The Garlington 61 has been described by its owners and admirers as classic, elegant, graceful and iconic. In the early 1980s, Richard Garlington was well known as a Stuart, Florida, builder of custom sportfishing boats using the cold-molded wood construction technique. His boats, most in the 40-plus-foot range, were highly regarded on the tournament circuit and prized for their finish as much as their ability to handle offshore conditions.
As tournament fishermen began to demand boats with longer range and faster speeds, Garlington decided to build a larger boat that could fish the waters of the Bahamas, the Caribbean and Central America in safety and in comfort. The 61 was originally designated as the 58, a design from the board of Dan McCarthy, a friend of Garlington and an experienced naval architect who penned submarines and other vessels for the U.S. Navy.
McCarthy gave the boat a sharp-looking, well-balanced overall appearance with sweeping deckhouse lines and a reverse sheer rising from a spacious cockpit. Walkable side decks led to a broad foredeck that easily shed water.
The bow flare was not as exaggerated as some models favored by custom builders in the Carolinas, but it was distinct enough to add reserve buoyancy in big waves. McCarthy created a raked stem to part waves at speed and he added chines that began far forward above the waterline and ended at the curved transom for dry running and static roll stability—an essential characteristic for trolling. The bottom transitioned from the sharp entry to a 22-degree deadrise at the transom with a draft of 4 feet, 10 inches. The hull could easily handle the Detroit 6V71 diesels used by Garlington in his smaller boats, but the Detroit 8V71 diesels were a more popular choice
The boat had a 17-foot beam and was offered in express and flybridge configurations, both available with tower.
Garlington sold his company to the Landeweer family in 1993. The Landeweer sons, Peter and Evert, managed the transition of the Garlington 61 from cold-molded wood construction to state-of-the-art fiberglass composite construction for what became the Garlington Landeweer 61. They retained the beauty of the original design while lightening the overall displacement as compared to a similar design in single-skin fiberglass.
The Landeweers are adamant that even though refinements are constant, the legacy of this boat remains intact. Still offered in the company’s lineup as an express or flybridge, the 61 has set a high bar for custom boatbuilders who have adapted their own designs to match the look and function of Richard Garlington’s original ideas.
April 2025
