A PSI Kirby III emerges in Saratoga

John Power from Darien Ct., who sails out of Saratoga N.Y., sends along photos of a Classic 14 pickup. Looks like a primo restoration of a glass PSI Kirby III.

John Power fills in the details:

"I found The KIII in Old Lyme. Connecticut. A fellow by the name of Charlie Ritrovato had her listed on Craigslist. He told me it was in the garage when he bought the house, and he had no idea what kind of boat is was. His neighbor helped him rig it and he had it painted and updated some of the rigging. She still needs some rigging work and spin gear. He may have some pics of her sailing as he had posted them in his CL ad. The boat has a centerboard and rudder that seem small, but I could be wrong - I bought her last November, and never got to sail her yet due to COVID."

Well it turn out I did have a email back-and-forth with Charlie in 2014. He sent me a photo of the sail number. So... originally a Canadian KIII.

Given the sail number, I replied to Charlie:

" A Kirby III designed by Bruce Kirby and built in fiberglass by Ian Bruce (who started his company, Performance Sailcraft to build the Kirby Mk III International 14). Ian Bruce would build about 100 of these Mark III's before collaborating with Bruce Kirby and producing the Laser dinghy, the world's most popular dinghy (and also an Olympic class). KC378 would make this boat one of the last Mark III's produced because Ian would start making the Int. 14 Mk V's starting somewhere after number KC389 (the KV would have a distinctive notch in the transom which your 14 does not have)."

Looks like Charlie did an admirable job at restoring this Kirby III given where he started from.



In somewhat of a coincidence, the original Canadian owner of KC378 was another Charlie; Charlie Eckenfelder, who occasionally flashed a good result in regattas in the early 1970's. According to Sinjin Martin, the Performance Sailcraft Kirby III's didn't come out until the fall of 1968. With the switch-over to the K V in 1971, the Performance Sailcraft Kirby III was produced only over a span slightly greater than 2 years.

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In the previous post about the 1969 Team Races held at Kingston Ontario, most of the Canadian Team in the photos were sailing Kirby III's.

Doc's Best

Doc has his own sailing blog and he's composed a great post over here about the years he owned a Schock Kirby 3 and how he and his wife learned about racing these tippy, overpowered racing craft. (It's funny, but when the trapeze was adopted in 1969, there was an explosion of mixed crews in the class.) He concludes with a sentiment I've heard many times from old fourteeners:

"As the years passed we realized the Fourteeners we met up with in this open developmental class were the best sailors, teachers and comrades we would ever know."

Hear! hear! (as they say in England)

I include two photos I've lifted from his post.

Thanks for sharing Doc!

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.