marine Museum / America's Cup Hall of Fame",
"u": "http://www.herreshoff.org/achof/nathanael_g_herreshoff.html"
},
{
"t": "Nathanael Greene Herreshoff — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathanael_Greene_Herreshoff"
}
]
},
{
"id": "herreshoff-lf",
"name": "L. Francis Herreshoff",
"sort": "Herreshoff, L. Francis",
"sub": "Naval architect and writer — Marblehead",
"life": "1890 – 1972",
"place": "Marblehead, Massachusetts",
"start": 1926,
"regions": [
"new-england"
],
"eras": [
"between-wars",
"postwar",
"revival"
],
"summary": "Nathanael's son, and a very different designer: an aesthete and a writer whose books taught two generations of amateurs to build. His Rozinante and H-28 have been home-built up and down the West Coast.",
"facts": [
[
"Trained",
"At HMCo in Bristol, then under W. Starling Burgess"
],
[
"Practice",
"Independent from 1926, Marblehead"
],
[
"Books",
"The Common Sense of Yacht Design (1947) and a long run of essays"
],
[
"Honour",
"National Sailing Hall of Fame, 2014"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Ticonderoga",
"year": "1936",
"note": "72-ft clipper-bowed ketch"
},
{
"name": "Tioga / Bounty",
"year": "—",
"note": "57-ft ketch"
},
{
"name": "Rozinante",
"year": "—",
"note": "double-ended canoe yawl, widely home-built on the West Coast"
},
{
"name": "H-28",
"year": "—",
"note": "the classic amateur-build cruiser"
},
{
"name": "Meadowlark",
"year": "—",
"note": "shoal-draft leeboard ketch"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"herreshoff-ng",
"burgess-starling"
],
"builders": [],
"classes": [],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [],
"sources": [
{
"t": "L. Francis Herreshoff — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._Francis_Herreshoff"
},
{
"t": "L. Francis Herreshoff, Yacht Designer — WindCheck",
"u": "https://www.windcheckmagazine.com/article/l_francis_herreshoff_yacht_designer/"
}
]
},
{
"id": "rhodes-philip",
"name": "Philip L. Rhodes",
"sort": "Rhodes, Philip L.",
"sub": "Naval architect and marine engineer — New York",
"life": "1895 – 1974",
"place": "New York, New York",
"start": 1925,
"regions": [
"new-england",
"sf-bay"
],
"eras": [
"between-wars",
"war-plywood",
"postwar",
"fiberglass"
],
"summary": "A prolific generalist — dinghies to Cup defenders to cargo ships — and the man in whose office Olin Stephens learned the trade. His Rhodes 33 was a working Bay one-design in the 1940s and 50s.",
"facts": [
[
"Trained",
"MIT, naval architecture and marine engineering, 1918"
],
[
"Firms",
"Independent from 1925; partner in Cox & Stevens from 1934; renamed Philip L. Rhodes, Naval Architects, 1947; successor firm McCurdy & Rhodes"
],
[
"Notable pupil",
"Olin Stephens apprenticed under Rhodes before founding S&S"
],
[
"Bay connection",
"The Rhodes 33 (design No. 441) raced as a Bay one-design; listed in a 1954 San Francisco Chronicle roundup of Bay fleets"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Rhodes 33",
"year": "1938",
"note": "design No. 441; 40 built by South Coast Boat Building Co."
},
{
"name": "Weatherly",
"year": "1958",
"note": "12-Metre America's Cup defender, 1962"
},
{
"name": "Rhodes 27 / 40 family",
"year": "—",
"note": "offshore cruiser-racers"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"sparkman-stephens"
],
"builders": [],
"classes": [
"rhodes-33"
],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Records of Philip L. Rhodes — Mystic Seaport",
"u": "https://research.mysticseaport.org/coll/coll312/"
},
{
"t": "Rhodes 33 — Sailboatdata",
"u": "https://sailboatdata.com/sailboat/rhodes-33/"
}
]
},
{
"id": "lapworth-bill",
"name": "C. William 'Bill' Lapworth",
"sort": "Lapworth, C. William",
"sub": "Naval architect — Southern California",
"life": "1919 – 2006",
"place": "Los Angeles and Newport Beach, California",
"start": 1946,
"regions": [
"socal",
"sf-bay"
],
"eras": [
"postwar",
"fiberglass"
],
"summary": "The designer who proved that light displacement wins on the West Coast. His wooden L-36 was a Bay and Southern California staple; his Cal 40 ended the argument nationally.",
"facts": [
[
"Trained",
"University of Michigan; US Navy officer in WWII, shipyards at Quincy and San Diego"
],
[
"Partnership",
"Post-war partner to Merle Davis in Los Angeles; took over the practice on Davis's death"
],
[
"Builder partnership",
"A handshake arrangement with Jack Jensen of Jensen Marine created the Cal line; it lasted until Jensen's death in 1980"
],
[
"Philosophy",
"Light canoe-body hulls, fast downwind — built for Transpac conditions"
],
[
"Output",
"32 designs"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Lapworth 36 (L-36)",
"year": "1954",
"note": "wooden sloop; more than 70 built by 1958"
},
{
"name": "Cal 24",
"year": "1958",
"note": "first fibreglass Jensen design"
},
{
"name": "Cal 20",
"year": "1961",
"note": "roughly 1,900 built"
},
{
"name": "Cal 40",
"year": "1963",
"note": "fin keel, skeg rudder; the design that changed American ocean racing"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"davis-merle"
],
"builders": [
"jensen-marine"
],
"classes": [
"cal-40"
],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [],
"sources": [
{
"t": "C. William Lapworth — National Sailing Hall of Fame",
"u": "https://thesailingmuseum.org/inductee/lapworth-c-william/"
},
{
"t": "Bill Lapworth — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Lapworth"
}
]
},
{
"id": "davis-merle",
"name": "Merle Davis",
"sort": "Davis, Merle",
"sub": "Yacht designer — Los Angeles",
"life": "dates unverified; died within about a year of 1946",
"place": "Los Angeles, California",
"start": 1946,
"regions": [
"socal",
"sf-bay"
],
"eras": [
"between-wars",
"postwar"
],
"summary": "A Los Angeles designer known almost entirely through his brief postwar partnership with Bill Lapworth — and through Bolero, a 1946 IC sloop still sailing on San Francisco Bay.",
"facts": [
[
"Practice",
"Ran a yacht design office in Los Angeles in the immediate postwar period"
],
[
"Partnership",
"Took Lapworth on as partner after the war; died within about a year, leaving Lapworth the practice"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Bolero",
"year": "1946",
"note": "IC sloop"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"lapworth-bill"
],
"builders": [],
"classes": [],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [
"Almost nothing about Davis is independently documented. No birth year, no firm name beyond 'yacht design office', no verified design catalogue. This is one of the clearest research gaps in the atlas."
],
"sources": [
{
"t": "C. William Lapworth — National Sailing Hall of Fame",
"u": "https://thesailingmuseum.org/inductee/lapworth-c-william/"
}
]
},
{
"id": "angelman-hugh",
"name": "Hugh Angelman",
"sort": "Angelman, Hugh",
"sub": "Designer and yard partner — Wilmington, California",
"life": "dates unverified",
"place": "Wilmington, California",
"start": 1920,
"regions": [
"socal",
"sf-bay",
"asia-yards"
],
"eras": [
"between-wars",
"postwar",
"fiberglass"
],
"summary": "Co-founder of Wilmington Boat Works and author of the Sea Witch — the clipper-bowed gaff ketch that became the West Coast's romantic cruising archetype and is still being built.",
"facts": [
[
"Yard",
"Co-founded Wilmington Boat Works, 400 Yacht Street, Wilmington, in 1920 with Willard Buchanan and Tom Smith"
],
[
"Sea Witch",
"Designed and built c. 1937–41; later redrawn below the waterline by Charlie Davies"
],
[
"Production",
"Later runs built by American Marine and by Cheoy Lee in Hong Kong"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Sea Witch ketch",
"year": "c. 1937",
"note": "34 to 42 ft; still in production and replica build"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"davies-charlie"
],
"builders": [
"wilmington-boat-works",
"cheoy-lee"
],
"classes": [
"sea-witch"
],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [
"Birth and death years not found. One source names the original builder as 'Wilbo' — almost certainly a contraction of Wilmington Boat Works, but stated here as found rather than corrected."
],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Hugh Angelman's Sea Witch — Heritech",
"u": "https://www.heritech.com/seawitch/lines_search.htm"
},
{
"t": "Wilmington Boat Works — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilmington_Boat_Works"
}
]
},
{
"id": "davies-charlie",
"name": "Charlie Davies",
"sort": "Davies, Charlie",
"sub": "Designer — Southern California",
"life": "died July 1998",
"place": "Southern California",
"start": 1950,
"regions": [
"socal",
"asia-yards"
],
"eras": [
"postwar",
"fiberglass"
],
"summary": "Angelman's partner, who redrew the Sea Witch below the waterline — stem, keel and underbody — producing the hull form still built today. Design literature calls him the father of the modern Sea Witch.",
"facts": [
[
"Contribution",
"The underwater redesign that produced the modern Sea Witch"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Sea Witch (modern hull form)",
"year": "—",
"note": "with Hugh Angelman"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"angelman-hugh"
],
"builders": [
"cheoy-lee"
],
"classes": [
"sea-witch"
],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [
"Birth year not found."
],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Hugh Angelman's Sea Witch — Heritech",
"u": "https://www.heritech.com/seawitch/lines_search.htm"
},
{
"t": "Sea Witch (Angelman) — Sailboat Guide",
"u": "https://sailboat.guide/cheoy-lee/sea-witch-angelman"
}
]
},
{
"id": "colvin-thomas",
"name": "Thomas E. Colvin",
"sort": "Colvin, Thomas E.",
"sub": "Naval architect and builder — Virginia and Florida",
"life": "1925 – 2014",
"place": "Miles, Virginia; later Fort Myers, Florida",
"start": 1955,
"regions": [
"new-england"
],
"eras": [
"postwar",
"fiberglass",
"revival"
],
"summary": "A designer of rugged, amateur-buildable offshore cruisers — often junk- or gaff-rigged, often in steel — whose gaff schooners still turn up on San Francisco Bay in hulls forty years apart.",
"facts": [
[
"Career",
"Merchant Marine in WWII; senior designer at Newport News Shipbuilding from 1952; consultant to Kaiser Aluminum; then his own yard at Miles, Virginia"
],
[
"Book",
"Steel Boatbuilding: From Plans to Launching — the standard reference"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Gazelle",
"year": "—",
"note": "junk-rigged steel schooner, widely amateur-built"
},
{
"name": "K'ung Fu-Tse",
"year": "—",
"note": "his own Chinese junk; he lived aboard 16 years"
},
{
"name": "Schooners to 100 ft",
"year": "—",
"note": "in wood, steel and aluminium"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [],
"builders": [],
"classes": [
"gazelle"
],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Thomas E. Colvin — Gazette-Journal",
"u": "https://www.gazettejournal.net/thomas-e-colvin/"
},
{
"t": "Colvin Gazelle — Wave Train",
"u": "https://wavetrain.net/2010/12/13/colvin-gazelle-a-junk-rigged-cruising-icon/"
}
]
},
{
"id": "schock-edson-b",
"name": "Edson B. Schock",
"sort": "Schock, Edson B.",
"sub": "Naval architect — New York, Vancouver, Los Angeles",
"life": "1871 – 1950",
"place": "New York; Vancouver, BC; Los Angeles; Kingston, RI",
"start": 1900,
"regions": [
"new-england",
"pnw",
"socal",
"sf-bay"
],
"eras": [
"gilded-age",
"between-wars",
"war-plywood"
],
"summary": "The elder Schock: apprenticed to A. Cary Smith, design editor of The Rudder, four decades on the West Coast, and a designer of everything from racing sloops to tugs and freighters.",
"facts": [
[
"Trained",
"Under A. Cary Smith; independent practice from 1900"
],
[
"Editorial",
"Design editor, The Rudder, 1906–1910"
],
[
"West Coast",
"Moved to Vancouver, BC in 1910; opened a Los Angeles office in 1922; designed military vessels at Stockton in WWII"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Racing and cruising sail and power",
"year": "—",
"note": "plus tugs, freighters and fishing boats"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"schock-edson-i",
"wd-schock-person"
],
"builders": [],
"classes": [],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Edson B. Schock — Sailboatdata",
"u": "https://sailboatdata.com/designer/schock-edson-b/"
},
{
"t": "Edson B. and Edson I. Schock Collection — Mystic Seaport",
"u": "https://research.mysticseaport.org/coll/spcoll113/"
}
]
},
{
"id": "schock-edson-i",
"name": "Edson I. Schock",
"sort": "Schock, Edson I.",
"sub": "Naval architect and professor — Rhode Island",
"life": "1897 – 1988",
"place": "Kingston, Rhode Island",
"start": 1920,
"regions": [
"new-england"
],
"eras": [
"between-wars",
"postwar",
"revival"
],
"summary": "Son of Edson B. Schock; an MIT-trained naval architect who taught at the University of Rhode Island and specialised in efficient, amateur-buildable plywood small craft.",
"facts": [
[
"Trained",
"MIT naval architecture, 1918"
],
[
"Teaching",
"Professor, University of Rhode Island"
],
[
"Book",
"How to Build Small Boats (1952)"
],
[
"Later work",
"Produced historic-craft plans for Mystic Seaport Museum"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Plywood small craft",
"year": "—",
"note": "a long series of amateur-build designs"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"schock-edson-b"
],
"builders": [],
"classes": [],
"associations": [
"mystic-seaport"
]
},
"flags": [],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Edson I. Schock — Sailboatdata",
"u": "https://sailboatdata.com/designer/schock-edson-i/"
},
{
"t": "Edson B. and Edson I. Schock Collection — Mystic Seaport",
"u": "https://research.mysticseaport.org/coll/spcoll113/"
}
]
},
{
"id": "wd-schock-person",
"name": "William 'Bill' D. Schock",
"sort": "Schock, William D.",
"sub": "Boatbuilder — Newport Beach and Costa Mesa",
"life": "dates unverified",
"place": "Newport Beach and Costa Mesa, California",
"start": 1958,
"regions": [
"socal",
"sf-bay"
],
"eras": [
"postwar",
"fiberglass"
],
"summary": "No documented family relation to the Edson Schocks. He built his first boat at thirteen, founded W.D. Schock Corp in 1958, and built the Lido 14, the Santanas, Mercuries and El Toros that filled West Coast clubs.",
"facts": [
[
"Founded",
"W.D. Schock Corp, 1958; family-run for 53 years until sold in 2011"
],
[
"Acquisition",
"Bought PlastiGlass in 1955 and reworked its Lehman 14 into the Lido 14"
],
[
"Bay classes built",
"21 Mercuries, 1963–67; El Toros; Santana 20 and 28 to Gary Mull designs"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Lido 14",
"year": "—",
"note": "a West Coast production staple"
},
{
"name": "Santana 22",
"year": "1966",
"note": ""
},
{
"name": "Harbor 20",
"year": "—",
"note": "current production"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"mull-gary",
"nunes-ernest"
],
"builders": [
"wd-schock"
],
"classes": [
"mercury-18",
"el-toro"
],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [
"Frequently confused with Edson B. and Edson I. Schock. No source found establishes a family connection between the two Schock lines."
