Stephens Waring Yacht Design

Spirit of Tradition Yachts Designed In Maine

Boats Now Cheaper than Homes.

and filed under Construction, Marine Engineering, Spirit of Tradition

Here’s a scoop about marine living that surprised us: Living on the water is probably a better deal than living near the water. During the past 60 days or so, our little yacht design world has invested serious time in exploring how to live on marine environments. We’ve been digging deep into costs and benefits of various marine residence concepts from floating homes to houseboats to live-aboard yachts. And one of the biggest puzzles of living on the water are the values involved: What’s a better deal? A residence on real land near the coast. Or a residence floating on […]

On Powering Anna

and filed under Boat Nerd Tech, Construction, Design, Spirit of Tradition

Sailboats are just that: Boats that move because they have sails. So while we spend lots of our time figuring how out how slick mechanical systems operate winches and cool the air below, at the end of the day a boat like our new 66-footer Anna, just finishing up at Lyman Morse Boatbuilding, is a sailboat: Her central role is to provide her owners and crew the delightful experience of cajoling the wind into pushing or pulling all through the water — in more or less the direction the crew wants to go. Since Anna’s chief propulsive force is the […]

Bequia Wins Again: A Look at the Candy Store Cup 2017 Fleet.

and filed under Design, Racing, Spirit of Tradition

It may be shameless self promotion, but … one of our favorite boats, Bequia, took another decisive win on the race course earlier this summer. She took first overall at this year’s pretty darn competitive Candy Store Cup, in Newport, RI.  When we find luck on the race course, we like to take a moment to compare the boat to the others on the race course. That way we learn where the speed might have come from; and dig into what we can improve in future designs. The very talented marine photographer, Mark Krasnow, was very generous to share his spectacular race photos. […]

Marine Engineering 108: Why on earth does anybody pay so much for a custom boat?

and filed under Construction, Design, Spirit of Tradition

And now, the customer: All the elegantly engineered keels, retro-installed electric drives and superyacht-regatta winning hulls matter not a whit unless these yachty wonders wind up into a real, floating boat. And that real boat requires the near magical, impossible-to-design thing: A real customer. We’ve been working the yacht design wheels for nearly 60 combined years, and we know less now about where the good clients come from than when we started. Where does the individual with the means, inclination and imagination come from to create a great boat? We have no idea. But it is impossible to overstate their […]

The Scuttlebutt on the Camden Classics Cup

and filed under Brokerage, Design, Racing, Spirit of Tradition

One of the upsides of sponsoring the Camden Classics Cup is we get to cozy up to the scratch sheet for this year’s racing. Entries are still coming, but so far there will be some distinguished Spirit-of-Tradition yachts, with great backstories, out there on crystal blue Penobscot Bay. Since any time is a good time to jaw about these lovely boats, here’s a couple of favorite designs you can expect to see racing on July 27th. Marie J: This Tiffany Jayne 34 was the cold-molded wood prototype for a successful fiberglass production run of this boat, designed by Paul Kotzebue, […]

A Few Stairways to Heaven: What makes Anna’s interior go up … and down.

and filed under Construction, Design, Marine Engineering, Spirit of Tradition

In this business, sometimes you spend two full months on a few sets of stairs. About half-way through the design of the 65-foot sloop Anna, currently coming together over at Lyman Morse Boatbuilders, we knew a unique focal point was emerging in this boat: The staircases. Designing any boat is a battle of inches. But with Anna we had to work in a graceful passage from the outer deck to the full interior of this yacht. Two seemingly simple sets of stairs were needed: One with just one riser, that led from the cockpit down to the raised salon. And […]

Rolling in the Design Luxury of Rolls-Royce.

and filed under Design, Spirit of Tradition

Who knows how we get invited to shindigs this big and fancy: But … we’re delighted to be among the select few luxury companies to be profiled in Strive for Perfection, a commemorative book celebrating the Rolls-Royce Owners Club’s Annual Meet. That’s right, that Rolls-Royce: The essentially semi-custom luxury automotive brand that has defined the high-end in rolling personal transport since 1906. The owner’s club invited us out to their annual confab for Rolls owners. This year, they are meeting in French Lick, Indiana. We will be among a select group of owners of those iconic Rolls-Royce and Bentley vehicles. […]

Starting Up the Debate on Motor Yachts.

and filed under Design, Spirit of Tradition

Sailboats are fighting off a hard leeward marketing shore, these days. In any given year, something like ten motor-powered craft are sold for every one sailboat. Powerboats have become such a powerful marketplace force in the boating industry, that many of the world’s best boatbuilders no longer bother with sailboats. The Hinckley Company, which essentially pioneered the high-end production sailing yacht with classics like the Pilot 35 and Bermuda 40, still advertises its lovely Bermuda 50. But that doesn’t mean there’s one ready for a customer to buy. Read the fine print: This boat is a custom-built boat, just like […]

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