Description

Independent naval architect

William Hand, Jr. (1875-1946) was one of the early twentieth century’s most prolific and wide-ranging boat designers. Raised in Portland, Maine, Hand spent two years studying naval architecture and engineering at Brown University before starting his own design office in New Bedford. His designs, which he published widely in magazines like “The Rudder” and “Forest & Stream,” included sailing cruisers, schooners, fishing launches, V-bottomed powerboats. During World War I, he worked for the Emergency Fleet Corporation designing minesweepers and seaplane hulls. After the war, he returned to his private design business. In the 1920s and 30s, Hand developed a new type of motorboat with auxiliary sail power. These sturdy, sea-kindly motorsailers became Hand’s signature design in the last decades of his career.