Bruce Robert William Kirby, (2 February 1929 – 19 July 2021) was a Canadian-born sailboat designer, dinghy and offshore racer and journalist. His designs spanned in size from the single-handed

Laser dinghy The Laser is a class of single-handed, one-design sailing dinghies using a common hull design with three interchangeable rigs of different sail areas, appropriate to a given combination of wind strength and crew weight. Bruce Kirby designed ...

to the

12-meter class The 12 Metre class is a rating class for racing sailboats that are designed to the International rule. It enables fair competition between boats that rate in the class whilst retaining the freedom to experiment with the details of their designs. ...

Louis Vuitton Cup yacht, ''

Canada One ''Canada One'' is a 12-metre class yacht that competed in the 1983 Louis Vuitton Cup and finished fourth. In 1985 she was re-built into Canada II ''Canada II'' is a 12-metre class yacht that competed in the 1987 Louis Vuitton Cup. The boat's de ...

''. He continued his design work in his American company, Bruce Kirby Marine.

Career

Kirby was born in

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

. A Canadian newspaperman and former editor of ''Yacht Racing'' (predecessor to ''

Sailing World Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' (sailing ship, sailboat, raft, windsurfer, or kitesurfer), on ''ice'' (iceboat) or on ''land'' (land yacht) over a chosen cour ...

''), he designed the

Laser A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word "laser" is an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation". The fir ...

in 1969. Kirby started as a reporter in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

before editing ''Yacht Racing'' and, in his spare time, taking up yacht design and drawing the Laser. In 1970 Kirby became editor of ''Yacht Racing'', where he stayed until 1975. Kirby's career began with the

International 14 The International 14 is a British racing sailboat, crewed by two sailors. The class was established in 1928. The boat is a developmental sailing class and so the design rules and the boats themselves have changed dramatically over time to keep ...

class, a developmental skiff with relatively few rules. Kirby designed several International 14s, winning the world championships in 1958 and 1961. Kirby also represented

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

at the Olympic regattas in 1956 and 1964, sailing

Finns Finns or Finnish people ( fi, suomalaiset, ) are a Baltic Finnic ethnic group native to Finland. Finns are traditionally divided into smaller regional groups that span several countries adjacent to Finland, both those who are native to these ...

, and in a

Star A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...

in 1968. Kirby's most widely recognized contribution to the sport of sailing was his design of the Laser dinghy. Starting in the 1970s, Kirby designed two

America's Cup The America's Cup, informally known as the Auld Mug, is a trophy awarded in the sport of sailing. It is the oldest international competition still operating in any sport. America's Cup match races are held between two sailing yachts: one f ...

12-Meters, ''

'' and ''

Canada II ''Canada II'' is a 12-metre class yacht that competed in the 1987 Louis Vuitton Cup. The boat's designer was Bruce Kirby and the boat was built by Fred McConnell Marine, Ltd, of Parry Sound, Ontario. The boat's original home was in Halfmoon Ba ...

'', the

Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...

Sonar Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigation, navigate, measure distances (ranging), communicate with or detect o ...

Blazer 23 The Blazer 23 is a Canadian Trailer sailer, trailerable sailboat that was designed by Bruce Kirby (yachts), Bruce Kirby as Sailing (sport), racer-Cruising (maritime), cruiser and first built in 1988.Henkel, Steve: ''The Sailor's Book of Small C ...

Kirby 25 The Kirby 25 is a Canadian trailerable sailboat, that was designed by Bruce Kirby as a racer and first built in 1978. The design is out of production.Henkel, Steve: ''The Sailor's Book of Small Cruising Sailboats'', page 352. International M ...

, and

Kirby 30 The Kirby 30 is a Canadian racing sailboat, that was designed by Bruce Kirby and first built in 1981. The Kirby 30 design was a follow-on to the Kirby 25 and it was later developed into the Mirage 30 SX in 1985. Production The boat was buil ...

