Aykroyd Free to a Good Home

Up on the Earwigoagin blog, a "lake cottage" Aykroyd, free to someone who can do the restoration. In SE Michigan.

Lapstrake 14 Uncovered in Cincinnati - KC 142

Mark Merritt came across this beauty on Ebay; the 14 having been stored inside a Cincinnati airplane hanger for umpteen years.  Mark now has ownership and has been doggedly researching the origins of this interesting lapstrake 14 for several months.  (Mark only obtained the hull; there was no rig or centerboard/rudder with the 14.) What he has dug up so far:

• There is KC 142 written on the battens that were in the hull.
• There is the name "Whirley" and "RCYC" on the transom.
• He has tracked the hull as being registered in Toronto Harbor in 1955 to a person "Alvey".
• She is identical to the International 14 "Brooke", a lapstrake 14 restored by Woodwind Yachts and now residing on a New York lake.

The hull is in remarkable condition. (Click on the photo for a hi-resolution image.)

A snubbing winch for the jib. An interesting cleat under the main thwart. (See another photo further in this post.) Stringers are on 8 inch centers.

Whirly has a long jib track which Mark has determined is original. The fairlead appears too big to accommodate a block though it matches the jib track on "Brooke".

The transom bridle is consistent with the metal transom bridles fitted to the L.S.S.A cat-rigged 14's.

The design has the typical transom tumble-home of a pre-WWII Uffa 14.

This is an odd cleat, sitting under the main thwart. It seems to work by pushing the back in or out. The rope leads up to the bow stem - a jib downhaul?

From the side view the design doesn't appear to be as deep-chested as the Uffa designs of this period.

The gunwhales are relatively wide and there is a mini-mini-foredeck at the bow stem.

I've sent out some inquiries to various contacts. Bruce Kirby confirms my initial impression, that Whirly is probably a George Corneil design. George Corneil was a one-man shop in Toronto who had a reputation for producing fast L.S.S.A 14's in the 1920's and 1930's.

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Update October, 2020: Mark sends along this email.

"Been recreating the rudder and centerboard from existing plans, and reverse engineering the insides of the centerboard trunk. Since there is a shock cord rig to hold the centerboard arm up(centerboard in down position), but give it some give, if it struck something underwater, I'm going with a non-weighted all wood centerboard. Have found period correct bronze(tufnol also) blocks etc. that were missing. Still haven't found original rig. For the sake of getting WHIRLY underway, I just might temporarily use my Tasar rig. Also have a Windmill rig; slightly smaller but all wood. We shall see."

2016 Aykroyd Catboat Regatta This Weekend

I just got off the phone with Brett Somerville from the Juniper Island Store who confirms that the 2016 Aykroyd Catboat Regatta on Stoney Lake, Ontario is this weekend, August 6 and 7. The Aykroyd "cottage" 14-footer was part of the L.S.S.A 14-footer class, the dinghy class that was the predecessor of the International 14 dinghy, primarily in Canada but also in Rochester, New York. The Stoney Island cottagers, led by Hugh Drake and Jay Matthews, have been busy restoring these pre-WW II cat-rigged dinghies since the 1960's and now have a robust fleet of around 15 of these lapstrake beauties out for weekend racing. I'm working on getting some contact with fleet members so I can fill out more details of this interesting historical collection of dinghies.

I've pulled some photos from the 2015 Aykroyd Championship, taken by Nick Glas, which I found on the Web and will repost them shortly.

Click here to view some of the other posts about the L.S.S.A 14-footers on the CBIFDA blog.

Aykroyd on Ebay

Tom Price sends along an L.S.S.A 14, an Aykroyd, his eagle eye spotted for sale on Ebay.

A nice restoration but the rig is off. The lake Aykroyd's were gunter rigged, not gaff rig. This looks like a modification to the original.

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Upadate: August 2, 2016: This Aykroyd is now on Craigslist. $4900 is not a bad price for a complete restoration but the market is tiny. This dinghy is located in Raleigh, NC of all places. Her name is Bijou.

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Another L.S.S.A 14-footer in Ontario

Mike Paradis, from somewhere north of Toronto, sends along photos of his L.S.S.A 14-footer; best guess is that it is an Aykroyd "lake" 14-footer. It was previously owned by his father-in-law Russ. His father-in-law bought it around 1958-59 but it comes with sails that date it back to 1937. Looking at the photos it appears this one was converted to an International 14 rig as there are two mast steps, one being in the normal position for the original cat rig and the second further back through a thwart. It also has turning blocks for the long foot I-14 genny. Mike confirms there is a jib that came with the boat and his description of the mast matches the Uffa 3 diamond International 14 mast.

Mike is having Woodwind Yachts do a restoration.

Two photos.

