The first Designer Series — a new type of boating rendezvous that gives boat owners, the marine industry and the public a chance to celebrate sailing’s iconic designers — will launch in Bristol, R.I., in late July.
The July 21-23 event will be based at the Herreshoff Marine Museum and will showcase a fleet of Ted Hood designs and host on-water and land-based events.
A traditional boat rendezvous is a chance for boat owners and their crews to gather, socialize and celebrate the common ground of owning similar boats.
The Designer Series puts a new twist on such rendezvous by creating an event that is inclusive to all owners of Ted Hood designs and their crews; marine industry members whose careers touched Hood’s business ventures; and members of the public who enjoy summer socializing around yachts.
“Everyone who shares in the love of yachting should be at the inaugural Designer Series,” Bristol Marine president and concept creator Andy Tyska said in a statement.
Tyska got his start in the marine industry by working at Hood’s company after getting a degree in naval architecture.
Hood was a sailmaker, rigger and a yacht designer, and a skilled yachtsman who skippered the 12-meter Courageous to a win in the 1974 America’s Cup.
A Massachusetts native, he founded Hood Sailmakers in Marblehead; in the mid-1980s he moved his business to Rhode Island and transformed a stretch of Portsmouth coastline once occupied by the Navy into one of the largest yacht service, design and building operations on the East Coast.
