Marie J was the cold-molded wooden prototype for a successful fiberglass production boat, the Tiffany Jayne 34. She was a development of the early ultra-light daysailer/racers coming out of California in the late 1970’s. Designed by Paul Kotzebue, of the Pacific northwest, this svelte double-ender can accommodate a crew for weekending or overnight racing. The high-end build by C&B Marine, in Santa Cruz, California, engineered in high performance keel and rudder into this classic design. Cutting edge for her day, there are reports that production versions of Marie J were capable of bursts of speeds of 16 knots! in ideal reaching conditions […]

Grace tells a powerful Spirit of Tradition narrative, but she does so delicately. Joel White’s original 1996 Center Harbor 31 designs were done in throwback paper and pencil. (Full disclosure: These drawings were done mostly with Bob Stephens own hands.) White was careful to pull Grace’s sheer and layout from the mid-coast Maine daysailer narrative, found in boats like L. Francis Herreshoff’s Quiet Tune. But the keel and rudder designs feature a contemporary bulb and foils. Both sloop and ketch rigs were available. And the semi-custom construction allowed the design to iterate slowly over the years. Deeper keels were mixed […]

Legend has it, that an American businessman hired yacht consultant Elizabeth Meyer to reboot the classic America’s Cup J-Boats. We love the shape and form of those boats too. But anybody who sails them will tell you, these designs can be clumsy and hard to handle. Meyer must have known that too. The 90-footer that Pedrick Design eventually drew for her and her client is modern classic: Savannah hits the spirit-of-tradition bullseye for a traditional style that carries full-on modern performance. Her speed, outstanding finish level and near-absurd attention to detail make her interesting. But what makes Savannah truly important in the […]