Ed Burnett Yacht Designs
Few of us will have the pleasure of taking Zinnia or Lucy out or enjoying Barney‘s rugged embrace because, like supermodels, they are only there for most of us in pictures. But if the illustrations are good enough, we can look at them and be moved time and time again. And yes, they’re that good in this beautiful book, Ed Burnett Yacht Designs.
Naval Architect Ed Burnett grew up in a boating family in Falmouth, UK. As sailing writer Nic Compton wrote of him in The Design Legacy of Ed Burnett in Wooden Boat Magazine, ‘Weekends and holidays meant only one thing: sailing, starting with an Alan Buchanan–designed East Anglian, with the infant Ed nestled in the forecastle. Then, in 1975, they had a 26′ Essex working boat, followed by a Buchanan-designed Viking 31, and then a 28’ Albert Strange yawl.
For two decades, [his father] Jeremy owned an outfitting company, West Country Chandlers, and the family met many of the boating personalities who passed through this iconic port, including Eric and Susan Hiscock, Lin and Larry Pardey, and Tim and Pauline Carr. It was a deep immersion into the boating world, and Ed absolutely lapped it up.
Burnett studied yacht design at the Southampton Institute and then worked in an American boat yard before joining Nigel Irens in the 1990s, collaborating on a number of significant projects, including the Westernman pilot cutter designed for author Tom Cunliffe and Nomad and Zinnia.
He went on to establish his own yacht design practice in Totnes, Devon and rapidly achieved success with a series of commissions, which established his reputation and gained the esteem of sailing enthusiasts across the world. Lucy was one of his designs.
But then, in a devastating turn of events, Ed Burnett died in May 2015. He was just 43.
The memory of Ed lives on in his beautiful designs and built boats and in the heads of all who knew him. In his memory, his parents, Adrie and Jeremy, compiled a collection of his boat designs, illustrating them with photographs and plan displays that demonstrate the range of his talent and the beauty of his creations. From small boats like the 23’8″ traditional gaff cutter Frolic (see short videos on Youtube here and here and more below) to the 58′ schooner Amelia.
The book, Ed Burnett Yacht Designs, features twenty-four of his designs, each given four pages or more of photos, line drawings, and a narrative explaining Ed’s thinking behind the design, the client, the building, and something about the boat’s early life. Needless to say, all the vessels were built of timber. They range in size from the 23’8″ (Frolic) to the 83’2″ Shindela. Every one of them is beautiful to my eyes.
As an example from the book, and with the approval of the authors and publisher, I’ve reproduced the pages about the 23’8″ Frolic design below, one of my favourites. The pictures below are actually of a sister ship, Panacea, which was built near Falmouth. Click on each picture to view the full page.
The book, Ed Burnett Yacht Designs – A selection of plans, drawings and notes, was compiled by Ed’s parents, Adrie and Jeremy Burnett, and published by Left Field Editions, Ludlow, UK, in 2018, whose Principal is David Burnett, Ed’s uncle.
It was the same David Burnett who, with advice from his yachting brother, greatly assisted with publishing The Voyage of The Aegre. Through David, I met Ed’s parents, Adrie and Jeremy Burnett, in Falmouth and gained insight into the story of their son and his yacht designs.
See reviews of the book by Steffan Meyric-Hughes of Classic Boat Magazine and Tom Cunliffe for the Royal Cruising Club.
Sadly, I’ll probably never take Lucy out, nor Nomad, Zinnia, Amelia, Shindela, or Panacea. But at least I can look at their pictures and dream on. So can you. The book is available on Amazon. Highly recommended.
Nick Grainger October 2024
Visit the homepage of The Voyage of The Aegre
