What Makes Classic Boats So Damn Beautiful?
A Conversation with Maynard Bray Using Drawings, Photos & Dreams
Presentation replay is now available.
What makes classic wooden boats so beautiful? And how are they so stunning and seaworthy at the same time? Few people have spent more time analyzing classic yacht designs and designers than Maynard Bray, and he joins boatbuilder Eric Blake and author Bill Mayher for a discussion of drawings and photos of some of the most beautiful and seaworthy boats from legendary designers of the golden age of yacht design draftsmanship.
Live Q&A to follow.
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Speakers:
- Maynard Bray – Historian, OCH & WCBS Co-founder
- Bill Mayher – Author, OCH & WCBS Co-founder
- Eric Blake – Boatbuilder, OCH & WCBS Co-founder
Some old fellow said Straight is the line of duty. Curved is the line of beauty
Sheer line seems to be the most crucial element of beauty. Do you all agree?
A courageous topic to tackle in our nihilist “post-modern” times, where there is no such thing as Classic Truth and only Power and Money are left to be found hiding behind the high-sounding, pop-culture curtain of “Woke” newspeak. But, “A thing of beauty is a joy forever” is true simply because there is such a thing as Classic Truth. The designers that we admire and remember have internalized these classic truths and express them in their work as these truths’ archetypal images. Their creations are esthetically pleasing and inspiring because they are in harmony with the classic truths of our universe. That is why a beautiful vessel compliments the beauty of the spiritually inspiring Maine cove that we all seek when cruising. That is why other vessels seem to detract from them when they are, unfortunately, present. I once heard an old sailorman say, “In days of yore, the craftsman wrought, with greatest care, each detail, seen and not …for his God saw everywhere.” That about sums it up.
We done! We are sailing in troubled waters with “Woke “ insanity.
One of my favorite video clips ever on the site. This topic of “form” and discussing it is one of the most difficult, challenging yet important of the field of design in which I spent much of my career. By carefully discussing it, with visual examples, you three are revealing some of the “magic’ that people can see with their eyes and feel in a visceral way, but don’t fully understand, and may not yet have the language to articulate. Bravo, and keep it coming!
Re the Friendship sloop photos: The observation about how the adoption of oval coamings was influenced by the lack of power saws was intriguing. It’s clear that steaming wide planks into an oval, shaping and fastening them to fit taking care to make them complement the sheerline was a functional and beautiful solution.
I caught this one a day late but thoroughly enjoyed the chat. It reminds me of exactly why it’s taken me so damn long to finish the boat I’m building. I worry every aspect of everything I’m doing in my slow progress. Hopefully I’ll finish it up and get her in the water this late June. Maynard, I’m the guy from Indiana who stopped your office by just to say hello. You told me to just put the daggerboard wherever I thought it needed to be and it would probably sail fine. I have to tell you I finally got up the nerve to rout the hole and it feels right to me. I just hope she sails well.
Eric, I really understand your feelings about designing in the computer. I have to say, I worked in automotive design for 33 years as a clay sculptor doing the full size models. We tried to phase out the clay around 2000 but found that even though we could spin that design around in ever direction in the computer, there was one huge thing missing. You could not walk up to the model and touch it. To that point, they are still using clay today to prove out the final design. The computer is a big help to speed up the process though.
I sure hope you do this again next year. It’s a wonderful thing! Thanks guys!
I agree about taking elements of design and considering each in turn: sheerlines, paint schemes, rigs, complementary construction details, etc.
In 1910 B. B. Crowninshield designed and had a local builder construct a dead simple, beautiful 40′ gaff schooner (FAME) he could single-hand in his home waters near Marblehead. Photos of her are available online.
A century later Dennis Connor of America’s Cup fame bought the boat and although she needed almost a total rebuild he utterly bodged it up. He cut down the cockpit coaming to deck level (for comforting his big butt), mounted winches on the cabin top forward and aft where none had been before plus roller furling drums with aluminum spars salvaged from modern class sailboats to make her into a staysail rig with stiff, rattly modern sails. She’s an eyesore now and reminds me of an innocent girl all tarted up in cheap costume and sent out onto the street to make a living. Horrible. (End of rant but sorry not sorry)
I love that rant!
