In 1964, Dick Carter entered the first boat he designed, the innovative 34-foot RABBIT, in the prestigious Fastnet Race, and against all odds won against an international fleet of 151 racing yachts. He won again in 1969 in another even more innovative boat of his own design, RED ROOSTER.
Over the next decade he and his boats competed successfully with the best that American and European designers could produce in the competitive new golden age of Grand Prix yacht racing. In RABBIT, TINA, RED ROOSTER and many other boats, he and his loyal crews beat the world’s best sailors and yacht designers, and established a new look and ingenious technological breakthroughs for racing yachts. Years later his boats are still racing and cruising successfully all over the world, and his design innovations are seen as standard elements in the best racing sailboats today.
Obsessed not only with sailboats but also with the lure and challenge of radical innovation, Dick Carter began racing dinghies on Cape Cod, and came out of Yale’s Corinthian Sailing Club a national champion. He had what sailors call “an eye for a boat”—an intuitive understanding of why some boats sail faster and better than others, plus the ability to transform that understanding into new hull designs and rigging details. He applied his small boat racing expertise to large ocean racing yachts, implementing innovations that seem routine today, such as separated rudders, trim tabs, internal mast halyards, oversize headsails, lifting keels, and more.
Reaching the pinnacle of success in European yacht racing, Dick Carter turned the page on his yacht design career, and put his energies into restoring a 16th century manor house in the Cotswolds, England. He and his wife, Andrea, spend half of each year in Cape Cod, and the other half in their manor house.
After an almost 40 year absence, Dick has returned to the sailing world, this time writing about his experiences in his book, Dick Carter Yacht Designer: In the Golden Age of Offshore Racing.
