CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2019 17OBITUARY
Lowell North 1929-
MALDON, ESSEX
Blue Mermaid's maiden sail
Blue Mermaid, the first new steel-built traditional Thames
sailing barge launched since the 1930s, has heeled to the
wind for the first time on her maiden voyage under sail.
Blue Mermaid is a replica of an eponymous ancestor,
destroyed by a German mine in the war. The new version
belongs to a youth charity named Sea-Change, and
has been undergoing fit-out in Maldon, Essex, since
being built by Toms and Son at Polruan. Heritage
Marine and James Lawrence Sailmakers were
responsible for the fit-out.
Like her predecessor, Blue Mermaid is engineless,
but this time the motivation is a low carbon
footprint. Sea-Change says it runs "an alternative
approach to education in a unique setting where
clients learn through activity in a structured and
safe, yet challenging environment."
Blue Mermaid will cruise the coastal waters of
the Thames Estuary, with crews of
disadvantaged sailors on board.Lowell North was a man respected by all, particularly
those like many of us who met him. It wasn’t hard
to like him; his personality radiated welcome. Even
his competitors held Lowell in respect and many of
them, as well as his close associates, dubbed him
“The Pope”. He was simply superior in technology
before it was even called that in sailmaking.
Lowell was first and foremost a sailor. From the
age of 14 when his father bought a Star and
persuaded young Lowell to crew for him, his lifetime
sport was set. The Star had cotton sails (it was 1944)
and they weren’t anything like the right shape. In
Lowell’s eyes they had to be altered, so he set about
it. He took them apart and re-cut the many panels
into a better shape. Subsequently, the family Star went faster.
After school Lowell trained as an aeronautical/aerospace
engineer – it gave him an even greater appreciation of the form
sails should take and the best method of producing that shape.
That appreciation led to the foundation of North Sails in 1957,
which soon brought his association with Tom Whidden and a
continuous delight in the Star class.
He won the Star World Championship, of which recently Bruno
Prada said: “To be Star Class world champion, I think, is the biggest
achievement a sailor can have. To win it twice is to be part of the
history of the Star class; it means a lot." Lowell did it five times, the
first crewing for Malin Burnham in 1945. He said: “It wasn’t me who
Malin really wanted, it was my mainsail!”There was no false modesty in the statement. When
I asked Malin Burnham about it some years ago, he
said, with a wry smile, something to the eect of
“He was a jolly good crew” and laughed.
Those worlds were held on Central Long Island
Sound but Lowell’s next success was not until Havana
in 1957. In the meantime, before he was 40, he had
won the nationals three times and been second four
times. His third world title was in Newport Harbour,
CA in 1959, then again the next year in San Diego.
At the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, Lowell took bronze
for the USA in the Dragons with Dick Deaver and
Charles Rogers. Four years later, back in the Stars,
he won gold at the 1968 Mexico Olympics.
In 1977, Lowell trialled for the America’s Cup in the 12-M
Enterprise. By then, he and his number two, John Marshall, were
turning sailmaking from an art to a science with developments in
sail cloth. In the trials, North faced rival sailmaker Ted Hood in
Independence and “mouth of the south” Ted Turner on Courageous.
Turner won, and went on to beat Alan Bond in Australia, four nil, in
the cup proper, a victory aided by North sail cloth.
Lowell’s sailmaking philosophy was simple said current CEO Tom
Whidden. “Get the best people, who he called 'tigers', and commit
yourself to the science and technology of making the best product."
Lowell retired from North Sails in 1984 and devoted his time to sailing
(racing and cruising) with his wife, Bea. Not long ago he told me,
“However much I enjoy this, and I do, it’s not a patch on Star sailing!”MERVYN MAGGSBY BOB FISHER