Impeccably researched and colorfully told, The Vencedor is a fascinating account of not just a racing sailboat storied for its exploits and victories, but of the man who built it—a young old Danish-American naval engineer, Thorvald S. Poekel. Vencedor would distinguish itself in a series of highly completive races between the United States and Canada on what was called “the great unsalted sea” – the Great Lakes. Vencedor, a63-foot cutter, was built in Wisconsin by the Racine Boat Manufacturing Company, which had hired Poekel away from the renowned Herreshoff Manufacturing Company of Bristol, Rhode Island, where he had been chief draftsman. In this magnetic and revealing account of a bygone era and the heated competition lies subtext of a question the author,Thorvald Poekel’s great-grandson, has long wondered about. During his tenure with Herreshoff, the company made some of the fastest and most famous yachts in the world. Although Herreshoff signed almost all plans, the name of T. S. Poekel appears on several. The Chicago Tribune and newspapers in Racine reported that Mr. Poekel had been the real designer of the Defender, Niagara, and Vigilant. Vencedor examines the question: Did he or didn’t he?
