Phil Morrison (yachts)
Encyclopedia
Phil Morrison is a British
boat
designer and racer rendered notable by the success of his many designs in many classes since 1967 as well as his own distinguished yacht racing career.
He was born in Eastbourne
, England
.
His designs embrace dinghies, yachts, rowing boats, and multihull
s; he has been successful in a yacht and dinghy racing career since the late 1960s. He is noted for blending innovation with elegant well engineered structures and high performance, whilst also delivering users controllability
and sailability.
, during the late fifties and sixties. Joining the nearby Pevensey
Bay Sailing Club he learnt to sail the National 12 Class racing dinghy. The National 12 is a development class were anyone can design and build new boats within specific restrictions, such as length, beam, weight and sail area. At the age of 18 he designed his first racing dinghy, a National 12 called "China Doll" (1967) which was built by "Spud" (Peter) Rowsell in Exmouth
, commencing a long association between the designer and that Devon town. Morrison sailed China Doll with Pete Wargent very successfully and the design became popular, making his name as a young designer, a series of different and successful National 12 designs followed over the next 25 years such as "Whisper" "Paper Dart" "Windfall" "Marmite Soldier" and "Crusader".
Meanwhile he qualified in Naval Architecture at Southampton
University, then worked for marine fittings manufacturer Sea-Sure, designing a range of racing dinghy fittings which are still in production 35 years later.
Morrison designed his first Merlin Rocket "September Girl" which he sailed at the Whitstable
Championships in 1969. This led to a string of very successful Merlin Rocket designs such as "Satisfaction", "Smoker's Satisfaction", "Summer Wine" and "NSM" (New Smoking Material). Morrison's designs won every Merlin Rocket Championship for 17 years from 1972 to 1988. See Merlin Rocket Designs http://www.merlinrocket.co.uk/design%20guide/page09.html and Merlin Rocket Design Guide http://www.merlinrocket.co.uk/design_guide/designguide2007_part2.htm and Keith Callaghan's, a rival designer, memory of Morrsion's eventual supremacy in the Merlins http://www.bluelightning.co.uk/Merlins/mrsummary.htm
Merlin Rocket Design Guide http://www.merlinrocket.co.uk/design_guide/designguide2007_part2.htm
His next step was to design an International 14
, "Snoggledog", built by Laurie Smart
, with which Morrison and Ray Sellings took second place in the Prince of Wales Cup race in Torbay in 1973, their second year in the class. Again this led to a string of designs for the Fourteens over the next 25 years. See International 14s History http://www.international14.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=24&Itemid=29
Morrison also designed several small keel boats during the 1970s such as the Quarter Tonner "Bof" for Bob Brooks (who made the famous Cadbury's Smash Adverts with Martians made of dustbins).
Morrison campaigned the ultimate two sail racing boat the Olympic Star
with Andy Street in 1983/4.
near Pevensey Bay. He developed his own systematic and precise means of designing and cutting sails which enabled precise reproduction of previous designs something which was an unusual feature amongst British Sailmakers at that time.
Like many other yacht designers of his generation he was significantly influenced in his approach to both yacht and sail design by "Sailing Theory & Practice" by the Polish Author Czesaw A. Marchaj, first published in 1964.
Morrison's first direct exposure to designing in the more restricted One Design Classes, classes of dinghy which are supposed to all be nearly identical, subject to normal building tolerances, came with an invitation to design an "optimised" version of the Ian Proctor
classic design the Wayfarer
for Gordon Frickers
http://www.frickers.co.uk/ who is now a well known maritime artist. The resulting boat, "Wellington" was raced very successfully and Morrison went on to "optimise" designs in many one design classes as diverse as the Salcombe Yawl
and the International Fireball, in the latter winning the World Championships with Jon Turner
in Weymouth Bay
in 1981.
After an earlier abortive attempt to start a new twin trapeze One Design Class, the "Gemini", in 1978/9 with Bill Twine and Nick Lightbody http://www.deskspace.com/blog.htm at Pevensey Bay, Phil started receiving commissions to design new one designs for dinghy manufacturers, starting with the Laser 2000 (dinghy)
for and followed by a series of Racing Sailboats (RS) designs for LDC
(RS200 RS400 RS800
etc.) and numerous designs for other dinghy manufacturers. For example the RS Elite http://www.rssailing.com/fleetsnew.asp?fleet=RS%20Elite&selection=Details%20and%20Spec
The more exotic projects clearly still fascinated him as a designer leading him to join the design teams of the last two British America's Cup Challenges with reunited him with other designers who had also cut their teeth in National Twelves such as Jo Richards and Hugh Welborne.
