The Loch Long One Design is a small wooden

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 ...

rigged

keelboat A keelboat is a riverine cargo-capable working boat, or a small- to mid-sized recreational sailing yacht. The boats in the first category have shallow structural keels, and are nearly flat-bottomed and often used leeboards if forced in open wat ...

. The design was commissioned by members of Loch Long Sailing Club to mark the 1937

coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth The coronation of George VI and his wife, Elizabeth, as King and Queen of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth, and as Emperor and Empress of India took place at Westminster Abbey, London, on Wednesday 12 May 1937. ...

and to replace their existing sailing craft with a low cost design which was capable of safe use in the local conditions found on

Loch Long Loch Long is a body of water in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. The Sea Loch extends from the Firth of Clyde at its southwestern end. It measures approximately in length, with a width of between . The loch also has an arm, Loch Goil, on its weste ...

and the

Firth of Clyde The Firth of Clyde is the mouth of the River Clyde. It is located on the west coast of Scotland and constitutes the deepest coastal waters in the British Isles (it is 164 metres deep at its deepest). The firth is sheltered from the Atlantic ...

. The lines of the Swedish

Stjärnbåt Stjärnbåt (lit. Star boat) is a sailboat class designed by Janne Jacobsson and built in about 530 copies. History A Janne Jacobsson-design won a design competition for a practise boat hosted by Royal Gothenburg Yacht Club in 1913. The Stjärn ...

were adapted by James Croll to add a

counter stern The stern is the back or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite the bow, the foremost part of a ship. Ori ...

, alter construction from clinker to carvel and allow a permanent

backstay A backstay is a piece of standing rigging on a sailing vessel that runs from the mast to either its transom or rear quarter, counteracting the forestay and jib. It is an important sail trim control and has a direct effect on the shape of the main ...

to be fitted.

Development

In order to keep ownership costs down and preserve the integrity of the Loch Long as a 'one design' class, new technology and ideas have been introduced sparingly and slowly. Although the spinnaker was first flown on the Solent in the 1960s, this somewhat capricious sail was not adopted by the class until 1975. Aluminium alloy masts were experimented with around the same time, but were not adopted for reasons of cost. Sails made of humanmade fibres were experimented with after the Second World War, and were adopted in 1961. Local conditions of strong tides and regular light winds caused sailors on the Forth to adopt a

genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

with a larger sail area than the original

jib A jib is a triangular sail that sets ahead of the foremast of a sailing vessel. Its tack is fixed to the bowsprit, to the bows, or to the deck between the bowsprit and the foremost mast. Jibs and spinnakers are the two main types of headsails ...

. In the 1990s, a battened jib with an increased sail area was developed to enhance sail durability and performance. New Loch Longs with strip planked hulls were admitted to the class in 1994; 5 boats have been constructed using this method so far, which is significantly cheaper to build than the original carvel construction.

Miscellany

* The first five Loch Longs cost just £66 each, compared to £300 for a Dragon OD (May 1937). * Luxury items – ''Minx'', No 10, built in 1938, was banned from racing until 1946. Built by Colquhoun for James Croll, her cost was twice that of a standard LLOD and she was considered a ‘luxury’ version, with a significantly lighter

hull Hull may refer to: Structures * Chassis, of an armored fighting vehicle * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a ship * Submarine hull Mathematics * Affine hull, in affi ...

and heavier

keel The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element on a vessel. On some sailboats, it may have a hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose, as well. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in the construction of a ship, in Br ...

. * The price for a new one has risen with inflation and the rise in the cost of labour and materials; by 1949 the cost had risen to £425, and to £495 by 1963. The first strip-plank Loch Long, No.136 ''Viva'' built in 1993, cost £15,000. * Loch Long number 8 ''Ripple'' appeared in the 1949 film ''

Floodtide ''Floodtide'' is a 1949 British romantic drama film directed by Frederick Wilson and starring Gordon Jackson, Rona Anderson, John Laurie and Jimmy Logan. The film was one of the four of David Rawnsley's films that used his "independent frame" ...

''. * Loch Long number 6 ''Sirocco'' was hit by a malfunctioning torpedo on 3 July 1957. * Out of more than 130 built, over 100 are believed to still exist.

Geographic Spread

There are active racing fleets at

Cove A cove is a small type of bay or coastal inlet. Coves usually have narrow, restricted entrances, are often circular or oval, and are often situated within a larger bay. Small, narrow, sheltered bays, inlets, creeks, or recesses in a coast are o ...

