Raised in Troy New York, with family Summer holidays in Sakonnet, Rhode Island. John Alden began his quest for the sea, having once sailed the family yacht, a 21′ knockabout sloop, all the way from Troy to Sakonnet alone 300 plus or minus miles. His family later in 1900 moved to Dorchester, MA, due to his fathers illness.
In 1902, to begin his career as a yacht designer, John apprenticed under Starling Burgess, and B. B. Crowninshield, prominent designers of there day.
By 1909, John G. Alden opened his design office, and for many years just got by. Through his seagoing small schooners, and with enormous success of his Malabar yachts, winning the Bermuda Race 3 times, his design office flourished. With over 900 yachts up to the 1950’s, including tugs, trawlers, fireboats, sloops, schooners, yawls, ketches etc…
Olin J. Stephens once wrote “From the time when I looked up to him from a dinghy in Edgartown Harbor until I was well along on my own career as a yacht designer, John Alden was to me, by turns, hero, teacher, friend, and competitor”
