Sailing Magazine
By Richard Crockett
There is no better time to share the design of the Ultra dinghy that jumped off a page this morning while scanning the January 1968 issue of SA Yachting. Why? Well the headline said it all: “McWilliams’ Latest – Even Sproggier”!
Could ANYTHING be more Sproggier than a Sprog – I doubt it?
McWilliams explained the Ultra dinghy as follows: “This design is based on the Sprog, the idea being to produce a boat which is much easier and less expensive to build but having a similar performance.
“The lines of the hull are almost identical but slightly wider in the quarters, and the height of the topsides is reduced by a few inches; the bottom, from the after end of the platebox to the transom, is developed as an arc. This allows the keelson to be dispensed with aft, and only a single section bailer, on the centerline, is required.
The full article is here for all to read and more about it.
I don’t think it ever took off as I have never seen another reference to it, not even in the book “Yachting in Southern Africa” by Anthony Hocking.
Maybe he was simply flying a kite? Whatever it was, this dinghy appeared to be a damp squib!
READ THE ARTICLE HERE: 1968 01 – SA Yachting – pgs 22-24
