Classic Boats

Sisu is a Finnish word that’s difficult to translate. It means something like endurance, determination, stamina, fortitude—or, in American slang, guts.

The True North 38 made its debut in 2001. Seventeen years later, it’s still turning heads.

The Herreshoff Marine Museum in Bristol, Rhode Island, celebrates the  gorgeous and ground-breaking designs of Capt. Nathanael Greene Herreshoff.

Based on a North Sea trawler and built of steel and aluminum in 1962, Sindbad was made to cross oceans. Fifty-six years later, she’s been given a makeover.

This 28-foot design won California’s Newport to Ensenada race in 1978 and also came in first in class in 1979.

The most important ship restoration project in America at this moment is attracting big crowds.

In May 1940, some 385,000 Allied soldiers needed rescuing from the shores of northern France.

If a class of boats could be like a dynastic royal family, the 12 Metre Class would qualify.

Back in the day, as yachtsmen in northern waters sat out the long winters, they thought about boats to race and cruise.

Boston Whaler caused quite a sensation in the early part of its distinguished 60-year history.

The 1950s and ’60s were a time of great activity and innovation in the boating world, with new boats and a new audience waiting to buy them.

Scott Harrell loved tractors. The Edenton, North Carolina, native “delighted in mowing and moving dirt,” as one observer put it.

When Boston Whaler moved from Rockland, Massachusetts, to Florida in 1991, Paul Hureau stayed behind.

It was called the Bug. George “Pop” Corry’s little one-design sailboat, which had come off New York designer William Gardner’s drawing board in 1906, was fun to race, gave skippers an even chance to win and was inexpensive at $140.

Built in 1889, the traditional Chesapeake Bay sailing bugeye Edna E. Lockwood is getting a fresh lease on life at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, Maryland, where shipwrights are installing a new handcrafted log bottom hewn from 12 loblolly pine logs. This video has the latest on the restoration

Lightships were stout and rugged little ships with lighted masts that could be anchored most anywhere a navigational beacon was required.

For a vessel with such a big history, the lightship Ambrose looks surprisingly small. Perhaps it’s because South Street Seaport Museum has the 135-footer tied up across from the 325-foot iron-hulled Wavertree.

In 1957, Charles Johnson approached John Rybovich in his quest for a motor­yacht to be the mother ship to his Rybovich sportfisher.

Bernard Lyman was a skilled craftsman and respected cabinetmaker in Cleveland on the shores of Lake Erie.

They started out building sailboats; they ended up creating one of the most distinctive motoryachts of the modern era.

Designer Ken Smith’s Grand Banks 42 is an acknowledged classic, a salty trawler yacht with an aft cabin, sturdy  wheelhouse and workboat-inspired profile that was built for nearly 40 years. The Europa version was an offspring.

The Lord Nelson Victory Tug is a most distinctive motoryacht - equipped with a single-engine, these trawler-style vessels are comfortable long-range cruisers.