The last great era of wooden production sailing. Bears and Mercuries multiply, El Toros are built by the thousand, the Bay imports Folkboats and Knarrs from Scandinavia, and Lapworth's light-displacement thinking begins to pull ocean racing west.
What happened
- 1946 — Ernie Nunes opens a dedicated Mercury shop across the street
- 1949 — Kettenburg K-38 launched at Point Loma
- 1951 — Myron Spaulding buys the Gate Five Road yard, Sausalito
- 1952–55 — First International One Designs reach the Bay; YRA Fleet #4
- 1953 — Bjørn Iversen brings the Knarr to San Francisco
- 1963 — Lapworth's Cal 40 ends the argument about light displacement
Where
Designers
Bjarne Aas
Naval architect, builder and broker — Fredrikstad, Norway
John G. Alden
Naval architect — Boston
Hugh Angelman
Designer and yard partner — Wilmington, California
David Boyd
Naval architect — Sandbank, Scotland
Howard I. Chapelle
Naval architect and maritime historian — Smithsonian
Robert Clark
Yacht designer — England
Thomas E. Colvin
Naval architect and builder — Virginia and Florida
Charlie Davies
Designer — Southern California
Merle Davis
Yacht designer — Los Angeles
Jim DeWitt
Sailmaker, designer and painter — Richmond
David W. Dickie
Naval architect — San Francisco
Hank Easom
Boatbuilder, sailmaker and racer — Sausalito and Tiburon
Uffa Fox
Designer and builder — Cowes, Isle of Wight
William Garden
Naval architect — Seattle, then Vancouver Island
L. E. 'Ted' Geary
Naval architect — Seattle
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
Cyrus Hamlin
Naval architect and teacher — Maine
L. Francis Herreshoff
Naval architect and writer — Marblehead
Tore Holm
Designer, builder and Olympic sailor — Gamleby, Sweden
C. Raymond Hunt
Designer — Boston
George W. Kettenburg Jr.
Designer and yard principal — Point Loma, San Diego
Erling Kristofersen
Naval architect — Norway
C. William 'Bill' Lapworth
Naval architect — Southern California
A. E. 'Bill' Luders Jr.
Designer and yard principal — Stamford, Connecticut
Ed Monk Sr.
Shipwright and naval architect — Seattle
K. Aage Nielsen
Naval architect — Denmark and Boston
Ernest 'Ernie' Nunes
Designer of the Bear and the Mercury — Sausalito
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
Edson I. Schock
Naval architect and professor — Rhode Island
William 'Bill' D. Schock
Boatbuilder — Newport Beach and Costa Mesa
Ben Seaborn
Yacht designer — Seattle
Sparkman & Stephens
Naval architects and brokers — New York
Myron Spaulding
Naval architect, boatbuilder and concert violinist — Sausalito
Tord Sundén
Naval architect — Sweden
Winthrop L. Warner
Naval architect — Middletown, Connecticut
J. Murray Watts
Naval architect — Philadelphia
Joel White
Naval architect and yard owner — Brooklin, Maine
Fenwick C. Williams
Naval architect — Massachusetts
Ralph E. Winslow
Naval architect — Boston
Builders & Yards
Abeking & Rasmussen
Lemwerder, Germany
Alexander Robertson & Sons
Sandbank, Argyll
Anderson & Cristofani
900 Innes Avenue, India Basin, Hunters Point
Arques Boatyard
Napa Street then Johnson Street, Sausalito
Blanchard Boat Company
Lake Union, Seattle
Børresen Bådebyggeri
Vejle, Denmark
Brooklin Boat Yard
Brooklin, Maine
Camper and Nicholsons
Gosport, Hampshire
Cheoy Lee Shipyard
Shanghai, then Hong Kong
Concordia Company
South Dartmouth, Massachusetts
Easom Boat Works
Sausalito
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 Krenkel
Amateur builder — Richmond, California
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
Okamoto Boatyard
Japan
Menotti Pasquinucci
Turney Street, Sausalito
Quincy Adams Yacht Yard
Germantown, Quincy, Massachusetts
Rice Brothers
East Boothbay, Maine
Smith and Rhuland
Lunenburg, Nova Scotia
Spaulding Boatworks / Spaulding Marine Center
600 Gate Five Road, Sausalito
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
Acorn Class
James DeWitt, 1940s — a 19-ft owner-built Bay one-design
Bear Class
Sausalito, 1929–32 — the largest one-design fleet on the Bay
The Colin Archer Type
Double-ended, heavy-displacement, seagoing
Dragon
Johan Anker, 1929
El Toro
Richmond Yacht Club, 1940 — over 11,000 built
Farallone Clipper
Stockton-built, Bay-raced, 1938
Hurricane 30
Nunes Brothers, Sausalito — 17 hulls
International 210
C. Raymond Hunt, 1945
International One Design
Bjarne Aas, 1937 — Bay fleet from 1952
Junior Clipper
Stephens Brothers, 1946 — the Farallone Clipper's little sister
International Knarr
Norway, 1943 — with a direct line to San Francisco
Mercury 18
Sausalito, 1939 — one of the first plywood one-designs
The Metre Classes
The International Rule, ratified 1907
Monterey Clipper & the San Francisco Felucca
Italian-American fishing craft, 1860s – 1950s
Nordic Folkboat
Gothenburg, 1942 — and a large Bay fleet
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
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
Thunderbird
Ben Seaborn, 1958 — the plywood era's great success
Windward Class
Philip L. Rhodes — first boat launched at Oakland, 1947
Yankee One Design
W. Starling Burgess, 1937 — and the last one built at Alameda
Associations & Institutions
Corinthian Yacht Club
Tiburon
Encinal Yacht Club
Alameda
Richmond Yacht Club
Brickyard Cove, Richmond
San Francisco Yacht Club
Belvedere Cove, Tiburon
Spaulding Marine Center
600 Gate Five Road, Sausalito
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
Yankee
Gaff schooner, 52 ft — W. F. Stone, 1905; launched 18 April 1906
Zaca
Schooner — Nunes Brothers, Sausalito, 1929
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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