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Ted Hood - Designer and Builder
Ted Hood - left, with former Turkish partner Karaca Taskent, Istanbul 2005. Ted Hood is perhaps best known worldwide as the man who founded Hood Sailmakers, which during the 1960's and 1970's was the world's largest sailmaker. He is also very well known as a successful racing skipper, as the founder of Little Harbor Yachts, and as an innovative marine inventor and yacht designer. While his sailmaking business grew, Hood also built and skippered a successful series of keel and centerboard racing boats under names Robin, Robin Too and even Robin Too II. Hood captured first in the Newport-Bermuda Race in 1968; he sailed to another victory in the 1971 Marblehead-Halifax Race, (10 years after his 1961 Halifax win); with Robin Too II. Robin One Ton won the 1974 SORC (Southern Ocean Racing Circuit). This was perhaps Hood's most successful year in racing. As skipper of Courageous he then went on to win the 1974 America's Cup, sailing away from Australia's Southern Cross, 4-0. As an inventor, Hood was the first sailmaker to weave his own Dacron cloth. He is also credited with early designs for grooved headstays, jib roller furling, as well as the Stoway mast and the Stoboom. In the mid 1980's, Hood sold his sailmaking operation to concentrate on his design and boatbuilding interests. What had been a side business turned into Hood's main business as Hood started building and marketing his Little Harbor line of sailboats. These yachts were built in Taiwan; first at yards that Hood had relationships with, and later at his own yard located in the northern end of Taiwan. By the end of the 1980's, Little Harbor had become known as one of the highest quality yachts one could own. More than 6,000 of his Little Harbor yachts, from 35 to 75 feet, are sailing today. In 1987 Hood began building boats in Portsmouth having purchased the assets of the Black Watch company. This was Hood's first venture into powerboat building. Hood moved aggressively into the powerboat market with his line of Little Harbor "Whisperjet" water-jet powered yachts. By 1998, Hood's boat production was 100% power. . During the 1990's Little Harbor Marine grew to be the best and largest yacht service facility in the Northeast. In 1999, the opportunity came available to sell the company to the investor group that two years earlier had purchased The Hinckley Company. Today Ted Hood continues to consult for The Hinckley Company, as well as working on his own new projects, including design and building of a Power Catamarans, Fast Sailboats, and 61 and 71 foot Expedition Yachts. Why build yachts in Turkey? I have been to Turkey many times in the last four years. Every time I go, there is improvement on what was there before and what was there before was good to begin with. There are three main fields in Turkey that demonstrate the highest advances: The political stability through alliances with the United States and on its way to EU membership within next decade; the economic growth through big investments of the international companies; and technological advances in electronics, ship building, and aerospace. The Turkish shipbuilding industry has a long experience of building their own submarines and frigates, while the Turkish Air force employs F16s. Turkey is a dependable ally of the United States and a longstanding member of NATO. Beyond those above mentioned facts, Turkey is sort of a secret boat building area of the world. They have been building yachts over several decades and exporting to the United States and also European countries, mostly under brand names, like Perini Navi. Most of the workers are Navy trained engineers and technicians with high discipline and superior craftsmanship. Their working habits are very good. They are quick to learn the best of new world technologies, and improve on them. Being next to the Aegean, Mediterranean and neighboring Adriatic Sea makes it a sailing paradise. A boat that is constructed in Istanbul can be sailed to the Aegean passing through the Gallipoli Straight in under one day. An owner who takes delivery of his yacht in Turkey has the luxury of finding himself in one of the most beautiful cruising grounds in the world. Our company, TeKaD Marine is located in the middle of the ship building center, right down the street from where Perini Navi currently builds their boats now. During my last visit, there were 130-foot and 140-footers under construction and also the 283-foot schooner being built for Tom Perkins in the Perini Yard. The quality in these boats is as good as it gets. Most of the boats are built out of aluminum or steel but they have specialists in building one-off composite constructed boats, which impressed me very much. I started building one-off composite yachts in Holland in 1968. I discovered that we could build a superior boat doing it one-off without molds as we did not have to vacuum bag. We laminated and bonded directly to the foam core. We could laminate the whole deck in one piece including the intricate shapes which are impossible to do in a mold. All the joints fastening various molded parts together could be done in one homogeneous piece. There was no secondary bonding or joints. This also allowed us to do customizing on the boats, without the additional cost of dedicated tooling and molds. In Turkey there are very few builders who do everything themselves; jobs are subcontracted to specialists of each trade. Our TeKaD Marine does all the fiberglass composite construction; we have our own team of specialists. All the other trades are subcontracted out to people who specialize in that particular trade. We are selecting our subcontractors from the same pool as the other established yards. This allows us knowledge transfer and guarantees world class quality. Our management coordinates these various subcontractors: designing, building, outfitting, sea trials and warranty. . As an example, the electrical subcontractor does all the design and installation work of the whole electrical system in the boat. This contractor provides all the equipment components, wiring equipment, and at the same time installs, tests and warranties anything electrical in the boat, according to the specifications and owner¹s requirements. The mechanical subcontractor is responsible for all machinery design, supplying the engines, designing the shaft, propellers, cooling systems, piping, and anything mechanical on the boat (generators, pumps and so forth). He does sea trials and corrections and any warranty work (which is seldom necessary because they are experts in this particular trade) under TeKaD supervision. The Interior subcontractor has a design team to design all the woodwork, cabinets and details. They are responsible for picking out the wood, doing the building, painting, varnishing, finishing and providing installation in the boat. Specialists in electronics do their installations. All the metal work on the boat is finished and installed by specialists in fuel piping, fuel lines, water lines, hand rails, life lines, and anything built out of metal. In summary, every subcontractor has ³Turn Key² responsibility. I have surveyed many of the large boats in the 70-foot plus range that these people have built and supervised the building of. Portsmouth Marine¹ s top boat builder has been there with me and was amazed at the quality and details of the workmanship and design for all the components. These are the reasons I feel that Turkey and TeKaD Marine, coordinated by our manager Deniz Celbis, can build a high quality boat at the best prices in the world. TeKaD Marine has four share holders, of which two hold the majority shares being Karaca Taskent and, myself, Ted Hood; and Deniz Celbis, and Yildirim Odabasi. Karaca Taskent belongs to one of the well known and established families of Turkey. He is a successful business man who represents Gibbs & Cox Naval Architects & Marine Engineers, USA, and Raytheon Naval Systems USA, for Turkish Naval Projects. In the Turkish yachting world he is recognized as a senior yachtsmen who skippers his own 58¹ sloop. Deniz Celbis is the general manager and coordinator of TeKaD. He is a retired Captain of the Turkish Navy, with an MS degree from the University of California. He has vast shipyard and building experience, having been involved in naval construction throughout his career. After retirement he restored large yachts in the 200-foot to 400-foot range before joining our company. Yildirim Odabasi is our contact to the Turkish Lloyd and the Istanbul Technical University Ship Design and Hydro Mechanics Department. Power Cat 52 # 2 was launched and delivered on time, (June 2005) on budget and the quality as expected is first rate. She is now cruising the Mediterranean with her new owners. Currently under construction is our new Expedition 55 Sailing yacht. This project will complete in February and sailing the East Coast of the U.S. in 2006. Ted Hood
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Ted Hood Yachts, LLC
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