“THE AJAX WILL BECOME A
VINTAGE CLASS’
(Dr Dick Mayon-White
– Class Chairman 1971)
Origin of the Class – Designer – Oliver J Lee
The
Class originated at Burnham on Crouch in Essex when a group of keelboat and
dinghy sailors believed that the local One Design Classes were becoming very
expensive to maintain and that there was room for a modern multi-purpose
keelboat in glass fibre with built in buoyancy as standard.
They
were all members of the Royal Burnham or Royal Corinthian Yacht Clubs. Burnham
was and is a well known East Coast sailing centre with five Clubs and several
long established wooden One Design classes.
In 1966 the sponsors came together as a syndicate to generate funds of
£8000 for the design and build of a prototype hull. Oliver Lee then
demonstrated the wooden prototype of the Ajax around the East Coast Clubs,
principally Burnham, Woolverstone (Royal Harwich) and
Lowestoft (Royal Norfolk and Suffolk). The main amendment to the design was the
reduction in the size and height of the cuddy.
The Ajax was considered for trials in Holland to choose a keelboat
design for the Olympics. The Soling was eventually chosen.
Criteria required from the
Designer and by the Syndicate:
Total
cost complete with sails and equipment to be less than £1000.
Hull
and deck to be glass fibre
Spars
to be light alloy
Yacht
to have full positive buoyancy
Yacht to be suitable for racing, family day sailing, camping cruising
and to be towed behind a medium sized family car.
To
have a large and deep comfortable cockpit
To
be easy to helm and crew by people of all ages
To
be of minimum maintenance and durable construction to give a long life with
minimum depreciation
To
be able to lie on exposed moorings on river, lake and sea.
Sails to be in synthetic fibres and mainsail to be roller reefed.
Rudder and skeg to be removable via a
trunking in the after deck.
Length
23 feet 3 inches (7.07m), Waterline Length 19 feet 2 inches (5.97m)
Beam
6 feet 5 inches (1.95m), Draft 3 feet 8 inches (1.12m)
The First Fleet.
Burnham 1967
The
personalities involved were Bob Walkden (prime mover
and effectively the ‘Father’ of the Class), Doug Baldwin (Holt Allen), Bob
Bennett, Harry King Spark, Clem Lister, Edward du Sautoy,
John Furlong, Lionel Prosser, Nim Crowther
& John Hill, Bobby Sutherland & Peter Roberts (10 yachts).
The
exodus from the established classes did not materialise. After an initial year
of Class racing, the first Championships were held in 1968 during Burnham Week
competing for the Gimpel Trophy. This was presented
by Peter Gimpel, then Vice Commodore of RCYC and a
well known Dragon sailor. It was decreed that the Burnham Yachts would be named
after those of Nelson’s fleet at Trafalgar!! (See Note at end). The membership of the Burnham fleet was split
between older keelboat sailors and those fresh from dinghy classes like the
Hornet. Thus, ‘sitting out v sitting in’
caused some controversy in the early days. Passage races to Brightlingsea
were arranged by the Burnham Fleet in 1968 & 1969.
Bob
Walkden was the self styled ‘Admiral’ and very much
regarded the Ajax Class as his baby. Polly Oliver (17) was a quasi-works team
effort, owned jointly by Tony Allen and Doug Baldwin (who managed Holt Allen
Masts) and did most of the sailing, rather well!
Clem
Lister and Edward du Sautoy initially shared Hermione
(18) which Nim Crowther
sailed later after Clem Lister bought Polyphemus (40). A late addition was
Arthur Campbell with Caprice (52).
Oliver Lee. His background was as a
naval architect and surveyor working for the established naval architectural
practice run by Alan Buchanan in Burnham. Many successful East Coast yacht
designs came from the Buchanan board.
