Uffa: Yachting’s Eccentric Genius

Malcolm Turner will bring to life one of Cowes most charismatic characters, Uffa Fox and the Brighstone Barnacles will sing the sea shanties he loved.  The most influential designer in yacht racing history, his ‘planing’ dinghies and keel boats were infinitely faster and more seaworthy than the older, heavier boats which had dominated the sport since the late nineteenth century. Always much more than a naval architect, Fox was an irrepressible extrovert and original thinker, as well as singer, musician, journalist, author, painter, sportsman, campaigner, controversial businessman and friend of royalty. Turner’s biography of Fox, the first for 50 years, shows how a carpenter’s son from East Cowes not only transformed his sport but also created an international legacy which thrives to this day.