Tom Fexas | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1941 |
| Died | November 29, 2006 (aged 64–65) |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Yacht designer |
Tom Fexas (1941 – November 29, 2006) was an American yacht designer who adopted a retro design from vintage commuter yachts of the 1930s to modern construction techniques. His design for Midnight Lace in 1978 helped launch a new movement that became known as Italian styling. [1]
Growing up in Queens, New York, Fexas was inspired to become a yacht-designer after watching the boats come in at Long Island Sound, and by time he spent on his family's yacht. [2] Starting at age 7, Fexas spent time drawing and painting designs of yachts, and after completing his secondary education decided to pursue a degree in marine engineering at SUNY Maritime College. Upon graduation, Fexas took a position on the SS Independence as its third engineer, and finished the yacht design program from the Westlawn Institute of Marine Technology during the voyage. After returning from the Independence in 1965, Fexas moved to Mystic, Connecticut and took a position at General Dynamics Electric Boat designing submarines, while working on yacht design after work hours. [3]
Fexas opened his own yacht design company, Tom Fexas Yacht Design, while continuing to work at Electric Boat on Ohio-classsubmarines. [4] [5] Fexas quit his Electric Boat position in 1972 (some sources list 1977) and dedicated his time towards designing the Midnight Lace, which was noticed and ordered by a client several years later. Upon completion of the Midnight Lace, Fexas moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where his yacht premiered at the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show in 1978. [2] The low profile, black boat was complimented for its use of wood (as opposed to most other yachts of that era) and its resemblance to older craft of the 1930s and 1940s, and the style became known as Italian styling. [4]
After Fexas became notable for his work on Midnight Lace, he went into production with Chinese boat maker Cheoy Lee, and also worked with builders like Mikelson Yachts and Abeking & Rasmussen. He wrote articles for several magazines, and became the editor of (and monthly writer for) Power and Motoryacht in 1985, a position he held until 2003. [2] Fexas also spent several years as a member of the Westlake Board of Directors, while continuing to run his yacht design company. Due to popular demand, Fexas redesigned Midnight Lace in 2003, and started work on constructing a new model before his death in 2006. His yacht design company was then run by his wife, Regina Fexas, and other former students of the Westlawn design course, until the luxury yacht market collapsed during the worldwide recession and Tom Fexas Yacht Designs was forced to close after 30 years in the business. [5] [6]
Bruce Kenneth Farr is a New Zealand designer of racing and cruising yachts. Farr‑designed boats have won, challenged for, or placed highly in the Whitbread Round the World Race, America's Cup, and Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, among others.
Clifford Brooks Stevens was an American industrial designer of home furnishings, appliances, automobiles, and motorcycles, as well as a graphic designer and stylist. Stevens founded Brooks Stevens, Inc., headquartered in Allenton, Wisconsin.
John Griffin Hanna (1889–1948) was a sailboat designer, famous for designing the Tahiti ketch.
Philip Leonard Rhodes (1895–1974) was an American naval architect known for his diverse yacht designs.
William Starling Burgess was an American yacht designer, aviation pioneer, and naval architect. He was awarded the highest prize in aviation, the Collier Trophy in 1915, just two years after Orville Wright won it. In 1933 he partnered with Buckminster Fuller to design and build the radical Dymaxion Car. Between 1930 and 1937 he created three America's Cup winning J-Class yachts, Enterprise, Rainbow and Ranger.
William Garden, CM was a Canadian and American naval architect and marine engineer. For six decades, he designed watercraft ranging from commercial fishing vessels and tugboats to motor and sailing yachts.
Britton Chance Jr. or Britt Chance was an American naval architect who developed core elements of three yachts that won the America's Cup and won the World Championship six times. The New York Times said he "was known for having a mathematician's precision and a renegade's willingness to experiment". Professional Boatbuilder called him "one of the brightest minds in yacht design".
George Edwin William Monk was a shipwright and naval architect in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. He was active from 1914 to 1973. He designed pleasure and commercial vessels, both power and sail.
Japec Jakopin, born 19 April 1951, is the CEO of J&J Design, a pleasure boat design company, based in Slovenia, which he founded in 1983, together with his brother Jernej. Jakopin is most known as a yacht concept designer.
Alan Newbury Payne AM was a naval architect born in England but who worked in Australia. His yacht designs were readily built by both professionals and amateurs, and remain well represented in the ocean-going and coastal yacht fleet.
Jonathan Quinn Barnett is a super yacht designer from Seattle, Washington. He apprenticed with Ron Holland and Jon Bannenberg for nearly seven years beginning in 1987, and founded Jonathan Quinn Barnett Ltd. in 1995.
Frederick Shepherd (1869–1969) was an English boat designer. He designed 84 yachts over his 45-year career, and usually supervised the construction of each yacht. This may account for the relatively small number of designs over a long career of designing yachts. Unusually amongst yacht designers of the time, his principal focus was cruising yachts rather than racing yachts. His focus on cruising rather than racing meant that he became known for yachts which had attractive lines and better space down below than their racing equivalents.
J&J Design is a naval architecture, design, boat and production-process engineering company, mainly for high-volume production sail and powerboat builders. It introduced the carbon-epoxy technology from the America's Cup into cruising sailboats with the Shipman line. J&J also designed and engineered the first serial production hybrid powerboats, the Greenline Hybrid range.
Francis Charles Morgan-Giles was a boat designer and builder from Devon, England. He built rowing boats, dinghies, yachts and large motor cruisers. His boats were known for their high quality, elegance and craftsmanship.
George Harding Cuthbertson (1929-2017) was a founding partner of Cuthbertson & Cassian yacht designers, one of four companies that in 1969 formed C&C Yachts, a Canadian yacht builder that dominated North American sailing in the 1970s and early ‘80s.
George Cassian was a yacht designer and founding partner of Cuthbertson & Cassian yacht designers, one of four companies that in 1969 formed C&C Yachts, a Canadian yacht builder that dominated North American sailing in the 1970s and early 1980s. His was the second “C” in C&C, with his design associate George Cuthbertson, being the first. Cassian would continue as a designer with that company until his untimely death in 1980 at the age of 47.
Hedley (Ted) Gozzard was a British yacht designer and builder.
Arthur Edmunds was an American naval architect, credited with designing 29 sailboats as well as other boats of various types and forms. He is recognized as a top naval architect in the US. Edmunds's best known production sailboat was the Allied Princess 36.
Eliot Amsden "Al" Spalding was an American naval architect. He designed and surveyed boats that were built throughout the United States and in twenty other countries. He was chief designer at John G. Alden, Inc. for fifteen years.
The Westlawn Institute of Marine Technology is a distance learning school of yacht design in Bath, Maine, United States, established in 1930. Graduates of the school receive the Westlawn Diploma in Naval Architecture, Marine Engineeering and Yacht Design.