MacLear & Harris  

Bob Harris a young Naval Architect was inspired by Manu Kai and built his first catamaran in 1948. He designed several successful catamarans from 1948 to 1959 in his spare time while he worked for Sparkman and Stephens

In 1959 Bob Harris set up a Naval Architecture practice in New York in 1959 with Frank McLear. The firm of McLear and Harris specialised in multihulls from 1959 to 1967 when Bob Harris left and re-joined Sparkman and Stephens.  He wrote two seminal books on cruising catamarans and trimarans. In 1970 he crewed for Phil Weld on his Kelsall trimaran Trumpeter in the round Britain Race finishing second.

Maclear and Harris designed very professional looking craft with a strong hint of Sparkman and Stephens about their style! Given Bob Harris' early development of smaller catamarans in the 1940's and 50's he and McLear remain rather unsung heroes of the 1970's development of multihulls. 

When the partnership ended in 1967, Harris rejoined Sparkman & Stephens for several years before going back into multihulls in the early 70’s.
In 1972 he moved to Vancouver BC and set up a small office at first with with Bill Heacock, a graduate of the California Maritime Institute. At this time he drew the VANCOUVER 27, the smallest and first in a series of boats of that name.
Besides his work with multihulls, and commercial naval architecture, Harris is known as the designer of many production monohulls, mostly for Taiwanese Yacht Builders, including a number of the Tayana models.
His two books on multihulls, Modern Sailing Catamarans, 1960, and Racing and Cruising Trimarans, 1970, were recognized as pioneering work in the field.
The best information about his career, as well as other subjects, is contained in his autobiography, 'Tracks on the Water'.

The following was posted on the boat Design Forum:

From 1959 to 1967 Frank MacLear and Robert Harris operated as partners in the New York yacht design firm of MacLear & Harris. The firm specialized in multihulls and had a number of successes in this field, but they also did other diverse projects.

Frank Reynolds MacLear, (Born Denver Colorado1920- D. 2004) graduated from the University of Michagan in 1943 with a BS degree in naval architecture and marine engineering. He first worked at Ingalls Shipbuilding and in the US Navy at Norfolk and in Great Britain overseeing construction and repair. After the war he undertook graduate studies at the University of Geneva. He worked briefly at Sparkman & Stephens in 1948. He then went sailing, racing and passagemaking aboard a great variety of yachts until the late 1950’s. In 1959 with Robert Harris he co-founded MacLear & Harris. Though “Bob” Harris left the partnership in 1967, MacLear carried on under the MacLear & Harris name in New York until he retired sometime in the 90’s. He died in 2004. Notably Dave Gerr worked under MacLear from 79 until 1983.

Robert Buckman Harris, (Born New Hampshire 1922-) Best known as a long term employee at Sparkman & Stephens, a multihull pioneer, and designer of the Vancouver series of cruising yachts. After being appointed a cadet at the US Merchant Marine Accademy in 1942, Harris saw wartime service in the Merchant Marine. In 1945, with a mate’s certificate, he sailed aboard the Wood’s Hole Oceanographic Society’s big ketch Atlantis. He then moved into a four year apprenticeship ashore at the Crosby Yacht Building Yard in Oyster Bay, NY. I believe he completed the Westlawn Yacht Design Course during this time. Also he designed and built his first catamaran (Naramatac) in 1948. In 1950 he joined Sparkman & Stephens where he stayed until 1957, working closely with Al Mason among others. In his spare time he was designing and building early catamaran’s, notably the cold-molded Tiger Cat, which won Yachting Magazine’s one of a kind race in 1959.

In 1957 Harris moved to Grumman Aircraft and then joined designer/builder Robert Derecktor for a short time before forming MacLear & Harris to specialize in Multihull Design. His two books on multihulls, Modern Sailing Catamarans, 1960, and Racing and Cruising Trimarans, 1970, were recognized as pioneering work in the field. He left M&H in 1967 to rejoin Sparkman & Stephens for several years before going back into multihulls in the early 70’s. In 1972 he moved to Vancouver BC and set up a small office. Output at this time included commercial naval architecture, multihull design, and a great deal of production monohull yacht design, mostly for Taiwanese Yacht Builders, Jefferson (motoryachts) and Tayana (sailing yachts). Still living in Vancouver, at 85 Bob is a few years into so-called retirement, but he still draws and is involved in various small local design projects. I believe he has completed a Biography and I hope to see it published before too long.

The design output of MacLear & Harris was varied, but one of the boats that Bob worked on while at S&S was the Johnson’s last Yankee, a steel ketch with twin centerboards. At M&H Frank and Bob coupled the double-ended canoe stern with twin centerboards and a single stick almost midships, thus creating one the great ocean cruising yachts, Angantyr. She was built for Jim Crawford, who had a great deal of experience having circumnavigated in the 60’ Alden schooner Dirigo. With her mast almost midships, Angantyr was referred to as a “one masted schooner”. Bob Harris was to use this hull form, with the cutter rig, and sometimes with the twin centerboards, in the much later Vancouver series of sailing yachts. MacLear was to move on to fewer, but much grander projects including Aria, (87’ cutter) built by Palmer Johnson in the mid 70’s. MacLear more or less led the way to the giant cutter/sloops of today; he was a first adapter of electric sheet winches and furlers to handle huge rigs with short crew.