The greatest sailor you’ve never heard of
– Part I Yachting historian Clare McComb revisits the life and times and the extraordinarily wide-ranging achievements of Sir William Parker Burton
He was one of the greatest British yachts- men in our history, whose stellar racing career spanned over half a century. Sir William Parker Burton, who died in 1942, left the yachting world forever changed by his utter commitment to the sport itself, and the national and international organi- sations that underpin it. He was not just a legislator and driver of innovations, but the most brilliant Corinthian helmsman of his age. His obituary stated that he had owned and built more racers than any yachtsman of that time. When today’s sailors often forget to
look backwards, or consider it wasted effort to do so, he stands out as worthy of challenging for their attention. Without Burton more than a few of the institutions, competitions and traditions they engage with today might never have existed. He is that important, to all of us. The beginnings of his story were small
scale. In the 1890s William Burton owned a series of minor racers and cruiser-racers, but even then he was dreaming up innova- tions and thinking way outside conven- tional boxes in yachting design. One such project was his ‘half-rater’, built entirely of aluminium, which eventually disintegrated in the salt water: the story goes that he carried some of the pieces home in a brown paper parcel. But now he had caught the racing bug,
and in 1897 finally entered the ‘keenest class’, competing around the coast in his 52-footer, Penitent, designed by Arthur Payne of Southampton. From this point on his boats were noticed for what he achieved with them, rather than how many he owned. In an article written 10 years later, for
the very first edition of Yachting Monthly magazine, Burton himself described how the iconic 52-footer class fascinated owners and public alike, because it attracted many clever designers and created such highly competitive racing. Opponents and boats were so finely matched that, as Burton put it, ‘every minute is a second, and every error of judgment a chance lost’. That first season with Penitent was an
indication of things to come: he fitted her out in a week, gathered a scratch crew and set off for Cowes where he beat Lord Dunraven’s crack racer, Audrey. By the
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end of the year they had achieved 12 firsts out of 16 starts and Burton was truly hooked. And as a true Corinthian, with his hand always on the helm, these victories were really his alone. Over the next decade his reputation grew exponentially as his boats headed the results lists. By this time Alfred Mylne’s beautiful
designs had begun to make their mark: Forsa caught Burton’s eye within the 52- footers, for even though she had carried away spars and gear of every description in her first year, he realised she had not been sailed with the skill she deserved. At another point William Fife’s Senga was Burton and Penitent’s most serious rival. He was always thinking about the best designer for his next boat, and learning everything he could about how to win. His friend HW Ridsdale acted as a tacti-
cian at many regattas, second-guessing the moves of opponents and shouting informa- tion Burton could exploit. Always it was 100 per cent competing to win, despite their proud amateur status. They always used fair means not foul, but homed in instantly on any equipment or tactic that
was reasonable… and within the rules. Even in these early days Burton sup-
ported emerging yachting talent and inno- vation, and was frequently found proudly defying the popular trend… as when he presented a Cup for Mylne’s new and very unpopular South Coast One Design Class in 1903, when it was being shunned by many others. Although a man of business rather than
science, Burton was one of those Edwar- dians who today would be engineers or architects; his grasp of the technical equalled that of the designers of his next 52-footers – Payne, Fife and eventually Forsa’s Alfred Mylne. Of course there were disappointments along the way: when he ordered the 52-footer Lucida from Fife in 1902, specifically to challenge that same designer’s innovative and successful Mag- dalen, it was gut-wrenching to discover his opponent was not to be fitted out the following season, and the contest between the two boats would never take place. Finally, in 1905, Burton turned to Mylne
who produced for him the magnificent Britomart, which dominated her class for
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