I was both surprised and flattered when Earl asked me to write a foreword to this book. I had been following the references to his ongoing work on Yankee III in The Model Yacht and on the USVMYG web site, but had not been in any sense closely engaged with it. The Vintage Group in Britain is much more concerned with the restoration of existing models, some of very considerable age, and the idea of revamping a 1930's design to be built from scratch using modern materials and techniques was of passing interest rather than central to my concerns.
 

My attitude changed when I saw a late draft of the text. The sheer size and weight were impressive. Very few `how to do it' manuals of model yachting that I have seen are as substantial. Detailed examination showed that this is an important book, not only in the history of the vintage movement, but more widely in the development of model yachting. Not only is it a useful summary of the history of Yankee and Yankee Junior, it also honours the memory of John Black, one of the leading American designers and skippers of the 1930s.
 

The nitty gritty account of `how I did it - and how you can do it too' is, I believe, the first detailed treatment of this technique of building models. It is of course developed from surf board techniques, and this type of foam has been used in a different way by modellers in New Zealand, but the small scale of the work and the always pressing need to keep structure weights under control have meant that Earl has very largely had to develop techniques from scratch. This he has done through a long series of prototypes, on which, as he honestly remarks, he made all the possible mistakes.

Not only has Earl developed a new technique for building by patient and persistent experiment, he has written an account of how to do it that ranks with the best descriptions of manual skills that I have seen. This is a field that I have researched in some depth myself and I know how difficult it is to produce an instruction manual that will be fully effective in its own right, without the benefit of `hands on' demonstration and advice. I suspect that to do so is impossible. I am certain that this book more closely approaches the ideal than any other I have seen. Earl has been fortunate in securing the services of M de Lesseps to produce the extremely clear and helpful drawings.

There are many model yacht kits available to the aspiring skipper, and the vast majority produce handsome boats with reasonable sailing characteristics. Why, then, go to the trouble of a scratch-built boat? Well, the entry level kits available today all look pretty much the same, with the lines of a modern cruiser/racer. Yankee III doesn't look like that at all, and to many people she will be the prettiest boat on the pond. Not only that, but within her limits she sails like a dream. You will also gain experience and skills that will carry over to other projects. No longer bound by the kit designers' selections, a whole world of boats can now be built.

The U.S. Vintage Model Yacht Group exists to study and preserve the old boats, the ones that look "like a proper yacht." As part of this charter I decided to develop a sailing model of a reasonable size and cost, one that could be built by someone who loved the looks of traditional yachts but who had never built a boat before. A 36 inch long boat is about the smallest that won't look like a toy on the water, so that is what I went looking for. Since our membership, and events, are spread across the country, I wanted a boat that could travel easily by air. The easiest way to do this was to have a hull and rig that would fit into a hard-sided golf club case, which is roughly 10-in diameter by 48-in long. The prototypes of Yankee III have travelled from Albuquerque to Woods Hole, Spring Lake, Mystic, Detroit, and Newport in precisely this fashion.
 

I must have looked into dozens of designs, and rejected them for various reasons, mostly having to do with appearance. And then our Group got lucky.

One of our members contacted us with some material a friend had acquired from an uncle, and whose significance he had noticed. They were plans and a series of construction articles that had run in The Boston Evening Transcript in 1935. The subject was a 36 inch long free-sailing model based on the famous J Class yacht Yankee. The model was designed by John Black, one of the most celebrated model yacht designers of his day, and he called her Yankee Jr. This had everything I was looking for in a design: the right size, great appearance, and sailing qualities guaranteed by a fine designer. All of these promises were borne out in the prototypes. My task was to adapt her to modern materials and radio control. Since our boat would be derived from Yankee Jr., which was based in turn on Yankee, I decided to call her Yankee III.
 

Of course scratch-building carries the risk of wasting money, and for many of us, the more precious time. The techniques described in this book were exercised on five hulls, four rigs, and eight sets of sails, during which I hope I made every mistake possible. The emphasis is on low cost, use of readily available materials, and most importantly, ease and speed of construction. The boat can be built with only a few hand tools over the course of five or six weekends.

The British have a saying: "horses for courses." Some go well over a distance, others are best in a sprint; some prefer it dry, others relish the wet. And so it is with yachts, both full size and model - no boat will stand up well to stiff winds and still have the ability to move easily in light air. Yankee III is a light air boat, pure and simple. She is at her best when pond is like glass and leaves barely move, gliding along in an uncanny fashion and surging forward on the slightest puff. When the flags are blowing straight out she can be a real handful to keep on course. I have eased this limitation somewhat by providing the ability to shorten sail, but you should keep it in mind when deciding whether to build, and where to sail.