Island Life Magazine Ltd August/September 2016 | Page 67

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Local history

“Uffa was a genius
with a sailing boat
and his advice
on tactics and
knowledge of the
tidal conditions
in the Solent was
invaluable”

rowboat, used by another colourful character, John
Fairfax, for the first solo-rowing expedition across
the Atlantic Ocean in 1969. The Britannia was
described as, “The Rolls-Royce of rowboats, made
of mahogany.” It was self-righting, self-bailing and
partly covered. John Fairfax and Sylvia Cook later
rowed across the Pacific Ocean in Britannia II through
1971 and 1972, also designed and built by Uffa. The
brightly painted orange boat can be viewed at the
Classic Boat Museum in Cowes.
A prolific designer, Uffa designed many of the
significant classes of boats around today, including
the planing International 14, the Foxcub and
Super Foxcub, the Flying Fifteen, the Flying Ten,
the National 12, the National 18, the Albacore,

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the Firefly, the Javelin, the Pegasus Dinghy,
the Jollyboat and the Daysailer.
Uffa also designed ‘The Airborne Lifeboat’, a
somewhat cumbersome attachment beneath
wartime allied bomber aircraft that nevertheless
saved many lives. His gravestone at Whippingham
Church features the lifesaving boat that was dropped
from the underside of a plane and parachuted to the
water below when ditching from a stricken aircraft
into the sea. A surviving Airbourne Lifeboat can also
be viewed at the Classic Boat Museum in Cowes,
complete with radio transmitter, waterproof maps
and camping stove!
For some time Uffa lived on a converted former
floating bridge, moving it from one side of the river
to the other to avoid the rate collecting council
employees. Later he bought ‘Puckaster’ a beautiful
home on the south coast of the Isle of Wight, where
on one occasion he rode his horse ‘Frantic’ up the
stairs and into his bedroom.
In 1951 he offered the house to George VI for
recuperation after his chest operation. “The air at
Puckaster, I can assure you, will make the king eat like
a horse and sleep like a dog,” he wrote. Unfortunately,
the new owners, to whom Uffa had recently sold the
house, were not so enamoured of the idea.
On another occasion Uffa was playing cards with
friends in Blackwater, just south of Newport, when
a policeman burst into the house in pursuit of the
owner of a car that had been left parked across the
nearby level crossing, stopping the train in its tracks.
On admission of guilt, in his defence Uffa declared that
“The damn train had kept him waiting often enough”.
These are but a few colourful anecdotes on a man
who was larger than life and of whom stories are still
traded in Cowes.

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16/08/2016 15:21