Bristol

Bristol Yachts was an American company which was among the first commercially successful production fiberglass sailboat boat builders. The company was founded in 1964 and closed in 1997.

Bristol Yacht Company was founded by Clinton Pearson. Clint and his cousin Everett Pearson began building fiberglass dinghies in 1955 in their garage on County Street in Seekonk, Massachusetts, just over the Massachusetts/Rhode Island state border. Within a year the newly founded Pearson Yachts employed hundreds of people. Fast corporate expansion resulted in cash flow problems, so the cousins raised capital by selling equity in Pearson to Grumman Allied Industries in 1961. Clinton left in 1964 and bought out a troubled sailboat-maker, Sailstar, in West Warwick, Rhode Island, and moved into the abandoned Herreshoff boatyard. Carl Alberg designed the company's first boat, the Bristol 27. Clinton changed the company’s name to Bristol Yacht Company in 1966, and the Sailstar brand was phased out. The boat yard was eventually located on Popasquash Road, in Bristol, Rhode Island. The facilities included a giant barn on land owned by Clinton and where his home was located as well. Across the road from the barn was a small marina and travellift. The company closed due to bankruptcy in 1997.

Early Bristols offered a lot for their modest prices, including encapsulated lead keels on many models, but with iron punchings and concrete on many of the boats that joined the Bristol line when Bristol acquired the molds from Sailstar. The boats features large galleys for their day, large cockpits with seats you could sleep on, fiberglass cabin headliners on some models, and interiors with a nice blend of white formica and mahogany trim. The early boats had keel-hung rudders, cut away full keels and were moderately stout boats with an relatively comfortable motion for their day. The second generation Bristol yachts carried a decimal and a repeat of the second model number (27.7, 29.9, 31.1, 33.3, 35.5, 38.8, 41.1, 43.3, 45.5, 47.7, 51.1). They came from the design team of Ted Hood, an America's Cup designer. Hood designs generally were centerboard boats which aimed for performance without deep draft, although some models offered the option of a deeper fixed keel. The hull designs were a development of Ted Hood's "whale bottom" delta hull form, with a steep deadrise allowing the ballast to be placed low in the hull (compensating for the lack of ballast in the centreboard), and improving interior space. This hull design is known for its comfortable motion in a seaway. Several of the second generation boats were designed by Dieter Empacher, who, at the time, was employed by Hood design group.

Source: Wikipedia.