Friendship 40 Redux

Over the weekend a reader named Jason Parrott wrote to ask about one of my favorite designs, Ted Fontaine's Friendship 40. I met Ted onboard his sales model at the dock of the Newport Bucket last summer and had the pleasure of poking around his beautiful craft...and got the inside scoop.

Apparently Ted (who worked for for Ted Hood at Little Harbor for 22 years) sought to make the Friendship 40 the "picnic boat" of sailing yachts...a reference to the hugely sucessful Hinckley designed and manufactured motor craft of the same name. He brought the design to Hinckley and they passed. He ended up taking the boat to a New Zealand outfit and, despite the cost of entry, it has been a huge success.

Jason, the answer to your question, "Is the Friendship 40, as a daysailer, ill-equipped for long voyages?" is "yes." The reason lies in Ted Fontaine's strategy...he designed the vessel for 45- to 60-year-olds as a way to keep them interested in sailing and cruising rather than scaling back to, well, a Hinckley Picnic Boat. It would be the perfect sailing craft for a week or so of cruising Down East Maine with a close friend. Not the ideal choice for an offshore voyage to Bermuda. The spoon bow, elevated counter, heart shaped transom and springy sheerline give the design a vintage look...but it doesn't get high marks for "practicality." Here's a good editorial in Sailing Magazine on the trend toward these types of boats.