Charles Kingsley (yacht designer)

rdf:langString Charles Kingsley (yacht designer)

rdf:langString Charles William Russell Kingsley V.R.D. A.R.I.N.A. (30 January 1910 – 13 February 1996) was a British yacht designer and surveyor. His early life was spent on the Isle of Wight where he designed, built and sailed small boats or canoes of canvas covered wooden framed design. For most of his working life he was employed in London as a Victualling Clerk for the Orient Line. His hobby, which consumed much of his spare time, was yacht designing and surveying although most of the design activity reduced considerably after the Second World War. During the war he served in the RNVR, initially (from 1933) in the pay branch - he had poor eyesight - but volunteered successfully to transfer to the Special Branch reaching the rank of Lieutenant Commander in 1947. He was a member of the Little Ship Club, which he joined aged 19, and won first prize in their yacht design competition in 1933, for which he received the sum of £5 5s. The competition was judged by, among others, Laurent Giles. In December 1935 he had a new design for an 8-ton cruiser (based to a certain extent on his prize winning design) published in Yachting Monthly magazine. He was an associate of the Institution of Naval Architects (later the Royal Institution of Naval Architects) between 1935 and 1964.