SPECIAL EVENTS
2008 WoodenBoat Show Concours d'Elegance
Sponsored by HERITAGE MARINE INSURANCE, the Concours d’Elegance will take place this summer at the 2008 WoodenBoat Show at Mystic Seaport Museum. Awards will include a Judge’s Choice award, the People’s Choice award, an Innovation award, and many, many others for sail, power oar/paddle boats, both large and small. The winner’s in all categories will be published in the 2008 Sept/Oct issue of WoodenBoat magazine. Please be sure to vote for your favorite boat while at the Show!
To see the 2007 Concours d’Elegance winners, view this PDF (397kb).
If you are exhibiting at the 2008 WoodenBoat Show and would like to enter your boat use this PDF entry form (pdf)! All entries must be received by June 20, 2008 to participate in the Concours d'Elegance.
Multihull Pioneer Tribute
We are pleased to announce a wonderful occasion that will take place during the WoodenBoat Show on Saturday at 6:00pm, June 28. We have a limited number of dinner tickets to our tribute to some multihull pioneers who have inspired us all over the years:
- Jim Brown
- Meade Gougeon
- Walter Greene
- Dick Newick
- James Wharram.
So please spend some stimulating hours listening to these heroes explain their design and build philosophies, and see some of their boats at the Show.
Tickets are $30 and are available at the WoodenBoat Store (in addition to tickets to the WoodenBoat Show), or by calling 1-800-273-7447.
Multihull Pioneers
- “Trimaran” Jim Brown
Jim Brown has been designing multihulls since the 1960, since his association with another pioneering multihull designer, Arthur Piver. He is best known for his work, with John Marples, on the Searunner trimarans and as inventor of the Constant Camber boat construction method. Jim also designed the Windrider, a rotomolded trimaran for Wilderness Systems. His article on Multihull Pioneers appears in the May/June issue of WoodenBoat magazine. - Meade Gougeon
Meade Gougeon is the co-founder of Gougeon Brothers, boatbuilders and manufacturer of WEST System epoxy and Pro Set resin. He is a pioneer in the construction of modern multihulls, having developed many of the protocols used in modern wood-composite construction. Gougeon-built boats accomplishments in the world of multihulls (and monos) are legion, and include the fastest time in the world speed trials of 1979 (in the 60' proa Slingshot), a 1976 Olympic silver medal in the Tornado class, and a Little AMERICA’s Cup win in the C-class catamaran PATIENT LADY in 1977. - Walter Greene
Walter Greene is one of New England’s leading yacht designers and builders. He began sailing multihulls in the early ’70s. One of his early multihull designs won the Route de Rhum race in 1978, which quickly established his name in Europe. In the 1980 OSTAR, Walter built the Dick Newick-designed MOXIE for Phil Weld, who won the race to great acclaim. Walter founded Greene Marine in Yarmouth, Maine, in 1980, and continues to design, build, and sail multihulls to this day. - Dick Newick
Dick Newick broke with the “plywood box” norm of modern multihull design when, in 1971, he specified cold molding for his trimaran THREE CHEERS. The boat had a one-piece, totally integrated crosswise bridge, or “wing aka,” to connect the three hulls. THREE CHEERS met a tragic demise on a risky, ice-riddled route in the 1976 OSTAR Race. She was, however, a harbinger of things to come. The boat gave rise to MOXIE, sailed by Phil Weld and built by Walter Greene. MOXIE won the 1980 OSTAR, cementing Dick Newick’s legend. - James Wharram
James Wharram was one of the first modern multihull designers to test his creations by crossing oceans. He introduced the seafaring, home-built catamarans to the masses. Over almost five decades, some 10,000 builders have purchased his plans. Wharram recently completed a circumnavigation, with design partner Hanneke Boon, in the 63' SPIRIT OF GAIA. Jim Brown has called Wharram’s creations “works of textile art.”