History Of The Seal Sailing Association

• A Brief History

• An Early Brochure

• The Seal's First Boatshow

• More History Through Early Brochures

The Baker Beginning

The stage for the entry of Seal yachts was set over 30 years ago, when John Baker and his wife Pat  moved into an old  forge at Kenton, near Exeter, to start the building of a variety of glass fibre dinghies.

Born in India, John went to school in Australia, studied naval architecture at Glasgow University, and subsequently spent some twelve years with the British India Steamship Company, a subsidiary of P & O, based mainly in Calcutta and Bombay. During this period, John met a boat designer, O'Brien Kennedy, from whom he picked up hints and tips about glass fibre moulding. Following his return to England, his first moulding exercise took shape in the garage of Pat's parents in Halifax. Having got the 'bug' for GRP boat moulding, John and Pat cast around for premises to start up seriously in 1962 and that's when they came upon Kenton Forge.

John initially flirted with GRP dinghy construction by building the 'Yachting World Explorer', the 'Urchin' and an assortment of rowing dinghies. Through the 'Otter' dinghy, John demonstrated his capacity for quantity production and went on to produce the 'Lark', a design by Michael Jackson, having recognised this craft as one ideally suited to fill a gap in the market. The 'Lark' subsequently became a popular club racing dinghy and was adopted by many university racing clubs.

To make the move into yacht construction John teamed up with the late Angus Primrose who designed the lifting-keel Seal 22 and in 1968, he made the plug for it at Kenton. larger premises were required to produce this bigger boat in quantity, after being first exhibited at the 1970 London Boat Show, so he added the Starcross factory where all the 22s were built. Thus started the whole saga of a long line of lifting-keel, high performance yachts and really was the forerunner of a new concept in cruiser/ racer design. About this time, John also had the idea of starting a Seal Class owners association and encouraged some of the early Seal owners to form one in 1972.

The Parker Development

G. W. Parker & Son, established in the late 1880's and originally founded by Bill Parker's grandfather, were general builders and joiners, the family having been for several generations Master Mariner Builders and Woodworkers. It carried on trading as builders until the 1950's, when they again introduced boat building into what was at the time still a small family business.

The company commenced with the then new international '505' racing dinghy. Initially, these were cold moulded though before long they had changed to GRP construction and soon achieved their first international racing successes. Over the years, Parker built '505's have amassed an enviable list of 18 world championships as well as numerous national and European championships. Some of their customers are now household names and the list reads rather like a hall of fame in world yachting -12 metre sailors like Harold Cudmore, Edward Owen, Phil Crebbin, Chris Dickson of New Zealand,- top dinghy sailors such as Steve Benjamin, Dave Ullman of the USA, Larry Markes, Derick Farrant, Peter Colclough, Marcel Buffet, the Pajot brothers and, from the 1986 Whitbread Round the World Race, Pierre Fehlmann of Switzerland, first across the finish line.

For a number of years, the sole Parker boat was the '505', for which they had a very healthy UK and export market. However, in 1972 Parker's were appointed sole UK builders for the new Olympic class, the international '470' racing dinghy. This addition enabled them to expand their production facilities, they moved to their present site at Kirton and increased their staff. Over the years Parker's have also built, albeit in limited numbers, various yachts and dinghies such as the 'Flying Dutchman', 'Tempest' and the 'Sprinter Sports'. In 1980, Parker's bought the building rights for the 'lark' from John Baker, when John wanted to concentrate on the Seal range of yachts. Bill Parker having originally met both John and Pat back in 1969, during a trade mission to the USA promoting their respective dinghies, the '505' and the 'Lark'.