],
"sources": [
{
"t": "W. D. Schock Corp — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._D._Schock_Corp"
}
]
},
{
"id": "nicholson-charles",
"name": "Charles E. Nicholson",
"sort": "Nicholson, Charles E.",
"sub": "Naval architect — Gosport, England",
"life": "1868 – 1954",
"place": "Gosport, Hampshire",
"start": 1896,
"regions": [
"uk"
],
"eras": [
"gilded-age",
"between-wars"
],
"summary": "The designing Nicholson of Camper & Nicholsons: pioneer of laminated wood hull construction, author of two Shamrock challengers and of the J-Class Endeavour and Velsheda.",
"facts": [
[
"Firm",
"Camper and Nicholsons, Gosport, founded 1782; Charles and his brothers ran its golden era"
],
[
"Innovation",
"Laminated-wood hull construction (Istria, 1912) and plywood decking"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Istria",
"year": "1912",
"note": "15-Metre; laminated hull"
},
{
"name": "Shamrock IV / Shamrock V",
"year": "1914 / 1930",
"note": "America's Cup challengers for Sir Thomas Lipton"
},
{
"name": "Endeavour",
"year": "1934",
"note": "J-Class"
},
{
"name": "Velsheda",
"year": "1933",
"note": "J-Class"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [],
"builders": [
"camper-nicholsons"
],
"classes": [
"j-class"
],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Charles Ernest Nicholson — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Ernest_Nicholson"
},
{
"t": "Yachting since 1782 — Camper & Nicholsons",
"u": "https://camperandnicholsons.com/about/yachting-since-1782"
}
]
},
{
"id": "anker-johan",
"name": "Johan Anker",
"sort": "Anker, Johan",
"sub": "Naval architect and Olympic sailor — Norway",
"life": "1871 – 1940",
"place": "Norway",
"start": 1905,
"regions": [
"scandinavia",
"sf-bay"
],
"eras": [
"gilded-age",
"between-wars"
],
"summary": "Called the master of lines: a three-time Olympic sailor who drew Metre boats of exceptional beauty and, in 1929, the Dragon — one of the most widely built keelboats ever.",
"facts": [
[
"Firm",
"Bought Jensen's yard in 1905, forming Anker & Jensen — Anker designed, Jensen built; sole owner from 1915, name retained"
],
[
"Olympics",
"Competed 1908, 1912 and 1928; gold in the 12-Metre (1912) and 6-Metre (1928)"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Magda IX",
"year": "1912",
"note": "12-Metre, Olympic gold"
},
{
"name": "Dragon",
"year": "1929",
"note": "spread to 26 or more countries; long an Olympic class"
},
{
"name": "6-, 8-, 12- and 15-Metre yachts",
"year": "—",
"note": "including Isabel-Alexandra (1913) and Neptune (1917)"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"archer-colin"
],
"builders": [
"anker-jensen"
],
"classes": [
"dragon",
"metre-classes"
],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Johan Anker — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_Anker"
},
{
"t": "Anker & Jensen — Dragon Class Archive",
"u": "https://dragonarchive.org/anker-jensen/"
}
]
},
{
"id": "archer-colin",
"name": "Colin Archer",
"sort": "Archer, Colin",
"sub": "Naval architect and builder — Larvik, Norway",
"life": "1832 – 1921",
"place": "Larvik, Norway",
"start": 1872,
"regions": [
"scandinavia"
],
"eras": [
"working-sail",
"gilded-age"
],
"summary": "The Scottish-Norwegian designer whose rescue cutters and pilot boats defined the seagoing double-ender, and whose name is now a type as much as a person.",
"facts": [
[
"Yard",
"Laurvig Strandværft at Rekkevik, founded 1874"
],
[
"Method",
"Combined Chapman's displacement theory with Scott Russell's midship-section placement; introduced a ballast keel in 1882"
],
[
"Redningsskøyte",
"Won an 1892–93 design competition; 33 rescue boats built, 28 to his own design"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Norwegian pilot boats",
"year": "from 1872",
"note": ""
},
{
"name": "RS1 Colin Archer",
"year": "1893",
"note": "47-ft rescue cutter"
},
{
"name": "Fram",
"year": "1892",
"note": "polar ship for Nansen, later Amundsen"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"anker-johan"
],
"builders": [],
"classes": [
"colin-archer-type"
],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [
"'Colin Archer' in a boat listing usually means the type, not the man. Farida (1960) postdates Archer's death by four decades."
],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Colin Archer — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Archer"
},
{
"t": "Colin Archer — colin-archer.no",
"u": "https://www.colin-archer.no/en/ColinArcher.html"
}
]
},
{
"id": "hanna-john",
"name": "John G. Hanna",
"sort": "Hanna, John G.",
"sub": "Designer and design critic — Dunedin, Florida",
"life": "1889 – 1948",
"place": "Dunedin, Florida",
"start": 1917,
"regions": [
"new-england"
],
"eras": [
"between-wars"
],
"summary": "Author of the Tahiti ketch — a 30-foot double-ender published as plans and built by amateurs worldwide, including at least two boats that have circumnavigated twice.",
"facts": [
[
"Influence",
"Drew on the Greek sponge-boat double-enders of Tarpon Springs"
],
[
"Tahiti ketch",
"Published 1935 in How to Build 20 Boats; amateur-built worldwide"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Tahiti ketch",
"year": "1935",
"note": "30-ft deep-sea auxiliary cruiser"
},
{
"name": "Iorano",
"year": "1937",
"note": "70-ft research vessel"
},
{
"name": "Faith / Araner",
"year": "1926",
"note": "later owned by John Ford; commissioned as USS Araner in WWII"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [],
"builders": [],
"classes": [
"tahiti-ketch"
],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [],
"sources": [
{
"t": "John G. Hanna — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_G._Hanna"
},
{
"t": "John G. Hanna — Sailboatdata",
"u": "https://sailboatdata.com/designer/hanna-john-g/"
}
]
},
{
"id": "winslow-ralph",
"name": "Ralph E. Winslow",
"sort": "Winslow, Ralph E.",
"sub": "Naval architect — Boston",
"life": "1886 – 1957",
"place": "Boston, Massachusetts",
"start": 1904,
"regions": [
"new-england"
],
"eras": [
"gilded-age",
"between-wars",
"postwar"
],
"summary": "A designer with an unusually well-documented career path through the great New England offices, and the name most associated with the Friendship-sloop cruising type.",
"facts": [
[
"Career",
"Small Brothers (1904) → William H. Hand → chief draftsman at Swasey, Raymond & Page (1909–17) → Herreshoff Manufacturing Co. (1917) → independent → Eldredge-McInnis (1928–31) → independent again"
],
[
"Archive",
"Papers at Mystic Seaport's Ships Plans Division"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Mount Desert Island One-Design",
"year": "1922",
"note": ""
},
{
"name": "Winslow 42",
"year": "1948",
"note": ""
},
{
"name": "Winslow 36",
"year": "1953",
"note": ""
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [],
"builders": [
"herreshoff-mfg"
],
"classes": [],
"associations": [
"mystic-seaport"
]
},
"flags": [
"One research pass found birth and death years of 1886–1957; another could not verify them. Treat as provisional."
],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Ralph E. Winslow — Sailboatdata",
"u": "https://sailboatdata.com/designer/winslow-ralph-e/"
},
{
"t": "Friendship Sloop Society yearbook, 1973",
"u": "http://www.fss.org/1973yearbook.pdf"
}
]
},
{
"id": "burgess-starling",
"name": "W. Starling Burgess",
"sort": "Burgess, W. Starling",
"sub": "Naval architect and aviation pioneer — Marblehead",
"life": "1878 – 1947",
"place": "Marblehead and Boston, Massachusetts; later New York",
"start": 1902,
"regions": [
"new-england"
],
"eras": [
"gilded-age",
"between-wars"
],
"summary": "Son of Edward Burgess and designer of three consecutive J-Class Cup defenders, who also built aircraft, won the Collier Trophy, and drew the Dymaxion car with Buckminster Fuller.",
"facts": [
[
"Firms",
"Burgess & Packard (1902); Burgess Company and Curtis (1910); Burgess, Swasey & Paine (1922–26); Burgess & Morgan (1926)"
],
[
"Aviation",
"Collier Trophy, 1915; the Burgess Company was Marblehead's largest employer at 800 people"
],
[
"Honour",
"National Sailing Hall of Fame, 2013"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Atlantic one-design",
"year": "1928",
"note": ""
},
{
"name": "Enterprise",
"year": "1930",
"note": "J-Class Cup defender"
},
{
"name": "Rainbow",
"year": "1934",
"note": "J-Class Cup defender"
},
{
"name": "Ranger",
"year": "1937",
"note": "J-Class Cup defender, with Olin Stephens"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"burgess-edward",
"paine-frank",
"sparkman-stephens",
"herreshoff-lf"
],
"builders": [
"abeking-rasmussen"
],
"classes": [
"j-class"
],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [],
"sources": [
{
"t": "William Starling Burgess — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Starling_Burgess"
},
{
"t": "W. Starling Burgess Papers — Mystic Seaport",
"u": "https://research.mysticseaport.org/coll/coll193/"
}
]
},
{
"id": "burgess-edward",
"name": "Edward Burgess",
"sort": "Burgess, Edward",
"sub": "Naval architect — Boston",
"life": "1848 – 1891",
"place": "Boston, Massachusetts",
"start": 1883,
"regions": [
"new-england"
],
"eras": [
"working-sail",
"gilded-age"
],
"summary": "A Harvard entomologist who turned to yacht design in 1883 and, in a seven-year career, produced 137 vessels and three consecutive America's Cup defenders.",
"facts": [
[
"Prior life",
"Instructor in entomology at Harvard, 1879–83"
],
[
"Career",
"Self-taught through study in Europe; 137 designs in seven years"
],
[
"Honour",
"America's Cup Hall of Fame, 1994"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Puritan",
"year": "1885",
"note": "beat Genesta"
},
{
"name": "Mayflower",
"year": "1886",
"note": "beat Galatea"
},
{
"name": "Volunteer",
"year": "1887",
"note": "beat Thistle"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"burgess-starling"
],
"builders": [],
"classes": [],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Edward Burgess (yacht designer) — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Burgess_(yacht_designer)"
}
]
},
{
"id": "paine-frank",
"name": "Frank C. Paine",
"sort": "Paine, Frank C.",
"sub": "Naval architect and yard president — Boston",
"life": "1890 – 1952",
"place": "Boston, Massachusetts",
"start": 1921,
"regions": [
"new-england"
],
"eras": [
"between-wars",
"war-plywood"
],
"summary": "Partner to Burgess and to Skene, designer of the J-Class Yankee, and from 1930 the controlling owner of the George F. Lawley yard — Massachusetts's largest yacht-building plant.",
"facts": [
[
"Firms",
"Burgess, Swasey & Paine (1921–27); Paine, Belknap & Skene (1927–32); Belknap & Paine (1932–37); independent from 1939"
],
[
"Yard",
"Acquired control of George F. Lawley Corp in 1930; president through WWII"
],
[
"Archive",
"Frank C. Paine Collection, MIT Museum"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Gypsy",
"year": "1923",
"note": "20-rater; influential on later Universal Rule designs"
},
{
"name": "Yankee",
"year": "1929",
"note": "J-Class; Cup trial horse 1934 and 1937"
},
{
"name": "Highland Light",
"year": "1931",
"note": "50-ft cruising sloop"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"burgess-starling"
],
"builders": [],
"classes": [
"j-class"
],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Frank C. Paine Collection design list — MIT Museum",
"u": "https://mit-museum-cms-files--production.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/PaineIndex.pdf"
},
{
"t": "Yankee (yacht) — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yankee_(yacht)"
}
]
},
{
"id": "hamlin-cyrus",
"name": "Cyrus Hamlin",
"sort": "Hamlin, Cyrus",
"sub": "Naval architect and teacher — Maine",
"life": "died aged 98; exact years unverified",
"place": "Maine",
"start": 1945,
"regions": [
"new-england"
],
"eras": [
"postwar",
"fiberglass",
"revival"
],
"summary": "A six-decade career built on affordable, buildable boats — glued-strip wooden construction, fishing-vessel designs for development programmes, and the Hudson River sloop Clearwater.",
"facts": [
[
"Consulting",
"From 1973 for the UN, the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank and national fisheries departments"
],
[
"Teaching",
"The Landing School of Boatbuilding and Design"
],
[
"Book",
"Preliminary Design of Boats and Ships"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Clearwater",
"year": "1969",
"note": "75-ft Hudson River sloop replica commissioned by Pete Seeger"
},
{
"name": "Pocket cruisers and fishing vessels",
"year": "—",
"note": "for international development programmes"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [],
"builders": [],
"classes": [],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [
"Birth and death years not confirmed; an obituary gives his age at death as 98."
],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Cyrus Hamlin biography — MacNaughton Group",
"u": "http://www.macnaughtongroup.com/cyrus_hamlin_bio.htm"
},
{
"t": "Cyrus Hamlin, 98 — Points East",
"u": "https://www.pointseast.com/cyrus-hamlin-98/"
}
]
},
{
"id": "gielow-henry",
"name": "Henry J. Gielow",
"sort": "Gielow, Henry J.",
"sub": "Naval architect and yacht broker — New York",
"life": "1855 – 1925 (unverified)",
"place": "New York, New York",
"start": 1890,
"regions": [
"new-england"
],
"eras": [
"gilded-age",
"between-wars"
],
"summary": "A designer of large steam and motor yachts whose firm survived him by decades, pivoting to commercial work when the Depression ended the luxury market.",
"facts": [
[
"Firm",
"Henry J. Gielow, Inc., New York; continued under Joseph A. MacDonald and later W. M. Rice"
],
[
"Archive",
"Records of Henry J. Gielow, Incorporated, 1920–1992, at Mystic Seaport"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Caroline / Hi-Esmaro / Sylvia",
"year": "1929–31",
"note": "motor yachts"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [],
"builders": [],
"classes": [],
"associations": [
"mystic-seaport"
]
},
"flags": [
"Birth and death years found in only one source and not cross-confirmed."
