HOWTH 17 footer class yachts

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The Howth 17 footers were designed by Sir W.H. Boyd, then Commodore of the Howth Sailing Club in Ireland.
The first five were built by John Hilditch at Garrickfergus in Belfast Lough, holding their first race on the 4th May 1898. The first five were named RITA, LEILA, SILVER MOON, AURA and HERA.
Three more were ready by 1900 built by Kelly at Portrush and completed under the name PAULINE, ZAIDA and ANITA.
By 1913 the ECHO, SYLVIA, MIMOSA, DEILGINIS, ROSAMARY, GLADYS, BOBOLINK, EILEEN and NAUTILUS had joined the fleet.

Altogether seventeen were built, one (the SILVIA) was badly damaged during a winter storm in 1915 and written off.
In July 1984 the MIMOSA foundered off the Baily and was lost, the crew was rescued.

May 1988 two new Howth 17 footers were built in a shed at Howth Castle and launched under the names of ISOBEL and ERICA.

May 2009 a newbuilding was added to the 17 footers, built by Charlie Featherstone and named SHEILA named after Shelagh Wilkinson, widow of Norman Wilkinson who had been the 6th owner of LEILA.

The original rig; a gaff mainsail of 202 sq. feet with a large distinctive topsail of 47 sq. feet, and either a reaching jib of 87 sq. feet or a racing jib of 56 sq. feet on a short bowsprit. The spinnaker is 110 sq. feet so when sailing before the wind the total sail area was a total of 446 sq. feet.

They weighed 2¼ tons with a fixed keel of 812 kg, length 22 feet overall, and 17 feet on the waterline, fully decked apart from an oval opening protected by a coaming 3 to 4 inch high. And large enough for the three crew to sail her. They stood on the floorboards with only the upper half of their body above deck level but the helmsman did have a seat.

These boats have raced continuously from the beginning and sailed hard by enthusiastic crews so that in a strong wind with the topsails set, a good bucket was essential piece of equipment to bail out excess water when she healed on the beat up wind.

Below deck was considerable space for storage forward of the cockpit and several boats were taken on short cruises to such places as the Isle of Man, Holyhead on the British mainland and Waterford Harbour, South Ireland, while the first five boats were sailed down to Howth from Belfast Lough in 1898.

Ireland 1982 29p sg527, scott? 2001 32/41c sg?, scott?

Source: Log Book volume 12 page57/58 written by Harry Jack, (who was a crewmember on one of the oldest boats for 5 years). http://www.hyc.ie/howthseventeen/history/history.asp

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