''Great Britain II'' (also ''United Friendly'', ''Norsk Data GB'', ''With Integrity'', ''Whitbread Heritage'') is a Maxi racing yacht launched by Princess Anne on 21 May 1973 named after the , built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel which was the world's first "iron clad" steam ship and whose salvage from the

Falklands The Falkland Islands (; es, Islas Malvinas, link=no ) is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and about from Cape Dubouzet ...

was underwritten by Sir

Jack Hayward Sir Jack Arnold Hayward (14 June 1923 – 13 January 2015) was an English businessman, property developer, philanthropist, and president of English football club Wolverhampton Wanderers. Biography Early life The only son of Charles William ...

, who also funded the building of GB II.

Background

She was designed to take part in the first " Whitbread Round the World Race", designed by

Alan Gurney Alan may refer to: People *Alan (surname), an English and Turkish surname *Alan (given name), an English given name **List of people with given name Alan ''Following are people commonly referred to solely by "Alan" or by a homonymous name.'' *Al ...

, and built for Chay Blyth and a group of paratroopers, who went on to be the crew for the race. The 77 ft

sloop A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular sa ...

is constructed of fibreglass and foam sandwich to give the lightest possible

displacement Displacement may refer to: Physical sciences Mathematics and Physics *Displacement (geometry), is the difference between the final and initial position of a point trajectory (for instance, the center of mass of a moving object). The actual path ...

. Designed to be the fastest yacht in the world and finished in second place on handicap after the Mexican

Swan 65 The Swan 65 is a large Fibre glass fin+keeled masthead ketch- or sloop-rigged sailing yacht design, manufactured by Nautor's Swan. It was introduced as the new flagship of Nautor in 1973. At the time of its launch it was the largest GRP constr ...

named ''

Sayula II ''Sayula II'' is a Swan 65 yacht designed by Sparkman & Stephens Sparkman & Stephens is a naval architecture and yacht brokerage firm with offices in Newport, Rhode Island and Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, USA. The firm performs design and engineeri ...

'' – the first Whitbread Round the World Race winner in 1973. ''Great Britain II'' has taken part in all six Whitbread Round the World Races. Racing in the first five and "following" (not a registered participant) in the last, "transitional" Whitbread in 1993–94 under the name ''With Integrity'', sailing with a short handed crew. The following year the race became known as the Volvo Ocean Race. The boat is currently named the ''Whitbread Heritage'' and has been in private ownership since 1996.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Great Britain Ii Individual sailing vessels 1970s sailing yachts Volvo Ocean Race yachts Sailing yachts built in the United Kingdom Sailing yachts of the United Kingdom Sailboat type designs by Alan Gurney