Halmatic of Portsmouth was chosen as moulder because prospective owners could not be
attracted without an established name. Glass fibre moulding had been used for
only a few years and there were limited moulders in existence. The hull cost Oliver £400 from Halmatic and was then finished off by him at Burnham in Warner’s
Yard. The mast and boom were from Holt Allen at Burnham and it says much for
the strength of the 2 x U shaped aluminium sections glued together with
Araldite, that some of these masts still give good service some 40 + years
later.
Oliver
found that Halmatic, despite their good name, was not
completing the moulds to his satisfaction. Blowholes were showing in the deck
and having completed fitting out, these were only discovered once the
protective skin was removed. He therefore decided to design the Squib (19 feet
long) to be moulded locally at a much lower cost. He said that in price range
the Ajax was equivalent to an MGB and the Squib was that of a Mini. The initial
price of the Ajax was £850 ex sails. The Squib was £500. Because
of the similarity of the design and although a smaller version, the Squib as a
two man keelboat attracted a much wider market and following. It quickly
outgrew the larger version (amid some rancour) becoming the very successful
National Class it is today with over 850 yachts.
Boat Shows.
The
Ajax was shown at the Earls Court Boat Shows in 1967 & 1968. In total, 61 yachts were built, 57 by Oliver,
3 in Cheshire by a local builder and
one in Shotley near Ipswich. The first yacht was
number 11 and the last 71.
Overseas
sales were branded as the ‘707’ and exported to Australia, New Guinea,
Switzerland, Canada & three to Northern Ireland. Gerry Watson owned
‘Pathfinder’ (45) and arranged with Oliver to become the Ajax agent in Ireland.
He also imported two further hulls, numbers (53) & (54). Both of these were
fitted out by Gerry and sold, number (53) to Trevor Eves in Bangor and (54) to
Tom Clifford who lived in County Kerry. Aquilla (53) was
reclaimed from Ireland by Cedric Thomas and restored for his daughter Lindsey
and added to the Falmouth fleet. (54) now renamed ‘Pathfinder’ has been reclaimed by Philip
Watson from a rather sorry state in central Ireland. He is son of the original
owner Gerry Watson who flew with the RAF in WW2.
Although
now subject to some ‘out of class’ amendments, (mainly a taller mast) she is
regularly sailed near Dublin. Number (45) (originally named ‘Pathfinder’ Has been brought from Ireland to Cornwall and extensively
rebuilt by Charles Emmett and is regularly raced at St Mawes.
She is now called Kali.
The
‘707’ was to be equipped with a larger ‘Swiss Lakes Genoa’ if required.
The
Swiss yacht (12) ‘Odysseus’ was traced and recovered from Montreux
on Lake Geneva by Simone and Dudley Kennett. She now sails regularly at St Mawes. A Mr Coote imported ‘Muntreste’ (60) to Papua New Guinea and sent Bob Walkden a photo of his Ajax with a bunch of locals in full
war paint. He captioned it as from the Commodore, ‘The Royal Headhunters Yacht Club’!
John
Williams found the Australian Ajax ‘Matika’ (51) on
the web site of a yacht club in Sydney. She had been fitted with a larger mast
and sail plan as shown by various photos sent by the owner. Bob Tate (current
Class Chairman) located ‘Poseidon’ (35) in Nova Scotia having originally been
in Montreal. He explored the possibilities of bringing her back from Canada but
this proved difficult and expensive and was shelved.
The Class Association.
This
was formed in 1968 at the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club. Bob Walkden
(Burnham) was the first Chairman, Tony James (Royal Harwich), Secretary and
David Reid (Aldeburgh), Treasurer. The use of the Ajax motif was incorporated
in a tie – ‘Ajax man in profile with spear and shield’. The Class applied for
National status in 1970. Unfortunately, Bob Walkden
in his initial enthusiasm had used the sail insignia ‘N 23’. The RYA Keelboat
Committee were very unhappy with the premature use of the ‘N’ on the sail
indicating a National Class and that the yacht had been marketed as an ‘N 23’.
