More 14 History For Sale; 1955

It's not just recently that the Kiwi's, in sailing competitions, have been coming out of left field and waxing everybody. The America's Cup, in modern times, is the prime example of Kiwi skill and ingenuity, but they did it in International 14's back in 1958. With no local fleet to speak of, Kiwi's Geoff Smale and Ralph Roberts showed up in England with a locally built version of the Farrar Windsprite design, and then proceeded to win the POW cup with devastating heavy air speed. Geoff cut his own sails and also decided the English were wrong and had moved the whole rig 8 inches back on his International 14.

Amazingly, just in the last week, the sistership to Geoff Smale's "Atua Hau" (Maori "Te Atua Hau-Ora: God of Nature) has shown up on the Internet for sale. Unfortunately, offered in New Zealand or I'm sure someone in the Northern Hemisphere would jump on this offering.

Pictures I lifted from the ad (the sail number K 646 is correct, according to Tom Vaughn's 14 history bible, numbers K 641 through K 646 were assigned to New Zealand):

From Carbon, Back to Hot Molded Wood

2011 U.S National Champ, Paul Galvez, (in the modern hi-tech International 14's) shot an email over to "Old 14er Central" about his surprising latest International 14 purchase.

"We just recently purchased a Douglas One Design, USA 360 built in '49. It's in surprisingly good shape and we intend to complete a restoration of her true to her era. If you have any info about this particular boat, please let me know. Any info about the Douglas One Design including photos of rigging and deck layout would be much appreciated. We are also consulting with our west coast elders for any info to make sure the restoration is accurate."

 Paul didn't detail who the "We" was in the team behind this purchase. I checked the records and US 360 isn't listed. The date of 1949 looks correct though (I have records on US 332 and US 390 as both being built in 1949). It does look like there is, on the West Coast, a considerable amount of restoration on International 14's that were built just post WW II. Perhaps a vintage gathering down the road?

Paul, two wire blasting in his modern International 14.................

US 360.... looks from the photo that Paul picked up a complete vintage 14 thats ready to go......

Two other pics of Roger Welsh and his Schock Kirby 3

Two other pictures of Roger Welsh and the Schock Kirby 3. The assumption is #835 was the first Kirby 3 out of Schock's molds.

The first one is the ad for 1968 Nationals held at Alamitos Bay, which Roger won. This is from the July 1968 issue of OTP.

The second one looks to be from the ocean course off Alamitos Bay. I'm not sure if this was from the 68 Nationals. This is from October 1968 issue of OTP.

Schock did build a Kirby 14!

The "Old 14er" blogger has to eat a little bit of crow here. See, I told Doc a couple of posts ago that I didn't think that Schock built any Kirby designs, since most of the Schock numbers were in the late 600 range. Well a couple of days ago, Mark Adams emailed me four Schock advertising pictures of, you guessed it, a Kirby Mk 3 model that Schock built. The pictures are of #835, "White Tornado", owned by Roger Welsh, the top California 14 sailor of the late 1960's. He won both the 1968 West Coast Championships and the U.S Nationals in #835.

A little research turns this up from the October 1968 issue of "On The Plane". Stuart Walker writes;

"With the advent of the new Schock Kirby III, which is being pushed successfully by the local fleet, the builder and agents up and down the coast, the continued availability  of the excellent Proctor VI and a new Kirby II in glass, several copies of which are being moulded by Bud Easter, the class will thrive in the West for years to come."

In one of the pics below, Roger is using the mainsail from his previous 14, #607, a Fairy Marine Mk ? built in 1958. (As always, click inside one of the pictures to start a slideshow.)

I don't think Schock built too many of the Kirby III's because the next year, Clark Boatbuilders of Seattle came out with the glass Kirby IV, a design that would prove competitive into the 1980's.

International 14 team from long ago get back together

Dr. Stuart Walker and his old International 14 crew, St. John Martin, got back together this Jan 1 2012, racing Stuart's Soling in the Severn Sailing Association's Ice Bowl.

Earwigoagin has the story over here.

Bob Reeves bombing around under spinnaker

Most of what I have in the photo archives are of the Annapolis International 14 fleet, understandably, since I live in Annapolis and sailed with the Annapolis fleet. Bob Reeves, with wife Peggy as crew, was one of the top Annapolis 14 sailors from the mid 60's through the 70's. Here is a series of photos of Bob and Peggy sailing their Kirby IV under spinnaker (I'm guessing early 1970's as it looks like Peggy is wearing a trapeze harness). Photos taken by Ellie Martin. (Click in the photo to get a larger format and to start a slideshow.)

Bob and Peggy perfectly in control.

Bob and Peggy perfectly in control.

Oops! Bob and Peggy not in control.

Old 14'er "Doc" posts on his blog

Another blogger, "Doc Haagen-Dazs" has an interesting post up on his blog about his time in a glass Schock, number 683, International 14.

I don't have records of #683 but #685 was built by Schock in 1961. I don't think Schock's hulls at that time were Kirby's but instead one of Uffa's Mk's.

1981 Team Race Party

This blog is, I admit it, all about nostalgia. Indulge the blogger on this one as he posts a video of the party for the 1981 International 14 Team Races. The party was held at the Robert Crown Sailing Center, US Naval Academy, Annapolis Maryland and features the sailors from the English, Canadian and the U.S East and West Coasts.

Northwyn Sails Ads

During the 1970's, Northwyn Sails out of Seattle was the supplier to the hot shot West Coast fleet. Their head sail designer, Mark Schmidt, wrote an interesting article on International 14 sail development for the North American sailing rag, One Design and Offshore Yachtsman magazine. Northwyn Sails were also kind enough to put some ads into "Planing On", the class newsletter, which featured some good photographs of 14's.

The first is an International 14 start, this may have been at the CORK regatta, Kingston Ontario.......

The second photo is, I think, of Baird Bardason screaming along on a two sail reach.......