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Jim Young’s enduring design which bears his name is still going strong after 40 years of racing and cruising, prompting the Young 88 Association to celebrate this milestone with events in Auckland and Christchurch next month (Covid permitting).
Global ocean racer Ross Field’s Paddy Wagon was the first Young 88 to hit the water in December 1981. Field campaigned it hard, winning a number of events including the 1982 Round North Island Race, silencing those who doubted the safety of the design.
Keen surfer and surfboard manufacturer Roger Land took notice and convinced Young to let him take the Young 88 into production and things took off from there.
Land was an innovator, setting up events like a match race between two Young 88s on Lake Pupuke, as well as a natural marketer and launched a sales campaign that took the Young 88 to boat shows around Australia and New Zealand.
“I originally hoped to produce 10-12 boats out of the moulds to help pay for my own boat," Land said. "It was beyond my wildest dreams that we would end up producing and selling 150.”
Sadly, Young passed away last year aged 94. He regularly kept in touch with the fleet, attending events up to his last year, and would have been very proud to be part of the 40th celebrations.
Many families built a love of sailing on their Young 88s. There are lots of stories of extended summer cruises with families having fun for a week or more helped by a good boom tent, a deck of cards and board games.
Today there are still strong fleets racing and cruising in Auckland, Wellington and Canterbury and the versatility of the boat sees it feature in anything from short-handed and women's racing to twilight series.
"Jim's stated design philosophy on the [Young] 88 was for, sparkling performance on all points of sail, generous accommodation, sea kindliness and, most importantly, a powerful hull to respond to hard driving racing," an editorial in a 1983 edition of Boating Magazine stated.
It could be argued, on the back of 40 years and more than 150 boats later, that he got it about right.
See here for more on the Young 88, including 40th anniversary plans.
- Main photo: Live Sail Die.
