Royal Oak (unbuilt)

Design Status

Royal Oak was a design project only—a proposed Twelve Metre conceived under the International Third Rule for America’s Cup competition. The yacht was never built, and as a result no sail number was ever authorized or issued.

Designer

Royal Oak was the first full-scale yacht design created by David H. J. Hollom, a figure best known at the time as an exceptionally skilled and respected model maker. Although Hollom had not yet built a racing yacht to his own design, Royal Oak marked his initial step into conceptual America’s Cup–level naval architecture.

Design Influences

In developing Royal Oak, Hollom is recorded as having taken inspiration from Sverige, one of the benchmark Third Rule Twelves of the period. The design followed contemporary Twelve Metre proportions while exploring more experimental hydrodynamic concepts than were typical of conservative British Cup thinking at the time.

The Acorn Project Connection (1982)

In 1982, Hollom was invited by Peter de Savary to participate in the Acorn Project, part of the Victory Challenge program aimed at returning the America’s Cup to Britain. Hollom’s Acorn submission was notable—and controversial—for incorporating a bulb keel with small winglets, an idea that was considered radical at the time.

Although Hollom’s Acorn design was not selected, the concept proved historically important. Following internal review, the Yachting Rules Union (YRU) approved the principle of winglets on keels. This approval was kept confidential until 1983, when it effectively ended the prolonged rules controversy between American challengers and the Australians following the introduction of Australia II’s winged keel.

Significance

Although Royal Oak never progressed beyond the drawing board, the project is historically significant as:

  • David Hollom’s first yacht design

  • A precursor to his later, fully realized work, including Crusader II, the radical British challenger of 1986–87

  • An early conceptual exploration of bulb-and-wing keel theory within the Twelve Metre framework

  • A small but meaningful part of the design lineage that helped legitimize winglets under Cup-era rule interpretation

Legacy

Royal Oak stands as an example of how unbuilt projects can still influence design history. While she never sailed and never carried a sail number, her conceptual development links traditional Third Rule Twelve Metre design to the more experimental thinking that would shape the final years of the class and the transition toward the IACC era.