In 2006 the Wayfarer Class, perhaps mindful of Morrison's earlier contribution to their class development with Wellington, commissioned him to redesign and update the Wayfarer for the current generation http://www.wayfarer.org.uk/index.php?id=28&cmd=news. In July 2007 Cliff Norbury is quoted by the Wayfarer Class Association as recommending the adoption of the updated Morrison Wayfarer design as follows:
“Richard Hartley, the new Copyright Holder of the Wayfarer dinghy, has commissioned Phil Morrison to update the design of the boat to incorporate new manufacturing techniques and modernise the internal layout, and be competitive with existing GRP and wood boats racing in the Class. A prototype of this new design has been produced, and Mr Hartley requested advice on whether the performance objective has been achieved, so that the new model could be satisfactorily incorporated into the Class. To satisfy this request a measurement exercise to determine the external shape of the boat was carried out on 16 May 2007 by Ken Kershaw, Technical Manager of the RYA , using the Bryan Jig developed by the RYA. Present were Richard and Mark Hartley, Phil Morrison, Ian Porter and myself. The method and equipment was the same as that used in January 2004 to measure a sample of wood and GRP Wayfarer hulls in order to report on the validity of the two wood hulls re-built by Duffin. We also had available an accurate hull measurement of Mike McNamara’s boat “Cordon Rouge” carried out by Ian Proctor in 1991. We were thus able to compare the hull shape of the prototype with existing hulls that between them cover the full range of variation accepted by the class as being within the rules and normal manufacturing tolerances. Having witnessed this measurement exercise and analysed the results, it is my considered opinion and advice that this new hull will have a good performance in relation to all existing boats. It could be bought with confidence by new owners but need not be feared by existing owners. The measurement process of course showed some variation in hull shape between the boats, some as a result of the normal variation that occurs over the years in the shape of GRP plugs, moulds and hulls, and in the case of wooden hulls the wide building tolerances accepted by the class rules. The measurements of the new hull fell generally within the range of the other boats. In those areas which could possibly affect performance, the new hull seemed to be a sensible but not extreme shape.
The impact on the Class: The emergence of a competitive, attractive, modern and well priced boat is bound to be a great move forward for the Class. It is in line with Ian Proctor’s objective over the years in introducing new marks of the Wayfarer. The new boat will give the class the opportunity to adopt the principles of a Manufacture Controlled One Design Class, in line with all the modern new classes that have been so successful, starting with the Laser and now including such classes as the 49er and the RS series of boats. These classes have very few hull measurement rules and ensure close one-design control by ensuring that all boats are built from moulds that emanate from a single master plug, with a tight manufacturing spec. The Class would be advised to update it’s rules, generally following the example of the 49er, which I played a role in writing. All existing boats currently racing in the class could be grandfathered.
Finally may I say that this is a very exciting development. I wish the Class and the new copyright holder every success for the future.
Cliff Norbury.”
Cliff Norbury is a former close colleague of Ian Proctor, the Wayfarer's designer, and former Managing Director of Proctor Masts the company originally founded by Ian Proctor to develop and sell lightweight aluminium masts for racing dinghies.
Wayfarers are being built to the Morrison design http://www.theboatyardatbeer.com/
Morrison appears now to have established himself as Britain's third great class dinghy designer after Jack Holt
and Ian Proctor
. Between 1944 and 2005, these three designers have designed 28 out of the 110 active dinghy classes listed by the Yachts and Yachting Magazine in the UK at the beginning of 2005, including the Cadet
, Mirror
, GP14
and Enterprise
(Holt), Wayfarer
Wanderer
and Topper
(Proctor), and nine of the Laser and Racing Sailboat ranges (Morrison). See Dinghy Classes http://www.dinghyracing.co.uk/Classes.asp
"Phil Morrison, although now retired is without question the most experienced Ocean Row Boat designer of our time." http://www.rkoch.co.uk/solo/Templates/boat.html
has established himself as a successful international yachtsman with a string of international successes in classes from International Cadets to 49ers
http://www.sailblogs.com/member/stevieben/ He was the British Olympic Yachting selected helmsman for the 49er class in the 2008 Olympic Games in China.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
boat
Boat
A boat is a watercraft of any size designed to float or plane, to provide passage across water. Usually this water will be inland or in protected coastal areas. However, boats such as the whaleboat were designed to be operated from a ship in an offshore environment. In naval terms, a boat is a...
designer and racer rendered notable by the success of his many designs in many classes since 1967 as well as his own distinguished yacht racing career.