],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Records of Henry J. Gielow, Incorporated — Mystic Seaport",
"u": "https://research.mysticseaport.org/coll/coll345/"
}
]
},
{
"id": "wylie-tom",
"name": "Tom Wylie",
"sort": "Wylie, Tom",
"sub": "Yacht designer — Canyon and Watsonville, California",
"life": "birth year unverified",
"place": "Canyon, California; Wyliecat production at Watsonville",
"start": 1977,
"regions": [
"sf-bay"
],
"eras": [
"fiberglass",
"revival"
],
"summary": "A Bay Area designer whose one-designs — the Hawkfarm, the Wabbit, the Wylie 38 — became fixtures of Bay racing, and whose unstayed cat-rigged Wyliecats are a genuinely original late-century idea.",
"facts": [
[
"Practice",
"Wylie Design Group, Canyon, California"
],
[
"Bay fleets",
"Hawkfarm and Wabbit both raced as active one-design fleets on San Francisco Bay"
],
[
"Later work",
"The Wyliecat unstayed cat rig, from 1995"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Hawkfarm 28",
"year": "1977",
"note": ""
},
{
"name": "Wylie 34",
"year": "1979",
"note": ""
},
{
"name": "Wylie Wabbit 24",
"year": "1982",
"note": ""
},
{
"name": "Wylie 38/39",
"year": "1984",
"note": ""
},
{
"name": "Wyliecat 30",
"year": "1995",
"note": "unstayed cat rig"
},
{
"name": "Wyliecat 40",
"year": "—",
"note": ""
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"mull-gary",
"schumacher-carl"
],
"builders": [],
"classes": [],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [
"Spelled Wylie, not Wiley. Birth year not found in accessible sources."
],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Thomas Wylie — Sailboatdata",
"u": "https://sailboatdata.com/designer/wylie-thomas/"
},
{
"t": "Wyliecat 40: More Than a Facelift — Professional BoatBuilder",
"u": "https://www.proboat.com/2020/06/wyliecat-40-more-than-a-facelift/"
}
]
},
{
"id": "mull-gary",
"name": "Gary W. Mull",
"sort": "Mull, Gary W.",
"sub": "Yacht designer — San Francisco Bay Area",
"life": "1937 – 1993",
"place": "San Francisco Bay Area, California",
"start": 1968,
"regions": [
"sf-bay",
"socal"
],
"eras": [
"fiberglass",
"revival"
],
"summary": "A Bay designer who grew up racing El Toros, worked at Sparkman & Stephens, and came home to draw 57 production designs and a 12-Metre for Tom Blackaller.",
"facts": [
[
"Trained",
"UC Berkeley engineering with a naval architecture minor"
],
[
"Career",
"Lockheed, Pacific Engineering, then Sparkman & Stephens in New York, before founding Gary Mull Yacht Design"
],
[
"Service",
"Chaired the Offshore Racing Council's International Technical Committee"
],
[
"Honour",
"National Sailing Hall of Fame"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Ranger 23 / Ranger 37",
"year": "—",
"note": ""
},
{
"name": "Santana 20 and 28",
"year": "1976 / 1978",
"note": "for W.D. Schock, with W. Shad Turner"
},
{
"name": "Freedom Yachts line",
"year": "—",
"note": "cat-ketch rigs, 28 to 45 ft"
},
{
"name": "USA-49",
"year": "1987",
"note": "12-Metre for Tom Blackaller's America's Cup campaign"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"sparkman-stephens",
"schumacher-carl",
"wylie-tom"
],
"builders": [
"wd-schock"
],
"classes": [
"el-toro"
],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Gary W. Mull — National Sailing Hall of Fame",
"u": "https://thesailingmuseum.org/inductee/gary-w-mull/"
},
{
"t": "Gary Mull — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Mull"
}
]
},
{
"id": "schumacher-carl",
"name": "Carl Schumacher",
"sort": "Schumacher, Carl",
"sub": "Yacht designer — Alameda, California",
"life": "1949 or 1951 – 2002",
"place": "Alameda, California",
"start": 1977,
"regions": [
"sf-bay"
],
"eras": [
"fiberglass",
"revival"
],
"summary": "An Estuary designer who rejected the pinched-stern IOR aesthetic in favour of light, easily driven, pleasant boats — the Express 27 and the Alerion Express among them — and raced his own designs to prove the point.",
"facts": [
[
"Career",
"Cal Poly; Jensen Marine; joined Gary Mull's office in 1973; independent from 1977"
],
[
"Output",
"Roughly 57 to 60 designs and close to 600 boats in a 25-year independent career"
],
[
"Bay presence",
"The Express 27 remains one of the Bay's strongest one-design fleets"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Summertime Dream",
"year": "1979",
"note": "Quarter Ton national champion; launched his solo career"
},
{
"name": "Express 27 / 34 / 37",
"year": "—",
"note": "performance cruiser-racers"
},
{
"name": "Alerion Express 28",
"year": "—",
"note": "about 200 built; his most commercially successful design"
},
{
"name": "Synergy 1000",
"year": "1999",
"note": "Sailing World Sportboat of the Year"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"mull-gary",
"wylie-tom"
],
"builders": [
"jensen-marine"
],
"classes": [],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [
"Birth year conflicts: Latitude 38 and the National Sailing Hall of Fame give 13 June 1949; Sailing World's obituary headline gives 1951."
],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Carl Schumacher, 1949–2002 — Latitude 38",
"u": "https://www.latitude38.com/feature/carl-schumacher-naval-architect-sailor/"
},
{
"t": "Carl Sherman Schumacher — National Sailing Hall of Fame",
"u": "https://thesailingmuseum.org/inductee/carl-sherman-schumacher/"
}
]
},
{
"id": "lee-bill",
"name": "Bill Lee",
"sort": "Lee, Bill",
"sub": "Yacht designer and builder — Santa Cruz",
"life": "born 1942",
"place": "Soquel and Santa Cruz, California",
"start": 1970,
"regions": [
"sf-bay"
],
"eras": [
"fiberglass",
"revival"
],
"summary": "Fast is fun. Lee built ultralight boats in a converted chicken coop above Santa Cruz and set a Transpac record with Merlin that stood twenty years.",
"facts": [
[
"Yard",
"'The Coop', a converted chicken coop on Hilltop Road, Soquel"
],
[
"Philosophy",
"Ultralight displacement — often half the weight of contemporaries"
],
[
"Brokerage",
"Wizard Yachts, Ltd., Santa Cruz"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Chutzpah",
"year": "1973",
"note": "Transpac winner"
},
{
"name": "Santa Cruz 27",
"year": "1973",
"note": "about 145 built"
},
{
"name": "Merlin",
"year": "1977",
"note": "68-ft ULDB; Transpac monohull record for twenty years"
},
{
"name": "Santa Cruz 70",
"year": "1985",
"note": "19 built"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"lapworth-bill"
],
"builders": [],
"classes": [],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Bill Lee (yacht designer) — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Lee_(yacht_designer)"
},
{
"t": "Bill Lee — Sailing World",
"u": "https://www.sailingworld.com/racing/bill-lee/"
}
]
},
{
"id": "kettenburg-george-jr",
"name": "George W. Kettenburg Jr.",
"sort": "Kettenburg, George W. Jr.",
"sub": "Designer and yard principal — Point Loma, San Diego",
"life": "died 1952",
"place": "Point Loma, San Diego, California",
"start": 1926,
"regions": [
"socal"
],
"eras": [
"between-wars",
"postwar"
],
"summary": "Turned his father's powerboat shop into the West Coast's most admired builder of fast wooden sloops. The PC and the K-38 defined Southern California racing for thirty years.",
"facts": [
[
"Yard",
"Kettenburg Boat and Engine Co., 1918; renamed Kettenburg Boat Works at a new waterfront site, 1929"
],
[
"First class",
"PC (Pacific Class), hull No. 1 Scamp, his own boat, 1929"
],
[
"Brother",
"Paul Kettenburg carried the business on; retired 1979, died 2006"
],
[
"Archive",
"Kettenburg Collection, Maritime Museum of San Diego"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "PC class",
"year": "1929",
"note": "the dominant West Coast one-design of its era"
},
{
"name": "PCC — Pacific Cruising Class",
"year": "1946",
"note": ""
},
{
"name": "K-38",
"year": "1949",
"note": "with Paul Kettenburg and Charlie Underwood; 36 built"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"alden-john"
],
"builders": [
"kettenburg-boat-works"
],
"classes": [
"pc-class"
],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [
"Sources give the yard's founding as both 1918 and 1929 — likely a 1918 founding with a 1929 rename and relocation."
],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Kettenburg Boat Works — myKettenburg",
"u": "http://www.mykettenburg.com/kettenburg-boat-works"
},
{
"t": "Kettenburg Collection — Maritime Museum of San Diego",
"u": "https://sdmaritime.org/library-and-research/library-and-archives/kettenburg-collection/"
}
]
},
{
"id": "monk-ed-sr",
"name": "Ed Monk Sr.",
"sort": "Monk, Ed Sr.",
"sub": "Shipwright and naval architect — Seattle",
"life": "1894 – 1973",
"place": "Seattle and Bainbridge Island, Washington",
"start": 1914,
"regions": [
"pnw"
],
"eras": [
"between-wars",
"war-plywood",
"postwar",
"fiberglass"
],
"summary": "More than three thousand designs, from dinghies to yachts, and two books that taught the Pacific Northwest how to build. The Monk cruiser is the regional archetype.",
"facts": [
[
"Apprenticeships",
"Blanchard Boat Co. from 1925; under Ted Geary, 1926–33"
],
[
"Independent",
"Plan No. 1 was the cruiser Nan, 1934"
],
[
"Books",
"Small Boat Building (1934); Modern Boat Building (1939)"
],
[
"Firm",
"Became Edwin Monk & Son, Naval Architects, Bainbridge Island, in the 1960s"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Silver King",
"year": "1925",
"note": "62-ft motor yacht, designed at Blanchard"
},
{
"name": "Nan",
"year": "1934",
"note": "50-ft liveaboard cruiser"
},
{
"name": "Aries",
"year": "1941",
"note": "sailing yacht"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"geary-ted",
"monk-ed-jr",
"garden-william"
],
"builders": [
"blanchard"
],
"classes": [],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Naval architect Edwin Monk Sr. launches the Nan — HistoryLink",
"u": "https://www.historylink.org/File/20183"
},
{
"t": "Ed Monk — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Monk"
}
]
},
{
"id": "monk-ed-jr",
"name": "Ed Monk Jr.",
"sort": "Monk, Ed Jr.",
"sub": "Naval architect — Bainbridge Island",
"life": "dates unverified",
"place": "Bainbridge Island, Washington",
"start": 1960,
"regions": [
"pnw"
],
"eras": [
"fiberglass",
"revival"
],
"summary": "Joined his father's firm in the 1960s and continued it independently; co-founded Ocean Alexander with Alex Chueh in 1977.",
"facts": [
[
"Firm",
"Edwin Monk & Son, Naval Architects, Bainbridge Island"
],
[
"Venture",
"Co-founded Ocean Alexander, now Alexander Marine, in 1977"
]
],
"works": [],
"links": {
"designers": [
"monk-ed-sr"
],
"builders": [],
"classes": [],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [
"Birth and death dates and a verified design list were not found. Attributions to Monk Jr. of particular trawler models should be checked against a direct source."
],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Ed Monk — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Monk"
}
]
},
{
"id": "garden-william",
"name": "William Garden",
"sort": "Garden, William",
"sub": "Naval architect — Seattle, then Vancouver Island",
"life": "1918 – 2011",
"place": "Seattle, Washington; later Toad's Landing, British Columbia",
"start": 1942,
"regions": [
"pnw"
],
"eras": [
"war-plywood",
"postwar",
"fiberglass",
"revival"
],
"summary": "Over a thousand designs across tugs, fishing boats, trawler yachts and schooners, drawn latterly from a private island in British Columbia. Efficiency and seaworthiness over interior volume.",
"facts": [
[
"Trained",
"Edison Technical School, Seattle; more than 50 designs by the age of 24"
],
[
"Later life",
"Moved to Vancouver Island in the late 1960s; worked from Toad's Landing for over thirty years"
],
[
"Honour",
"Order of Canada, 2006"
],
[
"Archive",
"William Garden Papers, Mystic Seaport"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Gleam",
"year": "1939",
"note": "30-ft schooner, his own boat"
},
{
"name": "Wanderer",
"year": "1950s",
"note": "42-ft flybridge cruiser; an early trawler-type yacht"
},
{
"name": "Vega 36",
"year": "1960s",
"note": "about 100 built"
},
{
"name": "Toadstool",
"year": "1970s",
"note": "his own schooner"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"monk-ed-sr"
],
"builders": [],
"classes": [],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [],
"sources": [
{
"t": "William Garden — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Garden"
},
{
"t": "William Garden Papers — Mystic Seaport",
"u": "https://research.mysticseaport.org/coll/coll299/"
}
]
},
{
"id": "geary-ted",
"name": "L. E. 'Ted' Geary",
"sort": "Geary, L. E. 'Ted'",
"sub": "Naval architect — Seattle",
"life": "1885 – 1960",
"place": "Seattle, Washington",
"start": 1908,
"regions": [
"pnw"
],
"eras": [
"gilded-age",
"between-wars",
"postwar"
],
"summary": "The Northwest's first nationally significant designer: MIT-trained, dominant in West Coast R-boat racing, and author of the Geary 18 Flattie that taught the region to sail.",
"facts": [
[
"Trained",
"MIT"
],
[
"Racing",
"The R-class Sir Tom was long unbeatable on Puget Sound"
],
[
"Power",
"Designed the first US diesel tug, Chickamauga"
],
[
"Teaching class",
"The Geary 18 'Flattie', 1928 — a cheap plywood-era trainer"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Sir Tom",
"year": "—",
"note": "R-class"
},
{
"name": "Malibu",
"year": "1926",
"note": "100-ft motor yacht, built by Blanchard"
},
{
"name": "Geary 18 (Flattie)",
"year": "1928",
"note": ""
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"monk-ed-sr"
],
"builders": [
"blanchard"
],
"classes": [],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Geary, Leslie Edward 'Ted' (1885–1960) — HistoryLink",
"u": "https://www.historylink.org/File/7292"
}
]
},
{
"id": "seaborn-ben",
"name": "Ben Seaborn",
"sort": "Seaborn, Ben",
"sub": "Yacht designer — Seattle",
"life": "c. 1916 or 1920 – 1960",
"place": "Seattle, Washington",
"start": 1932,
"regions": [
"pnw"
],
"eras": [
"between-wars",
"postwar"
],
"summary": "A prodigy who drew the 54-ft Circe as a teenager and later gave the plywood era one of its great successes — the Thunderbird, about two thousand of them built worldwide.",
"facts": [
[
"Circe",
"His first yacht, winner of the 1934 Swiftsure; he was 16 or 18 depending on source"
],
[
"War work",
"Boeing, 1938–41 — the 314 Flying Boat chase boat and the B-17 line"
],
[
"Thunderbird",
"26-ft plywood sloop for the Douglas Fir Plywood Association; roughly 2,000 built"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Circe",
"year": "1932",
"note": "54 ft; 1934 Swiftsure winner"
},
{
"name": "Thunderbird",
"year": "1958",
"note": "plywood one-design"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [],
"builders": [],
"classes": [
"thunderbird"
],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [
"Birth year conflicts: one account implies c. 1916, Sailboatdata gives 1920. Death year 1960 is consistent."