LS.S.A 14-foot dinghy uncovered in upstate Vermont

Owner is putting a 1918 date on this one.

Click here to go WoodenBoat's Facebook feed.

Here is the comment I put up on the Woodenboat Facebook post.

"Technically the racing class was called the L.S.S.A. (Lake Skiff Sailing Association) 14 foot dinghy. An active class from 1900 to about the beginning of the 1950's, though superseded by the amalgamation of the R.Y.A 14 and the LS.S.A 14 into the International 14 rule after the 1933 Seawanhaka Team Races (which in actuality made the R.Y.A 14 into the International 14 foot dinghy). George Aykroyd built racing versions as well as a recreational Lake version; this one looks to be the recreational Lake version. When referring to an Aykroyd 14, this usually means the recreational Lake version. I'm not sure how many of of the racing versions have survived. (T.P. has listed some of the other designers, though Canadian Charles Bourke is probably the most famous designer of both the L.S.S.A. 14 foot dinghy and the International 14 foot dinghy.) The Aykroyd 14 (restored, as well as some new builds) races as a fleet at Stoney Lake, Ontario. These dinghies sport[ed] a large cat rig of 140 square feet with two crew.

L.S.S.A 14-footer Dinghies Pre-Start in Toronto Bay

A photo from the City of Toronto archives shows a fleet of L.S.S.A 14-footer dinghies milling about in the background with a large crowd of onlookers in the foreground. My best guess of time frame would be around WWI, perhaps slightly later. This may have been a photo of a 14-footer regatta held in conjunction with the Toronto Exhibition, an annual summer fair.

Charlie Bourke's Riptide on Toronto Docks

From the Toronto newspaper, The Mail and Empire, a photo of Charlie Bourke's Riptide sitting on the docks during the 1934 Team Races with the English and Americans. The photo definitely shows that Riptide was still a LSSA 14-footer though, probably at this point, sailing with a sloop rig instead of a cat rig.

Charlie Bourke Models

Charlie Bourke, courtesy of the Canadian International 14 Newsletter

Some may consider Charlie Bourke as Canada's greatest 14-foot dinghy designer (even surpassing Bruce Kirby, but that may elicit some arguments!). Charlie designed and raced both the LSSA 14-footers and the International 14's and his post war International 14 designs dominated Canadian racing up into the 1960's when the Kirby designs took over. His design career spanned over 35 years and he was the instrumental mover and shaker that converted the Canadian LSSA 14-footer over to the International 14 class in the late 1930's. His victories and membership in Canadian teams are too numerous to document here.

Scott Kerr, who is married to Charlie Bourke's grand-daughter, Meghan, sent along some photos of two of Charlie Bourke's own hand carved models. They are of interest because these are designs Charlie was doing after competing against the Uffa International 14's at Seawanhaka Y.C, 1933. One model of Riptide is dated 1934, the year after the Seawanhaka Team Races. Here is my reply to Scott Kerr:

"The Seawanhaka Team Races, where the English and the Canadians and the U.S (Seawanhaka club members) raced the LSSA 14's and the English International 14's against each other, was held in Sept 1933. The English came back to race the Canadians and the U.S in 1934 in Toronto. So Riptide is what Charlie was designing after he saw the English open International 14's in 1933 (and to Charlie the two approaches to a 14 dinghy were like chalk and cheese). It is interesting that in 1934 Charlie still maintains the fore-deck as was allowed in the LSSA 14's. The model looks very much flatter than I would have expected. The LSSA 14's were very fine lined dinghies with balanced rocker whilst the Uffa Fox International 14's were broad transom, rocker forward designs."

The 1934 Riptide side view. It's hard to discern from the photograph but it looks as if there is a little bit of flare at the gunwhale.

The 1934 Riptide top view. (Note that Charlie has retained the fore-deck of the LSSA 14-footer, the English Uffa International 14's were open dinghies.)

The inscription on the inside, bottom of the model of Riptide.

The other Charlie Bourke model is definitely in the International 14 design camp. There seems to be some tumblehome which was a characteristic of English Uffa pre-war designs. Rocker has deepened and moved forward.

Many thanks to Scott Kerr and wife Meghan for sending along the photos.

1925 L.S.S.A 14-Footer "Hyking" Out

Picture from the Toronto Star newspaper, circa 1925, of two National Yacht Club sailors hiking the cat-rigged L.S.S.A 14-footers that were the precursor to the International 14 and a extremely popular racing fleet in Toronto Bay.

Canadian LSSA 14 foot dinghies from 1914 Yachting Magazine

I came across some old Yachting magazines that Google Books has digitized into the public domain. From 1914, here is an image of the 14-foot cat-rigged L.S.S.A dinghies racing on Toronto Bay.

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