He was born in Eastbourne
Eastbourne
Eastbourne is a large town and borough in East Sussex, on the south coast of England between Brighton and Hastings. The town is situated at the eastern end of the chalk South Downs alongside the high cliff at Beachy Head...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
His designs embrace dinghies, yachts, rowing boats, and multihull
Multihull
A multihull is a ship, vessel, craft or boat with more than one hull.-Description:Multihulls include: Proas, which have two differently shaped or sized hulls with lateral symmetry; catamarans, which have two hulls with longitudinal symmetry; and trimarans, which have a main hull in the center and...
s; he has been successful in a yacht and dinghy racing career since the late 1960s. He is noted for blending innovation with elegant well engineered structures and high performance, whilst also delivering users controllability
Controllability
Controllability is an important property of a control system, and the controllability property plays a crucial role in many control problems, such as stabilization of unstable systems by feedback, or optimal control....
and sailability.
Dinghy Designer
Morrison grew up in EastbourneEastbourne
Eastbourne is a large town and borough in East Sussex, on the south coast of England between Brighton and Hastings. The town is situated at the eastern end of the chalk South Downs alongside the high cliff at Beachy Head...
, during the late fifties and sixties. Joining the nearby Pevensey
Pevensey
Pevensey is a village and civil parish in the Wealden district of East Sussex, England. The main village is located 5 miles north-east of Eastbourne, one mile inland from Pevensey Bay. The settlement of Pevensey Bay forms part of the parish.-Geography:The village of Pevensey is located on...
Bay Sailing Club he learnt to sail the National 12 Class racing dinghy. The National 12 is a development class were anyone can design and build new boats within specific restrictions, such as length, beam, weight and sail area. At the age of 18 he designed his first racing dinghy, a National 12 called "China Doll" (1967) which was built by "Spud" (Peter) Rowsell in Exmouth
Exmouth, Devon
Exmouth is a port town, civil parish and seaside resort in East Devon, England, sited on the east bank of the mouth of the River Exe. In 2001, it had a population of 32,972.-History:...
, commencing a long association between the designer and that Devon town. Morrison sailed China Doll with Pete Wargent very successfully and the design became popular, making his name as a young designer, a series of different and successful National 12 designs followed over the next 25 years such as "Whisper" "Paper Dart" "Windfall" "Marmite Soldier" and "Crusader".
Meanwhile he qualified in Naval Architecture at Southampton
Southampton
Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...
University, then worked for marine fittings manufacturer Sea-Sure, designing a range of racing dinghy fittings which are still in production 35 years later.
Morrison designed his first Merlin Rocket "September Girl" which he sailed at the Whitstable
Whitstable
Whitstable is a seaside town in Northeast Kent, Southeast England. It is approximately north of the city of Canterbury and approximately west of the seaside town of Herne Bay. It is part of the City of Canterbury district and has a population of about 30,000.Whitstable is famous for its oysters,...
Championships in 1969. This led to a string of very successful Merlin Rocket designs such as "Satisfaction", "Smoker's Satisfaction", "Summer Wine" and "NSM" (New Smoking Material). Morrison's designs won every Merlin Rocket Championship for 17 years from 1972 to 1988. See Merlin Rocket Designs http://www.merlinrocket.co.uk/design%20guide/page09.html and Merlin Rocket Design Guide http://www.merlinrocket.co.uk/design_guide/designguide2007_part2.htm and Keith Callaghan's, a rival designer, memory of Morrsion's eventual supremacy in the Merlins http://www.bluelightning.co.uk/Merlins/mrsummary.htm
Merlin Rocket Design Guide http://www.merlinrocket.co.uk/design_guide/designguide2007_part2.htm
His next step was to design an International 14
International 14
The International 14 is 14-foot double-handed racing dinghy. The class originated in England in the early part of the 20th century. It is sailed and raced in many countries around the world and was one of the very first true international racing dinghy classes recognised by International Sailing...
, "Snoggledog", built by Laurie Smart
Laurie Smart
Laurie Smart is a British Boat Builder dinghy sailor and yachtsman responsible for some of the most successful Merlin Rocket National 12 and International 14 racing dinghies of the 1970s, 80's and 90's....
