Charles William Lapworth (12 December 1919 – 3 April 2006) was an

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naval architect This is the top category for all articles related to architecture and its practitioners. {{Commons category, Architecture occupations Design occupations Architecture, Occupations ...

who designed a large number of

sailboat A sailboat or sailing boat is a boat propelled partly or entirely by sails and is smaller than a sailing ship. Distinctions in what constitutes a sailing boat and ship vary by region and maritime culture. Types Although sailboat terminology ...

s, many of them for

Cal Yachts Cal Yachts (also known as Jensen Marine and Cal Boats) was a manufacturer of performance oriented fiberglass sailboats from the 1960s to the 1980s. The Costa Mesa, California, headquartered company was founded in 1957, among the earliest of all ...

. He was active as a designer from the early 1950s until the 1980s. Described as "one of the foremost West Coast naval architects in the post-World War II period", he has been nominated to the US

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 ...

Early life

Born on 12 December 1919 in

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. He went to the

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, completing a degree in

marine engineering Marine engineering is the engineering of boats, ships, submarines, and any other marine vessel. Here it is also taken to include the engineering of other ocean systems and structures – referred to in certain academic and professional circl ...

and naval architecture. He went on to serve in the

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...

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as an officer in the bureau of ships at

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. He later served at naval repair base at

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Professional life

After the war Lapworth moved to

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

and became partners in a yacht design business with Merle Davis in

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. In less than a year Davis had died, leaving Lapworth to run the business alone. He earned some income by doing

marine surveyor A Marine Surveyor (including "yacht & small craft surveyor", "hull & machinery surveyor" and/or "cargo surveyor") is a person who conducts inspections, surveys or examinations of marine vessels to assess, monitor and report on their condition and t ...

work. He soon progressed to sailboat design work, drawing new rigs to update some west coast racing sailboats. He designed new rigs for the sloop ''Patolita'', later renamed ''Serious II''. He also designed the conversion of the

schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...

''Morningstar'' to a

ketch A ketch is a two- masted sailboat whose mainmast is taller than the mizzen mast (or aft-mast), and whose mizzen mast is stepped forward of the rudder post. The mizzen mast stepped forward of the rudder post is what distinguishes the ketch fr ...

rig and the schooner ''Queen Mab'', which was converted to a

staysail A staysail ("stays'l") is a fore-and-aft rigged sail whose Sail components#Edges, luff can be affixed to a stays (nautical), stay running forward (and most often but not always downwards) from a mast (sailing), mast to the deck (ship), deck, the b ...

schooner. Lapworth also competed as a racing

sailor A sailor, seaman, mariner, or seafarer is a person who works aboard a watercraft as part of its crew, and may work in any one of a number of different fields that are related to the operation and maintenance of a ship. The profession of the s ...

, sailing

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 ...

s. He completed in the class championships in

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in 1948 and in

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in 1949. He created a series of custom boat designs for light displacement racers that quickly developed a reputation for winning races, or at least placing highly in them. His early boats included ''Flying Scotsman'' and ''Nalu II'', a boat that won the

Transpacific Yacht Race The Transpacific Yacht Race (Transpac) is a biennial offshore yacht race held in odd-numbered years starting off the Pt. Fermin buoy in San Pedro, California and ending off Diamond Head in Hawaii, a distance of around . In even-numbered years the P ...

Class C four times and overall once, in 1958. He designed the second-place overall Transpacific winner in 1961, named ''Ichiban'', a sloop. By 1958, 70 of his wooden Lapworth 36 design had been produced, but the age of wooden sailboats was at its end. The new material to construct boats from was now

fiberglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass cloth ...

and Lapworth started drawing boats taking advantage of its strength and lightness. His skills attracted the attention of Jack Jensen of Jensen Marine, who walked into Lapworth's office and asked him to design a new line of fiberglass sailboats. The deal was closed with just a handshake and became one of the longest and most successful commercial sailboat building relationships, lasting until after Jensen died in 1980. Lapworth's first design was a sloop. Jensen had intended to call it the ''Lapworth 24'', but Lapworth had previously designed a boat with that designation for another customer and so they decided to call it the Cal 24 (for California) and the line became the

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...

of Jensen Marine. The most successful was the

Cal 20 The Cal 20 is an American sailboat, that was designed by C. William Lapworth and first built in 1961. Production The boat was built by Cal Yachts in the United States from 1961 to 1975, but it is now out of production. The Cal 20 was seen by ...

, of which more than 1,900 were built. His 1963 Cal 40 design was noted for its speed and race-winning history.

Personal life

Lapworth married his wife, Peggy, in 1966 and at the time of his death they had been married for 40 years. They had five children, Barbara Burman Rolph, Charles William Lapworth III, Robert Lapworth, Jr., Susan Cohl and Kim Sorenson. They also had five grandchildren. Lapworth's favourite of his own designs was the Cal Cruising 46 and he owned and sailed one for many years. His

obituary An obituary ( obit for short) is an article about a recently deceased person. Newspapers often publish obituaries as news articles. Although obituaries tend to focus on positive aspects of the subject's life, this is not always the case. Ac ...

noted his sailing skills, stating, "as a shipmate Bill was absolutely tops to sail with; a consummate helmsman and extremely valuable tactician; always sought as a crew on major races. He also sailed on boats not of his own design, providing these most useful characteristics to their owners. His designs gave him a primacy never before achieved by a naval architect as yet on the west coast. His calm demeanor was a most recognized characteristic and his evenhanded nature fostered only the best in his fellow sailors."

