The golden age of the wooden yacht, and the age in which San Francisco Bay acquires its own design identity. The Bird, the Bear and the Farallone Clipper are all conceived here; Alden's schooners are copied on every coast; the J-Class burns brightest and briefest.
What happened
- 1921 — Alden design No. 157: the Bird boat, drawn by Sam Crocker
- 1925 — The Nunes brothers move from the Sacramento River to Sausalito
- 1927 — Lester Stone builds the 140-ft schooner Northern Light
- 1929 — Sparkman & Stephens founded; Anker draws the Dragon; Zaca launched at Sausalito
- 1936 — Myron Spaulding wins the Transpac in Dorade
- 1938 — First Farallone Clippers built at Stephens Brothers, Stockton
Where
Designers
Bjarne Aas
Naval architect, builder and broker — Fredrikstad, Norway
Donald Abbott
Sponsor of the 1937 'Weekender' — San Francisco Bay
John G. Alden
Naval architect — Boston
Hugh Angelman
Designer and yard partner — Wilmington, California
Johan Anker
Naval architect and Olympic sailor — Norway
A. M. Bellingham
Designer — Kent, England
David Boyd
Naval architect — Sandbank, Scotland
Fred C. Brewer
Naval architect — Sausalito
W. Starling Burgess
Naval architect and aviation pioneer — Marblehead
Howard I. Chapelle
Naval architect and maritime historian — Smithsonian
Robert Clark
Yacht designer — England
Samuel S. Crocker
Draftsman in the Alden office, later independent — Massachusetts
Bowdoin B. Crowninshield
Naval architect — Boston
Merle Davis
Yacht designer — Los Angeles
Thomas Fleming Day
Editor of The Rudder — New York
David W. Dickie
Naval architect — San Francisco
Gustaf Estlander
Architect turned yacht designer — Helsinki, Berlin, Stockholm
William Fife III
Naval architect and builder — Fairlie, Ayrshire
Uffa Fox
Designer and builder — Cowes, Isle of Wight
L. E. 'Ted' Geary
Naval architect — Seattle
Henry J. Gielow
Naval architect and yacht broker — New York
Jack Laurent Giles
Naval architect — Lymington, England
Henry C. Grebe
Naval architect and yard owner — Chicago
Maurice Griffiths
Editor and designer — East Coast of England
William H. Hand Jr.
Naval architect — New Bedford and Fairhaven
John G. Hanna
Designer and design critic — Dunedin, Florida
L. Francis Herreshoff
Naval architect and writer — Marblehead
Nathanael Greene Herreshoff
'Captain Nat' — Bristol, Rhode Island
Tore Holm
Designer, builder and Olympic sailor — Gamleby, Sweden
Linton Hope
Designer and Olympic sailor — England
C. Raymond Hunt
Designer — Boston
George W. Kettenburg Jr.
Designer and yard principal — Point Loma, San Diego
A. E. 'Bill' Luders Jr.
Designer and yard principal — Stamford, Connecticut
Thomas F. McManus
Naval architect — Boston
Ed Monk Sr.
Shipwright and naval architect — Seattle
Charles D. Mower
Naval architect and design editor — New York
Alfred Mylne
Naval architect — Glasgow
Charles E. Nicholson
Naval architect — Gosport, England
K. Aage Nielsen
Naval architect — Denmark and Boston
Ernest 'Ernie' Nunes
Designer of the Bear and the Mercury — Sausalito
Frank C. Paine
Naval architect and yard president — Boston
Knud H. Reimers
Naval architect — Stockholm
Philip L. Rhodes
Naval architect and marine engineer — New York
Arthur C. Robb
Naval architect — New Zealand, Scotland and London
William J. Roué
Naval architect — Halifax, Nova Scotia
Edson B. Schock
Naval architect — New York, Vancouver, Los Angeles
Edson I. Schock
Naval architect and professor — Rhode Island
Ben Seaborn
Yacht designer — Seattle
Sparkman & Stephens
Naval architects and brokers — New York
Myron Spaulding
Naval architect, boatbuilder and concert violinist — Sausalito
W. Frank Stone
Designer and yard principal — San Francisco Bay
Winthrop L. Warner
Naval architect — Middletown, Connecticut
J. Murray Watts
Naval architect — Philadelphia
George H. Wayland
Naval architect — Seattle, then San Francisco
Fenwick C. Williams
Naval architect — Massachusetts
Ralph E. Winslow
Naval architect — Boston
Bert Woollacott
Yacht designer — New Zealand
Builders & Yards
Abeking & Rasmussen
Lemwerder, Germany
Alexander Robertson & Sons
Sandbank, Argyll
Anderson & Cristofani
900 Innes Avenue, India Basin, Hunters Point
Anker & Jensen
Norway
Arques Boatyard
Napa Street then Johnson Street, Sausalito
Blanchard Boat Company
Lake Union, Seattle
Børresen Bådebyggeri
Vejle, Denmark
Camper and Nicholsons
Gosport, Hampshire
Concordia Company
South Dartmouth, Massachusetts
Charles Cooper
Boatbuilder — Teynham, Kent
Herreshoff Manufacturing Company
Bristol, Rhode Island
Hodgdon Yachts
East Boothbay, Maine
Kettenburg Boat Works
Point Loma, San Diego
Kneass Boat Works
Mission Street, Pier 70 and 3rd Street, San Francisco
George F. Lawley & Son
Scituate, South Boston, then Neponset
Luders Marine Construction Co.
