[Solent Sunbeam Class, Cowes]

Rare vintage photograph of three Solent Sunbeam Class boast racing at Cowes, inscribe in white on the photograph H?, Clary?, Mary.

The Sunbeam was the last of a group of one-design yachts by Alfred Westmacott (1867-1936), which included the Yarmouth (Isle of Wight) One-Design, the Seaview Mermaid (now replaced by a new design) and the well-known and numerous X One Design.
A traditionally trained naval architect from the Victorian era, Westmacott responded to a commission in 1922 from three Hamble-based yachtsmen to design a racing dayboat by producing a boat that was not only pretty but one that could handle the boisterous conditions of the Solent.

Thirty-nine Sunbeams were built to Westmacott’s design, all of them by Woodnutt & Co. Ltd., of St. Helens, Isle of Wight, between 1922 and 1938. They were regularly raced in the Solent and at Falmouth until the outbreak of war in 1939.