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Concept
Uffa Fox
Summary
Uffa Fox (15 January 1898 – 26 October 1972) was an English boat designer and sailing enthusiast, responsible for a number of innovations in boat design. Not afraid of courting controversy or causing offense, he is remembered for his eccentric behaviour and pithy quotes, as much as for his original boat designs.
Fox was born on the Isle of Wight and was raised in East Cowes. He lived for a while in Puckaster on the Isle of Wight.
In July 1921, Fox and a crew of nine sea scouts departed for the western Solent in a open whaler under the parental expectation that they were on a camping/sailing trip. He decided to extend the itinerary up the Seine towards Paris. In seven days, they traveled within 70 kilometers of the city when they turned around to return another five days later. After being met by the coast guard as presumed castaways, Fox was relieved of his role in the sea scouts.
He was the subject of This Is Your Life in January 1963 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the Colston Hall in Bristol.
He was also among the crew of the Typhoon, an account of which was written and published by William Washburn Nutting in In the Track of Typhoon (1922). Fox joined the crew in England for her transatlantic return via France, Spain, and the Azores into New York City.
He was a founding participant in the 1950s annual sea-side cricket match on Bramble Bank in the central Solent.
Fox died in October 1972.
Fox was responsible for innovations in dinghy sailing that enhanced the popularity of the sport. His designs introduced planing hulls and trapezing to dinghy racing.
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and Fox became friends in 1949 and raced together frequently at Cowes Week aboard Fox's Dragon "Fresh Breeze" or the Duke's 'Royal' Dragon "Bluebottle". He also took the Royal children sailing at Cowes. Philip said of Fox in a foreword to his biography, “His life was one long campaign for the freedom of the human spirit and against the foolish, the stupid and the self-important, the whole conducted with a cheerful breeziness that disarmed all but the hardest of cases.
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