Wellfleet Public Library

Each boat has a story to tell and Tom Verde's In A Class All Their Own features nearly forty profiles of classic/unique boats, drawn from articles written for the Westerly Sun newspaper during the summers of 2014 and 2015. Explore not only the histories of the individual vessels, but of their classes and designers, as well as their relationships to the environs in which they sailed, raced, cruised and, in some case, still operate as working vessels. These stories include the fabled history of the catboat; the first fiberglass sailing yacht; a NY ferry boat repurposed as a houseboat; the oldest working fishing boat in Stonington, CT; racing rivalries in the Sound; the French love affair with American boat designs; and the Jazz Age era of luxury yachting, among others.

Tom Verde is a freelance journalist who writes for the New York Times, National Public Radio, AramcoWorld magazine, the New London Day, and the Westerly Sun. On his first solo sail, on the Charles River in Boston, he ran aground, collided with the Longfellow Bridge, and generally enjoyed himself. He lives in Pawcatuck, Connecticut.