The Red JAcket · Construction
Hand-laid. First of her method.
A structure that was — and is — strong, stiff, and significantly lighter than the wood or solid fiberglass yachts then sailing.
Red Jacket was built in fiberglass with a balsa core. The sandwich layup gave the hull the rigidity of a much heavier vessel at a fraction of the displacement. Bruckmann Manufacturing laid up every panel by hand, in a purpose-built shop on the Oakville waterfront, under the supervision of Erich Bruckmann.
At the time it was a quiet experiment. In hindsight it became the foundation for a generation of performance yacht construction — the moment cored composite became a credible structure for a serious ocean-going hull.
