Rare 14's up for auction in the U.K.

Mike Scott sends along this link to a bevy of rare English 14's being auctioned off this June. A bunch of late 1920's, 1930's Uffa bones 14's in this collection

A list from the announcement:

1. Clover - K232 Morgan Giles Teak. Stewart Morris's 21st birthday present.
2. Alarm - K347 Very famous boat raced by Stewart Morris.
3. Encore - K847 Kirby 2. Stewart Morris last boat. Has been modernized. Very good condition.
4. Lightning - K290 John Winter's boat.
5. Taiyara - K396 This boat is in First class order
6. Corona - K374 Steep rise of floor. Very good river boat. Pretty good condition.
7. Imp - K170 Very early International 14 which is very similar to Uffa Fox's own Avenger. Imp has been restored to a very high standard by Colin Henwood.

1927 Long Island International 14's

I asked Stuart Walker what attracted him to the International 14 class in the first place. He replied that, when cruising with his Dad in his Q-boat, pre WWII, he remembered the beautiful varnished 14 fleet on the dinghy docks of Larchmont Y.C.. According to Stuart, the 14's were club boats, members could call ahead and the 14 would be rigged and sitting in the water when they arrived for a small boat sail.

This was news to me as there was no Larchmont fleet in the 1960's. It turns out, after some research, that northern Long Island shore imported four International 14's from England in 1927, the first of the English type, long before George Ford and the Rochester crowd in 1935 brought over the Uffa Fox R.I.P. Yachting magazine in 1927 mentions four Morgan Giles designs being brought over. William Atkins mentions that in 1928, the Huntington Y.C. on the north shore of Long Island had two English 14's, a Morgan Giles design and an Uffa Fox design. This is an interesting piece of 14 history and ties in with the famous 1933 Seawanhaka Y.C. team races that brought over a team of English 14's and started the International 14 class in North America.

Some pictures from the 1927 issues of Yachting magazine: