ILLINGWORTH & PRIMROSE DESIGN TEAM
Yacht design offices come in many shapes and sizes. Some comprise one ‘solo’ designer. Some feature a lead designer backed up by a team of draughtsmen – who often branch out to design under their own names once they’ve mastered their trade. And then there are the famous ‘duos’, such as Sparkman and Stephens or Illingworth and Primrose.
John Illingworth often collaborated with other designers before buying a yacht building company and then teaming up with Angus Primrose. Together they produced a series of groundbreaking designs before Illingworth retired, leaving Primrose to continue on his own and move into the world of GRP production boats. Between them they designed around 1,000 yachts that were built. In the process they trained several youngsters (such as John Sharp, Colin Silvester and Bill Dixon) who later set up their own successful design businesses.
John Illingworth (1903-1980) was a giant of post-war ocean racing. He added impetus to offshore competition in Britain, raised the standard of racing and wrote the classic sailing books Offshore, Further Offshore and The Malham Story. He also designed to the rating rules, helped inaugurate the Admirals Cup, galvanised French yacht production, helped invent overseas races (Sydney-Hobart, Giraglia etc) and showed that small yachts could be raced offshore as successfully as big ones.
In his early years, Illingworth served in the Royal Navy and the end of World War II found him in Australia organising repairs to the British Pacific Fleet. Then, sailing his Barber-designed 35ft (10.7m) – he joined several yachts on a cruise to Tasmania, suggesting this be turned into a race, and thus winning the inaugural Sydney-Hobart. Illingworth through a Force 9 southerly buster, and to this day she’s the smallest boat to take line honours on this 630-mile demolition derby. Illingworth became known in Australia as the father of modern ocean racing.
