VIXEN

Racing Sailboat VIXEN

Vixen is a 15 square meter sloop originally designed by Knud Reimers and built by Oscar Schelin’s Kungsors Boat Yard (Sweden) in 1937. She was built for the export market and was shipped directly from Kungsors’s to the UK prior to the start of the Second World War where she was one of only a handful (her sail number is K1) of the elegant Square Meter Rule yachts sailing in the UK.

At the time building to the Square Meter Rule was prolific in the Baltic but scarcely known in the UK.  Much finer in form and lighter in displacement than her British counterparts, Vixen and her kind were viewed with suspicion by the (British) yachting establishment and with her light and efficient construction deemed as ‘un-seaworthy.”

One famous British sailor begged to differ with this opinion as he had fallen in love with the Swedish Square Meter yachts and collaborated with Reimers to build his own yacht. This of course, was Uffa Fox, and the boat he built at Cowes was a slightly larger version 22 Square Meter named Vigilant. So confident was Uffa in its sea keeping that he set out to sail the 1,000 miles to its spiritual homeland of Sweden to take part in the Swedish Square Meter Rule championships.

Vixen was raced on the Solent prior to World War II and then moved to Scotland continuing her racing career on the Firth of Forth and then the Clyde. In 2010 Vixen was sailed in the Uffa Fox Challenge (Cowes UK to Trosa, Sweden 1000+ miles) by three intrepid Brits (Luke Yeats, Jack Gifford & Will Shepard) and completed the race in 12 days. After a bit of rest the trio raced Vixen against other 15 square meters in Sweden but eventually, she was put on the hard and offered for sale where she caught the eye of a sailing and yacht restoration enthusiast who just happened to be a client of Brooklin Boat Yard.

Vixen’s new owner had always admired the sleek looks and sailing qualities of square meter boats and wanted to have a wooden boat that he could use to race in the (wood only) classic yacht races here in Maine and southern New England. Figuring that if Vixen had sailed across the North & Baltic Seas without sinking that was as good a survey as needed so he bought her sight unseen.

The boat all her equipment was packed up into an extra-long shipping container and arrived here at Brooklin Boat Yard in the summer of 2011 with just enough time to be launched and raced in the Eggemoggin Reach Regatta.

Vixen’s new / current owner had already worked with Brooklin Boat Yard on a complete and total restoration of the Bill Tripp Jr. designed Katrinka so he looked to us again to restore Vixen. Many man-hours, floors, frames, planking, rigging, a whole new deck and cabin later Vixen was back in the water and ready to race again with confidence, style, grace and success.

Vixen is offered for sale now as her owner starts yet another (this will be his fourth) restoration project. Contact us to set up a day to see Vixen for yourself here at Brooklin Boat Yard.