E. W. Etchells, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

E. W. Etchells

A naval architect, boat builder and world championship sailor

Date of Birth: 05-Jul-1911

Place of Birth: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Date of Death: 20-Dec-1998

Profession: architect, engineer

Nationality: United States

Zodiac Sign: Cancer


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About E. W. Etchells

  • Elwood Widmer (E.
  • W.) "Skip" Etchells (July 5, 1911 – December 20, 1998) was a naval architect, boat builder and world championship sailor.
  • He is best remembered now for the one-design racing boat that bears his name, the International Etchells Class, a 30 ft 6 in (9.30 m) keelboat that he designed in 1966.
  • One of the most competitive classes in sailboat racing, the Etchells is often the boat of choice for the world's top sailors, including America's Cup veteran Dennis Conner, a three-time world champion in the class. A graduate of the University of Michigan with a degree in naval architecture, 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.
  • He and his wife, Mary O'Toole Etchells, also campaigned in Stars for many years, traveling the world and winning regattas in the U.S., Europe, the Caribbean, and South America.
  • In 1951, they won the Star world championship at Gibson Island, Maryland.
  • Mary Etchells remains the only woman ever to have won the worlds in the Star class.
  • In 1958, they won the Star North American Championships at the Tred Avon Yacht Club. The International Etchells Class, originally called the Etchells 22 because it had a 22-foot waterline length, was designed as part of a competition to select a new three-man keelboat for the Olympics.
  • Despite emerging as clearly the fastest boat in two sets of selection trials in Germany, in 1966 and 1967, the boat was not picked for the Olympics.
  • However it has become a tremendously popular racing class, with about 1,500 boats built, sailing in more than 50 fleets around the world.

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