Bernard Smith (sailboat designer)

Smith was born in 1910 in New York City, to Jewish Russian immigrants.[http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2010/022010/02172010/528525 Dahlgren leader Smith, 99, dies] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20120713144632/http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2010/022010/02172010/528525 |date=2012-07-13 }} on fredericksburg.com One of a pair of fraternal twins, he moved to California in 1935, where he worked as a welder for the Fruehauf Trailer company.{{Cite book|last=Smith|first=Bernard|title=Looking ahead from way back: an autobiography|publisher=unknown|year=1999|location=Richmond, IN, USA}} Smith came from a background of blacksmiths and he later was a founder of American rocket science becoming a director of the naval weapons laboratory in Virginia. He is best known today for his writing in “The 40-Knot Sailboat”.

After World War II, with an honorary degree in physics from Reed College in Oregon, he started working as a civilian scientist in the US Navy,[https://archive.today/20120708131456/http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2009/012009/01022009/435526/index_html Ex-Dahlgren scientist's designs lead to sailing record] on fredericksburg.com serving at the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake and later at the Naval Weapons Laboratory at Dahlgren

,{{cite web|url=http://www.geocities.com/aerohydro/home.htm |title=Mr Smith's Amazing Sailboats |access-date=2010-02-17 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091028024812/http://www.geocities.com/aerohydro/home.htm |archive-date=2009-10-28 }} on Geocities where he served as the technical director from 1964 until his retirement in 1973. In recognition of his ingenuity and determination, the U.S. Navy established the Bernard Smith Award, given annually for scientific and technical achievements accomplished “by exceptional persistence and competence in the face of unusual odds or significant opposition.”{{Cite web|url=https://www.navsea.navy.mil/Media/News/SavedNewsModule/Article/1185916/nswc-dahlgren-division-personnel-awarded-for-achievements-vital-to-current-and/|title=NSWC Dahlgren Division Personnel Awarded for Achievements Vital to Cur|website=Naval Sea Systems Command|language=en-US|access-date=2019-06-19}} He died on 12 February 2010 from liver cancer at age 99.{{Cite web|url=https://www.reed.edu/reed-magazine/in-memoriam/obituaries/september2010/bernard-smith-1948.html|title=Bernard Smith '48|website=Reed Magazine {{!}} In Memoriam|language=en-us|access-date=2019-06-19}}

In 1963, Smith published The 40-knot Sailboat, in which he set out an innovative sailboat design inspired by the traditional proa sailed by the peoples of the Pacific Ocean. Smith's designs revolved around the concept of the "aerohydrofoil," where the boat's keel and sail are separated from each other by an outrigger system. The idea proved highly influential for subsequent designers.{{Cite book|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/20319922|title=Sailloons and fliptackers : the limits to high-speed sailing|last=Smith, Bernard, 1910-2010.|date=1989|publisher=American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics|isbn=0930403657|oclc=20319922}} Almost 50 years after its publication, the Vestas Sailrocket, which was largely based on Smith's ideas, broke the world speed sailing record.[http://www.sailrocket.com/node/169 THE BOAT:CONCEPT] on the Vestas Sailrocket web site.

• {{cite book|last=Smith|first=Bernard|title=The 40-knot Sailboat|publisher=Grosset & Dunlap|location=New York NY|year=1963|lccn=63-18980|oclc=1394738|url=https://archive.org/details/40knotsailboat00smit|url-access=registration}}
• {{cite book|last=Smith|first=Bernard|title=Sailloons and Fliptackers: The Limits to High-Speed Sailing|publisher=AIAA|location=Washington|year=1989|isbn=0930403657|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x9q5ISXJMlsC}}
• {{cite book|last=Smith|first=Bernard|title=The Ultimate Sailboat|publisher=Self-published|year=2004|oclc=811646415}}

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Category:1910 births

Category:Reed College alumni

Category:2010 deaths

Category:American yacht designers

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