Peter Scott Painting of the 1934 Toronto Team Races

Cambridge University Cruising Club Collection

I found this Peter Scott painting over at the Cambridge University Cruising Club website (their history section is a very good read). It is a painting of one of the 1934 Team Races in Toronto with the English team featured prominently in the foreground, and the racers seemingly caught out in one of those Lake Ontario line squalls. The 1934 Team Races would mark the beginning of U.S International 14 class. George Ford from Rochester would try to buy the Uffa Fox R.I.P. from Stewart Morris in Toronto. For some reason the deal could not be completed in Toronto and R.I.P was shipped back to England. George Ford and a syndicate from Rochester were able to complete a deal in the fall/winter of 1934 and R.I.P was shipped again, over the Atlantic, to Rochester N.Y..

I reprint the text accompanying the Peter Scott painting from the Cambridge University Cruisng Club website:

"This is a photograph of an 80 X 50cm painting of "dinghies racing on Lake Ontario" according to the CUCrC Annual Report of the time, which records Peter Scott's gift of the painting in the Club's year of 1935/36. In 1934 a team of 4 UK International 14ft dinghies and sailors (including Peter Scott), from the Royal Norfolk and Suffolk YC, went to Toronto to sail against a team from the Royal Canadian YC and a US team from Rochester YC, New York. The UK beat the US 3-0 and Canada 3-1 to take home the trophy, and Canada beat the US 2-0 (one race being abandoned due to the time limit expiring). There was also an open race for the Wilton Morse trophy which was won by Peter Scott in Eastlight. The series, which had started in 1933, went on to become an international biennial event, interrupted from 1940 to 1958 by WW II.

"The picture was painted in the year after the event - presumably from memory, notes and sketches made at the time, and possibly a photograph - because Peter is shown in the race. The scene is a start (a Preparatory Signal is flying), but only 6 boats are included. The three UK boats are K290 (Lightening - John Winter); K267 (R.I.P. - Stewart Morris); and K318 (Eastlight - Peter Scott). A fourth UK boat, K322 (Canute - David Beale, not a CUCrC member), and an opposing boat are missing from the scene - possibly a deliberate omission because Scott intended the painting for the CUCrC and wished to celebrate the achievement of the CUCrC members on the team. Of the team, three helmsmen and two crews were CUCrC members, one crew was a Cambridge Rugby Blue, and one was an Oxford University YC member. Further details are given in a document accompanying the painting, also available from the Alumni Administrator, and in the Club's archives at the University Library - along with printouts of the articles mentioned below.

"The origins and development of the series are a fascinating part of dinghy sailing lore, well recorded in the history section of the International 14 Class website...; pages 70-74 of 'Uffa Fox's Second Book' (which gives the results of the 1934 races when Uffa was Team Manager); and two articles on Canadian 14 history by Rob Mazza in the Royal Canadian YC 'KWASIND' bulletins of August and September 2013. '14' dinghies evolved in parallel in the UK (where the International Rule was formulated), the US, and Canada. The Canada and America's Cup events of 1930 initiated some animated discussion, between leading sailing figures of the time, as to the relative merits of the UK, US, and Canadian 14 dinghies. The outcome was that Sir John Beale, Commodore of RN&SYC, undertook to organise what became the 1933 international team racing event at Seawanhaka Corinthian YC, Oyster Bay, New York, and then accepted the invitation for the UK to attend the 1934 event at the Royal Canadian YC, Toronto.

From the Louise Ann Ford collection is this 1934 news clipping showing R.I.P (destined to be U.S. 1) sitting on a dock in Toronto with the spinnaker drying.

Louise Ann Ford Collection

U.S. One-Design Classic International 14 (Part 1)

U.S. One-Design International 14 - Pre-WW II and immediate Post-WW II

There is considerable confusion when I write about the U.S. One Design International 14 (this being the most common Classic International 14 hull being found for restoration). The International 14 has always been considered a development class. but there was a period before WW II, and the decade after WW II,  that major areas of U.S. 14 activity were sailing the 14's as a one-design, with their own rules. (As an aside, U.S. International 14 history is peppered with one-design classes that come directly from the International 14, such as the Jet 14, the Gannet dinghy and, more recently (1990's), another class called the One Design 14, based on the Jay Cross Mk 3 hull, built and marketed by Peter Johnstone.)

