Classic Design

Most of the designs that would be considered classic were designed while Jim Backus was in Seattle, Washington. As James Backus, Yacht Designers he developed the designs for the Victory tugs, the Gatsby, the Bulldog tug and the Cherubini trawler.

The Victory tug was the design that made Jim Backus known in the design world. A concept developed by Loren Hart of Ketchum, Idaho, 87 Victory 37 tugs were built as yachts for the American market. A sister ship, the Victory 49 was later placed into production. In 1982, Loren and Steve Dowdney approached Jim to do a displacement tug. While the Sundowner Tug and the Nordic Tug existed, both were and the Nordic Tug remains a planning design. With the development of the Victory 37, a true displacement boat that had a heritage in tug design, based on the New York City Moran tugs, was created.

The Gatsby 39 was developed from a concept by Jo and Peter Hoyt of Passport Yachts/Liberty Yachts, Seattle, Washington. Peter had see a Lake Union Dreamboat, as built in the late 1920's, early 1930's and wanted to build the design in fiberglass. What resulted was one of the prettiest displacement powerboats to have been shown at the Seattle Boat Show. Twenty plus years later a magazine recently estimated that over one thousand people still knew of the debut of the Gatsby. While Peter is no longer with us, his ideas remain and will reside at Mystic Seaport.

The Bulldog 26 was developed based on a concept by Capt. Dick Thorsen of Seattle, Washington. A professional captain, Dick was looking for a design that could be used by private people and municipalities. The latter would use the design as a patrol boat. The unique features of the Bulldog was her 12' beam overall on a 25'-10" length overall. Additionally, she had an eleven foot wide pilothouse, and a full headroom engine room.