Wooden Boat AtlasDesigners, builders & classes · v3.0

Atlas / Designers

1856 – 1938 · Boston, Massachusetts

Thomas F. McManus

Naval architect — Boston

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.

Reform
The shortened bowsprit and extended stern overhang — the 'McManus lines'
Reputation
Called the father of the fishermen's races
  • 1907Rose Dorothea — Lipton Cup winner
  • Esperanto
  • 1924Henry Ford

Wooden Boat Atlas v3.0 · built 30 July 2026 · a project of the Golden Gate Wooden Boat Foundation · licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · open data · corrections