History - Class

The Osprey design was originally penned by the late Ian Proctor in the early 1950’s. It was designed for the Olympic Selection Trials along with several others; two of which became the Flying Dutchman and 505 of today. The Flying Dutchman was chosen after winning the trials. The Tempest Class, another Ian Proctor design, in their class history document makes mention of the Osprey and the IYRU trials.

Osprey’s in the early days often raced with a crew of three, although with introduction of the trapeze, (which was either invented or re-invented for the class depending on who’s memory you believe), the optimum racing crew became two. The class still allow 2 or 3 on board whilst racing and the use of the trapeze, but by only one crew member at a time.

The original design built in so much strength and longevity that this has influenced much in the development of the class. Old boats don’t fade away, but remain competitive as the day they were built for decades. Osprey 242 finished 3^rd in the National Championships in 1995, it is acknowledged that the owner had changed the layout from a Mk II to a Mk III.

There have only been three major changes which have taken place were in 1973, 2002 and 2005. In 1973 the Mk III was designed. This removed the rear buoyancy tank; the hull shape being kept the same. The principal reason behind this was to enable a good quality glass reinforced plastic (GRP) boat to be built. The original intention was achieved, the Mk III hull was no faster or lighter; just different.

In 2002 a change to the measurement rules allowed owners to have a half-height front buoyancy tank if they wished.

In 2005 the membership approved the proposals for a new FRP boat put forward by the committee and the new copyright holder. The rework of the FRP design to take into account modern FRP building techniques and knowledge was undertaken by Phil Morrison with support and approval of the Proctor family. Phil Morrison is a well known designer of many of the boats in the RS range and he also worked on the relaunch of the Kestrel class for Hartley Laminates. New moulds have been built for the hull & deck by Ian Teesdale and Kevin Driver, both well known and respected figures in the industry for this mould manufacture. The major changes are :-

• the transom design with a mini buoyancy tank a la RS400 to stiffen the whole transom
• the moving aft of the main thwart to give more space for the crew
• redesigned foreward bulkhead a la standard GRP 505

Although the shape and weight of the hull are strictly controlled, as are the sails. The rig controls are open and over the years travellers, hoops, strops, centre main sheeting and transom sheeting have all be tried, discarded and brought back as fashion changes. Also lower shrouds, mast struts and rams have been used. Many people have individual ideas and if adjustable spreaders work for one but not another, that’s fine.

The Osprey Class today boasts a wide variety of wooden, GRP and a few composite boats, all competing on level terms.

To be competitive it is neither necessary or possible to buy your way to the front of the fleet, unlike many classes where to be in front, it seems you need this year’s latest feature.

This has never and is never likely to be the case in the Osprey Class. But be prepared …

You may be beaten by a boat that’s older than you are!

If you have any information about the history of the class, e.g. old class magazines, copies of committee meeting minutes, press cuttings, please let our archivist John Rayner know.

Sail Number Issue History

Where paper copies are available they are gradually being scanned and made available on this web site in PDF format as individual pages. Note - some of the pages are quite large. i.e. over 1 Mbyte. Copies of the Class yearbook and Magazine / Newsletters that have been scanned are linked to directly below and will open in a new browser window or tab depending on how you have your browser set-up.