Sailing Magazine
by Richard Crockett
Yesterday the Billy-O was mentioned, but spelt “Bilio”, so I thought it time to highlight this forgotten little dinghy in more detail.
The August 1956 “Sprog Log” had a complete write-up on the boat designed by Herbert McWilliams. In the preamble, this is what McWilliams said under the title of “Birth of a Notion”:
About a year ago a happy event occurred. You may not know it but the Sprog acquired a Baby Sister/brother. A stork didn’t bring it. It was dreamed up by Herbert McWilliams and drawn out full-size on strips of wallpaper on the floor and built and eventually given a season of really tough trying-out on the Zwartkops River.
10 ft. overall, carrying under 60 sq. ft. of sail on an unstayed revolving mast and weighing only 80 lbs complete, this ridiculous little boat has proved so delightful to handle, so fast and so cheap to build, that requests for plans have been pouring in ever since.
Here is the designer’s own description of “Billy-0”:
I’ve always felt that a lot of fun could be had in racing a little boat, and that using a standard size of plywood sheet as a module it should be possible to produce a light stable hull capable of being sailed, rowed, or driven by outboard motor; light enough to be carried easily on a car, put into and taken out of the water by a youngster, which would nevertheless have quite a lively performance. While “Billy-0” conforms to the usual formula of sailing boat design there are many unorthodox features and indeed the lines may appear at first glance utterly wrong and to disobey every known rule.
However, “the proof of the pudding etc” though I must admit I appear to have struck lucky the first time because except for proving able to carry more sail, no alterations to the plans have been found necessary.
The biggest surprise about “Billy-0” – apart from stability (which was greater than I had expected) was the way in which the hull proved able to plane so readily. The feather-light responsiveness coupled with this turn of speed might lead one to suspect that constant care should be exercised while sailing. This, however, is not so. One can relax completely – there is no need to sit out, except in very strong wind. One merely reclines gracefully with a finger on the tiller, and two on the sheet, able to look about and really enjoy the effortless sensation of nipping along smartly without any fuss.
READ McWILLIAMS FULL REPORT HERE: billy-o
