Farewell to the father of the Laser and designer of the world’s most beautiful superyachts

Bad Easter for the yachting world. In recent days two sacred monsters of sailing have left us, Ian Bruce and Ed Dubois. The Sailing Newspaper wants to remember them because the former, Bruce, is the father of the most popular sailboat in history, the Laser, and Dubois, is one of the designers and entrepreneurs who have most influenced the boats of the last four decades.

We like to remember Canadian Ian Bruce, who died of cancer at age 82, with an anecdote. The story goes that the Laser was born out of a phone call between him and his designer friend Bruce Kirby. They wanted to make a drift boat that could be carried on the roof of the car, cost little and was easy to rig, unlike the complicated and very heavy boats designed until then.

Thus was born the Laser, the most popular boat in history. But Ian Bruce should also be remembered as a sailor, two Olympic participations with the Finn (coincidentally a single) and for his great industrial engineering skills. The Laser was, in 1971 the year of its first appearance at the New York Boat Show, the first boat built not in an artisanal manner for a few pieces, but for mass production. Today more than 200,000 Lasers sail, an absolute and unattainable record.

Ed Dubois’s story is equally fascinating and significant. In 1979 he entered the Admiral’s Cup, Britain’s then most important national team regatta, a boat totally different from the others. Smaller, with lots of sail, with a very wide stern never seen until then. Dubois is British, but Police Car, which he designed, races for the Australians. Admiral’s wins to everyone’s amazement and envy, an unknown beats the holy monsters. The then, 27-year-old Ed’s career takes off.

First in the then burgeoning world of racing boats, then becoming one of the most successful superyacht designers. So many and so prestigious are the boats he designed that every year a regatta is held in Porto Cervo among sailboats over 100 feet in length that he designed, the Dubois Cup.

His favorite boat, among the dozens designed, is the 110-foot Imagine, built in 1993. “I was pretty much in love with that boat,” he confessed. His most famous boats include Timoneer, Janice of Wyoming, Tiara, Silvertip, Kokomo, and Ganesha.

Dubois Cup Highlights 2015 from BREED.media on Vimeo.

In 2017 its signature boat will be launched: the giant 190-foot Ngoni, the nickname is “the Beast,” considering its 233-foot-tall mast. Among his closest friends was Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, for whom he designed the Clipper 68s, used by Clipper Ventures for round-the-world regattas run by Sir himself.