It was, perhaps, no surprise that in 1981, when for a complete change John and Pat were thinking of moving out of the boat building business into fruit growing, they sold the building rights of the Super Seal to Parker's. For the next ten years, the Super Seal remained in continuous production before being modified and marketed as the Parker 27. Throughout the time, Bill Parker sailed the boat regularly himself and developed a high respect for this fine, lifting-keel, high performance yacht. So much so, that he became
convinced the lifting-keel concept had an important niche in the market. Parker's therefore followed up the 27 in 1986 with the Parker 21 (derived form the MiniSeal), and in 1987 with the Parker 31 (a design originally based on the Passage Maker, but much modified). In 1990 the entirely new Parker 275 was introduced to replace the 27, and in 1993 the company launched the Parker 325, their in-house design to supercede the Parker 31 and bring their range right up to date.

All these yachts have lifting keels except for a few specially ordered 28s, Super Seals and MiniSeals. The present yachts are marketed as Parker Yachts to benefit from the Parker world-wide quality image. They do however still carry the Seal insignia, and whilst the original association of Seal owners now numbers many owners of Parker built yachts, it continues to be named The Seal Sailing Association.

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An Early Brochure

The following is a copy of an early 1970s Seal 22 Mk1 brochure sent in by Mr Stephen Lowry of Co Meath, Ireland. Stephen owned a mark 1 Seal 22, number 7 called 'Snaphew', a picture of which figures on The Fleet page. 'Snaphew', though still in Ireland under new ownership, is now called 'Sophie'.

The four page brochure has been shown as scanned, but the text has then been OCR'd and appears under the appropriate page.

Click on thumbprint to expand

The Seal, like many really good ideas, is so obviously right in concept it is hard to believe nothing quite like her has been designed before.

Retractable fin keel. The Seal has a fin keel, essential for performance and good stability. A special feature is that the keel retracts-enabling you to explore the shallows-run up on the beach-use a mud berth-trail her behind the car. Also with the keel raised you reduce wetted area for fast downwind sailing-the Seal really flies with the spinnaker up.

Family Sailing. This is what the Seal has been designed for-she's just the boat for the man who is used to dinghy performance but now, with a young family, wants the security of a keel boat-and the accommodation to spend occasional weekends away. The Seal is fun to race too.

Safety. This has been an important factor in the Seal's development. The stable but easily driven hull has a 40 per cent ballast ratio- which means the family not only are safe-they will feel safe too.

Accommodation. The Seal is divided into three-a two-berth cabin forward-enormous two family cockpit amidships-and a self-draining helmsman's cockpit aft. Father can sail the Seal like a demon circumnavigator while the family enjoy their sailing out of harm's way; and mother can really relax knowing the children are safe in such a deep cockpit.

Day Sailing or weekend cruising. For day sailing there's room for a couple of families-with nobody cooped up below out of fun and sun. The extended coachroof gives plenty of protection from wind and spray. You can rig a cockpit canopy to convert the Seal into a snug four berther for weekending. The forward cabin can be fitted with a sea, or chemical, toilet and there's a galley, with plenty of places for the cook to stow pots and pans.

Well tested. We know the Seal makes sense because we sailed her hard before going into production-ironing out the problems to give trouble free sailing. We won a few races too!

Click on thumbprint to expand

With her big centre cockpit, partly overlapped by the coachroof, the Seal has room aboard for two average families to enjoy a day's sailing in uncrowded comfort; the children want a romp on the beach so you wind up the keel, lift the rudder, and run her ashore I see picture, far left. If you have been sailing dinghies you will be used to handling a spinnaker; centre picture shows the Seal moving fast downwind with her spinnaker pulling nicely. Gone are the days when a spinnaker was used for racing only; it is now an important addition to any cruiser's sail locker. The grouped pictures show, top left, the canopy rigged; this entirely encloses the large centre cockpit, making it into a snug two-berth saloon. Other pictures show various aspects of life aboard the Seal I The galley, with ample lockers and shelves, is to starboard; hanging locker is to port; just visible is the up and over door which completely encloses the fore cabin, for privacy and security. The sea, or chemical, toilet, fits between fore cabin berths; normally it would be hidden by hatch and cushion. Picture, right, second row, shows the boat high and dry with the legs in place; these are easily fitted to the hull for slipping and laying up. Because, when the fin is housed, she has only a small stub keel, the Seal will take a mud berth upright. Happy young Seal sailor is winding up the keel at the end of a day's sailing; the simple screw jack is mounted atop the keel housing, under the table, handle can be removed. The passengers are separated from the helmsman by the bridge deck; on which runs the centre mainsheet. Note how deep and secure the family are; the aft, self-drain cockpit, has high coamings.

