Francis Meisenbach is a member of the Brooklin Boat Yard Design Team. His career as a yacht designer has been informed by a lifetime racing sailboats, from performance dinghies to vintage yachts. He reflects on his early years racing Optimists, “It’s seriously the best way to learn about racing.” From this experience, his love for sailing quickly blossomed, and he soon began to understand wind patterns, the movements of waves, and the fundamentals of boat handling.

Francis started racing in grade school at the Harraseeket Yacht Club in Freeport, Maine, primarily sailing 420s in a competitive summer fleet. When the time came to choose a college, Francis searched for a reputable engineering school that also had a top-tier sailing program. He landed at the University of Vermont, where the sailing team is based on Lake Champlain in the shadow of the Adirondack Mountains. Francis speaks very fondly of his days racing for UVM, “For months in the fall and spring, you’d get 25 knots of wind, steady. I’d go to my engineering classes in the morning, then head to sailing practice and sail for three to four hours, then go home and study. Every day, I’d ask myself, ‘How am I doing this?’.”

After graduating from UVM with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, Francis stayed in Vermont building post and beam barns. He continued to compete in regattas, expanding from dinghies to keel boats, and he raced in one-design fleets including Lightings, Etchells, and J24s. He continued to look for greater opportunities within the sailing world while also exploring possible careers in which he could apply his engineering degree. Francis connected his passion for sailing with his career search and decided to pursue a yacht design program at The Landing School in southern Maine.

At this time, Francis also completed his first Bermuda Race at the age of 25 and was immediately hooked on ocean racing. He explains why this type of racing instantly appealed to him, “In dinghy racing, there’s only one goal and that’s to go fast. In ocean racing, there are always two goals – to go fast and stay safe, so there's a shift in thinking and performance.”

As many sailors do, Francis eventually moved to Newport, Rhode Island, to be closer to racing opportunities and to start a new job with Pedrick Yacht Design. He eventually secured a crew position aboard Spartan, a Herreshoff 50 – an iconic vintage yacht. On Spartan, he traveled to Europe and spent time racing in one of the largest vintage gaff fleets in the world. Francis speaks highly of Spartan and its crew: “To see a boat that powerful and a crew of that size all pushing hard at one time, all relying on each other to do their jobs perfectly… when everyone’s doing well and in rhythm with each other, there’s nothing like it.” Although he loved crewing on Spartan, Francis needed a program that stayed closer to home. He found himself aboard Black Watch, a 1938 68’ Sparkman and Stephens yawl that’s raced heavily in America’s classic yacht scene.

Francis continues to race regularly with the Black Watch crew, performing a variety of duties from trimming to bow. Most days, though, you can find him in our design office or down on the dock with his dog, Bear, in tow.