The request was turned down because the Class had only been established in East
Anglia but the original designation was really the main problem.
The
‘N’ was quietly removed at a later date.
The
Association has flourished over the life of the Class and has overseen modest
changes without compromising the One Design principle. Foremost has been the
rule to restrict the purchase of sails to three suits in five years. The
election of Chairman is now rotated between the East Coast and South West on a
five year basis.
Class Rules. The first rules were based
on those of the Dragon Class.
A
reduction in the size of the spinnaker was requested by Royal Norfolk and
Suffolk Y C because they found the sail impossible to handle on a fine reach in
medium strength winds. The mainsheet horse replaced the original post for the
mainsheet and at a later date the horse was extended across the boat to enable
the traveller to be played in stronger winds.
New Fleets 1967 to 1970.
Royal Harwich Yacht Club (Woolverstone)
Dr
Dick Mayon-White, a past Commodore of the Club, had
ordered ‘Friday’, Number 13. She was launched in mid 1967 and encouraged others
who had been sailing the existing wooden Royal Harwich One Designs to consider
a change. Although there was some resistance in the Club to a new Class, the
fact that the existing One Designs were only 8 in total, meant that there was
little scope for growth without building more wooden boats. By the beginning of
the 1968 season there were 6 yachts ready to compete in class racing. These
were Friday (13) Dick Mayon-White, Apollo (31) Gordon
Bassett, Mars (41) The Brown family, Sirius (34) Ray Catchpole and Tony James,
Pegasus (29) Jimmy Mayhew and Osprey (37) Charles Lowe.
Richard
Plumpton joined later with Athena (56). John Furlong
& Samaki (28) moved from Burnham as did Jeremy Prosser with his father’s
yacht Thunderer (14).
Others
joined the Harwich fleet over the next three years until there were some 21
yachts in all available to race. A start of up to19 boats was quite normal.
Those who emerged as dominant in the fleet were Mars (Chris Brown) and Sirius
(Ray Catchpole/Tony James).
The
Class having grown quickly then gradually declined. This was partially due to
the growth of other classes but was hastened by the movement into sailing
cruisers. Since 2000 the Class has steadily expanded again and RHYC members
have successfully visited Falmouth and removed the top silverware. Those
successful were David Kerridge, Tom Hill, Richard Chenery
and Doug and Ian Sharps.
Royal Norfolk and Suffolk
Yacht Club (Lowestoft)
The
Club adopted the Ajax to complement their fleet of Dragons. Emerging from their
safe haven of a harbour directly out into the North Sea can be a rude awakening
for any yacht but the Ajax stood up well to the conditions after amendment to the
size of spinnaker. Alas, this fleet of ten yachts, all named after seabirds,
gradually dispersed after several years of competitive racing and most were
sold to the West Country. The Championships were successfully held at Lowestoft
four times between 1970 and 1979. Pat Edge, Ben Blower, Bill Cripps Bent, Dr.
Reynolds and Keith Flatman were all prominent members
of the local fleet.
Aldeburgh Yacht Club
The
Class was adopted quickly and a fleet of seven yachts were active from the
early 1970’s onwards. The Squib then became an easier crewing proposition
needing a crew of two rather than three and the Class declined with transfers
to Royal Harwich and Falmouth.
The
Championships were held at Aldeburgh in 1971 and 1974, a crowded starting area
giving competitors some anxious moments. The finishing line needed amendment
during the course of the race programme because it was fairly certain that the
second yacht at the final bend would always emerge in first place due to the
strong flood tide. David Reid was Class Treasurer and strong supporter of the
Class at Aldeburgh together with Robin Somerset, Frank Cooksey and Richard
Cave.
The
Ajax was originally represented on both sides of the River Fal.
There were some at the Royal Cornwall Yacht Club and moored at Falmouth,
Flushing and Penrhyn. Another group of yachts was
based at St Mawes Sailing Club and also further
upriver at Percuil Sailing Club.
