Cowes, Isle of Wight, 1898 to 1972
The designs of Uffa Fox
Father of the planing dinghy, designer of the airborne lifeboat, and one of the great characters of British yachting.
High points
A life in boats
52 of 57
First places for the International Fourteen Avenger in 1928, the boat that proved the planing dinghy.
600
Airborne Lifeboats built to Uffa's design, giving ditched aircrew a chance to sail themselves to safety.
4,100+
Flying Fifteens built worldwide, the keelboat Uffa is said to have sketched in his bath one evening in 1947.
14,000+
O'Day Daysailers built, quietly the most numerous design he ever drew.
The collection
Three families of design
Dinghy Design
Avenger, the Firefly and the boats that made the planing dinghy a racing reality.
Keelboat Design
The Flying Fifteen and the Flying series: a dinghy sailor's idea of a keelboat.
Cruiser / Racer Design
Light displacement carried into cruising, from the Flying cruisers to the Foxcub.
"The only place for weight is in a steam roller."Uffa Fox
The man
Genius, eccentric and one of a kind
He took a troop of Sea Scouts towards Paris by whaleboat, crossed the Channel in a sliding-seat canoe, and raced the Flying Fifteen Coweslip with the Duke of Edinburgh. He designed to the very end, and wrote and sang as readily as he drew.
Cowes 2026
Uffa, the Duke of Edinburgh and Cowes Week
From the early 1950s Uffa was a fixture of Cowes Week, often crewing for Prince Philip aboard Bluebottle and Coweslip. To mark the Cowes Week bicentenary in 2026, Coweslip returns to the quay of his old home for the Sailing Through Royal History exhibition.
