Seafly Design History – Introduction
The Seafly was designed by John Kelley and initially developed and built by John Kelley and Stan Herbert at South Devon Boatbuilders; eventually other boat builders were licensed, but the...
The Seafly was designed by John Kelley and initially developed and built by John Kelley and Stan Herbert at South Devon Boatbuilders; eventually other boat builders were licensed, but the...
As originally developed by South Devon Boatbuiders, the Seafly was designed for construction in wood. As an example, these photographs from about 1963 show C59 which was constructed...
The original South Devon Boatbuilders plans used in building Seafly 59 (“The Dong”) in the early 1960’s are reproduced here. Many of the parts are shown on the...
The normal Seafly sail plan consists of a jib, mainsail with a full batten only at the top, and a relatively large spinnaker. Main and jib add up...
The Seafly, in design, is clearly a larger version of the Mayfly which was designed by John Kelley, a “successful 12ft and 14ft National Designer, builder and helmsman”...
Despite being a “One Design” Class it was perhaps inevitable that changes in building materials and sailing techniques would lead the Seafly Dinghy Class Association to approve various...
During the 1980’s very few Seaflys were being built and the Seafly Dinghy Class Association sought ways to make the Seafly more popular. The July 1987 SDCA Newsletter...
Around the year 2010 a few new Seafly Dinghies were built by long time Seafly sailor Tony Longworth and Pete Lawson (both based near Ullswater in the English lake district). The two...
In January 2013 John Claridge Boats, based in Lymington, bought the moulds for the “Modern Seafly” and the demonstration boat from Tony Longworth. Famed for designing the Magnum series of...