Opposite: Captain John Illingworth (in cap) and the crew of his little 35-foot double-ender Rani on 2 January 1946 after winning the first Sydney Hobart. Having persuaded the CYC to turn their planned cruise to Tasmania into a race, Illingworth then needed to find a boat, purchasing Rani from under the nose of her original owner who was trying to buy her back. The legendary Myth of Malham (left) was drawn by Laurent Giles but Illingworth was the driving force in her design. Launched in 1947, she won the next two Fastnet Races and was still competitive in 1957, competing as part of that year’s winning British Admiral’s Cup team. Some of Myth’s key features – light displacement, narrow beam and a low centre of gravity – were also being similarly explored at the time by EG Van de Stadt. Myth also raised the bar in aggressively exploiting the rating system of the day. Top: Angus Primrose – one half of a short lived but hugely influential design team
of this bestseller are words of experience on just about everything that contributes towards a winning offshore campaign. Inspiration and advice, in equal measure, that have benefited many aspiring owners, crews, boatbuilders and designers – myself included. Not only was John Illingworth an inspiration for my early work, but I was honoured to have him review my first published design. The combination of light displacement,
narrowish beam, symmetrical waterlines, low centre of gravity keel, topped off with a high-aspect ratio cutter rig and a very keen eye on exploiting the rating rule of the day – all were attributes honed to per- fection by Illingworth in his brief to Jack Giles for Myth of Malham when she was commissioned in 1947. The same attrib- utes that later became the trademarks of the Illingworth & Primrose partnership. Myth won the Fastnet Race in her first
season and again in 1949. She continued to be a dominant force in ocean racing for many years including being part of the winning UK team in the 1957 Admiral’s Cup. By heavily influencing the design of Myth,
idiosyncrasies of whatever rating rule applied. Olin Stephens had had the same philosophy when drawing Dorade in the 1930s. A fast, well-built boat wasn’t the only thing you had to have. A good rating was vital too. When Giles first drew Myth of Malham
she had long overhangs typical of the period, but Illingworth spotted the rating gains to be had by chopping off the ends at the bow and stern. Jack Giles was not happy to have his graceful design doctored in such a way. He was equally unim- pressed by Illingworth’s assertion that a straight sheer with more freeboard amid- ships would not only rate better, but would be structurally stiffer as well. Giles’s distaste for his client’s influence
Illingworth demonstrated very
effectively that an offshore racing yacht should be fully optimised around the
was probably best expressed in the Illing- worth-inspired high-aspect ratio cutter rig. With a mast set virtually amidships, Giles described the tall narrow mainsail as being no more than a flag flying off the back of the mast. These Myth influences would go on to become the signatures of the Illing- worth & Primrose design practice, when it was formed in 1958. So, convinced of the potential seaworthi-
ness and the value for future development of the offshore racing of small boats, John
Illingworth became a key figure in the birth of the Junior Offshore Group – a new organisation expressly developed in 1950 for offshore-capable yachts that were excluded by the Royal Ocean Racing Club if they were shorter than 24ft on the waterline. JOG was set up based upon a maxi-
mum-length waterline of 24ft and a mini- mum of 16ft. The boats would race, how- ever, under the RORC rating rule (later the IOR). This was an influence that would spread right around the world. Illingworth with the 19.8ft waterline
Wista – a design by Aero Marine heavily influenced by Illingworth and with all the Myth of Malham attributes – won the 1954 JOG Championship. JOG was to further enhance the idea, first touched upon at the beginning of the 20th century with the Bermuda Race, that it was feasible to race safely offshore in ever smaller boats. JOG, with boats sometimes no more than 18ft, opened up offshore racing to budgets that were equally small. With significant effect in the years to
come, this style of Illingworth-inspired racing was to prove extremely successful in France, where John Illingworth himself was to become something of a national hero and highly popular yacht designer.
SEAHORSE 41
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