, with which Morrison and Ray Sellings took second place in the Prince of Wales Cup race in Torbay in 1973, their second year in the class. Again this led to a string of designs for the Fourteens over the next 25 years. See International 14s History http://www.international14.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=24&Itemid=29
Morrison also designed several small keel boats during the 1970s such as the Quarter Tonner "Bof" for Bob Brooks (who made the famous Cadbury's Smash Adverts with Martians made of dustbins).
Morrison campaigned the ultimate two sail racing boat the Olympic Star
Star (sailboat)
The International Star is a 6.9 m one-design racing keelboat for two people.The boat must weigh at least 671 kg with a maximum total sail area of 26.5 m . It is sloop-rigged, with a mainsail larger in proportional size than any other boat of its length...
with Andy Street in 1983/4.
Sailmaker
During the mid-seventies Morrison started a sail Loft based in PolegatePolegate
Polegate is a town and civil parish in the Wealden District of East Sussex, England, United Kingdom. It is located five miles north of the seaside resort of Eastbourne, and is part of the greater area of that town. Although once a railway settlement, its importance as such has now waned with...
near Pevensey Bay. He developed his own systematic and precise means of designing and cutting sails which enabled precise reproduction of previous designs something which was an unusual feature amongst British Sailmakers at that time.
Like many other yacht designers of his generation he was significantly influenced in his approach to both yacht and sail design by "Sailing Theory & Practice" by the Polish Author Czesaw A. Marchaj, first published in 1964.
Off-Shore Designer
Bigger projects beckoned after Morrison moved his sailing making and design business to Exmouth in a new partnership with "Spud" (Peter) Rowsell in the mid 1980s, the builder of his original design China Doll 17 years before. "Exmouth Challenger" a big offshore multihull designed and built for Mark Gatehouse was followed by other big offshore mono and multihull projects up to 60 foot in length. See for example Golden Oldie Catamaran Designs http://www.goldenoldies.biz/le_musee.htmOne Design Classes
A precursor to his later interest in and wide influence on One Design Classes was his innovative original and very successful NSM design for the Merlin Rocket class which included the entire rig and fittings layout so that sailor's buying the design could be told exactly how to set up the boats in different conditions for best performance. Spud Rowsell and Jon Turner won the Merlin Rocket Championships in "Foot-Loose" at Abersoch in 1978 with a points performance that has never been bettered and guaranteed the future success of Morrison's approach to designing a complete boat.Morrison's first direct exposure to designing in the more restricted One Design Classes, classes of dinghy which are supposed to all be nearly identical, subject to normal building tolerances, came with an invitation to design an "optimised" version of the Ian Proctor
Ian Proctor
Ian Douglas Ben Proctor, FRSA, known as Ian Proctor, was a prolific designer of both sailing dinghies and cruisers...
classic design the Wayfarer
Wayfarer
Wayfarer may refer to:*Wayfarer , an alternate shell for Windows 3.1x*Wayfarer , a class of sailboat*Wayfarers *Ray-Ban Wayfarer, a brand of sunglasses*The Wayfarer, a 1510 painting by Hieronymus Bosch...
for Gordon Frickers
Gordon Frickers
Gordon Frickers is a marine artist based in Plymouth, Devon, but also paints in France. Frickers was the first marine artist to be exhibited at the European Parliament in Brussels in May 2011...
http://www.frickers.co.uk/ who is now a well known maritime artist. The resulting boat, "Wellington" was raced very successfully and Morrison went on to "optimise" designs in many one design classes as diverse as the Salcombe Yawl
Salcombe Yawl
The Salcombe Yawl is a small sailing dinghy restricted class native to Salcombe in South Devon. It is about the size of a Merlin Rocket, that is and about 180 have been built of which 80% are still in use. It is build traditionally by hand from mahogany, and is clinker built. The centre plate is...
and the International Fireball, in the latter winning the World Championships with Jon Turner
Jon Turner
Jon Turner is a British yachtsman and boat builder. Turner has won national or world championships in International 14, Fireball, Merlin Rocket and Scorpion class racing dinghies....
in Weymouth Bay
Weymouth Bay
Weymouth Bay is a sheltered bay on the south coast of England, in Dorset. It is protected from erosion by Chesil Beach and the Isle of Portland, and includes several beaches, notably Weymouth Beach, a gently curving arc of golden sand which stretches from the resort of Weymouth, along to the...
in 1981.
