Valkyrie II 1893

Hand-crafted plank-on-frame wood hull.

Hull size: 60cm

Board size: 75cm x 20cm

The Concordia yawl was designed in 1938 by naval architect C. Raymond Hunt with input from Llewellyn and Waldo Howland, Clinton Crane, Fenwick Williams and Frank Paine.

Earlier that year Llewellyn Howland's family's Colin Archer designed Norwegian pilot cutter, Escape, was destroyed by the Great Hurricane of 1938. Llewellyn commissioned the Concordia Company, which he had founded in 1926 and at the time run by his son Waldo, to design and build a replacement. Llewellyn wanted a sailboat that could be used for both cruising and racing and withstand the heavy wind and choppy waters of Buzzards Bay.

What was created was Concordia design number fourteen, a 39'10" yawl that would become one of the most successful yawls in history. There were 103 Concordias produced between 1938 and 1966, making the Concordia yawl class the largest class of large one-design wooden sailboats.The first four Concordias were produced in Massachusetts. Concordia commissioned the Abeking and Rasmussen shipyard in Lemwerder, Germany to build the last 99.

All 103 Concordias are still in existents today.

Six years after Thistle, George Lennox Watson found himself confronted with the America’s Cup again. He had earlier built Distant Shore, for Charles D. Rose, who should have run in the 1891 challenge, which was cancelled. Then, for the Prince of Wales ( the future Edward VII ), he designed Britannia ( 1893 ). Britannia was the most handsome yacht designed by G. L. Watson.

Forty years ahead of her time, her lines were forerunners of those of the J Class. He followed her very closely when he built Valkyrie II for Lord Dunraven, but she was a little narrower and lighter than her elder sister. In the races held in 1893 against Herreshoff’s defender, Vigilant, Valkyrie II proved very dangerous in light weather, even in heavy weather she was very fast and lacked very little to win a race.

George Lennox Watson did not have the opportunity to take his revenge when Vigilant came to England the next year to run against Valkyrie II. He was on board, when on the day of the race, Valkyrie II was rammed by Satanita and she sank in a few seconds. But the potential of the Watson boats could be estimated when Britannia regularly beat Vigilant. Watson had reached the peak of his art.