beneath the seats. With the sailplan divided into four relatively small sails the winches could be manual and of relatively small size. A custom varnished teak binnacle supported a very traditional compass enclosure. The wheel was the focal point of the cockpit, a nautical adaptation of a 1950s Porsche 356 wheel, custom built of highly polished stainless steel and varnished teak. Wings of Grace was the essence of a custom designed and built yacht. Nothing of this elegance and exceptional performance was available in anything approaching mass production, nor ever will be. As I reflect upon my life’s work it occurs to me that the yachts I most enjoyed designing were my classic designs. Traditional designs are fascinating because they add to an always intriguing and challenging process the element of historical
research. The designer must balance on the fine edge between the natural drive to ‘do something better’ and appropriate respect for those who might have been even more masterly pliers of our ancient trade.
DESIGN PROCESS
Historically based designs spanned the entire history of Paine Yacht Design. The process of designing my classic boats always began with a patron who would bring in an older design that was clearly a thing of beauty and say, “Make it look like that.” And I would – but I do have an ego after all, and life as a creative person is about making the world just that little bit better. So I and my mates would apply academic research with respect to hydrofoils, new materials that had emerged since the proffered design was completed, computerised ways to
predict all manner of performance factors to four decimal places, and, most importantly, the collective talents of a room full of artists who had converged under my tutelage to the back of beyond in Camden, Maine, USA. And if we did our jobs well we’d nudge the history of yacht design forward just a smidgeon.
FASHION’S CYCLES
“The yachts I most enjoyed designing were my classics”
Some may scoff that these designs are ‘old fashioned’. But fashion is just that, and if it is whimsical or merely an attempt to come up with something ‘new’ because what is ‘old’ has ceased to sell, it must ultimately fail. Fashion goes in cycles and eventually circles back to shapes dictated by the immutable forces of nature. I’ll tell you this – we’ll be catching our breaths at the sight of J-class yachts with their
preposterous rigs and long overhangs at bow and stern and low freeboard and flat, teak-clad decks in a thousand years because in all that time the sea will never fail to conform itself to their shape in a way that moves it through the interface between water and air with the least possible resistance.
It took me all of my life; but at the end of my career I had learned how little I really needed to contribute to the art of yacht design. In coming to understand that which was understood years before my time by men with names like Nicholson and Herreshoff and Fife and Rhodes, I believe I created my best work. At the very least, it was in creating the designs illustrated in these articles that I obtained the greatest satisfaction in my many years designing yachts. These classic yacht designs were my finest achievement.
Wings of Grace, ketch rigged using a cutter foretriangle, was very fast in reaching conditions. “Nothing of this elegance and exceptional performance was available in anything approaching mass production, nor ever will be”
Chuck Paine’s book, $59.95, is available from www.
chuckpaine.com CLASSIC BOAT JULY 2011 57
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