Harwood Ives

Harwood Ives (1927–2018) was the visionary American naval architect and Webb Institute graduate whose romantic, heavy-displacement designs defined the golden era of Hans Christian Yachts and turned a small California importer into a global legend. From 1976 onward, Ives penned the iconic sheer lines and opulent Burmese-teak interiors of the HC-38T, HC-38 MkII, HC-33/33T, HC-41T, and HC-43T—canoe-stern, full-keel cutters that prioritize timeless beauty and bulletproof seaworthiness over speed, earning cult status among bluewater cruisers for surviving Cape Horn rounds and 60-knot storms while looking like 19th-century pilot schooners. After cleaning up the yard’s controversial HC-34/36 stretches and giving the brand its signature “moving-while-docked” profile, Ives also shaped interiors for Valiant, Tayana, Union 36, and Hylas, but his Hans Christian masterpieces remain his enduring legacy—boats so beloved that owners still call them “floating dreams that refuse to sink” seven years after his death in Annapolis at age 90.