The
prime mover of the start of the Class at Falmouth was Michael Dover, Commodore
of St Mawes Sailing Club. He persuaded Jack Webb, Bertie Hamblin, Chris Wilson, Richard Bown
and several others to acquire any Ajaxes that were
coming on to the second hand market. They discounted the Sunbeam as too
expensive and the Squib as not likely to be fast enough for local conditions.
He
bought ‘Hermes’ (70) and because at this point in time there was a general
exodus from the East Coast Clubs, the yachts were very competitively priced. By
1976, the fleet numbered 12 yachts, raced as a class in Falmouth Week and in
the handicap class at Flushing. Percuil raced on
Friday evenings and St Mawes on Sundays.
The
Class gained popularity locally and eventually moved to the St Mawes side of the Fal where there
are now upwards of 30 yachts, especially during Falmouth Week when it is the
largest local One Design Class.
The
Championships are held at Falmouth every two years and the South West
Championships annually. Particular mention should be made of David Liddington, four times Champion and David Mathewson,
Champion twice, both of whom have beaten the East Coast Fleet on their home
waters! Keith Ingham,
Michael Beaman, Derek and Molly Saveker,
Simone Kennett and Cedric Thomas have all played their part in the continuous
development at St Mawes and Percuil.
St Mawes members have been energetic in ‘rescuing’ Ajaxes , particularly
those originally exported as already detailed.
With
four fleets on the East Coast, rotation of the Championships between the Clubs
was an obvious progression. The first two years of Class racing were at Burnham
during Burnham Week, the traditional end to the East Coast racing season. No
Trophy was awarded until 1968 when Peter Gimpel, who
was a Dragon sailor and Vice Commodore of the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club,
presented a magnificent Silver Trophy which is a treasured possession of the
Class. Doug Baldwin sailing ‘Polly Oliver’ was winner of this in the first year
at Burnham.
The
1969 Championships were then held at Harwich and won by Chris Brown in ‘Mars’.
Chris has now won the Championships ten times but has still not succeeded at
Falmouth. Now that only two Fleets exist, the Championship alternates annually
between Harwich (East Coast) and Falmouth (South West Coast). Local South West
and East Coast Championships are also held.
New
yachts were not forthcoming from Oliver Lee’s yard as he had turned his
attention to Squibs. In early 1974, Eric Bergquist, a
boat builder from Lymm near Warrington in Cheshire
asked Oliver if he could use the mould. This remained in Oliver’s ownership but
was taken to Cheshire where the new builder completed three yachts, all with
fixed rudders. The fixed rudder is a handicap in rivers where fouling takes
place (i.e. the East Coast) because the after part of the yacht is not so
accessible to be scrubbed on a mooring.
Donated by Peter Gimpel, Vice Commodore of
the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club at Burnham on Crouch. Peter with his brother
Charles founded the renowned Gimpel Fils Art Gallery in the West End. They specialised in the Avant-garde
and numbered Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson amongst the list
of artists shown in their gallery at Davies Street London W1.
Oliver’s
father donated a Team Trophy for competition by the Clubs and raced for usually
prior to the Championships.
The Mike Rowe Memorial
Trophy and the Victory Plate are given to the third and fourth placed yachts at
the Championships.
Bob
Walkden sold his Ajax and moved to Brussels. There he
organised a match by visiting Royal Harwich members against the Royal Belgium
Yacht Club in the Veerse Meer in Holland. They were
mainly an ex pat community and sailed in Scandinavian BB11’s with the accent on
the social side! Only one competitor was Belgian!
Long Distance ‘Cruising’
Three
notable cruises were undertaken in Merlin (39). The owners George Josselyn and
David Lowe sailed from Harwich to Ostend and then up the French and Belgian
coast to Holland. They had some anxious moments on their return and the full
story of this and of two subsequent solo cruises by George from Falmouth to Poole,
and Harwich to London are fully recorded on the Ajax web site.
