The Purdy Boat Company of Port Washington was one of the most renowned makers of custom yachts and racing boats in the 1920s and 1930s. Their shop on Manhasset Bay was the birthplace of John Hay Whitney’s famous cruiser, “Aphrodite,” a series of champion caliber race boats, and more than 80 small craft for the U.S. Navy in WWII. An exhibit of photographs, artifacts, and ephemera from our Purdy Collection is now on display in the History Center Annex.

 

Photo: Aphrodite cruising across open waters soon after her completion, 1937.