Ted Hood was an innovative thinker who made his name in the sailing world, but he also felt that he could design and build a better waterjet-powered Downeast-style cruising yacht. Hood had spent a lifetime rethinking everything from sail cloth to sail and sailboat design and he’d helmed the 12 Meter Courageous in a successful defense of the 1974 America’s Cup. After 40 years of racing and building well-regarded racing and cruising sailboats, he nimbly crossed the boundary from sail to power in the 1990s.
He started with an excellent base design, one created by Ray Hunt for Luhrs Marine Group that eventually became the Black Watch 30 in 1986, a sportfishing powerboat that was one of the Ted Hood Company’s model lines. According to Winn Willard, president of Ray Hunt Design, “Ted was more interested in cruising than fishing, so he began to develop the Little Harbor WhisperJet from that 30-footer.”
Hood extended the dimensions of Hunt’s deep-V design across a range of four twin-diesel, waterjet-powered boats ranging in length from 36 to 52 feet. Among other changes to the hull, he added a convex planing surface aft and hollowed out the chines to help reduce slapping noises at anchor. At a later date, he restored the flat chines aft for added planing lift and increased control.
Hood gave the WhisperJet 38 a well-raked stem with a significant flare for dry running in open waters, three pairs of lifting strakes, and long planing runs aft that terminated in 17 degrees of deadrise at the transom. The foredeck and cabin trunk were cambered slightly for optimal runoff, and welded stainless steel handrails along obstruction-free decks made anchoring and line-handling more secure.
To keep the boat light and strong, Hood specified a hybrid Kevlar reinforcement in the hull lamination, as well as closed-cell coring for the hull and deck. Powered by either twin 330-hp or 440-hp Yanmar diesels turning Hamilton waterjet drives, the WhisperJet 38 could attain cruising speeds in the high 20-knot range and top speeds in the low 30-knot range. With a maximum depth of 1 foot, 10 inches and no running gear protruding below the surface, the boat could be safely navigated through fields of crab or lobster pot markers or be used to explore shallow waters unreachable by boats with traditional drivetrains.
This article was originally published in the February 2024 issue.