After an earlier abortive attempt to start a new twin trapeze One Design Class, the "Gemini", in 1978/9 with Bill Twine and Nick Lightbody http://www.deskspace.com/blog.htm at Pevensey Bay, Phil started receiving commissions to design new one designs for dinghy manufacturers, starting with the Laser 2000 (dinghy)
Laser 2000 (dinghy)
The Laser 2000 is a performance sailing dinghy designed and sold by Laser Performance . It combines a traditional GRP hull and foam sandwich deck moulding with a modern asymmetric rig including a furling jib, reefing mainsail and single line gennaker hoist system.A high boom provides plenty of...
for and followed by a series of Racing Sailboats (RS) designs for LDC
RS Sailing
RS Sailing is an international designer and builder of sailboats and dinghies supported by a worldwide dealer network and class associations .The current RS range contains 14 dinghies. The RS range includes All Purpose Boats for beginners, families, sailing clubs and schools...
(RS200 RS400 RS800
RS800
The RS800 is a light-weight sailing dinghy designed by Phil Morrison and manufactured by RS Sailing. The boat is sailed by 2 people both on trapeze and has a main, jib and spinnaker. The RS800 has a PY number of 822...
etc.) and numerous designs for other dinghy manufacturers. For example the RS Elite http://www.rssailing.com/fleetsnew.asp?fleet=RS%20Elite&selection=Details%20and%20Spec
The more exotic projects clearly still fascinated him as a designer leading him to join the design teams of the last two British America's Cup Challenges with reunited him with other designers who had also cut their teeth in National Twelves such as Jo Richards and Hugh Welborne.
In 2006 the Wayfarer Class, perhaps mindful of Morrison's earlier contribution to their class development with Wellington, commissioned him to redesign and update the Wayfarer for the current generation http://www.wayfarer.org.uk/index.php?id=28&cmd=news. In July 2007 Cliff Norbury is quoted by the Wayfarer Class Association as recommending the adoption of the updated Morrison Wayfarer design as follows:
“Richard Hartley, the new Copyright Holder of the Wayfarer dinghy, has commissioned Phil Morrison to update the design of the boat to incorporate new manufacturing techniques and modernise the internal layout, and be competitive with existing GRP and wood boats racing in the Class. A prototype of this new design has been produced, and Mr Hartley requested advice on whether the performance objective has been achieved, so that the new model could be satisfactorily incorporated into the Class. To satisfy this request a measurement exercise to determine the external shape of the boat was carried out on 16 May 2007 by Ken Kershaw, Technical Manager of the RYA , using the Bryan Jig developed by the RYA. Present were Richard and Mark Hartley, Phil Morrison, Ian Porter and myself. The method and equipment was the same as that used in January 2004 to measure a sample of wood and GRP Wayfarer hulls in order to report on the validity of the two wood hulls re-built by Duffin. We also had available an accurate hull measurement of Mike McNamara’s boat “Cordon Rouge” carried out by Ian Proctor in 1991. We were thus able to compare the hull shape of the prototype with existing hulls that between them cover the full range of variation accepted by the class as being within the rules and normal manufacturing tolerances. Having witnessed this measurement exercise and analysed the results, it is my considered opinion and advice that this new hull will have a good performance in relation to all existing boats. It could be bought with confidence by new owners but need not be feared by existing owners. The measurement process of course showed some variation in hull shape between the boats, some as a result of the normal variation that occurs over the years in the shape of GRP plugs, moulds and hulls, and in the case of wooden hulls the wide building tolerances accepted by the class rules. The measurements of the new hull fell generally within the range of the other boats. In those areas which could possibly affect performance, the new hull seemed to be a sensible but not extreme shape.
The impact on the Class: The emergence of a competitive, attractive, modern and well priced boat is bound to be a great move forward for the Class. It is in line with Ian Proctor’s objective over the years in introducing new marks of the Wayfarer. The new boat will give the class the opportunity to adopt the principles of a Manufacture Controlled One Design Class, in line with all the modern new classes that have been so successful, starting with the Laser and now including such classes as the 49er and the RS series of boats. These classes have very few hull measurement rules and ensure close one-design control by ensuring that all boats are built from moulds that emanate from a single master plug, with a tight manufacturing spec. The Class would be advised to update it’s rules, generally following the example of the 49er, which I played a role in writing. All existing boats currently racing in the class could be grandfathered.
