Doris 12 K 2

Built 1925 – International Second Rule (1920–1933)

DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION

Doris was a British 12 Metre built in 1925 to the International Second Rule, designed and rigged as a cutter for racing on the Solent. Although little survives of her original plans, she represented the transitional design language of the period, when designers were experimenting with finer sections, higher-aspect rigs, and lighter structures ahead of the Bermudian era.

EARLY OWNERSHIP

The yacht’s first recorded owner was Frederick Last of Portsmouth, who raced her locally in 1925. In 1926, she was acquired by T. O. M. Sopwith, later famed for his 12 Metre and J-Class campaigns. Under Sopwith, Doris’s rig was modernized from gaff to Bermudian cutter, reflecting the rapid evolution of racing technology during the mid-1920s.

RACING CAREER

Although entered in several major regattas, Doris never achieved sustained competitive success. In the 1926 Cowes Week, she finished well down the fleet, last among the Twelves that year. Under Sopwith’s ownership, she was primarily used as an experimental platform to explore mast, sail, and balance refinements that informed his later yachts.

In 1929, ownership passed to Louis Bréguet of Le Havre, France—the noted aviation pioneer and yachtsman. Bréguet campaigned Doris across northern Europe, including entry in the 1933 KNS Jubilee Regatta in Norway. Results from that period show a boat that struggled to find consistent form: four races in 1932 without finishes, thirteen starts in 1933 with only a single first place.

LATER MODIFICATIONS

By 1935, Doris had returned to Britain under H. A. Holdsworth, who installed an auxiliary engine and re-rigged her as an auxiliary Bermudian cutter in 1936. Like many ageing metre yachts of the inter-war period, she transitioned from a pure racer to a gentleman’s cruiser.

In 1950, she was registered to Runnegar Estates Ltd., and by 1951 she disappeared from the Lloyd’s Register of Yachts. Contemporary notes suggest she was later converted to a houseboat, ending her active sailing life.

LEGACY

Though never a champion, Doris embodies the dynamic evolution of the Second Rule 12 Metre era—a period marked by experimentation, changing sail technology, and the emergence of figures like Sopwith and Bréguet bridging the worlds of aviation and yacht design. Her story is one of transition: from Solent racer to auxiliary cruiser, from national competition to quiet retirement—an enduring reflection of the yachts that carried the metre rule between its classical and modern ages.