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Allied Boat Company: The Fiberglass Sailboat That Changed Everything
July 6, 2026 · 15 min · 10K views
What this video covers
Allied Boat Company, founded in 1962 in Catskill, New York, built the Allied Sea Wind 30 — a 30-foot 6-inch, full-keel ketch designed by Thomas Gilmer, displacing 12,000 pounds — that became the first fiberglass sailboat to circumnavigate the globe.3:38 Alan Eddy sailed the Sea Wind 30 named Apogee around the world in the mid-1960s, mostly singlehanded, using celestial navigation and paper charts, at a time when fiberglass hulls were still widely distrusted for offshore work.6:26 The voyage ended the argument. Allied's subsequent lineup included the Seabreeze 35, the Lutters 33 (drawn by Bill Lutters), the Greenwich 24 (whose hull connects to the Cape Dory 25), the Princess 36 shoal-draft ketch, the Mistress 39 center-cockpit cruiser, and the Sparkman and Stephens-designed Allied 42XL2 keel-centerboard cruiser.9:22 All shared heavy displacement, full keels, and conservative offshore design values. Allied never scaled to the size of Pearson, Catalina, or C&C; as the market shifted toward beamier, lighter boats with larger interiors, the company struggled financially through ownership changes and eventually closed.11:13 Surviving hulls are noted for serious construction but commonly present with wet core decks, aged systems, and old engines.13:50 The circumnavigation by Apogee established fiberglass as a credible offshore material at the precise moment the industry needed proof.
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