The 50th Anniversary of the Carter 37 is next year and Carter 37s in Europe are getting ready to celebrate! TOMIRA, owned by Francesco & Mietta Gandolfi, is looking gorgeous in Italy. MUSTANG, owned by Philippe-Jacques Roux and his son François-Xavier, has just undergone a refit and is looking “sensationelle”, as is LINUEN, owned by Thierry Ollat. Jean-Michel Hoarau, the owner of another French Carter 37, HYLAS, is having her beautifully restored in anticipation of launching her next Spring. Skippered by her original owner David Edwards, Commodore of the RORC, HYLAS won Class III in the 1973 Fastnet Race, a prestigious victory for the Commodore and HYLAS alike!
Grazie to Francesco and Mietta Gandolfi for the stunning new photos of their yacht RABBIT racing off Italy’s Ligurian coast. She was Dick’s first yacht design and the boat he skippered to victory in the 1965 Fastnet Race. The Gandolfis have invested much time and effort in her meticulous restoration, and it shows!
The international Admiral’s Cup regatta was for many years known as the unofficial world championships of ocean racing. Held every other year off the south coast of England, the Admiral’s Cup was contested by teams of 3 racing yachts from each participating country.
The Admiral’s Cup consisted of four races with points awarded to boats based on placement: the Cross channel race, Brittania Cup and New York Yacht Club Challenge Cup. The final race, and the only one to award triple points, is one of the world’s most prestigious: the Fastnet, a 650 mile, four day ocean race with a course beginning in Cowes, England, rounding Fastnet Rock off the south coast of Ireland and then finishing in Plymouth, England.
In 1969, eleven countries fielded Admiral’s Cup teams. Selected for the US team was RED ROOSTER (with lifting keel), designed and skippered by Dick Carter; CARINA, a McCurdy & Rhodes design skippered by Dick Nye; and PALAWAN III, a Sparkman & Stephens design skippered by IBM CEO Tom Watson.
RED ROOSTER, the night before the final race, the grueling Fastnet. Cowes, Isle of Wight, 1969.
The Australian team had won the Admiral’s Cup in 1967 and looked to be heading for a repeat victory in 1969. But RED ROOSTER won the Fastnet in a fleet of 140 yachts. This enabled the US to win the Admiral’s Cup, an achievement not repeated until 1997. It was Dick Carter’s second victory in the Fastnet, having won it in 1965 with his very first design, the revolutionary RABBIT. And RED ROOSTER was the high point boat of the 1969 regatta.
Dick Carter (left) and Dick Nye receive the Admiral’s Cup trophy for the US.
The French Tina sister ship BEL AMI was in Brittany’s port of Saint Malo a few days ago. Merci beaucoup to Jan who spotted her and took these gorgeous photos!
This past February 5th, the Russian Carter 30 Association celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the Carter 30 yacht! There are more than 70 Carter 30s in the Moscow region. All except one were built by NAVIMOR in Szeczcin, Poland during the Soviet era. The Russian Carter 30 class has its own rules, regattas and a Russian Championship. Chapter 18 in Dick’s book traces the fascinating history of these yachts. Congratulations to all the Carter 30 owners worldwide!
We’re adding yachts every day and we hope you’ll add yours!
It’s easy! Click on “Registry” in the main menu above. On the Registry page, you’ll see the yacht information form to fill out. Don’t worry if you don’t know everything about your boat. You can even upload a photo! We’ll take it from there to add your boat.
“Chapeau” to J. P. Riou for taking the initiative to research and compile an enormous amount of data on Carter yachts!
Many years ago, Dick and his family cruised the Greek islands and Turkish coast on a white Carter 33. We sailed into the harbor of the ancient village of Knidos and moored for the night. Up on deck the next morning, we were astonished to see an identical white Carter 33 moored right near us!
Two Carter 33 yachts in Knidos, Datça peninsula, Turkey. Dick is standing on his family’s boat (right).
Dick will be a guest speaker at the Isle of Wight Literary Festival on Saturday, October 9th, 2021, from 14:00 – 14:45 (British Summer Time).
Dick’s talk was recorded (below). He talks a bit about how he was influenced by the wildly colorful English dinghy sailor and yacht designer, Uffa Fox.
Huge congratulations are in order for owners Bill Hubbard and his son William on the major restoration of their TINA sister ship, LIVELY LADY II. What a classic beauty!! Dick is very appreciative of the Hubbard family’s decades’ long commitment to her upkeep.
LIVELY LADY II (ex-ANTELOPE) was actually Dick’s very first design in the United States. The original 1966 TINA was based out of the Netherlands while her American owners were temporarily living there.
And LIVELY LADY II is as fast as she is gorgeous: Bill and William Hubbard won the 2006 Bermuda Race with her and brought home…..10 trophies. That’s some serious hardware for a yacht built in 1969.
