Des Townson receives Queen's Birthday Honour

by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World on 2 Jun 2008 Noted New Zealand designer, Des Townson has beeen made a Member of the Order of New Zealand in the Queen's Birthday
Honours announced today.

A top P-class skipper and small boat sailor, Townson is recognised as the designer of one of New Zealand's most popular singlehanded classes, the Starling - designed as a progression boat from the P-class.

All of Townson's designs share two characteristics, simple and fast. After leaving school and starting various jobs including a car body builder, he moved into boat building after a friend asked him to help build a dinghy. Next step was to move into boat design, where he started with the sweet Zephyr class - another monotype in one became the Townson mould. later many would comment that Des Townson only every designed one boat - all the others that followed were variants on that one root design - which is the Zephyr.

With the exception of the Starling and Pied Piper, all Townson designs have been characterised by the same enduring qualities, a slightly raked bow, curving into a shallow keel rocker with a fine underbody and easily driven lines. Townson began building the Zephyr as a wooden production boat from his shed in Panmure, using the same diagonal planked and glued method that characterised all his designs.

He also has a strong relationship with Boyd and McMaster Sails requiring that they be used for the Zephyr and then his two man Mistral design. Both became very popular and were initially sailed from Auckland's Tamaki Yacht Club. Then followed his first foray into keelboats with the 26ft Serene class (all his yachts were named the first born of the genre) only later being re-badged as Townson 32' 34's etc.

Serene punched well above her weight being more a large cruising dinghy, happy spanning the gap between the dinghy classes, the beamy easily driven mullet boat type that was so accepted in Auckland, and the keelboats. The success of Serene led Townson to produce the Townson 30, Magic Flute for Alan Warwick, which featured standing headroom, and then various renditions of his best known keelboat the Townson 32 which started as Starlight, then Moonlight then Twilight.

Townson never designed a boat to a rating rule, preferring the title fast gulf cruiser.

Moonlight, the Townson 32 was entered in the One Ton Cup, by Peter Mulgrew, again punching well above her weight against the great One Ton designs of the time. Always keen to get young people into sailing, Townson drew the Pier Piper design, again a response to the popular mullet boat length of 22ft, but also to provide a cheap fast keelboat that would allow excellent racing and gulf cruising for young sailors getting into their first boat.

It was also designed, like th Starling for home construction. Then followed his only fibreglass keelboat, the Townson 34 for Austral Yachts in Whangarei. Never quite happy with the compromises required, Townson insisted on his characteristic window shape used on most of his keel boats and originating with the Serene class.

Lately Townson has become known as a designer and builder of the Electron radio controlled yacht class, which he designed and builds. Still and active sailor, he owns the immaculate Talent.

For a further profiles on Des Townson http://www.hyc.org.nz/zephyr/navigation/History/Dest-Classic-Lines.html!click_here and http://www.electron-yachting.co.ck/boat_and_creator.htm!here