Biography of Robert Banks Hull

Robert Banks Hull is a naval architect and yachtsman who has been involved in sailing his entire life. Bob grew up on San Francisco Bay sailing a variety of boats. He has raced offshore on the California Coast and the Atlantic Seaboard and he held a captain’s license for tens years.

I grew up sailing San Francisco Bay. I decided a long time ago I would design boats. Being a sailor from the time I could hold a tiller, sailing was the only thing I loved. It was not work, so maybe designing boats would not be either. So I thought. Besides, the profession would require much time on the water so I wouldn’t become like many other young folks who waste their best years in offices.

After graduating from Tam High in Mill Valley, California and attending UC Berkeley for as long as I could stand it, I snuck off to the East Coast to work for several of the hot design offices of the time. Then, after tiring of the New York and New England rust belts and the social hierarchy of the landed gentry I found myself sailing amongst, I migrated south to Florida and became the in-house designer for Hunter Marine. Hunter was becoming the biggest production builder of sail boats in North America, then in the great boom times of sailing’s popularity of the Seventies. This boom came about from a story in Time magazine at the beginning of that decade. The story told of the glories of sailing off into the sunset and the boat builders who were becoming the dream-makers of such fluff. So, from this nucleus every Joe decided to buy his dream’s escape capsule and park it at the nearest marina until such time as he would make his exit to the South Seas and other dreamy destinations far from the work-a day. The marinas got full, Hunter Marine got rich and most of the Joe’s never left the dock. Still, I thank Time Magazine for delivering me to sunny Florida.  

Robert Banks Hull