Summary
Date happened: 1947>75 Date posted: 2010/3/1 Size: 12 pages, 83 KB
Profiles of five pivotal pioneers from the early-modern multihull advent. From WoodenBoat magazine, May-June 1998. Has video counterpart HERE.
Author’s contact: outrig.org@gmail.com
ANNOTATION:
This article was commissioned by WoodenBoat magazine editor Mat Murphy for publication in the May-June 2008 issue, which appeared just prior to the WoodenBoat Show of that year. Held at Mystic Seaport Museum in Connecticut, this show features a yearly tribute to individuals or groups who have figured in some way into the development of wooden boats. That year’s tribute went to “The Multihull Pioneers,”
The occasion sparked a sail-in for about a dozen wooden multihulls, all docked along the Museum’s 17 acre riverfront park. This is the site where many of America’s most historic vessels were built, and where many of the most representative now reside on exhibit. The place is the very seat of American maritime tradition.
To see the bulkhead lined with multihulls was both jarring and enlightening, for it suggested that multihulls have finally arrived. The ceremonial dinner, held on that first Saturday in June, attracted about two hundred paying guests, with many of the core members of the New England Multihull Association in attendance. Speakers included James Wharram, Barry Choy, Dick Newick, John Marples, Meade Gougeon and Jim Brown, with proceedings moderated by Steven Callahan. WoodenBoat’s publisher Carl Cremer paid more-than-adequate tribute to the “multihull heroes” in attendance and those who have sailed away, and a great deal of camaraderie was enjoyed. Skull cessions continued until very late, and the show had its best attendance to that time.
This event, being staged by perhaps the most traditionally respected voice in the recreational marine industry, seemed to put the finish on the multihull’s long awaited legitimacy. It seemed also to mark the end of the multihull as anti-yacht, and the end of multihull creators and crews as The Hell’s Angels of the Sea. It also marked the end of the multihull’s delightfully maverick, wildly enthusiastic, and proudly countercultural exclusiveness. It is something of that delight, that enthusiasm, that pride and, yes, that exclusiveness, which The OutRig! Project now endeavors to preserve.
Note: The video counterpart to this article is a brief overview of multihull history from the 1040s to the present including their engine-powered, commercial and military applications. To see it, click PIONEERS VIDEO
To read the full article, click
Options for other formats may be available in the Time Line list.