Power, Performance and Speed in 20th Century Yacht Design

The New Bedford Whaling Museum is thrilled to announce the opening of a major exhibition celebrating W. Starling Burgess and C. Raymond Hunt. The exhibition is a companion to two recent Museum publications, No Ordinary Being: W. Starling Burgess, Inventor, Naval Architect, Aviation Pioneer, and Master of American Design by Llewellyn Howland III and A Genius at His Trade: C. Raymond Hunt and His Remarkable Boats by Stan Grayson. The Museum is dedicating a premier exhibition space, the Jacobs Family Gallery, to this exhibition celebrating these two masters of American yacht design. The show will highlight each of these extraordinary innovator’s revolutionary and most notable contributions to the industry and looks to where their work continues to reverberate today in modern yacht design.

The exhibition highlights are actual boats designed by Burgess and Hunt as well as the outstanding photography of Norman Fortier, trophies, tank test models, and ship models borrowed from private and corporate collections. One of the Museum’s greatest treasures is the 1/3 scale Concordia Yawl model by Tom Borges, with exquisite detailing and full rigging. Mystic Seaport is loaning a c.1920 sailing canoe designed by Burgess, and private collectors are loaning an early Boston Whaler and an exquisitely restored 110 series sailboat. These will be complemented with ship models of Burgess and Hunt’s most iconic yachts, from America’s Cup J Boats to Hunt’s Deep V powerboat hull, one of the most impactful innovations in yacht design in the 20th century. Videos and photographs of these and other yachts in action will allow the visitor to fully appreciate the unprecedented beauty, power and speed brought to the industry by these two design masters and their continued influence on modern yacht design.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.