],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Ben Seaborn — Sailboatdata",
"u": "https://sailboatdata.com/designer/seaborn-ben/"
},
{
"t": "Cooke, Keck, and Their Gal Circe — Saltwater People Historical Society",
"u": "https://saltwaterpeoplehistoricalsociety.blogspot.com/2019/11/circe-1981.html"
}
]
},
{
"id": "perry-bob",
"name": "Robert 'Bob' Perry",
"sort": "Perry, Robert",
"sub": "Yacht designer — Seattle",
"life": "born 1945",
"place": "Seattle, Washington",
"start": 1970,
"regions": [
"pnw"
],
"eras": [
"fiberglass",
"revival"
],
"summary": "The designer who made the performance cruiser a category. The Valiant 40 and the Tayana 37 are among the most widely voyaged production hulls ever drawn.",
"facts": [
[
"First commission",
"1970"
],
[
"Honours",
"Cruising Hall of Fame 1989; American Boatbuilders Hall of Fame 1995; National Sailing Hall of Fame 2023"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Valiant 40",
"year": "1973",
"note": "with Nathan Rothman; the original performance cruiser"
},
{
"name": "Tayana 37",
"year": "—",
"note": ""
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [],
"builders": [],
"classes": [],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Robert Perry (yacht designer) — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Perry_(yacht_designer)"
}
]
},
{
"id": "white-joel",
"name": "Joel White",
"sort": "White, Joel",
"sub": "Naval architect and yard owner — Brooklin, Maine",
"life": "1930 – 1997",
"place": "Brooklin, Maine",
"start": 1960,
"regions": [
"new-england"
],
"eras": [
"postwar",
"fiberglass",
"revival"
],
"summary": "MIT-trained son of E. B. White, founder of Brooklin Boat Yard, and the designer who gave the wooden-boat revival a working modern vocabulary.",
"facts": [
[
"Trained",
"MIT naval architecture, 1953"
],
[
"Yard",
"Brooklin Boat Yard, founded 1960 in a converted herring-packing plant"
],
[
"Book",
"Wood, Water & Light (1988)"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Nutshell Pram",
"year": "—",
"note": ""
},
{
"name": "Haven 12½",
"year": "—",
"note": "a shoal-draft answer to the Herreshoff 12½"
},
{
"name": "Bridges Point 24",
"year": "—",
"note": ""
},
{
"name": "W-Class 76",
"year": "1997",
"note": "his last design"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"herreshoff-ng"
],
"builders": [
"brooklin-boat-yard"
],
"classes": [],
"associations": [
"woodenboat"
]
},
"flags": [],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Joel White — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joel_White"
}
]
},
{
"id": "mcmanus-thomas",
"name": "Thomas F. McManus",
"sort": "McManus, Thomas F.",
"sub": "Naval architect — Boston",
"life": "1856 – 1938",
"place": "Boston, Massachusetts",
"start": 1890,
"regions": [
"new-england"
],
"eras": [
"working-sail",
"gilded-age",
"between-wars"
],
"summary": "A fish merchant who became the designer of roughly five hundred Gloucester schooners, shortening the bowsprit that killed so many crews and setting the lines the whole fleet copied.",
"facts": [
[
"Reform",
"The shortened bowsprit and extended stern overhang — the 'McManus lines'"
],
[
"Reputation",
"Called the father of the fishermen's races"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Rose Dorothea",
"year": "1907",
"note": "Lipton Cup winner"
},
{
"name": "Esperanto",
"year": "—",
"note": ""
},
{
"name": "Henry Ford",
"year": "1924",
"note": ""
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"roue-william"
],
"builders": [],
"classes": [
"gloucester-schooner"
],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Thomas F. McManus — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_F._McManus"
}
]
},
{
"id": "roue-william",
"name": "William J. Roué",
"sort": "Roué, William J.",
"sub": "Naval architect — Halifax, Nova Scotia",
"life": "dates not researched",
"place": "Halifax, Nova Scotia",
"start": 1920,
"regions": [
"new-england"
],
"eras": [
"between-wars"
],
"summary": "Designer of Bluenose, the Lunenburg schooner built expressly to beat the Gloucester fleet — and which did, for most of two decades.",
"facts": [
[
"Bluenose",
"Launched 26 March 1921, built by Smith and Rhuland, Lunenburg"
],
[
"Record",
"Beat Elsie (1921) and Henry Ford (1922); controversial tie with Columbia (1923); lost to Gertrude L. Thebaud in 1930 but won 1931 and 1937–38"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Bluenose",
"year": "1921",
"note": "International Fishermen's Trophy"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"mcmanus-thomas"
],
"builders": [],
"classes": [
"gloucester-schooner"
],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [
"Roué's birth and death years were not researched in this pass."
],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Bluenose — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluenose"
}
]
},
{
"id": "williams-fenwick",
"name": "Fenwick C. Williams",
"sort": "Williams, Fenwick C.",
"sub": "Naval architect — Massachusetts",
"life": "1901 – 1992",
"place": "Massachusetts",
"start": 1923,
"regions": [
"new-england"
],
"eras": [
"between-wars",
"postwar",
"revival"
],
"summary": "Joined Alden's office in 1923 and became the man who saved the catboat: his 18-foot design of 1930 is the type's modern standard.",
"facts": [
[
"Office",
"John G. Alden's, from 1923"
],
[
"Catboats",
"18-ft design, 1930, published in Yachting in 1931; also 21- and 25-ft versions"
],
[
"Association",
"Founding member, American Catboat Association, 1962"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "18-ft Cape Cod catboat",
"year": "1930",
"note": ""
},
{
"name": "Concordia yawl",
"year": "1938",
"note": "credited in one source; the type is usually attributed to Ray Hunt with the Concordia Company"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"alden-john",
"hunt-ray"
],
"builders": [],
"classes": [
"catboat"
],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [
"Attribution of the Concordia yawl differs between sources — some credit Ray Hunt, one credits Williams. Not resolved here."
],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Fenwick Williams's 18' Catboat — Small Boats Magazine",
"u": "https://smallboatsmonthly.com/article/fenwick-williamss-18-catboat/"
}
]
},
{
"id": "hunt-ray",
"name": "C. Raymond Hunt",
"sort": "Hunt, C. Raymond",
"sub": "Designer — Boston",
"life": "1908 – 1978",
"place": "Boston, Massachusetts",
"start": 1935,
"regions": [
"new-england"
],
"eras": [
"between-wars",
"postwar",
"fiberglass"
],
"summary": "Cross-applied sailing hydrodynamics to powerboats and invented the deep-V hull — which is why almost every planing powerboat afloat owes him something.",
"facts": [
[
"Firm",
"Independent; work continued as C. Raymond Hunt Associates"
],
[
"Legacy",
"The deep-V hull, adopted by Bertram and others"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Concordia yawl",
"year": "1938",
"note": "103 built"
},
{
"name": "110 and 210 classes",
"year": "—",
"note": ""
},
{
"name": "Boston Whaler",
"year": "1964",
"note": "unsinkable foam-cored hull"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"williams-fenwick"
],
"builders": [],
"classes": [],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Charles Raymond Hunt — National Sailing Hall of Fame",
"u": "https://thesailingmuseum.org/inductee/hunt-charles-raymond/"
}
]
},
{
"id": "fife-william-iii",
"name": "William Fife III",
"sort": "Fife, William III",
"sub": "Naval architect and builder — Fairlie, Ayrshire",
"life": "1857 – 1944",
"place": "Fairlie, Ayrshire, Scotland",
"start": 1890,
"regions": [
"uk"
],
"eras": [
"gilded-age",
"between-wars"
],
"summary": "The third of three generations at Fairlie, and the one whose name became shorthand for the most beautiful racing yachts ever built. Roughly six hundred designs; about a third survive.",
"facts": [
[
"Dynasty",
"William Fife I (1785–1865), William Fife II (1821–1902), William Fife III (1857–1944)"
],
[
"Honours",
"OBE 1919; America's Cup Hall of Fame 2004"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Shamrock I / Shamrock III",
"year": "1899 / 1903",
"note": "America's Cup challengers for Lipton"
},
{
"name": "Moonbeam III / IV",
"year": "1903 / 1920",
"note": ""
},
{
"name": "Eilean",
"year": "1936",
"note": "ketch"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"watson-gl",
"mylne-alfred"
],
"builders": [],
"classes": [
"metre-classes"
],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [],
"sources": [
{
"t": "William Fife — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Fife"
}
]
},
{
"id": "watson-gl",
"name": "George Lennox Watson",
"sort": "Watson, George Lennox",
"sub": "Naval architect — Glasgow",
"life": "1851 – 1904",
"place": "Glasgow, Scotland",
"start": 1873,
"regions": [
"uk"
],
"eras": [
"working-sail",
"gilded-age"
],
"summary": "Opened the world's first design office dedicated to small craft in 1873 and produced 432 designs in 32 years, including Britannia and four America's Cup challengers.",
"facts": [
[
"First",
"The first dedicated small-craft yacht design office, 1873"
],
[
"Lifeboats",
"RNLI chief consulting naval architect from 1887"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Britannia",
"year": "1893",
"note": "HMY; a 43-year racing career"
},
{
"name": "Thistle / Valkyrie II / Valkyrie III / Shamrock II",
"year": "1887–1901",
"note": "America's Cup challengers"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"fife-william-iii",
"mylne-alfred"
],
"builders": [],
"classes": [],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [],
"sources": [
{
"t": "George Lennox Watson — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Lennox_Watson"
}
]
},
{
"id": "mylne-alfred",
"name": "Alfred Mylne",
"sort": "Mylne, Alfred",
"sub": "Naval architect — Glasgow",
"life": "1872 – 1951",
"place": "Glasgow, Scotland",
"start": 1896,
"regions": [
"uk"
],
"eras": [
"gilded-age",
"between-wars"
],
"summary": "Watson's apprentice, founder in 1896 of what claims to be the world's oldest continuously operating yacht design office, and one of the architects of the International Metre Rule.",
"facts": [
[
"Rule-making",
"Helped establish the International Rule, 1906"
],
[
"Firm",
"A. Mylne & Co., now Mylne Yacht Design"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Octavia",
"year": "1911",
"note": "19-Metre"
},
{
"name": "Marina",
"year": "1935",
"note": "12-Metre"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"watson-gl",
"fife-william-iii"
],
"builders": [],
"classes": [
"metre-classes"
],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Alfred Mylne — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Mylne"
}
]
},
{
"id": "giles-laurent",
"name": "Jack Laurent Giles",
"sort": "Giles, Jack Laurent",
"sub": "Naval architect — Lymington, England",
"life": "1901 – 1969",
"place": "Lymington, Hampshire",
"start": 1927,
"regions": [
"uk"
],
"eras": [
"between-wars",
"postwar",
"fiberglass"
],
"summary": "More than 1,400 designs, and the office that invented the modern light-displacement offshore racer. Myth of Malham won the Fastnet twice and changed what a fast cruising boat looked like.",
"facts": [
[
"Firm",
"Laurent Giles & Partners"
],
[
"Honour",
"Royal Designer for Industry, 1951"
],
[
"Innovation",
"Miranda IV (1951) introduced the spade rudder"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Vertue class",
"year": "1936",
"note": "about 230 built"
},
{
"name": "Wanderer III",
"year": "1952",
"note": "the Hiscocks' circumnavigator"
},
{
"name": "Myth of Malham",
"year": "1947",
"note": "Fastnet winner 1947 and 1949"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [],
"builders": [],
"classes": [],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [],
"sources": [
{
"t": "John Laurent Giles — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Laurent_Giles"
}
]
},
{
"id": "fox-uffa",
"name": "Uffa Fox",
"sort": "Fox, Uffa",
"sub": "Designer and builder — Cowes, Isle of Wight",
"life": "1898 – 1972",
"place": "Cowes, Isle of Wight",
"start": 1920,
"regions": [
"uk"
],
"eras": [
"between-wars",
"war-plywood",
"postwar"
],
"summary": "Made dinghies plane. The International 14, the Firefly and the Flying Fifteen all come from Cowes, and so do the airborne lifeboats that saved downed aircrew.",
"facts": [
[
"Innovation",
"Planing dinghy hulls and the trapeze"
],
[
"War work",
"Airborne lifeboats"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "International 14",
"year": "1928",
"note": ""
},
{
"name": "Firefly / National 12 / Albacore",
"year": "—",
"note": ""
},
{
"name": "Flying Fifteen",
"year": "1947",
"note": ""
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [],
"builders": [],
"classes": [],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Uffa Fox — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uffa_Fox"
}
]
},
{
"id": "strange-albert",
"name": "Albert Strange",
"sort": "Strange, Albert",
"sub": "Artist, art-school headmaster and yacht designer — Scarborough",
"life": "1855 – 1917",
"place": "Scarborough, Yorkshire",
"start": 1885,
"regions": [
"uk"
],
"eras": [
"gilded-age"
],
"summary": "Headmaster of the Scarborough School of Art for thirty-five years and, in his spare time, the originator of the light-displacement cruising canoe yawl — about 150 designs.",
"facts": [
[
"Day job",
"Headmaster, Scarborough School of Art, roughly 35 years"
],
[
"Club",
"Captain of the Humber Yawl Club"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "The Otter",
"year": "1898",
"note": ""
},
{
"name": "Tally Ho",
"year": "1910",
"note": "design 96; famously rebuilt in recent years"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [],
"builders": [],
"classes": [
"canoe-yawl"
],
"associations": [
"old-gaffers"
]
},
"flags": [],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Albert Strange — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Strange"
}
]
},
{
"id": "griffiths-maurice",
"name": "Maurice Griffiths",
"sort": "Griffiths, Maurice",
"sub": "Editor and designer — East Coast of England",
"life": "1902 – 1997",
"place": "Essex and the Thames Estuary",
"start": 1927,
"regions": [
"uk"
],
"eras": [
"between-wars",
"war-plywood",
"postwar"
],
"summary": "Editor of Yachting Monthly for forty years, designer of shoal-draft cruisers for the East Coast swatchways, and holder of the George Medal for wartime mine clearance.",
"facts": [
[
"Editorship",
"Yachting Monthly, 1927–1967"
],
[
"Honour",
"George Medal for mine-clearing and demolition work supporting D-Day"
],
[
"Writing",
"Roughly nineteen books on East Coast cruising"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Eventide 24 / 26",
"year": "—",
"note": "mass amateur-built"
},
{
"name": "Waterwitch 30",
"year": "—",
"note": ""
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [],
"builders": [],
"classes": [],
"associations": [
"old-gaffers"
]
},
"flags": [],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Maurice Griffiths — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Griffiths"
}
]
},
{
"id": "sunden-tord",
"name": "Tord Sundén",
"sort": "Sundén, Tord",
"sub": "Naval architect — Sweden",
"life": "died 1999, aged about 90",
"place": "Gothenburg, Sweden",
"start": 1941,
"regions": [
"scandinavia",
"sf-bay"
],
"eras": [
"war-plywood",
"postwar",
"fiberglass"
],
"summary": "Hired to synthesise six unplaced competition entries into the Nordic Folkboat's final plans — and then to spend the rest of his life arguing that the design was his.",
"facts": [
[
"Competition",
"The Scandinavian Yacht Racing Union's 1941 contest drew 58 entries; no single winner was chosen"
],
[
"Role",
"Engaged to combine the best features of the finalists into buildable plans, published without designer credit"
],
[
"Dispute",
"Sundén later claimed sole authorship; the committee disputed it; the matter was never formally resolved"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Nordic Folkboat",
"year": "1942",
"note": "first boat launched 23 April 1942 at Arendal, Gothenburg"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"kristofersen-erling"
],
"builders": [],
"classes": [
"nordic-folkboat"
],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [
"The authorship of the Folkboat is a genuine, unresolved dispute. This atlas records both positions and takes neither."
