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Yacht Designers William Fife III | William Fife III |
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The first William Fife was born in 1775 who originally worked as a wheel and mill wright but turned out to be a very good yacht builder. He started building yachts on the windy shores of Fairly of the river Clyde in Scotland. This boat building was continued by his son, William II, and later it was the next generation to take over, and was then led by William Fife III. The yacht designing of William Fife III Started early, right after school at the young age of only 19 he designed his first boat. It was to be a cutter named Clio a 5-toner yacht. Clio was successfully sailed by William Fife III’s uncle, Allan Fife, who was known as one of the best sailors on the Clyde. The 5-toner class was a popular class on the Clyde and soon William Fife III was asked to design another 5-toner, Camelia. Camelia with her able skipper and owner turned out to be a real success with no less then five firsts and two seconds in the first eleven races she started in. With that William Fife III’s start as a racing designer started!William Fife III already from the beginning spent much time on studding wave formation at various speeds for yachts to make his designs better and faster. Only a few years later William Fife III decided he needed to widen his knowledge as a designer and went to work for a shipyard named J Fullerton at Paisley. Here the work was mostly to design steel and iron commercial vessels. However he still during this time designed a few vessels for the family yard. One of the vessels he designed during this time was the first larger vessel he did, the 40-ton class cutter Slouth Hound for the Marquis of Ailsa. This yacht and the design of another yacht during this time period named Annasona was the establishing of William Fife III as a great designer in the big boat class. In 1881 William Fife III was asked by the Marquis of Ailsa to run a new yacht building yard he wanted to start not far away from the Fife family yard. As the father of William Fife III was still running the family yard, William Fife III went on to the new yard to work there as the manager and designer. However he soon returned back to the family yard and it did not take many years for the still young William Fife III to make him self a name as one of the top racing yacht designers in the UK. During this period William Fife III designed famous and successful big racing yachts like the two racing schooners Cicely and Susanne. He also designed two Americas Cup challengers Shamrocks I and Shamrocks III. Even if it to this point might seem like William Fife III’s history as a designer was only a success this was not the case at all. William Fife III’s first big class yacht, the Calluna built in 1893, was not as successful. Calluna did not live up to its target at all, and found itself racing against yachts like the rival designed yachts Valkyrie II and Britannia from the designs of Watson. Compared to these yachts the William Fife III designed Calluna just could not compete and she proved to be a big disappointment to her owner. Later in 1911 William Fife III was again given the great opportunity of designing a big boat again when G Cecil Whitaker placed an order for a A-Class racing schooner Waterwitch. This was to become the largest racing yacht ever designed by William Fife III, but she was also to become the greatest disappointment to William Fife III! The racing yacht Waterwitch was, skipper by a first class skipper and had a very professional crew and build of steel, she was said to show an over sized quarter wave when sailing and also something described as a hesitation when tacking. In the first winter the boat was redesigned with the help of some ideas from the yachts skipper to be able to perform better the next season of racing. When spring came the yachts owner waited with excitement to see if the changes had made any difference but little had been achieved, she still was not compatible with other yachts of the era. After only a few weeks her owner ordered the yacht up on land, stripped her of anything that could be used such as sails, masts and fittings and had a new yacht designed by Camper & Nicholsons who used the parts that had been stripped of the Waterwich. New boat named Margherita went on to be a very successful racing yacht with fame and glory to follow its 11 first and 3 second placements in the first 15 races it entered! In the 1920’s William Fife III had reached the age of 60 and the work at the yard was starting to take its toll, he sought assistance to continue the yard and its designs. The person to join him and pump in some fresh blood to the business was to be is nephew R Balderson Fife. He quickly grew in to the ways of William Fife III and the yard continued to design basically only sailing boats. There where many successes in the designs of yachts according to the rating rules of 6 meters, 8 meters and 12 meters classes. Fife was awarded an OBE for his work. He died in 1944, never having married and without an heir. He is buried in Largs. The yard was continued for some years after his death by his nephew, but never achieved the renown known under Fife's ownership.
Vanity, Built 1923, 12 meter international rating rule (12mR) |
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