Classic Boats

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.

A Vineyard classic lives on in updated models from C.W. Hood

In the late 19th century, Wilbur Morse, a boatbuilder in Friendship, Maine, was turning out an unprecedented number of working sailboats of similar design.