A podcast about classic boat designs and the stories behind them. Hosted by Tom Darling

The Six Metre, the oldest development keelboat design, comes back  to America for the World Championships.

In September, 2025, we revive a 38 year old design, one of the first with the controversial winged keel configuration, and do battle  in Long Island Sound with the pro crews and their ultra-modern boats.

Ever wonder what that glamorous, gleaming, mahogany-sided boat James Bond was driving on the Côte d'Azur was?
Most likely, it was a Riva Aquarama—the Italian luxury runabout built in Sarnico, Italy, for the past 62 years. Now owned by the luxury yacht builder Ferretti Group, Riva has been the choice of film stars, race car drivers, and fashion moguls. Riva is the pinnacle of Sixties speedboat style. As one owner said, "The Riva Aquarama is the most stylish boat of all time."

Ciao, Riva!

Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club in Oyster Bay on the North Shore of Long Island was the birthplace of International Rule Six Meter boats. In 2025, the "Santa Claus of 6 Metres," a Swiss-Canadian named Rainer Muller, hopes to bring his Sixes collection to anchor the 2025 World Championship in Long Island Sound. Over 20 Six Metres, dating from 1924 to contemporary, are expected to be on the line.

A husband and wife team sail a revived famous 1960s offshore design, the Cal 40, to victory in America's venerable Newport to Bermuda Race. Stan and Sally Honey, along with their friend Olympian Carl Buchan, sailed the boat as it was intended—like a canoe-shaped, 15,000-pound dinghy.

Christina Brophy, Senior VP of Mystic Seaport Museum and Evelyn Ansel, Curator of the Herreshoff Marine Museum, and herself a Mystic native, join in a gam to explore how a marine museum curator comes to be. The two outline an exciting 2024 exhibition season. Go visit MSM and HMM this summer- and mention Conversations with Classic Boats!

In the late 1920s, competitive college sailing originated in keelboats. Through long-running events like the McMillan Cup and a range of college offshore regattas across the country, college sailors, from expert to novice, are enjoying the camaraderie and fun of sailing big boats. October 2023 saw the Princeton Offshore Team win its class during a weekend of wild weather at the Storm Trysail Club's Intercollegiate Offshore Regatta.

A five women team makes women’s sailing history. In September 1985, mastering an international fleet and Hurricane Gloria to take the inaugural Rolex International Women’s Keelboat Regatta and pointing to the inclusion of Women’s Sailing in the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

Bob Johnstone: Co-founder of JBoats, powerboat innovator with MJM Yachts, and author of Marketing Maverick. From 3-foot DF-95s to 50-plus years of J Boat designs, his legacy thrives at 68.

We go cross-country in search of the iconic Six Metres of the 1930s. We find the crème de la crème, Goose and Llanoria, in the boatyard of this design's dedicated collector, Peter Hofmann, at Port Madison Yacht Club on Bainbridge Island, across the sound from Seattle. Photos from Peter Taylor tell the story of these beautiful keelboats.

We debut our Classic Conversations, The Sailors Log, talking to match racer, rules guru and overall great sailing guy Dave Perry.