The history of the U.S. One-Design International 14 class starts pre WW II, in 1936, right at the beginning, when the founder of the U.S. International 14 class, George Ford, had local boatbuilders producing ribbed copies of the Uffa Fox "R.I.P" design in and around Rochester, New York. George Ford noted the success of American one-design classes of that period (the Snipe, Lightning, Comet, Star) and reasoned it would be better to get this new International 14 class, based on the English rules, off the ground in the U.S. as a one-design hull. George Ford's desire to mass produce a one-design 14 was immediately hamstrung by (in copying from Uffa Fox), the very complicated method of building these "R.I.P" hulls (double planked, about 80+ steamed ribs, thousands of copper rivets). George never quite solved the problem of meeting three criteria at the same time; how to build a "R.I.P." 14 down to weight, strong enough and, given the labor intensive construction, how to build them at a profit. It's hard to determine how many of these R.I.P copies were built (20, maybe 30). In 1938, the Rochester group ran into Sandy Douglass from Ohio at a Put-In-Bay regatta and shortly after that, Sandy Douglass started building ribbed 14's to a more modern and faster hull design than "R.I.P", that of Uffa Fox's later "Alarm" design ('R.I.P" being designed by Uffa in 1931, "Alarm" being designed in 1935). How many ribbed "Alarm's" Sandy Douglass built is unknown. (I've seen the total number of U.S. ribbed 14's built, both "R.I.P" and "Alarm" hulls pegged at 37, but this may be conjecture).

After WWII, around 1945, Sandy Douglass, now in partnership with Ray McLeod Sr, started producing both his famous Thistle sailing dinghy and the "Alarm" design International 14's using the hot molding ply veneer process developed during WW II. (The hull shells were molded by U.S. Molded Shapes in Grand Rapids Michigan - formerly U.S. Plywood - and then trucked back to Vermillion Ohio for completion.) Given the ability to mass produce hot molded ply hulls, the hull of choice for a One-Design International 14 now switched over to the Uffa Fox "Alarm" design. The Rochester fleet, already solidly pro one-design, was now to be joined by another fleet as one-design proponents; the new, upstart International 14 fleet in Southern California. (to be continued.)

Early pics from the Louise Ann Ford Collection

Start with two photos from Louise Ann Ford:

The first is an early photo with what looks like a teenage George Ford (skippering) with Bill Tarr (relaxing) on a LSSA 14-foot dinghy (decked, single main, lapstrake construction).

Louise Ann Ford Collection

And a picture of both US 1 (the original R.I.P.) and US 2 sailing, presumably out of Rochester. This photo was a frontispiece for a Regatta Announcement by the Danish club, Aalborg. George Ford would take a Rochester team of R.I.P 14's on a European tour in 1936, with stops in Denmark (racing against the Danish 14'ers at Aalborg), Norway and the POW on the Clyde. George was promoting the R.I.P. design as a One-Design and the Danes had built some of their own R.I.P. 14's.

Louise Ann Ford Collection

History of George Ford, from daughter Louise Ann Ford

George Ford was the founder of the US International 14 class. George was a champion sailor in the LSSA (Lake Sailing Skiff Association) 14 class in the 1930's and participated in the International Team Race sailed with both the International 14's (England) and LSSA 14-foot dinghies (Canada and the U.S) in Toronto, 1934. The English team trounced the Canadians and Americans, and George, seeing the writing on the wall, imported the Uffa Fox design R.I.P. in 1934/1935. George then proceeded to set up a boatbuilding operation out of Rochester NY to produce copies of the R.I.P. design . George tirelessly promoted the new 'International 14' class until he retired from 14's in 1949. The original English built R.I.P. was designated US #1.

Louise Ann Ford, daughter of George Ford, has a scrapbook of her father's sailing exploits and is kindly sharing them with the 'Old 14er'.

As I get Louse's material into the computer, I will post them.

Thanks again to Louise Ann Ford for sharing