Sailor and designer Ted Hood dies

Update on Sept. 16, 2013:  The family of sailor and yacht builder Ted Hood hosts a celebration of his life on Sept. 20, 2013 at 11 a.m. at the New York Yacht Club-Harbour Court in Newport, R.I. The family invites “all he has touched” to the ceremony. “All are welcome to stay for refreshments and to share stories following the service,” the family said in a statement.

Ted Hood, a yachtsman and boat designer, died in late June in Middletown, R.I. He was 86.

Mr. Hood had had heart problems and recently contracted pneumonia, according to a story in the New York Times.

Mr. Hood was an accomplished sailor who captained S/Y Courageous, the 1974 America’s Cup winner.

He first made his name developing better sailcloth, and Hood Sailmakers produced the sails for every America’s Cup winner from 1958-1977. But he also designed and built racing yachts and skippered them to championships in various races in the 1960s and 1970s.

During the 1962 America’s Cup defender trials, Mr. Hood, who was captain of a boat he designed, S/Y Nefertiti, helped a rival captain, Bus Mosbacher, make adjustments in his sails, according to the Times story. Mosbacher’s S/Y Weatherly, won the competition between them and went on to successfully defend the cup against the Australians.

“Oh, I wanted to win, but against the best possible boat,” the Times reported Hood as saying afterward. “And I’d rather have lost to Bus than to the Aussies.”

He also designed and built water jet-powered yachts and catamarans.

He is survived by his wife of 58 years, Susan Blake; their daughter, Nancy Hood MacLeod; three sons, Richard, Frederick (also known as Ted) and Robert; and eight grandchildren.