Bristol yachts

Bristol Yachts was a United States-based company which was among the first commercially successful production fiberglass sailboat boat builders. The company was founded in 1966 and closed in 1997.

Bristol Yacht Company was founded by Clinton Pearson. Clint and his cousin Everett Pearson began building fiberglass dinghies in 1955 in their garage on County Street in Seekonk, MA, just over the MA/RI state line. Within a year the newly founded Pearson Yachts employed hundreds of people. Fast corporate expansion resulted in cash flow problems, so the cousins raised capital by selling equity in Pearson to Grumman Allied Industries in 1961. Clinton left in 1964 and bought out a troubled sailboat-maker, Sailstar, in West Warwick, Rhode Island, and moved into the abandoned Herreshoff boatyard. Carl Alberg designed the company's first boat, the Bristol 27. Clinton changed the company’s name to Bristol Yacht Company in 1966, and the Sailstar brand was phased out. The boat yard was eventually located on Popasquash Road, in Bristol, Rhode Island. The facilities included a giant barn on land owned by Clinton and where his home was located as well. Across the road from the barn was a small marina and travellift. Due to bankruptcy the company closed in 1997.

Early Bristol models aimed at the mass market and often were cutaway full keel or keel-centerboard designs. Among the first models were the Alberg designed 27 and the Herreshoff designed 29. Halsey Herreshoff, the grandson of the brilliant yacht designer and innovator Nathanael Herreshoff and a renowned yacht designer in his own right, designed a number of first generation models, including the Bristol 22 “Caravel”, the 26 "Courier", 28, 29, 30, 33 and 34. His early designs made the most of the CCA rules with cutaway keels and long overhangs. His later designs were generally performance oriented fin and skeg or fin keel designs. Carl Alberg was responsible for the first generation Bristol models Corinthian 19 (one of the original Sailstar models that Bristol took over) and the Bristol 27 (a boat very similar in design to the Pearson Triton 28, also an Alberg design). Paul Coble designed the Corsair (another Sailstar model later identified as the Bristol 24)--a very stout and roomy 24 footer. The Bristol 32 and 39 (40) were designed by Ted Hood.

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