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"View Slideshow\n\nWhat do you call a 65-foot schooner? \"I call her a boat,\" says the owner. \"I call her a yacht,\" says Nat Benjamin, who designed and built her. Whatever word you use, Juno is as sleek as a seal\u2014and every bit as seaworthy. \"You can pick out Nat's boats just by looking at them at anchor,\" notes architect Peter Shelton, who, with his partner, Lee F. Mindel, tailored Juno's deck and cabin spaces. \"They have purposeful proportions and a beautiful way of sitting in the water. More than most other boats, they look as if they belong there.\"\n\nThat's what a Manhattan couple thought as well. Part-time residents of Martha's Vineyard, they admired the traditional wooden craft\u2014from rowboats to schooners\u2014that Benjamin and his partner, Ross Gannon, launch from the Gannon &amp;amp; Benjamin Marine Railway, their boatyard on the island. Benjamin does the designing, and the two collaborate on construction; both are \"purists who build the old-fashioned way,\" says the wife.\n\nFor more than 40 years, most vessels Juno's size have been built the new-fashioned way, out of fiberglass or metal, and wood boats seemed headed for extinction. Now thanks to Gannon, Benjamin, and a handful of other like-minded traditionalists, construction out of wood\u2014the material used in everything from Greek rowing craft to Yankee clippers\u2014is returning to favor.\n\nThe husband grew up on Long Island and started sailing early. For his 40th birthday he decided to give himself a boat\u2014or yacht, if you prefer\u2014and talked to the bearded men who run the G&amp;amp;B yard. \"Designing a boat is like designing a house,\" Benjamin says. \"You discuss what your needs are and where you want to go. And you make comparisons with other vessels.\" Benjamin is partial to schooners, boats that are easy to handle and that have at least two masts, and an easy-to-handle craft seemed just the thing for a couple with two children, a boy and a girl now in their mid-teens.\n\nSince the family planned to sail across the Atlantic\u2014and, someday, around the world\u2014Benjamin designed the 95,000-pound Juno to be sturdy enough to stand up to roiling seas. The lumber came mostly from Suriname, while the bronze fittings were made in Somerville, Massachusetts. Though Juno has radar and a satellite navigational system, she lacks what Benjamin calls \"a lot of high-tech gizmos,\" such as electric winches and complicated air-conditioning systems, that keep many other yachts tied up in the marina waiting for repairs. \"There's not a bit of excess in the making of this work of art,\" Mindel says. \"When you are on a boat like this you realize how little you need to feel safe and secure.\"\n\nAn elegant yacht should have equally elegant spaces belowdecks, and for that the couple relied on Shelton and Mindel, who had designed several of their homes. \"The boatmakers deserve most of the credit,\" Mindel remarks. \"We were there to glue together all the parts and keep her as beautifully useful as possible.\" The architects helped determine how the cabin spaces should be used\u2014there are four sleeping areas\u2014and how they should look. Since silver Bali and angelique woods have a reddish hue, the designers balanced the spaces with sage-green, a color that extends to everything from towels to drinking glasses. \"The green neutralizes the richness of the wood to create a more even experience,\" Mindel explains, \"one that's restful in close quarters.\"\n\nDon't be fooled by Juno's refined air. She has already won a streak of races in the Caribbean. \"Boats are always female,\" says the husband. \"Each has her own personality.\" What is Juno's? Steady, but not stodgy, and ready to test her mettle on the starting line.\n\nClick here to view this stylish schooner."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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