Uffa Fox was a Vectisian. He was born, lived and finally was buried on the Isle of Wight. He made his name designing sailing dinghies, keelboats and yachts but also designed canoes, rowing boats, and airborne lifeboats. He was a close friend of the late Prince Philip, with whom he sailed and raced frequently. He may, I think, fairly be described as a maverick, the like of which is rarely seen in today's heavily regulated world.
Fox was born on the Isle of Wight, in 1898, and was raised at East Cowes. After school, he was apprenticed to S. E. Saunders, the Cowes boatbuilders, for seven years. When he had served his apprenticeship, he established his own boatbuilding business based in a former Cowes ferry on the Medina river. He lived his whole life (when he was not at sea) in Cowes, his last home being the Commodore's House, overlooking Cowes Harbour. He died at the house of a friend in Worcester, in 1972, and is buried at Whippingham, on the Isle of Wight.
Fox's first notable design was a 14' sailing dinghy with a planing hull, which was a precursor to the International 14 class. He designed and built a sailing canoe, which he used to make an Atlantic crossing. He designed successful sailing dinghies for the National 12, 14 and 18 classes. During WW2 he designed an airborne lifeboat, examples of which were carried by Vickers Warwicks, Avro Lancasters and Boeing B-17s of RAF Coastal Command. Their purpose was to be dropped near downed airmen, who would then raise a mast and sail and sail to safety. After the war he designed more sailing dinghies, including the Albacore, Firefly (an Olympic class in the 1948 Olympics), Javelin, Pegasus, Duckling and Jollyboat. His Flying Fifteen, a keelboat, was a very successful design, which spawned a range of similar racing day boats of varying lengths - from the Flying Ten to the Flying Twenty Five. The same basic planing hull design spawned the Flying Twenty Five to Flying Fifty range of cruising and racing yachts. He also designed and built the Britannia rowing boat, used by John Fairfax for the first self propelled Atlantic crossing in 1969. In addition to designing and building boats, he wrote extensively on the subject.