Decline (and Revival) of the
Class generally.
The
Burnham fleet had disbanded by 1970 because the Clubs had adopted the Squib and
Oliver was not now promoting the Ajax. The Aldeburgh fleet dissipated as did
the Fleet at Lowestoft. Only at Royal Harwich did the nucleus remain but even
there the number of yachts racing had considerably reduced. However, due to the
impetus given to the Class at Woolverstone by John
Williams and George Josselyn, (who revised the Rules in 1988), numbers have
been gradually rebuilt until Royal Harwich now has 24 yachts on the books and
with Falmouth having at least 26, the total of originally some 61 yachts are
mostly accounted for.
Technical Improvements
Although
the Class remains a strict One Design, any yacht design which does not move
with the times rapidly becomes outdated. The sail plan does not allow radical
changes but improved materials have been introduced from the several sail
makers who supply the Class. Spinnaker gear has improved and spinnaker booms
are now carried along the main boom when not in use. Additional buoyancy has
been introduced following experiences in Falmouth when yachts suffered knock
downs and the buoyancy compartments proved inadequate. Weight levels have been
addressed with replacement floors. Osmosis affects all fibreglass yachts built
over 40 years ago and Ajaxes are no exception.
Twinning lines, double block jib sheets and mainsheet traveller control have
all been introduced and because mast technology has changed, the Class has
replaced the Holt Allen mast with improved designs from Z Spars and Selden (ex
Proctor).
The
Technical Committee continues to examine potential improvements but rule out
any that prejudice existing yachts.
History of the Mould
The mould was eventually moved from Oliver Lee’s
yard at Burnham to Cheshire. The builder there sold three yachts but then lost
interest and after some years he was persuaded by Tony James and John Selby to
transfer the mould to Classic Mouldings in North Suffolk. After discussions
with Oliver’s widow and with the assistance of David Mayne, the mould was
transferred into the ownership of the Class Association and is now stored
safely at Woolverstone.
It
was last used in 1987 by Guy Wallhead and Martin
Kendall who ran a boatyard attached to and now part of Shotley
Marina. Oliver Lee helped them true up the mould before yacht number 71 ‘Dionysius’was completed. The builders were very careful to
keep the weight down and thus their yacht was too light and had to have
substantial amounts of lead added in order to make minimum weight. She has
always been regarded as a fast boat and won the Championship at her first
attempt.
Although
the yachts are now over 43 years old, they still perform well and give their
owners much pleasure whether for racing or when used for more leisurely
activities. They are seaworthy and vice free, can be sailed in very strong
winds under jib only and are at home on the river or the sea. The closeness of
the racing is proof of the One Design concept where the quality of the helm is
the main factor. The yacht was constructed
to a high specification and provided they are regularly maintained and checked
for osmosis, they should have many useful years ahead of them. The second hand
price is consistently modest and second hand yachts do not linger long on the
market place.
In
Suffolk, David Kerridge has been in the forefront of refurbishing the RHYC
yachts and has now built up considerable experience with the hulls. He knows
the weaknesses particularly where the bow tank has allowed moisture to
penetrate. This knowledge has benefited
the Class generally.
The
East Coast Fleets were not in being long enough to establish a solid common
rapport but now that there are only two active centres, the Class has
consolidated and the relationship between East and West is excellent. Both give
a warm and social welcome to visitors for the Championships and because
Falmouth Week is a substantial Regatta, the Royal Harwich members stay on to
take full part in this Classic event of the West Country season.
1) John Furlong sent me this memory of a
race on the Crouch in 1968.
