The golden era of yacht design ran from the late 1800s through to the Second World War, and what came out of that period has never really been matched. Unlimited budgets, no shortcuts, and designers who treated every hull like a life’s work. The timber was hand selected, the rigging was built to last decades, and the interiors were finished to a standard that would embarrass most five star hotels.
The fibreglass revolution of the 1960s made sailing accessible. It also made it a little ordinary. Faster in some cases, easier to maintain, but missing something that is very hard to put a name to. Weight, warmth, the sense that someone genuinely cared when they built it.
The six yachts below are what that era produced at its best. Some were built for the America’s Cup. Some were built for private owners who simply wanted the finest thing on the water. All of them are still sailing, which after a century or more at sea, is the most impressive thing about them.
Endeavour (1934)
If there is one yacht that defines the golden era of sail, it is Endeavour. She was designed by Charles Nicholson and built by Camper & Nicholsons in Gosport, England for aviation pioneer Thomas Sopwith, the man behind the Sopwith Camel aircraft of the First World War. Sopwith commissioned her specifically to challenge for the America’s Cup in 1934, and she came closer than any British challenger had in decades, losing in a series that many still argue was decided by disputed line calls rather than performance.
At 40 metres on deck and carrying over 700 square metres of sail, Endeavour was a weapon. Long, low and perfectly balanced, her lines remain the benchmark against which every J Class is still measured. After decades of neglect she was rescued in the 1980s by American businesswoman Elizabeth Meyer, who funded a complete restoration over several years. She is currently owned and managed as a racing and charter yacht, competing regularly at classic regattas in the Mediterranean and Caribbean. There are few more impressive sights in sailing than Endeavour at full canvas in open water.
Creole (1927)
The largest classic sailing yacht still in existence. Creole was built by Camper & Nicholsons in 1927 for Scottish businessman Alexander Penrose Forbes Hendry and originally rigged as a three masted topsail schooner. At 60 metres she dwarfs most of her contemporaries and her interior, finished in a combination of mahogany, teak and polished brass, belongs in a different category entirely.
She passed through several notable owners over the decades, including the Guinness family, before eventually coming into the possession of Patek Philippe chairman Philippe Stern in the 1980s. Stern funded a complete and meticulous restoration that took years and spared nothing. Every inch of the boat was returned to original specification. Creole now operates as a private yacht and makes occasional appearances at the great Mediterranean regattas, where she inevitably becomes the most photographed vessel in the harbour. There is simply nothing else like her on the water.
Bluenose (1921)
Canada’s most celebrated vessel and the one that earned a permanent place on the country’s ten cent coin. Bluenose was designed by William Roué and built at the Smith and Rhuland shipyard in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia as a working fishing schooner. She was never supposed to be a racing yacht. She was built to fish the Grand Banks in conditions that would end most boats, and to do it profitably.
But she was also extraordinarily fast. From her launch in 1921 until her loss off Haiti in 1946, Bluenose was undefeated in the International Fishermen’s Trophy, an annual race between working schooners from Canada and the United States. Seventeen years without a loss. She wasn’t built for beauty but she has it in the way that working boats sometimes do, the low freeboard, the sharp entry and the long clean run aft that gave her the speed no one expected. A faithful replica, Bluenose II, was built at the same Lunenburg yard in 1963 and still sails out of Nova Scotia today as a goodwill ambassador for the province.
Mariette (1915)
Designed by Nathanael Herreshoff, the Rhode Island genius responsible for five consecutive America’s Cup winning yachts, Mariette is one of the finest expressions of his work. She was built at the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company yard in Bristol, Rhode Island for a Boston businessman named Frederick Brown and launched in 1915 as a gaff rigged staysail schooner. At 42 metres she is large enough to cross oceans comfortably and nimble enough to race seriously, which she has done for over a century.
Mariette has had several owners in her long life but has been maintained to a standard that makes her age almost invisible. She is currently based in the Mediterranean, competing regularly at the great classic regattas including Les Voiles de Saint Tropez and the Argentario Sailing Week, where she consistently performs well against boats decades younger. Her teak decks, varnished spars and cream coloured sails make her one of the most recognisable yachts on the European circuit. Herreshoff’s eye for proportion is evident in every line.
Eleonora (2000)
The youngest boat on this list by a considerable margin, but one that belongs here regardless. Eleonora is a faithful recreation of Westward, a 1910 schooner designed by Nathanael Herreshoff that was widely considered the most beautiful yacht of her era. The original Westward was scuttled in 1947 according to her final owner’s instructions. Eleonora was built in the Netherlands by Ed Kastelein using the original Herreshoff plans and launched in 2000, returning one of the great lost yachts to the water.
At 55 metres she is an imposing presence, gaff rigged with a sail area that requires a professional crew of fifteen to handle properly. She is finished to a standard that makes the fact she is technically a modern build almost irrelevant. Eleonora competes regularly at classic regattas throughout the Mediterranean and Atlantic, and consistently wins her class. The fact that she is a replica has never diminished the reaction she draws when she arrives in harbour. She looks exactly like what she is: a design from 1910 that was simply too good to stay lost.
Velsheda (1933)
Built a year before Endeavour at the same Camper & Nicholsons yard, Velsheda holds a distinction that sets her apart from every other J Class ever constructed. She was built purely for private racing, with no intention of ever challenging for the America’s Cup. Her owner, William Lawrence Stephenson, a British department store magnate, simply wanted the best racing yacht money could buy and wasn’t interested in the politics of international competition. The result was a boat built without compromise or committee.
Velsheda is 39 metres on deck and in her restored form carries a single aluminium mast that stands over 45 metres above the waterline. She fell into disrepair after the war like most of her class, sitting neglected in the Hamble River for decades before being rescued and restored in the 1980s. A second, more comprehensive restoration followed in the late 1990s. She is now one of the most sought after charter yachts in the world, based in the Mediterranean and available for private hire at a rate that reflects exactly what she is.