A delight to listen to M,B & E who have such a deep appreciation and a nuanced eye. Thank you.
Eric, Bill & Maynard: An Artist, of whatever sort, sees thing ‘different’ – the best of whom – to perfection. Whether they be an oil-painter of landscapes seeing hews (colors), values (light vs. dark) or temperature (cool vs. warm); or a sculpturer who pre-sees in 3D – curves and shapes and lines. An aesthete, ‘different’ than most of us, see the world around, differently, and there-so can create a beautiful thing. Thank you for your engagement on the essence of Art (of boat design). I learned a lot, and as I drove by Off Center Harbor today, parked outside as the snow fell (peering in through the cold windows at a mere 14-degrees F.), I saw what hard work it takes to make boat-art, other than the 2D & 3D art I have made myself. I look at every classic boat listing lately, for ‘my next boat’, in a new way. That’s a great feeing – to gain even more knowledge from the Great Designers, and from the people who still make the real thing happen. Andrew Garland
When looking at drawings from the ’30s and ’40s by Alden and Sparkman Stevens, take a look at the lower right hand corner. There might be a date and the initials KAN. This means that it was actually drawn by K. Aage Nielsen. Maynard did a whole book about Aage, and the drawings are exceeded in beauty only by the finished boats themselves. Since Aage worked by himself, there were never a lot of his boats built, but every one is drop dead gorgeous and built to the highest quality.
Getting out on the water, even if you can already see one bank from the other, can change where you want to go and certainly how you get there. Getting out on the water can change the way you see the world.
There are so many reasons to build a boat. A boat can carry you away. It can bear you. It can animate a map and turn a view into an adventure. A boat will keep afloat your brief and precious life and, if you are very lucky, the life, too, of someone you love. If it is a thing that will do all that, you should know it well and understand how it is made. Perhaps too, it ought to be a beautiful thing.
I love listening to you guys – thank you.
Thanks once again for bringing pleasure into my day. Best to all at OCH from Poulsbo, WA.
Wonderful! Thanks guys. “A thing of beauty is a joy forever”.
The commentary from all three of you brings form, function, beauty and lines into focus and much appreciated. Hope the next few months speed by and warm weather allows you to enjoy of what you speak.
Warm regards
What an enjoyable hour. Since I’ve been a boat nut forever, asking the same questions, it was a joy to hear y’all sharing your thoughts and ideas about what makes a classic boat so beautiful! Thanks to all of you at OCH.
The hand drawings are wonderful, the autograph of the designer. When I started teaching drafting and woodwork 40 years ago, CAD drawings were starting to take over. When I made a Shellback and Nutshell dinghies with students and rolled out the prints of Joel White’s hand drawn plans I told my students “here is a personal letter of a great naval architect.” I added that it like getting a personal letter by snail mail. Students looked at me as though I was from a different planet.
To me a beautiful boat telegraphs to the observer how the boat will respond the sea and the sailors. Is that a part of it?
Is there a correlation between beauty and a feeling of a boat being ‘alive’ under way?
Thank you for looking through an historical eye. I learned new things about why a boat is so beautiful. I am having a great time! Form follows function absolutely resonates!
Are you at your house Maynard? Are those all half models of boats you’ve owned and did you make them? Love the Buckley Smith sketches, too.
The true test is the joy as your eye takes a last look as you row away. Wonderful presentation.
Jacob Pike is moored out in front of our house right now and has been for a few years. Such a high pleasure to see every day, in fog,during the golden hour, iced over in the sea smoke of winter. She once overtook us silently, loaded down to the gunnels entering Fox Island Thorofare. The guy at the helm waved looking like the proudest, happiest, most satisfied mariner ever.
I’m sorry if my question is being asked for the zillionth time. I’m logged in. The web page shows the title and time of tonight’s event. At 7:30.does it just begin or do I need to click a button or tab? If so, where is that?
Thanks
Rick Alexander
Will somebody please give me a hand here with a brief answer?😄
Hi Rick – it will just be right here. You can refresh the screen at show time if you don’t see anything, and hit play.
Let’s hope the legendary Bill Garden is included in this discussion.
Good job by all three of you – discussing a wonderful subject! Bill Page
Ken Hankinson might be another good topic for discussion during this presentation.