Westlawn Institute of Marine Technology

Contact: Caroline Chetelat at ABYC

(410) 990-4460, x22

Legendary Designers Jack Hargrave & Dick Newick

Inducted Into Boat Designers Hall of Fame

March 14, 2008 Annapolis, MD: The Westlawn Institute of Marine Technology recently announced the 2008 North American Boat Designers (NABD) Hall of Fame inductees. Sponsored by Westlawn, The Landing School, Mystic Seaport – The Museum of America and the Sea and the American Boat & Yacht Council (ABYC), the NABD Hall of Fame was created to permanently recognize achievement in the field of boat design. The newest inductees are Jack Hargrave and Dick Newick who will be honored with a permanent display at the Hall of Fame, which is housed at Mystic Seaport.

Jack Hargrave – Jack Hargrave was the preeminent powerboat designer of the second half of the twentieth century. He designed almost every type of powerboat, from small planing hulls, to luxurious megayachts, to mid-size production cruisers and sportsfishermen, to commercial fishing boats, to party boats, to a pioneering 587-foot integrated tug-barge system. In recognition of his extraordinary work, Jack has already been elected to the NMMA hall of fame. Jack is also a Westlawn graduate and completed Westlawn’s entire original 12-lesson program in just 7 months—a record that still stands. Over the ensuing years, several Westlawn alumni have gone on to work for Jack at the Hargrave office.

Jack also was a pioneer in fiberglass construction when this material was just beginning to be employed for boats. The list of builders Hargrave designed for is astounding and include Hatteras, Burger, Palmer Johnson, Derecktor, Striker, Trumpy, Prairie Boatworks, Choy Lee, de Vries Lentch, Amels, Halmatic, Hitachi Zosen, Trident, Hike Metal, Lantana, Halter, and many more.

Dave Gerr, Director of Westlawn commented, “There’s no way in the limited space we have here, to even begin to properly cover all of Jack’s contributions to boat design and construction. But—to this day—if you can find a Hargrave-designed boat for sale—buy it. There are no finer powerboat designs.”

Dick Newick – Dick Newick has had a 50-plus year career in boatbuilding and design and was one of the most important multihull designers in history. Early in his career he got a job as a boatbuilder and ended up managing the company before the Korean War shut down the shop due to scarcity of materials. Dick sailed and explored much of U.S., Europe, and the Caribbean. In fact, he arrived in the Caribbean delivering a 34-foot ketch to St. Croix. He liked it there and decided to stay. Not only did Dick meet his wife in St. Croix but he designed and built a 40-foot day-charter catamaran—the boat that got him started in multihulls.

Dick’s designs were visionary for the 1970s and 1980s. They were unique and almost instantly recognizable for clean lines, organic shapes, light weight, and simplicity of construction and outfit. Challenged by the OSTAR transatlantic race (today the TransAt), Dick designed one of the most radical offshore sailing racers in sailing history—the 40-foot schooner-rigged Proa Cheers that became the first U.S. boat ever to complete the OSTAR. Such boats had never entered an offshore sailing race and they’d had hardly been seen by western sailors. Cheers was later followed by the 60-foot Rogue Wave and the 50-foot Moxie trimarans, both skippered by Phil Weld who was the first U.S. winner in 1980. Over the years, these and other Newick multis have placed, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 and 10!

Gerr also noted that, “Dick Newick’s contributions to the development of multihull design in the second half of the twentieth century simply can’t be overstated. Not only would multihulls look different today without Dick’s many innovations, but his design’s successes paved the way to the full acceptance of multihulls as the universally acknowledged offshore-capable speedsters they are.”

Hargrave and Newick will be the seventh and eighth designers inducted into the Hall of Fame. Past recipients include: L. Francis Herreshoff, John Alden, Nathanael Greene Herreshoff, C. Raymond Hunt, Philip L. Rhodes and Olin Stephens. The distinguished North American Boat Designers Hall of Fame nominating committee selects the nominees each year and knowledgeable judges then vote for their recommended candidates.

Jules Fleder – In addition to honoring Hargrave and Newick, Westlawn also posthumously honored Jules Fleder, who passed away in October 2007, with the Westlawn Lifetime Achievement Award. This first-ever, special award was given to Jules in recognition of a career filled with achievements and contributions to the boating industry, education, Westlawn and ABYC.

Jules’ tenure as Westlawn President extended over two decades, from 1968 to 1988. When Jules took over the then Westlawn School of Yacht Design, it was an antiquated 12-lesson course only on wooden boat design. Within a few years, he had single-handedly guided the school to a totally revamped 38-lesson program that included fiberglass/composite and aluminum design with texts written by some of the foremost designers and engineers of the day. Jules’ reconstituted program remains the core of the program that the renamed Westlawn Institute of Marine Technology still offers. Many of the most prominent and successful designers in the industry are from Jules’s program. Designers form Bruce King, to Rod Johnstone, to Tom Fexas, to Doug Zurn, all came from Westlawn. Jules was also an ardent supporter of ABYC and gave long time service as a member of several project Technical Committees, and his many contributions to both ABYC and Westlawn will not be forgotten.

For more on Mystic Seaport, where the Hall of Fame is housed, visit www.mysticseaport.org. To learn more about Westlawn, please visit the Westlawn website at www.westlawn.edu.

Founded in 1930, the Westlawn Institute of Marine Technology is the only nationally accredited and state-certified distance-learning school of small-craft design in the United States. As the not-for-profit educational affiliate of the American Boat and Yacht Council, the mission of the Westlawn Institute of Marine Technology is threefold:

■ To provide our students with the skills and knowledge required to build a rewarding career in the profession of yacht and small-craft naval architecture.

■ To support continued growth of the recreational and small-craft marine community through the development of well-trained, safety-oriented, boat designers developing better products for the benefit of the boating public.

■ To provide continuing education to marine-industry professionals.

To learn more about Westlawn, please call (860) 572-7900 or visit the Westlawn website at: www.westlawn.edu.