The View from the Helm

You may have heard, Chuck Paine is retiring.  So what’s he going to do with all that time?  After he and Debby have gotten some traveling out of their systems, Chuck is going to become a BOATBUILDER!  He thinks his final design, the PAINE 26, is the best thing that will ever happen to sailing.  It’s beautiful, it’s fast, and it has a unique feature that makes it possible for a person overboard to get back aboard without assistance.  And it’s small enough to actually get used a lot, not left to rot in a marina like so many larger yachts.  What do you think?

REDWING is designed to be hoistable onto deck of your motoryacht

Fay and Russ have a lot to smile about in their beautiful new Lyman-Morse 54.  In a few days they’ll be off on their adventure to Newport, Bermuda and the oceans of the world.

This was the first day the sailmaker got to tweak his creations.  He’s adjusting the leech line as New Morning shows off for her designer.

This is the deck mold for the York 45.  I think it represents a form of artwork.  All of the female mold stations are computer designed and perfectly faired- none of the shimming and “fairing by eye” is required that we boatyard hangers- on are used to from days past.  Put this on a street corner in New York City outside one of those Lexington Avenue galleries- or better yet Chelsea- and some Yalie with an erudite accent could surely sell it as sculpture.

It happens.  The owner behind the French and Webb 75 did some soul searching and realized his aspirations of cruising the world’s oceans were misplaced.  Better to pare away 30% of the weight in cruising luxuries and offshore features such as deep bulwarks and massive tankage, and concentrate on performance and week long cruises.  The slightly shorter F&W 72 is lower, narrower, sleeker, and will be a stimulating and satisfying racer on New England’s Spirit of Tradition courses.

Here’s a closeup of the French & Webb 72 profile. The wood is select teak.  Yeah I know the production builders like that word “select” because it sounds upmarket.  But in this case Todd French actually flew out to the lumber supplier in Ohio and hand selected a particularly beautiful huge teak log to be custom sawn so that every piece will match in grain and color just as in my rendering.

The York 45 is a twin jet express cruiser being built for a Florida gentleman. He saw Michael York’s 42 footer RANGITIKI and liked it, but wanted something just a bit larger. This 45 footer will combine shoal draft with a smooth ride at her design speed of thirty knots. Further information may be found in the “new commissions” pages of this website. Your comments are welcome!