Ernest 'Ernie' Nunes

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.

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

• 1929–32Bear class — 23-ft sloop; 69 hulls built 1932–1976; the largest one-design fleet on the Bay by the 1950s
• 1939Mercury 18 — 1,060 built across all builders by 1994