Etchells Ew

American naval architect, boat builder and world championship sailor, nicknamed "Skip" and best remembered now for the one-design racing boat that bears his name, the International Etchells Class. This 30 ft 6 in (9.30 m) keelboat that he designed in 1966 is one of the most competitive classes in sailboat racing; the Etchells is often the boat of choice for the worlds top sailors. Skip Etchells worked for the Navy in shipyards on the West Coast during World War II. After the war, he got a job in New York City with Sparkman & Stephens, the yacht design firm, before establishing his own boat-building company, Old Greenwich Boat Co., based in Old Greenwich, Connecticut. For more than 30 years beginning in the 1940s, Etchells built some of the fastest Star-class sailboats ever. Etchells died on 20 December 1998 at age 87 in Easton, Maryland. Link to Wikipedia biography Read less