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| "The Designers" |
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| From the moment the Cowes Torquay race drew its
first breath there would be a core of “Designers” who not only
entered craft but were responsible for their inception, in the first
years the regular name was of course American Ray Hunt. In the 1961
race 9 of the entrants were Ray Hunt hull designs….The Bertrams, Fairey’s and Christina’s plus an often forgotten make Port
Hamble with their Hunt 34 then their very pretty Pacemaker 19’s…by
the 1962 race his tally jumped to 16 and 19 by ‘63. Other names
from the 61 race included Renato Levi, Keith Nelson, Colin Mudie and
Uffa Fox.. |
| Come the '62 race Levi had 3 of his
designs in the field and it was to be the young Italian who would
pick up Ray Hunts mantle in the coming years, he had moved to Anzio
from Bombay and began developing his version of the deep V based on
his observations of the Dhow design often seen in the Indian harbours
with their Arab Merchant owners. |
| 1962 saw another name
appear that of Peter DuCane, Vospers master creator of the modern fast patrol
boats i.e. THE BRAVE class MTB’S and of course world speed record
breakers, his contribution to the race being the mighty TRAMONTANA. |
| By 1964 Levi contributed 5 of the
entrants to again 19 Hunt’s. It was really total dominance by the
American yet slowly the mould was being broken and another new name
appeared Wynn/Walters, yes Jim Wynn of Aquamatic fame designing for
fledgling boat builder Don Aronow. The original Hunt designed Fairey
boats, were now being re engineered by one Alan Burnard. |
| Colin Mudie kept his presence in the
field with the beautiful R&W Clark boats but they were also
building Levi designs! One for a certain Mr Donovan Shead who had
entered in one of their Force Eight boat in 1961 and then they built
Trident for him in '62. Of course Mr D.K.SHEAD would make his mark
later in the decade. |
| 1965 saw the field being dominated by 3 mainstream designers Hunt with 15, Levi 8 and Wynn / Walters 6, with
Mudie and Fox still in the frame. |
| 1966 saw the same three battling it out
with Wynn driving his design Ghost Rider for the owner Hugh Doyle.
Hunts tally had dropped to 9 and Levi had produced his Masterpiece
“SURFURY”. Come 1967 racer turned designer Don Shead burst
everyone’s bubble with Telstar and started his meteoric rise to
supremacy, hotly pursued by builder turned designer Don Aronow…….and
the shift to these two was as dramatic as Ray Hunts domination at the
start of the decade. |
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