Glory Days

In celebration of 70 years of Y&Y DAVID HENSHALL looks at how dinghy design development since the Victorian era played a huge part in making sailing more accessible

As we say Happy 70th Birthday to Yachts & Yachting it is a great opportunity to look back at the sport of dinghy sailing all those years ago. But it is impossible to look at the boats that were being sailed back then without looking at the social context of an activity that was about to explode in popularity.

The narrative starts during the late Victorian era, when there was a great deal of coverage in the newspapers of the antics of the ‘big boats’, 120ft+ long, with their crew of 80 and, often, colourful owners. It was hardly a surprise that this activity should trickle down into the new middle class, who would take to the water with alacrity, resulting in local classes, such as the Salcombe Yawl, that is with us still, springing up all around our coasts.

Inland, the Thames around London was the hotspot of small boat racing and around the start of the century, boats like the Thames Raters would give a strong indication of how the sport was developing. As social mobility increased, small boats became ever more accessible and in 1912, the BRA1 was launched (BRA: Boat Racing Association – a grandfather to the RYA). This was the boat that would go on to become the International 12, giving us a foretaste of the boats that would follow. There was then a four year break in dinghy development as men and materials were all focused on the war effort, but with the coming of peace, 1919 would see the start of a momentous time for dinghy sailing. The UK scene was showing a clear intention to go its own way, with the bringing together of a number of similar, but disparate, 14ft designs into what would become, firstly, the National, then in 1927, the International 14.