U.S Builders of the 1930 Bones International 14's

My research has uncovered three U.S. builders of the Uffa Fox inspired "bones" International 14's prior to WWII.

Rochester Boat Works- Volney Lacey and his boat-building business, Rochester Boat Works, would build the first 11 R.I.P. copies, 6 in 1935, and 5 in 1936. Volney Lacey's boat yard was in close proximity to the Rochester Yacht Club, and since 1917 had been building fast runabouts, and providing a full service yard for the yachting elite of Rochester. He was a natural choice when George Ford went looking for a builder of R.I.P. copies. Volney took a look at the exquisite construction of the Uffa built R.I.P. and decided he couldn't duplicate it and also make any money from building these new-fangled 14-footers. He changed the spec, putting in larger ribs at a greater spacing, and eliminating the small seats of the Uffa 14's, adding the stiffness back in by building a wide gunwhale plank where the crew sat (he got around the rule by cutting 3/4" slots to make it an "open" boat). The Rochester Boat Work's R.I.P. copies were not considered fast. Norm Cole called them "crude" and they were most likely heavy. Volney Lacey would not make any more R.I.P. copies after 1936, citing an inability to make a profit even at the reduced spec. But George Ford had already located another builder.

A.C.E. Boat Works - Starting in 1937, the Rochester fleet would get their R.I.P. copies from an obscure boat-builder in Syracuse, New York. George Ford selected Albert F. Englert, who, with his brother Clarence, had been building small runabouts since 1930. Albert also had a good reputation for building fast Snipes. It is unclear how many R.I.P. copies Albert and his brother produced (some estimates are 12-18) but it appears he built them from 1937 - 1941. He also supplied hulls to Cape Cod Shipbuilding, most likely starting in late 1939. (Cape Cod Shipbuilding was advertising their International 14 for the 1940 New York Boat Show.) Norm Cole remembers they were built to the "R.I.P. spec" but were also very flexible. He relates that you could grab the forestay on an Englert 14, wiggle it back and forth, and watch the transom dance. The Englert R.I.P. 14's were down to weight (225 lbs) and fast enough, George Ford would pilot the first one, US 11 Venture to an unbeaten season among the Rochester fleet in 1938.

Gordon Douglass Boat Works - George Ford had recruited Sandy Douglass to the class in 1938 when some of the Rochester Y.C. 14 fleet attended the Put-In-Bay regatta. Sandy would shortly begin building "bones" 14's in his shop at Vermilion Ohio, the "Fishhouse"; building them to the full Uffa spec. Again it is unclear how many he made but it is probable he only built them for three years. He, like Volney Lacey, found the Uffa building method too time consuming to make any money. Sandy estimated that, to build one "bones" 14, to hammer the double planking to the ribs and then clench the nails, took 70,000 hammer blows! Sandy's "bones" 14's were considered stiff and down to weight.

It is highly likely, (though I haven't confirmed it by measuring his boats) that Sandy was building his "bones" 14 to Uffa's Alarm lines and not to the older R.I.P lines. (See the comment by Stephen Smith to this post.) Sandy was a very good friend of Uffa from their time competing in the sailing canoes. In 1935, the same year George Ford was trying to get the Americans going with the R.I.P design, Stewart Morris had appeared on the English scene with the faster Uffa Alarm. It wouldn't surprise me if Uffa happily provided Sandy with the lines to Alarm when Sandy let him know that he intended to build International 14's.

[ed. note - I don't have a copy of Sandy Douglass's book, "Sixty Years Before the Mast" though I did peruse it some time ago. Some of the questions may be answered in his book.]

Existing known 14's of each builder -

• Rochester Boat Works - US 5 Eddystone Light - Mystic Seaport Museum, CT.
• ACE Boat Works - US 79 Chit - Mariners Museum, VA.,  US 34 - Restored Lake Wanaksink, N.Y. - bought from Cape Cod Shipbuilding -
• Douglass Boat Works - US 112 - Mark Woodard, WA.

Existing bones 14's of unknown lineage -

• US 107 (or 104).
• 14 donated to Center for WoodenBoats.

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• More history of the 1930's here.
• July 27 2016 Update on US 104/107.

Bill McCutcheon

One of the ironies of the International 14 class in the 1970's and early 19870's was that, for one of the premier performance classes, beautiful varnished cold-molded hulls were still winning the major championships (by that time cored fiberglass had taken over the podiums in classes like the 505 and Flying Dutchman). These wooden 14's were all produced by a quiet craftsman, Bill McCutcheon, from the Isle of Wight in England who singlehandedly churned out dozens of race-winning 14's from the boards of Shelly, Souter, Kirby, Bullock, Rouse; all exquisitely molded from 3 layers of mahogany veneer, with gunwhales of contrasting wood, all pieces carefully hand shaped.

