Howard I. Chapelle (1901-1975) spent his childhood around the harbor of New Haven, Connecticut, where he sailed a traditional New Haven Sharpie and began his career.   As a young man he worked for the best boat and yacht designers of the time and moved on to become a widely esteemed designer and professional naval architect.   Chapelle traveled extensively, working and studying abroad, first to England's National Maritime Museum, then to Turkey to study their fisheries and vessels for the United Nations, and later working within the New Maritime Museum in Singapore.  In the United States he was appointed curator of the Museum of Transportation at the Smithsonian Institution and was for many years senior historian there.  During his career he authored an array of classic books on American small crafts, yacht designing, maritime history and traditional wooden vessels.  They include Yacht Designing and Planning, The Search for Speed Under Sail, American Small Sailing Craft and The American Fishing Schooners.