“On
a blowy day we were down to a two man crew due to a late defaulter and we all
broad reached from the start down the Crouch under plain sail and in close
company. Our windward performance up the Roach was abysmal, so with all the
courage and innocence of youth we set a spinnaker from the Roach buoy on a
broad reach and surfed past and away from everyone in a white knuckle ride that
ended abruptly when the wind veered sharply and we broached near the Branklet buoy. The incoming water surged to the bow as we
decelerated and we simply sailed under. Bobbing around just afloat with
gunwales awash, our attempt to bail with buckets was fruitless – she just
filled again as fast as we emptied.
So,
on a rising tide, we ran her ashore and bucketed out the water until she had
some freeboard. We then refloated, set sail and
limped home, pumping hard, to finish the race by sunset, to a very public and
raucous greeting from our competitors and others, drinks in hand on the Royal
Corinthian balcony. Oliver Lee was delighted!
We
must have been the first Ajax to sail under with all sails set!”
2) The Achilles
Oliver
retained control of the original Ajax ‘plug’ which vegetated in the corner of
his yard until a visit by Chris Butler, a boat builder from South Wales. He
asked whether Oliver would sell it and eventually secured it for £1000. If you
develop it, “don’t put my name on it”, said Oliver unwisely. They took it home
and added a few inches more freeboard and made a new deck mould. Thus the
‘Achilles 24’ was born. Some 600 yachts later, Oliver sorely regretted he had
not negotiated a royalty agreement!
3) Spinnaker.
This
word is said to have come into common usage after 1855 when a member of the
Royal Harwich Yacht Club owned a small 60 ton yacht named “Sphinx”. She set a
very large foresail which her fellow competitors named “Sphinx’s Acre”. This
nickname was shortened over time and became the word ‘Spinnaker’. The Club
still has a very large silver Trophy called the Sphinx Cup given by the owner
for Club competition. The Oxford English Dictionary notes the yacht as the
prime source of the word.
4) Notes from Doug Baldwin
(Holt Allen) joint owner -“Polly Oliver”
There was at Burnham a strong fleet of East Coast One Designs. The age of these was causing concern to insurance companies and keel bolts were being checked. If this was to spread to the Royal Corinthian and Royal Burnham One Designs, then the two oldest wooden classes would become extremely expensive to maintain.
Bob
Walkden and Oliver formed the initial consortium and
produced the plug, made by Jack Tue. If a syndicate member ordered a boat,
their financial input was offset against the price.
The
local competition was also in the Dragons and newly adopted Solings.
So the mould had to be made by a recognised moulder and Oliver chose Halmatic, having dealt with them
when he was at Alan Buchanan.
At
Holt Allen, I was keen to get spars onto larger day boats and cruisers. We had
started to make masts from two extrusions glued together with Araldite which
allowed us to fit internal reinforcing where necessary. This was how we made
the Ajax mast.
The
big mistake was calling the yacht a “National Ajax”. This did not go down well
with the RYA and retaining the N23 as the insignia compounded the error.
The
Squib killed off the Ajax at Burnham, it was half the price, was a two person
boat and nearly as fast. Oliver did have a knack of designing new boats which
made existing ones obsolete. He continued to do this when he designed and built
radio controlled models.
Tony
James August 2011
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are purely personal to those of the author and not the official view of the Ajax Owners Association.
Historical note: (Ajax fleet names adopted in bold)
Nelson’s Fleet at Trafalgar
Victory Royal Sovereign Britannia Dreadnought Neptune Prince Temeraire Tonnant
Achilles Ajax Bellerophon Colossus Defence Defiance
Leviathan Mars Minotaur Orion Revenge Swiftsure Thunderer Belleisle Spartiate
Africa Agamemnon Polyphemus Euralyus Naiad Phoebe Sirius Pickle Entreprenante
French ships at
Trafalgar
Bucentaure Formidable Indomitable Neptune Achille Aigle Algesiras Argonaute Duquay-Trouin
Fougeux Heros
Intrepid Mont-Blanc Pluton Redoutable
Scipion Berwick Swiftsure Hermione