K 848

Readers of this blog know that I'm not averse to post English International 14 history if someone makes the effort to contact me. Andrew Roosaak sends along a photo of his dad, Terje Rossaak, sailing K-848, an English, McCutcheon built, Shelley design produced in 1964. Note the wing logo of Anderson Aerosails, one of the first lofts to pioneer the radial cut. Andrew provides some background history of his dad and Chris Bevan partnering in K-848 and some of their exploits with the English fleet. (Andrew wondered if his memory was correct so I checked Tom Vaughan's history and the number and boat name check out.)

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"My late father (Terje Rossaak) and his great friend, the late Chris Bevan sailed Int 14's for many years. They eventually got a new one designed by Shelly, if I remember right. K 848 was, I think, called Samantha. This must have been around 1964 to 1967. Had a black spinnaker.

"They sailed at Ranelagh on the Thames and also at Itchenor.

"I recall stories of the POW cup and others.

"Both were initially asked to sail the Naples Olympics in 1968 for the UK, but as neither were UK citizens, it didn't work out. Chris did sail., for Rhodesia, and narrowly missed out on a medal. Terje went to Naples and trained the either Chris or the UK crew.

"There were two [tales] about accidents that have stayed with me.

"The first was on a race day on the Thames. There was a bit of breeze and a current. On the upwind leg everyone was hugging the bank to avoid the current and hiking hard. It also happened to be a practice day for the rowers on the same piece of water. The sailors thought they should row in the current where the extra work may be worth it. So the banks were busy, the wind blowing and crews hiking hard, behind those massive jibs. Suddenly there was a crunch noise nearby and one of the rowing boats had rammed right through the side of an I-14 nearby. The crew released the sails on the stricken dinghy. The resulting pressure of the righting dinghy simply snapped the rowing boat!

"Another accident involved two rather lovely young girls racing a National 12 on the same area as the I-14's were racing. The girls had some Merlin Rocket crewing experience so were doing OK. But the N12 is a little boat was hidden behind the large I-14 jib...Chris and Terje managed to hit them. The talk in the pub later was that it was no accident! Anyway Chris and Terje spent a couple days the following week fixing the N12 - and that's how Terje met my mother!

SHDI: Designers Comments

The following JPEG is the SHDI I-14 design as explained by her designer, John Shelley, from Yachts and Yachting magazine, mid 1960's.

McCutcheon Shdi - K839

Mike Liggett from the UK sends along pics of the McCutcheon built Shelley design that he has become proud owner of. Details from Mike:

"My name is Mike Liggett and I live near Cambridge in UK. Most of my life has revolved around the Merlin -Rocket and I have still have a couple of vintage boats from the 40's and 50's which I race at vintage events. However I have recently acquired Int 14 K.839 "Trumper" a Shelley "Shdi" design built by Mc.Cutcheon in 1964. She has been modified to take crew on trapeze but no other mods. I have been working on her and she has yet to take to the water under my hand!"

I realize this blog is supposed to be about North America 14's and I remember a Shdi making it to this side of the pond and being based out of Severn Sailling Association in Annapolis in the late 1960's and early 1970's. In talking with fellow ex-14'er Tom Price, he recalls it was painted green. I had no idea where this U.S. Shelley 14 ended up until Tom took the bull by the horns and tracked down Bruce Empey, who owned the North American SHDI. Bruce's story:

"Yes, I owned a 14 at one point. I believe the actual design was a Shidu or Shidu II. Maybe she was a Shidi and Stoney named her Shdu. She was home built by Stoney Duffy over in Queenstown / Centerville area. Stoney still races Comets, so he can be found if more history wants to be known.

"I bought her for $5 at the SSA opening day lost and found thing in probably about 1974 or 1975...maybe a year or two earlier. She was probably overpriced by then. I had great plans to square off the two gaping holes, chisel back an inch around of each layer of plywood, and piece her back together. Notice the adverb "had" in that sentence. Instead, I went to Florida for the SORC, skippered a boat in the Caribbean for a winter, and sailed over to Europe and back and poor old Shdu didn't get rebuilt. At some point in the 1970's, we dug a 14' long boat-shaped trench in the backyard -- out just beyond the septic tank - and planted her in there with about 10" freeboard; then backfilled with the trench dirt and some peatmoss and for several years my mom had a unique planter for her impatiens. Eventually the plywood weathered, glue failed, and as I recall whatever couldn't be pulled up and put in the neighborhood dumpster was rototilled into the yard and grass planted. I do know that about 15 years ago when I dug some French Drain ditches out there, I found a couple of bits of Mahogany plywood about the size of a silver dollar and painted green on one side. Ashes to ashes.

"I forget how much rocker she had or how rounded she might have been, but with her chines and firmer back end, I always thought she was ahead of her time and wondered how she would have stood up to a trapeze or two.

"Ciao, Bruce

Shelley was one of those underrated dinghy designers who was quite ahead of his time with U'd forward sections and flatter rocker hull shapes.

The pictures show a typical layout of a 1960's seat tank International 14. The bridge reinforcement on top of the bow tank is something I have not seen before

The view from the bow:

The stern with the trademark Shelly concave topsides at the transom.

See John Shelley's comments on the SHDI over at this post.