05/07/2026
Falconer 2026
The Falconer Award is given for outstanding achievement by a competitor, administrator or designer in one design racing.
These recipients starting working on a project 5 Years ago. They hatched an idea, formed a Company, and hired a naval architect, an engineering team, a sail designer and contracted with a local boat builder to create a modern, institutional, keel boat for club use.
This endeavor has risk. But these members saw opportunity. In fact, during my plant tour, fulcrum speed works manager, David Clark, explained it was the “complete new design” that convinced him to accept the challenge to build the Storm 18. He mentioned, most boat builders make smaller changes and iterations to preexisting designs, year in and year out, which are easy, but don’t revolutionize much.
The Storm 18 is different. It’s design, and construction materials and techniques, offer a stable, easy to sail, exciting boat that is built like a tank. To get this performance and durability is remarkable. Bill Crane and Karl Ziegler have cracked the code and we are so proud of their contributions to boat building and design.
To Bill and Karl, our 2026 Falconer winners, Thank you.