HISTORY
William Fife: Master of the
Classic Yacht
William Fife (1857-1944), also known as Wm. Fife,
Jr., was the third generation of a family of
Scottish yacht designers and builders.
Fife was born in the small village of Fairlie on the
Firth of Clyde. His father and grandfather (both
also named William and often referred to as Fife I
and Fife II) had also been designers and boat
builders in Fairlie. The family business
operated from a yard on the beach in the village.
Fife began building yachts in 1890 and soon
surpassed the achievements of his father and
grandfather and became known as one of the premier
yacht designers of the day.
As the third generation of a venerable Scottish boat
building family, William Fife inherited a rich
legacy but was quick to establish his own reputation
as one of the top designers in the yachting world.
Often dominating his chief competitors, Fife was a
master of his trade who received commissions from
European royalty and from clients as far away as
Australia. Following on the heels of the success of
his design Dragon (1888?), Fife adopted a stylized
Chinese dragon as his trademark. Thereafter, those
yachts that took shape on the shingle at Fairlie
were known throughout the yachting world by this
distinctive scrollwork.
Launching Shamrock III in 1903 at Dunbarton,
ScotlandFife designed two America's Cup yachts for
grocery and tea magnate Sir Thomas Lipton who
challenged for the cup a total of five times. The
Fife designed Shamrock I lost to Columbia in 1899
and Shamrock III lost to Reliance in 1903. After the
establishment of the first International Rule in
1906, Fife became a prolific designer of meter
boats, designing and building several very
successful 15- and 19-meter yachts in the years
leading up to the Great War.
Éric Tabarly, the famous French sailor, two time
winner of the OSTAR and owner of the Fife design Pen
Duick (ex Yum, 1898), writing on the designs
produced by Fife during the first few decades of the
century noted that: "the great designers of the
period were Herreshoff, Watson, Nicholson and
William Fife. Amongst these, Fife has acquired a
particular reputation thanks to the sheer artistry
and balance of his designs. Furthermore, those of
his designs which took shape in his yard were of
unmatched construction."
While Fife established a leading reputation on the
yacht racing circuit, his work also included a
number of fine cruising vessels. Dr. William Collier
of Fairlie Restorations in Hamble, UK, writing on
Fife's work in the 1920s, noted that during this
period, ”[Fife] designed and built not only smaller
Metre boats but also a series of fine cruisers. This
combination typified the inter-war era of the
Fairlie yard. Like the schooner Altair, many of the
cruisers echo his turn of the century designs such
as Cicerly or Suzanne; similarly there were few
fundamental differences in his ketch designs
spanning this era. Perceived by some as
anachronistic, these yachts were considered by many
to represent some of the greatest refinements of the
auxiliary cruising yacht ever achieved.” Id.
Reliance & Shamrock III in the 1903 America's Cup
Race The Fife yard also had a reputation for the
extremely high quality of the craftsmanship of the
yachts built at the yard. Today, it is thought that
there are somewhat less than 100 Fife designs still
in existence. Of these, there are perhaps fifty or
so still sailing. Of the larger vessels, Altair,
Belle Aventure, Cambria, Halloween, the Lady Anne,
Moonbeam of Fife, Moonbeam IV, Mariquita and Tuiga
grace the classic yacht circuit in Europe. In North
America, the Fife ketches, Adventuress and Sumurun,
can be found in the waters of New England.
Fife once said that the secret of a great yacht was
that it should be both "fast and bonnie".
Fife was awarded an OBE for his work. He died in
1944, never having married and without an heir. He
is buried in Largs. The yard was continued for some
years after his death by his nephew, but never
achieved the renown known under Fife's ownership.