],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Nordic Folkboat — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic_Folkboat"
},
{
"t": "History — San Francisco Bay Folkboat Association",
"u": "https://sfbayfolkboats.org/history/"
}
]
},
{
"id": "kristofersen-erling",
"name": "Erling Kristofersen",
"sort": "Kristofersen, Erling",
"sub": "Naval architect — Norway",
"life": "dates unverified",
"place": "Norway",
"start": 1943,
"regions": [
"scandinavia",
"sf-bay"
],
"eras": [
"war-plywood",
"postwar"
],
"summary": "Drew the Knarr in occupied Norway in 1943 as a more refined answer to the Folkboat. Ten years later a Norwegian student at Stanford brought one to San Francisco, and the Bay has raced them ever since.",
"facts": [
[
"Commission",
"From Willy H. Johannesen and Lars Walløe, who wanted a handsomer alternative to the Folkboat"
],
[
"Builder",
"First boats by Einar Iversen; first production delivery 1946"
],
[
"Bay arrival",
"Bjørn Iversen, son of the prototype's builder and a Stanford student, brought a Knarr to San Francisco in 1953"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Knarr",
"year": "1943",
"note": "30-ft one-design keelboat"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"sunden-tord"
],
"builders": [],
"classes": [
"knarr"
],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [
"An alternative designer name sometimes seen in casual sources ('Odd Borg') was checked and is a misidentification — that person is a Norwegian actor."
],
"sources": [
{
"t": "San Francisco Bay Knarr Association",
"u": "https://knarr.us/"
},
{
"t": "Knarr (keelboat) — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knarr_(keelboat)"
}
]
},
{
"id": "aas-bjarne",
"name": "Bjarne Aas",
"sort": "Aas, Bjarne",
"sub": "Naval architect, builder and broker — Fredrikstad, Norway",
"life": "dates not researched",
"place": "Fredrikstad, Norway",
"start": 1930,
"regions": [
"scandinavia",
"sf-bay"
],
"eras": [
"between-wars",
"postwar"
],
"summary": "Designer of the International One Design, 1936–37 — a Bermudan-rigged 33-footer that became one of the great international classes, and reached San Francisco Bay in 1952.",
"facts": [
[
"IOD",
"Designed 1937; the first class recognised by ISAF as a 'Classic' One-Design"
],
[
"Bay fleet",
"Founded in the early 1950s by Lon Price, who bought Norena (#75) in 1952; YRA Fleet #4 from the 1955 season"
],
[
"Broking",
"Aas also acted as the broker importing Norwegian-built boats to America"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "International One Design",
"year": "1937",
"note": "about 33 ft LOA"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [],
"builders": [],
"classes": [
"iod"
],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [
"Aas's birth and death years were not researched in this pass."
],
"sources": [
{
"t": "About the IOD — International One Design Class",
"u": "http://www.iodclass.org/about"
},
{
"t": "International One Design — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_One_Design"
}
]
},
{
"id": "cookson-harry",
"name": "Harry Cookson",
"sort": "Cookson, Harry",
"sub": "Saloon keeper and part-time boatwright — Belvedere",
"life": "dates unverified",
"place": "Belvedere, California",
"start": 1885,
"regions": [
"sf-bay"
],
"eras": [
"working-sail"
],
"summary": "A Belvedere saloon keeper who built Freda with his own hands in 1885 and named her after his daughter. She is still sailing, which makes him the earliest builder in this atlas whose work is still afloat on the Bay.",
"facts": [
[
"Trade",
"Saloon keeper in Belvedere; part-time boatwright"
],
[
"Where",
"Beach Road, Belvedere Cove, near the W. S. Stone boatyard"
],
[
"Freda",
"Built 1885 and named for his daughter; rock-elm frames, Douglas fir planking, dish-shaped hull, centreboard, tiller"
],
[
"Status",
"Freda is documented as the oldest active private sailing yacht on the West Coast"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Freda",
"year": "1885",
"note": "gaff sloop; later given twin iron shoes, wheel steering and a yawl rig"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [],
"builders": [
"stone-boat-yard",
"spaulding-boatworks"
],
"classes": [],
"associations": [
"spaulding-marine-center",
"master-mariners"
]
},
"flags": [
"No source establishes whether Cookson designed Freda as well as building her. Birth and death dates not found.",
"Freda's restoration history is well documented — Harold Sommer in the 1950s, then a fifteen-year rebuild by the Arques School culminating in her 2014 relaunch — but Cookson himself is barely recorded.",
"Freda's description as the oldest active private sailing yacht on the West Coast is widely repeated, including by outlets independent of the Spaulding organisation, but every account appears to trace back to Spaulding and Arques School material. No register or independent body was found adjudicating the claim against rival contenders."
],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Freda — Spaulding Marine Center",
"u": "https://www.spauldingcenter.org/freda"
},
{
"t": "Freda's Story — Spaulding Wooden Boat Center",
"u": "https://spauldingwoodenboatcenter.wordpress.com/restoration/freda/fredas-story/"
}
]
},
{
"id": "watts-j-murray",
"name": "J. Murray Watts",
"sort": "Watts, J. Murray",
"sub": "Naval architect — Philadelphia",
"life": "dates unverified",
"place": "Philadelphia, Pennsylvania",
"start": 1920,
"regions": [
"new-england",
"sf-bay"
],
"eras": [
"between-wars",
"postwar"
],
"summary": "A Philadelphia naval architect whose office burned, and whose surviving plans reached Mystic Seaport by a roundabout route. One of his gillnetter designs, published in Yachting in 1948, was built in Richmond, California over fourteen years.",
"facts": [
[
"Archive",
"After a fire destroyed his office, Watts's surviving plans passed to Carter & Wittholz and were donated to Mystic Seaport by Charles W. Wittholz — described there as the most comprehensive collection of his extant plans"
],
[
"Bay connection",
"Gold Star (1960) was built from Watts blueprints for a gaff-rigged, bowsprit-less gillnetter published in Yachting in 1948"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Gillnetter schooner design",
"year": "1948",
"note": "published in Yachting; built as Gold Star by George Krenkel"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [],
"builders": [
"krenkel-george"
],
"classes": [],
"associations": [
"mystic-seaport"
]
},
"flags": [
"Not to be confused with G. L. Watson of Glasgow. Birth and death years not found."
],
"sources": [
{
"t": "J. Murray Watts Collection — Mystic Seaport",
"u": "https://research.mysticseaport.org/coll/spcoll083/"
},
{
"t": "Gold Star — SFYC Belvedere Classic",
"u": "https://sfycbelvedereclassic.org/fleet/goldstar"
},
{
"t": "Gold Star Sails the Great Schooner Race — Latitude 38",
"u": "https://www.latitude38.com/lectronic/gold-star-great-schooner-race/"
}
]
},
{
"id": "dewitt-james",
"name": "Jim DeWitt",
"sort": "DeWitt, Jim",
"sub": "Sailmaker, designer and painter — Richmond",
"life": "1930 – 2022",
"place": "Richmond, California",
"start": 1960,
"regions": [
"sf-bay"
],
"eras": [
"postwar",
"fiberglass",
"revival"
],
"summary": "Founder of DeWitt Sails in Richmond in 1960, a fixture of Bay racing for six decades, and latterly the Bay's best-known marine painter. He also drew boats.",
"facts": [
[
"Loft",
"Founded DeWitt Sails, Richmond, 1960"
],
[
"Second art",
"Widely exhibited marine painter"
],
[
"Design",
"Makai (1966 or 1967), a 34-ft keel sloop built by Alfred Silva in Alameda"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Makai",
"year": "1966",
"note": "34'3\" keel sloop, built by Alfred Silva, Alameda"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"wylie-tom",
"schumacher-carl"
],
"builders": [],
"classes": [],
"associations": [
"richmond-yc",
"master-mariners"
]
},
"flags": [],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Makai — WoodenBoat Register of Wooden Boats",
"u": "https://www.woodenboat.com/register-wooden-boats/makai"
},
{
"t": "Eight Bells: Remembering Jim DeWitt — Latitude 38",
"u": "https://www.latitude38.com/lectronic/eight-bells-remembering-jim-dewitt/"
}
]
},
{
"id": "parsons-j",
"name": "J. Parsons",
"sort": "Parsons, J.",
"sub": "Amateur designer and builder — Tiburon",
"life": "active 2011 – present",
"place": "Tiburon, California",
"start": 2011,
"regions": [
"sf-bay"
],
"eras": [
"revival"
],
"summary": "Drew his own lines in 2011–12 and spent the next six years building the boat in his garage. TreeBeard is among the newest wooden boats sailing on San Francisco Bay, and evidence that the Bay is still producing designers.",
"facts": [
[
"Encouragement",
"Bob Darr, of the Arques School of Traditional Boatbuilding, encouraged the design"
],
[
"Help",
"Brian Turner, a fellow Arques School student, assisted the build"
],
[
"Build",
"Keel poured 2012; launched 15 December 2018, after five and a half to seven years"
],
[
"Boat",
"20-ft gaff sloop, full keel with daggerboard; Douglas fir planking and decking, black acacia transom, purpleheart mast step"
],
[
"Name",
"After the Ent in Tolkien"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "TreeBeard",
"year": "2018",
"note": "20-ft gaff sloop, designed and built by hand in Tiburon"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [],
"builders": [
"spaulding-boatworks",
"arques"
],
"classes": [],
"associations": [
"spaulding-marine-center",
"master-mariners"
]
},
"flags": [
"Given name not established beyond the initial."
],
"sources": [
{
"t": "The Launching of TreeBeard — Latitude 38",
"u": "https://www.latitude38.com/lectronic/the-launching-of-wood-treebeard/"
}
]
},
{
"id": "woollacott-bert",
"name": "Bert Woollacott",
"sort": "Woollacott, Bert",
"sub": "Yacht designer — New Zealand",
"life": "dates unverified",
"place": "Auckland, New Zealand",
"start": 1920,
"regions": [
"scandinavia"
],
"eras": [
"between-wars"
],
"summary": "A prominent New Zealand designer of the interwar years. Vectis, a 1929 kauri-planked keeler described as probably the first Woollacott keeler built in New Zealand, is now on San Francisco Bay.",
"facts": [
[
"Vectis",
"31-ft keeler, 1929, kauri planking with mahogany coamings, originally masthead cutter rigged"
],
[
"Build",
"Registered to the builder Percy Vos; other accounts credit the build to Woollacott himself — the New Zealand sources disagree"
],
[
"Now",
"Vectis resides on San Francisco Bay"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Vectis",
"year": "1929",
"note": "31-ft kauri keeler"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [],
"builders": [],
"classes": [],
"associations": [
"master-mariners"
]
},
"flags": [
"Whether Percy Vos or Woollacott built Vectis is unresolved in the New Zealand sources themselves.",
"Region is provisional — New Zealand is not yet a region in this atlas."
],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Bert Woollacott — waitematawoodys.com",
"u": "https://waitematawoodys.com/tag/bert-woollacott/"
},
{
"t": "Bert Woollacott — Classic Yacht Info",
"u": "https://classicyachtinfo.com/designer/bert-woollacott/"
}
]
},
{
"id": "bellingham-am",
"name": "A. M. Bellingham",
"sort": "Bellingham, A. M.",
"sub": "Designer — Kent, England",
"life": "dates unverified",
"place": "Kent, England",
"start": 1930,
"regions": [
"uk"
],
"eras": [
"between-wars"
],
"summary": "Designer of the Cooper Six-Tonner, a small English keel sloop built by Charles Cooper of Teynham in Kent. Philippa of 1936 appears to be one.",
"facts": [
[
"Class",
"The Cooper Six-Tonner, about 28 ft LOA, built by Charles Cooper of Teynham, Kent"
],
[
"Style",
"Referred to in one source as Major A. M. Bellingham"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Cooper Six-Tonner",
"year": "1930s",
"note": "28-ft keel sloop"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [],
"builders": [
"cooper-charles"
],
"classes": [
"cooper-six-tonner"
],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [
"The identification with A. M. Bellingham rests on a 1936 Philippa in the WoodenBoat register credited to him, plus a brokerage listing for a sister Cooper Six-Tonner.",
"The register's Philippa is recorded in British Columbia rather than San Francisco Bay; whether the Bay boat of that name is that hull or a sister is unresolved."
