but as far as I know, Vince designed all the boats except the Hood 40.
I worked in the design office for about 9 months, very low on the totem pole, but also went as Vince's crew on his own boat on a couple of trips from St. Pete to the Bahamas. He never mentioned any relationship with Hood beyond the 40.
Ted Hood did visit the yard once while I was there to go sailing on a Gulfstar 50 with his then brand-new Stoway in-mast mainsail furling system. In typical fashion, he said about three sentences the whole time he was aboard, but everyone took notes.
The Gulfstar 50 came out in about 1975. Bill Stevens saw it and, together with Charlie Carey of the Moorings, ordered a couple of blocks of 10 hulls to put into charter. That resulted in several design changes, especially to the interior. I don't recall any input from Ted Hood at all . . . unless it was direct to Vince. And like any good designer or marketer, Vince copied from the best.
Vince did design the boats . . . he was more than just marketing. He did have a wonderful designer/draftsman in the office who had worked at S&S for years, and I suspect he could have done some of the legwork of fairing lines, and he certainly made most of the working drawings.