Saturday 11 September 2010

Vixen

I spotted this lovely varnished racer on the Hamble shortly before Cowes week, sadly at the time I didn’t have my camera, Fortunately she was out on the river again a couple of weeks later while I was rowing, not great photos as I had to grab the camera at short notice.

I believe she's called Vixen and is a B15 square meter built near Stockholm, designed by Knud Reimers just before WWII. Brought to the Clyde in Scotland, very different from the sheltered waters of the Swedish archipelago for which she was designed.

Vixen was declared a total loss in 1988 when she broke free from her moorings and came to rest on the Crocodile Rock off Millport on the Clyde. Thankfully her owner recovered her and stored her ashore for thirteen years until a new owner was found to carry out the restoration.



At 33 feet LoA (21’8” LWL), a beam of 5’9” and displacing 1.3 tones Vixen is narrow and light. The legendary Uffa Fox, who thought the Skerry type good for offshore crusing, commented on her design in his book Racing, Cruising and Design, saying that the design was “thoroughbred… with easy lines that tell us she would be exceedingly fast in all weathers”.

3 comments:

  1. What a nice square metre yacht - dinky small one too! Like many from that rule it looks narrow but fast.

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  2. Does anyone know where the plans for Vixen are? Philip.

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  3. Sailed on that very boat when I was a child . It belonged to my uncle. The most beautiful yacht in the bay. Would be good to know where it is now all these years later. Remember the day it ended up on the rocks. Sad day that was my unucle David was gutted.

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