Sailing Club on the Clyde and

Aldeburgh Aldeburgh ( ) is a coastal town in the English county, county of Suffolk, England. Located to the north of the River Alde. Its estimated population was 2,276 in 2019. It was home to the composer Benjamin Britten and remains the centre of the int ...

Yacht Club on the

River Alde The River Alde and River Ore form a river system in Suffolk, England passing by Snape and Aldeburgh. The River Alde and River Ore meet northwest of Blaxhall. From there downriver the combined river is known as the River Alde past Snape and A ...

. In the past there have been fleets at

Gourock Gourock ( ; gd, Guireag ) is a town in the Inverclyde council area and formerly a burgh of the County of Renfrew in the west of Scotland. It was a seaside resort on the East shore of the upper Firth of Clyde. Its main function today is as a r ...

Tighnabruaich Tighnabruaich; (; gd, Taigh na Bruaich) is a village on the Cowal peninsula, on the western arm of the Kyles of Bute in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. In 2011 the population was 660. It is west of Glasgow and north of the Isle of Arran. Tighnabru ...

, Fairlie and

Largs Largs ( gd, An Leargaidh Ghallda) is a town on the Firth of Clyde in North Ayrshire, Scotland, about from Glasgow. The original name means "the slopes" (''An Leargaidh'') in Scottish Gaelic. A popular seaside resort with a pier, the town mark ...

on the Clyde, and Granton on the

Firth of Forth The Firth of Forth () is the estuary, or firth, of several Scottish rivers including the River Forth. It meets the North Sea with Fife on the north coast and Lothian on the south. Name ''Firth'' is a cognate of ''fjord'', a Norse word meani ...

. A few Loch Longs have escaped the straitjacket of racing and may be found elsewhere. They have been seen as far afield as

Kyle of Lochalsh Kyle of Lochalsh (from the Scottish Gaelic, Gaelic ''Caol Loch Aillse'', "strait of the foaming loch") is a village in the historic county of Ross-shire on the northwest coast of Scotland, located around west-southwest of Inverness. It is loca ...

, Falmouth and even across the Atlantic; at least one was exported to the US, and another was transported to Brazil by the artist

Simon Starling Simon Starling (born 1967) is an English conceptual artist and won the Turner Prize in 2005. Early life Simon Starling was born in 1967 in Epsom, Surrey. He studied photography and art at Maidstone College of Art from 1986 to 1987, then at Trent ...

and features as a piece of installation art.

Builders

Aldeburgh Boatyard

Builders no longer trading

Alexander Robertson & Sons Alexander Robertson & Sons was a boatyard in Sandbank, Argyll, Sandbank, Argyll and Bute, Scotland, from 1876 to 1980. The yard was located on the shore of the Holy Loch, not far from the Royal Clyde Yacht Club (RCYC) at Hunters Quay, in the bui ...

* William Boag of Largs * James Colquhoun & Sons of Dunoon * Robert Shaw of Cove * Nunn Bros. of Woodbridge, Suffolk * Bute Slip Dock Co. of Bute * J. Rodger of Glasgow * D. Munroe & Sons of Gairletter * C. Whisstock of Woodbridge, Suffolk * Fairlie Yacht Slip of Fairlie * McKellar's Slipway of Kilcreggan

References

* Wishart. R & McMurtrie. J (1987). "Loch Longs; the first fifty years..", Orr Pollock Co. Ltd. * Jamie Bruce Lockhart. "Loch Longs: The Third Quarter-Century 1987-2011" Peridot Press
Article on Loch Long championship 2008, Jamie Bruce-LockhartArticle on Loch Long championship 2003, Jamie Bruce-Lockhart
* September 1988 and September 1989 editions of 'Yachts and Yachting' magazine
Wilkes, James 2/11/2005 'Bottoms Up: Turner Prize 2005' Studio International

{{Reflist

Links

List of keelboat classes designed before 1970 The following is a list of established day keelboat#Modern keelboats, keelboat classes designed before 1970. One-design classes Development classes See also *Classic dinghy classes *Olympic sailing classes *List of sailing boat types Notes ...

External links

Cove Sailing Clubfacebook.com

Royal Gourock Yacht Club

Aldeburgh Yacht Club

'The Mahogany Pavilion (Mobile Architecture no.1)' (2004) in Brazil

Yachts & Yachting magazine
Keelboats 1930s sailboat type designs One-design sailing classes