Bermudan Ketch “Ticonderoga” was designed by Lewis Francis Herreshoff, built by Quincy Adams Yacht Yard, Quincy, Massachusetts for Harold “Harry” Edward Noyes (1898-).
“Launched as Tioga in 1936, this glorious ketch finished first in twenty-four of her initial thirty-seven races. Renamed Ticonderoga in 1946, she went on to set more elapsed-time records than any ocean racer in history. Ticonderoga held more than thirty course records in races on several oceans, surpassing even the best performances of the hard-driven nineteenth-century clipper ships. But Ticonderoga wasn't designed for racing. Her creator, L. Francis Herreshoff, shaped her for genteel "afternoon sailing," giving her uncommon elegance of form with a clipper bow, elliptical transom, raked rig, gilded garnish, and a bathtub. It is these qualities of unsurpassed opulence and beauty, combined with her astonishing speed, that have made Big Ti so incomparable.” - “Ticonderoga: Tales of an Enchanted Yacht” by Jack A. Somer, published by W. W. Norton & Company, 1997.
“Ticonderoga” was 72’0” x 16’0” with a 7’10” draft – an elegant and very fast ocean-going racing yacht. The boat has raced across the Atlantic and Pacific, the Caribbean and Mediterranean, and along the coasts of three continents for decades. She won the Transpac race from San Francisco to Honolulu in 1963 and 1965 (raced by owner Robert Johnson) and was winning important races up to the 1970's.
“Herreshoff carried out his lines to suit the flow of water – and the eyes of the beholder.” - “A Life in Boats: The Years Before the War” by Waldo Howland, p. 118, published by Mystic Seaport Museum, 1984.