],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Cooper 6 Tonner, 1936 — Boatshed",
"u": "https://www.boatshed.com/cooper_6_tonner-boat-341260.html"
},
{
"t": "Register of Wooden Boats — WoodenBoat",
"u": "https://www.woodenboat.com/register-wooden-boats"
}
]
},
{
"id": "pryor-josh",
"name": "Josh Pryor",
"sort": "Pryor, Josh",
"sub": "Designer, owner and charter captain — San Francisco",
"life": "active from the late 1970s",
"place": "San Francisco, California",
"start": 1978,
"regions": [
"sf-bay"
],
"eras": [
"fiberglass",
"revival"
],
"summary": "Designed, outfitted and has since sailed Ruby — reportedly the first sailing vessel on San Francisco Bay to hold a US Coast Guard passenger licence, and a Bay charter fixture for more than forty years.",
"facts": [
[
"Ruby",
"Hull built by the Millerick Brothers; outfitting completed by the captain himself in San Francisco"
],
[
"Licence",
"Operated under charter since 1981; described as the first sailboat on the Bay licensed to carry passengers"
],
[
"Racing",
"Won the 1982 Farallones Race"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Ruby",
"year": "1978",
"note": "sloop"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [],
"builders": [
"millerick-brothers"
],
"classes": [],
"associations": [
"master-mariners"
]
},
"flags": [
"Ruby's own site says she was 'designed by her Captain' without naming him in that sentence. Pryor is the only captain named anywhere on the site. The attribution is probable, not confirmed — an earlier captain cannot be ruled out."
],
"sources": [
{
"t": "History — Ruby Sailing",
"u": "https://www.rubysailing.com/new-page"
}
]
},
{
"id": "stone-frank",
"name": "W. Frank Stone",
"sort": "Stone, W. Frank",
"sub": "Designer and yard principal — San Francisco Bay",
"life": "died 1923",
"place": "Tiburon, Harbor View and Oakland, California",
"start": 1890,
"regions": [
"sf-bay"
],
"eras": [
"working-sail",
"gilded-age",
"between-wars"
],
"summary": "The middle Stone. Son of the founder, father of Lester, and — on the evidence of Yankee — a designer as well as a builder, which is not true of every yard principal in this atlas.",
"facts": [
[
"Family",
"Son of William Stone, who founded the yard at Hunters Point in 1853; father of Lester F. Stone, who joined in 1911"
],
[
"Yards",
"Moved the yard to Tiburon in the 1890s; traded as Stone & Swann at Tiburon, then as Stone & Van Bergen at Harbor View, San Francisco, from 1899 to 1911"
],
[
"Firm name",
"From 1911, W. F. Stone & Son"
],
[
"Death",
"1923; Lester became sole proprietor"
],
[
"Yankee",
"Designed the 52-ft schooner Yankee in 1905, launched 18 April 1906"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Yankee",
"year": "1905–06",
"note": "52-ft gaff schooner; originally rigged as a gaff sloop"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"alden-john"
],
"builders": [
"stone-boat-yard"
],
"classes": [],
"associations": [
"ggwbf",
"master-mariners"
]
},
"flags": [
"Birth year not found.",
"The Golden Gate Wooden Boat Foundation gives Yankee's yard as 'the Stone Boat Yard near the Presidio'. In 1905 the firm at Harbor View was trading as Stone & Van Bergen, per Naval Marine Archive. Both descriptions point to the same place and people; the trading name is the open question.",
"Frank Stone is documented far better as a builder than as a designer. Yankee is the clearest attributed design; whether there are others is a question for the Ehrhorn drawings at the Online Archive of California."
],
"sources": [
{
"t": "History — Yankee 1906, Golden Gate Wooden Boat Foundation",
"u": "https://yankee2026.org/history.html"
},
{
"t": "W. F. Stone & Sons — Naval Marine Archive",
"u": "https://navalmarinearchive.com/sbh/shipyards/small/stone.html"
},
{
"t": "Jack Ehrhorn collection of Stone Boat Yard naval architectural drawings, 1898–1993 — OAC",
"u": "https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt800038sz/entire_text/"
}
]
},
{
"id": "wayland-george",
"name": "George H. Wayland",
"sort": "Wayland, George H.",
"sub": "Naval architect — Seattle, then San Francisco",
"life": "1885 – 1947",
"place": "San Francisco, California",
"start": 1926,
"regions": [
"sf-bay",
"pnw"
],
"eras": [
"between-wars",
"war-plywood"
],
"summary": "The missing link between the Bay's two best-documented figures. He redrew Alden's Bird into the smaller Baby Bird, mentored Myron Spaulding, and Spaulding preserved his drawings — which is why 700-odd of them survive at San Francisco Maritime.",
"facts": [
[
"Trained",
"University of Washington; began his career in Seattle"
],
[
"War work",
"Emergency Fleet Corporation in Pacific Northwest yards in WWI, becoming assistant superintendent at Tacoma"
],
[
"Firm",
"Joined Lee & Brinton of Seattle and helped open their San Francisco office; independent practice from 1926"
],
[
"Baby Bird",
"Redesigned John Alden's Bird class as the smaller Baby Bird, 1926"
],
[
"Mentorship",
"Mentored Myron Spaulding, who preserved Wayland's plans collection"
],
[
"Archive",
"San Francisco Maritime NHP — a finding aid describes 721 items, pencil drawings 1921–1947; the CAMM directory gives 725 drawings"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Tamalmar",
"year": "1927",
"note": "schooner"
},
{
"name": "Lady Jo",
"year": "1932",
"note": "schooner"
},
{
"name": "Volante",
"year": "1936",
"note": "sloop"
},
{
"name": "Baby Bird",
"year": "1926",
"note": "a smaller Bird, redrawn from Alden's design"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"spaulding-myron",
"alden-john"
],
"builders": [
"stephens-brothers"
],
"classes": [
"bird"
],
"associations": [
"sf-maritime-nhp"
]
},
"flags": [
"The two institutional descriptions of his archive differ slightly — 721 items dated 1921–1947 in the finding aid, 725 drawings dated 1920s–1940s in the CAMM directory."
],
"sources": [
{
"t": "George H. Wayland naval architectural drawings — Online Archive of California",
"u": "https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c86m358c"
},
{
"t": "Wayland, George H. — SNAC",
"u": "https://snaccooperative.org/view/3461055"
},
{
"t": "Ship Plans Directory: SF Maritime NHP — Council of American Maritime Museums",
"u": "https://councilofamericanmaritimemuseums.org/resources/ship-plans-directory/san-francisco-maritime-national-historical-park/"
}
]
},
{
"id": "dickie-david-w",
"name": "David W. Dickie",
"sort": "Dickie, David W.",
"sub": "Naval architect — San Francisco",
"life": "dates unverified",
"place": "San Francisco, California",
"start": 1900,
"regions": [
"sf-bay"
],
"eras": [
"gilded-age",
"between-wars",
"postwar"
],
"summary": "Nearly six thousand of his drawings survive at San Francisco Maritime, spanning the 1880s to the 1950s — one of the largest single-architect collections on the West Coast, belonging to a man about whom almost nothing is written.",
"facts": [
[
"Archive",
"David W. Dickie records (HDC0128), San Francisco Maritime NHP — personal papers and office records including nearly 6,000 architectural drawings and plans, 1880s–1950s"
],
[
"Family",
"Of the Dickie shipbuilding family of San Francisco; understood to be the son of James S. Dickie and nephew of John Watson Dickie"
],
[
"Not to be confused with",
"David A. Dickie (1880–1968), John W. Dickie's son and partner, who left shipbuilding for insurance finance; or George W. Dickie, chief engineer of Union Iron Works and designer of USS Oregon"
]
],
"works": [],
"links": {
"designers": [],
"builders": [
"dickie-brothers",
"union-iron-works"
],
"classes": [],
"associations": [
"sf-maritime-nhp"
]
},
"flags": [
"No birth or death year, education, firm name or client list could be found. The genealogical placement as James S. Dickie's son rests on an OAC finding-aid note rather than a biography. For the size of the archive he left, this is the largest single biographical gap in the atlas.",
"No standalone finding aid for the drawing collection itself could be located — only the CAMM directory entry and the NPS plans page confirm it."
],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering Drawings — San Francisco Maritime NHP",
"u": "https://www.nps.gov/safr/learn/historyculture/plans.htm"
},
{
"t": "John W. Dickie & Son records, 1900–1910 — Online Archive of California",
"u": "https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8hh6mdf/entire_text/"
},
{
"t": "Dickie Bros. — shipbuildinghistory.com",
"u": "http://shipbuildinghistory.com/shipyards/19thcentury/dickie.htm"
}
]
},
{
"id": "easom-hank",
"name": "Hank Easom",
"sort": "Easom, Hank",
"sub": "Boatbuilder, sailmaker and racer — Sausalito and Tiburon",
"life": "1934 – 2023",
"place": "Sausalito and Tiburon, California",
"start": 1955,
"regions": [
"sf-bay"
],
"eras": [
"postwar",
"fiberglass",
"revival"
],
"summary": "Opened his yard the day after leaving the Coast Guard and ran it for thirty-five years on the old Marinship waterfront. He raced the 1937 Eight-Metre Yucca for fifty-three years, and won his last race ten days before he died.",
"facts": [
[
"Born",
"15 June 1934 at Ross, California; raised at Belvedere and Tiburon; died 14 February 2023, aged 88"
],
[
"Early",
"Sailing from the age of eight; won the Pacific Coast Mercury Championship at fifteen"
],
[
"Yard",
"Founded Easom Boat Works on 12 March 1955, the day after his Coast Guard discharge, on the former Marinship waterfront at Sausalito; ran it thirty-five years, closing in 1989"
],
[
"Yucca",
"Owned and raced the 1937 8-Metre Yucca from 1964 to 2017 — fifty-three years"
],
[
"Honours",
"St. Francis YC Yachtsman of the Year, 1971; San Francisco YC Yachtsman of the Year"
],
[
"Memorial",
"The Hank Easom Buoy was placed near Yellow Bluff by the Army Corps of Engineers in February 2023"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Easom Boat Works",
"year": "1955–1989",
"note": "custom and cold-moulded construction; built Gary Mull designs among others"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"mull-gary",
"dewitt-james"
],
"builders": [
"easom-boat-works",
"marinship"
],
"classes": [
"metre-classes",
"mercury-18"
],
"associations": [
"stfyc",
"sfyc",
"master-mariners"
]
},
"flags": [
"Sources differ on whether the Pacific Coast Mercury Championship win was 1949 or 1950, and on the year or years of his San Francisco YC Yachtsman of the Year award.",
"One profile says he was an alternate for the 1972 Olympic sailing team; this was not corroborated elsewhere."
],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Local Legend Hank Easom Leaves His Mark On the Bay — Latitude 38",
"u": "https://www.latitude38.com/lectronic/local-legend-hank-easom-leaves-mark-bay/"
},
{
"t": "Eight Bells: Hank Easom — Sailing Scuttlebutt",
"u": "https://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/2023/02/21/eight-bells-hank-easom/"
},
{
"t": "Tiburon's Hank Easom was locally renowned sailor — The Ark",
"u": "https://www.thearknewspaper.com/live/tiburon-s-hank-easom-was-locally-renowned-sailor"
}
]
},
{
"id": "olson-george",
"name": "George Olson",
"sort": "Olson, George",
"sub": "Yacht designer — Santa Cruz",
"life": "1939 – 2008",
"place": "Santa Cruz, California",
"start": 1967,
"regions": [
"sf-bay"
],
"eras": [
"fiberglass",
"revival"
],
"summary": "A surfboard shaper who became, with Bill Lee and Ron Moore, the third leg of the Santa Cruz ultralight movement. Called the father of the ULDB.",
"facts": [
[
"Born",
"1939; died November 2008, aged 69"
],
[
"Before boats",
"Surfer and surfboard shaper; hod carrier; set designer for Disney and Universal"
],
[
"Partnership",
"After Ron Moore rescued the Grendel mould, Olson worked with Ron and John Moore to produce the Moore 24"
],
[
"Own firm",
"Founded Pacific Yachts with Lyn Neale and Alan Wirtanen; hundreds of boats built until 1987"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Sopwith Camel",
"year": "1967",
"note": "with Wayne Kocher"
},
{
"name": "Grendel",
"year": "1970",
"note": "24-ft prototype"
},
{
"name": "Santa Cruz 27",
"year": "1973",
"note": ""
},
{
"name": "Olson 30",
"year": "1978",
"note": ""
},
{
"name": "Olson 25 / 29 / 34 / 40",
"year": "—",
"note": ""
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"lee-bill",
"moore-ron",
"schumacher-carl"
],
"builders": [],
"classes": [],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [],
"sources": [
{
"t": "George Olson 1939–2008 — Olson 30 Class Association",
"u": "https://www.olson30.org/history-links/george-olson-1939-2008/"
},
{
"t": "Olson 30 — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olson_30"
}
]
},
{
"id": "moore-ron",
"name": "Ron Moore",
"sort": "Moore, Ron",
"sub": "Boatbuilder — Santa Cruz",
"life": "dates unverified",
"place": "Santa Cruz, California",
"start": 1968,
"regions": [
"sf-bay"
],
"eras": [
"fiberglass",
"revival"
],
"summary": "Ran a Santa Cruz yard called The Reef with his wife Martha, rescued the Grendel mould, and turned it into the Moore 24 — described as America's first production-line ultralight.",
"facts": [
[
"Yard",
"The Reef, off Soquel Avenue, Santa Cruz, with Martha Moore"
],
[
"Moore 24",
"Prototype 1968, built by George Olson; developed into a production line"
],
[
"Also",
"Built El Toro dinghies in production from 1997; associated with the Moore 33"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Moore 24",
"year": "from 1968",
"note": "America's first production-line ULDB"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"olson-george",
"lee-bill"
],
"builders": [
"moore-sailboats"
],
"classes": [
"el-toro"
],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [
"No birth or death year found. He may still be living, which would explain the absence of a death date, but this was not confirmed either way."
