The photographs on this page are of various double enders designed as racing yachts in the 1920's and 1930's. All of the boats shown here were designed by L. Francis Herreshoff or Nick Potter, and were all built to race under one of the level rating classes of either the Universal or International rating rules. Lengths range from about 37 feet to about 130 feet. The overhanging canoe stern common to all of these boats lent itself well for optimization of the "quarter beam length" measurement under the Universal rule, and the aft girth measurements of the International rule. These are first and foremost racing yachts; some were successful and some weren't, but they all had great style. The photographs presented here are to illustrate the style, even with less than optimum sail trim depicted in a couple of the images.

Here is what L. Francis Herreshoff had to say about the double ended hull form in his book, The Common Sense of Yacht Design:

"However I have designed about a dozen sailing yachts with long overhanging sharp sterns and among them have been yachts in the following classes: J, M, Q, R, 12 meter, 6 meter, and 30 square meter; and I think the double ender is all right if the stern is carried out long enough to keep the leeward side comparatively straight when heeled ... A double ender certainly must be narrow and long on deck to steer well when heeled."