Byram then Stamford, Connecticut
Madden & Lewis Company
200 Johnson Street, Richardson Bay, Sausalito
Moore Dry Dock Company
Oakland Estuary
Henry B. Nevins, Inc.
City Island, New York
Nunes Brothers Boat & Ways Co.
Second and Main, Old Town Sausalito
Menotti Pasquinucci
Turney Street, Sausalito
Quincy Adams Yacht Yard
Germantown, Quincy, Massachusetts
Reliance Boat & Ways Co.
Second and Main, Sausalito
Rice Brothers
East Boothbay, Maine
Smith and Rhuland
Lunenburg, Nova Scotia
Stephens Brothers Boat Builders
Stockton, California
W. F. Stone & Son / Stone Boat Yard
Hunters Point → Tiburon → Harbor View → Oakland → Alameda
Union Iron Works / Bethlehem San Francisco
Potrero Point, San Francisco
Wilmington Boat Works
400 Yacht Street, Wilmington, California
Classes & Types
Bear Class
Sausalito, 1929–32 — the largest one-design fleet on the Bay
Bird Class
San Francisco Bay, 1921 — the oldest one-design class on the West Coast
The Cape Cod Catboat
New England vernacular, revived by Fenwick Williams
The Colin Archer Type
Double-ended, heavy-displacement, seagoing
Cooper Six-Tonner
A. M. Bellingham / Charles Cooper, Kent
Dragon
Johan Anker, 1929
Farallone Clipper
Stockton-built, Bay-raced, 1938
The Gloucester Fishing Schooner
New England, 19th century to the 1930s
International One Design
Bjarne Aas, 1937 — Bay fleet from 1952
The J-Class
The Universal Rule's largest yachts, 1930–1937
The Metre Classes
The International Rule, ratified 1907
Monterey Clipper & the San Francisco Felucca
Italian-American fishing craft, 1860s – 1950s
PC — Pacific Class
Kettenburg, San Diego, 1929
P.I.C. Class
Pacific Inter-Club, 1936 — not a boat called 'Pic'
Rhodes 33
Philip Rhodes design No. 441, 1938
San Francisco Bay Scow Schooner
The Bay's cargo craft, c. 1850 – 1930s
Sea Witch Ketch
Angelman & Davies, from c. 1937
Snowbird
Willis Reid, 1921 — Newport Harbor's junior class
Spidsgatter
Danish double-enders, from 1914
Tahiti Ketch
John G. Hanna, 1935
Yankee One Design
W. Starling Burgess, 1937 — and the last one built at Alameda
Associations & Institutions
Corinthian Yacht Club
Tiburon
Encinal Yacht Club
Alameda
Mystic Seaport Museum
Mystic, Connecticut
Richmond Yacht Club
Brickyard Cove, Richmond
San Francisco Yacht Club
Belvedere Cove, Tiburon
St. Francis Yacht Club
The Marina, San Francisco
Vessels
Adventuress
Gaff schooner — B. B. Crowninshield, 1913; Rice Brothers, East Boothbay
Freda
Gaff sloop — Harry Cookson, Belvedere, 1885
Northern Light
Auxiliary schooner, 140 ft — Henry C. Grebe, 1927; built at Stone Boat Yard, Oakland
Yankee
Gaff schooner, 52 ft — W. F. Stone, 1905; launched 18 April 1906
Zaca
Schooner — Nunes Brothers, Sausalito, 1929
← The Gilded Age & the Big Class · War, Plywood & the Bay Yards →
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