Donald Healey: Sports Cars and Sport Boats
In 1952, the Austin Healey 100 BN1 became an archetypal British roadster of the postwar era. A few years later, Donald Healey, who was also a keen water skier, dashed… Read more »
Rovings
R2O at Viking
In the early days of composite boatbuilding before glass fibers, the pioneers experimented with natural reinforcement materials such as palm fronds and sisal. And once glass fibers were employed, builders… Read more »
The High End of High Speed
A six-year-old Dutch builder of large, high-speed, ax-bow motoryachts recently introduced its latest model, the VQ54 (16.5m). It joins the VQ32, VQ43 MK2, VQ48 and VQ48DC (9.8m, 13.1m, and 14.6m),… Read more »
Ray McLeod Jr: 1932–2018
Last February we lost Ray McLeod Jr., who told me many years ago while I was researching a history of fiberglass boatbuilding, that he joined his father’s modest boatbuilding and… Read more »
A Bénéteau with Foils
Followers of extreme sailing may know of Bénéteau’s several-year program to develop a production monohull with foils. Well, let’s qualify the term foils. The new 32‘ (9.75m) Figaro Bénéteau 3… Read more »
Remembering Ian Farrier
New Zealand multihull designer and builder Ian Lindsay Farrier, 70, died suddenly in San Francisco, California, on December 8, 2017, culminating a career that began in 1973 in Australia. While… Read more »
What to Do with Unsightly Deck Cranes?
Big toys on big yachts can do all sorts of fun things…except launch themselves. Jet skis jump waves. RIBs ferry guests to and from clubs on shore. Center consoles speed… Read more »
A Study in British Luxury Afloat
The British design studio Claydon Reeves (a partnership founded in 2010 by James Claydon and Mike Reeves) had a busy 2017, announcing the launching of several elite projects. Among them… Read more »
Everett Pearson: A Major Force in FRP
If one had to choose the most influential person in modern composite boatbuilding, you wouldn’t lose any points naming Everett Pearson, who died on Christmas Eve 2017 at age 84…. Read more »
Metal Shark’s Shoal-Draft Drive System
Louisianan Clint Angelle knows something about shallow water. Indeed, hunting and fishing in the state often require extreme shoal draft to move through vegetation, stumps, and all sorts of muck…. Read more »
