The science of great design

In his spare time Jack was an analytic follower of overseas yacht design, being heavily influenced by US designers from his first Wakatere canoe designs in the late 1920s, through his adaptation of the American Frostbite for local conditions, to his outstanding individual planing centreboarders like the hard-chine 14-footers Muimai, Mania, Prefect, Wai-iti and the 16-footer Mahana. In the later 1930s Jack moved on to keel yacht designs, getting a lot of attention with his 1939 landmark Gleam, which was inspired by the 1937 Yankee One-Design by W. Starling Burgess.

But back in 1938 Jack had a commission for the design of a yacht at the opposite end of the spectrum from the lean fin-keeler . It came from carpenter Syd Hamon of Mt. Roskill for a by Frank C. Paine of Boston. was a 62ft cutter, of the same vintage as Olin Stephens’ . In 1932 she was the first yacht to race from New York to Bermuda in three days.