Every Bay yard goes to war. Stone, Anderson & Cristofani, Madden & Lewis, Kneass and Wilmington Boat Works build minesweepers, subchasers, harbour tugs and rescue launches in wood. The war also teaches the trade what marine plywood and resorcinol glue can do — a lesson that reshapes small-boat design afterwards.
What happened
- 1941–45 — Bay yards convert wholesale to Navy contracts
- 1939–40 — El Toro sketched out of a Richmond YC bull session
- 1942 — First Nordic Folkboat launched at Arendal, Gothenburg
- 1943 — Erling Kristofersen draws the Knarr in occupied Norway
- 1945 — Myron Spaulding returns to private practice from Madden & Lewis
Where
Designers
Uffa Fox
Designer and builder — Cowes, Isle of Wight
William Garden
Naval architect — Seattle, then Vancouver Island
Maurice Griffiths
Editor and designer — East Coast of England
Erling Kristofersen
Naval architect — Norway
Ed Monk Sr.
Shipwright and naval architect — Seattle
Frank C. Paine
Naval architect and yard president — Boston
Philip L. Rhodes
Naval architect and marine engineer — New York
Arthur C. Robb
Naval architect — New Zealand, Scotland and London
Edson B. Schock
Naval architect — New York, Vancouver, Los Angeles
Sparkman & Stephens
Naval architects and brokers — New York
Myron Spaulding
Naval architect, boatbuilder and concert violinist — Sausalito
Tord Sundén
Naval architect — Sweden
George H. Wayland
Naval architect — Seattle, then San Francisco
Builders & Yards
Anderson & Cristofani
900 Innes Avenue, India Basin, Hunters Point
Arendals Yard, Gothenburg
Gothenburg, Sweden
Arques Boatyard
Napa Street then Johnson Street, Sausalito
Blanchard Boat Company
Lake Union, Seattle
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
Marinship
Sausalito — the war that reshaped the waterfront
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
Quincy Adams Yacht Yard
Germantown, Quincy, Massachusetts
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
El Toro
Richmond Yacht Club, 1940 — over 11,000 built
International Knarr
Norway, 1943 — with a direct line to San Francisco
Mercury 18
Sausalito, 1939 — one of the first plywood one-designs
Nordic Folkboat
Gothenburg, 1942 — and a large Bay fleet
Associations & Institutions
Richmond Yacht Club
Brickyard Cove, Richmond
Vessels
Yankee
Gaff schooner, 52 ft — W. F. Stone, 1905; launched 18 April 1906
← Between the Wars · The Postwar Fleet →
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