Living , Modern

Richard

Carter

Dick

1928 -

In 1965, Dick Carter entered the first boat he ever designed, the innovative 34-foot Rabbit, in the prestigious Fastnet race, and against all odds one against a fleet of 151 racing boats. He won again in 1969 in another even more innovative boat of his own design, Red Rooster. Over the next decade he and his boats competed successfully with the best that American and European designers could produce in the competitive new golden age of Grand Prix yacht racing. In Rabbit, Tina, Red Rooster, and many later boats, he and his loyal crew beat the world’s best sailors and yacht designers, and established ingenious technological concepts, and a new look, for racing yachts. Years later his boats are still racing and cruising successfully all around the world, and his design innovations are seen as standard elements in the best racing sailboats of today.

Obsessed not only with sailboats but also with the lure and challenge of radical innovation, Dick Carter began racing small boats on Cape Cod, and came out of Yale‘s Corinthian sailing club as a champion. He had what sailors call “an eye for a boat”—an intuitive understanding of why some boats sail faster and better than others, and the ability to transform that understanding into new hull designs and rigging details. His small boat racing expertise was applied to larger ocean racing boats, using innovations that seem routine today, such as separated rudders, trim tabs, internal mast halyards, oversize headsails, lifting keels, and more.

More information at dickcarteryachtdesign.com

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