The idea behind Grace, the first boat of Joel's and Bob Stephens's "Center Harbor" series, was to update L. Francis Herreshoff's Quiet Tune to improve her performance and make use of Brooklin Boat Yard's skill at cold-molded construction. She'd have the same short-ended hull with low freeboard and low trunk cabin, but her underbody would be very different. The ballast keel and rudder would be appendages—separate pieces from the hull itself. This configuration moves through the water with less resistance than the full keel/attached rudder underbody of Quiet Tune, and because the hollows are minimized, the shape better lends itself to cold-molding. Its the way most sailboats are designed these days, no matter what the hull material.

Owner Frank Henry requested a ketch rig similar to Quiet Tune, but after Joel made some stability studies he concluded that his new design could handle a good deal more sail area. Even Quiet Tune could have carried more sail, Joel figured, and inquiries about that boat's light weather performance bore this out. As it turned out, Grace was a little larger all around, being about two feet longer overall and a little wider as well. Her cockpit is deep (non-self-baling) with comfortable seating and Joel added some basic cruising accommodations. He also fitted a small diesel between the seats at the forward end of the cockpit.

Before Grace came to fruition, a second boat of the same type was ordered. She was to be a sloop instead of a ketch and given all the sail area she could handle. A deeper keel helped make this possible as did slightly greater bow and stern overhangs. She became Linda and was launched in company with Grace the very same June day. A number of onlookers agreed that this pair were the loveliest boats yet turned out by Brooklin Boat Yard.

More boats using the same concept followed, each slightly different, and all of them sloop-rigged. So far the favored color scheme has been green bottom and boottop, off-white topsides with a gilded covestripe, varnished toe rails and cabin sides, and tan decks and spars. The 35' sloop Kells is similar in concept, but is considered an entirely new design of Bob Stephens.

For the summer of 2000, Grace was fitted with a new, free-standing, carbon fiber-reinforced-wood mizzenmast to clear the cockpit of the original mast's standing rigging.