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.