Left: the Reichel/Pugh 66 Exile was a successful early collaboration between the San Diego designers and McConaghy Boats who launched her in 1994. The loosely IMS/IRC-oriented design also featured enough sled genes to make her particularly fast downwind. For many years Exile was a regular top performer in the ocean-racing classics, still winning Bermuda Race trophies as recently as 2014 when in her 21st season. The bright green yacht was a good example of Reichel/Pugh’s evolving bias to good-looking fast yachts not overly encumbered with rating tricks. That said, Reichel/Pugh designs did win the three last IOR 50 World Cups on the trot from 1990 to 1992. Sidewinder (above) was one of the first R/P designs to race the Admiral’s Cup, as a member of the USA team in 1987
have promised an automatic DSQ for anyone attempting a similar stunt… The carbon-built Secret Lovewent on to
the east coast for the usual pattern of winter racing – SORC and Bermuda Race – then went further to sail across the Atlantic to compete as a member of the 1984 US Sardinia Cup team, with this author the young nipper onboard for the summer. At about this same time, under their new
Reichel/Pugh brand, a couple of owners from the Bay area hired John and Jim to draw their own custom projects in the 40-45ft range. Randy Short commissioned them first for his 43ft Sidewinder, whose success in California led to having them three years later draw a larger 45ft Sidewinder which would go on to join the 1987 US Admiral’s Cup team. This second Sidewinder has an interest-
ing history: it started as a 42ft design intended to be a serious campaigner for the Admiral’s Cup, but then it became clear that a 45-footer would better round out a competitive team who at that time also needed a good One Tonner on the squad. So the 42ft hull and deck built by Esprit Yachts sat around until picked up years later by southern Californian Don Hughes, who finished it, christened her Quintes- sence, and went on to dominate SoCal big boat racing in the late 1980s with help from Dave Ullman in Newport Beach.
Another successful design of this era
from the young Reichel/Pugh team was for another Bay Area customer, Bill Twist – his 1985 OB Boatworks-built Blade Runner was pivotal for the still relatively new design partnership, not just for its racing successes, adding to a growing list of results, but for a long and close relationship that developed over the years as the firm grew. Twist was briefly an early partner in the new design firm, while his daughter Summer worked in the office for many years for John and Jim, often as the vitally important glue that kept an ambitious young team on track. Sidewinder, Quintessence, Blade Runner
and others were among several mid-1980s Reichel/Pugh designs commissioned for the IOR rule, yet these boats were distinctly different. They were all well-built, but in particular they looked fast, lacking the strange deformities in hull shape typical of other IOR designs of that period that were at odds with the aesthetics of what a fast boat traditionally should look like – regardless of rating. This helped make the Reichel/Pugh boats consistently successful even with annual adjustments in the rating rules. It also started a reputation for partic- ularly attractive yachts that would serve the office well right through to supermaxis and on to today’s superyachts. ‘Our boats of that time were different,’
said Pugh. ‘They were generally a little lighter in displacement, had cleaner lines and were still fast. ‘Paying attention to ratings was impor-
tant, but aesthetics and attention to detail were of equal priority. We have tried to stick with this philosophy ever since.’ This philosophy, combined with success
in important regattas, started to get atten- tion overseas about this time as well, with Willi Illbruck commissioning a 43ft Pinta from Reichel/Pugh; there was also another 43-footer from Italy, Nitissima. This inter- national exposure – and success – laid the foundation for valuable new relationships with builders and engineers from outside the US. One of the most important of these for the future of Reichel/Pugh being with Giovanni Belgrano of SP Systems in Cowes. ‘We had a good symbiotic relationship
with Giovanni,’ said Pugh. ‘They helped us with the composites engineering at a time when the field was moving fast with new materials and systems. This really helped in making both the new designs and the redesign and refit work we were doing then meet and exceed our requirements to keep our boats strong and light.’ After Bill Lee’s 68-footer Merlin
shattered the Transpac course record in 1977 and opened everyone’s eyes to the possibilities of being fast, light and fun (not to mention first to finish), interest grew in a
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