DESIGN PHILOSOPHYThe type of boat being developed strongly influences what design approach will work best. Many people seem to want a more traditional kind of boat - beautiful, powerful, versatile - but it also must be:• a boat which benefits from those modern design concepts which can be applied to a traditional boat without unduly compromising its qualities• a boat built with modern construction to make a sounder, healthier boatSail or power, that is the kind of boat that we want to design. OUR BACKGROUND FOR THESE DESIGNSDeveloping a boat like this begins with a familiarity with many examples of that traditional kind of boat. Growing up at the very end of the traditional boat era, when a few of them were still prominent, we already had the basic knowledge. We've also closely studied the work of great designers like Olin Stephens, Phil Rhodes, Starling Burgess, Walter McGinnis, Harold Lee, Charles E. Nicholson, Charles Mower, Frank Paine and others. We also keep up with - and develop our own - modern advances in hull and appendage forms which can be applied to that kind of boat. This enables us to develop designs which we believe are truly traditional kinds of boats, appropriate for the world of today.OUR DESIGN PROCESSPut very simply, the design of a boat can be approached in several ways...•Draw a set of lines, and build the boat: fine for a casual cruiser•Draw a set of lines, then a number of vastly different concepts, hoping for a big advance in performance. This can lead to a breakthrough, but usually results in little progress, or even a very poor boat•Draw a set of lines, then work steadily forward. This approach offers less possibility for a breakthrough, but by far the best probability of a good all-around boatWe prefer the method of working steadily forward, so that we have a gradually improving design, periodically trying different concepts to reduce the danger of oversight We call this total approach "Semi-Systematic Design"