Finally may I say that this is a very exciting development. I wish the Class and the new copyright holder every success for the future.
Cliff Norbury.”
Cliff Norbury is a former close colleague of Ian Proctor, the Wayfarer's designer, and former Managing Director of Proctor Masts the company originally founded by Ian Proctor to develop and sell lightweight aluminium masts for racing dinghies.
Wayfarers are being built to the Morrison design http://www.theboatyardatbeer.com/
Morrison appears now to have established himself as Britain's third great class dinghy designer after Jack Holt
Jack Holt (dinghy designer)
Jack Holt, OBE was a prolific designer of sailing dinghies. His pioneering designs of dingies using plywood did much to popularise the sport of sailing in the period immediately following World War II....
and Ian Proctor
Ian Proctor
Ian Douglas Ben Proctor, FRSA, known as Ian Proctor, was a prolific designer of both sailing dinghies and cruisers...
. Between 1944 and 2005, these three designers have designed 28 out of the 110 active dinghy classes listed by the Yachts and Yachting Magazine in the UK at the beginning of 2005, including the Cadet
Cadet (dinghy)
The Cadet is a junior trainer sailing dinghy designed by Jack Holt, in 1947, who was commissioned to design it by Yachting World-magazine.-Background:The boat is crewed by two people and sails with a bermuda rigged mainsail, jib and spinnaker...
, Mirror
Mirror (dinghy)
The Mirror is a very popular sailing dinghy, with more than 70,000 built.The Mirror was named after the Daily Mirror, a UK newspaper with a largely working class distribution. The Mirror was from the start promoted as an affordable boat, and as a design it has done a great deal to make dinghy...
, GP14
GP14 (dinghy)
The GP14 is a popular sailing dinghy, with over 14,000 built.The class is active in the UK, Ireland, Australia, South Africa, Sri Lanka and parts of north-eastern USA, and the GP 14 can be used for both racing and cruising. The boat is relatively heavy, but stable, and the weight and the...
and Enterprise
Enterprise (dinghy)
The Enterprise is a two-man sloop-rigged hiking sailing dinghy with distinctive blue sails. Despite being one of the older classes of dinghies, it remains popular in the United Kingdom and about a dozen other countries, and is used for both cruising and racing. It has a combination of size, weight,...
(Holt), Wayfarer
Wayfarer (dinghy)
The Wayfarer is a wooden or fibreglass hulled Bermuda rigged sailing dinghy, often used for short sailing trips as a 'day boat'. The boat is 15 feet 10 inches long, and broad and deep enough for three adults to comfortably sail for several hours. Longer trips are undertaken by enthusiasts, notably...
Wanderer
Wanderer (sailing dinghy)
The Wanderer is a 14 foot Fiberglass hull Bermuda rigged sailing dinghy designed by Ian Proctor. One of the main objectives of the design was to produce a robust safe and versatile dinghy that could be used for knockabout day sailing and cruising as well as racing, but was light enough to be...
and Topper
Topper (dinghy)
The Topper is an 11 foot sailing dinghy designed by Ian Proctor. The Topper is a one-design boat sailed mostly in the British Isles. It was recognised as an International class by the International Sailing Federation...
(Proctor), and nine of the Laser and Racing Sailboat ranges (Morrison). See Dinghy Classes http://www.dinghyracing.co.uk/Classes.asp
Row Boat Designer
Morrison has also established himself as a designer of ocean rowboats http://www.oceanrowing.com/Rossiter_Yachts/history%20of%20ocean%20rowboats%20Phil%20Morrison.htm"Phil Morrison, although now retired is without question the most experienced Ocean Row Boat designer of our time." http://www.rkoch.co.uk/solo/Templates/boat.html
Stevie Morrison
Morrison's son Stevie MorrisonStevie Morrison
Stephen James Morrison is a successful British Yachtsman who has enjoyed success in a classes from the International Cadet to the 49er. He is the son of Phil Morrison, the British Yacht Designer....
has established himself as a successful international yachtsman with a string of international successes in classes from International Cadets to 49ers
49er (dinghy)
The 49er is a double handed twin trapeze skiff type sailing dinghy. The two crew work on different roles with the helm making many tactical decisions, as well as steering, and the crew doing most of the sail control. The design, by Julian Bethwaite, the son of Frank Bethwaite , is revolutionary...
http://www.sailblogs.com/member/stevieben/ He was the British Olympic Yachting selected helmsman for the 49er class in the 2008 Olympic Games in China.