Before Christmas, I received this sad news from good friend Len Parker who was born and raised on the Isle of Wight (now lives in Florida):

From Jamie McCutcheon - "My father William (Bill) McCutcheon passed away peacefully aged 79 on the 11th November 2012 after battling cancer. He was a UK boat builder on the Isle of Wight and introduced the Cherub class dinghy to the UK building and racing the first UK Cherub in 1956. He built many many wooden dinghies Cherubs, International 14's and Moths being the mainstay both for the UK and overseas for over 20 years. He was a quiet man but so proud that a few of his boats he built are still around and being raced in the different classic class's today. "

Len has a good friend, Ray, a boat builder who still lives on the Isle of Wight and has these reminisces of Bil:

"I spoke with Ray about Bill McCutcheon earlier today. No photo's of Bill or his workshop. In fact until we gave him a few photo's of Moth's he'd built , he didn't have any pictures of any of his boat builds. He couldn't stop smiling when he got those photo's and he was thrilled to know that some of his boats are still being sailed.

"Ray remembers going to see Bill when he (Ray) was a young teenager and contemplating what to career to follow when he left school. He asked Bill if he could be his apprentice, but Bill told him that he was too busy to have an apprentice and didn't have the time to teach someone. Ray kept popping back to buy Moth building materials from Bill, who let him have them at a good price, but Bill still wouldn't take on an apprentice. Bill was renowned for gettin , and storing, the very best timber and ply etc from around the world for his boats. He'd often work well into the night in his workshop , with Tilley lamps lit. He always took the time to help Ray out with materials etc.

"Ray mentioned that as well as the I-14s , Cherubs and Shelley Moth's , Bill also built many other models of Moths for private clients, some of whom were top Moth sailers, others were rich wannabe's who had to have the latest go-fast model! Ray said Bill built a couple of Aussie scows, I think for Charlie Reeve(s) or "The Major".  Bill raced Cherubs himself. Not sure if he met his wife Jenny through sailing, but she did sail dinghies ... National 12's I think. Ray actually worked for the same company as Jenny, Westridge Construction for several years, she 'kept the books'.

"Moth's that were exported to the USA were often stacked on top of the local 'milk float' to get across the expensive Solent, as Bill had done a deal with his local milkie to help keep costs down.

"Bill told us that he did a lot of work for Uffa Fox on various boats , but he didn't care for him at all ... partly because he was a snob and partly because he never paid his bills!

"Amongst other boats, Bill also built the worlds first prototype RIBs for Avon, and in the very early days of the Weekender ? Laser, Bill was approached by Bruce Kirby to manufacture them for the UK, but Bill had to decline the offer mainly because he preferred wood over fibreglass, but also because he was so busy at the time. He laughed when he told us this, adding he'd probably have made more money if he had said yes !

 "In summary Ray said that he was a bloody nice bloke , and that his craftsmanship was second to none .... he still wished he'd been his apprentice though."

Tom Price, local Chesapeake Bay 14'er, who was one of the top dogs in Annapolis for many years in his McCutcheon built Souter-Casson design, Windrustler (this was an ex-Jeremy Pudney boat; Jeremy had a new McCutcheon 14 built every year, each one using the name Wind as a precursor) had these recollections of Bill and Bill's 14's:

"I remember when he surprised us all by stopping by SSA on his visit to the USA. A humble, quiet seeming boatbuilder, he was like a God to me and he was probably confused and amused by the enthusiasm and rather awed questions he was met with!  I had become quite intimate with the construction details through all the work I had done on Windrustler and had a million questions about how he built the boats. He was patient but I think bothered by all the fuss and politely declined all invitations to stay, dine and be worshipped.

"I had always intended, when in the UK, to stop by Wooten Bridge on the Isle of Wight and see his Shop but never did. I do still have that oval plastic McCutcheon tag, removed from Windrustler during a varnishing and weight reduction frenzy.

"This summer, Doug Loup and I sailed a McCutcheon built Kirby IV in the NSHOF Wooden boat race in Annapolis.(See this post for more details.) It looked and more importantly, functioned perfectly after 20 years in Doug's garage and more than 40 years of the intense loading imposed by prying down those beautiful "kitchen Knife" shroud levers! A beautiful thing with flawless timber joints, still sound and tight. Bill McCutcheon built these Fourteens without gap filling Epoxy and instead, used an adhesive that relied primarily on perfect fits between parts.

 "I have never felt so bad in a boat as, when sailing Windrustler, I stomped my foot in frustration of the "unfairness" of fluky light air,  and busted open the joint between the keelson and cold molded hull skin, letting in the cold Severn far faster than the bailers could suck it out in the calm conditions. The shame of failing Bill's flawless craftsmanship taught me more about maintaining my cool no matter what frustrations beset me, than any other of my frequent calamities in those early days of Fourteen sailing.

 "I think this applies to Bill and that whole disappearing generation of Craftsmen. We will never see their likes again."

And from Bruce Kirby;

"I never met the man, but as you know, he built many of my IVs and Vs  and what beautiful boats they were. My go-between was always Pudders (ed note: Jeremy Pudney).  I was in Cowes for several days  in 2001 and did not realize Bill might have been there.  Damn shame.  It's amazing how the building of dinghies has changed in the past 50 years. To think that something as boring as fiberglass in its many forms could take over from the beauty of a fine cold molded and varnished vessel. I should talk, as I designed the first fiberglass 14 with my Mk. 1, but then with the II, III, IV and V went to Souter and Bill for those who wanted beauty with their racing."