‘Tickled Pink’
Jim Young (Published in the newsletter, June/July 1996)
“I had for some time cherished the idea of a boat around the size of half-tonner ‘Mamma Cass’ that I had designed for the later Merv Elliot, father of Bruce, Greg and sister, Sue Satterthwaite. A boat that would feature the good points of ‘Mamma Cass’ but with the broad, yet nicely proportioned, stern (penalised under the IOR rule) much more practical for cruising and racing, faster yet well behaved and with a sensible, easily handled fractional rig, all unspoiled by Northern Hemisphere rules.
The opportunity came when I found myself dealing with Sue and Russell Satterthwaite simultaneously with a company known as ‘Moonraker Yachts’ who were interested in the design as a production yacht. Negotiations with Moonraker stalled, however and Moonraker subsequently went on to produce their own version.
In the meantime, friend Roger Land had become interested and this led very successfully to an agreement between us over the use of the design by Roger as a production yacht.
The first 88 hull was strip planked under my supervision by boat builder Greg Elliot for the Satterthwaites in the Roger Land yard under an arrangement whereby Roger prepared and used the hull before handing it over to the owners as the plug from which the GRP Young 88 hull mould would be built.
‘Tickled Pink’ was therefore not only [one of] the first Young 88s but also had the distinction of being built using a new construction method that I had advocated in the July 1990 Sea Spray Magazine and that subsequently revolutionised custom boat building. In that article, I introduced both the Young 88 and the new construction concept based on the Rocket 31. (A Rocket 31 had won Class 1 at Cowes week in 1994 and the Round the Isle of Wight race in 1995.)
The new technique involved using a strip-planked core as a former for a special fibreglass and epoxy covering inside and out that provided enormous strength – a method now popularly known as the ‘West’ system after the material suppliers (the original Rocket 31 was built in 1983 by Terry Cookson).
The first Young 88 GRP hull was built for Bob Walker and Ross Field’s successful Paddy Wagon was the first Young 88 launched.
For the record, the deck mould was also built under my supervision as designer in the Land yard with no design input from anyone other than Roger who painstakingly attended to detail and faithfully observed the design philosophy throughout the whole development of the Young 88. The cabin was later slightly lengthened to improve cruising comfort (Mark II).”