George Cuthbertson

Now, as he toiled away and earned his degree in mechanical engineering, he’d start doodling modifications for boats at the request of his fellow sea dogs. But designing boats for a living? Ahoy, he reckoned it was a pipe dream for a lad of 22 summers.

His first real job was far from the sea spray, working with those Swedes over at SKF making ball bearings. But as fate would have it, he met fellow sailor Peter Davidson, and they set to crafting small fiberglass boats together.

It was 1953 when the wind caught their sails and they conjured up about 80 of them Water Rat dinghies. Yet, there weren’t many opportunities for ship design in Canada in them days. So, they turned merchants of the sea, importing European yachts under the flag of Canadian Northern Co.

But then, a twist of the wind blew Norman Walsh their way. The man had a hankering to snatch back Canada’s Cup from the clutches of the Rochester Yacht Club. With Cuthbertson’s magic touch, they refashioned an existing vessel and snatched that Cup back in 1954. Walsh wasn’t done, though. He wanted a new bruiser of a boat, 50 to 55 feet long, for ocean racing.

“I hadn’t yet drawn anything bigger than a dinghy when I took the task,” said Cuthbertson. But oh, what a creation it became! The legendary Innisfree, a ship that ruled the waves in offshore and Great Lakes racing for many a moon. And Elsie D, the RCYC race honcho ship, made her debut in 1958, just before the Innisfree set sail.

In the year of 1967, during a time of shifting tides in racing sailboat design, George set to work on the Whitby 45 for Kurt Hansen of Whitby Boat Works. The winds were blowing away from the old Cruising Club of America rule and them purpose-built IOR racing vessels. George said the 45 bore the closest kinship to the earlier Redline 41, boasting them long overhangs, that signature Cuthbertson swept-back rudder, and a fin keel as sturdy as a ship’s mast.</p><p>And there you have it, the tale of George Cuthbertson (up to designing the Whitby 45), a sailor who carved his name in the annals of maritime history with his design prowess and a heart as wild as the open sea.

The shipyard’s hammer struck true, for over 600 Alberg 30s, some 250 Alberg 37s, a fair tally of Whitby 42s, 19 Whitby 45s, and a handful of the formidable 55’s were birthed from their hands. Ah, but as all tales do, this one too had its final chapter. From 1960 to 1988, the Whitby Boat Works sailed the tides of business, leaving their mark upon the sea of history.

Now, me hearties, let me spin a yarn of Alex Magnone, a sturdy hand from Calabria, Italy. In 1968, at the spry age of 26, he charted a course to the shores of Canada. Whitby Boat Works beckoned him to their crew, where he lent his craftsman’s touch to the very innards of boats. By 1973, he’d taken the helm as foreman, overseeing the assembly line with the knowing eye of an old sea captain. “Every vessel that ventured forth,” he’d boast, “I knew ’em like the North Star. Each bore its own tale, its own quirks. Me missus claims I knew those boats better than me own homestead.”

When the sails of Whitby Boat Works were furled for the last time, the land and its buildings passed into the hands of Whitby’s town folk. But Magnone, he weren’t done yet. He held onto a piece of the shipyard’s spirit, aye, and from that spark, Whitby Boat & Specialty Wood Work Ltd. was brought to life. Repairs and refits danced from his skilled hands, mostly on the vessels he had once dressed for the sea’s embrace.

And then, one fateful day, destiny unfurled its sails. Hansen’s Whitby 45 lay wounded, fallen to its side like a wounded comrade. Hansen and de Munnik, they answered the sea’s call once more, unveiling a cruising incarnation of the Whitby 45. Ten inches less draft, a keel of cast lead longer and stronger, a rudder standing tall and proud. The deck reached for the heavens, adding headroom, the coachroof stretching fore and aft. No more would the cockpit be divided. The sails sang the same tune, but within, the ship’s soul had been reborn, a new chapter penned within its storied hull.