Alfred Mylne

Alfred Mylne (1872-1951) was a Scottish yacht designer, born in Glasgow. He founded Alfred Mylne & Co., the oldest continually operating yacht design business in the world.

Work

Alfred Mylne was apprenticed to the Scottish shipbuilders Napier, Shanks and Bell, and went on to work as a draftsman for G. L. Watson. Watson was the designer of the Royal Yacht HMY "Britannia", the racing cutter first owned by Edward, Prince of Wales, and Mylne was responsible for drawing up the plans.

Mylne set up his own office in 1896. In 1906, Mylne was involved in establishing the International Metre Rule, a yacht-racing handicap rule. Mylne designed a number of race-winning boats, including the 19-metre class cutter "Octavia" in 1911.

Boat designer Uffa Fox was a close friend of Alfred Mylne, and the latter appears regularly in the books Fox wrote before the Second World War. When Sir William Burton had his 12-metre yacht, "Marina", designed, this was reviewed in "Uffa Fox's Second Book" (1935).

"The mast of "Marina", the 12-metre Alfred Mylne designed for Sir William Burton in 1935, was called upon to endure some very heavy strains before the racing season started, for on her passage from the Clyde to the South round the "Land" she met very bad weather... Though designed as a light-weather "12", "Marina" proved herself an able and seaworthy vessel, and came through that gale without damage to herself or her crew." [Fox, Uffa (1935) "Uffa Fox's Second Book 1935, A Companion Volume to Sailing, Seamanship and Yacht Construction"]

Alfred Mylne was joined in his office by Thomas Glen-Coats, and in 1908 Mylne and his apprentice Glen-Coats competed in the 12-metre class sailing event of the 1908 Summer Olympics, in the yachts "Mouchette" and "Hera" respectively. This was the only Olympic event ever to be held in Scotland,fact|date=July 2008 and "Hera" won the gold medal.

Mylne's company was taken over by his nephew, also Alfred Mylne, and continued to trade as an independent yacht-building company until 2007, when it was bought by Fife-based Ace Marine.cite web |url=http://www.toffsworld.com/yachts/yacht-ownership/ace-marine-acquires-worlds-oldest-yacht-design-office/ |title=Ace Marine acquires worlds oldest yacht design office |publisher=Toffs World |accessdate=2008-07-11]

References

*cite web |url=http://www.mylne.com/html/body_history_of_a_mylne.html |title=History of A. Mylne & Co. |publisher=A. Mylne & Co. |accessdate=2008-07-11

External links

* [http://www.mylne.com/ Website of A. Mylne & Co]