The man named Frederick (Ted) E. Hood, born in 1927 in the city of Danvers, Massachusetts is known to be a legendary Naval Architect as well as American Yachtsman. He was the one who found and started the Hood Sail makers, residing in Marblehead, Massachusetts that manufactures sails. He had won the 1974 America’s Cup with the yacht named Courageous. He was the one who built Courageous in his shipyard in Marblehead. Up to the present, he is still known as the man who established the Ted Hood Sail makers from the 1960s and 70s.
Before he started the business of sail making in the 1950s, he made the sail making repair a part-time business with his parents’ home’s living room as his loft floor. The Robin that Hood successfully designs became the first successful skippering in 1959’s "New York Yacht Club Annual Cruise" where he won 4 races out of the 7 total races in the cruise. By becoming a public name in the boatlovers’ world, his business in sailmaking skyrocketed, making the globe his loft with the many yachts he had.
While the initial business of sail making grew bigger, Hood started building and skippered series of keel successfully; the names that he called the racing boats were under the names Robin, then Robin Too and the Robin Too II, the many Robins from Hood were numerous to even count over the years.
Hood first won in 1968 at Newport-Bermuda Rae followed in 1971 at Marblehead-Halifax Race. The Robin Too II in 1974 won the Southern Ocean Racing Circuit (SORC). These years were his most successful time in the world of racing. The skipper of the then new Sparkman & Stephens had developed the Courageous; he achieved 4-0 winning the America’s Cup sailing away from the Australian Southern Cross. After three years, the next 12-meter boat he designed after Nefertiti in 1960 was the Independence, which he used in the campaign against Courageous. He did not get the first place but was the runner up to the Courageous that he redesigned with Ted Turner in the defense trials.
Being an inventor, Ted Hood was the very first to weave and sew his own Dacron cloth. He also was accredited for the designs for the jib roller furling, headstays that are grooved, the Stoboom and The Stoway mast. The yachts from the Little Harbor ranging from the 35 feet to 75 feet are still sailing up to the present. However, the most popular among his motor yachts is the 60-foot called “American Promise”; this is where Dodge Morgan had set an unbreakable record of solo circumnavigation of 150 total days from the 1985 to 1986. The “American Promise” was the last boat from Hood in Marblehead before moving the building facilities to Portsmouth, Rhode Island.
Ted Hood did not stop from building his dreams of creating a world-class service center for yachts and he found the right place in the World War II fuel depot of the Navy located in Portsmouth, RI, which is also known as “Melville”. In 1985, he was able to build a marine complex in Portsmouth, Rhode Island called Ted Hood Marine Complex; this is also where Ted Hood opened the Little Harbor Marine, which provides services to customers by doing repairs to yachts to his customers as well as yachts for sale.
The operation on construction of yachts had been transferred to Little Harbor Yachts in Northern Taiwan. This time, the beginning of the design on power boats were done in the 1990s; Hinckley Yachts bought the company of Ted Hood in 1999. His sail making business is the world’s largest during the 60s and 70s when he started the business. In addition, up to the present, he remains as a consultant for the Hinckley Company while he was working on his projects like the building of motor sailor and power catamaran.
