Swede 55...a very sleek beauty

Fr J Hackett said:
Philip L Rhodes 53 ft Bermudan Cutter 1936/2019

Enough to make one go weak at the knees.
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Thunderhead has the same effect - also a Philip Rhodes design.

She used to be owned by an American stock broker who had a large house just up the hill from where I live here.
I had seen her mentioned in Arthur Beiser's wonderful book 'The Proper Yacht', and I knew that Sandy owned her then; in the summer of 1995 I sailed up to Maine from Antigua with a pal on his S & S 34 and by chance we saw Thunderhead moored on a dock at the bottom of a lovely summer cottage garden in Rockport, looking very elegant, and I realised then that this must also be one of Sandy's properties....

Philip Rhodes / Abeking & Rasmussen 49 ft Bermudan Cutter 1961/1995

The drawings below are copied from The Proper Yacht.
The sail plan shown in the link above is probably the (slightly smaller) original arrangement.

Thunderhead GA.jpg


Thunderhead sail plan.jpg
 
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When I try to define "beautiful" I always end up close to "purposeful" for a certain task or goal. The tool being so described.

Depending on the purpose of a boat - from a professional fishing vessel to a racing sailyacht, from a seakindly family cruiser that should also sail well to a fast and lively daysailer - beautiful will mean different things.

Once the purpose of a boat gets close to a being a floating condominium packing maximum space into a given loa, with a large verandah to party and be seen on, i guess then "beautiful" will also look different.

When daddy wants a fast sailboat, mummy wants a big bungalow with all possible modcons and the children want a treehouse .... you might end up with a flat bottomed, space wonder with lots of little cabins inside.

I might be wrong, though ...

Cheers, G.
 
servus said:
When I try to define "beautiful" I always end up close to "purposeful" for a certain task or goal. The tool being so described.

Depending on the purpose of a boat - from a professional fishing vessel to a racing sailyacht, from a seakindly family cruiser that should also sail well to a fast and lively daysailer - beautiful will mean different things.

Once the purpose of a boat gets close to a being a floating condominium packing maximum space into a given loa, with a large verandah to party and be seen on, i guess then "beautiful" will also look different.

When daddy wants a fast sailboat, mummy wants a big bungalow with all possible modcons and the children want a treehouse .... you might end up with a flat bottomed, space wonder with lots of little cabins inside.

I might be wrong, though ...

Cheers, G.
Click to expand...
That does explain the popularity of the most hideous cruising cats. Except if I were that dad, I'd feel hard done by.
 
Chiara’s slave said:
That does explain the popularity of the most hideous cruising cats. Except if I were that dad, I'd feel hard done by.
Click to expand...
When I saw some of these quote: "hideous" designs I had the impression that by some error the design for the top story of an air control tower had found it's way into the files of the yacht designer.

...come to think about it: I have learned to know quite a few pilots who are skippering their boats in their free time or as a retirement occupation.
At least they should feel at home ; )
 
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