They rewrote the rulebook


Illingworth & Primrose – a yacht design house bestriding the ocean-racing world alongside and equal in influence to Sparkman & Stephens in the early years of the breakthrough period for ocean racing and yacht design that has led us to where we are today… in the age of flying foilers. Julian Everitt is let loose on one of his favourite topics


Ocean racing is a relative newcomer to the world of racing yachts, of mixed sizes, against one another. True, the Bermuda Race was started in 1906 by the then editor of Rudder Magazine, who believed that a yacht didn’t need to be over 80ft long to be safe at sea. The concept of a race across the open ocean to Bermuda from mainland America proved to be immedi- ately popular, but it wasn’t until 1925 that the second classic ocean race was born in the form of the Fastnet. Sadly yet another world war had then to take place before


40 SEAHORSE


the third offshore classic – the Sydney to Hobart Race – was born in 1945. This, the third of the 600-plus mile


offshore classics that, to this day, represent the pinnacle of our sport, was created by Captain John Illingworth to promote the idea of ocean racing in the southern hemi- sphere. Illingworth, who by the beginning of the war was already no stranger to the joys and satisfaction to be had from racing yachts offshore, naturally enough won the inau- gural race to Hobart in the relatively tiny 35ft, light-displacement, double-ended Rani. But while these were formative ‘classic’


events in the popularisation of ocean racing, it was the designer and owner-led period of innovation that started in the late 1950s, and in its unique way carries on to this day, that really helped cement the concept of the offshore racing yacht. At the forefront of this design innova-


tion was Illingworth. Already an owner and participator in ocean racing from before the Second World War, Illingworth became a massive influencer in yacht design long before he set up his own design practice with Angus Primrose in 1958. Arguably one of the most successful,


influential and radical ocean-racing yachts of all time, Myth of Malham came directly


from the mind of John Illingworth. While accredited to Jack Laurent Giles as designer, Mythwould become a textbook example of an owner-led brief helping to invent a whole new concept of ocean-racing yacht. She was as different, in her day, from her peers as it was possible to be. Illingworth applied him- self to the ‘science’ of creating a winning offshore yacht from the outset. In 1937 John Illingworth commissioned


the design firm of Laurent Giles, led by Jack Giles, to draw an ocean racer that would become Maid of Malham. On the face of it she was a pure Giles design, but Illingworth influenced the rig design – completely redesigning it again in 1958 – the detailing of the deck and interior and the construction. These were factors that he believed were key to improving the performance of an offshore yacht. He also brought a new level of discipline


to navigation, crew selection, strategy – indeed the entire mindset on how to get a racing yacht around an offshore race- course in a winning manner. He was to write a book on the subject


simply called Offshore. The book was, and still is to this day, a bible for both yacht design and how to manage the ‘art’ of successful ocean racing. Between the covers


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