Professional BoatBuilder - April-May 2018

56 Professional BoatBuilder

S

teve Rander is something of a legend

on the West Coast. For nearly four

decades he has built numerous success-

ful racing and cruising yachts, like the

70 ' (21.3m) Rage, which won her class

in the 1993 Transpac, the 42' (12.8m)

Magic Carpet, and the 60' (18.3m) Ocean

Planet for the Vendée Globe, an around-

the-world race. All are cold-molded in

wood veneer and epoxy, some over

foam core to reduce weight. And he’d

earned a reputation as a contender on

many of the West Coast long-distance

races, like the Transpac, Pacific Cup,

Oregon Offshore, and Swiftsure. All this

out of a small shop in Portland, Oregon,

a hundred miles (161 km) up the

Columbia River from the bold Pacific

and the famed Columbia River bar.

The short version of his career reads

like this: Grew up in Southern Califor-

nia, graduated from high school in

1964, went to work for Joe McGlasson

at Wayfarer Yacht Corp. building

Islander sailboats, got married, “did

some sailing,” lived on a boat, got fed

up with the mass of humanity in greater

LA, moved to Oregon, and in 1977

Tooling and Techniques

from Schooner Creek

Text and photographs

by Dan Spurr

(except where noted)

YARD

PROFILE

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