Doug Peterson

Doug Peterson in 1973

Douglas Blair Peterson (born 1945) is an American yacht designer. Beginning with the One Tonner Ganbare in 1973, Peterson's designs have pioneered many innovations in racing and cruising yachts.^[1]

In the mid-1970s, Peterson's designs dominated offshore racing events, with a string of winning high-profile IOR boats such as Ganbare, Gumboots, Kindred Spirit, Vendetta, Racy, Great Pumpkin, Petrified, High Noon, Anabelle Lee, High Roler, 'Country Girl' ( Half Ton ) Louisiana Crude, Stinger, Checkmate, Eclipse, Yena, Rubin, Ragamuffin', and Moonshine. He also designed several other stock racers such as the Contessa 35, the NY 40, the Baltic DP Series and the Serendipity 43 production runs from the Louisiana Crude^[2] lines. Also the Australian built Seaway 25 quarter ton Trailer yacht.

He was not implicated in the scandal involving the Seymour Sinnett/Dennis Connor expulsion from yachting during the SORC in the early '80s, where one of Sinnett's Williwaw yachts, designed by Peterson, was found to have been measured out of trim, in violation of the IOR Rule and the IYRU rule for fair sailing and sportsmanship.

Designed for Jack Kelly Yachts, the Peterson 44 debuted in 1976. This boat was a pioneer in performance cruising yacht design and one can still see many of the over 200 built in ports around the world.^[3] The design was followed by the Kelly Peterson 46 of which 30 were built, hull number 30, the last one built, is currently circumnavigating the globe; this hull design was also used for the Liberty 458 and the Delta 46.

The Formosa 46, or "cheaterson", is an enlarged copy of the Kelly Peterson 44, and is referred to as a cheaterson by the yachting community because Doug Peterson did not get any royalties for the design.

Peterson later entered the America's Cup circle as a key design member of the winning 1992 America³ and 1995 Black Magic Team New Zealand's design teams^[4] In 2000, Peterson designed the winning Louis Vuitton Cup boat for Prada Challenge.

1974 qt nas -Peterson 1/4 ton yachts raced at the Corpus Christi Yacht Club

"North NAYRU Quarter Ton Winner, Carter Half Ton Champ The NAYRU Quarter and Half Ton Class Championships saw one tight contest not decided until the last race and one lopsided series. The event was sailed June 8–15 (edit: 1974) at the Corpus Christi Yacht Club in Texas.

Twenty-eight boats sailed in the two classes with most of the fleet and the competition concentrated in the 24-boat Quarter Ton Class.

Sailmaker Lowell North of San Diego sailing the Doug Peterson-designed El Principio put together two firsts and a third in short races, a sixth in the 70-mile medium-distance race, and a first in the 150-mile long-distance race to edge John Mueller's Peterson-designed Tickled Pink with Robert Chilton's Truckin' Machine third.

Tickled Pink led El Principio by 2 3/8 points at the start of the final race over an Olympic course, but in moderate winds North finished first while Tickled Pink dropped to fourth to give El Principio the NAYRU Championship by less than a point." Photo by Tom Crabb [1]

References

1. ^ "Doug Peterson". Nautical Quarterly (New York, N.Y. : Nautical Quarterly) No. 11. 1977. 
2. ^ "Louisiana Crude Articles". The Serendipity 43 Blog. http://serendipity43.blogspot.com/search/label/Louisiana%20Crude. 
3. ^ Mate, Ferenc (1993). Best Boats to Build or Buy. WW Norton & Co. 
4. ^ Lloyd, Barbara (1995-05-11). "YACHT RACING; Secret of Black Magic's Success Is in the Design". The New York Times (The New York Times Company). http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE1DB1531F932A25756C0A963958260#. Retrieved 2008-03-04. 

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Name	Peterson, Doug
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Date of birth	1945
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