oct-2017

144 145 water move away,the planing boat no longer planes. The design of the boat’s hull has an effect on howwell it works. “He took that design and started building boats and theywere a success,”Purcell continues.“Theywere the first planing hull yachts and they ran fast for the time.” The FairformFlyer 42’Express Cruiser was the first boat launched,captained byHuckins himself on its maiden voyage fromFernandina,Florida toNewYork City.It was sold that autumn for $15,000 toDavidM. Goodrich of the B.F.Goodrich Rubber Company,who became a repeat customer. “He sold boats to people like Goodrich andDuPont and other notable people,”says Purcell.In 1943,the U.S.Navycommissioned theHuckinsYacht Corpora- tion to build two squadrons,a total of 18 PT (patrol torpedo) boats,for service duringWorldWar II.“He ran the companyand stayed in business until themid-fif- ties when he died,”says Purcell.“My father,after the war,came andworked in the companyandwe con- tinued to build boats and be successful.Myhusband and I have been in the company since the‘70s and we’ve continued to run it through different innovations. We’ve always been an innovative builder.And that’s wherewe are,today.” In 1975,Huckins unveiled a radical transformation HUCKINS YACHTS from traditional cold-moldedmahogany to fiber- glass composite core construction.Largely inspired bygrowing demand,the transition also presented a number of engineering advantages: significant weight reduction,for instance,allowing for a higher horsepower-to-weight ratio.That meant more speed and fuel-efficiencyon top of the exceptional strength and seaworthiness that the newspace- agematerials providedand,today,Huckinsyachtsare amongthe lightest,strongest,andfuel-stingiest afloat, displacingthousandsofpounds less thansimilar- ly-built competitiveboats.Coupledwiththecompa- ny’s legendaryQuadraconichull,thisweight-conscious designproduces theHuckins-signatureperformance soadmiredbyexperiencedyachters. “Our customers todayare still A-list,”Purcell says. “Theymaynot be names youwould recognize,but we are strictly in the customyacht business,and what that means is you come to us,generally,be- cause you’ve seen some of our yachts and you like the styling.You come to us and sit downwith us andwe design a boat for you thewayyouwant it.If you say,‘I’mgoing to run fromhere to the Bahamas, or here to someplace else,’we can design it around howmuch fuel you’ll need; we’ll design it around the speed that you’ll want; we design it around the number of staterooms. “We’ve built all kinds of boats.We’ve built such boats for an individual whowas in awheelchair, so thewhole boat was wheelchair-friendly.We put an elevator in the boat so that the owner could get up to the flybridge and down to the engine room, because hewanted to be able to checkhis own engines.We built a boat the owner wanted to run fromhere toMarathon (Key) in daylight hours.And, at the time,therewas a bridge inMarathon that was a lowbridge,and so the boat had to be de- signed to go under the bridge and it had to run at a speed to get him there.We’ve designed for fisher- men that havewonmajor tournaments.We’ve built from36 to 90 feet–whatever the customer wants. In a good year,wewill build three boats.In these years,since the 2008 downturn,it maybe just one boat.”