Reimers “Vixen” Specifications:
Class Type: 15 Square Metre – LOA: 33″ 0″ / 10.05m * LWL: 21′ 8″ / 6.64m * Displacement: 1.3 Tonnes * Year Built: 1937 * Built By: Oscar Schelin Kungsors Boat Yard, Sweden * Restore By: 2011 Brooklin Boat Yard
Vixen was designed by Knud Reimers and built at the Kungsors boatyard in central Sweden by Oscar Schelin. Imported to the UK before the Second World War, she was one of only a handful of the elegant Square Meter Rule yachts. At the time building to the rule was prolific in the Baltic but scarcely known in the UK. As co-skipper Jack Gifford explains, “Much finer in form and lighter in displacement than her British counterparts, Vixen and her kind were viewed with suspicion by the (British) yachting establishment and with her light and efficient construction deemed as ‘un-seaworthy.” One famous British sailor had fallen in love with the Swedish Square Meter yachts and collaborated with Reimers to build his own yacht. That, of course, was Uffa Fox, and the boat he built at Cowes was the Vigilant. So confident was Uffa in its sea keeping that he set out to sail it to its spiritual homeland of Sweden to take part in the Swedish championships.
Vixen was purchased sight unseen by a client who had already had a very successful restoration experience with Brooklin Boat Yard that being the total restoration of Katrinka. While not always advisable to purchase a boat without even seeing it the client figured Vixen had to be in at least OK shape (she’s just sailed the North and Baltic Seas) so Vixen was packed into a shipping container and arrived here at Brooklin Boat Yard in late July of 2011. While she was in good enough shape to sail that year’s Eggemoggin Reach Regatta it was clear that quite a bit of restoration work was needed.
Once Vixen’s restoration was competed approximately 75% of her frames and floors and 50% of her hull planking had been replaced along with a new deck, cockpit, cabin house and all new deck hardware.
Vixen now lives here in Brooklin but she travels quite a bit (by land) to compete in as many of the classic yacht regattas as she can.
