World’s oldest one-design starts build
- Thu, 17 Feb 2011
- Steffan Meyric Hughes
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Work has started on building the world’s oldest one-design yacht
Work has started on recreating the world’s oldest one-design class yacht. Hubert Stagnol, the French boatbuilder with a yard based in Brittany, has already laid down the wood to build the first example of the class, which lacks a name, in 124 years.
The design was commissioned from GL Watson and Co by the Clyde Canoe and Lugsail Club and the first three were built in 1886, named Red, White and Blue. Three more were ordered the following year, but it’s thought no more were built after that time, and it’s also thought that none of the originals survives.
It is, according to GL Watson, holders of the design to this day, an opportunity “to allow 21st-century sailors to gain first-hand experience of the origins of one-design sailing”. The drawings reveal that the origins of one-design sailing are a 19ft 2in (5.9m) LOA yacht with a 1ft overhang at the transom, 6ft (1.8m) beam and a sail area of 313sqft (29.1m2). A transom-hung rudder, long bowsprit, lug rig and low cuddy cabin complete the look. The boat is being built for a mystery client.