4/2/2019 — LONDON, ENGLAND: Stephens Waring Yacht Design, the internationally recognized marine engineering and architecture firm, announced today that its recent 65-foot luxury yacht Anna won a Classic Boat Award 2019 in an exclusive ceremony here. The Classic Boat Awards celebrate excellence in custom-built and restored boats from around the world. The award is presented annually by the editors of Classic Boat Magazine, the yachting publication also based here, in London, England. “We’re delightfully honored to be recognized by Classic Boat with this award. We’re thrilled to be in such great company among our fellow nominees,” says Robert Stephens, principal […]
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The SoT Regatta Issue: The 2019 Camden Classics Cup Handicapper’s Tip Sheet.
The 2019 Camden Classics Cup is almost making us wish there was legal sports betting in sailing! We got a chance last week to review the scratch sheet for this summer’s celebration of contemporary, classic and modern-classic yachting in the heart of lovely Penobscot Bay, Maine. And this still-growing fleet of 43 boats is chock full of competitive classes, great backstories and larger-than-life characters. The eye-popper class in this year’s Camden Classics is the 9-boat, Vintage Division 1. The entry here that you can’t help but gawk at is Spartan, the beautifully-restored Herreshoff NY50 that’s been burning up the race […]
The SoT Regatta Issue: Split-Keel Classics To Get Their Racing Day in the Maine Sun.
It is the dark ugly secret of classic and modern-classic racing. That yes, designers of some of the most classic of classic vessels had the audacity to separate the keel from the rudder on their designs. We know! Hide the kids, but it is true! Since about the middle of 20th century, it was increasingly common for even the most traditional looking yachts to quietly move away from full keel underbodies and separate the main fin keel from the rudder in the underwater sections of their boats. The original Swan 36 was probably the most famous example of such a […]
The SoT Regatta Issue: The Handicapper’s App In Your Pocket.
That dumb old smartphone of yours is about to get a whole lot cleverer about organizing and managing classic and modern-classic regattas. Earlier this year, we got a private demonstration of a new mobile race management app from the Sailing Yacht Research Foundation, the Warwick, Rhode Island-based sailing technology incubator. The app is called the Race Tracker and Analyzer, or RTA, and it attempts to scrub out the hassle and complexity of organizing, tracking, and racing in a regatta. “The current race tracking experience is too complicated and costly,” says McKenzie Wilson, executive director of the Sailing Yacht Research Foundation, […]
Notes on The Economic Impact of Custom Boats.
With the launch of Anna — our new all-custom 65-foot daysiler, behind us, we’ve had a moment to consider not just the value of a new custom boat, but the value that custom boat creates. Because if you think about it, a custom-boat’s value is subjective and straightforward: How much did she cost to build? How much might a new buyer pay for her? What might it cost for potential owners to have a similar experience with another yacht? No matter how unique a custom boat, her value is basically a few numbers agreed on by consenting adults. But the […]
Marine Engineering 202: Why Does My Roller-Furling Boom Look Like It Does?
Hundreds of thousands of people have seen her online. Nearly 35,000 of them have reacted to her or said something or asked questions about her. Anna, our latest daysailer, has become quite the social media darling, during her first few weeks of competition in the Spirit of Tradition category in the 2019 Classic Boat Awards. This annual award is organized by Classic Boat magazine, celebrating the best in classic and modern-classic vessels from around the globe. As part of the online voting, Anna is getting articulate, passionate and sometimes tough interrogation from a global community of sailors and classic-boat owners. […]
Some Modern-Classic Classics: Elements of Spirit-of-Tradition Design in Three Traditional Vessels.
One of the nice perks of hosting a global conversation about Spirit-Of-Tradition vessels, is our Spirit-of-Tradition Registry. The Registry lists the boats that help define the modern-classic design narrative. It has grown to include roughly 30 vessels that thousands of readers have read or commented on. The Spirit-of-Tradition Registry has been a blast. But here’s the thing: We’ve been doing our part getting the word out on the Classic Boat Award, the world-wide prize for classic and Spirit-of-Tradition yachts, hosted by London-based Classic Boat magazine. As the name implies, most of the boats nominated are pure classic vessels. But even […]
2019 Camden Classics Cup Early Registration Breaks Records.
Though we planned our full preview coverage for the 2019 Camden Classics Cup in the spring, we wanted to give the Spirit-of-Tradition community an important heads up: Early registration has begun. The demand has broken all previous records. An unprecedented dozen or so vessels have entered the online registration process in the first week. And indications are, that all facets of the event including sponsorship, local housing and marina resources will be at a premium for 2019. Only about 18 dockage slots remain. So if you are at all interested in experiencing the Camden Classics Cup as it should be […]