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| 1990's
- Ted in front of the Little Harbor facility in Portsmouth, RI |
Frederick E.
(Ted) Hood, who throughout the 1960's through the mid 80's was known as
the world's largest sailmaker, is today so well known as a boat and systems
designer and a boatbuilder as well as a superb seaman and racing skipper.
Matching a natural sailing ability (he grew up racing in Marblehead, Mass.)
with his talent for design, Hood built and skippered a successful series
of keel and centerboard racing boats under the rubric of Robin.
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| 1930's
- Ted at the wheel. |
Ted captured
first in the Newport-Bermuda Rae in 1968; he sailed another victory in the
1971 Marblehead-Halifax Race, (10 years after his
1961 Halifax win); and Robin Too II took the 1974 SORC (Southern Ocean Racing
Circuit). That was one of Hood's biggest years in racing. As
skipper of the new Sparkman & Stephens designed aluminum-hulled Courageous
he won the America's Cup sailing away from Australia's Southern Cross, 4-0.
Three years later he campaigned Independence, the second 12-Meter he designed
(the first was the 1960's Nefertiti"), against Courageous, which he
had redesigned, but was runner up to Courageous and Ted Turner in the defender
trials.
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| 1950's
- Ted and his father, the "Professor" |
Hood was the
first sailmaker to weave his own Dacron cloth. He is also credited with
early designs for grooved headstays, jib roller furling, as well as the
Stoway mast and the Stoboom. More than 6,000 of his Little Harbor yachts,
from 35 to 75 feet, are sailing today. But perhaps the most famous of his
vessels is the 60 foot "American Promise", in which Dodge Morgan
set a solo circumnavigation record of 150 days in 1985-86; it was the last
Hood boat to be built in Marblehead before Hood's design and building facilities
moved to Portsmouth, Rhode Island.
In 1987 Ted move to Portsmouth, Rhode Island, and from the old World War
II navy fuel depot built the largest yacht yard, yacht design and building
operation in Rhode Island. Ted was involved in running a large boat yard
and service facility, a design office, a brokerage office, and a boat building
facility in Portsmouth. He put most of his efforts into the design of WhisperJets,
state of the art jet boats from 30' to 60'.
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| 1970's
- Ted at the sewing machine. |
Today most of
his efforts are in designing and building yachts worldwide, while making
plans to develop Rhode Island's newest, largest marina. |