In the Golden Age
Back in the early days of modern yacht racing, Dick Carter was one of winningest designers around, with boats known as much for innovation as sheer speed. In this expert from his book Dick Carter, Yacht Designer: In the Golden Age of Offshore Racing, Carter recounts his early experiences going offshore.
The Medalist I bought in 1962 was designed by Bill Tripp and built in Holland by LeComte. The hull was fiberglass and the interior finished to a very high standard in wood. Bill Tripp was a big man and the scale of the boat reflected this. A combination of wide beam and high freeboards made for a very spacious boat: a 33-footer on a mere 22½ ft waterline. It fitted my requirements perfectly. Looking back, I realize that I really lucked out in finding the Medalist design; Bill Tripp showed me what a decent cruising boat could look like belowdecks.
After a shakedown cruise, I entered an offshore race for a bit of fun. It was a race in Massachusetts Bay starting off Marblehead to a buoy off Scituate on the southern side of Boston, over to the tip of Cape Cod, a long stretch to Gloucester on Cape Ann, then back to Marblehead—a distance of approximately 100 miles. Everyone onboard, including myself, couldn’t wait to get back on shore. One tends to forget when you’re 20 miles offshore from Boston, that you really are out in the North Atlantic Ocean with all of
