He found success in the United States becoming a prominent yacht designer who had a hand in an America's Cup victory in 1937.
Hendel came to the US in November 1928 with a visa and worked in New York City in the office of Theodore Wells, naval architect.
In 1936, Harold Stirling Vanderbilt engaged the Bath Iron Works to build the America's Cup Defender Ranger, the greatest of all J-class yachts.
Post World War II, Hendel established his own independent design firm in 1945 in Camden, Maine.
He gained fame as a naval architect both in the United States and Europe for his many innovative designs of luxury yachts, fishing vessels, tugboats, launches, and sailboats.