],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Ron Moore (boat builder) — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Moore_(boat_builder)"
},
{
"t": "Ron Moore — moore33.com",
"u": "https://moore33.com/ron-moore/"
}
]
},
{
"id": "abbott-donald",
"name": "Donald Abbott",
"sort": "Abbott, Donald",
"sub": "Sponsor of the 1937 'Weekender' — San Francisco Bay",
"life": "dates unverified",
"place": "San Francisco Bay",
"start": 1937,
"regions": [
"sf-bay"
],
"eras": [
"between-wars"
],
"summary": "Not a designer, as this atlas and several accounts previously implied, but the man who commissioned the Sparkman & Stephens 'Weekender' of 1937 — the boat Stephens Brothers stretched into the Farallone Clipper.",
"facts": [
[
"Role",
"The Farallone Clipper class history describes the starting point as 'the 1937 Donald Abbott-sponsored, Sparkman & Stephens-designed Weekender'"
],
[
"Consequence",
"This reconciles the two rival accounts of the Farallone Clipper's authorship: the design is Sparkman & Stephens's, Abbott sponsored it, and Stephens Brothers stretched it to 38 feet"
]
],
"works": [],
"links": {
"designers": [
"sparkman-stephens"
],
"builders": [
"stephens-brothers"
],
"classes": [
"farallone-clipper"
],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [
"No biography, dates or profession could be found. He is known only through one sentence in a class history.",
"Not to be confused with the later Sparkman & Stephens 'Weekender 24' (design 1701-C1, built 1965–77), which is a different boat."
],
"sources": [
{
"t": "History — Farallone Clippers",
"u": "https://www.faralloneclipper.com/newhistory"
}
]
},
{
"id": "crowninshield-bowdoin",
"name": "Bowdoin B. Crowninshield",
"sort": "Crowninshield, Bowdoin B.",
"sub": "Naval architect — Boston",
"life": "1867 – 1948",
"place": "Boston, Massachusetts",
"start": 1897,
"regions": [
"new-england",
"sf-bay"
],
"eras": [
"gilded-age",
"between-wars"
],
"summary": "Designer of the seven-masted Thomas W. Lawson and of Adventuress — the schooner that spent thirty-five years carrying San Francisco bar pilots out to the Farallones.",
"facts": [
[
"Trained",
"Under John R. Purdon"
],
[
"Firm",
"President and general manager of Crowninshield Shipbuilding Co., Fall River, 1917–1926"
],
[
"Bay connection",
"Adventuress (1913) was commissioned by John Borden for an Arctic expedition; when that failed he sold her to the San Francisco Bar Pilots Association, which worked her out to the Farallon Islands for about 35 years, into the early 1970s"
],
[
"Now",
"Adventuress is a National Historic Landmark and a sail-training ship at Port Townsend — one of only two NHL sailing vessels still active on the West Coast"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Independence",
"year": "1901",
"note": "America's Cup contender"
},
{
"name": "Thomas W. Lawson",
"year": "1902",
"note": "seven-masted schooner"
},
{
"name": "Adventuress",
"year": "1913",
"note": "built by Rice Brothers, East Boothbay"
},
{
"name": "Dark Harbor 12½ and 17½",
"year": "—",
"note": ""
},
{
"name": "US Coast Guard 'Six-Bitter' patrol boats",
"year": "—",
"note": "CG-130 to CG-139"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"mower-charles"
],
"builders": [
"rice-brothers"
],
"classes": [],
"associations": [
"nwswb"
]
},
"flags": [
"Adventuress's length is given as 133 ft by one source and 85 ft by another — probably sparred length against hull length, but not reconciled here.",
"John Borden commissioned both Adventuress and, fourteen years later, Northern Light from Henry C. Grebe — a link between two boats in this atlas that has not been explored."
],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Bowdoin B. Crowninshield — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowdoin_B._Crowninshield"
},
{
"t": "Adventuress (schooner) — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventuress_(schooner)"
}
]
},
{
"id": "grebe-henry",
"name": "Henry C. Grebe",
"sort": "Grebe, Henry C.",
"sub": "Naval architect and yard owner — Chicago",
"life": "died 1952",
"place": "Chicago, Illinois",
"start": 1921,
"regions": [
"new-england",
"sf-bay"
],
"eras": [
"between-wars",
"postwar"
],
"summary": "The Chicago architect who drew Northern Light — the 140-foot schooner built at Stone Boat Yard in Oakland in 1927, and the largest boat in this atlas's Bay chapter. Until now she had a builder but no designer.",
"facts": [
[
"Career",
"Eastern Boat Building Co., Milwaukee, 1909; organised Milwaukee Yacht & Boat Co., 1911; yacht broker in Chicago from 1913"
],
[
"War",
"Assistant Naval Constructor, US Navy, managing General Shipbuilding Co. at Alexandria, Virginia — 110-ft subchasers"
],
[
"Yard",
"Founded Henry C. Grebe & Company at Chicago in 1921, on the North Branch of the Chicago River near Belmont Avenue; last boat built 1970, company closed 1994"
],
[
"Bay connection",
"Designed the 140-ft ice-strengthened auxiliary schooner Northern Light, 1927, for John Borden's Field Museum Arctic expedition — built by W. F. Stone & Son at Oakland"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Northern Light",
"year": "1927",
"note": "140-ft schooner, built at Stone Boat Yard, Oakland"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"crowninshield-bowdoin"
],
"builders": [
"stone-boat-yard"
],
"classes": [],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [
"Birth year not found."
],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Henry C. Grebe — Chicago Maritime Museum",
"u": "https://www.chicagomaritimemuseum.org/online-stories/henry-c-grebe"
},
{
"t": "Henry C. Grebe & Co. — Naval Marine Archive",
"u": "https://navalmarinearchive.com/sbh/shipyards/yachtsmall/grebe.html"
}
]
},
{
"id": "smith-a-cary",
"name": "A. Cary Smith",
"sort": "Smith, A. Cary",
"sub": "Naval architect and marine painter — New York",
"life": "1837 – 1911",
"place": "New York, New York",
"start": 1877,
"regions": [
"new-england"
],
"eras": [
"working-sail",
"gilded-age"
],
"summary": "Shipwright, exhibited marine painter, then yacht designer — and the man in whose office Edson B. Schock learned the trade.",
"facts": [
[
"Two careers",
"Trained as a shipwright to the mid-1860s; a recognised marine painter from 1867 to 1877, studying under M. F. H. de Haas and exhibiting at the National Academy of Design; full-time yacht design after 1877"
],
[
"Measurer",
"New York Yacht Club, 1874–82; Seawanhaka Corinthian, 1875–83"
],
[
"Pupil",
"Edson B. Schock began as his apprentice draftsman about 1899, before opening his own practice in 1900"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Vindex",
"year": "early 1870s",
"note": "iron cutter"
},
{
"name": "Mischief",
"year": "1881",
"note": "America's Cup defender"
},
{
"name": "Meteor III",
"year": "1902",
"note": "racing schooner for Kaiser Wilhelm II"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"schock-edson-b"
],
"builders": [],
"classes": [],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [],
"sources": [
{
"t": "A. Cary Smith — Naval Marine Archive",
"u": "https://navalmarinearchive.com/research/docs/a_cary_smith.html"
}
]
},
{
"id": "day-thomas-fleming",
"name": "Thomas Fleming Day",
"sort": "Day, Thomas Fleming",
"sub": "Editor of The Rudder — New York",
"life": "1861 – 1927",
"place": "Long Island Sound, New York",
"start": 1890,
"regions": [
"new-england"
],
"eras": [
"gilded-age",
"between-wars"
],
"summary": "Founded and edited The Rudder for twenty-six years, founded the Bermuda Race, and crossed the Atlantic in a twenty-five-foot yawl to prove small boats could do it.",
"facts": [
[
"The Rudder",
"Founded and edited 1890 to April 1916 — the magazine that published designs to amateurs and made home boatbuilding a mass activity"
],
[
"Bermuda Race",
"Founded 1906"
],
[
"Atlantic",
"Crossed in the 25-ft yawl Sea Bird, 1911"
],
[
"Honour",
"National Sailing Hall of Fame, 2019"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Islander",
"year": "1918",
"note": "yawl; later sailed by Harry Pidgeon on the second solo circumnavigation"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"schock-edson-b",
"mower-charles"
],
"builders": [],
"classes": [],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Thomas Fleming Day — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Fleming_Day"
},
{
"t": "The Rudder — Naval Marine Archive",
"u": "https://navalmarinearchive.com/collections/rudder.html"
}
]
},
{
"id": "chapelle-howard",
"name": "Howard I. Chapelle",
"sort": "Chapelle, Howard I.",
"sub": "Naval architect and maritime historian — Smithsonian",
"life": "1901 – 1975",
"place": "Washington, DC",
"start": 1930,
"regions": [
"new-england"
],
"eras": [
"between-wars",
"postwar",
"revival"
],
"summary": "The man who wrote down American small craft before they disappeared. Without him a great deal of what this atlas describes would survive only as hearsay.",
"facts": [
[
"New Deal",
"Headed the New England section of the Historic American Merchant Marine Survey"
],
[
"War",
"US Army Transportation Corps, lieutenant colonel"
],
[
"Smithsonian",
"Curator of the Transportation Division, National Museum of History and Technology; senior historian from 1967; historian emeritus 1971"
],
[
"Also",
"Guggenheim Fellowship 1950 for colonial ship-design research; UN FAO fishing-boat consultant in Turkey, 1956–57"
],
[
"Archive",
"Howard I. Chapelle Papers, Smithsonian Institution Archives; his drawings are in the NMAH Ship Plans collection"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "The History of American Sailing Ships",
"year": "1935",
"note": ""
},
{
"name": "The History of the American Sailing Navy",
"year": "1949",
"note": ""
},
{
"name": "American Small Sailing Craft",
"year": "1951",
"note": ""
},
{
"name": "The Search for Speed Under Sail",
"year": "1967",
"note": ""
},
{
"name": "The American Fishing Schooners 1825–1935",
"year": "1973",
"note": ""
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"mcmanus-thomas"
],
"builders": [],
"classes": [
"scow-schooner",
"catboat",
"gloucester-schooner"
],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Howard I. Chapelle — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_I._Chapelle"
}
]
},
{
"id": "hand-william",
"name": "William H. Hand Jr.",
"sort": "Hand, William H. Jr.",
"sub": "Naval architect — New Bedford and Fairhaven",
"life": "1875 – 1946",
"place": "New Bedford and Fairhaven, Massachusetts",
"start": 1900,
"regions": [
"new-england"
],
"eras": [
"gilded-age",
"between-wars"
],
"summary": "Went from small sailboats to V-bottom powerboats to schooners to motorsailers, and effectively invented the last of those as a type.",
"facts": [
[
"Sequence",
"Small sailboats from about 1900; V-bottom powerboats; schooners after WWI; motorsailers in the 1930s"
],
[
"1938",
"The New England hurricane destroyed his records and damaged his practice; the office moved from New Bedford to Fairhaven"
],
[
"Archive",
"Davis-Hand Collection, Hart Nautical Collections, MIT Museum"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Bowdoin",
"year": "1921",
"note": "Arctic schooner; now Maine Maritime Academy"
},
{
"name": "Steadfast",
"year": "—",
"note": "56-ft ketch, built by Wheeler Shipyard, Brooklyn"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"warner-winthrop"
],
"builders": [
"hodgdon"
],
"classes": [],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [],
"sources": [
{
"t": "William Hand (yacht designer) — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hand_(yacht_designer)"
},
{
"t": "Davis-Hand Collection — MIT Museum",
"u": "https://mit-museum-cms-files--production.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/Davis-Hand.pdf"
}
]
},
{
"id": "mower-charles",
"name": "Charles D. Mower",
"sort": "Mower, Charles D.",
"sub": "Naval architect and design editor — New York",
"life": "1875 – 1942",
"place": "New York, New York",
"start": 1900,
"regions": [
"new-england"
],
"eras": [
"gilded-age",
"between-wars"
],
"summary": "Trained under Binney and Crowninshield, designed for Rudder's readers, and finished as chief naval architect at Nevins on City Island.",
"facts": [
[
"Trained",
"From 1895 under Arthur Binney, then under Bowdoin B. Crowninshield"
],
[
"Partnership",
"With Thomas D. Bowes, Philadelphia, from 1911"
],
[
"Later",
"Chief naval architect at Henry B. Nevins, Inc.; official measurer for the New York Yacht Club"
],
[
"Editorial",
"Design editor of The Rudder; contributor to MotorBoating"
],
[
"Archive",
"Mystic Seaport — 433 sheets covering 107 designs"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Mary Ann",
"year": "1922",
"note": "A-Cat"
},
{
"name": "Penobscot",
"year": "1923",
"note": "R-class"
},
{
"name": "Fisher's Island One Design",
"year": "c. 1923",
"note": ""
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"crowninshield-bowdoin",
"day-thomas-fleming"
],
"builders": [
"nevins"
],
"classes": [],
"associations": [
"mystic-seaport"
]
},
"flags": [],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Charles Mower — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Mower"
},
{
"t": "Charles D. Mower plans — Mystic Seaport",
"u": "https://research.mysticseaport.org/coll/spcoll009/"
}
]
},
{
"id": "warner-winthrop",
"name": "Winthrop L. Warner",
"sort": "Warner, Winthrop L.",
"sub": "Naval architect — Middletown, Connecticut",
"life": "1900 – 1987",
"place": "Middletown, Connecticut",
"start": 1929,
"regions": [
"new-england"
],
"eras": [
"between-wars",
"postwar",
"revival"
],
"summary": "Two hundred designs and thirty years of magazine writing, all in service of one idea: a nice sheer, a low house, and the rig kept inboard.",
"facts": [
[
"Trained",
"MIT; apprenticed at Electric Boat, Bayonne, and Portland Boat Yard, Connecticut; drafted under John G. Alden and William H. Hand"
],
[
"Practice",
"Independent at Middletown from 1929"
],
[
"Writing",
"A regular contributor to Yachting and The Rudder for more than thirty years"
],
[
"Archive",
"Winthrop L. Warner Papers, Mystic Seaport"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Felisi",
"year": "—",
"note": "53-ft ketch"
},
{
"name": "Shang Wheeler",
"year": "—",
"note": "50-ft research vessel"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"alden-john",
"hand-william"
],
"builders": [],
"classes": [],
"associations": [
"mystic-seaport"
]
},
"flags": [],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Winthrop L. Warner Papers — Mystic Seaport",
"u": "https://research.mysticseaport.org/coll/coll259/"
}
]
},
{
"id": "nielsen-aage",
"name": "K. Aage Nielsen",
"sort": "Nielsen, K. Aage",
"sub": "Naval architect — Denmark and Boston",
"life": "c. 1904 – 1984",
"place": "Boston, Massachusetts",
"start": 1930,
"regions": [
"new-england",
"scandinavia"
],
"eras": [
"between-wars",
"postwar",
"revival"
],
"summary": "Danish-trained, and so good that Olin Stephens said of running the Boston office together: 'Theoretically I was the chief designer, but Aage's knowledge and experience were far greater than my own.'",
"facts": [
[
"Trained",
"Through the Danish apprenticeship system; emigrated to the United States at twenty-one"
],
[
"Career",
"John G. Alden's office; then sole designer of Sparkman & Stephens's Boston satellite office; later his own Boston practice"
],
[
"Afterlife",
"He stipulated that no boats be built from his plans after his death; his daughters reversed this in 2014, authorising Rockport Marine and Walsted's to build again"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Pilot class",
"year": "postwar",
"note": "33-ft cruising sloop, built by several yards including Hinckley"
},
{
"name": "Holger Danske",
"year": "1964",
"note": "double-ender built at Walsteds, Denmark; class winner, 1980 Bermuda Race"
},
{
"name": "Malabar schooner",
"year": "—",
"note": "58 ft, for Alden"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"alden-john",
"sparkman-stephens"
],
"builders": [],
"classes": [],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [
"Exact birth date not found; c. 1904 is inferred from an age of 80 at his death in June 1984."
