Uffa Fox CBE (15 January 1898 – 26 October 1972) was an English boat designer and sailing enthusiast, responsible for a number of innovations in boat design. Not afraid of courting controversy or causing offence, he is remembered for his eccentric behaviour and pithy quotes, as much as for his original boat designs.

Life

Fox was born on the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...

and was raised in East Cowes. He lived for a while in Puckaster on the Isle of Wight. In July 1921, Fox and a crew of nine sea scouts departed for the western Solent in a open whaler under the parental expectation that they were on a camping/sailing trip. He decided to extend the itinerary up the

Seine The Seine ( , ) is a river in northern France. Its drainage basin is in the Paris Basin (a geological relative lowland) covering most of northern France. It rises at Source-Seine, northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plat ...

towards Paris. In seven days, they travelled within 70 kilometres of the city when they turned around to return another five days later. After being met by the coast guard as presumed castaways, Fox was relieved of his role in the sea scouts. He was the subject of '' This Is Your Life'' in January 1963 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the Colston Hall in Bristol. He was also among the crew of the ''Typhoon'', an account of which was written and published by William Washburn Nutting in ''In the Track of Typhoon'' (1922). Fox joined the crew in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

for her transatlantic return via

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, and the

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into

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. He was a founding participant in the 1950s annual sea-side

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

match on Bramble Bank in the central Solent. Fox died in October 1972.

Work

Fox was responsible for innovations in

dinghy sailing Dinghy sailing is the activity of sailing small boats - usually for fun, learning necessary sailing skills (often also within family), and competition. RYA lists Five essentials of sailing dinghies as: * The sails * The foils (i.e. the dagge ...

that enhanced the popularity of the sport. His designs introduced planing hulls and trapezing to dinghy racing.

Sailboat racing

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and Fox became friends in 1949 and raced together frequently at Cowes Week aboard Fox's Dragon "''Fresh Breeze''" or the Duke's 'Royal' Dragon "''Bluebottle''". He also took the Royal children sailing at Cowes. Philip said of Fox in a foreword to his biography, “His life was one long campaign for the freedom of the human spirit and against the foolish, the stupid and the self-important, the whole conducted with a cheerful breeziness that disarmed all but the hardest of cases.”

Boat design

About 1943 he designed a lifeboat to be dropped from

Vickers Warwick The Vickers Warwick was a British twin-engined bomber aircraft developed and operated during the Second World War that was primarily used in other roles. In line with the naming convention followed by other RAF heavy bombers of the era, it wa ...

aircraft when rescuing downed aircrew or mariners; its deficiencies led to the more sturdy American A-1 lifeboat. An example of this craft and of others built and/or designed by Fox are in the collections of the Classic Boat Museum at East Cowes, Isle of Wight. These boats could be released from under the aeroplane retarded by six diameter

parachute A parachute is a device designed to slow an object's descent through an atmosphere by creating Drag (physics), drag or aerodynamic Lift (force), lift. It is primarily used to safely support people exiting aircraft at height, but also serves va ...

s. Although initially adapted for the Warwick, the lifeboat was subsequently also carried by Air-Sea Rescue Lancasters and B-17 Flying Fortresses. The museum also holds a large collection of photographs by and about Fox. He established boat design and building businesses in the south of England. He designed many of the significant classes of boats around today, including the planing International 14, the Foxhound, the Foxcub and Super Foxcub, the Flying Fifteen, the Flying Ten, the National 12, the National 18, the Albacore, the Swordfish, the Firefly, the

Javelin A javelin is a light spear designed primarily to be thrown, historically as a ranged weapon. Today, the javelin is predominantly used for sporting purposes such as the javelin throw. The javelin is nearly always thrown by hand, unlike the sling ...

, the Pegasus Dinghy, the Jollyboat and the Day Sailer. Many of his designs exploited the wartime developments of moulded plywood, extruded aluminium, Tufnol etc. In addition to dinghies, he designed several keelboats all loosely based on the same concept as the Flying Fifteen, with separate fin keel and rudder. They were very lightweight compared with other boats of the era. '' Huff of Arklow'' for Douglas Heard was 30'-0" on the waterline and ''Flying Fox'' for Fred Brownlee was 35'-0" waterline length. Uffa Fox designed the

Britannia The image of Britannia () is the national personification of United Kingdom, Britain as a helmeted female warrior holding a trident and shield. An image first used by the Romans in classical antiquity, the Latin was the name variously appli ...

rowing boat, used by John Fairfax for the first solo-rowing expedition across the Atlantic Ocean in 1969. The Britannia was described as "the

Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...

of rowing boats, made of mahogany." It was self-righting, self-bailing and partly covered. He also designed '' Britannia II'', used by Fairfax and Sylvia Cook to row across the Pacific Ocean in 1971 through 1972.

References

External links

Uffa Fox Website A picture of an Airborne Lifeboat being released
*LIFE magazin
photos
of Fox and the

Duke of Edinburgh Duke of Edinburgh, named after the capital city of Scotland, Edinburgh, is a substantive title that has been created four times since 1726 for members of the British royal family. It does not include any territorial landholdings and does not pr ...

St. Mildred's Churchyard
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fox, Uffa 1898 births 1972 deaths Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Boat and ship designers English male sailors (sport) People from Cowes British yacht designers 20th-century English sportsmen