Talk:Howard I. Chapelle

Common Name
This article should be under "Howard Chapelle", which is what people call him. I propose renaming it.--Doug.(talk • contribs) 03:03, 5 September 2007 (UTC)

Never mind, I must have typed it in wrong, I didn't realize it was redirecting here.--Doug.(talk • contribs) 03:13, 5 September 2007 (UTC)

Chapelle's Importance
I only noticed this page when I made a reference to Phil Bolger's passing (today) on Bolger's biographical talk page. I do not think that Chapelle's importance as a historian and educator of the American sailing Renaissance can be overstated. His designs distilled the essence of the meaning of American traditional sail.

The idea that the ships and other vessels he documented, or designed, are outdated and old-fashioned, and hence insignificant, ignores the fact that far more science was applied to merchant and inshore design during his period than since. Added to this is that the architecture of his period was also art--a concept so lost to engineering today that it seems radical. But it isn't; it is conservative in the truest sense.--John Bessa (talk) 22:28, 26 May 2009 (UTC)