Richard E. (Dick) Carter

Dick Carter

Dick Carter started sailing as a child and had an "eye for the boat" from an early age. Although he had never trained as a yacht designer, he started drawing yachts and transferred his knowledge to larger yachts. In 1965, his first own yacht "RABBIT" was launched, with which he immediately won the Fastnet Race in 1965 against 151 other yachts.

His yachts were characterised by innovative solutions that also influenced the design of later yachts and often became standards. His designs were often controversial. However, his success proved him right.

When Storebro was looking for a new designer for sailing boats and Dick Carter in turn was looking for a shipyard for his designs, they met in 1969 to discuss a collaboration. Dick Carter flew from the USA to Jönköping in Sweden to visit the shipyard for several days. For 4-5 days he observed the workers of the shipyard and confirmed the cooperation with the words "OK, you are in business".

The picture below shows the meeting of Dick Carter and his design team in 1970 with the production managers of the Storebro shipyard.

Back row (from left to right): Lars Bjureus (STOREBRO Sales Manager), n.n. Front row (left to right): n.n. Bill Green (Carter Offshore), Kurt Salomonsson (STOREBRO Production Manager Västervik), Lennart Ivarsson (STOREBRO Managing Director), Manfred Palmerand (STOREBRO Production Leader Västervik), Dick Carter (Carter Offshore), Jean-Marie Vanek (Carter Offshore Cannes, France), Sven Hellström, (Carter Offshore Stockholm, Sweden)

The first result was the production of the Carter 40 or Havsörnen 40/Sea Eagle 40. During the construction of the Havsörnen 40, every part that was brought on board was weighed. The shipyard was able to present the happy designer with a ship that was 125 kg lighter than calculated. The extreme look at the weight was due to the fact that Carter had previously had the first two Carter 33s built in Finland, which had become too heavy. When the ships were launched, their water pass disappeared under the water surface - the face of Dick Carter, who had been accompanied on this occasion by Lennart Ivarsson, did not look very happy. The hull molds stored at the Finnish shipyard were later taken by ferry to Stockholm and then by truck to Västervik at Dick Carter's request. Carter wanted to save the molds from legal action against the Finnish shipyard. These molds later formed the basis for the Storebro 33.

In 1972 and 1973 the shipyard then delivered the 2-ton cupper Carter 42 "Aggressive" and her two sister ships "Airmail" and "Tiderace III".

When Storebro considered offering a sailing boat again in 1976, they went back to the moulds of the Carter 33 stored for Dick Carter. Dick Carter modified the underwater hull by drawing a new, less complex shaped rudder blade for the future Storebro 33. The adaptation of the surface ship was done by Storebro's design team around John H. V. Lindblom.

Information on the designs of Dick Carter's boats can be found in his book "Dick Carter Yacht Desinger - In the golden age of offshore racing" (ISBN 9781912621316).