CLASSIC BOAT NOVEMBER 2017 71DAVID BOYD
DAVID BOYD JR COLLECTION
America’s Cup success proved elusive, but contrary to public
perception, the designer’s post-war years were his most successful,
as we learn in the second, concluding part of our Boyd appraisal
WORDS EUAN ROSSDAVID BOYD
THE ROBERTSON YEARS
D
avid Boyd reported for duty at Alexander
Robertson and Sons’ yard in November 1929
at a fine starting salary of £5 per week, no
doubt justified by the competition for his
services. However, after an initial burst of activity on a
backlog of work, it became obvious that, in terms of new
orders, the forecast for the entire shipbuilding industry
on the Clyde was not encouraging. Prospects in ‘luxury’
yacht building may have been less bleak, but they were
by no means heartening. With so many wonderful
designers then at the peak of their powers, any young
pretender would have been lucky to pick up such work,
even if he was known to be a disciple of Fife.
In this difficult environment, Boyd’s impatience for
new commissions led him to enter design competitions.
His first successful submission, for a substantial 35ft (10.7m)
LWL ketch, was published in 1931. The following year,
he submitted a 55ft (16.8m) RORC rating cutter to the
seminal Royal Corinthian Design Competition of 1932.
On the work front, Boyd developed into a valued
professional rapport with James Barnett when Robertson's
won its first contract for a Watson Lifeboat in 1934.
Barnett remained a true friend and valued mentor through
the difficult aftermath of the America’s Cup Challenges.
James Rennie Barnett is perhaps a less familiar
name among yachtsmen today than some of the other
Scottish ‘greats’, since his wonderful portfolio lies
under the radar, or more precisely under the GL
Watson and Co name. Robertson’s built a total of 28
GL Watson designs by Barnett, so the design office
was well known to the yard and Robertson’s in turn
was a respected contractor who could be trusted to
deliver a boat that floated to her marks.David Boyd’s first major commission under his own
name was the 61ft (16.8m) yawl Zigeuner of 1935. His
initial in-house design work at Sandbank had been
attributed to Alexander. Now, Boyd made the semantically
significant transition from ‘draftsman’ to ‘designer’, and
with this came overdue design credits. The new yacht
was well received by the cognoscenti at her launch that
spring. On her first visit to the Solent, Zigeuner was
slipped for a scrub at Nicholson’s in Gosport. The great
Charles E Nicholson phoned his son John “in a state of
pleasure and excitement” and demanded that the boy
should come down to the yard immediately to admire
the boat there and then. Zigeuner established the Boyd/
Robertson combination as a potent formula for ‘design
and build’ on the Clyde.
But market trends were shifting gradually to favour
the new generation of more utilitarian RORC cruiser-
racers pioneered by Laurent Giles & Partners. There was
less emphasis on elegance and fine craftsmanship –
Robertson’s stock in trade. Consequently, for Boyd the
highlight of the pre-war years was a relatively small and
simple racing yacht. Circe was launched in 1937 and
took the yachting world by storm. She was twice winner
of the Seawanhaka Cup. Later, after the war, she was far
above any other 6-M on the Solent. Subsequently, Circe’s
reputation made Boyd the go-to designer for 6-M yachts
in Britain during the post-war years.
David Boyd may have been perpetually busy at his
place of work, but he generally made time for his other
interests; although later, during the Sceptre campaign, he
lamented that he “hardly had the time to lift a gun”. The
taciturn designer was renowned locally as an excellent
shot and for many years maintained his own roughCB353 Boyd pt2.indd 71 26/09/2017 15:12