Click on thumbprint to expand

Construction. The all glassfibre Seal is moulded in our modern, temperature controlled factory. Hull lay up consists of the gelcoat followed by a layer of 1½ oz mat, then a 2 oz layer of mat, a single layer of 18 oz woven roving and a final layer of 1½ oz mat. In addition, there is progressive thickening from the waterline to the keel and at the bow. Great hull rigidity is achieved by bonding in fore and aft stringers and the interior moulding, which forms the berths and toiIet compartment. The deck, coachroof and self-drain cockpit form one moulding which is bolted and bonded to the hull. Non slip deck surfaces are moulded in.

Keel and rudder. The retractable keel is a heavy iron casting of approximately 800 lbs (367 kg) weight. It is hydrodynamicalIy shaped and fits snugly into glassfibre housing. The simple screw jack lifting gear is easy to operate. The rudder has anti fracture marine ply cheeks, stainless steel hangings and 5/16" (7.5 mm) mild steel blade.

Rig. The Seal is a Bermudian sloop. Mast and boom by Ian Proctor Metal Masts Ltd. are gold anodised. Stainless steel rigging consist of upper shrouds with swinging spreaders, and lower shrouds and forestay. Halliards are prestretched terylene. Sails are 51 oz terylene.

Dimensions

L.O.A. 21'9"(6.63 m)
L.W. 18'0" (5.49 m)
Beam 7'9" (2.36 m)
Displacement 2400 lbs (1100kg)
Draft keel up  (0.61 m)
Draft keel down 3'10"(1.17 m)
Rise/fall of keel 1'10"(0.56 m)

Sail Areas

Mainsail 121 sq. ft. (11.3 sq. m.)
Cruising genoa 120 sq. ft. (11.2 sq. m.)
Working jib 63 sq. ft. (5.9 sq. m.)
Racing genoa 142 sq. ft. (13.2 sq. m.)
Spinnaker 290 sq. ft. (27 sq. m.)

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The Seal's First Boatshow

Thanks again to Mr Stephen Lowry of Co Meath, Ireland, here is an article from the 1970 Daily Express newspaper referring to the Daily Express London Boat Show, as it was known in those days.

Here was an opportunity to win two Seal 22s!. It would be nice to know who the winners were.

L.0.A. 21ft 9in 6.63m
L.W.L. l8ft 0 in 5.49m
Beam 7ft 9in 2.36m
Displacement 24001b 1091 kg
Draft (keel up) 2ft 0m       .61m
      (keel down) 3ft l0in 1.17m
Sail area Main saiL 121 sq ft 11.3sq m
                Jib      63 sq ft 5.8sq m
                Geno 142 sq ft 13.2sq m
Builder: John Baker (Kenton Forge),
Kenton, Exeter, Devon.

February 1970 (Yachting World)

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More History Through Early Brochures

Where would I be without Stephen Lowry of Co Meath, Ireland for locating and loaning even more early brochures he has located in his files.

Unfortunately the brochures had to be copied and reduced to A4 in order to scan them in so some quality has been lost.  All have been reduced to thumnail pictures that can be enlarged simply by clicking on them.

Seal Sinbad

2 Sided Brochure - 1st Example

2 Sided Brochure - 2nd Example

Seal 28

(4 page brochure)

Super Seal 26

(1 page brochure)

The one provided by Stephen was a copy. If anyone has an original I would appreciate the loan of it - Don Harvey - Web Master

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