The Concordia yawl was designed in 1938 by the naval architect C. Raymond Hunt with input from Llewellyn and Waldo Howland, Clinton Crane, Fenwick Williams and Frank Paine.Earlier that year, the Colin Archer-designed Norwegian pilot cutter, Escape, belonging to Llewellyn Howland's family, was destroyed by the Great Hurricane of 1938. Howland subsequently commissioned the Concordia Company, which he had founded in 1926 and at the time was run by his son Waldo, to design and build a replacement. Howland wanted a sailboat that could be used for both cruising and racing and withstand the heavy wind and choppy waters of Buzzards Bay; thus the Concordia design number fourteen, a 39'10" yawl, was created.