Giovanni Belgrano first set his eyes and hopes on Whooper in 1999:

 

"I noticed this strange looking boat at the entrance of Berthon Marina. She had an attractive profile, a doghouse like a scaled down large yacht and a very shallow draft. With a straight run aft and a flat wide bow she looked like a big surfboard. At the time she had just arrived, still to be prepared for sale. Down below her bilges were full of rusty water - her cockpit drains were blocked with mud causing rainwater to leak into the boat."

 

Giovanni, however, recognised her pedigree and, after a survey in October 2001, bought her and began to restore this classic, innovative racing yacht.

 

Yacht designing is often said to be an art. In fact it is a combination of calculations and controlled guessing with art. Calculations are fine. The more precisely a solution can be calculated, the smaller margin of error. In the course of time and designing, an imposing mass of data is collected and a considerable technique for finding one's way around it is developed. But there has always to be a beginning and at best the limits of calculations are never more than just around the corner. Sooner or later the designer has to summon his courage and guess. Wapipi was a case in point. (Jack Giles. Letter to Yachting Monthly, 1949)

 

Wapipi is Whooper's sister ship, designed by Laurent Giles with his skilled calculation, 'guesstimation' and artistic eye. In 1939 Wapipi and Whooper were of the most advanced and unprecedented concept; light displacement, shoal draft, tall rig and a phenomenal turn of speed as a result. Jack Giles, in a letter to Yachting World, highlighted the argument about the dimensions required to design a shoal draft boat of such a size.

 

Jack Giles described the significant elements considered towards the design:

 

Ballast, with no depth of keel, did not offer much profit, so for stability there must be beam. With ballast at a discount, light displacement was indicated... first how much displacement must be put up to compensate (1) for engine (2) for accommodation weights, (3) for a rather more robust construction; secondly, what increase of beam was necessary to compensate for lack of draft and lever.

 

Wapipi and Whooper were the result with charming manners, speed at moderate heel and some ability to windward. The finalised dimensions may have been a topical argument but as Giles said in his confident conclusion:

 

The proof of the pudding is in the eating. For once in a way we found ourselves delighted with both the appearance and performance of this yacht, and if designers have any other doubt of the value of this type I can only advise them to consider the history of Wapipi and her sister Whooper in the sale ring.

 

In the midst of the construction it is recorded that the owner wished to have the mast stepped on the deck, but Giles suggested that it might as well be balanced on the coach roof. This was a highly radical concept with many contemporary designers against the idea.

 

Onto the roof it went and on the roof it has remained up and down the coast and to and fro across the North Sea. Now we are beginning to get used to it I suppose an ever-increasing number of boats will put to sea with masts balanced on their hats. Heigh-ho for the good old days when masts landed on the step, and garboards opened up on the wind like a concertina and all hands queued up at the pump!

 

Commissioned for Mr Gregory in 1939, Whooper came 2nd in the 1950 North Sea race with Sqdn Ldr. A. Ingle. In 1990 she was found by Leonard Measures in a run down state, but was restored and was ready to compete at Classic Cowes in 1993. Before Giovanni came into ownership, a collision with a hovercraft left her in the sorry state that he rescued her from. Giovanni is delighted with Whooper. After replacing the rusted iron keel floors with laminated wood and a new ballast lead keel casting between 2001-02, he has invested in Kevlar sails to speed this ingenious yacht to the finish line for years to come. There were only two of this class commissioned; Wapipi, we hope, is still on the waves somewhere too!