Death

Lapworth died on 3 April 2006 at age 86 and was

buried at sea Burial at sea is the disposal of human remains in the ocean, normally from a ship or boat. It is regularly performed by navies, and is done by private citizens in many countries. Burial-at-sea services are conducted at many different location ...

on 7 April 2006 from the Newport Harbor Yacht Club, in Balboa, California.

Boat designs

Lapworth designed a large number of sailboats, many of them for Cal Yachts: * Lapworth 32 - 1951 * Lapworth 26 - 1953 * Cal 24 - 1958 * Gladiator 24 - 1958 * Lapworth 24 - 1958 * Lapworth 39 - 1959 * Lapworth 40 - 1960 * Metcalf - 1960 *

- 1961 * Cal 30 - 1961 * Islander 44 - 1962 * Lapworth 50 - 1962 * Cal 28 - 1963 * Cal 40 - 1963 * Endeavor 26 - 1963 *

Cal 25 The Cal 25 is an American trailerable sailboat, that was designed by C. William Lapworth and first built in 1965. Production The boat was built by Jensen Marine/Cal Yachts in the United States between 1965 and 1976, and also by Calgan Mari ...

- 1965 * Newport 16 - 1965 * Cal 48 - 1966 *

Cal 2-24 The Cal 2-24, also called the Cal 24-2 and the Cal 24 Mark II is an American trailerable sailboat that was designed by C. William Lapworth as a racer and first built in 1967.Henkel, Steve: ''The Sailor's Book of Small Cruising Sailboats'', p ...

- 1967 * Cal Cruising 46 - 1967 * Cal Cruising 36 - 1968 *

Cal 29 The Cal 29 is an American sailboat, that was designed by William Lapworth and first built in 1971. A special cruising version was designated as the Cal 2-29. Production The boat was built by Cal Yachts in the United States, between 1971 and ...

- 1968 * Cal 34 - 1968 * Cal 2-30 - 1968 * Cal 21 - 1969 * Crown 23 - 1969 * Cal 39 - 1970 * Calgan 23 - 1970 * Lapworth 48 - 1970 * Cal 27 - 1971 * Cal 33 - 1971 * Cal 43 - 1971 * Cal T/4 - 1971 * Cal 2-46 - 1971 * Cal T/2 - 1972 *

Cal 35 Cruise The Cal 35 Cruise is an American sailboat that was designed by C. William Lapworth as a cruiser and first built in 1973. The Cal 35 Cruise is sometimes confused with the later Cal 35 series of sailboats. Production The design was built by ...

- 1973 * Cal 3-30 - 1973 *

Cal 2-27 The Cal 2-27 is an American sailboat, that was designed by William Lapworth and first built in 1974. The Cal 2-27 design replaced the earlier Cal 27 and was replaced in turn in the Cal Yachts line, by the Cal 3-27 in 1983. Production The Cal ...

- 1974 * Cal 2-29 - 1974 * Cal 3-46 - 1975 * Cal 2-34 - 1975 *

Crown 28 The Crown 28 is a Canadian sailboat, that was designed by naval architect C. William Lapworth in conjunction with Calgan Marine founder Al Nairne and first built in 1976. Calgan Marine had produced several Cal Yachts designs under licence a ...

- 1976 *

Cal 2-25 The Cal 2-25 (also called the Cal 25-2 and Cal 25 Mark II) is an American sailboat that was designed by C. William Lapworth as a cruiser-racer and first built in 1977.Sherwood, Richard M.: ''A Field Guide to Sailboats of North America, Second ...

- 1977 * Cal 34-III - 1977 * Cal 39 Mark II - 1978 * Cal 31 - 1979 *

Cal 35 The Cal 35 is an American sailboat that was designed by C. William Lapworth as a cruiser and first built in 1979.Sherwood, Richard M.: ''A Field Guide to Sailboats of North America, Second Edition'', pages 270-271. Houghton Mifflin Company, 19 ...

- 1979 * Martinique 25 - 1979 *

Neptune 16 The Newport 16 is an American trailerable sailboat that was designed by Bill Lapworth as a daysailer and a pocket cruiser and first built in 1965.Henkel, Steve: ''The Sailor's Book of Small Cruising Sailboats'', page 33 and 47. International M ...

- 1981 * Cal 39 Mark III - 1983 *

Cal 3-27 The Cal 3-27 is an American sailboat, that was designed by William Lapworth and first built in 1983. The Cal 3-27 is a development of the Cal 2-27, which was in turn a development of the Cal 27. The Cal 3-27 was also marketed as the Cal 27 M ...

- 1983 * Phoenix 12 - 1983 * Gloucester 16 - 1986

References