],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Afterlife Achieved — Professional BoatBuilder",
"u": "https://www.proboat.com/2014/07/afterlife-achieved/"
}
]
},
{
"id": "luders-bill",
"name": "A. E. 'Bill' Luders Jr.",
"sort": "Luders, A. E. Jr.",
"sub": "Designer and yard principal — Stamford, Connecticut",
"life": "1909 – 1999",
"place": "Stamford, Connecticut",
"start": 1935,
"regions": [
"new-england"
],
"eras": [
"between-wars",
"postwar",
"fiberglass"
],
"summary": "Ran his father's yard, pioneered moulded-plywood hulls, drew the Luders 16, and rebuilt a 12-Metre so thoroughly that who designed her is still argued about.",
"facts": [
[
"Yard",
"Directed Luders Marine Construction Co., Stamford"
],
[
"Innovation",
"Moulded-plywood hull construction"
],
[
"Luders 16",
"More than 200 built after the war"
],
[
"America's Cup",
"The yard built Weatherly (1958); Luders's modifications before the 1962 defence were extensive enough that design credit is shared or contested with Philip Rhodes"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Luders 16",
"year": "postwar",
"note": "200+ built"
},
{
"name": "American Eagle",
"year": "1964",
"note": "12-Metre"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"rhodes-philip"
],
"builders": [
"luders-marine"
],
"classes": [],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [
"Design credit for Weatherly is genuinely divided between Philip Rhodes and Luders in the sources; this atlas records both."
],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Bill Luders — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Luders"
},
{
"t": "Luders Marine Construction — Naval Marine Archive",
"u": "https://navalmarinearchive.com/sbh/shipyards/yachtsmall/luders.html"
}
]
},
{
"id": "clark-robert",
"name": "Robert Clark",
"sort": "Clark, Robert",
"sub": "Yacht designer — England",
"life": "dates not found",
"place": "England",
"start": 1936,
"regions": [
"uk"
],
"eras": [
"between-wars",
"postwar",
"fiberglass"
],
"summary": "Designer of Gipsy Moth III and British Steel — two of the boats that made British single-handed ocean racing what it became.",
"facts": [
[
"Known for",
"Gipsy Moth III for Francis Chichester; British Steel for Chay Blyth"
],
[
"Also",
"70-ft youth training ketches for the Ocean Youth Club in the 1970s; the pre-war Mystery class, 1936"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Mystery class",
"year": "1936",
"note": ""
},
{
"name": "Gipsy Moth III",
"year": "1959",
"note": ""
},
{
"name": "British Steel",
"year": "1970",
"note": ""
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"giles-laurent",
"fox-uffa"
],
"builders": [],
"classes": [],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [
"Birth and death years could not be found in any accessible source. A designer of this significance with no recorded dates is a striking gap; a Royal Institution of Naval Architects obituary would settle it."
],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Robert Clark — Sailboatdata",
"u": "https://sailboatdata.com/designer/clark-robert/"
}
]
},
{
"id": "robb-arthur",
"name": "Arthur C. Robb",
"sort": "Robb, Arthur C.",
"sub": "Naval architect — New Zealand, Scotland and London",
"life": "1908 – 1969",
"place": "London, England",
"start": 1930,
"regions": [
"uk"
],
"eras": [
"between-wars",
"war-plywood",
"postwar"
],
"summary": "A New Zealander who became one of Britain's most admired postwar designers, by way of a Scottish yard and the Admiralty.",
"facts": [
[
"Born",
"Hawke's Bay, New Zealand; early fame there as a helmsman and small-craft designer"
],
[
"Britain",
"Yard manager at Morris & Lorimer, Sandbank, Scotland in the 1930s"
],
[
"War",
"Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve, Lieutenant Commander; worked with the Admiralty and Air Ministry, collaborating with Uffa Fox on airborne lifeboats"
],
[
"Postwar",
"London practice, best known for one-design cruiser-racers popular in the United States"
],
[
"Honour",
"MBE"
],
[
"Archive",
"Arthur C. Robb papers, Mystic Seaport"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Radiant class",
"year": "—",
"note": ""
},
{
"name": "Robb 35",
"year": "—",
"note": ""
},
{
"name": "Seaview Maiden",
"year": "—",
"note": ""
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"fox-uffa",
"giles-laurent"
],
"builders": [],
"classes": [],
"associations": [
"mystic-seaport"
]
},
"flags": [],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Arthur C. Robb Papers — Mystic Seaport",
"u": "https://research.mysticseaport.org/coll/coll191/"
}
]
},
{
"id": "boyd-david",
"name": "David Boyd",
"sort": "Boyd, David",
"sub": "Naval architect — Sandbank, Scotland",
"life": "dates not found",
"place": "Sandbank, Argyll, Scotland",
"start": 1929,
"regions": [
"uk"
],
"eras": [
"between-wars",
"postwar"
],
"summary": "Alexander Robertson & Sons' principal postwar designer, and the man who drew two America's Cup challengers from a yard on the Holy Loch.",
"facts": [
[
"Yard",
"Joined Alexander Robertson & Sons at Sandbank at the end of 1929, having answered an advertisement in the Glasgow Herald; the yard ran from 1876 to 1980"
],
[
"Cup",
"Designed the 12-Metre challengers Sceptre (1958) and Sovereign (1963)"
],
[
"Classes",
"The Loch Long One Design and the Piper One Design"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Circe",
"year": "1937",
"note": "6-Metre; won the 1938 Seawanhaka Cup"
},
{
"name": "Lone Fox",
"year": "1957",
"note": "65-ft ketch"
},
{
"name": "Sceptre",
"year": "1958",
"note": "12-Metre"
},
{
"name": "Sovereign",
"year": "1963",
"note": "12-Metre"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"fife-william-iii",
"mylne-alfred"
],
"builders": [
"alexander-robertson"
],
"classes": [
"metre-classes"
],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [
"Birth and death years not found.",
"Not to be confused with a Scottish banker and sailor of the same name who died in 2016."
],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Alexander Robertson & Sons — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Robertson_%26_Sons"
},
{
"t": "Sceptre (yacht) — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sceptre_(yacht)"
}
]
},
{
"id": "sibbick-charles",
"name": "Charles Sibbick",
"sort": "Sibbick, Charles",
"sub": "Designer and builder — Cowes",
"life": "1849 – 1912",
"place": "Cowes, Isle of Wight",
"start": 1888,
"regions": [
"uk"
],
"eras": [
"gilded-age"
],
"summary": "Three hundred boats in twenty-four years from a yard on the Medina, and lightweight bulb-keeled raters that were a generation ahead of anything else afloat.",
"facts": [
[
"Yard",
"Albert Yard, Medina River, Cowes; more than 300 boats in a 24-year career"
],
[
"Innovation",
"Lightweight racing raters with bulb keels and minimal wetted surface"
],
[
"Reach",
"Orders from Europe, the Americas, Russia, Scandinavia, Asia and Australia"
],
[
"A famous rush",
"Built Prince George's 1-Rater White Rose in six days in 1896, working around the clock"
],
[
"End",
"The business failed under creditor pressure in 1903; he went on designing until his death in 1912"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Diamond",
"year": "1897",
"note": "half-rater; rebuilt 2011"
},
{
"name": "Saunterer",
"year": "1900",
"note": "yawl"
},
{
"name": "Thalassa",
"year": "1906",
"note": "yawl"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"fife-william-iii",
"watson-gl"
],
"builders": [],
"classes": [],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [
"The circumstances of his death are unclear; one account suggests drowning during an early-morning dinghy outing."
],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Charles Sibbick, Yacht Designer 1849–1912 — Sandeman Yacht Company",
"u": "https://blog.sandemanyachtcompany.co.uk/charles-sibbick-%E2%80%93-yacht-designer-1849-1912/"
}
]
},
{
"id": "hope-linton",
"name": "Linton Hope",
"sort": "Hope, Linton",
"sub": "Designer and Olympic sailor — England",
"life": "1863 – 1920",
"place": "England",
"start": 1895,
"regions": [
"uk"
],
"eras": [
"gilded-age",
"between-wars"
],
"summary": "Won two Olympic golds sailing in 1900, designed Thames raters and canoes, and ended by drawing flying-boat hulls for the Admiralty — the same problem, in air.",
"facts": [
[
"Olympics",
"Two gold medals at Paris, 1900, in the half-to-one-ton and open classes, sailing Scotia"
],
[
"Appointment",
"Naval architect to the King of the Belgians"
],
[
"Range",
"Yachts, international canoes, Thames raters and half-raters; hulls used by Indian yacht clubs at Malabar, Nainital and Rangoon"
],
[
"Aviation",
"Designed the AD Flying Boat, 1915, for the Admiralty's Air Department; his hull thinking shaped British flying boats into the 1920s"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Scotia",
"year": "1900",
"note": "Olympic gold"
},
{
"name": "AD Flying Boat",
"year": "1915",
"note": ""
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"fox-uffa",
"strange-albert"
],
"builders": [],
"classes": [
"canoe-yawl"
],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Linton Hope — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linton_Hope"
}
]
},
{
"id": "reimers-knud",
"name": "Knud H. Reimers",
"sort": "Reimers, Knud H.",
"sub": "Naval architect — Stockholm",
"life": "1906 – 1987",
"place": "Stockholm, Sweden",
"start": 1930,
"regions": [
"scandinavia"
],
"eras": [
"between-wars",
"postwar",
"fiberglass"
],
"summary": "Bought Estlander's Stockholm practice at twenty-five and three years later drew the Tumlaren — a small, cheap, very fast double-ender that spread to the Baltic, Britain, North America and Australia.",
"facts": [
[
"Trained",
"As a shipwright at Krupp Germaniawerft in the 1920s; apprenticed at Abeking & Rasmussen, Lemwerder"
],
[
"Practice",
"Joined Gustaf Estlander's Stockholm studio and bought it in 1930, aged 25"
],
[
"Archive",
"Maritime Museum, Stockholm"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Tumlaren",
"year": "1933",
"note": "became an international class"
},
{
"name": "Bacchant II",
"year": "—",
"note": "75 m² skerry cruiser"
},
{
"name": "Cohoe",
"year": "—",
"note": "32-ft large Tumlare; won the 1950 RORC Transatlantic Race under Adlard Coles"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"estlander-gustaf",
"sunden-tord"
],
"builders": [
"abeking-rasmussen"
],
"classes": [
"spidsgatter",
"nordic-folkboat"
],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Knud Reimers — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knud_Reimers"
},
{
"t": "Naval architect Knud Reimers — swedesail.de",
"u": "https://swedesail.de/en/naval-architect-knud-reimers/"
}
]
},
{
"id": "holm-tore",
"name": "Tore Holm",
"sort": "Holm, Tore",
"sub": "Designer, builder and Olympic sailor — Gamleby, Sweden",
"life": "1896 – 1977",
"place": "Gamleby, Sweden",
"start": 1920,
"regions": [
"scandinavia"
],
"eras": [
"between-wars",
"postwar"
],
"summary": "Five Olympics, two golds and two bronzes, a family boatyard, and a J-Class design that waited seventy-eight years to be built.",
"facts": [
[
"Olympics",
"1920 gold (40 m²), 1928 bronze (8-Metre), 1932 gold (6-Metre), 1936 fourth (8-Metre), 1948 bronze (6-Metre)"
],
[
"Yard",
"Ran the Holm boatyard at Gamleby"
],
[
"Svea",
"His J-Class design of 1937 was not built until 2015, in the Netherlands"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Bissbi",
"year": "1929",
"note": "6-Metre; Olympic gold 1932"
},
{
"name": "Elsinore",
"year": "1930",
"note": "8-Metre"
},
{
"name": "Svea",
"year": "designed 1937",
"note": "J-Class; launched 2015"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"anker-johan",
"estlander-gustaf"
],
"builders": [],
"classes": [
"metre-classes",
"j-class"
],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Tore Holm — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tore_Holm"
}
]
},
{
"id": "estlander-gustaf",
"name": "Gustaf Estlander",
"sort": "Estlander, Gustaf",
"sub": "Architect turned yacht designer — Helsinki, Berlin, Stockholm",
"life": "1876 – 1930",
"place": "Helsinki, then Stockholm",
"start": 1914,
"regions": [
"scandinavia"
],
"eras": [
"gilded-age",
"between-wars"
],
"summary": "A trained building architect and European speed-skating champion who turned to yachts at thirty-eight and drew more than a thousand of them.",
"facts": [
[
"Trained",
"Helsinki Polytechnic, 1898; co-founded the architecture firm Estlander & Settergren, 1903–1915"
],
[
"Yachts",
"Full-time from 1914; chief designer and owner of the Pabst yard near Berlin, 1921–23; took Swedish citizenship to design for Swedish Olympic entries"
],
[
"Output",
"More than 1,000 yachts, including 21 Six-Metres and 8 Eight-Metres"
],
[
"Other life",
"European speed-skating champion, 1898; Olympian, 1912"
]
],
"works": [
{
"name": "Colibri",
"year": "1917",
"note": "22 m² skerry cruiser"
},
{
"name": "May Be",
"year": "1927",
"note": "6-Metre; Scandinavian Gold Cup winner"
},
{
"name": "Cheerio",
"year": "—",
"note": "8-Metre; represented Finland at the 1936 Olympics"
}
],
"links": {
"designers": [
"reimers-knud",
"holm-tore",
"anker-johan"
],
"builders": [],
"classes": [
"metre-classes"
],
"associations": []
},
"flags": [],
"sources": [
{
"t": "Gustaf Estlander — Wikipedia",
"u": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustaf_Estlander"
}
]
}
]