Vigilant – Uffa’s game changing keelboat design

Important boat for sale after owner dies
Uffa 50 celebrations in Cowes
Coweslip returns to the Isle of Wight

by Lynne East

As the 37th America’s Cup campaign gains momentum, we are reminded of the legacy of the classic boat designers by August’s celebration of Uffa Fox, a man  ranked among the greatest of  naval architects. The event has been a once in a lifetime opportunity for current owners of Uffa Fox related designs of dinghies, keelboats and yachts boats to meet in Cowes and compete and enjoy watching  the European championships of the Flying Fifteens, perhaps Uffa’s most successful dinghy design.

The line-up of eligible boats is impressive and includes Firefly, National 12, International 14, Redwing dinghy, Pegasus, Albacore, Jollyboat, National 18, Flying 10, Flying Fifteen, Foxcub 18, Harrier 20, Flying Fox, Foxterrier 22, Foxhound 24 and Atalanta.

Every boat involved is surely a classic in its own right and is loved and sailed with a passion but perhaps one of the most emotive sights in Cowes was the 22 Square Metre Class Vigilant.

Lying on the hard at Cowes Yacht Haven, Vigilant is for sale in unhappy circumstances, her last owner, Yarmouth-based surgeon Phil Thomas, having died suddenly. He had just completed a comprehensive restoration project at Elephant Yard. Vigilant is race ready, and in need only of her next passionate owner.

She was built to the Royal Swedish Yacht Club’s 22 Square Metre rule, adopted in 1908, which specifies the sail are and leaves hull design to the imagination, and skill, of the designer. Such a rule could almost have been written for Uffa Fox, and he surely rose to the challenge.

Vigilant is the only competitive 22 Square Metre racer, also known as a Skerry, to have been built in the UK. Her maiden voyage in the summer of 1930 was from The Isle of Wight to Trosa in Sweden to take part in the Skerry Cruiser Championships there. That round trip was no mean undertaking by Uffa in a boat barely bigger than a Dragon: Vigilant has a gross displacement of just 2 tons, length overall of 10.51, waterline length of 7.77m and a beam of 1.93m.

The stormy return trip from Trosa also established Uffa as a pioneer of offshore racing. While he is best known as the father of planning dinghies, Vigilant had been for him an early venture into keelboat design. In the storms he found that that the stretched bow and stern made her ideal for rough coastal waters. This broke with traditional thinking that only heavy, wide and high-sided boats were open seaworthy. So, his 22 Square Metre design opened up a new chapter in the history of sailing.  Seen in hindsight the advance of lighter, planing ocean-going yachts seems inevitable.

We look forward to seeing Vigilant under new ownership and on the water again soon.

UF50 Celebration

18 – 21 August 2022, Cowes, Isle of Wight

You can find further details at www.UF50.org

For further information about the sailing regatta, please contact the Organising Authority the Royal London Yacht Club  at the address below:

Kate Palfrey, RLYC Sailing Secretary:  sailing@rlyc.org.uk

• Flying Fifteen boat Coweslip returns to its original home in Commodores House on Cowes waterfront for the UF50 for a few days
• The boat – owned by His Royal Highness The Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh – is being lent by Her Majesty The Queen from The Royal Collection

In her heyday she was probably one of the most photographed boats in the world writes John Roberson, though good looking as she is, it was her skipper who was the centre of attention. Coweslip, the Flying Fifteen owned by His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, was sailed regularly in Cowes Week by The Prince and Uffa Fox

Coweslip is to return to her original home, Commodores House on the Cowes waterfront, for a few days in August during the Uffa Fox 50 Celebration regatta organised by the Royal London Yacht Club. Coweslip is being lent by Her Majesty The Queen from the Royal Collection. The loan has been arranged with the Classic Boat Museum and the current owner of Commodores House, John Terry, who is making the dock available.

Coweslip is Flying Fifteen number 192, and was a wedding present from the people of Cowes to the then Princess Elizabeth and Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, RN.  The class is one of Uffa’s most enduring and internationally sailed designs, with over 4,000 having been built, and new boats being launched every year.

Coweslip was first sailed by her royal owner in the Grand Harbour, Malta, following her delivery there in December 1949 on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier HMS Glory. Prince Philip was stationed with the Royal Navy at Malta between 1949 and 1951. Coweslip subsequently sailed regularly in Cowes Week from 1951.

She was also used frequently when both Prince Charles and Princess Anne were growing up and learning to sail, during holidays in Scotland as well as in the Solent.  With her bulb keel being simple to detach, at 20 ft. Coweslip was just small enough to be transported on the roof of Uffa’s big Packard car, and Uffa took her to several regattas around the coast to race her successfully on The Prince’s behalf.

The Royal Collection

The Royal Collections is among the largest and most important art collections in the world, and one of the last great European royal collections to remain intact. It comprises almost all aspects of the fine and decorative arts, and is spread among some 15 royal residences and former residences across the UK, most of which are regularly open to the public. The Royal Collection is held in trust by the Sovereign for her successors and the nation, and is not owned by The Queen as a private individual.