Ideal 18 The Ideal 18 is a Canadian trailerable sailboat that was designed by Bruce Kirby as a one design racer and first built in 1989.Sherwood, Richard M.: ''A Field Guide to Sailboats of North America, Second Edition'', pages 88-89. Houghton Miff ...

, and the Pixel, a double-handed trainer that replaced the Blue Jay on Long Island Sound. The

San Juan 24 The San Juan 24 is an American trailerable sailboat that was designed by Bruce Kirby as an International Offshore Rule Quarter Ton class racer.Henkel, Steve: ''The Sailor's Book of Small Cruising Sailboats'', page 261. International Marine/M ...

was extremely successful, with over a thousand built since its debut. Designed to the

IOR The abbreviation IOR may refer to: * Importer of record, term in import and export * inclusive or - as opposed to XOR (exclusive OR) * Independent Order of Rechabites * Index of refraction * India Office Records * Indian Ocean Region * Indian Ocea ...

rating, it was the basis for many of Kirby's later offshore designs. Kirby also served as both designer and skipper on ''Runaway'', one of three yachts in Canada's 1981

Admiral's Cup The Admiral's Cup was an international yachting regatta. For many years it was known as the unofficial world championship of offshore racing. The Admiral's Cup regatta was started in 1957 and was normally a biennial event (occurring in odd-numbe ...

campaign. Kirby designed Norwalk Islands Sharpies, a line of high powered, shallow-draft sailboats from 18 ft. to 41 ft. The designs use modern plywood, fiberglass and epoxy construction. The

is the largest of three classes used in Paralympic sailing. Kirby was also part of the international committee elected to create the IACC boats (International America's Cup Class) used in the America's Cup between 1992 in

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

and 2007 in

Valencia, Spain Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area also ...

Recognition

Kirby was inducted into the

National Sailing Hall of Fame The National Sailing Hall of Fame is a nonprofit educational organization that promotes sailing and racing by recognizing individuals who have contributed to the sport, highlighting sailing's contribution to the American culture; and demonstrating i ...

in 2012. In 2017, he was named as a Member of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the ...

and later was invested into the Order of Canada for his contributions to the sport of sailing. The award was presented personally to Kirby by

Julie Payette Julie Payette (; born October 20, 1963) is a Canadian engineer, scientist and former astronaut who served from 2017 to 2021 as Governor General of Canada, the 29th since Canadian Confederation. Payette holds engineering degrees from McGill ...

Governor General of Canada The governor general of Canada (french: gouverneure générale du Canada) is the federal viceregal representative of the . The is head of state of Canada and the 14 other Commonwealth realms, but resides in oldest and most populous realm, t ...

, in September 2018 at a ceremony at

Rideau Hall Rideau Hall (officially Government House) is the official residence in Ottawa of both the Canadian monarch and their representative, the governor general of Canada. It stands in Canada's capital on a estate at 1 Sussex Drive, with the main b ...

. He was in the first induction of the

Lisgar Collegiate Institute Lisgar Collegiate Institute is an Ottawa-Carleton District School Board secondary school in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The school is located in downtown Ottawa by the Rideau Canal. History In 1843, a grammar school with 40 paying students was ...

Athletic Wall of Fame, as part of the 160th Anniversary celebrations. He was a member of the

Noroton Yacht Club Noroton Yacht Club (NYC) is a private yacht club in Noroton, Connecticut, on Noroton Harbor. Located in the Noroton Bay neighborhood, the club was founded in 1928 and today hosts the best junior sailing programs in the world. Youths from 8–17 y ...

Boats

Boats designed by Kirby include:

References

External links

Official biography
on

archive.org The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kirby, Bruce 1929 births 2021 deaths Sportspeople from Ottawa Canadian yacht designers Canadian male sailors (sport) Members of the Order of Canada Olympic sailors of Canada Sailors at the 1956 Summer Olympics – Finn Sailors at the 1964 Summer Olympics – Finn Sailors at the 1968 Summer Olympics – Star Lisgar Collegiate Institute