On the passage of her 20th anniversary we look back at one of our best-loved boats: the 50-foot Spirit of Tradition Sloop Hoi An. Hoi An’s history began when we were the in-house design team at Brooklin Boat Yard. In the fall of 2000 we had just celebrated the launch of the first two boats to our W-46 design, and Marc Heilner saw the press releases. A member of a long-time summer family of neighboring Blue Hill (although living in London at the time) and thinking about a sizeable sailboat to enhance his family’s enjoyment of their waterfront home under […]
Impracticality In Its Most Beautiful Form: 53-ft Beaujolais
Beaujolais was a fun doodle we did for a long-time client. She’s the outgrowth of a pet effort of ours, that of expanding the idea of what makes a proper Spirit of Tradition boat. Many folks’ interpretation of a classic yacht relies on a slender hull with long overhangs and low freeboard, the way classic racing sailboats looked in the 1920’s and ‘30’s, under the influence of rating rules like the International and Universal Rules, those responsible for bringing us beautiful racing classes like the 6-Meters and 12-Meters, and the R, Q, P, and J-boats. But there exists a much […]
Amped on Electric Boats
14 years ago we launched an innovative custom design– the hybrid diesel/electric-runabout, Zogo. The 29-footer built by French & Webb, features a solar canopy and is equipped with a seven-kilowatt generator/motor integrated onto a 110-horsepower diesel engine from Steyr Diesel of Austria. At full throttle under the 110 hp diesel, the hull reaches 17 kts. Cutting-edge for the time, in the decade-plus that has transpired, systems technology for electric boat design has progressed significantly. As Stephens Waring embarks on a more contemporary electric boat project, (introducing Isobel), we’re sharing some of the exciting developments we’re integrating into our current designs […]
Sailing Back To Zingara’s Roots
Since we took ownership of our sweet little Spirit of Tradition yacht, Zingara has brought much joy to us on the water – the boat is great fit to our seasonal agenda. Hosting clients aboard is a great way to build relations and Zingara is a solid and beautiful platform. We enjoy a few regatta events each year and this gives the SWD design team something to chew on; the company team-building is good fun and something to look forward to. And, owning a boat as business partners is a helpful way to manage time aboard during busy seasonal schedules, […]
Pushing the Edge of Accommodations Design
Two years ago, renowned climber and adventure guide company owner, Harry Kent, reached out from his Via Ferrata Works office in Estes Park, Colorado with an interesting request. Could the Stephens Waring studio help his company reimagine the experience of sleeping on a rock climber’s portaledge by designing a structure that was accessible and comfortable for ordinary people to spend the night (or a weekend) hundreds of feet in the air? He wanted a design solution that would build upon the heritage of rock climbing while also integrating the latest in sustainable technologies, green materials, and geotechnical engineering that would […]
The Rising Tide for Floating Communities
By Reed Rowley The concept of the floating metropolis has lived as a science fiction concept ever since French author Jules Verne described them in his novel The Floating City in 1871. Since then, the idea of the large modern floating municipality has been parked on the scientific and engineering backburner. Today there are more people living in Antarctica than in modern floating communities around the world. However, with the twin pressures of population density and climate change causing sea levels to rise, serious attention is being refocused on reimagining and reinventing floating communities as a solution to the challenges […]
Light at the End of the Tunnel For Zemphira
We’re thrilled to share an update on the progress of Zemphira as work continues at full tilt for her to hit the water again this spring. Here’s the latest on her work at the Lyman Morse Boatyard. The Latest: The internal carbon reinforcement frame has been installed around the new molded bottom replacement and keel socket, taped in place, and smoothed and painted. The systems are starting to go in: lithium-ion batteries nested into bays in the carbon grid, each side of and aft of the socket, and collapsible fuel-cell-style diesel tanks in specially-designed compartments within the structure. The new […]
Zemphira returns to the shed
We are always excited to tell you about our designs: whether in-build, getting refit, or living the life they were designed for. And so it was this spring we started telling you all about the thorough refit one of our favorite boats enjoyed last winter, in which we were deeply involved (Zemphira-(re)fit for a King). But as they do, stranger things happened which changed that story dramatically by creating another project and a new chapter in the life of Zemphira. Mere hours after leaving the dock in Camden, Maine, on her maiden delivery voyage after the work was done, the […]