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The renowned design firm Sparkman & Stephens has mined its storied past for the creation of a modern classic cruising yacht, now under construction at Maine's Brooklin Boat Yard. The 56-foot, cold-molded Anna borrows generously from one of S & S's most famous and beloved designs, Stormy Weather, which sprang from the boards of the company in the mid-1930s under the watchful eye of S & S co-founder Olin J. Stephens II.

"With some notable exceptions, Anna is a scaled-up version of Stormy Weather," says S & S chief naval architect Greg Matzat. "We've maintained most of the aesthetic elements of the older boat-her sheerline, her tumblehome, the shape of her house, the configuration of her cockpit, her overhangs and transom-and placed them on a modern, efficient underbody."

In her day, Stormy Weather represented the latest thinking in racing yacht technology. In 1935, a year after her launch, she won both the transatlantic race and the Fastnet with Olin's brother Rod at the helm. She was an evolution of Stephens's seminal Dorade. Stephens has identified Stormy Weather as one of his favorite designs.

Anna's owner wanted a modern yacht with contemporary sailing characteristics, but one with the aesthetics of a classic. She represents the latest thinking in sailing yacht technology. Her hull is a cold-molded combination of mahogany, western red cedar and Port Orford cedar. She utilizes West System epoxy in her construction, which minimizes weight while maintaining the look and feel of a wood boat. Unlike Stormy Weather's wine-glass-shaped hull, which has a full keel and attached rudder, Anna has a slightly V'd canoe body with a fin keel and bulb and a carbon spade rudder. Matzat says her hull shape will make her exceptionally seakindly offshore and will provide excellent sailing performance. The V'd hull also integrates aesthetically with her classic lines above the water and helps maximize headroom, while keeping the freeboard low. For improved performance, Anna will be rigged as a sloop rather than a yawl. Her mast will be carbon fiber, painted a cream color. She will have rod-standing rigging.

Like Stormy Weather, Anna will be steered by a tiller - unusual for a yacht her size, but true to the spirit of her predecessor. She will retain numerous deck details of her famous predecessor large and small, including the style of her Dorade vents, her mainsheet foundations, her winch bases and her unusual off-center, mid-ship second companionway. In order to not spoil her classic look, her anchor hides below decks on a retractable arm.

Anna's interior, styled by Martha Fay Coolidge of Round Pound, Maine, will be finished in raised and fielded panels painted white above counter height with varnished mahogany below. Her cabin sole will be wide-plank cedar and her overheads will be exposed varnished beams. Stormy Weather has crew quarters forward, but Anna will use some of that space for her extensive inventory of Doyle racing and cruising sails. S & S also moved the galley aft to make it more conducive to socializing and more convenient to the cockpit.

She will accommodate four people with additional pilot and transom berths, both port and starboard, for a total of eight. Since she generally will be crewed by a couple, sail handling, maneuvering, and anchoring systems have been designed for simplicity, reliability and ease of use. As was the case with Stormy Weather, she will bypass some modern amenities such as air conditioning and generator, but she will be equipped with and engine-driven watermaker and a fully integrated Raymarine electronics package.

Construction on Anna commenced in July at Brooklin Boat Yard. She is due for delivery to her owner in the summer of 2007. He plans to cruise her extensively and compete on the classic-yacht circuit in the U.S. and abroad in the Spirit of Tradition class.

Located on New York's Fifth Avenue, S & S was established in 1929 to engage in the practice of naval architecture and to conduct the business of yacht brokerage, charter and insurance. The company's founders, then-21-year-old yacht designer Olin J. Stephens II and yacht broker Drake Sparkman are towering names in the yachting industry. S & S remains one of the most enduring and venerated brands in yachting having delivered more than 2,700 commercial, military and pleasure craft designs throughout its storied history. Some of the company's best-known sailing yacht designs include Dorade, Stormy Weather, Finisterre, Running Tide, Bolero and Tenacious. It has also been heavily involved in the America's Cup, having designed successful defenders Ranger, Columbia, Intrepid, Courageous and Freedom. Notable recent S & S designs include the Grand Banks 44 and 59, the Morris M36 and M42 and the 112-foot sloop Zingaro.