What A Looker

In his June Sightlines column, “Distorted Proportion,” Michael Peters waxed poetic on the lack of “beautiful” boats nowadays. As always, our readers had some thoughts on the matter.

Michael Peters’s

June piece about “Distorted Proportion” really struck a note. Boats these days seem to be designed either from the inside out, where the list of amenities is assembled and wrapped in plastic, or the outside in, where aesthetics and performance determine a shape, and the contents fit as they may.

I once owned a Tom Fexas Midnight Lace that was the epitome of the latter approach—44 feet long with an 11-foot beam (a 4-to-1 ratio), a flared clipper bow, an S-curved sheer, and tumblehome stern. More than once I fell off the 6-inch side

decks while sanding the teak cabin sides. But a cool dip can be invigorating, and that sheerline is so pleasing from a low angle.

I now have a Hinckley Picnic Boat. Sure, my toes point skyward when standing at the galley sink, but who washes dishes on a picnic?

— Jim Nobel Long Beach Island, New Jersey

I think the nature of a lot of the newer yacht designs was summed up perfectly by Tom Fexas when he called them “dove bars,” looks all right on a soap bar but not on a yacht.

— Bob Goldson Spanish Wells, Bahamas 1994, 24-foot Ellis, Babs